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May 24, 2006
Education News for Wednesday, May 24
Appointees try to boost vouchers - The old rap on the Pentagon is that the generals keep wanting to refight the last war. You could say the same thing about Florida's Board of Education. (more)
Dropout data raise questions on two fronts - Economist Larry Mishel was troubled by high school graduation statistics that contradicted what he thought was good research. That was particularly true of data used by many politicians and pundits to bemoan a 30 percent dropout rate in American high schools. (more)
Parents should thank strict teachers - In conversations I've had with teachers, Scottsdale parents tend to involve themselves in their children's education - but not always in positive ways. (more)
UPDATE:
Feds' teacher rules strain rural Arizona areas - Veteran teachers have to prove they are highly qualified through a combination of years of experience, college course background and professional development. (more)
Ed Week commentary: Bridging differences - (subscription required) A Dialogue Between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch. (more)
NAEP science scores essentially flat except at 4th grade level - Ed Week (subscription required) At a time when educators, elected officials, and corporate leaders are fretting over American students’ weak science skills, new test results show that the nation’s middle schoolers made no progress in that subject over the past five years... (more)
Choice, SES would flip under NCLB pilot plan - Ed Week (subscription required) Building on an initiative piloted this school year in Virginia, participating districts could offer students a choice of supplemental educational services, or SES, a year before having to provide the option of transferring to a higher-performing school. (more)
UPDATE:
Education becoming top issue for DC - Homeowners, business leaders and newcomers with a financial stake in the District's economic revival are pushing the troubled D.C. school system to the top of the city's political agenda in a landmark election year when voters will choose a mayor and council chairman. (more)
New Orleans schools try to work together - State officials fielded myriad questions Tuesday from parents and teachers curious and at times baffled about how public schools will operate in New Orleans this fall, now that the local district, the state Department of Education and independent charters have control over various campuses throughout the city. (more)
LA Times opinion: Preschool: the best policy money can buy - Are public investments in preschool good for children's educations and for their well being? Do they make sense for society?After five decades of research, the answer is unequivocally yes. (more)
A Christian group finds its way into public schools - On a recent sunny afternoon at Stuyvesant High School, the track team warmed up in the lobby. On the sixth floor, the school newspaper staff assembled to listen to a speaker. Outside, a cluster of students gathered to pray. (more)
CA teachers union supports governor's school friendly budget - Leaders of the California Teachers Association took the unexpected step Tuesday of endorsing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget and launching a lobbying effort to ensure its passage. (more)
UPDATE:
High School Exit Exam Reinstated - The California Supreme Court today reinstated the state's high school exit exam one week after a Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the test that students need to pass to graduate. (more)
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Comments
I'm among the experts debating this issue. I'm disappointed in Mishel whose work I usually hold in high esteem. I've read Mishel's book and it misleads the reader by ignoring obvious inconsistencies in data on New York City, Florida and Chicago that he relegates to the appendix. In fact, wherever Mishel looks at actual student record data that he deems reliable, he too finds a dropout crisis. This is contrary to his own conclusions based on surveys with admitted problems of years surveyed, sample design, and undercounts. Specifically, Mishel's survey-based estimates of the national rate graduation rates are 15% to 35% higher than the actual record data he argues are accurate in Florida, Chicago and New York City, the places he looked at more directly.
Mishel finds that Florida's four year graduation rate for Blacks is about 55%, and Hispanics about 60%, and these rates Mishel admits are inflated by counting GED recipients as graduates. In Chicago, Mishel finds that Black 19 year old males have a graduation rate of 39% and Hispanic males 51%. In New York City Mishel points to an extended 7 year completion rate for all students of just 60%. The New York City rates he cites are actually about 44% for the 4 year graduation rate according to the State of New York. Mishel ignores the fact that only the 4 year rate meets the requirements for evaluating schools and districts under the No Child Left Behind Act.
These alarmingly low numbers are consistent with the analysis from Chris Swanson and many other researchers, besides Jay Greene, that we have relied upon at Harvard.
Mishel's own numbers indicate a crisis. There is an urgent need to address the crisis facing minority youth. Improving the data collection should be part of these efforts rather than cause for further delay.
Finally, Mishel offers no useful recommendations and would have us wait many years until we have more accurate data before we address the problem. He acknowledges the crisis in urban schools where we find high percentages of minority youth yet appears to want to stay the course, which would continue to put minority students at a great disadvantage.
Daniel J. Losen, Senior Education Law and Policy Associate, Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, co-author of Losing our Future: How Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410936_LosingOurFuture.pdf
dlosen@law.harvard.edu
Posted by: Dan Losen | May 24, 2006 07:54 AM
