Friday, November 12, 2010

U.S. lags in high-level math achievement — Joanne Jacobs

U.S. lags in high-level math achievement

by Joanne

The U.S. isn’t a high achiever in math education, conclude Eric Hanushek, Paul Peterson and Ludger Woessmann in Education Next.

No fewer than 30 of the 56 other countries that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) math test, including most of the world’s industrialized nations, had a larger percentage of students who scored at the international equivalent of the advanced level on our own National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests.

Only 6 percent of U.S. students scored at the advanced level on the PISA 2006 math exam, compared to 28 percent of Taiwanese students and at least 20 percent of students in Hong Kong, Korea, and Finland. Race and poverty don’t explain it: Eight percent of white students in the U.S. and 10.3 of those with a college-graduate parent achieve at the advanced level.

Twelve other countries had more than twice the percentage of advanced students as the United

Schools Matter: Another attempt to show American children are bad at math

Another attempt to show American children are bad at math

by skrashen

Jay Mathews is worried about math scores. My comment posted below.

Even our best kids lag in math--middle schools to blame

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/11/even_our_best_kids_lag_in_math.html

By Jay Mathews

I am usually among the skeptics when international comparisons make U.S. schoolchildren look as if they spend their class time

NYC Public School Parents: A Black to School Treat

A Black to School Treat

by Gary Babad

November 12, 2010 (GBN News): While Catherine Black has been exceedingly tight-lipped since Mayor Bloomberg named her to be NY City Schools Chancellor, GBN News has learned that the Chancellor-in-Waiting is already planning her first new initiative to raise attendance and student motivation.

According to a source at the DOE, the new Chancellor plans to utilize one of her recent business innovations, an iPad application designed to offer daily sex tips. “This could entirely revolutionize the Health Education curriculum,” the spokesperson told GBN News. “As Cathie herself has said, the $2.99 app is ‘cheaper than a hooker’. Kids will look forward to coming to school every day. They won’t want to miss a trick, so to speak.”

J. Fredrick Runson, professor of education at Manhattan University, feels that Ms. Black’s initiative should quiet

This Week In Education: AM News: State Using Edujobs Money For Other Purposes

AM News: State Using Edujobs Money For Other Purposes

by Alexander Russo

Federal Education Money to Be Used to Offset Cuts AP/Edweek: State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek told school superintendents Wednesday that their districts won't receive an expected infusion of $147 million in federal education money... Rape charge against Detroit student dropped after accuser commits suicide Boston Herald: Principal Donovan Rowe said school officials investigated the alleged bullying and found nothing overt. Rowe said on occasion he walked behind Samantha as she went from class to class and witnessed no harassment... Title 9 Advocacy Group Reports Schools In Violation NPR: The National Women's Law Center filed complaints Wednesday against school districts across the country, accusing them of violating Title 9's nearly 40-year-old guarantee of equal athletic opportunities for girls. Some of the districts say the complaints are based on old data but that they'll work to remedy any problems. That might not be easy in a down economy that's forcing many districts to cut teachers and education programs.

Schools Matter: Jay's Missing Footnote for Today's KIPP Ad

Jay's Missing Footnote for Today's KIPP Ad

by Jim Horn

As the oligarchs' leading print media promoter for more tests, more charter chain gangs like KIPP, and more data to back up the data that produces the data, Jay Mathews uses his WaPo column to pump these causes on a daily basis. Today he returns to a snippet from a 2008 SRI California study of KIPP schools to make the case for longer school days:

On the longer-school-day side, we have programs such as KIPP, whose charter middle schools usually have nine-hour school days that last until 5 p.m., plus required three-week summer school and many Saturday sessions. A survey of KIPP students who completed the middle school program showed a 42 percentile gain in math and a 28 percentile gain in reading over four years.

Actually, Jay has chopped off a half hour for some reason (embarrrasing maybe?), since the study he refers to above, “San Francisco Bay Area KIPP Schools: A Study of Early Implementation and Achievement,” clearly notes the 9.5 hour school day (almost half of which is spent on math and reading), the 60 percent increase in

Inside angle on K-12 politics — Joanne Jacobs

Inside angle on K-12 politics

by Joanne

What do the insiders think about education politics in the next two years?

Ed Week’s Politics K-12 has the juicy stuff from a subscription-only report by Andrew Rotherham (Bellwether Education Partners and Eduwonk) and John Bailey, a Bush education aide.

Nearly 70 percent think the Republican surge will slow President Obama’s education agenda. Two thirds think the federal role in education will be scaled back.

One person surveyed said: “Next Congress is going to be about cutting spending, repealing Obamacare, and setting the stage for 2012. Noises will be made about how wonderfully bipartisan

Brock Cohen: Debunking the Fairy Tale of School Reform

Brock Cohen

Freelance writer, humorist, educator, stoptheinanity.com

Posted: November 11, 2010 06:35 PM

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Debunking the Fairy Tale of School Reform

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Recently, I attempted to unpack the media-augmented narrative -- and national hot button issue du jour -- of public education reform within the context of a fairy tale. I chose the fairy tale as my medium because I couldn't think of any other storytelling device that was simultaneously so magnificently far-fetched and so widely recounted.

And yet, for me to sit here and claim that this fable from hell is complete fiction is just as disingenuous as the media's repeated insistence on its utter veracity. Because embedded among the sweeping generalizations, circular reasoning, scapegoating, and causal oversimplification of this grand morality tale are baby-corn kernels of truth. Which is why it makes for such superb propaganda.

So, allow me to clarify.

Never have public school teachers been more

Time to leave No Child Left Behind, behind

By Steve Farrell

It has been said that the most effective way to conquer a man is to capture his mind. There is no slave more devoted, no disciple more dedicated than one who has become completely obsessed with the vision of what he considers to be a great idea. [1]

Thus, education has long been a proper object of concern among both freemen and Statist, among both the good and the evil. Most everyone senses that what a child is taught in his youth has an enormous prospect for good or ill in individuals and in civilizations.

In 386 BC, Plato laid out one the most complete and oft studied handbooks on communist totalitarianism in his work Republic. A grand key of successfully implementing the plan was education.

As maverick school chiefs leave, will their changes stay? | McClatchy

As maverick school chiefs leave, will their changes stay?

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By Sarah Butrymowicz and Sarah Garland | The Hechinger Report

NEW YORK — The recent resignations of high-profile school chiefs Joel Klein in New York and Michelle Rhee in Washington, D.C., raise questions about the future of education reform at a time when school districts across the U.S. are adopting policies the two icons of change pioneered.

Klein stepped down on Tuesday after eight years at the helm of the nation's largest school system, while Rhee left Washington last month after District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his re-election bid. Klein and Rhee have championed holding teachers and principals accountable for student performance, weakening union protections and closing down failing schools.

Klein called his overhauls "the most far-reaching" in the country at a conference Wednesday in New York. "If (school change) is not controversial, it's going to be meaningless."

Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said that what happens next will depend on replacements for the two leaders and the agenda of the mayors who hire

Poll: N.J. voters say not enough state money spent on education | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/12/2010

Poll: N.J. voters say not enough state money spent on education

By Adrienne Lu

Inquirer Trenton Bureau

Ninety-nine percent of New Jersey voters believe the state's budget problems are very serious or somewhat serious, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. But recession-weary voters say the state should spend more on education.

In a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released this week, 59 percent of registered voters who responded said not enough was being spent on education, while 15 percent said too much was being spent.

"The spending results are consistent with our earlier polling," said David Redlawsk, director of the poll. "New Jerseyans generally support their schools and want to see them better funded, even while they want the state to cut back on funding in other areas."

That support for education is not unconditional, however. In the Rutgers poll, 90 percent said teachers should be tested for reading and math proficiency, and 70 percent said tenure was a "barrier to eliminating bad teachers." Still, 63 percent said they opposed basing a teacher's salary on test scores.

Twenty-six percent of the parents of school-age children among the respondents said budgets were the bigges

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