Tuesday, September 27, 2011

by john thompson

News coverage of Rahm Emanuel's push to lengthen the Chicago school day tends to assume that Emanuel is right on the substance, while questioning his methods. But education veteran Deborah Meier explains in Bridging Differences how Emanuel misunderstands educational reality. She is especially correct in emphasizing that his "reform" is doubly wrong. It is rushed, and it will further push PE, art, and music out of children's lives. Meantime few policy wonks seem to have noted that the teachers union has the better plan for adding minutes to improve academic performance, which the Chicago Sun Times reports is patterned on the high-dollar private school

Waivers: The Coming Federal Windfall For Districts

by Alexander Russo

#nclbwaiver One of the things that hasn't been discussed much about the NCLB waiver scheme is just how much districts are chomping at the bit to find ways to spend some of that SES money that they've long complained about having to give away to tutoring companies and other outside providers oh these long years under NCLB. That's because, under NCLB, schools and districts that don't make AYP for consecutive years have to offer outside tutoring to kids at those schools -- and "give away" up to 20 percent of their NCLB funding in order to pay for the extra services. But of course even the worst schools and districts in America think that they can do better than anyone else -- even when they've tried and failed to do so in the past. And

Quote: The Problem Of Intuition-Based Policymaking

by Alexander Russo

The k-12 world tries the same things over and over. Even without success. Because they are so intuitively appealing. -- Mike Goldstein

John Thompson: Gates Foundation Teacher Effectiveness Researcher Seems to Supports the "Status Quo" - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Gates Foundation Teacher Effectiveness Researcher Seems to Supports the "Status Quo" - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: Gates Foundation Teacher Effectiveness Researcher Seems to Supports the "Status Quo"

by Anthony Cody

The National Bureau of Economic Research just published "School Choice, School Quality and Postsecondary Attainment" by David J. Deming, Justine S. Hastings, Thomas J. Kane and Douglas O. Staiger. Tom Kane, of course, heads the Gates Foundation's $400 million dollar "Measuring Effective Teaching" experiment, and yet his work provides little or no support for the policies preferred by Gates and other "reformers." In fact, the study confirms the judgments of teachers and education researchers who the accountability hawks condemn as the "status quo." If Gates and Kane had had any idea that their research would yield the results reported in this and other recent papers, it is hard to believe they would have started down their market-driven path.

As usual with the Gates crowd, the actual evidence found by these economists is as solid as their interpretations are convoluted and strange. They acknowledge that progress in improving urban high schools has been disappointing compared to elementary and middle schools. Kane and company add the weird explanation that research has been "largely limited to test score gains as outcome measures" because they were focused "almost entirely on elementary and middle school students,"as if the data-driven accountability movement has

NYC Public School Parents: Town Hall Tonight: New Tactics to Address Overcrowding in Greenwich Village

NYC Public School Parents: Town Hall Tonight: New Tactics to Address Overcrowding in Greenwich Village:

Town Hall Tonight: New Tactics to Address Overcrowding in Greenwich Village

by Ann Kjellberg

In 2008, as a wave of young children struck New York City and, apparently unpredicted by the DOE, swamped public elementary schools in Greenwich Village, a forward-thinking pair of Community Board politicians named Brad Hoylman and Keen Berger teamed up with local parents to hold a hearing to gauge community concern about overcrowding. On a rainy night in February, the auditorium of PS 3 was flooded with angry and worried parents. In the aftermath of this meeting, the Rudin organization, which was seeking zoning variances to build hundreds of luxury condos on the site of St. Vincent's Hospital, helped to broker a deal with the SCA to obtain the Foundling Hospital as a future elementary school. Three years later, with Foundling is still far from opening, Village schools more crowded than ever (with record class sizes and kids forced out of their zone for

Bill Gates: The U.S. Economy and Public Education

Bill Gates: The U.S. Economy and Public Education:

The U.S. Economy and Public Education

At NBC's Education Nation Summit yesterday, Melinda sat down with our good friend Warren Buffett and his daughter, Susie Buffett, to talk about education.

Melinda and I believe deeply that education should be everyone's priority, and it should be at the top of our nation's domestic policy agenda. There's a lot of uncertainty today about our nation's economy, but there is no uncertainty that a high-quality education is key to economic prosperity for all of our people -- and for us as a nation.

The numbers don't lie. Unemployment rates among Americans who never went to college are about double that of those who have a postsecondary education. And the need for highly-skilled workers is growing. By 2018, an estimated 63 percent of all new U.S. jobs will require workers with an education beyond high school.

For our young people to get those jobs, they first need to graduate from high school ready to start a postsecondary education. Right now, only one-third of all high school graduates are prepared to

Dallas Regional Chamber spotlights Los Angeles school reform at Commit! kickoff luncheon | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com

Dallas Regional Chamber spotlights Los Angeles school reform at Commit! kickoff luncheon | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com:

Dallas Regional Chamber spotlights Los Angeles school reform at Commit! kickoff luncheon

by Nancy Visser/Reporter

The official launch of Mayor Mike Rawlings' Commit! initiative kicked off today with a "State of Education" luncheon hosted by the Dallas Regional Chamber featuring keynote speakers from the Los Angeles Unified School District. LA superintendent John Deasy and board president Monica Garcia were invited to discuss reform efforts for the nation's second largest public school system, which serves nearly 680,000 students on more than 1,000 campuses. Deasy, who became LA superintendent at the beginning of the year, said it's the right of every youth to graduation college-ready. That's a huge goal in LA, where only about half the students graduate and only 30 percent of them are graduate college-ready, according to the Los Angeles Times. Among the LA reforms is an issue the Dallas ISD board is taking on: the system for teacher evaluations. The LA district is pursuing new principal and teacher evaluations that will include some measure of student achievement. Deasy

Teachers Paid Less in Higher-Minority Schools - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Teachers Paid Less in Higher-Minority Schools - Teacher Beat - Education Week:

Teachers Paid Less in Higher-Minority Schools

by Stephen Sawchuk

In many ethnically diverse school districts across the country, teachers in schools that serve more African-American and Latino students are paid significantly less—about $2,500 per year on average—than their colleagues in schools with fewer students of color, according to an analysis released today by the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights.

(The department hasn't provided details yet on what "more" means in this context and whether officials there are looking strictly at enrollments or overall proportions of students of color in school buildings. We'll update this item as soon as we have that information.)

The analysis is based on data from the OCR's Civil Rights Data Collection from 2009-10. More than 7,000 districts are included in this survey. For this particular analysis, the Education Department crunched data from

What’s Wrong with the Berkeley College Republicans’ “Affirmative Action Bake Sale”? « Student Activism

What’s Wrong with the Berkeley College Republicans’ “Affirmative Action Bake Sale”? « Student Activism:

What’s Wrong with the Berkeley College Republicans’ “Affirmative Action Bake Sale”?

by Angus Johnston

UC Berkeley’s chapter of the College Republicans plan to host a bake sale on campus this morning as a commentary on affirmative action policies under consideration in the state legislature. (The idea is to critique affirmative action by offering food for sale to some groups for less than others.)

The “affirmative action bake sale” is a bit of a relic in conservative organizing — it had its heyday in the early 2000s. But it always provokes, and Berkeley is no exception. Some of the institutional reactions, however, have been fascinating.

Sunday, a group calling itself the Multicultural Coalition for Affirmative Action released a list of demands in response to the planned sale, calling on the Berkeley administration to — among other things — add clear anti-

Newly Released State-by-State Snapshot of Educational Performance | ED.gov Blog

Newly Released State-by-State Snapshot of Educational Performance | ED.gov Blog:

Newly Released State-by-State Snapshot of Educational Performance

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

Have you ever wondered how your state’s educational performance compares to the performance of other states’? Now with the new State of the States in Education document released yesterday by the Department of Education, you can see a snapshot of how educational performance varies substantially across states.

The document shows the 10 highest and lowest performing states (based on 2009 data) on basic indicators of educational performance, as well as showing:

Percent of students, by state, deemed proficient in 4th and 8th grade reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for students overall, with separate state-by-state comparisons for Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and students with disabilities.
Four-year on-time high school graduation rates, by state, with separate state-by-state comparisons for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics.
State-by-state college-going rate of high school graduates.
State-by-state three-year college graduation rates for Associate’s Degrees.
State-by-state six-year college graduation rates for Bachelor’s Degrees.

The disparities in educational performance highlight that state and local governments have a major impact on student outcomes and the rigor of state standards—larger than many Americans may realize.

In 8th grade math, for example, students in Massachusetts and Minnesota are two to three times as likely to be proficient on the NAEP assessment as students in West Virginia and Mississippi. Large differences in performance persist, even when White students, Black students, and Hispanic students are compared to their peers in other states.

Similar disparities are evident when comparing high school graduation, college matriculation, and college attainment. Hispanic students are more than twice as likely to graduate on time from high school if they live in Illinois and New Jersey than if they live in New Hampshire and Nevada.

Demography plainly influences state educational performance. But state-by-state disparities of such magnitude suggest that demography is not destiny in determining student achievement and attainment. State policies matter.

These maps and tables present a surprising amount of variation. States that excel on some measures of educational performance perform poorly in other areas. States that lag in one area of educational performance are leaders on other indices of performance and policy.

See the tables and maps in the State of the States in Education [MS PowerPoint, 16.9MB].

President Obama’s Back-to-School Speech

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

As students begin their school year, President Barack Obama will deliver his third annual Back-to-School Speech at 1:30 PM EDT on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC.

The President’s Back-to-School Speech is an opportunity to speak directly to students across the country. In past years, President Obama has encouraged students to study hard and take responsibility for their education, urging students to set goals, to believe in themselves, and to be the authors of their own destinies.

Schools across the country can watch the speech live on MSNBC as a special feature of NBC News’ “Education Nation” – part of NBC’s weeklong series of education reports and programming across the network’s shows and platforms beginning September 25. The back-to-school speech will also be streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

For more information, and to view the President’s 2009 and 2010 back-to-school speeches, visit www.whitehouse.gov/back-to-school.

For more extensive data on the educational performance of states, please see the Department’s dashboard at http://dashboard.ed.gov/.

"Kings of Pastry," France, America, and the Vocational Education Debate - Dana Goldstein

"Kings of Pastry," France, America, and the Vocational Education Debate - Dana Goldstein:

"Kings of Pastry," France, America, and the Vocational Education Debate

by Dana Goldstein

MOF finalist Jacquy Pfeiffer, cofounder of Chicago's French Pastry School, with sugar sculpture. Photo via "Kings of Pastry"

It's been awhile since I've had the chance to indulge my Francophilism on the blog, but last night I watched a fantastic documentary, "Kings of Pastry," that left me reflecting on the cultural differences between how Americans and the French think about intelligence, knowledge, and education.

The film, which you can stream on Netflix, tells the story of the MOF--Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, or "best French craftsmen"--competition in pastry. Every four years, chefs, bakers, cheesemongers, florists, jewelers, weavers, woodworkers, and dozens of other French artisans compete to win this designation. It is considered

Tell Us Your Story! eForum on Jobs | Democrats -Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives

eForum on Jobs | Democrats -Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives:

Tell Us Your Story!

Welcome to the Education and the Workforce Democrats’ eForum on jobs! We are exploring a number of proposals to put Americans back to work, including proposals made by the President to fund construction-related jobs in school repair and modernization, jobs in public education, including teaching positions, and job training and reemployment assistance to the unemployed.

(Click here to read excerpted stories)

To evaluate these proposals, Congress needs to hear your stories. This fact-finding forum is designed to gather information to help Congress understand conditions on the ground in communities across the country. To start, we would like to hear from individuals with direct experience in the areas ofconstruction, education, and long-term unemployment. We welcome submissions on any of the following:

Have you or someone in your family lost a job, particularly in construction or education? Has job loss threatened your home or your family’s health care? Are you struggling to find work or to acquire new skills? Tell us your story.

How have budget cuts in education affected your life or work? If you are a parent of a child in public schools, how have those cuts affected your children? Are schools or community colleges in your community in need of repair or modernization? Tell us your story.

Do you see a need for construction work in your community that is not being done for lack of funding? Tell us your story.

What kind of access do you have to job training or reemployment assistance programs? Is it sufficient? Tell us your story.

Education Research Report: Participation levels and trends in a targeted voluntary prekindergarten program

Education Research Report: Participation levels and trends in a targeted voluntary prekindergarten program:

Participation levels and trends in a targeted voluntary prekindergarten program

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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Research shows that high-quality prekindergarten (PreK) programs prepare children for later success in school. Tennessee adopted a voluntary PreK program in 2005/06 that is targeted at four-year-olds who are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch. To help meet coverage goals, collaborating partners were allowed to offer seats through the PreK program. Such partners, including Head Start and other early education and early care providers, receive some state PreK funding when they collaborate with their local education agency to provide an approved PreK program at a location other than a public school.

This study reviews participation levels and trends during the first four years of the program, including those for collaborative partner classrooms and for student and district subgroups. It also discusses the geographic distribution of program sites.

Findings of the report include:

• From 2005/06 to 2008/09, the number of PreK program participants increased from 6,943 to 18,746, the

Bill lets ailing N.J. parochial schools turn into secular charter schools | NJ.com

Bill lets ailing N.J. parochial schools turn into secular charter schools | NJ.com:

Bill lets ailing N.J. parochial schools turn into secular charter schools

Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 8:45 AM

By Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-Ledger
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John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerTeacher Andre David, center, works on a language arts tutorial with two seventh-grade students at the Great Oaks Charter School in Newark.

TRENTON — Some New Jersey parochial schools facing closure because of declining enrollment may be allowed to convert into a public charter school, under a bill that passed the Senate yesterday.

The schools could not teach religion or display religious symbols, and if their name has a religious reference, it would have to be changed, according to the bill. The state would oversee the schools.

One of numerous charter school bills proposed by the Legislature, a bill allowing nonpublic schools in failing school districts to convert to charters won passage in the full Senate yesterday. An identical bill was approved earlier by the Assembly.

Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), the bill’s sponsor, said he introduced it about three years ago to help a struggling Methodist school in Newark that wanted to convert to a charter school. The bill is too

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