Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Education Research Report

Education Research Report:

Education Research Report




Top-quartile and bottom-quartile teachers exit at a higher rate than do average-quality teachers

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 47min
There is growing concern among policy makers over the quality of the teacher workforce in general, and the distribution of effective teachers across schools. The impact of teacher attrition on overall teacher quality will depend on the effectiveness of teachers who leave the profession. Likewise, teacher turnover may alleviate or worsen inequities in the distribution of teachers, depending on whi
Principals’ evaluations of teachers are overly positive when the stakes are high

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 49min
Teacher effectiveness varies substantially, yet principals’ evaluations of teachers often fail to differentiate performance among teachers. This study offers new evidence on principals’ subjective evaluations of their teachers’ effectiveness using two sources of data from a large, urban district: principals’ high-stakes personnel evaluations of teachers, and their low-stakes assessments of a subs
Holding younger students back because of their age harms student achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 52min
This study analyzes the effect of age-based retention on school achievement at different stages of education. Using international data from multiple waves of the PISA international assessment test, the author finds that grade retention in primary school harms student achievement across the distribution, while delayed school entry can produce positive results for those at the lower end. The identi
Mandatory eleventh grade ACT or SAT = more students going to college

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 56min
Nearly a dozen states have incorporated the ACT or SAT into their eleventh grade statewide assessment, requiring that all public school students take a college entrance exam. This paper exploits the implementation of this policy to show that for every ten poor students who take a college entrance exam pre-policy and score college-ready, there were an additional five poor students who did not take
Indoor air in schools could add to children's exposure to PCBs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h
The U.S. banned PCBs nearly four decades ago, but they persist in the environment and have been found in animals and humans since then. Now researchers report in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology that concentrations of airborne PCBs inside schools could result in some students inhaling the compounds at higher levels than they would consume through their diets. Exposure through both

YESTERDAY

Why osteoarthritis is more common in females

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
Researchers have more evidence that males and females are different, this time in the fluid that helps protect the cartilage in their knee joints. They have found in the synovial fluid of this joint, clear differences in the messages cells are sending and receiving via tiny pieces of RNA, called microRNA, in males and females with the common and debilitating condition osteoarthritis. The differen
Improvements and persistent inequities in college access and success in NYC

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
A new report from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools provides an in-depth look at high school students' pathways into and through college, revealing large improvements in college access, but also highlighting persistent differences in outcomes for historically underrepresented groups of students. New York City has made dramatic progress reducing high school dropouts and boosting on-t
Private school vouchers: student do worse in math, no better in n English Language Arts

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
As one of the largest voucher programs in the U.S., the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program has over 34,000 students participating to date. This paper examines the impact of the voucher program for students in upper elementary and middle school who use a voucher to transfer from a public to a private school during the 2011-12 through 2014-15 school years—the first four years of the program. The au
TNTP Teaching Fellows Shows No Effects on Math Achievement for Middle and High School Students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently reviewed the research on TNTP Teaching Fellows teachers and their impact on academic achievement. A new intervention report , released today (June 27) by the Institute of Education Sciences, concludes that TNTP Teaching Fellows teachers were found to have no discernible effects on the mathematics achievement of middle and high school students. TNTP Teac
10 years: cost of supplies and extracurricular activities has increased 88 percent for elementary school students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
At the 10-year mark for the Huntington Backpack Index, the cost of supplies and extracurricular activities has increased from 2007-2016 by 88 percent for elementary school students, 81 percent for middle school students and 68 percent for high school students. For the 2016-2017 school year, according to the Backpack Index parents can expect to pay per child: $659 for elementary school children, a
New Teacher Induction Improves Retention

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
Policymakers have increasingly worked to combat teacher turnover by implementing induction programs for early-career teachers. Yet the existing evidence for the effects of induction on turnover is mixed. Drawing on data from the three most recent administrations of the Schools and Staffing and Teacher Follow-Up Surveys, as well as the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study, this study investigates


Students who attend virtual schools infive states perform quite poorly

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d
Over the past five years, the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) has produced an annual report called Virtual Schools in the U.S.: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence. These reports provide an impartial 
 Education Research Report:
Posted by at

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tonight's Board Meeting: Waitlists and Ethnic Studies

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tonight's Board Meeting: Waitlists and Ethnic Studies:

Tonight's Board Meeting: Waitlists and Ethnic Studies

Image result for Tonight's Board Meeting

On the Work Session on the Budget and Waitlists, here's the presentation.  The waitlist section starts on page 14.

Staff is insisting: 

Waitlist moves are predicated on staffing, not just space capacity.
 
That may be true in internal practice.
 
Long standing actual process/practice is that both physical space and staffing determines the number of waitlist moves at a school. 
 
I sure wish former head of Enrollment, Tracy Libros, was here to verify that because that may be true internally but that was never transmitted to parents.  What WAS very clearly stated - over and over and over for decades - said is that the district's biggest commitment to families was to keep sibs together.  That I know for a fact.  It was not a guarantee but it was stated in that manner repeatedly by superintendents, staff and boards.

As well, for something as key as waitlists, then it should be clearly stated in the procedure that follows the policy.  It is not.  And, it also isn't clearly stated in the current Enrollment plan.
 
They list four issues:
  • Is there capacity within the WSS staffing allocation?
  • Is there physical room to add another teacher/class? 
  • Would it create more split classes? Overage costs? 
  • Would it negatively impact/deplete other schools? 
I believe the key issue here is the last one - hurting other schools.  
 
My stance is that when you have a growing city and a growing district, you Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tonight's Board Meeting: Waitlists and Ethnic Studies:


Posted by at

Alexander Russo Has A New Gig: Will He Make The Grade

Washington Monthly | The Grade:
The Grade by Alexander Russo



Best Education Journalism of the Week (September 10-16, 2016)

by Alexander Russo
NYT: In Connecticut, a Wealth Gap Divides Neighboring Schools https://t.co/907mAf6JH4 Houston Chronicle: Officials vow to end limits put on special ed https://t.co/9lFk449HN5 Virginian-Pilot: How Norfolk schools pulled struggling students out of classes before state testing time http://ow.ly/vjs8304hyV4 Bloomberg: Even In A Diverse School In Leafy Evanston, IL, Black Students Don’t Even Get an Equal Education https://t.co/TD7I3sG0Ot Times-Picayune: 3-week flood hiatus… Read more »
Posted by at

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tick Tock - Friday is Coming, Is McCleary Done?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tick Tock - Friday is Coming, Is McCleary Done?:

Tick Tock - Friday is Coming, Is McCleary Done?

Image result for tick tock animated gif



A heads up on McCleary:

Calling all Washington educators, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, unionists, activists, and concern and community members!

Please join us tomorrow, June 29, 2017 on the Washington State Capitol steps at 10:30 a.m.! WEAR RED! 

Governor Inslee says Washington legislators have reached a budget deal, but we don't yet know the details.

Educators, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, students, unionists, and concerned community members will WEAR RED and meet on the WA State Capitol steps at 10:30 a.m. to demand the legislators keep their oath of office to amply fund public schools [ #ParamountDuty #FundMcClearyNow ] and to maintain local collective bargaining rights intact for educators. We will also demand adequate funding for children with special needs. We will demand the legislators fund 1351, the small class size initiative WA voters approved.

We demand progressive taxation that includes closing corporate tax loopholes, a capital gains tax, and once these are in place, a progressive income tax. Increasing property tax places and undue burden on the middle class. It is time to tax the rich.

Our legislators must be accountable to the public, not a few CEOs from the WA Business Roundtable!
More info via Robert Cruickshank:

The Senate Republican leader, Mark Schoesler, said lawmakers and the public may not see those details until *tomorrow*, with a vote on Friday. That's unacceptable. We need to see the details now.
Here's a link to the League Of Women Voters' handy (and easy) way to contact your legislators.

 Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tick Tock - Friday is Coming, Is McCleary Done?:
Posted by at

Is the LAUSD Charter School Division Providing Any Oversight?

Is the LAUSD Charter School Division Providing Any Oversight?:

Is the LAUSD Charter School Division Providing Any Oversight?

Image result for big education ape investigate chartergate
Our oversight is “proactive and responsive.”
РJose Cole-Guti̩rrez, LAUSD Charter School Division
The LAUSD is “the largest district charter school authorizer in the nation, with about 250 independent and affiliated charter schools serving over 130,000 students.” The Charter School Division is responsible for ensuring that these schools comply with the law and their charters. Unfortunately, this oversight is not as thorough as it needs to be. On Tuesday, June 20, 2017, I brought this issue to the attention of the LAUSD School Board with the following public comment:
Good Morning. My name is Carl Petersen and I am here to follow up on the public comment that I made last week regarding Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS). Specifically, I’d like to respond to José Cole-Gutiérrez’ statement that the Charter School Division is “proactive and responsive” in their oversight.
Cole-Gutiérrez stated that last week was the first he had heard of the charges that I was bringing against GHCHS. However, in the packet Is the LAUSD Charter School Division Providing Any Oversight?:
 Image result for big education ape charter school oversight
Posted by at

Is Big Philanthropy Compatible With Democracy? - The Atlantic

Is Big Philanthropy Compatible With Democracy? - The Atlantic:

Is Big Philanthropy Compatible With Democracy?
A Stanford professor argues that it’s largely not—but that it could be reformed to promote equality, rather than undermine it.
In 1912, John D. Rockefeller went to Congress with a simple request. He wanted permission to take the vast wealth he’d accumulated, and pour it into a charitable foundation.
Many were outraged.


John Haynes Holmes, a Unitarian minister and a cofounder of the NAACP and ACLU, told the Senate that from the standpoint of the leaders of democracy, “this foundation, the very character, must be repugnant to the whole idea of a democratic society.” Rockefeller’s effort failed. He ultimately chartered it in the state of New York instead.

A few years later, Missouri Senator Frank Walsh cited the Rockefeller Foundation as he declared that “huge philanthropic trusts, known as foundations, appear to be a menace to the welfare of society.”

These were hardly isolated concerns. Contemporaries, as the Stanford professor and scholar of philanthropy Rob Reich has written, worried about how private foundations “undermine political equality, affect public policies, could exist in perpetuity, and [be] unaccountable except to a hand-picked assemblage of trustees.”


They are, he argues, extraordinary exercises of power. “Rather than responding to power with gratitude,” Reich said, “we should respond with skepticism and scrutiny.”

It’s an unfamiliar perspective. These days, wealthy philanthropists are more likely to be lauded, their names emblazoned on buildings, their pictures on magazine covers. And Reich delivered it in an unusual setting, speaking Tuesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, to an audience that included more than a few philanthropists and foundation executives.

But he’s not alone. Judge Richard Posner, the idiosyncratic jurist and leading legal theorist, has complained that “a perpetual charitable foundation ... is a completely irresponsible institution, answerable to nobody. It competes neither in capital markets nor in product markets ... and, unlike a hereditary monarch whom such a foundation otherwise resembles, it is subject to no political controls either.”

It’s a genuine dilemma. At its worst, big philanthropy represents less an exercise of individual freedom, Reich said, than a tax-subsidized means of taking private profit and converting it into public power. And he argued that big foundations possess the leverage to bend policy in their favored direction in a coercive manner, pointing to the example of the Gates Foundation’s funding of Is Big Philanthropy Compatible With Democracy? - The Atlantic:





Posted by at

Turnover, a charter school plague - NY Daily News

Turnover, a charter school plague - NY Daily News:

Turnover, a charter school plague 
The usual end-of-year school rites for our fifth-grader are especially bittersweet this year, because it is her last at the charter school where she has learned, played, made friends and grown since kindergarten.
Unlike many kids at her stage, she had a choice to stay at her K-8 school — but as a family we together decided to jump from the charter to a district junior high run by the city’s Department of Education.
Some extracurricular forces eased the choice. My husband, who’s logged hundreds of miles driving to and fro, will hand our girl off to a convenient bus. She in turn will be thrilled to shed a loathed uniform. Me, I look forward to an end to lunch box prep, thanks to an improved cafeteria menu.
But the bottom line is that her elementary-school years were marked with a whirlwind of teachers that, if she and her classmates were lucky, would last the year and then move on.
The ritual became as certain as winter succeeded fall: Some parent would post on the school Facebook group that their child’s teacher was leaving mid-year. Moans and commiseration ensued.
Our child avoided that fate until last fall, when, two weeks in, her promising teacher — a veteran at three years served — suddenly vanished, and a substitute arrived much sooner than any explanation. Her class refound itsTurnover, a charter school plague - NY Daily News: 
Posted by at

Louisiana voucher students don't outperform peers

Louisiana voucher students don't outperform peers:

Louisiana voucher students don't outperform peers



Around 7,100 students receive vouchers in Louisiana, 87 percent of whom are black, the study says. The cost to the state is $146 million a year and growing.
The findings are under review at an academic journal. "I think it says something more about how private schools funding (and have) adapted" to students with vouchers.
The study follows an earlier review from the organization that said voucher recipients did "significantly worse" than their peers in the first year, and "slightly less negative" after year two.
The study primarily focuses on children who were old enough to have taken state tests the year before, which leaves out the large number of voucher students who start in kindergarten.
It made no difference whether the student stayed in the voucher program or returned to publicschool. The schools that did participate needed support: they had disproportionately low enrollment, the researchers said.
"At the same time, these results could also point toward issues with changing schools and sectors".
With time, the study suggests, voucher students and their new schools are able to adjust to one another, allowing the students to ultimately surpass their public-school peers in language achievement.
However, students who left for private schools in lower grades still showed learning losses inLouisiana voucher students don't outperform peers: 
Posted by at

GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education - The Washington Post

GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education - The Washington Post:

GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education


School superintendents across the country are raising alarms about the possibility that Republican health care legislation would curtail billions of dollars in annual funding they count on to help students with disabilities and poor children.
For the past three decades, Medicaid has helped pay for services and equipment that schools provide to special-education students, as well as school-based health screening and treatment for children from low-income families. Now, educators from rural red states to the blue coasts are warning that the GOP push to shrink Medicaid spending will strip schools of what a national superintendents association estimates at up to $4 billion per year.
That money pays for nurses, social workers, physical, occupational and speech therapists and medical equipment like walkers and wheelchairs. It also pays for preventive and comprehensive health services for poor children, including immunizations, screening for hearing and vision problems and management of chronic conditions like asthma and diabetes.
 Many school districts, already squeezed by shrinking state education budgets, say that to fill the hole they anticipate would be left by the Republican push to restructure Medicaid, they would either have to cut those services or downsize general education programs that serve all students.

[With state budget in crisis, many schools in Oklahoma hold class just four days a week]GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education - The Washington Post:
GOP health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education - The Washington Post:
Posted by at

Supreme Court rules for churches in two more public funding cases

Supreme Court rules for churches in two more public funding cases:

Supreme Court rules for churches in two more public funding cases


WASHINGTON — One day after the Supreme Court ruled decisively that a Lutheran church in Missouri should be eligible for state-funded playground aid, the high court said two other decisions from lower courts, both barring churches from public education funding, should be reconsidered.
Justices on Tuesday sent cases from New Mexico and Colorado back to their respective state supreme courts. Both involve state funding for religious schools — in New Mexico, the conflict centers around a long-standing state textbook lending program; in Colorado, three cases, consolidated into one, center around school vouchers.
In the New Mexico case, the state’s high court in 2015 said the textbook program violated a prohibition on state aid going to religious and private schools. In Colorado, that state’s high court, also in 2015, struck down voucher programs that would have allowed students to use taxpayer funds to attend private schools, including religious ones.
School choice advocates were already celebrating Monday’s 7-2 ruling in a closely watched case involving Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Mo. That decision could have implications for as many as 39 states with constitutional provisions that block public funds from going to religious organizations.
In the Trinity case, the justices ruled that Missouri stretched the constitutional separation of church and state too far by declaring the church ineligible to receive a competitive state grant for playground resurfacing.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the state's denial of funds likely would lead only to "a few extra scraped knees," but that excluding Trinity "from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who opposed the ruling along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented from the bench, saying the high court "has never required a state to turn over taxpayer funds to a house of worship."
In the Missouri case, which dates to 2012, the church applied for funding to replace the Supreme Court rules for churches in two more public funding cases:
 
Posted by at

Inside The NAACP’s Fight To Stop Betsy DeVos From Expanding Charter Schools | HuffPost

Inside The NAACP’s Fight To Stop Betsy DeVos From Expanding Charter Schools | HuffPost:

Inside The NAACP’s Fight To Stop Betsy DeVos From Expanding Charter Schools

The nation’s oldest civil rights organization is gearing up for a bigger battle with education reformers.

Image result for Inside The NAACP’s Fight To Stop Betsy DeVos From Expanding Charter Schools


President Donald Trump may call education the “civil rights issue of our time,” but just weeks before he was elected, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization strongly rejected the very type of schools he loves to champion.
In October, the NAACP voted on a controversial resolution calling for a moratorium on the growth of charter schools, which exist in 43 states. Over six decades after the organization fought to eliminate school segregation through the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, leaders said charter schools were perpetuating the very same segregation they fought so hard to stop. Not only that, but charter schools also divert resources away from traditional public school systems.
Charter school activists opposed the move. So did some of the very people the NAACP seeks to serve, like the hundreds of thousands of black families that choose charter schools for their children every year.
The controversial stance threw the nation’s oldest civil rights organization into the spotlight during a time when they were fighting for relevancy. In the months since, a task force of a dozen NAACP leaders has traveled the country, listening to both charter school advocates and opponents, parents and teachers, about what steps the organization should take next.
Next month the NAACP will release a report detailing what the task force found. HuffPost, through conversations with several task force leaders, received a glimpse into what these findings might look like.
After spending time in seven cities, NAACP Task Force on Quality Education chair Alice Huffman says she is more convinced than ever that the call for a moratorium was the correct decision. The election of Trump, and his subsequent appointment of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has given the issue specific urgency. DeVos, a notorious champion of school choice, would like to see more charter schools, and her department’s Inside The NAACP’s Fight To Stop Betsy DeVos From Expanding Charter Schools | HuffPost:

Posted by at

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Will Dems dare to take advantage of GOP health care debacle?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Will Dems dare to take advantage of GOP health care debacle?:

Will Dems dare to take advantage of GOP health care debacle?

“President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts, Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.” -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Yesterday was a smashing defeat for Trump and the Repugs in their attempt to loot Medicaid and gut healthcare for more than 22 million people. Their cynical revanchist move against Obamacare was seen by the great majority of angry and terrified citizens for what it was, another attempt at a major redistribution of wealth upward in the form of a trillion-dollar tax break for the 1% at the expense of the health and welfare of working and poor families. 
The factionalism and a shattering to smithereens of the GOP leadership cadre plus the mass revulsion for Trump and the GOP leadership felt by most voters forced Sen. McConnell to pull the bill (at least for now) or risk even more desertions. 

As a result, the climate is ripe for a Democratic take-back of Congress in 2018 and for the passage of a national, single-payer healthcare bill. But that would require a radical change at the top before Democrats would dare champion such a bill or back a slate of progressive candidates to run nationally with it. A progressive takeover or even a coalition with progressives are prospects that current party leadership appears to fear even more than a continuation of Trumpism. As a result, there may be little to excite the Democratic base beyond hatred for Trump, once again in 2018.

Dems seem locked into their defeatist strategy of running Republican-light candidates simply on the slogan of, I'm not Trump, in a transparent appeal to the moderate Republican base Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Will Dems dare to take advantage of GOP health care debacle?:


Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)