Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/5/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action — Hmong Innovating Politics

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action — Hmong Innovating Politics: HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action Earlier this week, Hmong Innovating Politics joined with over 160 Asian American and Pacific Islander groups in filing an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court in support of the University of Texas' race-conscious admissions policy (Fisher vs. University of Texas II). 

by mike simpson / 1h 

Cruz Lawsuit Settlement - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education)

Cruz Lawsuit Settlement - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education): Cruz Lawsuit Settlement SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced that the State Board of Education voted today to settle the Cruz, Jessy, et al. v. State of California, et al. lawsuit."We believe every student should have access to high-quality courses so they can succeed in 21st century careers a

by mike simpson / 1h 

An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today - The Washington Post

An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today - The Washington Post: An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education todayMelinda and Bill Gates recently said that attempting to reform the public education system in the United States has been the hardest philanthropic work they’ve ever done. The Seattle Times reported on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-spo

by mike simpson / 1h 

What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education

What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education: What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve EducationThe weather is turning colder for sure, but spring is in the air for those who believe there is an urgent need to change the nation’s federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.Seasoned education journalist Alyson Klein at Education Week believes recent changes in Congress “have lit

by mike simpson / 1h 

Hey Rachel, Let's Talk About Education! - NPE Action

Hey Rachel, Let's Talk About Education! - NPE Action: Hey Rachel, Let’s Talk About Education!To date, there has been no substantive discussion or debate of K-12 education policy during any of the presidential candidate debates. We must not allow this to continue.The Network for Public Education has proposed a K-12 education agenda for 2016, which includes 8 questions presidential candidates should

by mike simpson / 2h 

Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success | The Grade | The Washington Monthly

Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success | The Grade | The Washington Monthly: Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & SuccessBy Alexander RussoThis image has nothing to do with the blog post that follows.Let’s be honest. It’s easy to dismiss so-called “solutions” journalism. It’s such a goofy name. In education, at least, it’s distractingly associated with the Gates Foundatio

by mike simpson / 3h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Race from the Top

CURMUDGUCATION: Race from the Top: Race from the TopJoanne Weiss has been about lately trying to rehabilitate the memory of Race to the Top, trying to blunt the early judgments of history which can be paraphrased as "Race to the Top was a big failure that made a huge mess."This has prompted some conservative writers to gently suggest that there are some problems with that rearward view o

by mike simpson / 3h 

A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times - Columbia Journalism Review

A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times - Columbia Journalism Review: A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA TimesTHE SIGNS OF PERIL had long been visible at the Los Angeles Times. But it was a letter, of all things, that caused matters to detonate.The September correspondence was unusual not only because of the people who sent it, but because of the

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit

CURMUDGUCATION: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda KitNew York, you may recall, was Ground Zero for the hugest impact of the Opt Out movement, with around one in five New York students choosing not to take last year's Big Standardized Test. But New York's ed department is ready to fight back, because reasons. And to do that, they have created a handy "toolkit

by mike simpson / 6h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Should Public Officials Be Able to Use "Ghost Messaging?"

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Should Public Officials Be Able to Use "Ghost Messaging?": Should Public Officials Be Able to Use "Ghost Messaging?"From Education Week's Digital Education blog and the Sacramento Bee.  I'm going to print some excerpts from the article below but the entire article follows those excerpts. But Cuban, the Cyber Dust founder, sees a different proble

by mike simpson / 6h 

Audit: Sensitive student information released in 5,500 transactions | Deseret News

Audit: Sensitive student information released in 5,500 transactions | Deseret News: Audit: Sensitive student information released in 5,500 transactionsSALT LAKE CITY — State auditors recently found reasons to praise education administrators for the transparency, accuracy and reliability of financial reporting in public schools.But in the process of looking through school transparency data reported

by mike simpson / 7h 

Marie Corfield: An important message for all @NJEA members

Marie Corfield: An important message for all @NJEA members: An important message for all @NJEA membersDear Fellow NJEA Members,I'm pleased to formally announce today that I'm running for NJEA Secretary-Treasurer. The election is in April, 2017. Having to reach members from High Point to Cape May, this race, unlike an assembly race, is a marathon, not a sprint, so it's essential to start early. Fro

by mike simpson / 7h 

How politicians are robbing NJ’s public schools to reward charter schools | Bob Braun's Ledger

How politicians are robbing NJ’s public schools to reward charter schools | Bob Braun's Ledger: How politicians are robbing NJ’s public schools to reward charter schoolsChristopher Cerf–the state-appointed Newark schools superintendent, former state education commissioner, national charter champion and failed business entrepreneur–has scheduled a forum Thursday night from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Park

by mike simpson / 7h 

KIPP New Orleans: Classroom Hiring that Excludes Most Teach for America “Talent” | deutsch29

KIPP New Orleans: Classroom Hiring that Excludes Most Teach for America “Talent” | deutsch29: KIPP New Orleans: Classroom Hiring that Excludes Most Teach for America “Talent”Today I learned an interesting fact about KIPP New Orleans:Its teacher qualifications include a required minimum of two years of full time teaching experience:Qualified Candidates Have:At least two years of teaching experience

by mike simpson / 7h 

School Choice Is Not Always Democratic - Bridging Differences - Education Week

School Choice Is Not Always Democratic - Bridging Differences - Education Week: School Choice Is Not Always DemocraticDeborah Meier continues her conversation with Harry Boyte. To read their full exchange, please visit here.Dear Harry and friends,As you noted a week ago, Harry, this is getting interesting. I enjoyed the responses of Mike Miller, long time community organizer, to our conversation a

by mike simpson / 7h 

It’s Time For The Presidential Candidates To Talk About Education » Missouri Education Watchdog

It’s Time For The Presidential Candidates To Talk About Education » Missouri Education Watchdog: It’s Time For The Presidential Candidates To Talk About EducationDiane Ravitch wrote in Salon magazine that education was largely ignored by the main stream media in the 2012 Presidential campaigns.The media and citizens at public forums must not let that happen again. Education is central to our futur

by mike simpson / 7h 

NEWS FLASH:  Vermont State Board of Education Trashes Common Core SBAC Test - Wait What?

NEWS FLASH:  Vermont State Board of Education Trashes Common Core SBAC Test - Wait What?: NEWS FLASH:  Vermont State Board of Education Trashes Common Core SBAC TestYesterday the Vermont State Board of Education approved a letter that is being sent out to parents of public school students in that state.  Their honest and hard-hitting assessment that the Common Core SBAC test inappropriately labels

by mike simpson / 8h 

Distrust of School “Reform” Surfaces in Tuesday’s Election | janresseger

Distrust of School “Reform” Surfaces in Tuesday’s Election | janresseger: Distrust of School “Reform” Surfaces in Tuesday’s ElectionTuesday’s election brought some positive reversals in support of public schools in places where, at the local level, “corporatized school reform” has, until now, been making headway.Most notable is the election of Jim Kenney as the new mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylva

by mike simpson / 8h 

The not-to-be believed letter sent by U.S. Education Department to Ohio - The Washington Post

The not-to-be believed letter sent by U.S. Education Department to Ohio - The Washington Post: The not-to-be believed letter sent by U.S. Education Department to OhioPut this in the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category.When the U.S. Department of Education last month handed out $157 million in charter school grants, many in the education world couldn’t understand the largest award on the list. It

by mike simpson / 8h 

What the Success Academy fight over kicking out students says about the charter movement - Vox

What the Success Academy fight over kicking out students says about the charter movement - Vox: What the Success Academy fight over kicking out students says about the charter movementThe biggest recent argument about charter schools boils down to this: Is it okay to suspend a 5-year-old from school? What about suspending him 10 or 11 times in a single year? What about making a list of the student

by mike simpson / 8h 

To Hell with Good Intentions | Boston Review

To Hell with Good Intentions | Boston Review: To Hell with Good IntentionsSchool Reform is Failing America's ChildrenPublic school students rallied in front of Newark City Hall in April 2014 to protest reforms under Superintendant Cami Anderson, depicted here as a "liar." Photo: Newark Student UnionThe Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?Dale RussakoffHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, $

by mike simpson / 8h 

‘Education’ in a Police State – In California Alone, Schools Call the Cops Every 2.6 Seconds | Alternet

‘Education’ in a Police State – In California Alone, Schools Call the Cops Every 2.6 Seconds | Alternet: ‘Education’ in a Police State – In California Alone, Schools Call the Cops Every 2.6 Seconds76% of all high schools in the country have police officers working on the campus all day.San Jose, CA – Police presence in schools has been a topic of heavy debate in recent weeks due to a viral video t

by mike simpson / 8h 

students at online charter schools perform much weaker than their peers at other schools - Business Insider

students at online charter schools perform much weaker than their peers at other schools - Business Insider: One type of charter school has an 'overwhelming negative impact' on studentsCharter schools — which are publicly funded but privately run — have proliferated across the US since they first emerged as an alternative to traditional public schools (TPS) in the early 1990s.In recent years, onli

by mike simpson / 9h 

Educators: Common Core Standards Incompatible with Catholic Education

Educators: Common Core Standards Incompatible with Catholic Education: Educators: Common Core Standards Incompatible with Catholic EducationAdministrators from Schools of Excellence on The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Education Honor Roll recently told the Newman Society that Common Core State Standards pose a significant conflict to Catholic curricula, and found the standards severely wanti

by mike simpson / 9h 

Did the Common Core assessments cause the decline in NAEP scores? | Brookings Institution

Did the Common Core assessments cause the decline in NAEP scores? | Brookings Institution: Did the Common Core assessments cause the decline in NAEP scores?When the NAEP scores were released last week, math achievement had fallen by 1.3 points in fourth grade and 2.4 points in eighth grade.  It was the first time that math achievement had fallen in either fourth grade or eighth grade scores since

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Philly shows Chicago what democracy looks like. | Fred Klonsky

Philly shows Chicago what democracy looks like. | Fred Klonsky: Philly shows Chicago what democracy looks like.Philadelphia mayor-elect Jim Kenney and Helen Gym, council woman-elect.The city is run by a mayor who pushes a school reform agenda that focuses on closing neighborhood schools and opening the city to charters.The head of the schools at one time was Paul Vallas.The school district itself

by mike simpson / 21h hide  //  save

Who Created The Cages? [About That Teacher Life] | The Jose Vilson

Who Created The Cages? [About That Teacher Life] | The Jose Vilson: Who Created The Cages? [About That Teacher Life]A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at William Paterson University in New Jersey to their college of education. Their education program definitely has the right leaders to move their future teachers forward. After I spoke at length about being a teacher, cultural competen

by mike simpson / 21h 

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part V

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part V: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part VDmitri Mehlhorn and I continue our exchange about charter schools.Part I: Mehlhorn's opener.Part II: My reply.Part III: Mehlhorn's response.Part IV: My second reply.Leave your thoughts in the comments below. My final reply will be up shortly.* * *Five Questions for Charter CriticsJazzman-Mehlhorn Episode VRef

by mike simpson / 21h 

Commercialism in Schools: No Windfall For Districts and Students Pay a Huge Price - NEA Today

Commercialism in Schools: No Windfall For Districts and Students Pay a Huge Price - NEA Today: Commercialism in Schools: No Windfall For Districts and Students Pay a Huge PriceLast month, educators, parents and community members mobilized against “McTeacher Night,” an event at which educators sit behind the counter at local McDonald’s franchises and serve up hamburgers, french fries and soda to th

by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/4/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMWhat does the changing Pa. Supreme Court mean for school funding, charters? | Philadelphia Public School NotebookWhat does the changing Pa. Supreme Court mean for school funding, charters? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: What does the changing Pa. Supreme Court mean for school funding, charters?The results of Tuesday's Pennsylvania Supreme Court election could have wide-r

by mike simpson / 22h 

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action — Hmong Innovating Politics

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action — Hmong Innovating Politics:

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action 

Earlier this week, Hmong Innovating Politics joined with over 160 Asian American and Pacific Islander groups in filing an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court in support of the University of Texas' race-conscious admissions policy (Fisher vs. University of Texas II). In the Amicus Brief, advocates argue that institutions of higher education cannot evaluate applicants holistically without consideration of race. HIP has consistently held that race-blind or race-ignorant policies ignore the unique barriers and challenges applicants have had to overcome in order to obtain access to higher education. Moreover, race-ignorant policies mask the significant disparities that exist within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. For example, in Sacramento County, only 16.4% of the Hmong community has a Bachelors Degree or higher, compared to 28% of the total population and 30% of Whites. (Source: United States Census Bureau. 2011-2013 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates)

READ THE FULL AMICUS BRIEF HERE

Here in California, race-ignorant policies like Proposition 209 are correlated with significant drops in admissions of students of color and the stagnation of educational attainment rates for historically undeserved populations. By ruling against the University of Texas's affirmative action policy, the Supreme Court would prohibit the use of ethnicity, effectively masking the Southeast Asian American community's immense diversity and significant educational disparities. 

For more coverage on Fisher v. University of Texas II,check out these links:

• HIP Supports Repeal of Prop 209 -http://www.hipsacramento.org/blog/2014/03/09/hip-supports-repeal-of-prop-209
• NBC News -http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/more-160-asian-american-groups-file-briefs-support-affirmative-action-n456666
• AALDEF Amicus Brief - https://www.scribd.com/doc/288383985/AALDEF-amicus-brief-Fisher-v-Texas

HIP Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Affirmative Action — Hmong Innovating Politics:

Cruz Lawsuit Settlement - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education)

Cruz Lawsuit Settlement - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

Cruz Lawsuit Settlement

 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced that the State Board of Education voted today to settle the Cruz, Jessy, et al. v. State of California, et al. lawsuit.

"We believe every student should have access to high-quality courses so they can succeed in 21st century careers and college," said Torlakson. "This settlement reaffirms my commitment and the California Department of Education's commitment to help identify and coordinate local resources for districts with significant problems scheduling students."

California State Board of Education President Mike Kirst also commented on the settlement.

 "The state's academic standards aim to ensure that when students graduate high school they are prepared for credit-bearing college coursework and careers," Kirst said. "It is important for our schools to provide meaningful coursework so students can meet these standards."

The settlement, which will become final once approved by a superior court judge, recognizes districts' responsibilities for assigning courses. In addition, it calls for officials from the CDE and the State Board of Education to offer assistance and support to six high schools if they find out any of those high schools are having widespread scheduling problems.

The high schools are Castlemont and Fremont in Oakland Unified School District; John C. Fremont, Thomas B. Jefferson, and Susan Miller Dorsey in Los Angeles Unified School District; and Compton High School in Compton Unified School District.

The settlement also calls for California Department of Education (CDE) officials to help publicize a new law, Assembly Bill 1012, that has a variety of provisions regarding courses such as service periods or teaching assistantships.

The new law, which takes effect in July 2016, defines such courses as one period in which a student is sent home, not assigned a course, or assigned a course in which he or she assists a certificated employee but is not expected to complete curricular assignments.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Thursday, November 5, 2015Cruz Lawsuit Settlement - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today - The Washington Post

An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today - The Washington Post:

An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today

Melinda and Bill Gates recently said that attempting to reform the public education system in the United States has been the hardest philanthropic work they’ve ever done. The Seattle Times reported on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-sponsored event last month:

He [Gates] said he’s been surprised that education work can actually “go backward,” saying that if teachers don’t trust new evaluation systems, then they might opt for saying they don’t want any feedback at all.

That’s quite different from the foundation’s global-health work, where there’s been steady progress.

“If we come up with a new malaria drug, a new malaria vaccine, nobody votes to uninvent our malaria vaccine,” said Gates, to laughter from the audience.

That caught the attention of  Nancy E. Bailey, a longtime special education teacher who left the classroom because of standardized test-based school reforms that she thinks hurt children. Bailey, who has a doctorate in educational leadership and bachelors and master’s degrees in special education, wrote a post on her blog about the remarks by Gates, listing what she considers really hard in education from the point of view of students, parents and teachers.

Bailey, who wrote the 2013 book “Misguided Education Reform: Debating the Impact on Students,” challenged Melinda and Bill Gates to spend “some serious time in poor public schools” to learn what is really hard in education for teachers and students — and to “spend time with the many moms of students with disabilities who home-school not because they want to, but because schools have cut special education services.”

Here is a shortened version of her admittedly incomplete list of what’s really hard in education (and you can see the full blog post and list here):An educator’s list of what’s really hard in public education today - The Washington Post:

What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education

What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education:

What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education

The weather is turning colder for sure, but spring is in the air for those who believe there is an urgent need to change the nation’s federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.

Seasoned education journalist Alyson Klein at Education Week believes recent changes in Congress “have lit a fire under negotiations on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,” the name of the original law that eventually became NCLB.

In a more recent report, Klein explains, “ESEA reauthorization has been stalled since 2007. But earlier this year, the Senate overwhelming passeda bipartisan bill to rewrite the law, and a GOP-only measure barely skated through the House.”

The goal now is “to negotiate a deal that can make it through both houses of Congress and be signed by President Barack Obama, ideally by the end of the year.”

Calls for a revision of NCLB are coming from outside Congress too. US News and World Report reports the pressure is coming from “a coalition of 10 major education organizations – including the two national teachers unions and groups representing state education chiefs, superintendents, principals, school boards, and others.”

A statement from the coalition posted by Politico says, “It’s time for Congress to finish the job of revising No Child Left Behind and not let another school year go by under the old law.” The coalition’s effort includes a “digital ad campaign” and a “letter to Congress”.

“The push,” notes US New correspondent Lauren Camera, “comes after the Obama administration’s announcement that it wants states and school districts to cut back on the number of tests administered to students. The issue of testing has been front and center in the ongoing reauthorization debate.”

Camera quotes Randi Weingarten, who leads the American Federation of Teachers, a member of the coalition. “The final bill should put an end to the unproductive fixation on high-stakes testing,” she says, “and protect the law’s original intent to target services to districts and schools serving high concentrations of low-income children.”

So there’s some evidence a revision to NCLB may be in the offing, which What Congress Could Do Right Now To Improve Education:

NEWS AND VIEWS

Here’s Why $7 Billion Didn’t Help America’s Worst Schools

POLITICO

“Why has the [School Improvement Grant] program … produced such uneven results at a total cost of about $7 billion? A comparison by POLITICO of two troubled high schools – one in Miami and one in Chicago – both of which received millions in SIG funds, both of which followed a similar turnaround strategy, reveals that education officials at the federal, state, and local levels paid too little attention to a key variable for success … The difference between the schools was in their readiness to make use of the sudden infusion of money … The SIG program may soon disappear … There would still be money to fix the lowest-performing schools – the federal government just wouldn’t have a say in how to do it.”
Read more …

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout

The Wall Street Journal

“Five years into the … Common Core … big disparities remain in what and how students are taught, the materials and technology they use, the preparation of teachers, and the tests they are given … Many school districts discovered they didn’t have enough money to do all they needed to do. Some also found that meeting deadlines to implement the standards was nearly impossible … The new standards required more training and teaching materials than they would otherwise have needed … After a burst of momentum and a significant investment of money and time, the movement for commonality is in disarray … Some states turned to grants from the $4.3 billion federal educational-reform program called Race to the Top to help fund a move to the standards. But now most of that money is spent, leaving school districts to shoulder the continuing costs.”
Read more …

What Gets Students Motivated To Work Harder? Not Money

The Conversation

” Rewarding teachers financially for student achievement is an increasingly common practice, despite mixed evidence … Giving kids cash for grades and scores hasn’t proved straightforward either… Adolescents do not respond to incentives in ways that can be easily predicted by economic theory … When students received a certificate of recognition for attending tutoring sessions … the students in the certificate group attended 42.5% more of their allotted tutoring hours … Girls were significantly more responsive to the certificate of recognition than their male counterparts … A student’s effort was not necessarily observable to peers, which could have helped facilitate the positive response. Prior research suggests that the promise of certificates and trophies presented in a class or at a school assembly in front of peers might not necessarily act as a positive incentive … Working with the family to encourage and reward academic behaviors may hold more promise, compared to working directly through school settings where peer pressures and norms play an important role.”
Read more …

Study: Black Students – Not Crime – Determine If Schools Get Security

Talking Points Memo

“New research … showed the mere presence of African American students at a school makes it more likely the school will take on security measures, even when controlling for neighborhood crime and school misconduct … The study also found … greater racial disparities in student suspensions and arrests in schools where there are cops present or other security measures are taken. Those arrest and suspensions are believed to contribute to the so-called ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ … ‘In the average school without police, the black-white disparity in arrests was negligible,’ the authors wrote, with black students being 1.3 times more likely than white students. But with police present, African-American students were 2.2 times more likely to be arrested than white students.”
Read more …

School Vs. Society In America’s Failing Students

The New York Times

Columnist Eduardo Porter writes, “The rest of American society is failing its disadvantaged citizens even more than we realize. The question is, Should educators be responsible for fixing this? … A report released last week suggest[s] that socioeconomic deficits impose a particularly heavy burden on American schools … The score gap between American students and those in the highest-ranked countries … shrinks by 25% in math and 40% in reading once proper adjustments for gender, age, mother’s education, and books in the home are taken into account … A similar pattern shows up within the United States … There’s the wide disparity in resources devoted to education … There’s the informal tracking that happens when smart children are grouped separately … Teachers are paid poorly … And the best of them are not deployed to the most challenging schools.”
Read more …

Hey Rachel, Let's Talk About Education! - NPE Action

Hey Rachel, Let's Talk About Education! - NPE Action:

Hey Rachel, Let’s Talk About Education!

To date, there has been no substantive discussion or debate of K-12 education policy during any of the presidential candidate debates. 

We must not allow this to continue.

The Network for Public Education has proposed a K-12 education agenda for 2016, which includes 8 questions presidential candidates should be asked to determine their views.

Please email Rachel Maddow, the host of the next Democratic candidates forum on November 6th, and say, "Hey Rachel, let's talk about education!"Hey Rachel, Let's Talk About Education! - NPE Action:

@maddow

rachel.msnbc.com

The Rachel Maddow Show http://on.fb.me/1XTtM6r

Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success | The Grade | The Washington Monthly

Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success | The Grade | The Washington Monthly:

Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success

By Alexander Russo

This image has nothing to do with the blog post that follows.

Let’s be honest. It’s easy to dismiss so-called “solutions” journalism. It’s such a goofy name. In education, at least, it’s distractingly associated with the Gates Foundation (who’s funded the Seattle Times’ Education Lab).

There’s a long and highly-valued tradition among journalists for doing the opposite of finding solutions. That’s not what they do.

But even despite all those drawbacks and distractions, there’s also a tremendous appeal to the notion that media outlets can and should provide a mix of investigative pieces and coverage of progress (or attempts at progress) that are being made in even the most troubled situations.

Or at least that’s the case that David Bornstein makes in his work with the Solutions Journalism Network: that journalism should include a mix of investigative work (think Stephanie Simon) and coverage of promising research and programs (think Paul Tough).

“It’s the yin to the yang of investigative journalism,” Bornstein told me in a recent phone call. 

To hijack a common newsroom saying, journalism is doing a decent job afflicting the comfortable, but not so good at comforting the afflicted. (Or, as Bornstein puts it, “Really smart people sometimes fall into writing that lacks nuance and creativity.”)

In newsrooms and panels around the country, Bornstein has been making the case that journalism is currently out of whack, focusing too narrowly on its role as “disinfectant.” 

[Disclosures: The Gates Foundation invited me to moderate a panel at its most recent education conference and paid my travel expenses. This site is funded by the AFT and Education Post. I am a member of EWA, which has held at least one panel on the solutions approach.]

According to Bornstein, the Solutions Network has worked with about 40 different news organizations and have seen roughly 20 different funders. The outlets include the Boston Globe [funded by Nellie Mae], Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Detroit Free Press [violence prevention], Univision, Fusion, PBS NewsHour, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and WAMU.

Agree with him or not — I’m on the fence — it’s useful to understand what Bornstein’s talking about.

Understanding solutions journalism requires knowing a bit about how journalism gets produced: In pretty much every situation, editors and reports make a choice about how to come at the topic.Take high school dropouts.  One approach would be to focus on the schools with the highest dropout rates, pointing out how poorly they are serving kids and using public dollars. Another approach would be to focus on schools making progress lowering their dropout rates — or at least trying to do so — and exploring what if any tactics could be used in other places.  A third approach, is to focus on a mix of success and failure, ideally in some way that’s representative of the larger trend rather than focusing on extremes or outliers.

Too often, if not exclusively, journalists in education and other beats these days tend to focus on exposing the problems, flaws, and setbacks, notes Bornstein. It’s an honorable and important function, exposing failure. (It’s my natural tendency to point out flaws, so call me guilty on this front.) But what’s missing in that conversation? And what’s the likely result of overdoing it?

“It’s like a parent criticizing a child every day and expecting the child to do better,” says Bornstein.

If focusing on flaws becomes the vast majority of what editors and reporters spend their time doing, there are problems. Producing that kind of journalism can come to seem a waste of time, painting the same picture again and again. A focus on failure can give the public and policymakers a skewed understanding of what’s going on in schools.

And despite the powerful feelings of outrage that such stories can produce, relying Re-Imagining Education Coverage: Failure & Success | The Grade | The Washington Monthly:

CURMUDGUCATION: Race from the Top

CURMUDGUCATION: Race from the Top:

Race from the Top

Joanne Weiss has been about lately trying to rehabilitate the memory of Race to the Top, trying to blunt the early judgments of history which can be paraphrased as "Race to the Top was a big failure that made a huge mess."

This has prompted some conservative writers to gently suggest that there are some problems with that rearward view of RTTT, well summed up by Andy Smarick (Bellwether) who basically points out that while they feds may have done a swell job, technically speaking, of selling and launching their program, the skipped over the most important question of all-- should they have done it in the first place?

This is a problem that corporatized technocrats ported over from private industry, where management programs like ISO 9001 can focus on how well you've done something, but never look at whether it should be done at all. I've heard management consultants admit that you could get ISO 9001 certification for companies that efficiently accomplished terrible things. You could get certified awesomeness for a company that manufactured and marketed poison breakfast food, or which efficiently abused busloads of elderly folks.

In one article, and then another, Weiss makes her case for how it should have gone, with a fully-formed model for educational excellence flowing down from DC and being properly implemented. Writes Smarick:

In admitting mistakes, Weiss doesn’t cite the program’s size, ambitions, or federal direction. The problem, in her mind, was “sequencing.” New standards should have come first, then improved teacher feedback, then new educator evaluations. The issue wasn’t that RTTT went too far; it just “didn’t do enough to guide states in how to think it all through.”

In this, Weiss echoes two familiar refrains. The golden oldie is "The program would have been super if not for those darn implementation problems." The new hit most recently appeared as part of the CURMUDGUCATION: Race from the Top:

A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times - Columbia Journalism Review

A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times - Columbia Journalism Review:

A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times

THE SIGNS OF PERIL had long been visible at the Los Angeles Times. But it was a letter, of all things, that caused matters to detonate.

The September correspondence was unusual not only because of the people who sent it, but because of the events that led to it. In August, Angeleno billionaire Eli Broad began preliminary talks with the board of Tribune Publishing about buying the Times from the national chain. The board eventually rejected the overture, right around the time it voted to fire the Times’ publisher and chief executive, Austin Beutner. He was just one year at the helm.

Broad and Beutner have a shared history of trying to take control of theTimes. For the past decade, Broad has expressed interest in getting the Chicago-based parent company to sell him the paper. And two years ago, Beutner joined him in that effort, just a year before Beutner would be named publisher. The connection led some Times staffers to wonder whether Beutner’s ouster had come in response to what they characterized as a “hostile takeover” attempt of the newspaper.

Beutner, at odds with the Chicago mothership throughout his short tenure, tells CJR that “I was aware but not involved” in Broad’s offer. Broad did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this article. A Tribune Publishing spokesman declined to comment on the circumstances of Beutner’s termination.

Regardless of whether the two events were related, they’ve been linked by the letter—sent to Tribune Publishing’s board days after Beutner’s September 8 departure. More than 50 local influentials, including business leaders, philanthropists, and two former mayors, protested Beutner’s  firing. “As you move ahead,” it reads, “we strongly urge you to continue with leadership that knows and loves Los Angeles and shares our commitment to its future.” Broad’s name sat inconspicuously midway down the list. Left unmentioned were continuing discussions in local circles about possibly buying the Times. Those circles, it should be noted, often radiate from Broad.

Austin Beutner, former publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times (Getty Images / Bob Chamberlin)

The public drama was perhaps unprecedented among the nation’s top newspapers: a national chain firing a publisher whose billionaire associate made an unwanted attempt to buy the chain’s flagship property. The sequence of events made for a bizarre, high-stakes circus that shows few signs of abating.

“There’s still very serious interest in trying to buy the LA Times to maintain its local connection and coverage,” says Mickey Kantor, a former US Secretary of Commerce who signed the letter and has become a sort of informal spokesman for the cause. “There is great disappointment in what Tribune did, not only in removing Austin Beutner, but also not assuring the Times would maintain its stance as the leading outlet in Southern California.”

The correspondence also touched off an unusual lobbying campaign among the upper crust of the local political class, aiming to pressure Tribune Publishing to sell. Within days, a dozen city council members sent a similar letter, while the county board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution calling for local ownership. Members of the state legislature and civic leaders from the San Fernando Valley added their own respective letters in the following weeks.

It was a peculiar confederation to be sure, especially given that theTimes’ civic mission relies on vigilance and skepticism toward such powerful interests. But uncertainty lays fertile ground for the seeds of desperation, and the Times newsroom has repeatedly found itself a struggling protagonist in the more than decade-long tragedy of American newspapers. After Tribune Publishing announced in Octoberyet another round of staff cuts—like déjà vu all over again—the newsroom, too, joined the chorus.

“Tribune [ownership] has been a nightmare in many ways,” says one veteran staffer, who like others was granted anonymity to speak freely. “Everyone is deeply skeptical of anything they’re involved in. So yeah, people are definitely talking about the possibility that we’re going to be sold.”

Tribune Publishing, for its part, has publicly maintained its commitment to the Times, the largest of the conglomerate’s 11 major daily newspapers. “Our California News Group, which includes the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune, is a cornerstone of our Company’s portfolio and a key component to our success in the future,” it said in a Sept. 17 statement.

Interviews with a dozen current and former Times staffers illustrate a newsroom that’s deeply distrustful of its parent company’s motives. The A billionaire, a fired publisher, and a spectacle at the LA Times - Columbia Journalism Review:

CURMUDGUCATION: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit

CURMUDGUCATION: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit:

NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit

New York, you may recall, was Ground Zero for the hugest impact of the Opt Out movement, with around one in five New York students choosing not to take last year's Big Standardized Test. But New York's ed department is ready to fight back, because reasons. And to do that, they have created a handy "toolkit," much like the handy toolkits that the American Tobacco Instituteused to provide for informing the public about the benefits of smoking.

It's just an awesome piece of work, and I will hit the highlights now for those of you lacking the time or stomach to see for yourselves. It has many cool features, so this may take a while.

Video Welcome from Your Fearless Leader 

NY Commissioner MaryEllen Elia is here-- well, she's somewhere, in front of a curtain, sitting next to a small table holding a magazine and a potted plant. It is quite possibly the laziest staging of anything ever, and I shouldn't care because presentation isn't that big a deal here, except that this is Intro To Test Propaganda, which means that we ought to be aware of what we're doing. Simply shooting it in her office would have been fine. Shooting it while standing in any random setting would have been fine. But this-- somebody clearly thought that it needed some kind of staging, but then all they could come up with was a table and a potted plant, oh, and hey, hand me that catalog over there.

I mean, this whole site is a presentation about making a presentation to win hearts and minds. So either this "set" demonstrates a lack of commitment or a lack of competence, and that is not a good way to set the tone for this enterprise.

So what does she actually say? Last years 20% of students didn't take that awesome BS Tests; her response is to explain to parents and teachers "about the benefits" of high standards and ditto tests. Also, the annual test doesn't tell the entire story, but they do provide a roadmap for teachers and school leaders to focus on so they can improve.

But if students don't take the BS Test, everyone from students up through state policy makers "miss out" on crucial information, CURMUDGUCATION: NY: The Anti-Opt Out Propaganda Kit: