He’s highly critical of the report in a number of areas, but this is a major aspect of his argument:

Almost all the ideas in the report are worthy of support. Teachers salaries should be raised substantially to attract better recruits. Standardized tests should be rewritten to encourage creative thought. Independently operated public schools should be encouraged. Spending on low-income students should be increased.

The problem is the report’s fanciful notion that it would be possible — indeed, they say it is absolutely necessary — to do all these things at once. The report’s authors propose a grand scheme to save our schools and keep India and China from turning the United States into a low-wage economic backwater. They ignore the progress made by some of their own panel members and instead assert that none of the education innovations of the past 40 years have had much effect. "The reason that nothing has made much difference is that every time we tried to change something, we did not change much of anything else," they conclude.

I definitely agree that the report’s recommendations, taken together, would take immeasurable political and logistical firepower to make reality.  But the next paragraph is one area where I take exception to Mathews:

Huh? Our schools need to be better, but it is also clear that they are providing the finest training in the world in just about every specialty you could name, and are giving the majority of Americans enough skills to support a middle-class lifestyle. We have gotten as far as we have by muddling along, attacking problems haphazardly, rejecting master plans, and using the liberties inherent in our political, economic and social systems to create new approaches that keep us moving forward. That is the way free enterprise democracies work.

Decentralization of educational governance may or may not be a virtue worth retaining, but I think that’s a subject that deserves its own discussion.  Likewise, it’s too easy sometimes to conflate K-12 and post-secondary schools, which is what I think Mathews is doing here.  It is our post-secondary network of technical schools, community colleges and universities, not K-12, that has produced the kind of work force Mathews describes. 

There’s much, much more in his article, so it’s worth your time to check it out.  In the meantime, I promise to comment soon much more in depth on the report and various reactions to it.  (It’s also worth pointing out that practically nobody has actually seen the report so far; only the executive summary can be easily accessed.  Presumably the well-connected Mathews got a copy.  My own shiny new edition is en route, and I plan on discussing it in detail very soon.) 

Recent weeks have been witness to yet another investigative article published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on the sad state of affairs that is the Camden Public Schools. The Inquirer, and its southern New Jersey competitor the Courier-Post, have done a pretty bang-up job chronicling the utter incompetence of the Keystone Cop Crew that masquerades as school leadership in Camden City; such a good job, in fact, that the slew of headlines is only topped by the simple understanding that Camden Public Schools just can’t stop screwing up.

More “Their Cheating Hearts (Derrell Bradford)”

Some months ago, NYC Educator admitted that he agreed with something in this space.  I suppose it’s time I returned the favor.  Because I, like him, find this ridiculous:

"Seat-time credit," a policy that allows failing students to earn points toward passing a class just by sitting in their seats is treated as an acceptable practice in city high schools two years after Mayor Bloomberg declared the end of social promotion in lower grades.

The policy, which city Department of Education officials say is allowable under state regulations, says failing students may pass as long as they have good attendance and complete an independent project assigned by their teacher. Some teachers are criticizing the policy as veiled social promotion that allows schools to hide failure rates.

"We don’t think you should get credit for just being alive," the United Federation of Teachers high school representative, Leo Casey, said. "It just seems to be a way for students to accumulate credits without actually doing the work."

"Hey, boss: I’m sitting here at my computer, but I’m not doing any actual, you know, work.  I still get paid, right?" 

I’m not necessarily a critic of mayoral control of schools, but practices like these do a great deal to discredit the practice.  (Hat tip: this week’s Carnival of Education, hosted by Right on the Left Coast.)

The sea change at the New York Times continues apace:

The United States has a long and shameful history of dumping its least effective, least qualified teachers into the schools that serve the neediest children. The No Child Left Behind Act requires the states to end this practice. But the states are unlikely to truly improve teacher quality — or spread qualified teachers more equitably throughout the schools — until they pay more attention to how teachers are trained, hired, evaluated and assigned.

To get control of the assignment process, districts will need to abandon union rules that basically guarantee senior teachers the right to change schools whenever they want — even if the principal of the receiving school does not want them — by bumping a less senior teacher out of his or her job.

Read carefully, folks–that’s the New York Times calling for shedding union rules related to dumping mediocre teachers.  As I’ve stated elsewhere: if even the NYT is getting onboard with this stuff, I’d say the debate is shifting in a positive direction. 

Charter schools letter wrong - Letter to the editor from the mother of a Chicago charter school student.  

D60 won’t say if it’s appealing payment of $900,000 - The attorney of a Colorado school district isn’t saying when he’ll file an appeal of an arbiter’s ruling or what arguments the district will use to avoid paying $900,000 to a charter high school.

LA Mayor Appeals Block of School Law - Lawyers for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa filed an appeal in his court battle to take control of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Schools learn a lesson, schedule longer holiday break to aid traveling families - School districts across California increasingly are stretching their winter breaks to accommodate students who visit family in far-flung locales for the holidays.

Ask the Wrong Questions, Get the Wrong Answers - Opinion: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ higher ed accountability plan is a step in the wrong direction.

Little faith in education reform - Letters to the editor on a recent op-ed by Mayor Villaraigosa on his attempted takeover of LAUSD.

Ideas for education reform on the table - Editorial: With near-daily headlines trumpeting the latest education study by the latest group of experts based on the latest data, Americans probably feel yanked in 10 directions.

Preschool will be a Kaine ‘07 priority - Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants to give every 4-year-old in Virginia the chance to attend preschool, a significant and costly expansion, but one that he says would justify taxpayers’ investment.

Bad Guess on U.S. Future - Opinion: If the Skills Commission report’s authors’ fears prove true, and American living standards begin to decline because of competition abroad and poor schooling, the U.S. education system will change very quickly. But we education reporters learned long ago that most national commissions are wrong.

No Tests? College’s Students Must Relearn How to Learn - College is a change for most students, a shift from memorization to analysis, from weekly did-you-do-the-homework quizzes to weighty final papers.

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

Detailed report to spell out what’s wrong with CA schools - At the same time they are being asked to meet ever tougher state and federal standards, California’s schools face long-standing, seemingly intractable problems.

Utah is a-changing: old ideas about funding education don’t cut it -  Utah is changing, becoming less white and middle-class, and, as always, Utah public schools are a microcosm of the state. If the Utah Legislature’s old ideas about education don’t adjust to keep up with the evolving face of Utah schoolchildren, lawmakers could be writing a recipe for disaster.