IMPACT study scuttled by differences over method - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

IMPACT study scuttled by differences over method - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post:

IMPACT study scuttled by differences over method

By Bill Turque

Plans for Harvard economist Roland Fryer to conduct an independent study of the IMPACT evaluation system are off, scuttled by DCPS’ reluctance to employ what he called “the gold standard in empirical research.”

DCPS said it will work with the Washington Teachers’ Union to find a replacement for Fryer, founder and director of Harvard’s Education Innovation Laboratory (EdLabs). The selection of a researcher to study IMPACT’s effectiveness, and to make recommendations for improvements, was included as a side letter to the 2010 collective bargaining agreement. Many teachers have said that IMPACT’s criteria disadvantage instructors who work in high-poverty schools with challenging student populations. Very few teachers judged “highly effective” under IMPACT work in schools in Wards 7 or 8.

The project was a sticky issue from the beginning. The selection of an

Rahm to turn his neighborhood school white. « Fred Klonsky

Rahm to turn his neighborhood school white. « Fred Klonsky:

Rahm to turn his neighborhood school white.

by Fred Klonsky

La Salle Language Academy is a magnet school in the middle of one of Chicago’s richest neighborhoods. The Mayor lives there.

It was one of the first magnet schools established as a result of the order to desegregate Chicago schools three decades ago.

La Salle is now slated for demagnetizing by the same Mayor who is shutting down schools primarily on the

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: Four Decades of Education Reform « Cooperative Catalyst

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: Four Decades of Education Reform « Cooperative Catalyst:

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: Four Decades of Education Reform

by nflanagan

I get a real kick out the best-of lists that pop up at the end of the year. Two years ago, the First Decade of the New Millennium had passed into ignominy, so there was a lot commentary on the establishment of the No Child era: What was the great cosmic takeaway for educators?

While there are always transformative events and legislation, most real change in education feels sluggish, rather random and exceedingly difficult to analyze. Education policy thinkers tend to be Covey-esque in the upbeat, step-wise way they approach change: anticipate, arrange, administer and assess. That’s how we got No Child Left Behind, which was supposed to be the Grand Strategy to identify inequities, raise and equalize standards (a word meaning different things to different stakeholders), harass teachers into somehow teaching better, and then

Albert Shanker Institute » Policy Brief: The Evidence on Charter Schools and Test Scores

Albert Shanker Institute » Policy Brief: The Evidence on Charter Schools and Test Scores:

Policy Brief: The Evidence on Charter Schools and Test Scores

DECEMBER 2011

Charter schools are among the most controversial issues in education today, with much of the debate focused on whether they produce better testing results than comparable regular public schools. Too often, these discussions either rely on a tiny handful of studies, or on raw, cross-sectional testing results, which are not valid measures of school effects.

This policy brief provides an accessible review of the research on charter schools’ testing effects, how their varying impacts might be explained and what this evidence suggests about the ongoing proliferation of these schools.

Download the policy brief (PDF)

Here is the abstract:

The public debate about the success and expansion of charter schools often seems to gravitate toward a tiny handful of empirical studies, when there is, in fact, a relatively well-developed literature focused on whether these schools generate larger testing gains among their students relative to their counterparts in comparable regular public schools.

This Week In Education: Reformageddon: Reform's "Rich Republican Job-Loss" Problem

This Week In Education: Reformageddon: Reform's "Rich Republican Job-Loss" Problem:

Reformageddon: Reform's "Rich Republican Job-Loss" Problem

by Alexander Russo

Why are low-income minority communities, classroom teachers, middle-class parents and the public so indifferent if not outright hostile to school reform efforts? That's the question reformer Whitney Tilson tries to address in his latest email (copied below -- it usually takes him a few days to post them on his blog). Best known as a reform fanatic whose emails (along with this blog) were primary resources for Steve Brill's book, acknowledges what few of the blowhards and finger-waggers out there seem willing to do. It's not just the unions' fault, or even Stockholm Syndrome. Reform has problems,

Preschools in China, Japan, and the U.S. | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Preschools in China, Japan, and the U.S. | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Preschools in China, Japan, and the U.S.

by larrycuban

I recently read an unusual study of preschools in three nations. In 1989, Joseph Tobin and colleagues published their book Preschools in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States. What is unusual is that Joseph Tobin, an anthropologist put together another team of Chinese and Japanese scholars (an educational psychologist and cultural psychologist) to return to the very same schools over a decade later. The result isPreschools in Three Cultures Revisited (2009).

Using extensive videotaping and interviewing of preschool teachers, administrators, and national experts they sought to find out how much change had occurred in the preschools they revisited that was spurred by the exponential pace of globalization since the initial study and how much cultural continuity persisted in norms and

Capo charter school may squeeze out elementary school | school, oxford, barcelona - News - The Orange County Register

Capo charter school may squeeze out elementary school | school, oxford, barcelona - News - The Orange County Register:

Capo charter school may squeeze out elementary school

Mission Viejo’s Oxford K-8 Preparatory Academy wants more classroom space on the campus it shares with Barcelona Hills Elementary.

By SCOTT MARTINDALE / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – A new K-8 charter school that shares its campus with an elementary school is petitioning the Capistrano Unified School District to increase enrollment by 144 kids next fall, a move that would force the elementary school to reduce its already dwindling enrollment and possibly put it on a path toward closure.

Oxford Preparatory Academy, which opened this fall on the Barcelona Hills Elementary School campus in Mission Viejo, is seeking to increase its enrollment by 23 percent, to 772 next year. The proposal, presented to trustees on Monday, sparked outrage from Barcelona parents, who say they've already been unfairly squeezed by Oxford.

Barcelona Hills Elementary School students line the streets near campus in April with signs that read "We love our school" and "Please keep our school the way it is" to protest being forced to share their campus with Oxford Preparatory Academy.

COURTESY PHOTO

"The additional numbers they're asking for will completely dismantle Barcelona Hills," Barcelona parent Magda McLain of Mission Viejo told the Capistrano Unified school board. "I ask all of you before me, why should our children have to sacrifice their school in order to give the charter what they want?"

Capistrano trustees, who did not comment on Oxford's proposal, are scheduled to make a decision Jan. 23.

Oxford's executive director, Sue Roche, told

Occupy Endgame: law enforcement arrests 1%’s War, economic criminals | Dailycensored.com #OWS

Occupy Endgame: law enforcement arrests 1%’s War, economic criminals | Dailycensored.com:

Occupy Endgame: law enforcement arrests 1%’s War, economic criminals

Written by Carl_HermanPolitics, War and PeaceDec 14, 2011

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source: Carl Herman

The brilliant 2-minute video from Waiting for the Storm below is a message for police, sheriff, and military law enforcement to arrest US political, economic, and corporate “leadership” who have committed obvious crimes.

Occupy’s endgame, in retrospect, will be obvious: after a period of “emperor has no clothes” expository communication from independent Internet media to the 99% and citizen engagement with those facts, those with arrest authority exercised it to remove criminal leadership from power.

The first criminal arrests will be for War Crimes and financial fraud. The most notable will be “leadership” of both US political parties and from the

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Finlandophilia and School Reform

The Nonprofit Quarterly | @npquarterly | Finlandophilia and School Reform:

Finlandophilia and School Reform

DECEMBER 14, 2011
RUTH MCCAMBRIDGE

December 12, 2011; Source: New York Times | One of the problems plaguing school reform here in the United States is that it can’t get out of its own way in terms of blowing up some basic assumptions. Longer school days? Less play time, art, and music? More testing? And then here comes Finland—which does not start formal education before the age of 7, believing that it violates children’s rights to be children, and does not implement testing or homework until well into puberty. Gadzooks! Do they not care about their children’s achievement?

This flies in the face of the ever more compulsive testing done in the United States to assure ourselves that our system is still underperforming. But Finland has scored close to the top of the OECD, a well-respected test measuring education systems across 28

Charter schools: Is financial mismanagement the issue to watch? | Get Schooled

Charter schools: Is financial mismanagement the issue to watch? | Get Schooled:

Charter schools: Is financial mismanagement the issue to watch?

7:55 am December 14, 2011, by Maureen Downey

Charter schools are not faring well in the national press where there have been a series of articles about financial mismanagement, including a searing three-part series this week in the Miami Herald.

We are seeing some of the same problems arising in Georgia that the Herald cites in its series.For example, the entry of for-profit management companies into the charter school market has dramatically increased the number of charter schools, but it has also led to the natural tension that results when profits become a driving force in school decisions and motivations. In fact, New York, New Mexico and Tennessee ban for-profit companies from managing charter schools.

According to the Herald series, which is worth reading:

But while charter schools have grown into a $400-million-a-year business in South Florida,

ASCD Inservice: The Power of Student Feedback

ASCD Inservice: The Power of Student Feedback:

The Power of Student Feedback

As we approach the mid-point of the school year, many of us will take the break as an opportunity to reflect, consider changes in our practice, and to plan for the remainder of the school year.

When we reflect and consider changes to our practice, we have lots of sources of data to help inform us of our progress. We have student achievement data, evaluations from our principal or supervisor, student grades, anecdotal records, and feedback from parents and colleagues.

However, many teachers fail to tap the most valuable source of feedback – their students.

In most classrooms, overt, direct feedback goes solely from the teacher to the student. We give them grades, written feedback on their work, verbal feedback and direction regarding their behavior, and dole out the rewards and incentives when they meet expectations. Yet rarely do we afford students the chance to give such feedback, advice, and suggestions back to us. The argument can be made that students are the very best source of feedback

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In Chicago: 'A fight for the soul of public education'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In Chicago: 'A fight for the soul of public education':

In Chicago: 'A fight for the soul of public education'

by Mike Klonsky

Carrying signs and bullhorns, several hundred parents and teachers gathered outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters Tuesday night to rally against the proposed closures, consolidations, and phase outs of 17 under-performing schools. About 40 people spent the night in the wind and rain to be first in line for a board meeting

Student Learning Communities « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

Student Learning Communities « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

Student Learning Communities

by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post written by Celina Brennan, a 3/4/5 multiage teacher at Salnave Elementary School in the Cheney (Wash.) Public Schools district and recipient ofWashington State ASCD’s 2011 Outstanding Young Educator Award. She is a district leader in literacy and has opened her classroom to educators as a model of differentiated instruction that meets the social, emotional, and academic needs of all learners. Connect with Brennan on the ASCD EDge® social network and on her blog, written with her teaching partner Ann Ottmar.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are the topic of many conversations within education: the culture that is imperative for success, the goals we choose to focus on, the protocols we should follow, the structure that must be in place, and the realities that we face. There is an abundance of research I

Closing Schools: DOE Spins Itself an Alternate Universe of Facts | Edwize

Closing Schools: DOE Spins Itself an Alternate Universe of Facts | Edwize:

Closing Schools: DOE Spins Itself an Alternate Universe of Facts

by Jackie Bennett

Last week, the DOE announced the final list of schools it wants to close, and attached to it came the usual press release designed to justify their continued implementation of a failed policy. The release was so clearly misleading that very few people in New York City would believe a single thing it has to say. But since the folks at Tweed have ambitions bigger than the five boroughs can contain, and because the rest of the country might actually believe them, a few corrections are in order. So here you go:

DOE says: “Un-screened high schools opened since 2002 continue to earn higher grades and have better graduation outcomes than un-screened high schools opened before 2002.”

First of all, the new schools are not unscreened. Under Bloomberg, the DOE instituted what it calls a ‘limited screen” policy, and that policy does not work well for many at risk kids. Limited screening gives first preference to students who have actively made themselves “known to the school.” After that, the preference goes to any student in the borough, rather than to kids from the neighborhood. To be known to the school students must attend an admissions fair or have put themselves forward by some other means. Like lottery admission systems,

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Fastest growing occupations in the U.S. require no degree

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Fastest growing occupations in the U.S. require no degree:

Fastest growing occupations in the U.S. require no degree

by Mike Klonsky

'Zip-code apartheid'

Edward Luce, writing in the Financial Times, reports on the changing face of the U.S. labor market. With the virtual decimation of our manufacturing sector and the flight of capital to emerging markets in the developing countries, a growing share of whatever jobs our economy is still managing to create is in the least productive areas -- the types that neither computers nor China have yet found a way of eliminating.

Of the five occupations forecast by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be the fastest growing between now and 2018, none requires a degree. These are registered nurses, “home health aides”, customer

Shanker Blog » Today's Forecast: Cloud Computing In Education

Shanker Blog » Today's Forecast: Cloud Computing In Education:

Today’s Forecast: Cloud Computing In Education

by Esther Quintero

It’s hard to tell whether cloud computing is “the next big thing” or just another buzz word, but, according to a recent survey of 5,300 organizations in 38 countries, change is already taking place: “the promises of reduced cost, improved performance and greater scalability” are driving interest in “moving to cloud.”

But what does cloud computing mean to those of us who care about education, teaching and learning?

When an organization “goes cloud” it means that the organization no longer deals directly with many of its computing/IT needs – e.g., software, updates, storage etc. The key to understanding this model and its broader implications is to appreciate the transition it represents: from viewing computing as a product to viewing it as a service. Much like public utilities, IT resources are delivered to users through the internet, just like electricity is