CURMUDGUCATION: Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

CURMUDGUCATION: Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

Yesterday the NEA did quickie interviews with ten of the Democratic candidates, ranging from the front-runners like Sanders and Warren all the way down to (checks notes)-- some guy named Tim Ryan who is apparently also running.

There were plenty of fine moment and plenty of pandering, and, it has to be noted, plenty of issues that went unaddressed by some candidates because they didn't get asked a question about them. If, like me, you found the streaming experience frustrating, you can watch the whole thing over on YouTube.

The favorite headline for coverage involves all the folks who have jumped on the Make A Teacher Secretary of Education bandwagon. But there were several moments I found more important-- especially this next one.

Elizabeth Warren was handed a question about ending high stakes testing (not even "would you" but "how would you") and she started out by offering her own version of putting someone from public education in the office, then she moved on to this:

"It's about our values," she says as she pivots. She invokes her special needs teacher background (again) and says, "This notion that it's all about testing, that it's all about what somebody far off in the state capitol or far off in the national capitol says here's what constitutes success, and worse yet, here's what constitutes failure-- no, that's not what education is about."

"Education is about what goes on in the classroom," she continues. A teacher sets a goal and a CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Elizabeth Warren's Better Answer On Testing

Independence Day: Why the Republic Requires Rebellion | The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

Independence Day: Why the Republic Requires Rebellion | The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

Independence Day: Why the Republic Requires Rebellion

This Independence Day brings with it a new sense of urgency in the fight to save public education. Because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to advance her personal agenda —unchecked by Congress—it is our duty to step in. We the People are the last hope for a nation built upon the ideal that supreme power resides in its citizens.

DeVos Puts Religion Ahead of Duty to Civil Rights

Ms. DeVos is hell-bent on “advancing [her] God’s Kingdom” using our education system as a weapon of destruction. But without a national understanding of why her actions must be seen as tyrannical, our republic is at risk. Hence the urgency of this Independence Day — the need to clearly see what good has come from our rebellious past and the need to rise again.

The foundation for our great country was set by the Declaration of Independence. Its writers were experiencing the corruption and greed of an oppressive government and anticipated this country would see this destructive behavior again, for they went on to say, in reference to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, … (The Crucial Voice of the People)

“… that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these CONTINUE READING: Independence Day: Why the Republic Requires Rebellion | The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

The Steaming Turd That is Michigan's Third Grade Reading Law - Teacher Habits

The Steaming Turd That is Michigan's Third Grade Reading Law - Teacher Habits

The Steaming Turd That is Michigan’s Third Grade Reading Law

In October of 2016, after about three years of debate, the then governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, signed a third grade reading bill into law that called for the retention of any third grader who scored more than one year behind grade level on the state test. The law required all K-3 students to be tested three times each year and students with reading deficiencies had to be given an Individual Reading Plan. Third grade students would not be retained until the 2019-2020 school year.

Which, in case you missed it, is next year.

Now that the time has come to implement the most objectionable part of the law and start actually forcing kids to repeat a grade, the state is getting cold feet. The new governor has publicly stated that she wants to get rid of the law. The Department of Education has approved new cut scores that will dramatically reduce the number of retained students from what observers first feared. While more than 55% of Michigan third graders fell short of the proficiency standard in 2018, the new scores are expected to identify just 5% of students for retention this coming year.

These are the actions of people who realize they’re dealing with a steaming turd.

You can avoid most steaming turns. If you’re out for a walk, you cross CONTINUE READING: The Steaming Turd That is Michigan's Third Grade Reading Law - Teacher Habits

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE STRONG PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRESIDENTIAL FORUM WATCH THE VIDEO:#REDFORED #CTA #StrongPublicSchools #ra19 #nea #neara19 #houston

Big Education Ape: WATCH THE VIDEO: Strong Public Schools Presidential Forum #REDFORED #CTA #StrongPublicSchools #ra19 #nea #neara19 #houston

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE STRONG PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRESIDENTIAL FORUM 

 Strong Public Schools Presidential Forum

WATCH THE VIDEO

 

Big Education Ape: 2020 Presidential Hopefuls Court Educators at NEA Representative Assembly - NEA Today  https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/07/2020-presidential-hopefuls-court.html

Democratic hopefuls pledge to make education a priority — and to spend more money - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/democratic-hopefuls-pledge-to-make-education-a-priority--and-to-spend-more-money/2019/07/05/d3ee3dbe-9f6b-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html?utm_term=.33e4bc00f31e

In Houston, Biden, Warren, O'Rourke, Castro speak to thousands of educators | The Texas Tribune - https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/05/houston-biden-warren-orourke-castro-speak-thousands-educators/ by @AliyyaSwaby on @TexasTribune

10 Presidential Candidates Make Case to Teachers' Union Members - Bloomberg - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-05/10-presidential-candidates-make-case-to-teachers-union-members on @bpolitics

Biden would name a teacher as education secretary, wouldn't appoint his wife - POLITICO - https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/05/biden-teacher-education-secretary-2020-1399250

Biden, like Warren, promises teacher as education secretary | Boston 25 News - https://www.boston25news.com/news/biden-like-warren-promises-teacher-as-education-secretary/964310138 on @boston25

Democrats Vow to Change Nation's Education Policy - https://wp.me/p7VhVF-23SG via @CourthouseNews

GALLERY: Presidential candidates make stop in Houston for National Educators Association forum | Community Impact Newspaper - https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/education/2019/07/05/gallery-presidential-candidates-make-stop-in-houston-for-national-educators-association-forum/ by @_emma_whalen on @impactnews

Democratic Presidential Candidates Make Their Pitches to Teachers' Union Leaders - Politics K-12 - Education Week - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2019/07/national_education_association_presidential_candidates.html on @educationweek

The Country’s Second Largest School District Enters a New Era

The Country’s Second Largest School District Enters a New Era

The Country’s Second Largest School District Enters a New Era

We support academic accountability, which is why we want update the renewal criteria. But, additional oversight would be out of line.”– Cassy Horton California Charter School Association

After the forced resignation of former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy, a relative calm had returned to the district. However, just months after the California Charter School Association (CCSA) had paid millions to purchase the School Board in the 2017 elections, chaos had been reintroduced. Newly elected Board President Ref Rodriguez had been forced from his leadership position after being indicted on criminal charges related to his campaign but was refusing to resign from his board seat. With their narrow majority in danger, the “Broad Block” elected Monica Garcia President of the Board and dug in to satisfy the interests of their corporate masters before their inevitable loss of control.

It would be almost a year after his indictment before Rodriguez was finally forced from office. Even an arrest for public drunkenness did not hasten the process. The “Broad Block” made the most of their time, making significant changes culminating with the hiring of Superintendent Austin Beutner behind closed doors, even though he did not have any professional experience in education.

With the departure of Rodriguez, the break down of three charter supporters (Nick Melvoin, Garcia and Kelly Gonez), two supporters of public education (Scott Schmerelson and Dr. George McKenna) and one swing vote (Dr. Richard Vladovic) left the board in a deadlock. The “Broad Block” took advantage of the new circumstance to block the CONTINUE READING: The Country’s Second Largest School District Enters a New Era

NYC Educator: Principals' Principles--How Low Can They Go?

NYC Educator: Principals' Principles--How Low Can They Go?

Principals' Principles--How Low Can They Go?

 I know principals who'd laugh at that picture. I know others who'd place their noses in the air and feign horror. They're way too important to entertain jokes about their Very Important Work. Of course, those who take themselves uber-seriously have enormous potential to be terrible leaders. There are all too many of them in NYC.

Everyone has opinions about school leaders. Michael Bloomberg believed in the imperial principal, a person who can do whatever he golly gosh darn pleases. He enabled this, in part, by establishing a legal department to advise them. Every chapter leader has heard about "legal." They're the people who present the principal with contract as menu. Choose the parts you like, they say. Ignore the rest.

This is, of course, a terrible situation. It precludes working hand in hand as teachers and school leadership should. UFT doesn't advise me to ignore rules and do whatever I want. On the other hand, UFT offers me accurate interpretations of the contract, as opposed to alternative facts.

A big question is what can be done about blatantly abusive school leaders. Sure, a lot of them have drunk Bloomberg's Kool-Aid, but some of them are way over the top. They're positively Trumpian in their intolerance of opinions differing from their own. Over at CPE 1, Monika Garg placed the UFT chapter leader and delegate on 3020a charges. It's like they were the resistance in some fascist regime, imprisoned without cause.

Garg thought her actions would intimidate and silence all who resisted her reign of terror. To the contrary, it energized the school community. Parents stood with UFT against her, and they just would not back down. Garg tried to ban parents from the school their children attended. Things got worse and worse, until someone at DOE with an iota of common sense moved the principal somewhere she could do no harm (or at least less harm).

There are other models. There is Forest Hills, and more recently La Guardia. Terrible leaders are brushed aside and sent elsewhere, to do whatever it is they do in Tweed. There is one thing these schools have in common. School communities united and took a stand against these leaders. This is a big ask for teachers, who didn't precisely sign up to be revolutionaries.

Nonetheless, if you push us too far, we will stand. We see this replicated all over the country, as teachers in red states walk rather than endure the slow death GOP lunatics envision for public education. We see it in multiple schools in the city. Of course, we don't see it everywhere.

Bad administrators are a plague here. I would not be at all surprised to learn that 25-40% of administrators ranged from inept to outright destructive. I know many readers of this CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Principals' Principles--How Low Can They Go?

CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

This post is week 4 of 8 in the 8 Weeks of Summer Blog Challenge for educators.

I'm continuing this challenge, answering the questions from the viewpoint of my old non-retired self. Here's this week's prompt:

What are optimal conditions in which to learn, for you, and for students?

For me, it's mostly a matter of opportunity and independence. Probably the biggest single thing I learned in college was how to teach myself, and I was born just in time for the biggest explosion of self-education resources in the history of the world. But that's as an adult, and the biggest advantage that adults have is that we rarely have to learn anything we don't want to learn.

I've always said-- I could probably learn conversational Chinese, but the time and effort involved, compared to the actual benefits, is such that I choose not to. But I'm an adult, so I can make that choice and nobody thinks worse of me. However, if a teenager made that same calculation and choice about my English class, then we might call him lazy or worse. Not that I think teens are necessarily good judges of what they do or don't need to learn for life; just that adults have a type of freedom when it comes to learning that students generally do not.

As a student, what I most needed was a safe space, security. If I spent the whole class time worrying about how other students or the teacher might react if I said X, if I had to carefully watch every single word that came out of my mouth, then it was hard to have much mental energy left to spend on paying attention to the actual lesson.

Students need to be able to work on the content-- what are adjectives, what is Hamlet's motivation, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Eight Weeks of Summer: Learning Conditions

Andrea Gabor: The Slow But Steady Decline of the Charter Industry | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andrea Gabor: The Slow But Steady Decline of the Charter Industry | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andrea Gabor: The Slow But Steady Decline of the Charter Industry

Andrea Gabor is one of the most interesting education writers around. She holds the Bloomberg Chair in Business Journalism at Baruch College. Her articles appear on sites read by people in the business world. Yet she has a firm grasp of education issues. Her latest book, After the Education Wars, has the best discussion of New Orleans education issues that I have seen. Her book The Man Who Invented Quality, about W. Edwards Deming, has a brilliant chapter #9) utterly demolishing merit pay. Follow her articles.

Her latest appears on the website of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Gabor tells the story of the reversals of fortune of the charter industry in California. Its billionaire funders spent heavily on losing candidates in the last election and are now playing defense.

The article was written before the indictment of 11 people in the charter industry in California for scamming the state of $80 million. That got lots of press and increases pressure on the Legislature to plug some holes in its charter laws.

Andrea Gabor: The Slow But Steady Decline of the Charter Industry | Diane Ravitch's blog

2020 Presidential Hopefuls Court Educators at NEA Representative Assembly - NEA Today #REDFORED #CTA #StrongPublicSchools #ra19 #nea #neara19 #houston

2020 Presidential Hopefuls Court Educators at NEA Representative Assembly - NEA Today

2020 Presidential Hopefuls Court Educators at NEA Representative Assembly

NEA President Lily Eskselsen García gets ready to introduce the first candidate at the #StrongPublicSchools presidential forum.

“Election 2020 starts right here, right now!” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García announced to the almost 7,000 delegates at the NEA Representative Assembly on Friday.

Waiting backstage at the George E. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, were 10 presidential hopefuls ready to make their case to educators for the first ever #StrongPublicSchools Presidential Forum. Across the nation, educators are ready to build on the momentum of the #RedforEd movement and play a powerful role in the 2020 campaign.

For three hours, Eskelsen Garcìa moderated the one-on-one discussions with former Vice President Joe Biden, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Sen. Kamala Harris, Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Tim Ryan, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The forum, Eskeslen García explained to the delegates, was not intended to promoting any specific candidate.

“We are promoting our agenda – what we want for our children, our profession and for our communities.”

Bernie Sanders and NEA President Lily Eskelsen García during the #StrongPublicSchools Presidential Forum.

The questions came from NEA members and everything was on the table  – education funding, educator pay, school privatization, equity, gun safety, student debt, and, of course, Betsy DeVos.

“What I love about this format is that it’s not just because we will be hearing from the candidates,” Eskelsen García said as the forum began. “It’s because they will be listening to you.”

Reinvesting in Education

Candidates emphatically supported increased federal funding for public education—for infrastructure repairs; for wrap-around services, like mental health counselors and school psychologists; for technology; for after-school programs; for universal CONTINUE READING: 2020 Presidential Hopefuls Court Educators at NEA Representative Assembly - NEA Today

WaPo Board still loves IMPACT for DCPS | GFBrandenburg's Blog

WaPo Board still loves IMPACT for DCPS | GFBrandenburg's Blog

WaPo Board still loves IMPACT for DCPS

The Washington Post editorial board has a long history of opposing unions, especially of teachers. They have been steadfast backers of proven liars and cheats such as Michelle Rhee and her hand-picked acolytes and successors.

They pretend everything was horrible about publication education in DC before mayoral control and the evaluation process called IMPACT, and they cherry-pick numbers to make it appear that progress has been made since 2007.

I fully agree (along with others) that there were lots of things wrong with DCPS before 2007, when Michelle Rhee was hired. But, ya know what? Most of it is STILL wrong, and some of it is even more screwed up than ever now. Listen to almost any teacher. In fact, as the data show and as anybody who spends time with regular neighborhood schools here in DC knows that this myth of tremendous success in DCPS and the charters is a flat out lie.

In certain schools (mostly but not all with significant white or Asian populations and well-educated parents) like Lafayette, Janney, BASIS, Deal, Walls, and Banneker, test scores are very high.

In the field of math education, this retired, award-winning math teacher sees little or nothing positive in what’s going on in DCPS math classes at levels from 5-12; I cannot comment intelligently CONTINUE READING: WaPo Board still loves IMPACT for DCPS | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Meet the Candidates to Fill Betty Patu's Seat

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Meet the Candidates to Fill Betty Patu's Seat

Meet the Candidates to Fill Betty Patu's Seat

There are 12(!) people vying for Patu's seat.  Clearly, the remaining Board members have their work cut out for them.  Of the 12:
- 9 are women
- 3 are men
- At least eight included photos that would indicate that they are people of color.  Five appear to be African-American, one self-identified as Mexican-American, another is bi-racial.
- 7 have or had children in Seattle Public Schools
- Two have/are been teachers
- One has served on a school board before

I would urge the district to check each applicant's address and confirm that they live at the address listed on their application.

- Skimming their letters of application, I would say there are five who would seem to know the district fairly well, four maybes and three who do not appear to have had much contact with the district.

The ones who are in the last category - by my measure of needing to know this district fairly well in order to jump right into the work - should probably be quickly omitted by the Board.  Those would be Brittany Williams, Chukundi Salisbury and Brandon Hersey.  (Editor's note: I'm putting Mr. Salisbury in the "maybe" list as his background would be an intriguing choice for the Board.)

Update: If I were on the Board, I would have pause about candidate Sandra Bosley. While Ms. Bosley does have a deep background in SPS as a teacher and administrator, she also sued the district and lost in 2013 over a claim of CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Meet the Candidates to Fill Betty Patu's Seat

CURMUDGUCATION: CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

CURMUDGUCATION: CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

When the Moonshot For Kids competition first crossed my screen, I took a moment to consider it as a topic for commentary, then moved on. But then this tweet popped up today:

CAP K-12 Education@EdProgress

What is education’s version of the self-driving car?

Let @edprogress and @educationgadfly know your innovative idea to improve student outcomes through a #MoonshotForKids and you could win $10,000 https://bit.ly/2ZbTitC 

2

6:49 AM - Jul 5, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Fordham-CAP “Moonshot for Kids” competition is now open

In April, the Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress announced a joint project, dubbed “A Moonshot for Kids,” intended to explore “the rationale, potential, and possible design of a...

fordhaminstitute.org

See CAP K-12 Education's other Tweets

Well, now.

There's a lot to unpack here.

First of all, the partnership. The Center for American Progress is theoretically a left-tilted thinky tank, a place where many Clinton staffers were parked in stasis awaiting the ascension of Hillary to the White House. But they have been relentless in their advocacy for corporate ed reform, to the point that I literally ran out of ways to title blog posts some variation of  "CAP tries pushing Common Core and Testing again" (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, for just a few examples).

So while it may seem odd to the casual observer to see CAP teaming up with Fordham, which is a notably right-tilted thinky tank, the two organizations, despite any apparent political tilts, are full-on fans of corporate ed reform. Their partnership here is just a reminder that when it comes to education, some progressives are just free market conservatives in sheep's clothing.

But this idea.

What's education's version of the self-driving car?

Do you mean something that's promoted relentlessly but is still far off in the future? Or do you mean a program that faces major obstacles that tech-cheerleaders just sort of gloss over?

Perhaps you meant a tech-based solution that strips all participants of power and agency and gives CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: CAP & Fordham Shoot The Moon

THIS WEEK Education Research Report

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 

Education Research Report

U.S. teachers work second jobs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1h

Complete Report Classes have ended for the summer at public schools across the United States, but a sizable share of teachers are still hard at work at second jobs outside the classroom. Among all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the U.S., 16% worked non-school summer jobs in the break before the 2015-16 school year. Notably, about the same share of teachers (18%) had second job

JUL 02

Vanished classmates: The effects of immigration enforcement on school enrollment

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

American Educational Research Association Main Findings: Partnerships between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police departments designed to enforce immigration laws reduced the number of Hispanic students in U.S. public schools in adopting counties by 10 percent after two years. Partnerships enacted during 2000 to 2011 displaced about 320,000 Hispanic students, with the impact

Supervised fun, exercise both provide psychosocial benefit to children with obesity

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University IMAGE: Dr. Catherine Davis and Celestine Williams view more Credit: Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University AUGUSTA, Ga. (July 2, 2019) -A program with clear rules, routines and activities, attentive adults and a chance to interact with peers appears to work as well at improving the quality of life, mood and self-worth of a child who is

Study finds dramatic differences in tests assessing preschoolers' language skills

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

About 1 in 10 babies in the United States is born premature. These children are at an increased risk for adverse outcomes across a broad spectrum of neurodevelopmental domains, including language skills. They also are at an increased risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as other behavioral problems. Preschool is a crucial time for language development. Children born pr

Raising Minimum Math Course Requirements for College Admission

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

This study explores the effects of a statewide policy change that increased the number of high school math courses required for admission to four-year public universities in North Carolina. Students took more math courses in high school following the state's announcement, with relatively larger increases for students in the middle and bottom quintiles of their eighth-grade math test scores. The r

Maternal Education and Exceptio's to Florida's Mandatory Grade Retention Policy

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Educational accountability policies are a popular tool to close the achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. However, these policies may exacerbate inequality if families from advantaged backgrounds are better able to advocate for their children and thus circumvent policy. This study investigates this possibility in the context of the early grade retention policy in Florida

Principal Effectiveness and Principal Turnover

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Research demonstrates the importance of principal effectiveness for school performance and the potentially negative effects of principal turnover. However, we have limited understanding of the factors that lead principals to leave their schools or about the relative effectiveness of those who stay and those who turn over. This study investigates the association between principal effectiveness and

Adult literacy in the United States

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

White and Hispanic adults make up the largest percentage of U.S. adults with low levels of English literacy, according to the most recent results of a survey on adult skills. The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Data Point report today July 2, 2019, entitled “ Adult Literacy in the United States .” This Data Point summarizes what data from the Program for the International

JUL 01

Relationships Between School Connectedness and Internalizing Symptoms During Early Adolescence

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

School connectedness is an important feature to consider within the school environment because it likely accounts for why some youth thrive and others struggle with internalizing problems. Furthermore, internalizing problems typically do not occur in isolation of each other, but rather anxiety and depressive symptoms frequently co-occur and increase subsequent risk for each other. As such, the pr

Debt cancellation for borrowers who were in default on their student loans resulted in more rapid repayment of other outstanding debts and a subsequent increase in average income

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

In the first quarter of 2018, outstanding student debt in the United States reached $1.5 trillion. Student debt is now the second-largest type of consumer debt, ahead of auto loans, credit card debt, and home-equity lines of credit. In recent years, economists and policymakers have asked whether this debt may have consequences for individual students' prospects and for overall economic growth. In

Dollars Rule Everything Around Me: College-Bound Students’ Views on Paying for College,

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

The level of student loan debt has doubled in less than a decade and more than one in ten borrowers are struggling to make their student loan payments. With such stakes, it is important to know how prospective college students are planning to finance their college education. In April 2018, roughly 1,200 high school juniors and seniors who registered to take the ACT test responded to a short surve

Teachers’ Grading Bias and Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Recent research has focused on what shapes gender differences in academic achievement and students’ choice of university field of study. This paper examines how teachers’ gender role attitudes and stereotypes influence the gender gap by affecting the school environment, exploring the extent to which teachers’ gender bias in high school influences students’ school attendance and academic performan

Correction by Degrees: Postsecondary Programs in Prisons

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

In an era of national record-low 3.8% unemployment, the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people stands at a significant 27%. Complicating this further, by 2020 two-thirds of job postings will require some level of postsecondary education—certificates, associate degrees, bachelor degrees or more—while formerly incarcerated adults are nearly twice as likely as the general population to

Observer-Identification: A Potential Threat to the Validity of Self-Identified Race and Ethnicity

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

The federal government mandates that school personnel select race and ethnicity identifiers for students who do not provide that information. This process is called “observer identification,” and it poses a potential threat to the validity of self-identified race/ethnicity data because (a) evidence from other fields suggests that about 40% of the time, observer identification does not match self-

Black Women Principals: Implications for Black Students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 5d

This review covers research on Black women principals for the period 1993 to 2017, using 57 research reports obtained from dissertations, journal articles, and a book chapter. This exploration is of particular significance given the continuous disenfranchisement and subsequent underachievement of Black children in U.S. schools and the importance of black women principals in addressing this quagmi

JUN 29

Pell Grant Versus Income Data in Postsecondary Research

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

Given growing disparities in college enrollment by household income, policymakers and researchers often are interested in understanding whether policies expand access for low-income students. This brief highlights the limitations of a commonly available measure of low-income status—whether students receive a federal Pell grant—and compares it to new data on enrollment by income quintile to evalua

The Relationship Between Student Discipline and Student Academic Outcomes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 7d

While numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between exclusionary discipline and negative student outcomes, this relationship is likely confounded by other factors related to the underlying misbehavior or risk of disciplinary referral. Using 10 years of student-level demographic, achievement, and disciplinary data from all K–12 public schools in Arkansas, this study finds that exclusion

Education Research Report