November 30, 2006
Education finance
This is quite timely, given this week's debate on school financing. Due to a combined projection of lower enrollment and increased tax revenue, California schools expect to get an extra $6 billion over the next five years. Of course, various groups are lining up for a piece of the pie, "promoting ideas like improving high schools, paying teachers more, and helping urban districts with severely declining enrollment" (full story here). The Orange County Register is a bit perturbed at all this:
We're not sure how paying teachers more across the board will fix the state's broken school system, but as the article said, "interest groups are already lining up to get their share." Notice also how the article pointed to demands for more money for districts with declining enrollments. Silly us, we thought that districts with increasing enrollment ought to get more money, not those that serve fewer and fewer students each year.
This helps illustrate a rather large disconnect between the California education system and the reality in which schools operate. Presumably, if an organization or department has less work, it needs less resources to do the job. Not so in the Golden State, where schools will get more money to do less work. But some schools will have increasing enrollment, which is why interest groups want schools with decreasing enrollments to get more money.
The Register asks if, in light of this extra funding, we can expect the state to institute some meaningful reform. Given this comment, I'm skeptical:
"The emphasis on reform and change should be significant," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. "We don't want to use all this money to maintain the status quo. But it is hard because everyone has a vested interest."
In a refreshing move for a newspaper, the Register calls for greater educational choice in the form of public charter schools and vouchers; as you might imagine, I agree that parents should have a say. But let's set aside school choice for a second. I have two questions for establishment types, particularly the unions.
- Of paramount importance to the education system is increased funding. Based on this article, this year California is spending $41 billion (44 percent of the state's general fund) to educate 6 million students. Since that is presumably insufficient, how much money would it take? Give me a specific dollar amount.
- If you had that sum to work with, would it be fair--equitable--to expect every kid in the state to receive an adequate education? I'm not asking for a first-rate, excellent education, but one every kid can be expected to graduate from high school with a C average. If not, why not?
The comment thread is open.
Paul Tough's article
I may be a bit late to the party (Eduwonk, Alexander Russo and Whitney Tilson have all weighed in), but I just took the time to look it over.
Initially I felt Tough provided a good primer, but only a primer, for somebody unfamiliar with the ed reform debate as it relates to the achievement gap/NCLB. (See the comment in Russo's thread.) Tough really does little more than merely scratch the surface. In summary, he says, "Low-income kids need help catching up, NCLB won't get the job done, but public charters like KIPP show it's possible!" But remember that this appeared in the New York Times. The fact that the paper of record is talking about issues that have been bouncing around ed reform for years now--and trying to connecting the dots between closing the achievement gap and accountability/charters--could mean that the debate may finally be moving to a broader audience.
Speaking of KIPP, one passage I found a bit humorous:
The leaders of this informal network [of public charter schools in New York] are now wrestling with an unintended consequence of their schools’ positive results and high profiles: their incoming students are sometimes too good. At some schools, students arrive scoring better than typical children in their neighborhoods, presumably because the school’s reputation is attracting more-engaged parents with better-prepared kids to its admission lottery. Even though almost every student at the KIPP Academy in the Bronx, for example, is from a low-income family, and all but a few are either black or Hispanic, and most enter below grade level, they are still a step above other kids in the neighborhood; on their math tests in the fourth grade (the year before they arrived at KIPP), KIPP students in the Bronx scored well above the average for the district, and on their fourth-grade reading tests they often scored above the average for the entire city.
I don't question that this influx of students puts public charters like KIPP in a rather uncomfortable situation. But while it may be an unintended consequence of achievement, it's a natural consequence all the same--after all, they're called "schools of choice" for a reason.
I do agree with Tilson on the article's disregard for the political boundaries of closing the achievement gap. Tough points out that schools like KIPP demonstrate that low-income kids can make it academically, and lists what it takes to make that happen: longer school days, more time in class, weekend work, etc. (Read our interview with KIPP Philadelphia principal Marc Mannella, who openly says, "What KIPP does isn’t terribly complicated, but it’s hard.") But he doesn't acknowledge the level of persuasion it would take to get the unions to accept such a work load. And while higher pay for teachers is definitely a factor (as union blog Edwize confirms), there's quite a bit more to the equation. It would require autonomy on the part of principals to make personnel decisions, institute some form of merit pay, no more dancing lemons. In short, the unions would have to get out of the way and let principals run their schools, a feat requiring a level of political muscle not present in either party at the moment.
I'd also point out that one of the components of these successful schools (and a constant complaint from establishment types) is parental involvement, which is a built-in facet of choice schools. As Mannella points out, everybody involved--student, teacher and parent--signs an agreement promising to do whatever it takes to achieve success. If the parent doesn't like it, the parent is quite free to take his or her child elsewhere. Such an agreement just wouldn't carry the same clout in a traditional public school.
It's true that Tough says very little that ed reform veterans haven't already heard. But then, he wasn't writing to the ed reform crowd anyway.
Education News for Thursday, Nov. 30
Class Warfare - Opinion: Implying there are now enough charter schools, the AFT says the district's charters already offer "a tremendous amount of choice for the citizens of Philadelphia." What about the 20,000 students on waiting lists?
Longer days, Saturday sessions considered for LA schools - More students in the Los Angeles Unified School District may end up with longer school days and have to go to class on Saturdays, new Superintendent David L. Brewer III said Wednesday after a meeting with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
City Leaders Take Debate to Florida - D.C. Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty and incoming council Chairman Vincent C. Gray are paying separate visits to Florida this week for meetings with Miami-Dade County school Superintendent Rudolph F. Crew, a key adviser in Fenty's campaign to win control of the District's struggling public education system.
Choice not purpose of magnets says school board - The Stamford, Connecticut school board concluded a lengthy debate about whether school choice is one of the chief purposes of the city's five magnet schools Tuesday, dropping choice from the list of top priorities of the city's magnets.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul - Opinion: Fordham's Fund the Child proposal may well undermine many of the efforts that currently are advancing public education in states across the country.\
Charter School Start-ups Face Tough Financial Realities - Those looking to start new charter schools in Baltimore came face to face with the cold realities of numbers and money that come with trying to get a charter school off the ground.
Vermont NEA Joins NCLB Lawsuit - School districts in Vermont have joined forces with three other states and the nation's largest teachers union to ask a federal appeals court to revive a lawsuit against the federal government and its NCLB law.
New system includes fraud report hotline - Employees of the San Diego school district have a place to turn to if they have a tip about fraud or need advice to avoid ethical pitfalls.
Falling Behind Because of No Child Left Behind - Hawaii teachers share their perspectives on NCLB.
The Ins And Outs of No Child Left Behind - In the four years since it took effect in 2002, the "No Child Left Behind Law" has had a sweeping impact on public school classrooms across the country.
Philanthropist gives $10.5 million to charter school group - Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad has donated more than $10 million to a leading charter school organization that will help its bid to triple in size as it continues to establish itself as an alternative to traditional public schools.
Teachers to push for full-day kindergarten - A $20,000 NEA grant to the Indiana State Teachers Association will go toward a push for full-day kindergarten.
Every minute counts - Extending the school day is a strategy more schools are trying as they respond to pressure from state and federal law to increase student performance in the subjects that form the building blocks of learning.
Support staff -- without support - In the United States, 70 percent of education support staff work full time, but nearly seven of 10 earn less than $25,000 a year, according to the National Education Association.
Teachers' unions call for higher pay in poorest schools - Two of Massachusetts's largest teachers' unions are banding together to urge for higher pay for teachers who work in schools in poor communities.
L.A. mayor, new schools chief on the same page - Despite an ongoing feud between city and school district leaders, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and new Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David L. Brewer pledged jointly Wednesday to demand more funding for schools and more accountability from the district.
Extra pay urged at poorest schools - Massachusetts's teachers' unions are calling for extra pay for teachers in high-poverty schools, marking the first time that the unions have banded together behind a new type of teacher pay.
Achievement issue comes down to money - The crowd crammed into the auditorium at the downtown Seattle Public Library was friendly, but the questions were tough.\
Coaching + Math = Success - Editorial: The Massachusetts Board of Education wants to get more students to score at the proficient and advanced levels on the MCAS tests. To do that, the Legislature and the board need to deal with the alarming weakness in mathematics scores in the later elementary grades.
UPDATE:
Charter schools struggle with class size - A fraction of Miami-Dade's 350 public schools are not meeting the requirements of the state's class-size amendment, according to a report released Wednesday by the Florida Department of Education.
Posted by Daily News at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Closing In On Closing the Black/White Educational Achievement Gap (Alan Bonsteel)
The Holy Grail of public education has always been to close the minority/white educational achievement gap. For a while, that seemed to be happening; especially after the civil rights reforms of the 1960s, black Americans’ standardized test scores improved significantly compared with those of whites. However, between 1988 and 1994, black reading scores fell dramatically, a decline that mirrored the greatest deterioration in the quality of America’s public schools, and since that time those scores have remained flat-line.
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)November 29, 2006
The Constitution and education
Dana at Principled Discovery takes a look at the Founders, the Constitution, and education. (Hat tip: this week's Carnival of Education, hosted by A History Teacher.)
This post is actually quite relevant to something I've been working on over the past couple of days. Stay tuned--it should come out very soon.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)What they didn't say
The Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader featured an editorial on vouchers over the weekend. I'm going to quote a lengthier passage than I usually do, because I want to illustrate something in context:
Critics of public schools who support vouchers — allowing public money to be used by students to pay for private education — most often point to one word when making their case: accountability.
Those who believe the public schools aren't doing their job suggest vouchers will be the ultimate accountability tool.
Parents who are dissatisfied can take their money and go elsewhere.
The problem is, vouchers provide no accountability at all.
When applied in a system that involves spending public money on private schools, a voucher system will do one of two things:
It will provide no accountability because the long arm of government has no control over private schools.
Or it will bring accountability by allowing the government to exercise some control over private schools because public money will be involved.
One of our key assertions is that parents provide serious accountability. The editorial staff clearly disagrees...but why? Rather than give some reason or explanation for why we might be wrong, they merely cut to other aspects of the accountability argument. Come on, News-Leader--why do you believe parents provide no accountability? You say we're wrong, so tell us how.
I do applaud the editorial board for endorsing public school choice. But if they're going to oppose vouchers, it would be nice if they told the whole story.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Wednesday, Nov. 29
Incoming superintendent seeks ideas to reform schools - South Carolina State Education Superintendent-elect Jim Rex asked leaders from across the state Tuesday to help him make South Carolina the "most fairly funded, innovative, and choice-driven public school system in the nation" in four years.
The wrong debate - Ed Week commentary - Once again, we have been treated to a debate over the meaning and policy implications of research comparing the performance of students in public schools and private schools.
Kids with disabilities unassisted in Texas schools - Chances are you know a kid who needs special education, after all, better than one in ten Texas students has some kind of disability.
Deeper issues in school vouchers - Maine has 145 school districts with no high schools. Parents of 17,000 students have the choice of sending their children to any school anywhere, public or private..
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
Janey Asks for Time to Turn Around Schools - In a major address designed to help him keep his job, D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey delivered a robust defense last night of his two-year record as leader of the city's beleaguered school system and urged city leaders to allow him to finish the work he has started to move schools forward.
Schools asks court to revive challenge to education mandate - School districts in three states and the nation's largest teachers union asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to revive a lawsuit challenging the way a government education program is funded.
Teachers see benefits of No Child law, but have concerns - While Lancaster County, Pennsylvania teachers overwhelmingly said that they like that the law has held them accountable for how they educate children, they worry it has also caused students to miss out on other vital, aspects of education.
Letting Business Help: The Promise of Education Tax Credits - Opinion: With recent election results splitting control of the national government, legislators must now confront the challenge of crafting bipartisan initiatives. There is a prime opportunity for enlisting such broad support, which has not yet been fully developed: educational choice.
Some Children Left Behind - Although their explanations differ, Illinois and Montana have both failed miserably in complying with the controversial federal education reform law.
Posted by Daily News at 06:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)School Math Books, Nonsense, and the National Science Foundation (David Klein)
Problem: Find the slope and y-intercept of the equation 10 = x – 2.5.
Solution: The equation 10 = x – 2.5 is a specific case of the equation y = x – 2.5, which has a slope of 1 and a y-intercept of –2.5.
Continue reading "School Math Books, Nonsense, and the National Science Foundation (David Klein)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)November 28, 2006
School of first choice
NCES has a released a new report, "Trends in the Use of School Choice: 1993 to 2003." Andrew Coulson is dismissive of the report's claim that a mere 17% of students are in a school that is not their parents' first choice, saying that many families merely settle for mediocre when all their other choices are poor. It's also worth considering that since many families choose where they live based on the school quality, the present form of school choice divides the haves from the have-nots since low-income families can't relocate as easily. And the statistics help support this: 17 percent of all students and 27 percent of black students are not in their preferred school, which seems to mirror overall poverty numbers.
Education News for Tuesday, Nov. 28
Questions raised over charter schools - A law passed four years ago says the Iowa Department of Education must provide annual reports on the progress of the state’s nine charter schools, yet few, if any reports have been made, officials said.
No Need To 'Charter' A New Course - Opinion: Implying there are enough charter schools now, the AFT says the district's charters already offer "a tremendous amount of choice for the citizens of Philadelphia." What about the 20,000 students on waiting lists?
Court won‘t take school vouchers case - The Supreme Court decided Monday not to plunge into the issue of school choice, passing up a dispute over a Maine law that bars the use of public funds to send students to private religious schools.
The Question of Education - Opinion: Government is a very poor substitute for a parent, which is why public education works while government schools continue to fail.
Schooling corporate giants on recruiting - Wendy Kopp has turned Teach for America into one of the largest hirers of college seniors. Now Amgen, Goldman and others want to partner with the nonprofit on talent acquisition.
Washington governor proposes freeze of math WASL requirement for graduation - Gov. Chris Gregoire and state school chief Terry Bergeson on Monday urged that lawmakers postpone until 2011 a requirement that students pass a high-stakes math test in order to graduate.
WASL math scores not adding up, officials agree - Yakima (Washington) public schools Superintendent Ben Soria was relieved Monday when he heard that a plan is afoot that might delay until 2011 a requirement that students pass the math portion of the WASL in order to graduate.
Opportunity to fix No Child federal rules - Editorial: The Democratic takeover of Congress next year holds promise for much-needed changes in No Child Left Behind federal education rules.
Lawsuit over funding schools is huge - Opinion: A school funding lawsuit in Washington has the potential to affect not just Washington's public school system but state government budgets and what individuals and businesses pay in taxes in this state.
All work and no play...makes kids fat and passive - Editorial: The motives for banning tag and other recess games — promoting safety, avoiding litigation, protecting feelings, providing more learning time — are well-intentioned. But something more important is being lost in the process. (Opposing view: At overcrowded urban elementary schools, it’s too much of a liability.)
Schools' leaders see wide pay range - A look at school superintendents' salaries in California.
School reform: Haven't we been here before? - Opinion: A critical look at school reform ideas in Washington D.C.
Parents fight for School Choice - Every parent wants their child to be happy with their school and some parents recently fought for that idea. As officials from the Collier County (Florida) School District redraw Collier's school lines, parents are speaking out about having School Choice as an option.
Blending religion, taxes - California tax money flowing into the controversial Hope Online Learning Academy Co-Op is not only supporting religious programs, it appears to be keeping some religious schools alive.
Amanda Without a School - Editorial on the Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal in the Maine school choice case.
Single-sex classrooms may become more popular - A recent federal regulation was changed to make single-sex classrooms an easier option for school districts.
Why students in Austin are still being left behind - Opinion: Although the Austin school district is hardly alone in failing to attract students to the free tutoring required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, its performance is particularly dismal.
No Child Left Behind -- Use the carrot - Editorial An increasing number of Kansas schools are failing to reach the standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Does that mean our schools actually are performing worse than last year? Not necessarily.
4 failing schools may become pilots to fix themselves - The new chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education will call today for turning four of the state's most troubled schools into pilot schools, giving them extraordinary freedom and a mandate: Fix yourselves.
High schools facing changes - Educators in Connecticut and across the country are grappling for ways to make high school more relevant, more interesting and more rigorous so students are prepared for a more demanding workforce or for the next level of education.
We can teach math skills and concepts - Opinion: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) recently released an important document, "Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics." A cursory reading of the document might give an inaccurate impression of the goals of this effort and its message to schools, teachers and parents.
Group challenges No Child Left Behind - Rockland County, New York educators and community leaders are calling on federal lawmakers to make sweeping changes to No Child Left Behind, an education law that has served as a lighting rod for controversy since its inception.
Escaping 'Average' - School leaders in Seaford, Del., had noticed for some time that very few average students took the most challenging courses in the town's secondary schools. But Secondary Education Director James VanSciver and other Seaford educators became convinced that with extra help, many more students could be taking algebra in middle school and college-level courses in high school.
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
Home schoolers content to take children's lead - On weekdays, during what are normal school hours for most students, the Billings children do what they want. One recent afternoon, time passed loudly, and without order or lessons, in their home in a North Side neighborhood here.
Jeb leaving office, not leaving schools to Crist - Though Gov.-elect Charlie Crist promised during his campaign to build on Gov. Bush's education record, he assumed that he would be able to name his own education team.
Selling parents on public school - In the D.C. public schools, where declining student enrollment has long been the rule, Strong John Thomson Elementary in downtown Washington has defied the odds and increased its student population by 20 percent.
States give failing grade to graduation rates - For decades, college gates have opened wider and wider to the American public, with more whites and minorities attending than ever before. But that expansion is under strain in the face of rising costs and faster growth of minority populations long left behind in the march to graduation.
UPDATE:
Rural Chiefs Have Leverage in Fights Over Choice - (Ed Week) In their quest to bring more private school options to parents, school choice advocates say they’ve run into a formidable and unexpected opponent: the rural school superintendent.
Posted by Daily News at 06:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Charter battles in Philadelphia
Very interesting commentary on charter schools in Philly by Dr. Tim Daniels, Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools. As the district grapples with a $73 million deficit, naturally the costs of the city's charter schools are coming into union crosshairs. Dr. Daniels helpfully does the math:
The solution proposed by the AFT for a current budget problem of $73.3 million is to propose a moratorium on new charter schools! Further, this moratorium wouldn't take effect until the fall of 2008! The budget problem is now. The proposed solution won't impact this year's budget! The problem and the solution make no mathematical sense.
The figure of $4.6 million in unanticipated cost for charters is small compared to the deficit of $73.3 million. And, this amount is a pittance compared to the total budget of $2.04 billion dollars. In a year when the Philadelphia School District is committing more than $60 million to one small new high school, what might be sacrificed in the growth of charter public schools is truly tragic. It certainly doesn't reflect what the citizens of Philadelphia want.
If Daniels is accurate, what the citizens want are more charter schools (20,000 kids are presently on waiting lists). But then, what people want for their kids rarely if ever works its way into the discussion.
David Mathews is Right...and Wrong (Brett Pawlowski)
David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, recently came out with a book titled “Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming Our Democracy” (dedicated site here – including free download of the first chapter). As with his last work on the subject, “Is There a Public for Public Schools?” (now out of print), Mathews provides an insightful and thorough analysis of the disconnect between the public and the modern education system, and in this work goes into greater detail on what he sees as the solution.
Continue reading " David Mathews is Right...and Wrong (Brett Pawlowski)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 27, 2006
Columnist: Arizona lawsuit destined to fail
Back in 1999, the state Supreme Court ruled in Kotterman that educational tax credits are constitutional. Cato's Adam Schaeffer suggests the ACLU and People for the American Way are no more likely to win this time around:
It is unlikely that the current Arizona court will overturn such a strong and recent precedent. Tim Keller, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Institute for Justice and an attorney defending the choice programs, says that a "decision overturning Kotterman would be shocking."
The Kotterman decision provides hope for the voucher programs as well. Although there is no dispute that education vouchers constitute "public funds," the funds are given to parents, not to schools. The Kotterman opinion ruled that the intervening step of parental choice among both religious and secular options means the funds benefit the children, not a religious school they may happen to choose. The U.S. Supreme Court found the voucher program in Ohio constitutional on similar grounds, as did the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Although the voucher program has more hurdles to clear, all three programs should be upheld as constitutional. The forces of educational stagnation will fail in their attack on school choice in Arizona, and this will be the beginning of their end.
I think everybody knew a lawsuit against the two voucher programs was en route. But I was personally surprised at the lawsuit against the corporate tax credit program; as Schaeffer and Keller both point out, tax credits have been settled law in the state since '99. For whatever reason, school choice opponents have decided to rehash battles from the last decade.
Education News for Monday, Nov. 27
What it takes to be a student - On the morning of Oct. 5, President Bush and his education secretary, Margaret Spellings, paid a visit, along with camera crews from CNN and Fox News, to Friendship-Woodridge Elementary and Middle Campus, a charter public school in Washington.
Charter Schools Closing Achievement Gap for Hispanic Students, Research Finds - News release: A growing body of research is producing encouraging news about the performance of Hispanic students in public charter schools, according to an Issue Brief released today by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools at the Texas Charter School Conference in Houston.
Maine Supreme Court sidesteps voucher case - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up the issue of school choice in Maine, where a state law bars the use of public funds to send students to private religious schools.
Mississippi dropout call should be wake-up call - The hard truth showing more people are actually failing to graduate from high school is being highlighted to show Mississippi must do more to keep students in school.
Foes of school choice will fail in Arizona - Opponents of school choice have chosen to attack their biggest and fastest-growing threat, trying to stop the snowball from rolling on in Arizona.
Check back for more education news.
UPDATE:
Is new Missouri appointee an advocate or enemy for city school board? - To her critics, Donayle Whitmore-Smith is an enemy of the same public schools that she will now be asked to help oversee.
To her supporters, including Gov. Matt Blunt, she's a tireless education advocate who opened an unconventional private school to rescue children from failing St. Louis public schools.
Teachers not sole source of declining education - Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute has fallen into the trap that says that the education of our children is all about the teacher ("Noble legacy in education is on table for Napolitano," Opinions, Nov. 20).
Education tax credits not public money - Contrary to the recent claims of some public figures, the education tax credit mechanism for enhancing parental liberty, educational justice and competition among schools does not involve public money.
Schools need choice, not vouchers - Critics of public schools who support vouchers — allowing public money to be used by students to pay for private education — most often point to one word when making their case: accountability.
NCES Returns! - Ed Next on NCES
(Guest post by Alliance development director John Schoenig--ed.)
The Winter 2007 edition of Education Next is out, and it includes an article from Paul Peterson and Elena Llaudet on this summer’s NCES study. As you probably remember, the study was all the rage back in August, with Ed Week providing analysis, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools chiming in, and Eduwonk contributing a helpful primer.
The Ed Next article is a helpful read, as it explicates a number of the issues that Peterson discussed in his initial response. Most folks are aware of the challenges inherent to NCES’s use of hierarchical linear modeling, which Peterson and Llaudet say resulted in findings with questionable credibility. The folks in the NCES continue to figure out what the flotsam and jetsam that this study kicked up says about their role in any potential future studies. Let’s all stay tuned, as it’s doubtful that we’ve heard the last of this.
Posted by Featured Guest at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Cost advantage of private schools
Cato's Andrew Coulson takes a revealing look at the financial workings of Arizona's public and private schools. His conclusions: overall, private schools in Arizona spend less per pupil, have a greater percentage of teachers on staff, don't cream students, and do a better job of maintaining their facilities. This part is worth a mention:
Another reason for public schools' higher spending is that they pay salaries far above the market rate. When teachers' nine-month salaries are annualized to make them comparable to the 12-month salaries of most other fields, we find that Arizona independent schoolteachers earned the equivalent of $36,456 in 2004, about $2,000 less than reporters and correspondents. The 12-month-equivalent salary of the state's public schoolteachers was about $60,000, which is more than nuclear technicians, epidemiologists, detectives and broadcast news analysts make. It also is about 50 percent more than reporters or private schoolteachers earn.
This isn't much of a surprise; I think it's pretty much agreed that private schools across the board pay less than in the public sector. Detractors will point to this as proof that private schools shortchange teachers by way of lower salaries. However, I would point out that there are a number of intangibles to working in private schools that teachers may appreciate, such as being able to teach in a school of one's own faith or sidestep the public school bureaucracy. Besides, any hastiness to criticize private school pay rates could lead to a rather glaring oversight: that Arizona public schoolteachers are actually rather handsomely compensated relative to the overall labor market. (No, I won't go so far as to say teachers are overpaid, but Coulson's findings reflect rather badly on the perception that teachers are paid peanuts.)
3rd String But Still on the Team (Nancy Salvato)
Coaches must produce winning teams or they will be terminated. Managers must make their quotas or they will not be retained. Teachers must ensure that students...oh, wait a minute. Tenured teachers will receive an increase in salary every year based on their level of education and years in the classroom.
Continue reading "3rd String But Still on the Team (Nancy Salvato)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving
Edspresso editor Ryan Boots will be back Monday, November 27. See you then!
Posted by Ryan Boots at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 22, 2006
Education News for Wednesday, Nov. 22
Push for school choice may be Milton Friedman's greatest legacy - In the last 10 of his 94 years, Mr. Friedman and his wife, Rose, dedicated themselves to school choice. They viewed it as a companion to economic freedom.
Tax credit gifts benefit many AZ public schools - About $35 million in tax-credit donations in 2005 are helping to pay for sports, art, music, after-school tutoring, field trips and other extracurricular activities at Arizona public schools.
Educational choice critical - CA letter to the editor - A new report from the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation finds that private schools participating in the Milwaukee, Cleveland, and D.C. voucher programs are much less segregated than public schools.
AZ charter school is alone in its class - No schools in Arizona have achieved the kind of national status that Basis charter schools have.In May, Newsweek magazine named Basis School Inc.'s high school in Tucson the third-best in the country.
Posted by Daily News at 05:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
The future of American schools
By guest blogger Matthew Ladner:
A fine line exists between stability and stagnation. In education policy, we once were content to have sailed well past that line. Our answer to all education problems was to put in more money. In 1960, the average spending per pupil was $375 (around $2300 in inflation adjusted dollars). Today, we spend close to $10,000 per pupil. Even after adjusting for inflation, spending per pupil in the public school system has more than tripled since the first baby-boomers attended schools.
Our education problems worsened despite the increased spending. Today, 38 percent of our 4th graders have failed to learn basic reading skills, and around a third of our high school students dropout of high school. As today’s dropouts are largely those students who failed to learn to read in elementary schools, tomorrow’s dropouts are already in the pipeline.
Education scholar Andrew Coulson recently noted that the last great innovation to transform American classroom instruction came with the invention of the chalkboard in 1801. Consider this level of stasis in comparison to the computer industry. Today, you could literally throw a dart in the computer section of a department store and have it land on a personal computer which is more powerful and cheaper than what was available two years ago. By comparison, the school system continues to plod along, always spending more but often producing less.
The productivity of spending in our public education system has collapsed over the past half century. We spend beyond the dreams of avarice for a public school superintendent of the 1960s, but we don’t produce better results. For decades, we have been throwing money at our public schools and failing to notice that students were failing to benefit.
Fortunately, this status-quo will not endure forever. A growing consensus on both left and right recognizes that our most disadvantaged students suffer most from the shortcomings of our schools. Children relying most heavily on schools to prepare them for the future are tragically the most likely to be shortchanged.
Our nation’s poorest families cannot afford to buy into high-quality suburban school districts, or to pay private school tuition in addition to their school taxes. Policymakers from both parties have therefore increasingly embraced policies creating options for parents. Nationwide, nearly a fourth of K-12 students won't be attending their neighborhood public schools this fall, opting instead for an array of public and private options- including magnet, charter, private and home schooling. Arizona, Iowa, Ohio, Rhode Island and Utah have all passed new school choice programs in the last two years. For many, especially for inner-city children, however, these options remain far too scarce and this momentum must accelerate.
Charter school operators such as KIPP, Yes Academies and Amistad have proven definitively that low-income inner city children can learn at an accelerated pace, and can even outperform our complacent suburban schools and attend elite universities. These innovators face huge political and practical obstacles in making these schools more widely available, but don’t bet against them. Already, they have settled the question of whether we must settle for today’s failed status quo: we don’t. Our students can learn. We adults simply have to learn how to follow the example of those who are getting the job done.
Our students need a market for K-12 schools. The market mechanism rewards success and either improves or eliminates failure. This has been sorely lacking in the past, and will be increasingly beneficial in the future. The biggest winners will be those suffering most under the status-quo.
New technologies and practices, self-paced instruction and data-based merit pay for instructors, may hold enormous promise. Before the current era of choice based reforms, they didn’t fit the 19th Century/unionized model of schooling, so they weren’t seriously attempted. Bypassing bureaucracy, a new generation has begun to offer their innovative schools directly to parents. Some have already succeeded brilliantly. Some states have been much keener than others to allow this process. Expect the laggards to fall in line eventually. We can hardly continue to cower in fear that someone somewhere might open a bad school when, in reality, we are surrounded by them now.
A market system will embrace and replicate reforms which work, and discard those that fail to produce. A top-down political system has failed to perform this task. Where bureaucrats and politicians have failed miserably, however, a market of parents pursuing the interests of their children will succeed in driving progress.
We cannot feel satisfied with a system that watches helplessly as a third of pupils drop out before graduation each year. We can do much better. While there will be enemies to fight this progress, they won’t prevail. America is rousing itself from a century long slumber of stagnant schooling practices. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the coming education renaissance, so long as we have the wisdom to embrace it. It is impossible to predict just how great our schools can become, but by all means, let’s find out.
Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.
Posted by Daily News at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Urban Tragedy (Mike Petrilli)
During the past few years, scores of impoverished inner-city schools have shut their doors. On the surface, that could be a blessing. After all, one of the major problems with American education is that bad schools seem to live forever.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 21, 2006
Guest blogger Matthew Ladner responds to Eduwonk
Guest blogger Jal Mehta has an interesting post in favor of school choice at Eduwonk. Mehta, who supports charter schools but not vouchers, argues that parental choice creates an alternative accountability mechanism to the top-down testing regimes of the NCLB era. Further, he argues:
If teachers' main complaint is that they are over-regulated from above, then choice can provide an opportunity to establish an educational identity at the school level, as teachers are accountable to parents rather than the state as a whole. It also provides for greater educational pluralism, which should be attractive to students, parents and teachers alike. This is the genius of charters, and it is frustrating that it has not been more widely embraced by exactly the people--teachers, principals, and the unions that represent them--who could benefit from the increased autonomy and discretion it could potentially afford.
Mehta’s point on pluralism echoes an earlier assertion by Senator Patrick Moynihan, who opined:
“If it (school choice) prevails only as a conservative cause, it will have been a great failure of American liberalism not to have seen the essentially liberal nature of this pluralist proposition.”
Mehta is on the right track here, with the only question in my mind being: don’t we get even more of the benefits he cites from vouchers than from charter schools? Some argue that charter and public schools are “accountable” due to state testing, but that position has become increasingly untenable.
Matthew Ladner is a former director of state projects for the Alliance for School Choice. He is currently vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.
Posted by Featured Guest at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Tuesday, Nov. 21
Milwaukee vouchers to pass $1 million mark - At the same time that Milwaukee Public Schools officials are wrestling with school closings and declining enrollment, the precedent-setting private school voucher program in Milwaukee is booming.
Studying autism isn't enough - With the recent Senate passage of the Combating Autism Act, the House is now poised to approve landmark legislation to help scientists understand the causes and characteristics of autism.
CT school choice program to celebrate anniversary - The program started in 1966 with 266 Hartford children bused to schools in Farmington, Manchester, Simsbury, South Windsor and West Hartford.
The other Milton Friedman - The death last week of Milton Friedman, "the grandmaster of free-market economic theory," as The New York Times accurately labeled him, ended a great life. But there was another Milton Friedman many obituary writers overlooked...
Some worry Utah preschool tax violates constitution - The sales tax of 12 cents on $100 purchases will go into effect in January and about $12 million is expected a year to help preschoolers.
After the CFE in NY - Just one thing is missing from yesterday's Court of Appeals ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. On the face of it, the decision seems comprehensive, featuring an extended discussion of where the court draws the line between constitutional enforcement and usurping the legislature's appropriating prerogative...
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
Early-Childhood Issues Raised for NCLB Law - (Ed Week subscription) With the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act scheduled to begin next year, the Bush administration has raised the idea of expanding the law’s requirements into high schools. But some educators think the attention should be directed downward—toward the preschool years.
New York court cuts aid sought by city schools - NY state's highest court ended a landmark legal fight over education financing yesterday, ruling that at least $1.93 billion more must be spent each year on New York City’s public schools.
Missouri asked to intervene in city schools - St. Louis School Board President Veronica O'Brien recommended on Monday a temporary suspension of the superintendent's office as part of a state intervention to save a district she described as "probably at (its) worst."
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Restoring Federalism in Education: The Charter State Option (Dan Lips)
More than four decades before No Child Left Behind, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona warned about the slippery slope of federal involvement in education: “Federal aid to education invariably means more federal control of education.” Goldwater went on to lose the 1964 presidential election to Lyndon Johnson. And in 1965, Johnson signed into law the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the foundation of today’s federal education policy.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 20, 2006
Gratitude
For the sake of perspective, sometimes it's beneficial to stop and take a look back to get one's bearings. With Thanksgiving this week, the school choice movement has a good deal to be thankful for this year. Among other things:
- Wisconsin raised the cap on the Milwaukee voucher program.
- Utah expanded the state's special needs scholarship program.
- Arizona passed a corporate tax credit program. After expanding it, the state passed a program for special needs children modeled after Florida's McKay program, and then passed another one for foster children, the first of its kind in the nation.
- Iowa became the first rural state in the nation to pass a targeted school choice program, including an individual tax credit.
- In the wake of the tragic state Supreme Court decision, Florida moved forward by allowing the children forced out of the program to stay in their schools of choice through transferring to a different program.
- Implementation of the new Ohio choice program has been outstanding, with the highest first-year participation numbers of any program in the nation.
- Congress approved $235 million for children displaced by Katrina and Rita.
- Rhode Island passed a corporate tax credit program.
- Pennsylvania expanded the existing education tax credit program by $10 million.
We've been extremely fortunate to have accomplished a great deal this year. Thanks to the work of countless individuals, hundreds of thousands of children, some of them for the first time in their lives, will have a chance at a high-quality education. 2007 should be an interesting year.
Education News for Monday, Nov. 20
Schools slow in closing gap between races - When President Bush signed his sweeping education law a year into his presidency, it set 2014 as the deadline by which schools were to close the test-score gaps between minority and white students that have persisted since standardized testing began.
We need clarity on AZ school voucher program - A court ruling against vouchers wouldn’t end the debate. It would simply mean school choice advocates would finally need to ask voters to endorse their worthwhile cause by amending the state constitution.
SC school choice advocates: Low marks on report card helps their argument - Advocates of a plan to give tax breaks or money for private school tuition say low marks on state's report card shows parents need more choices in education.
We can't run from our public schools... - Of course, we’re talking about public education in South Carolina. Oh, you thought this was about the war in Iraq? Fine, because it is. I see both struggles in the same terms.
Tax credits for private school tuition? Yes. - Each and every child in the United States has the right to a good education - and parents should have the right to make choices about where their children go to school.
Check back later for more education news.
Detailed Dropout Studies Guide Policy in City Schools - (Ed Week subscription required) Amid concern over the high dropout rates in many big-city high schools, district and community leaders are turning to researchers for a more fine-grained understanding of the nature and scope of the problem.
Left to decay - Nearly half of New Orleans' public schools sit virtually untouched since Hurricane Katrina. Rather than try to salvage anything, the state says it likely will toss out everything -- damaged or not.
NY ordered to pay - NY state's highest court ended a landmark 13-year court battle over education financing today by releasing its ruling that an additional $1.93 billion must be spent each year on New York City’s public schools.
An education gov? - IN the wake of his impressive landslide victory, Eliot Spitzer has an opportunity to push through sweeping reforms to ensure every child in the state receives a quality education.
Friedman's work in NY - Friedman's fight against the government monopoly of education has had successes but not victory. His idea for school vouchers is now treated with respect, rather than with derision.
Noble legacy for education is on table for Napolitano - Matt Ladner: Congratulations are in order to Gov. Janet Napolitano. Most people would take a celebratory pause after a landslide re-election, but I'd be surprised if our governor did.
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Big Value from Small Schools (Joe Nathan)
Last month, in the huge city of Chicago, educators gathered to discuss the values and value of small public schools, like those found in many rural Minnesota communities. People from all over the U.S., and a few from Great Britain, generally agreed that smaller schools work better for many youngsters.
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 17, 2006
Tucson school choice (mis)reporting
News outlets in Tucson can't seem to get it right when reporting on school choice. First this, from a TV station on the Arizona lawsuits:
Tim Keller is an attorney for the Institute for Justice, a group that supports so-called school-choice programs.
"So-called school-choice programs?" The programs in question are targeted to foster kids and special-needs children. In this case, is the label somehow misleading? Understand, this is a story straight off the AP wire. Such stories are, in my experience, all bones and next to no meat (usually three to four paragraphs). So if it were restricted only to this story, I would consider it an exception to the rule. But consider the lead paragraph from this syndicated story appearing in the Arizona Daily Star:
The Arizona Supreme Court is being asked to void a new law that, for the first time ever, provides tax dollars directly to private and parochial schools.
This is factually inaccurate. The money is provided to the parents, who then decide where the money goes. A fundamental principle of school choice is that the beneficiaries of school choice are the students, not the schools--which is something that opponents have to carefully obscure.
Take your best shot
As he is wont to do as the year winds down, Mike Antonucci of Intercepts is soliciting feedback to hear what readers would like to see change about his weekly Communique or blog. If you have some ideas for improvement, drop him a line.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Friday, Nov. 17
Milton Friedman: The man who made free markets popular again - WSJ editorial: He first suggested educational vouchers to rescue failing public schools as long ago as 1955...
State funding for private school tuition will withstand legal challenge, supporter says - The program is not created to benefit private or parochial schools,'' he said. "The program is designed to benefit children..."
CA charter school aims to raise profile - Since charter schools were authorized by the state Legislature in 1992, they have grown to about 600 charters serving more than 200,000 students.
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
Preaching the gospel of small government - Jason DeParle from the NYT: Pushing causes like lower taxes, less spending and school choice plans, they have offered conservatives a base of influence independent of electoral politics.
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Public Schools: Spending Money in All the Wrong Places (Linda Gorman)
In school reform, the chasm between establishment advice and what the data show keeps on growing. In exchange for a “Performance Promise,” voters approved a $20 million bond issue for Jefferson County (Colorado) Public Schools to be used on projects that, according to the District’s web site, “have been proven to increase student achievement - smaller classes, classroom coaches, staff development, extended learning and individualized attention.”
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Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 16, 2006
Statement on Milton Friedman
Alliance president Clint Bolick released the following statement on the passing of Milton Friedman:
Among the greatest champions of freedom in all of history, Milton Friedman was a giant. His greatest legacy is the tens of thousands of children who now attend high-quality schools because of the idea of school choice that Dr. Friedman pioneered in 1955. He leaves that precious legacy to a new generation of leaders who must nurture and expand it. I will personally miss a dear friend, but he will serve eternally for me and countless others as a source of towering inspiration.
UPDATE: A brief statement from the Alliance is on our main site; also check the Friedman Foundation's website.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)A sad day for educational freedom
Family members confirmed to Reuters that Nobel Prize-winning economist and school choice pioneer Milton Friedman passed away overnight. We'll update this as information becomes available.
UPDATE: Alliance president Clint Bolick released the following statement (now in a separate post):
Posted by Ryan Boots at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Among the greatest champions of freedom in all of history, Milton Friedman was a giant. His greatest legacy is the tens of thousands of children who now attend high-quality schools because of the idea of school choice that Dr. Friedman pioneered in 1955. He leaves that precious legacy to a new generation of leaders who must nurture and expand it. I will personally miss a dear friend, but he will serve eternally for me and countless others as a source of towering inspiration.
Troops to Teachers
Neat NBC story on an Iraq veteran who has found his way into the classroom thanks to Troops to Teachers. (Hat tip: Education Wonks.)
The rising tide in action
One Massachusetts town's response to public school choice:
With the school department losing nearly $1 million annually to outgoing School Choice payments, town officials have been urging school officials to stop this bleeding. As of the end of July, Town Accountant David Ryan reported $1,394,051 leaving Harwich and $421,835 coming in from School Choice.
[School Committee Chairman Thomas] Blute said many of the reasons students select another school district are the same reasons they are drawn to this district: curriculum, smaller classes, teaching methodology and a welcoming atmosphere.
Students also leave to attend charter and private schools, to be educated in schools where their parents teach and because they are looking for more individual instruction, he said of a task force report on School Choice presented two months ago.
“We need to change the way we do business,” Blute said. “We need to sell ourselves.”
The district isn't whining that the program is unfair, or demanding the program be shut down. They're examining the issue and working to fix it. And interestingly, this was at a meeting of the Harwich Taxpayers’ Association, not at a city council or school board meeting. I might be reading this incorrectly, but it seems this could be the sort of public involvement in civic affairs everybody wants to see more of.
Education News for Thursday, Nov. 16
Study examines state's achievement gaps - Seven years after Sacramento embarked on ambitious and costly school reforms, test scores are leveling off and achievement gaps are growing in some grades, according to a University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University think tank.
School choice advocates: Low marks on state report cards help their argument - Low marks on South Carolina's school report card show parents need more choices in education, advocates of a plan to give tax breaks or money for private school tuition said Wednesday.
Public Hearing Held On Mo. School Vouchers - A state representative is gathering public opinion on the school voucher issue in Missouri.
Stamford brainstorms the achievement gap - In what was a loud, long and sometimes awkward discussion, participants worked for nearly two hours as an assembly and then in small groups to identify the reasons why black students are getting lower grades than other students.
The 'Achievement Gap' Gets Wider, Despite Changes (NPR report--audio available) - New data shows that changes in education policy have not eliminated the gap between test scores of white and affluent kids compared to their classmates.
State and Local Business and Education Leaders Join Together to Support Education at 3rd Annual Education Summit - Press release on the 2006 Education Works summit in Los Angeles.
School ratings may not reflect reality - Editorial: A new Congress may rewrite or tweak parts of the No Child Left Behind law, and with any luck it will remove some of the provisions that use a stick instead of a carrot to help schools improve their performance.
Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic Science - A least half of eighth graders tested in science failed to demonstrate even a basic understanding of the subject in 9 of 10 major cities, and fourth graders, the only other group tested, fared little better, according to results released in Washington Wednesday.
Fenty to Name Ally To Lead Turnaround - D.C. Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty plans to appoint Board of Education member Victor Reinoso today as his deputy mayor for education, a key post in Fenty's potential bid for control of the struggling 58,000-student school system.
For Students, School Molds Into a Perfect Fit - Most students at Fairfax County, Virginia's alternative high schools are recent immigrants who are too old for traditional high schools but still want to earn a diploma.
Check back later for more education news.
UPDATE:
Suit Filed In Scholarship Funding for Disabled, Foster Children - Arizona's two new publicly funded scholarship programs are being defended from legal attack by the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter. The programs are designed to help especially vulnerable students-those with disabilities and those in foster care-secure quality educational opportunities in private schools.
New unit to monitor city schools finances - The fallout from the Philadelphia School District's $73.3 million budget gap continues.
Group to spend $8 million to promote charter schools - An organization that promotes charter schools announced Wednesday that it will spend $8 million to help community groups in five California school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, open new charter campuses.
Charters launch $500,000 PR drive - In California, the charter schools movement launched a $500,000 public relations campaign Wednesday in an effort to reach 300,000 additional parents and spur demand for the already popular independent campuses.
L.A. students' science scores trail in tests at urban schools - Science scores of Los Angeles students rank at or near the bottom of those in 10 urban centers, according to a government report that offers a somber assessment of science learning in the nation's largest school districts.
Give school choice and Texas kids a fair chance - Opinion: What can possibly be wrong with letting low-income parents use their tax dollars to save their children from failing schools in Texas’ largest cities?
A firmer foundation for math - Editorial: Fuzzy math has finally fallen. Now schools must make certain students actually get the concrete instruction needed to master this crucial subject.
State leaders support math overhaul for schools - Utah lawmakers adopted a resolution Wednesday that supports the State Board of Education in giving Utah's math core an overhaul.
Wanted: More male teachers - Fewer than one in four of the nation's instructors were men in 2004-05, the biggest gender imbalance in 40 years, according to a study released this week by the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union.
Low-income pupils still lag on tests - Despite a consistent rise in test scores, the achievement gap between poor Californians and their middle-class fellow students might be growing, a University of California-Berkeley report shows.