Read em’ and smile: 5th year of better test scores for Philadelphia - In spite of all of this incredible progress, there are still too many children not performing at grade level. We must redouble our efforts and everywhere possible recommit ourselves to public-education reform so that every child at every grade can excel in school. (more)

Ryan Sager: Report card revolution - Which is better: The school whose kids start the year with As and end the year with As? Or the one whose kids start with Ds but end up with Cs or even Bs? (more)

Fl student transfers under NCLB - The number of children transferring out of Volusia County elementary schools that failed to make "adequate progress" under federal law jumbed considerably this year. (more)

Camden schools report 94% decline in violence - Violence was down in New Jersey’s schools in 2004-05, though state officials are questioning steep drops in some districts and asking for more information on their reporting methods. (more)

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

LA mayor grilled over takeover plan - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s school reform plan received its first and only local public vetting Thursday evening in a sometimes raucous hearing where Los Angeles residents addressed state lawmakers, who will have the final say. (more)

Monopoly - Andrew Wolf, NY Sun: Two weeks ago, the United States Department of Education released a study that cut to the core of conservative and liberal education orthodoxy. (more)

NPR: Study questions merits of private education - Listen to the broadcast - Last week, a federal study came out that challenges the assumption that private schools are inherently better than public schools. (more)

UPDATE:

Isle schools fail federal mandate - Most states, including Hawaii, failed to meet federal requirements that all teachers be "highly qualified" in core teaching fields and that state programs for testing students be up to standards by the end of the past school year, according to the federal government. (more)

Trial program offers tutoring - Three school districts in Indiana will test a federal pilot program that will permit struggling schools to offer tutoring choice to parents in lieu of school transfers.(more)

Alexander Russo thinks I’m overreaching a bit here in taking credit for Spellings turning over a new leaf in NCLB enforcement.  In response: As I pointed out in the original post, the timeline kind of speaks for itself: Spellings’s focus on transfer compliance developed not long after our filing in Los Angeles and Compton.  It was NYT reporter Sam Dillon, not me, who said: “That complaint generated considerable news coverage and moved Ms. Spellings to action.”  Hence, the August 15 deadline to California over the transfer requirement and her May 15 letter to the states.  Also, I took particular care to not make our actions appear to have more clout than they do, or to sound like we’re the lone voice crying in the wilderness for stricter NCLB enforcement—hence, acknowledging the criticism from the business community and civil rights groups.  (I try not to be so myopic as to think we’re the only ones with an interest in this thing…)

That said, Russo is right to point that out there’s lots more to NCLB compliance than just the transfer requirement, which is something I failed to acknowledge in any real detail (pressed for time).  My bad. 

(Oh, and he’s right on the money about Mike Petrilli.  Why Fordham hasn’t launched a blog, I have no idea.  They’re 90% of the way there with the Gadfly, after all.)

Florida Today ran a typical hatchet job editorial going after the Bush Administration on school choice.  Much of it recycles old arguments I’ve addressed elsewhere, but there are a couple of new gripes:

After ETS — a private, nonprofit that develops and administers millions of achievement tests such as the SAT — delivered its ideology-free analysis to education officials, they stamped it with a caution downplaying its usefulness.

We smell a skunk.

If the report is of such "limited utility," why waste taxpayer dollars on it?

Well, who is the skunk, USDOE or ETS?  The report’s disclaimers were put there by ETS.  So are said disclaimers legitimate, or is ETS just a tool of USDOE?  Skipping along…

We’ve argued before that vouchers are the wrong approach to improving education for American children. They divert taxpayer money from struggling public schools.

In the case of Florida voucher programs, that money has been handed to private schools that aren’t held accountable or required to meet standards imposed on public schools, including taking the FCAT.

Once again, anti-school-choice language is employed.  Much of Florida media has succeeded in making the dreaded V-word toxic by positioning vouchers as handouts to private schools.  But as I’ve said previously, when people are told what the word actually means–letting parents decide where they want to send their kids to school–opposition to school choice experiences something of a meltdown.  (The unions sidestep this argument by merely dismissing parents as "inconsequential conduits".)  Of course, outfits like Florida Today aren’t letting up–note the question for the online poll that accompanies this story: "Should federal or state goverments give taxpayer funds to private schools through vouchers?"

However, it’s possible the editorial staff was pressed for time and rushed this out the door.  That might help explain the headline: "Voucher Boondoogle".

Education Department Expands Tutoring - The Bush administration says it again will bend the rules of the No Child Left Behind law, intending to get thousands more poor children into tutoring. (more)

Tit for Tat - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the city council talk up a deal — LAUSD takeover in exchange for term-limit extensions. (more)

Salaries down for teachers, up for superintendents - The average U.S. teacher salary fell 0.1 percent in the past school year to $46,953, while pay for superintendents rose 1.1 percent, according to a survey by the nonprofit Educational Research Service. (more)

Villaraigosa’s Takeover Attempt Would Have Dangerous Repercussions - Opinion: AB 1381, the LAUSD takeover bill, is based on flawed reasoning, violates the state constitution, and is politically motivated to advance the career of one politician, and one politician only: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. (more)

U.S. study: Learners of English left behind - A new report says many of the 5 million English-language learners in the United States are not getting the kind of education they need to succeed on the assessment tests that make or break their schools. (more)

No Child Left Behind Act isn’t working - Letter to the editor: The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was an excellent piece of legislation, but because education bureaucrats didn’t do their job in monitoring No Child Left Behind Act, today the act is ineffective. (more)

A clear choice - Letter to the editor: A recent editorial argued against school choice because it won’t "help the public schools." What’s more important, the public schools or the students who go to them? (more)

Voucher boondoogle (sic) - Editorial: Public schools are generally doing as good or better than private schools in educating students, according to a study conducted by the Education Testing Service for the U.S. Department of Education. (more)

California’s Low-Income Schools to Get High-Tech Windfall - California schools could receive hundreds of millions of dollars in school technology funds made available through an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp., the state Department of Education announced Wednesday. (more)

Diploma dilemma - Editorial: California courts should leave the state’s high school exit exam in place. (more)

Check back later for more education news.   

UPDATE:

NPR: Public vs. Private School Report Spurs Controversy - Listen to Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings call her critics’ charges ridiculous, saying the administration strongly supports public education. But, she says, the administration also believes parents should have choices. (more)

Ed Week: U.S. to expand pilots offering flexibility on No Child Left Behind tutoring - (subscription required) In a push to provide more children with free tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. Department of Education officials have announced the expansion of two pilot programs that allow school districts to offer the extra assistance a year earlier than usual, and to serve as tutoring providers even if they themselves have been deemed poor performers. (more)

Missouri hears little call for takeover of St. Louis schools - Legislators and other officials say there is little appetite for a wholesale state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools, despite concerns about the stability of a district that this month hired its sixth superintendent in a little over three years. (more)

As linked on the news page, the lawsuit over California’s exit exam has hit the appeals court:

Opponents of the public school exam have argued that the test penalizes students who didn’t have access to a quality education, while proponents say it is a necessary indicator of student achievement.

The case has taken numerous legal twists and turns, and Tuesday’s proceedings won’t be the last. (emphasis added)

Oh, I gathered as much.  And I understand the complaints about the sudden-death nature of the exam, which is the tripwire that brought the suit to life.  But what gets me is just how difficult the exam is–which is to say, not very, according to former LA mayor Richard Riordan:

Right now, in order to graduate, seniors in the state need to pass a test — a test, mind you, that they can take as many as six times before the end of senior year. This exam only assesses whether students have attained 8th-grade math levels and 10th-grade English skills. That’s correct; students only need to demonstrate middle school math skills to pass a high school exit exam. And we hope to prepare our next generation for the fierce global job competition ahead?

Some sample questions, courtesy of the Sacramento Bee:

Maybe it’s just me, but none of those questions seemed particularly difficult.  (Several of the commenters to the SacBee story felt the same way.)  As Kimberly Swygert remarked in 2003, way back when the California Board of Ed was in the process of diluting the exam:

"Oh no, removing difficult items in no way affects the difficulty of the test. It in no way makes it easier for the less-able students to pass. It merely enhances the self-esteem of those that take it, and in California, isn’t self-esteem everything?" 

Actually, it feels like there’s something else at work here: namely, passing the buck.  See, those who fail to get a minimum of 60 percent correct in language arts and 55 percent correct in math (link) after six tries presumably shouldn’t be held responsible, since the schools failed to teach them.  But the teachers can’t be held accountable, because the students are at a socioeconomic disadvantage.  But the system overall can’t be held responsible, either, because in spite of billions upon billions of dollars, schools are starved for money.  So who’s at fault?  Apparently, nobody. 

In the present system, it is said that education is "everybody’s" responsibility.  But when something belongs to everybody, it really seems to belong to nobody.  And so it is with school choice programs versus public schools.  Critics love to bang the accountability drum, and are quick to point to incidents of fraud and graft.  But in those instances, individuals can be brought up on charges, somebody can be held to blame and punished accordingly.  And in situations where kids aren’t doing well in a particular private school, parents can turn to the school and demand an explanation.  I would argue that that arrangement, while not ideal, is far preferable over situations like California (or New Jersey, or Kansas City), where pretty much everybody agrees things are broken but nobody is at fault.  If you’re after accountability, isn’t it preferable to have an arrangement where you can at least point a finger at somebody?