March 30, 2007
It's all connected
Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley cheers for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's call for parental choice. But pay particular attention to what she identifies as the stakes for Detroit:
The mayor's efforts come at a time when the Detroit schools are in turmoil. They are in debt and losing students by the thousands. The school board, after initially announcing it would close as many as 50 schools, voted last week to close none. But they come also as the mayor leads redevelopment that has received national notice...
Detroit has an estimated adult illiteracy rate of 47%. Its middle class is still moving to the suburbs or out of state. We're headed for a single-state depression. Only Detroit can save it, and only if the city fixes education.
Due to the ongoing woes of the American car industry, Michigan is in an economic tailspin. Everybody knows it, especially with a new report indicating bleak times ahead for the state. So is it really any surprise that there's increased interest on the part of businesses in education reform? I commented earlier on Robert Thompson's attempted philanthropy in Motor City; consider efforts by Detroit businessman and former Detroit Pistons star Dave Bing to help Thompson:
Bing, an African American, later told the Detroit Free Press, "When I heard how Bob was treated, it just didn't make sense to me. I knew there was a need. From a selfish standpoint, as a businessperson, I need educated people on my work force. I'm not anti-public schools. But I don't think they will fix public schools quick enough to stop the drain. And if parents and children don't have other options, it's a lose-lose proposition for both the public schools and the city of Detroit."
I'm dismayed by the browbeating some businesses receive when they try to get involved in education reform. The subtext is generally one of greed: "why, these money-grubbing companies only want to get their mitts in schools so they can soak the kids/parents/taxpayers." However, there doesn't seem to be any meaningful recognition that businesses might actually have some perfectly appropriate reasons for getting involved in education reform--or that kids (not to mention communities) might actually benefit from such involvement. Consider this article, which suggests there's actually an ongoing global labor shortage. Michigan desperately needs to diversify its economy away from manufacturing and do all it can to take advantage of this situation. But it needs a labor force capable of stepping up to the plate, and with nearly half of Detroit functionally illiterate, education reform has got to happen. I think would-be edureformers need to better acknowledge the close ties between urban renewal and education reform--it can help explain why people and organizations with no apparent connection to education become interested in change.
Morning Shots
New York Sun: Spitzer Wins a Victory on Charters
In a victory for Governor Spitzer, lawmakers are poised to approve an expansion in the number of charter schools in the state, agreeing to give second life to an 8-year-old experiment in education that has been lauded by school-choice activists but resisted by state teachers unions and school district bureaucracies.
In one of last deals made during the budget negotiations, lawmakers have agreed to allow an additional 100 charter schools in the state, which would increase the total number of the schools to 200.
The trustees of the State University of New York, which are appointed by the governor, and the Board of Regents, a state entity largely controlled by Assembly Democrats, will each have approval power over 50 of the charters, which are publicly funded schools under contract with state entities but independent of school district bureaucracy and union rules.
The final budget will likely eliminate Mr. Spitzer's plan to give parents who pay for private or public school tuition annual $1,000 tax deductions to offset the costs. Worth on average $68 a year, the money would have covered just a tiny fraction of tuition costs at most schools. For private and religious school advocates, the deduction represented a critical precedent for using state funds explicitly to help families pay for private tuition.
LA Times: L.A. Unified rejects charter expansion
A split Los Angeles Board of Education on Thursday rejected the expansion plans of one of the city's leading charter school operators — a move that almost certainly violates state law and firmly sets back future collaboration between the charter group and the school district.
The unexpected 3-3 vote by the Los Angeles Unified School District board defeated Green Dot Public Schools' application for eight new charters. The group had planned to use several of the charter licenses to open new schools this fall in the Watts neighborhood around Locke High School — one of the city's worst. The board's seventh member, David Tokofsky, recused himself because he works for Green Dot.
Board members and teachers union allies Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, Jon Lauritzen and Julie Korenstein voted against the charters, saying that despite the promising results Green Dot has produced at its other charters, they remain skeptical of the group's reform model.
Their vote enraged Green Dot founder Steve Barr, who said it essentially ended months of talks between him, Supt. David L. Brewer and board President Marlene Canter aimed at a joint reform plan for Locke.
"There is nothing to collaborate on … now we're outsiders," Barr said. "We've spent hours and days and nights trying to collaborate…. I really have a hard time finding any reason to continue talking with this district."
Dallas Morning News: House rejects urban vouchers
In a blow to the school voucher movement, the House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to bar use of any state funds for private school vouchers in Texas.
The 129-8 vote – which came on an amendment to the proposed state budget – appeared to signal an end to efforts to pass a voucher bill this year that would allow low-income students in Dallas and other urban school districts to transfer to private schools at state expense.
House action came just hours after a Senate committee considered a proposal to let up to 50,000 low-income students from public schools in Dallas, Fort Worth and seven other urban districts participate in a pilot voucher plan. The bill would take about 90 percent of the funds used to educate those students and send it to private schools to pay tuition. That percentage would amount to about $8,000 per student, according to state education officials.
Myrtle Beach Sun News: Education chief's open enrollment plan passes
Posted by Ryan Boots at 07:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)After voting down several attempts to add provisions for vouchers or tax credits to attend private schools, the House on Thursday passed state Education Superintendent Jim Rex's open enrollment plan 69-53.
The bill allows a limited number of pupils in poorly performing schools to attend another public school outside their assigned area. The Senate has a similar bill it is working on.
The issue split the local delegation, with four for it and six against. Although Democrats in general favored the bill, the Black Caucus turned against it along with many Republicans.
"It's not choice at all," said Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach. He said it's feel-good legislation that has too limited a reach.
Education News for Friday, March 30
Education chief's open enrollment plan passes - After voting down several attempts to add provisions for vouchers or tax credits to attend private schools, the South Carolina House on Thursday passed state Education Superintendent Jim Rex's open enrollment plan 69-53.
School choice bill gains House OK - Parents are one significant step closer to having the option of sending their children to any public school in South Carolina after the House gave key approval Thursday to a plan that allows enrollment across school district lines.
S.C. House passes school-choice bill free of vouchers - South Carolina students could apply to attend any public school in the state -- regardless of where they live -- if a bill passed by the House Thursday becomes law. But the measure doesn't include private school vouchers or tax credits as a further option, as some conservative lawmakers had hoped.
Legislators come down on both sides of private-school-tuition fence - Proposals that would help parents pay for private school tuition with public money were defeated Thursday in the South Carolina House of Representatives, the fourth consecutive year the idea has failed.
Committee hears hours of testimony on school vouchers - A Texas Senate committee heard hours of testimony from parents, educators and experts on a controversial school voucher bill on Thursday. Supporters argued the measure would give parents a choice in their children's education and opponents said it would hurt public schools.
House rejects urban vouchers - In a blow to the school voucher movement, the House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to bar use of any state funds for private school vouchers in Texas.
House prohibits vouchers, approves $150 billion budget - The Texas House voted 129-8 to prohibit any state education dollars from being spent on school vouchers.
State budget deal doubles charter schools - New York will double the number of charter schools permitted and provide additional funding for districts in which the alternative schools are located, under a series of budget deals that came together Thursday at the state Capitol.
Spitzer Wins a Victory on Charters - In a victory for New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, lawmakers are poised to approve an expansion in the number of charter schools in the state, agreeing to give second life to an 8-year-old experiment in education that has been lauded by school-choice activists but resisted by state teachers unions and school district bureaucracies.
Deal a Budget Boost to Charter Schools - Gov. Spitzer and legislative leaders yesterday agreed on a new state budget that officials say includes authorization for 50 new charter schools in the city.
E-mail bashing charter schools leaves bad taste - Education-reform proponents were outraged Thursday about an e-mail in which Colorado House Education Committee Chairman Mike Merrifield said, “There must be a special place in Hell” for advocates of vouchers and private and charter schools.
Mayor takes lead in necessary revolution on city schools - Opinion: Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says that, despite criticism, he is undeterred in his efforts to improve education for all Detroit schoolchildren and will continue conversations with educators, foundation leaders, corporate leaders and parents to discuss what is best for the kids and the city's future -- including establishing more charter and private schools in the city. Thank God. That means the mayor is doing his job.
Expect charter reforms, state says - Florida legislative leaders are talking about possible changes in the regulation of the state's 300-plus charter schools in response to Orlando Sentinel stories this week outlining academic, financial and oversight problems at many schools.
No child left behind - Opinion: Although nothing is perfect and NCLB is no exception, I believe the intent of the law is good and I don't see the need for any major changes to it. With that said, there still are some areas in need of attention and change.
Teacher union won’t strike - Members of West Virginia’s second-largest teachers union overwhelmingly voted against striking to protest the Legislature’s 3.5 percent pay increase.
A Player Switches Sides in the Interest of Education - Not that Martine G. Guerrier, a self-possessed, child-obsessed education policy expert, is much of a blusher. But at first blush the arrangement recently struck between New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the Department of Education and Ms. Guerrier, formerly a most outspoken appointee to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy as well as its first Haitian-American soccer mom, sounds like an exercise in keeping friends close and enemies closer. For all three parties, finally, unanimity! Or maybe not.
L.A. Unified rejects charter expansion - A split Los Angeles Board of Education on Thursday rejected the expansion plans of one of the city's leading charter school operators — a move that almost certainly violates state law and firmly sets back future collaboration between the charter group and the school district.
Mailing misleads about candidate - Through headlines from Journal Sentinel articles, the ad links Bonds specifically to Mandella School of Science and Math, a now-closed school where the principal used state money to buy two Mercedes-Benz cars. Bonds has said he supports school choice, but the ad makes some misleading leaps in connecting him with the troubles at Mandella.
UPDATE:
Bottom line is children - Letter to the editor: Rather than asking, "Will vouchers hurt public schools?" we need to be asking, "Will vouchers help children?" The bottom line is children, not schools. Children are our future. Therefore, it is not only morally, but also economically, sound for us to do whatever it takes for all children to be educated.
Public school choice passes - The House gave key approval Thursday to a plan that would allow students to attend the public school of their choice, regardless of attendance boundaries. Attempts to let students transfer to private schools, however, failed.
School transfer chances rise - Portland students' chances of snagging a transfer out of their neighborhood high school have improved since last year, preliminary school choice lottery results show.
A petition to sign: Legal wrangling should not stop voucher referendum - Editorial: The groups who want to give Utah voters a chance to strike down the controversial law should keep pressing forward. Their own lawyers take exception to Shurtleff's opinion, and if the referendum is successful, they are prepared to go to court to make it stick.
School voucher use up more than 3,000 over previous year - Overall participation in the voucher program is up sharply this year because a cap of about 15,000 students was lifted a year ago as a result of an agreement between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
This aint your 2005 House - Opinion: By far the most interesting moment of today’s long, and I mean long, House debate over the state budget was when members voted to scrap the state’s sizable incentive pay program for teachers and replace it with a modest across-the-board pay raise for teachers.
Let the people decide what to do about public education - Voucher proponents state that the voucher bill will help low-income Utah families. If this is true, why don't they have the support of low-income organizations? Why aren't there droves of poor people crowding the Legislature in support of school vouchers?
Fairness of school reform law challenged - Educators and watchdog groups converged at School Without Walls High School, late Thursday to trade complaints and summon support for changing the federal No Child Left Behind act.
Town leaders have reservations about Rell tax-cap plan - The governor, who in February proposed an across-the-board state income-tax hike to pay for a massive, $3.4 billion increase in education spending by 2012, pledged to develop a complementary plan to provide municipal tax relief.
Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading (Edweek.org subscription required) - Ms. Brown is glad that teachers at Evanston High, like educators elsewhere, have been supplementing the canon with recently published books to provide a more varied, and palatable, literary menu for students. Such decisions, some experts say, can add the kind of engaging and relevant content that high school reform advocates have been calling for.
Dan Walters: New school pact leads to a raid - Opinion: The plain fact is that school trustees presumably elected to govern prudently have approved a legally binding contract that commits them to shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars more than they know they'll have.
'No Child' leaves big gap to fill in grade schools - Opinion: As a student teacher supervisor in the Grand Rapids, Mich.-area, I observe elementary classrooms daily. I constantly ask myself how our classroom structure could have deteriorated so rapidly within the past decade.
Chester school board postpones charter vote - Confronted by an angry crowd of several hundred charter school parents, some waving signs saying "Afraid of Competition" and "Board Should Resign," the new state-appointed board that runs the Chester Upland School District postponed a vote last night on whether to cap charter school enrollment at its current levels.
Angry Parents Confront Board Over Capping Charter School Enrollment - Emotions ran high as community members faced-off against a state-appointed control board. Hundreds of people -- some educators, but mostly parents -- showed for the meeting, held in a middle school to accomodate the crowd.
Tempe districts battle dip in enrollment - Both the Kyrene and Tempe elementary school districts have lost nearly 800 students in the past two years, resulting in a loss of some $3 million in funding.
Toledo teachers cite fear of assaults in union poll - Twenty percent of Toledo Public Schools classroom employees who responded to a survey from their union said they had been assaulted or physically threatened last school year by students.
Will Strickland's Proposal to Cut the EdChoice Program Pay Off? (Adam Schaeffer)
Gov. Ted Strickland announced on March 14 that he intends to roll back Ohio's tiny school voucher program to save money in the next budget. The problem is, it would cost a lot more to send the thousands of children in the program back to the failing schools from which they escaped.
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 29, 2007
The collectivist argument against choice
An anthropology professor by the name of Greg Laden has been studying the pros and cons of homeschooling on his blog and summed up his arguments against the practice (and parental choice in general) in this post, which I discovered by way of the Homeschool Cafe (hat tip to Alasandra, who is also hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling). I zeroed in on one part in particular.
Home schooling is a way of cheating the system.
Home schooling and private schools both have this characteristic. There is a small subset of families that can afford the money it takes to send their kids to private schools. When this happens, an important part of society withdraws from the public, collective endeavor to educate our children. [emphasis from the original post]
"Our" children? So who do they belong to, precisely? As I've said elsewhere, this sort of language is very interesting; it seems to say that children belong to everybody, which tends to mean nobody is responsible for them. (More on this particular wording later.)
This can have many implications. Even something as simple as the funding of a class field trip serves as a microcosm of a broad array of effects, many less obvious but probably very important. My daughter attends a school that has a very ambitious yearly field trip for one of the grades, in which the children go away for three days and two nights. It is a little expensive (cost per child) but there is a guarantee that every child can go. Fund raising activities are carried out, and the surplus funds are set aside to subsidize any child who’s family can’t afford the fee. Chaperons (parents) pay their own way as necessary so as to not increase the cost of the trip.
This happens to be an outstanding public school, so there is a full range of economic levels represented there, so only a small percentage of the kids need some help paying for the trip. But imagine if 10 or 20 percent of the parents pulled their kids out of this public school, sending them to private school. Suddenly, the marginally poor and middle class would be responsible for funding the much less fortunate on this trip. It may become impossible and have to be dropped as a program.
But as Laden admits later in the post, homeschooling actually saves districts money since they end up paying for services they don't use and frees up more money to be spent per pupil. And other forms of school choice can also save districts money: as Mike Antonucci pointed out in a prior Communiqué, per-pupil spending in Ohio public schools has increased thanks to widespread charter schools in that state (because charters spend less per pupil than public schools, the schools the charter students came from had money left over that they were able to spend on their remaining students).
However, to be fair this really doesn't address what he's bringing up as he's talking about a field trip paid for independently of the school budget. In response, I'll be blunt: complaining about the possible loss of a field trip is fiddling while cities like Detroit--with a mere 22 percent graduation rate and where 48% of its adult population is functionally illiterate--burn.
I'll use the next passage of Laden's post as a springboard for my broader point.
There is a correlation between wealth and ability to invest time and energy into a school via the PTA, as a school volunteer, and even in terms of helping the children at home with their homework, etc. There is a correlation between wealth and educational level, and in turn, there is a correlation between educational level of parents and the educational success of the children. All the students gain by increasing the number of involved and available parents, and all of the students gain by increasing the educational success by even a proportion of the children, by raising expectations and providing positive interactive experiences. Society as a whole gains by all of this.
When a large number of parents send their children to private school, society as a whole pays the cost of benefits reaped, and sequestered, by the few.
That is an indictment of private schools. But a similar argument can be made of home schooling. In many cases, home schoolers may not be able to home school because of wealth, but they can because of available time. One way or another, home schoolers are able to do this because of differential distribution of resources, and the act of home schooling, like the act of attending private schools, contributes broadly to a lowering of quality of experience for everyone else.
This is America. The American Ethic allows for such selfish behavior. But it should be understood to be what it is..
As an aside, let me say that I appreciate Laden's candor. Really, I do. It's refreshing for me to see a school choice opponent finally have the honesty to indict parents for making what he or she regards as the wrong choices.
That said, consider the galling injustice of what he is proposing. Millions upon millions of parents are being taxed to support a system that simply doesn't work. Laden would tell those parents that not only must they stay to wait for the system to right itself, but that they are responsible for helping fix the problem--and goes so far as to call them selfish for wishing to leave! If I buy a car that turns out to be a lemon, I can go to the manufacturer to either demand a refund or a car that works. Based on Laden's reasoning, the manufacturer could require that I help work out the design flaws and build the replacement.
Laden raises the importance of parental involvement in education as a principal reason for restricting choice. But does he really think restricting parents from doing what they believe to be best for their children is somehow going to make them more devoted to a system out of a motivation for the good of all? Look, forget vouchers, charters, homeschooling for just a minute. Does he seriously believe that he can tell a parent, "Look, I know you think private school is best for your child--but you're forbidden from leaving, because the group is more important than your kid"--and that the parent in question is going to be sold on the system? As Eduwonk put it:
...the idea that we restrict the choices that parents have in the alleged service of the greater good just doesn't fly in a society like ours. One inescapable theme of the last 40 years of school reform is that if unsatisfied parents can walk, one way or another, they will. What's different now is that low-income families can increasingly walk through ideas like vouchers. That ought to discomfort public school supporters more than it apparently does. Essentially, saying that a good public option like KIPP [or private schools, or homeschooling, or any other choice option--ed.] is skimming the "best" families so we shouldn't have it, is saying to these families that they should forgo something that might be in the best interest of their kids because of a potential abstract good for all kids. That's not exactly how you build brand loyalty and it's not what we ask more affluent people to do and not what they do. To beat a dead horse some more, the way to build support for the public schools is not to give parents fewer choices in the public system but to give them more.
However, what disturbs me most of all is the notion indicated in the subheading from Greg's post: that pulling one's children out of public schools "cheats" the system. In response, this statement comes to mind:
The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.
Who might that be? Some Bible-thumping fundamentalist? Actually, that's a passage from the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Pierce vs. Society of Sisters, a case directly relevant to this discussion. In the mid-1920s, the enlightened legislators of Oregon passed a law that expressly prohibited parents from sending their children to private schools and required them to enroll their children in public schools. Thankfully, it only took SCOTUS a matter of weeks to strike the law down by a rare 9-0 vote.
In a sense, some things never change. Eight decades removed, the arguments against non-government schooling are pretty much the same. By his own admission, Laden holds fealty to the system above all else. Individual needs or preferences just don't appear on his radar. Anything that might distract from or get in the way of the monolith is, in his book, unacceptable. And those were some of the same justifications behind the Oregon law: that a government monopoly on education would be most conducive to society, that private schools were somehow damaging to the social fabric. And I'm not taking anything out of context here; consider the title to this section of Laden's post, where he says homeschooling (or any form of school choice, really) "cheats" the system. He speaks of the "collective" endeavor to educate "our children," a statement that in a way channels a spokesman for the state of Oregon who defended the law before the Supreme Court:
"As to minors, the state stands in the position of parents patriae, and may exercise unlimited supervision and control over their contracts, occupations and conduct, and the liberty and right of those who assume to deal with them."
I'm quite pleased to take the other side of that argument.
One last thought. If parents who enroll their children in private schools are selfish and "cheat" the system, I wonder what Laden would say to those public schoolteachers who opt for private school for their own children.
Morning Shots
Education Week: Vouchers Eyed for Students With Disabilities
More than half a dozen states are considering legislation to offer private school vouchers for students with disabilities.
They are looking to join the ranks of four others—Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Utah—that already offer that school choice option.
Supporters say that such vouchers are an important safety valve for parents when public schools don’t offer programs to meet those students’ specialized needs.
But opponents warn that parents who take advantage of those vouchers may be giving up procedural protections guaranteed to their children under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Philadelphia Inquirer: Seismic changes in the Phila. School District
What a decade it’s been for the Philadelphia School District.
The 174,000-student system has undergone a state takeover, launched the largest experiment of private management of public schools in the country, and presided over a proliferation of charter schools, new thematic-based small high schools, and a burgeoning system of disciplinary schools.
It has gone from a district known for its lack of technology to the home of one of the nation’s most technologically advanced high schools, opened in September in partnership with the Microsoft Corp. The district has seen a significant rise in test scores in the last five years, although high school performance continues to lag.
And despite a boost in public confidence ushered in by the can-do style of its chief executive officer, Paul Vallas, the district still is viewed largely as a system in academic crisis and, more recently, in fiscal crisis. It has seen a loss of nearly 20 percent of its student population as children flee for charters and other schools.
“Scores have gotten better. Some schools are better resourced, but we still have a very, very long way to go,” said Debra Kahn, who has been a school board member, city education secretary, and education advocate over the last decade.
LA Times: Schwarzenegger names education chief
Posted by Ryan Boots at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday appointed David Long, Riverside County's superintendent of schools since 1999, as the new state secretary of education.
Long, a 67-year-old Republican who lives in Canyon Lake, will be paid $175,000.
Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, "David shares my values when it comes to education: improving student achievement, bringing up low-performing schools, hiring quality teachers, building new facilities."
In Riverside, Long oversaw 23 school districts and more than 400,000 students. He came to that elected position, where he was in his third term, from the Lake Elsinore Unified School District.
He has also served as chairman of the U.S. Education Department's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Advisory Committee, which reports to President Bush's secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings.
If You Control the Test, You Control the Results (Dave Johnston)
As I started reading this Sacramento Bee column by Peter Schrag, I was feeling pretty good. I thought that Peter and I were on the same page regarding the "Getting Down to Facts" study. Then Peter took a left turn out of nowhere that left us on opposite sides of this street.
Continue reading "If You Control the Test, You Control the Results (Dave Johnston)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Thursday, March 29
School choice - Opinion: The latest report card on school achievement in New Jersey provides further evidence that we need to change our education funding policy. The time is ripe for discussion. We can achieve progress toward implementation of school choice.
School study draws doubt - The head of the Winston-Salem chapter of the NAACP said yesterday that he doubts a recent study showing that school choice has had no effect on test scores of students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
In the Legislature - The House was sharply divided Wednesday over whether tax dollars should help pay for children in South Carolina's worst public schools to attend private schools and was poised for a vote on the issue today.
DeMint bill would alter school law - Sen. Jim DeMint's A-PLUS proposal would change the most fundamental aspect of NCLB. The bill gives states more autonomy to monitor academic progress, which differs from the current system in which the federal government sets regulations for states and schools. DeMint's bill would give states the ability to opt out of No Child Left Behind requirements without losing federal education funds.
Strickland is undemocratic in opposing school vouchers - Letter to the editor: Regarding “Strickland calls school vouchers ‘undemocratic’”: This is the most undemocratic comment I have ever heard. Removing the ability for a parent to decide where to send his or her child to school is undemocratic.
Charter schools deliver success - Opinion: We don't have the luxury of turning our backs on models of public education we know are working. This is why we support proposals to substantially lift the cap on the number of charter schools and hope that an ambitious plan to do so will be included in the New York state budget.
Chester Upland looks to restrict charter schools - In Delaware County's Chester Upland School District, the Rendell administration has come down against allowing charter schools to grow because the district needs the money for its regular schools.
Multiple choices for city schools - Editorial: Leaders of the Detroit Public Schools have mainly themselves to blame for the welcome mat that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick plans to extend to charter and private schools to open in the city.
Charter schools fight new law - The boards of 19 publicly funded charter schools went to court Wednesday in an attempt to block a new state law that could prevent them from ending their relationship with White Hat Management, a for-profit company founded by Akron businessman David Brennan.
Seismic changes in the Phila. School District - A state takeover. Charters. Privately run schools. The decade has seen improvements, but financial problems persist.
Against the odds, success - Reporters visited six schools in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey to observe some of the techniques that educators say are showing results in attempts to improve performance under NCLB.
State official calls for changes in No Child Left Behind - Pennsylvania Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak has called for changes in the federal No Child Left Behind Act to provide more money and flexibility.
You can't leave it behind - Opinion: Other than Iraq, No Child Left Behind may be the most hated part of Bush's legacy. But critics who think they can destroy the education law are gravely mistaken.
No Child Law Faces Medley of Changes - If President Bush wants the next version of his signature No Child Left Behind education law to carry his imprint, the White House will have to compromise with a host of disparate groups seeking changes in the 5-year-old act.
Public biased on achievement gap, study says - Scholarly and political attention directed at the gap between whites and Latinos in educational achievement can be divided into two categories of bias, according to a University of Texas graduate student.
Merit Pay for Teachers Improves Student Achievement in Arkansas (School Reform News) - Merit pay programs for teachers result in a better work environment for teachers and better test scores for students, according to a study released in mid-January by the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform.
Florida Merit Pay Program Under Fire (School Reform News) - If the opposing parties in a lawsuit filed last December against Florida's Special Teachers Are Rewarded (STAR) program can agree on anything, it's that changes need to be made for Florida to have a successful performance-based pay program.
Proof positive - Editorial: The fact is the Los Angeles Unified School District is still failing students, and we need real reform - not excuses.
NCLB Commission Calls for Further Centralization, Federal Power in Education (School Reform News) - In February, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Commission--co-chaired by former Gov. Roy Barnes (D) of Georgia and former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) of Wisconsin--released its reform recommendations, weeks before the Congressional committees responsible for overseeing the law's reauthorization were scheduled to begin holding hearings.
McLean Students Sue Anti-Cheating Service - Two McLean [Virginia] High School students have launched a court challenge against a California company hired by their school to catch cheaters, claiming the anti-plagiarism service violates copyright laws.
Schwarzenegger names education chief - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday appointed David Long, Riverside County's superintendent of schools since 1999, as the new state secretary of education.
UPDATE:
Committees outline options to racially balance Manchester schools - Four groups studied the pros and cons of starting a "controlled" school-choice program; redistricting; dividing the schools into five sets of pairs, with one school in each pair for preschool through grade 2 and the other for grades 3 through 5; and other options, such as redistricting only bused students or overlapping districts.
More the same won't salvage school reform - Opinion: Rather than placing all bets on compliance with no child, Washington policy makers should adopt incentives that would enable parents to find good private schools for their children and thereby exert competitive pressures on public schools to improve. To be most effective, school choice should be for all, not just for selected categories of need.
SC legislator, Guardsman on leave from training casts key vote - A proposal that would help parents pay for private school tuition with public money was defeated Thursday by South Carolina lawmakers, the fourth consecutive year the idea has failed.
More on defeat of vouchers - Opinion: Here's the AP story on what happened. As I said before, dramatic stuff. It was truly a case of Capt. Smith of the 218th Brigade to the rescue of public schools.
Choice, but at a price - Opinion: High Point's school board representatives are divided over a proposal one says offers more choice and the other fears will further separate white and black students.
Virtual high school a reality in South Dakota - South Dakota was once the leader in what was called distance learning. Fifteen years ago, every school in the state was equipped with high speed internet and video relay classrooms. Soon, technology will give South Dakota students a new way to learn.
District alters student exchanges - The Eugene School District has put the kibosh on Exchange Day, a longtime tradition that felt to many participants like a cruel April Fools' Day joke.
High school swap comes as a shock - A proposal endorsed by four members of the Manchester school board that would have nearly all Hooksett freshmen attending West High School by the fall of 2008 isn't sitting too well with school officials and parents.
House pulls education funding from bill for lack of votes - House Democrats pulled an education funding bill from the floor at the last minute Thursday because it didn't have enough votes to pass, jeopardizing the Vermont Legislature's chances of enacting property tax reduction legislation this year.
Price bill aimed at teacher recruitment - Rep. David Price is making a second run with a bill that would create a national teaching scholarship program patterned after a successful North Carolina effort that has helped attract strong high school students to classroom careers.
Mental health firms swarm schools - Some school districts are taking steps to shield students from the mostly private, for-profit mental health companies that are lining up to send mental health aides into public schools.
Teachers vote to endorse . . . no candidate - For the first time since 1971, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has opted not to endorse a mayoral candidate in an open primary after a majority of members who cast votes in a referendum said that's what they wanted.
Progress takes a halting step - Despite negative attention for its fights, Bradley Tech is above the MPS average on key academic statistics.
Children left behind with act’s mandate - Children do not learn at equal rates. Some children need more time to learn the same thing that it takes others very little time to learn. When legislators ignore this fact, they are ignoring the well-documented idea that learning is developmental.
Personal approach to learning - In a turnout that heartened organizers and keynote speakers, local educators, elected officials and community leaders have pledged to provide a "personalized education" for every public school student.
Schools fail to use millions in aid - The federal government offers extra money for low-income students each year — funds that their schools can use for more teachers, tutors and other services to help them learn. But Columbus Public Schools left millions of these dollars unspent during the 2005-06 school year, meaning the individual schools — and the targeted students — essentially lost the money.
Secretary of Education to visit Mesa charter school - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will visit a Mesa charter school known for beating the odds in a low-income neighborhood.
Charter school upstairs - Siblings take Arizona Connections Academy lessons in a classroom that's in their home.
D.C. School Takeover - Frequently Asked Questions compiled by the Washington Post.
For a Change, Students Critique Administrators and Teachers - Students from four Prince George's County high schools asked their teachers and administrators for more recognition, a looser dress code, refurbished buildings and better food at a quarterly meeting of the Region I Student Coalition last week.
Extra Credit - Readers respond to Washington Post education columns on homework and disabilities.
March 28, 2007
Naughty books
NYC Educator raises that thorny and perennially unresolved question regarding controversial literature in the classroom:
Explicit sex and extreme violence grace the pages of many books approved by New York City. Is that a bad idea? Is it a good idea? Will it get kids who wouldn't read otherwise interested?
I discovered the post via this week's Carnival of Education over at the Wonks, who makes what I consider an important distinction: "Should high schools remove books from their libraries and reading lists if they deem them too sexually explicit? Even if such books are considered to be 'classics?'"
As I say, this is one of those debates that will never end, largely because what's really at issue is individual values. I think one reason these debates keep surfacing in schools is that parents, who are (and should remain) the final arbiters of the values that are taught to their children, keep getting denied a say in these matters. To that end, let the parent decide. As to whether such books should be assigned as part of a curriculum, let parents opt their kids out if they so choose; it's done (or should be done) in the case of sexual education, so I think extending this sort of provision to other classroom content is easily done and entirely appropriate. In the case of making such materials available in the school library, how about putting them under restricted use such that the student can only access the material with parental consent? Put this ball back in the parent's court, where it belongs.
Kwame's history with charters
In response to my post from yesterday on Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his newly rediscovered support for charter schools, Education Sector analyst Sara Mead told me via e-mail this isn't his first flip-flop on the issue:
Kilpatrick was initially supportive of Thompson's plan and joined outgoing Gov. Engler in late 2002 to propose legislation that would allow the 15 new schools in Detroit; he also participated in negotiations with Granholm and the Republicans in the state legislature during 2003 and was believed to support the compromise they worked out in September that year to raise the state's university-authorized charter cap by 150. But then Kwame pulled his support in late September, shortly before Granholm also backed out of the deal.
There's more on this in Sara's report from last year. It's stuff like this that I'd say lends credence to Eduwonk's line from that Cato forum that one of the bigger problems with education policy today is a lack of political will. The question for me in connection with Kilpatrick is whether he's got the gumption to stick it out this time around.
Today's comic
Morning Shots
LA Times: United mayors plead for more funding
More than 200 of the Los Angeles region's top civic and business officials -- many of them adversaries back home -- delivered a unified civic message and pleas for more dollars to members of Congress and federal bureaucrats today.
The delegation sought funding for gang intervention programs, port security, education and affordable housing.
"All of us are coming together with a common message," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference next to the Capitol. "Southern California's challenges are America's challenges."
Villaraigosa was joined by several members of the Los Angeles City Council, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Marlene Canter, schools Supt. David L. Brewer and David W. Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
These officials and scores of others, including Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and a gaggle of Villaraigosa staff members, fanned out through the halls of Congress this morning to plead their case for more federal aid.
Dallas Morning News: Vouchers for autistic advance
The estimated 17,000 autistic children in Texas public schools would be allowed to attend any public or private school using tax dollars to pay for their education under legislation approved Tuesday by a Senate panel.
The school voucher measure, which now goes to the full Senate, drew praise from dozens of parents of autistic children but got sharp criticism from leading education groups during a public hearing on Tuesday.
Members of the Senate Education Committee approved the bill 5-2, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats in opposition.
Deseret Morning News: 2 voucher laws at risk? Shurtleff says only one affected by referendum
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Even if a referendum intended to repeal school vouchers is successful, the state will still have a fully funded voucher program, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a legal opinion issued Tuesday.
However, his seven-page opinion does bring up "a few sticking points," including the likely loss of some of the $12 million appropriated to help public schools cope with the cost of losing students to private schools through the new voucher program.
And the program that allocates tax dollars to help parents pay private school tuition costs may also be weakened if the referendum passes because the Utah Board of Education would be allowed to regulate private schools, raising constitutional concerns.
Education News for Wednesday, March 28
Don`t stifle charter schools - Editorial: Charter schools are not a magic wand for an inadequate school system, but they offer desperately needed alternatives to failing schools.
Doris and Donald Fisher Awarded Charter School Movement Supporters of the Year - Press release: The California Charter Schools Association today recognized Doris and Donald Fisher as "Charter School Movement Supporters of the Year" annual Hart Vision Award recipients.
Legislature Votes to Replace Merit-Pay System in Florida (Edweek.org registration required) - The Florida legislature last week swapped its controversial merit-pay plan for teachers for one that would give school districts more say in how many teachers are rewarded and why.
United mayors plead for more funding - More than 200 of the Los Angeles region's top civic and business officials -- many of them adversaries back home -- delivered a unified civic message and pleas for more dollars to members of Congress and federal bureaucrats.
School reform should be mandatory - Editorial: The Maine Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee's failure to recommend a credible school administration reform plan was beyond irresponsible. Fortunately for taxpayers and students alike, members of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee appear to be made of stiffer stuff.
April 2007 School Reform News - The April 2007 issue of School Reform News highlights school voucher rallies in South Carolina and Texas and voucher proposals in Georgia, Maryland and Utah. Also in this issue: NCLB, teacher licensing, charter schools, merit pay, social promotion, citizenship education, and more.
Looking for ‘real choice’ and ‘real reform’ in all the wrong places - Those who claim to be school choice proponents responded to Education Superintendent Jim Rex’s call for statewide open enrollment and at least one magnet, Montessori or other optional program in every district by declaring that their voucher/tax credit plan offered the only “real choice” and “real reform.”
Superintendent gets involved in school voucher fight - The fight over school vouchers has taken a new turn inside the South Carolina State House, this time involving State Education Superintendent Jim Rex.
Anti-Voucher Vote May Not Kill Program - Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff issued an informal opinion Tuesday that says even if voters repeal a law that gives parents money to send their children to private school, the voucher program – and the funding for it – would still be in place.
Rex urges lawmakers to reject voucher plans - South Carolina State Education Superintendent Jim Rex urged House members today to reject efforts to pass private school vouchers by attaching the idea to two education bills set for debate this week.
New Push to Narrow the Education Gap - As the education gap widens in California, the state’s superintendent of public instruction is vowing to focus on subgroups to help them boost achievement scores.
State math scores slide - The latest results from the annual state math assessment of Idaho students confirm the concerns of many parents and educators: More time and attention needs to be given to math education.
California raises bar on school scores - Campuses are required to make progress toward closing the gap between whites and minority students.
LAUSD hits new low on API - Already lagging behind their statewide counterparts, Los Angeles Unified high school students took a precipitous plunge on newly released Academic Performance Index scores, dropping 20 points from the previous year.
Race didn't affect tests - The school-choice plan that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools put in place more than 10 years ago created racially segregated schools but did not affect students' performance in school, according to a study from a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Study: Charters 'resegregating' - Delaware's charter schools may be accelerating the "resegregation" of public schools, according to a study released Tuesday.
2 voucher laws at risk? Shurtleff says only one affected by referendum - Even if a referendum intended to repeal school vouchers is successful, the state will still have a fully funded voucher program, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a legal opinion issued Tuesday.
Vouchers for autistic advance - The estimated 17,000 autistic children in Texas public schools would be allowed to attend any public or private school using tax dollars to pay for their education under legislation approved Tuesday by a Senate panel.
Summer break increases achievement gap - New research shows that disparities between lower- and higher-income students’ tests scores increase significantly over summer vacations.
Son of No Child Left Behind - Editorial: The success of a nation depends largely on the quality of its educational system, and the international standing of the U.S. system is embarrassingly low. The key to improving it is realistic standards, rigorously enforced. No Child Left Behind has the standards and the enforcement, but it could use more realism and rigor.
UPDATE:
A.G. says public vote can't stop vouchers - A referendum wouldn't stop school vouchers in Utah, but it may weaken vouchers' chances of surviving a constitutional challenge, according to a legal opinion from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff released Tuesday.
House leaders clash - No one really expects House Majority Leader Jim Merrill and Minority Leader Harry Ott to get along, at least when it comes to politics; and on Tuesday the two clashed on the state's proposed spending plan, spending tax dollars on private schools and which party has the power to hold up legislation.
IT'S BACK!!!! Board votes to revisit MI as a choice program - Forum discussion: Just the possibility that it might receive an application to start a charter Mandarin Immersion program has the PAUSD school board, as of this evening, reopening the question of whether it should start a Mandarin Choice program -- this time to start in 2008.
AG Opinion a Blow to Voucher Referendum Organizers - Utah's Attorney General says the state's new school choice system can legally stay on the books, even if a public referendum repeals it.
Shurtleff: Voucher program will stand - Even if a referendum succeeds in repealing legislation establishing a school voucher program, a similar bill would allow the program to continue, according to an opinion issued but Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
Race, class splinter Madrona School - In recent years, the school at the center of this neighborhood in Seattle's Central Area has undergone its own gentrification of sorts, as small numbers of middle-class white families began enrolling their children in a school that remains largely black and persistently poor.
New magnet programs OK'd by school board - In an effort to win students back from charter and private schools, the San Diego Unified School District is planning four distinctive education programs, including one focused on Mandarin Chinese.
District reform on track - Editorial: Positive signs within an Appropriations Committee subgroup suggest school district reform continues to progress as the group acknowledges that some regions of the state cannot fairly meet district size goals and that local involvement with any reform will be crucial to its success.
Embrace public education - How Republicans can win in North Carolina - Opinion: Why, somebody asked me last week, don’t Republicans get more support from the public on education issues? Democrats, he continued, have been running public education, and they have ruined it by selling out to the education bureaucracy.
Capitol connection - S.C. Education Superintendent Jim Rex fears the state could face legal ramifications if a controversial private school voucher initiative sinks legislation to offer statewide 4-year-old kindergarten to poor children.
4 schools get chance to reverse failures - Yesterday, the state Board of Education approved plans by four schools, including Boston, as part of an experiment to give failing schools more latitude to devise their own strategies to improve.
State budget favors roads over education - Editorial: A strong economy requires a good higher-education system and a strong transportation network. Colorado is failing on both of these fronts.
Riverview Gardens students walk out again - Dozens of Riverview Gardens High School students skipped classes again this morning, protesting the removal of their principal for the third straight day.
Vote for MPS reform - Editorial: Candidates who can improve the school district's performance should be elected or re-elected. There has been progress. More is needed.
$1.2 billion schools budget OK'd - The Baltimore school board approved last night a $1.2 billion budget for the next school year with more money for prekindergarten and middle school reform than initially proposed, but less for new textbooks and elementary class-size reduction.
Report: Mix of solutions helps schools make academic progress - More Michigan schools failing to meet standards for academic performance are hiring turnaround specialists, according to a report issued today.
No “A” For Effort in California Schools - California schools are making academic gains even though two-thirds failed to meet the state’s basic achievement benchmark, state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell said Tuesday.
Charter school bill gutted - A bill in the Alaska House of Representatives originally intended to give a financial boost to Effie Kokrine Charter School has been amended by the House education committee in such a way as to make it useless to the Fairbanks charter school.
Third attempt for charter school brewing - The state's Charter School Act of 1996 allows for private bodies to create charter schools with approval of either a state body or the local school board. Public dollars normally spent on public schools would pay for a charter school, with the amount diverted tied to the number of pupils that attend.
What do parents and kids know? - Editorial: No one makes a better argument for why charter schools should exist than the very person who leads the state in opposing them. Why? Because charters have become too popular. Heaven forbid, they're creating ... competition among parents for public schools. Charters offer students a choice where none previously existed.
Kilpatrick seeks charter schools for good of city - Opinion: The knee-jerk reaction would be to say the mayor has lost his mind. The quick hit would be to say the mayor is opposed to the survival of the city school district. Neither is true.
Charter boom could begin - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick could find plenty of allies in his efforts to bring more charter and private schools to Detroit -- and the school district's declining enrollment could open the door to many more charter schools in the city.
House OKs bill to end geographic restrictions on charter schools - Legislation removing geographic restrictions on charter schools in Arkansas was sent to Gov. Beebe's desk this afternoon. On a 91-2 vote, the House agreed with Senate amendments to a bill overhauling the state's charter school law.
Deflating the Potential for Grade Inflation (Brett Pawlowski)
I’ve argued elsewhere that we should begin to treat students as customers, not products, of the system. This invariably raises questions about grade inflation – “if students are customers, and have the ability to take their money elsewhere,” the argument goes, “then they’ll use that newfound leverage to demand higher, undeserved grades!”
Continue reading "Deflating the Potential for Grade Inflation (Brett Pawlowski)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 27, 2007
Quote of the day
There are good charter schools and bad charter schools. There are poorly managed and fiscally irresponsible charter schools and charter schools that are well-managed and fiscal models for all schools. None of this, however, has anything to do with why there continues to be a divisive and costly fight over them, 16 years after the first charter school law was passed in Minnesota. The battle is over union membership and union influence. In traditional schools, there is both. In charter schools, there is neither. How many of the thousands of charter school stories written address this fundamental battle for survival?
Mike Antonucci, in this week's Communiqué.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)Kwame Kilpatrick flip-flops on charters?!
In 2003, Michigan philanthropist Robert Thompson offered $200 million to the city of Detroit to build a string of charter schools. The establishment's reaction?
In Detroit, officials reacted to Thompson's proffered $200 million not with gratitude but with rage. The Michigan Federation of Teachers urged a walkout, declaring a school holiday so that union members could march on the state capitol in protest of charter schools. State Democrats cowered before the union, while Detroit's politicians bristled at a white suburbanite's "meddling" in the city's affairs. Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick--whose own children attended a charter school--responded to Thompson's offer by saying, with a dismissive wave of the hand, "Let us make the rules, and if he can't abide by the rules ..."
Says Thompson, "We thought if we tried to do good things, people would appreciate it. I guess we were naive." Shunned and saddened, Thompson withdrew his offer in October 2003.
That was then. This is now:
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Monday that he has been in private conversations for months with educators and community leaders about establishing more charter and private schools across the city.
"We've been meeting quietly so no one would think we were doing something" yet, Kilpatrick said at the University Preparatory Academy charter school. UPA operates three schools in the city, and Kilpatrick said he wants to help Superintendent Doug Ross open four more.
I'd say it's far more likely that he first needed to gauge his political capital in advance of the coming battle with the union. And make no mistake, there will be a battle; if they dropped the hammer on a guy offering a nine figure gift, they'll gladly go after a Democratic mayor showing signs of wandering off the reservation.
The question is whether Kilpatrick can succeed against the union where Thompson failed. It's possible that the union may have lost enough clout in the wake of last year's strike for the mayor to find an opening. (The Detroit Free Press article mentions a massive drop in enrollment last year, but fails to mention that it seems to be directly connected to the strike. In fact, there's no discussion of the strike at all. How odd!)
No word yet whether Thompson was involved in those discussions. Strangely enough, much like the strike, the entire DFP article burns through 673 words without so much as a single mention of the Thompson affair, something that didn't escape the attention of one of the many readers who commented on this story. In fact, do yourself a favor and wade around in the comment thread, where support for Kilpatrick runs by my estimation at least 8-1. To my mind, that's the real story here: in spite of--or perhaps because of--the best efforts of the teachers' union, there seems to be a major groundswell of support in Detroit for any sort of escape hatch from the imploding Detroit Public Schools. If Kilpatrick can successfully harness that discontent and exploit union weaknesses, it could put him over the top in bringing greater parental choice to folks in Detroit. Fortunately, he's changed his tune on school choice--here's hoping he meets with success.
Coulson vs. Rotherham and Sara Mead
Andrew Coulson takes on both Andrew Rotherham and Sara Mead over some of their assertions regarding school choice, specifically that market incentives are not possible in education. Essentially, he states that there's far more empirical evidence to indicate that market incentives exist in other nations and that they can provide educational services to children much more efficiently and effectively than the government can. No response from Rotherham yet, but Sara Mead responds here.
Sara's comments were made in the context of some blog posts from last week (which include some very articulate points I hope to address soon). Rotherham's statements were from a Cato forum last week. I haven't gotten a chance to listen to the whole thing (it's nearly an hour and a half long), but his opening remarks got my attention. First off, he criticizes efforts to push authority back to the states with this punchline (30:30-31:00):
The fundamental problem here is we have built an education system that is designed to serve the adults that work in it and work around it, and not necessarily designed to serve the kids that it ostensibly serves. It's very easy--and Rod Paige has a new book out that lays it all at the feet of the teachers' unions. And I've been a critic of many of the things that they've done, but the fact is that it's not just them. It's adults across the system. So this notion that you just hand it off to the states and the bureaucrats at the state level are more enlightened than the bureaucrats at the federal level, it just doesn't work like that.
Fair enough; bureaucratic ineptitude surely lives at every level of government. But I'd suggest that the real solution here is to hand it off to those adults that are most likely to have incentive to act in the best interests of the children--namely, parents. I'd say the solution isn't to push the problem up (i.e. to the feds), but to push it even lower (i.e. to the local level to give parents choice--and to his credit, Rotherham calls for greater choice in public schools). This portion from his opening remarks is also worth a listen (32:15-32:48):
You know, there's some new data that's about to come out, I'll sort of scoop it from the Department of Education, you know, these transfer provisions--which I supported, I mean, I'm strongly in favor of the flexibility for accountability bargaining--the usage of them, and sort of the uptake by states and school districts, it's next to nothing. I mean, I think this data is really going to surprise some people. So the notion that they're out there just clamoring to get this flexibility, they've been given a lot and no one's really using it. I think that speaks to some other--again, sort of other problems, cultural problems, institutional problems in American education less than some of the specific, the nature of some of these programs.
On one hand, Andrew is entirely correct; see our administrative action in Los Angeles and Compton regarding lack of enforcement of NCLB transfer options, which has been roundly ignored by district authorities and the California Department of Education. But this also undercuts his apparent defense of federal involvement in education, as Secretary Spellings has been all talk and no action on any actual enforcement of NCLB transfers. It seems to me that arguing against greater state power due to equal amounts of bureaucratic sloth on the state level is hardly a solid case in favor of federal authority.
UPDATE: Andrew Coulson fires back at Sara Mead: "...if you actually look at all the relevant evidence, and make an effort to understand it, the kind of superficial objections that are offered by the anti-market crowd fall apart." And she responds in kind: "Coulson knows a lot about choice in Denmark, Sweden, etc. because he's spent a lot of time trying to find examples that will support his ideological support for vouchers, not because he's seeking a comprehensive understanding of the world's experience with educational choice from some neutral scholarly position."
Morning Shots
Washington Post: District Toughens Graduation Policy
Earning a D.C. high school diploma is going to become more challenging.
Superintendent Clifford B. Janey announced yesterday that the school system has adopted a new graduation policy that requires all students to take four years of math, science, social studies and English, an attempt to increase academic rigor and give a high school diploma more meaning.
The policy also says elementary and middle school students must master a new set of skills, known as "learning standards," before they move to the next grade. The old promotion policy did not tie student advancement to the mastery of grade-level material.
The graduation policy will begin with students who will be in ninth grade next school year and will apply to all high school students by 2010.
Education Week (registration required): States Again Weighing Proper Enrollment Age for Kindergartners
An issue that never really goes away is back again this year: the starting age for kindergarten.
Lawmakers in at least three states are debating whether to move the cutoff deadline for kindergarten eligibility to an earlier date so children will be at least 5 years old when they start school.
In Arkansas, Connecticut, and Tennessee, where the proposals are at various stages in the legislative process, sponsors say too many children enter kindergarten without the social or academic skills they need to do well—especially given the pressure on schools to make sure children are prepared for tests down the road.
Betty B. Davis, the president of the Central Arkansas Association for the Education of Young Children, agrees.
“Some children are really too young to be part of kindergarten,” said Ms. Davis, whose group is an affiliate of the Washington-based National Association for the Education of Young Children. “The lack of maturity is perhaps an issue.”
USA Today: Many teachers see failure in students' future
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Ask a teacher whether her students are on track to earn a college degree, and she'll probably say "Sure."
Grant her anonymity, and you may get a different point of view.
In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university."
Even more say students "are not motivated to learn."
In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% say they aren't sure.
The results were surprising even to the study's author, Brian Perkins, a professor of education law and policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn.
"I anticipated that there would be some teachers who feel that way," he says. "What I did not anticipate was the number who responded that they didn't think students would be successful."
Education News for Tuesday, March 27
Mayor pursuing more charter, private schools - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Monday that he has been in private conversations for months with educators and community leaders about establishing more charter and private schools across the city.
No time to stall - Editorial: We're partial to DFL Rep. Mindy Greiling's assessment of a proposal in the Minnesota Senate to slap a cap on the number of Minnesota charter schools. "It's a loopy idea that came out of left field," she said. "I don't know why we'd want to go backward," she added.
Charter Lottery - Editorial: Anyone wondering what is at stake in the fight between New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg, who want at least 150 more charter schools in the state, and Assembly Speaker Silver and his allies in the teachers unions, who want to limit the number to 50 while essentially mandating that they be unionized, can stop by the auditorium of the Harlem Success Academy Charter School tomorrow night and see firsthand.
Young Voices: Too much rides on poorly implemented WASL - Opinion from high school sophomore: How can one test during a student's sophomore year of high school carry so much weight that not passing it could drastically change the person's life, while passing it will affect virtually nothing beyond high school?
Virtual schools need equitable funding - Opinion: Providing parents and students the school options they need only strengthens our public education system and helps kids succeed. It is why I volunteered to lead the Indiana Virtual Charter School’s governing board, and why so many Hoosier students are excited and already enrolling.
Funding schools: Governor's plan not enough - Editorial: Gov. Strickland should be applauded for coming up with a clear proposal, but the one he released seems to lack the necessary ambition to fix the problem.
States Again Weighing Proper Enrollment Age for Kindergartners (Edweek.org registration required) - Lawmakers in at least three states are debating whether to move the cutoff deadline for kindergarten eligibility to an earlier date so children will be at least 5 years old when they start school.
Many teachers see failure in students' future - In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university."
Teachers union to keep N.J. billboards - The head of the Newark teachers union said it won‘t take down "Stop the killings" billboards despite complaints from business owners and the new mayor that they‘re driving away business.
Highlights of school empowerment plans - Here are key elements of Nevada's rival school empowerment plans:
Join class: Lansing students, parents need to bolster advanced classes - Editorial: Lansing School District students and their parents have an important opportunity to boost enrollment in their Advanced Placement classes.
Voucher supporters launch commercials today - Parents for Choice in Education will debut two commercials Tuesday to promote Utah's contentious school voucher law. The ads have been in the works for a couple of months and are unrelated to a referendum effort to overturn the law, spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy said.
Opponents of School Vouchers on Target for a Referendum - With two weeks until the deadline, opponents of school vouchers in Utah say they're confident they'll exceed the number needed to put the issue on the ballot.
Portland Regional Chamber Weighs in on Education Reform Debate - The Portland [Maine] Regional Chamber held a news conference to announce its position on one of the legislative session’s hottest debates – K-12 education reform.
Study: Education Dept. Fails To Answer Calls - The New York City Department of Education fails to respond to about half of the phone queries it receives from parents of special education students, according to a report to be released today by the city's public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum.
Teachers love their MESSA health plans - Nothing stirs passions over teachers' health care like MESSA, the largest school health care insurer in Michigan and an arm of the largest teachers union, the Michigan Education Association
Superintending Without a License (Edweek.org registration required) - Forget being a “highly qualified” teacher—in North Dakota, the state superintendent soon may not need to be a teacher at all.
Some schools want to change 'No Child Left Behind' standards - No Child Left Behind, which President Bush signed in 2002, is up for reauthorization this year, and powerful groups that include teachers unions and state officials are pressing for a major overhaul.
Education Commissioner Seagren presents No Child Left Behind recommendations - Officials from the Minnesota Department of Education, school associations and lawmakers crafted the series of recommendations on modifying the federal education law, scheduled for reauthorization next year.
Democrats offer plan for school spending - The Democratic majority in the Minnesota House unveiled a plan Monday to increase spending on kindergarten through 12th-grade education by $919 million over the next two years, with most of that new money funneled into general funding for school districts and for all-day, every-day kindergarten.
School/City Budget Math: Huh? - Editorial: At school reform meetings, City Council committee hearings, and in interviews, Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street has voiced outrage over how the School Reform Commission, under the watch of Chairman James Nevels and schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas, has let its budget go out of control. The mayor's criticisms would be more compelling if the city itself was holding up its financial responsibility to the district. But the district says it's not.
Brewer pushes parental literacy plan - Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer III brought his plans for a major new parental literacy program to Washington, D.C., on Monday and received high marks from Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson.
Choice & control - Editorial: School choice and competition remain the antidote to public school mediocrity. Yet for those who cling to the status quo, any manifestation of either is pure poison.
Education study defended - Letter to the editor: Conservatives must be ready to open their wallets and invest more if needed changes are made. And liberals must take on their own entrenched political interests - especially the unions - if they get the money they need.
Many readers back changes to No Child Left Behind Act - Most readers responded that Congress should change the controversial No Child Left Behind education law, according to an online poll on azcentral.com. Dozens of readers also posted comments, opinions and suggestions.
Charter out-scoring public schools - Some charter schools in Utah County are out-scoring their regular public school counterparts, according to utahschools.org.