Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Schools Matter: Is there a US science education crisis?

Is there a US science education crisis?

by skrashen

Sent to Science News (June 8) in response to "Confronting a third crisis in US science education," by S. James Gates - http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/58930/title/Comment__Confronting_a_third_crisis_in_U.S._science_education_

Is there a US science education crisis?

"Confronting a third crisis in US science education" (May 22) assumes that there is a real crisis. There are several reasons to doubt this:

- Our science and math test scores are unspectacular, but the problem is not science and math education. Studies show that American students from well-funded schools who come from high-income families outscore all or nearly all other countries on international tests. Only our children in high poverty schools score below the international average. (Payne and Biddle, 1999; Bracey, 2009; Martin, 2009). The US has the highest percentage of children in poverty of all industrialized countries (25%, compared to Denmark's 3%). Our educational system has been successful; the problem is poverty.

Make Schools More Like Business? (Part 2) � InterACT

Make Schools More Like Business? (Part 2)

by David B. Cohen

Recently, I wrote a blog post about applying business thinking to education. This post is Part 2, though not the Part 2 I originally intended to post… so stay tuned for Part 3.
My online wanderings through business reading led me to Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a business and manufacturing expert who worked in the U.S. and Japan, and devised the Deming System of Profound Knowledge. His ideas and reputation are carried forward posthumously through the work of the institute that bears his name. His resumé bore this description: “W. Edwards Deming has been for forty years a consultant, with practice world wide. His clients include railways, telephone companies, carriers of motor freight, manufacturing companies, consumer research, census methods, hospitals, legal firms, government agencies, research organizations in universities and in industry.”
Among other interesting elements of his work, I found “The 14 Points for Management” – and noticed once again that the supposed lessons of business that are offered to education don’t often enough look like the advice I see

Schools Matter: Let's Have Performance Pay for Economists Who Muck Around in Education Issues

Let's Have Performance Pay for Economists Who Muck Around in Education Issues

by Jim Horn

The NYTimes blog, Economix, has a posting by Harvard economist, Edward Glaeser, on a recent conference in Cambridge to air some of the research on teacher pay based on test scores. The conference brought together the customary lineup of pro-corporate and pro-privatization forces, those described by Dr. Paul Peterson as the good against the evil (see Bush v. Holmes (Fl. Sup. Ct.) for some background on Peterson's self-described "small band of Jedi attackers, using their intellectual powers to fight the unified Death Star forces led by Darth Vader, whose intellectual capacity has been corrupted by the urge for complete hegemony”(p. 3).

This illustrious group of Jedi warriors are now ensconced at Harvard within The Program on Policy and Governance (PEPG), whose Advisory Committee is headed by Jeb Bush and whose members include the Who's Who of research chefs and ideologues who earn their bread by manufacturing reports to support the corporate vision of schooling.

Since there was no U. S. research presented at the conference to support the current plan to base tenure and pay on test scores, Glaeser focuses on a rehash of a study done ten years ago in Israel and a more recent one

June 2010 Election Day: Corporations vs. Democracy | California Progress Report

June 2010 Election Day: Corporations vs. Democracy

by kaldveer

By Robert Cruickshank
There is a very clear theme to today's election: will corporations take over California's politics, or will the voters stand up in defense of their democracy?
This theme appears again and again and again in races across the state, from the governor's race on down to the ballot propositions and state legislative races. Corporations and the CEOs that used to run them are convinced that their money will be enough to sway voters to give those corporations and CEOs much more power over our wallets and our elections. A massively underfunded, but broadly-based progressive coalition is fighting back, and in some of the key races, the outcome is far from clear.
read more

Teacher Reform Tug-of-War: Recruiting Talent vs. Using Talent � The Quick and the Ed

Teacher Reform Tug-of-War: Recruiting Talent vs. Using Talent

by Forrest Hinton

Sometimes anti-establishment education reform thinkers, like other visionaries sharing a loose outlook on the world, get lumped together in a monolithic ball of thought that is easily digestible to those who have a different outlook or no outlook at all. The tragic result of this is that details, diversity of ideas, and shades of perception are lost to external thinkers and policy makers.
Reading Public Impact’s several-month-old 3X for All: Extending the Reach of Education’s Bestyesterday reminded me of the importance of debating alternative models and theories—especially within a group with shared ideals. Like the DuBois-Washington debates on the future of black people in American society or the ongoing debate among libertarian thinkers on the proper role of the Federal Reserve, Emily and Bryan Hassel open up a course-charting discussion for education reformers on how best to use talented people in our worst performing K-12 schools.
Two leading models for improving teacher quality center around the recruitment of smart, persistent achievers

“The Lottery” � The Quick and the Ed

“The Lottery”

by Chad Aldeman

Charter schools, public schools that are free from many of the restrictions placed on traditional public schools, are growing rapidly. In just the last eight years, enrollment at charters has tripled (see chart below), while total public school enrollment has increased a modest five percent. Unlike traditional public schools, to which students are assigned automatically based on where they live, charters filled with students who choose to attend them. But, because charters must take any student who comes to them, charters are forced to allocate their seats through a lottery process. This process is the subject of an important new movie, “The Lottery,” by Madeleine Sackler.
If you live in a city or state with charter schools, I encourage you to attend a real, live lottery. Many are open to

An open letter to the citizens of California | San Diego Gay & Lesbian News

An open letter to the citizens of California

Author of the "Divorce Ban" speaks out on the initiative process

John Marcotte, Guest Contributor | Tue, 06/08/2010 - 10:04am | Login to bookmark or comment

ENLARGE

Editor's note: Marcotte's 2010 California Protection of Marriage Act got approval last November from the California Secretary of State to seek signatures in an attempt to place his "divorce ban" initiative on the this November's ballot. His frustration in the system mounted as his quest for the 700,000 signatures required failed - but he has not lost his resolve.
California's ballot-initiative process is broken beyond repair—at least that's what ABC 7 in Los Angeles and San Francisco concluded last year when they labeled me, “the poster child for abuse of the ballot-initiative system.” They didn't care for the initiative I filed, which would have banned divorce in the state of California.
Somehow, they got the impression that I was mocking Proposition 8; that I was using the political process to point out the hypocrisy of people who were eager to take rights away from gay people to protect “traditional marriage,” but were completely unwilling to give up their own rights to make marriage even more secure.
Even if that were true, the idea that I am abusing the system is absurd. I have no powerful or moneyed interests backing my cause. I gathered people to me on Facebook. I financed the effort with t-shirt sales. All of my signature gatherers were volunteers. I am an ordinary citizen. My cause is populism at its best.
The ballot initiative was designed to put power into the hands of the people and that is exactly how we used it. We were doing it right—which is ultimately why we failed. If you want to see real abuse of the system, just look at your ballot on June 8th.
Look at Proposition 16. The deceptively titled “Taxpayer's Right to Vote Act” is actually backed by more than $46 million from PG&E. Instead of empowering voters, Prop 16 would actually take their rights away—giving a minority the power to veto the creation or expansion of municipal power, and eliminating competition in the marketplace.
Study the Mercury Insurance-backed Proposition 17, which would enable insurance companies to levy outrageous surcharges to customers who have had a lapse in their coverage. Mercury claims the initiative will actually allow them to give increased discounts to drivers who maintain continuous coverage. Does anyone honestly believe that Mercury just

The Strange Paradox of 'School Reform' Today - Bridging Differences - Education Week

The Strange Paradox of 'School Reform' Today

By Diane Ravitch on June 8, 2010 7:59 AM | 10 Comments | No TrackBacks

Dear Deborah,

Over the past few months, I have traveled the country and spoken to thousands of educators—teachers, administrators, and school board members. At the same time, I have kept close tabs on the national discussion about the Obama administration's Race to the Top.

I have discovered a strange paradox. With few exceptions, the national media are excited by the Race to the Top, especially the expansion of charter schools, the tough accountability measures directed at teachers, and closing down of "failing" schools. But educators are overwhelmingly disheartened by these same measures.

The people who have the closest involvement in schools see the Obama administration's policies as misguided, if not disastrous, yet these same policies are celebrated by journalists and pundits who see education as just one more policy issue with obvious answers.

Consider these two journalistic celebrations of Race to the Top: one, by Stephen Brill in The New York Times Magazine, and the other, by David Brooks in his column in The New York Times. Brill, a lawyer who usually writes about legal

The Educated Reporter: Good work on grad rates.

Good work on grad rates.

Linda Shaw has an interesting piece in the Seattle Times, with specifics, on what the Everett School System has done to dramatically increase the graduation rate. I want to know more!

Blame Facebook.

Or blame parents? Or blame The Culture? I think it is interesting and not surprising that a survey would find a decline in empathy among college students, and other generations as well, as reported by Stephanie Steinberg in USA Today. This is depressing, as empathy is the most important thing we can teach our children. This piece just reminds me how much more journalism I would like to see about the inner lives of kids. Of course, that is a small

This Week In Education: Thompson: Editing Suggestions for Jay Mathews

Thompson: Editing Suggestions for Jay Mathews

by john thompson

Jay Mathews writes that if the new D.C. contract doesn't work "it will be leaders like Rhee who get the blame. ... Tests are flawed measures, but they are pretty much all we have."[insert] Diagnostic assessments would better serve students, but they do not have the political cache. "That is why the new breed of teachers takes them seriously. ... If [insert] When "scores don’t continue to improve, the headlines will say Rhee failed." But "the teachers driving schools in these new directions will blame themselves and" [insert] many will become discouraged and abandon the profession but they shouldn't. Rejecting the blame game would be "a useful habit if we want urban schools to work." "One crucial element in all this can’t be easily measured — attitude, both in teachers and students. Leaders like Rhee have insisted on hiring only teachers who believe that they can make big gains despite the drag on learning that comes from poverty" [insert] pass her

Media: The Perils Of Nonprofit Education Journalism

by Alexander Russo

You think for-profit "corporate" journalism is flawed when it comes to covering education issues? I'd agree. But perhaps tax status isn't the real issue. As the Community Media Cooperative's Curtis Black documents in a new Huffington Post column (here), nonprofit (foundation-funded) journalism has challenges, too -- perhaps nowhere as much as in its coverage of controversial education issues like school turnarounds and performance pay. The backstory here is that Chicago News Cooperative, which provides coverage for the Midwest edition of the New York Times has experienced some struggles disclosing its conflicts and reporting Chicago news in a balanced way for the New York Times. This problem has been widely discussed in Chicago and was written up in the Columbia Journalism review (here). A large part of the debate has to do with CNC/NYT's coverage of school turnarounds, and the role CNC board member Mike Koldyke plays. It's not just a Chicago issue, given that the Times has contracted out with other nonprofit outfits to provide content in other parts of the country.

Students sue State of California over budget cuts

California students sue over disappearing teachers

BY RUPA DEV, SDNN
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

(New America Media)

Natalie Robinson, 10, won’t be returning to Cordova Lane Elementary School next year because her school was shut down last week.

“It’s sad because my school is closing after 51 years,” said Natalie. “I’m going to miss my teachers; they were all really nice and creative.”

Cordova Lane Elementary, which takes its name from the Sacramento suburb where its located, shut down due to low enrollment, and this is just one of many changes the Folsom Cordova Unified School District has already implemented as a result of $14.7 million slashed from the 2009-2010 budget and

Emerging nonprofit journalism ventures set sights on education | California Watch

Emerging nonprofit journalism ventures set sights on education

June 8, 2010 | Louis Freedberg

One of the more interesting questions in the burgeoning nonprofit journalism landscape is the extent to which new reporting ventures will focus on one area of coverage, or, like California Watch, will cover a range of topics.

Flickr photo by Rick

A slew of nonprofit ventures focusing on health and health policy reporting have sprung up in the last few years, mostly underwritten by foundations with a specific interest in health and health policy issues.

The most extensive is Kaiser Health News, underwritten almost entirely by the Kaiser Family Foundation. TheCenter for Health Reporting at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is getting underway, with support from the California HealthCare Foundation.Reporting on Health is a new resource established by the California Endowment Health Reporting Fellowships. FairWarning.org, based in Los

"Secretly Bilking College Students 101" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

"Secretly Bilking College Students 101"

This just in from The Huffington Post:

"Some of the nation's largest and most elite universities stand to gain millions of dollars from selling the names and addresses of students and alumni to credit card companies while granting the companies special access to school events, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found.

The schools and their alumni associations are entitled to receive payments that multiply as students use their cards. Some colleges can receive bonuses when students incur debt.

The little-known agreements have enriched schools and some banks at a time when young women and men already are borrowing at record levels, raising questions about whether such collegiate and corporate alliances are in the best interests of students..."

Plus, details on the deals:

" . . . Our examination of affinity agreements involving some of the nation's largest and most prestigious colleges revealed that schools and alumni associations:
Sell students' personal information. Many are contractually obligated to share students' names, phone numbers and addresses with banks.

S. Philly High 6 months later: What still needs work | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

S. Philly High 6 months later: What still needs work

by Helen Gym

In the past few weeks, the School District of Philadelphia has made a heavy media push to recast the story at South Philadelphia High School. From news articles to columns to letters to editorial board briefings, the District is pushing the story that the events of Dec. 3 are long past and, in their typical refrain, it’s time to move on.
The latest push has been to use statistics. According to Monday's Philadelphia Inquirer story, the District claims

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