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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com:

"THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the"
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This Week In Education: Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest

This Week In Education: Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest
Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest
NCLB-Texas-ModelJack Jennings is right, "If there's one thing that causes anger on the part of teachers, its AYP" .., (we) "think it's arbitrary and an unfair way to measure how schools are doing. The question is, will the replacement be better?" My state’s AYP was based on API, an algorithm used for ½ of California’s system (the adjustment for socio-economics had already been dropped as impractical, partially because it could not account for the proliferation of choice) which was designed for another purpose (awarding incentives). It was further based on the lowest common denominator testing system of Texas. We explicitly patterned our rules on Ohio’s because that state’s political importance meant that they would get the maximum number of loopholes. This time we were told, the Feds were really serious and our only hope was a rebellion by Republican governors. NCLB was a "Pass Fail" system and schools that did not improve dramatically would have to replace the name on their marque.
Ironically, the only metric that proved relevant for my school was "Safe Harbor," which was a way of saying that we were just kidding about 100% proficiency. Even though my school only had two students who passed the Math EOI, (1%) the statistical engineering gave us an API of 648 out of 1500. Six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, after cut scores were reduced, we made Safe Harbor with 13 passes and an Math API of 932 and a total API of 594. Last year we were 
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GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools:

"Hundred of parents of charter school students from all over the city climbed into buses bound for Albany in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Once they got there, parents and advocates are spending the day pressing legislators to change state law to allow for more charter schools and better funding and facilities access for them.

Some schools, like Harlem Success Academy and Democracy Prep, are each bringing hundreds of parents on multiple busloads. Others, like Brooklyn’s Opportunity Roots Charter School, pictured here, filled one bus, or shared a bus with other schools. All in all, 80 city charter schools sent a total of 60 buses to Albany today. (more…)"
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Eduflack: ED Budget Winners and Losers

Eduflack: ED Budget Winners and Losers


The President's FY2011 budget is out, and we've now had a day to digest the toplines and find out if our pet programs are on the chopping block or slotted for additional support.  Not surprisingly, ED is reorganizing its budget around priorities similar to Race to the Top, leaving some clear winners and losers.  (The full breakdown of the budget reccs can be found here.)

As a former Capitol Hill rat and appropriations staffer, I find it important to note that yesterday's document is a starting point, and not the final deal.  Programs that have been eliminated or consolidated are bound to be reinstated once their constituency speaks up.  Additional money is likely to be found to fund those reinstatements.  (And as a former Byrd scholar, Eduflack, for one, is hoping that funding for the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship is reinstated immediately).  But the new parameters and programmatic headers offered in the President's budget is likely to hold, standing as our new organizational strands for future spending and ESEA reauthorization.

So who are the winners?  Who are the losers?  Let's take a quick look, shall we.
Winners
* Arne Duncan — The EdSec has put his personal brand on both discretionary and non-discretionary spending, while imposing his own "brand" on the future of federal education dollars.  The current budget demonstrates that Duncan's four pillars are not a one-time RttT deal, and instead are the buckets by which federal education policy will be governed for years to come.
* Reforming School Districts — The new budget likely provides another $700 million to LEAs under an expanded RttT and another $500 million for i3 (more than doubling our current i3 investment).  For those districts that are focusing on teacher/principal quality and school turnaround and research-proven innovation, the coming years may be profitable ones (as long as there aren't too many good districts who can walk the walk).
* Teach for America — At first glance,
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National Journal Online - Education Budget Signals Sea Change For NCLB

National Journal Online - Education Budget Signals Sea Change For NCLB


Specifics of the Obama administration's plan for reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, the landmark education bill enacted by the Bush administration in 2002, were laid out for the first time in the budget proposal unveiled today.
The administration put forward two fundamental changes to the structure of NCLB, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: a new yardstick to hold schools accountable for compliance with the law and a shift from formula-driven federal funding to a model that emphasizes competition and performance. Both are controversial.
Renewal designs call for replacing "adequate yearly progress," the key-measuring tool under NCLB, with new and still undetermined standards for college and career readiness. Without the old measurement standards, which require schools to test students on their proficiency in English and math, the bill's original goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in these areas by 2014 is essentially null.
The budget proposal includes $14.5 billion for states to adopt accountability systems linked to college- and career-readiness standards -- but those standards don't exist yet. Ostensibly, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a state-led effort to produce common standards in English and math for grades K-12, will create them. Every state but Texas and Alaska has signed on to Common Core, and SecretaryArne Duncan has often praised the initiative's efforts. However, Common Core has yet to produce a finalized version of the standards. The administration says it will work with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle to create the new accountability system in the coming months.
A move away from adequate yearly progress standards may raise concern from stakeholders who want to ensure that accountability, the most valued takeaway from the Bush-era law, is not lost with any changes. However, Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at Education Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap, is optimistic about this development.
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Finebaum: Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch should not mess with BCS | Sports from the Press-Register - al.com

Finebaum: Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch should not mess with BCS Sports from the Press-Register - al.com:

"You've got to hand it to Barack Obama. If nothing else, he's got chutzpah.

The president just celebrated his first anniversary in office, which by all accounts was not a good one. His party just lost the safest seat in the Senate to the Republicans. His standing among world leaders appears to be in a free fall. His popularity among the electorate is tumbling.

So what's he do? Obama has declared war on the BCS.

On Friday, it was revealed that the Obama Justice Department will review the legality of the BCS. This comes after Utah ornery Senator Orrin Hatch -- who is still steaming from his home-state Utes not being given consideration for the 2008 BCS title -- demanded a review into whether the college football system violates antitrust laws."
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Would New Standards in ESEA Rewrite Affect Teachers? - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Would New Standards in ESEA Rewrite Affect Teachers? - Teacher Beat - Education Week


I will confess to being somewhat confused by all the rhetoric around the new accountability framework that the Obama administration is considering for the NCLB law. This Washington Post story makes a big deal about possible flexibility for the 2014 deadline, at which states' proficiency targets must reach 100 percent, and about the idea of intervening differently based on how far schools miss their targets.
But isn't the idea of everyone graduating "college" and "career ready" still pretty much a "universal goal," and a harder one at that, if our current tests are really as crummy as everyone asserts?
Perhaps this is where scrapping 2014 and focusing on growth instead of absolute targets would provide some flexibility. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, quoted in the WaPo story, sounds thrilled by the potential for changes. But it's possible that standards for college- and career-readiness, coupled with the proposed changes to Title II I wrote about yesterday, will push the bar for quality instruction even higher.
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Khan Academy

Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.
Read a recent San Francisco Chronicle article about Salman Khan and the Khan Academy.
Listen to a recent interview by Salman with NPR's All Things Considered
Download the Khan Academy factsheet. You can also read more about the Khan Academy vision in this document.
The Khan Academy and Salman Khan have received a 2009 Tech Award in Education. The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.
Sal has just launched the alpha version (the software version of a first draft) of a new version of the old web app. Try it out if you're interested in practicing some of the concepts in the videos.. It requires a google account (not the login from the old app). The old, slow version is still available here.
To keep abreast of new videos as we add them, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.
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Wireless mic frequency change could affect schools | eSchoolNews.com

Wireless mic frequency change could affect schools | eSchoolNews.com


Schools and colleges that use wireless microphones operating on the 700 megahertz (MHz) frequency band have until June 12 to change the radio frequency or buy new equipment, according to a Jan. 15 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC’s decision is part of a larger government effort to clear the 700 MHz band for use by cell phones, digital TV transmissions, and emergency communications. About 25 percent of the country’s wireless microphones will have to be modified or replaced, according to federal projections.
The ruling affects schools, colleges, sports stadiums, churches, theater groups, musicians, and others who rely on wireless microphones to amplify sound. Some schools and colleges using wireless mics to help their instructors or performers be heard more clearly could end up spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace the banned equipment.
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Poll: Michelle Rhee's Popularity Decreasing in D.C. - District Dossier - Education Week

Poll: Michelle Rhee's Popularity Decreasing in D.C. - District Dossier - Education Week


While Michelle Rhee isn't in danger of losing her crown as the nation's Education Queen of All Media, the District of Columbia school leader's popularity is taking a bruising hit back home.
A pair of polls released by The Washington Post this week show the personal popularity of Rhee and her chief patron, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, have taken a precipitous fall in the Nation's Capital.
Fenty, who took control of the school system and hired Rhee within six months of taking office in 2007, is up for re-election this fall.
In January 2008, 59 percent of residents approved of her and 29 percent disapproved. Now residents are divided: 43 percent approve of what she's doing, and 44 percent are dissatisfied.
Even so, residents said in the poll they believe safety and teacher quality have improved since Rhee took over.
Rhee has the opposite problem of many superintendents and other politicians: her reforms are more popular than she is. Most leaders find they are unable to transform their personal popularity into lasting traction for their 
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Duncan Apologizes for Katrina Remarks - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan Apologizes for Katrina Remarks - Politics K-12 - Education Week


From State EdWatch blogger Lesli Maxwell
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he's sorry for saying that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that had happened to the education system in New Orleans. This morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, he told host Joe Scarborough that the remarks were a "dumb" thing to say and that he had expressed them in a "poor way."
Since the remarks were made public last Friday, the blogosphere and Twitterverse have been ablaze with chatter, much of it critical, about the secretary's choice of words in an interview he did for "Washington Watch with Roland Martin," which aired on Sunday on the cable channel TV One.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the secretary had phoned New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin on Friday night to explain his comments. And look here for a story from my colleague Mary Ann Zehr about local reaction to what the secretary said.
Here's the secretary's interview from this morning:


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The Educated Reporter: Laissez les bons temps roulez!

The Educated Reporter:

"Laissez les bons temps roulez!

Isn’t that what they say in New Orleans? I wouldn’t know, because I have never been there before. Remedying that tomorrow with my dear friend Laura. I will be visiting the set of a TV show, meeting with top-notch reporters, and eating eating eating. I am also really looking forward to learning more about the massive upheaval of the city’s schools. It was nothing short of idiotic for Arne Duncan to say that Hurricane Katrina was “the best thing that happened” to New Orleans schools—myself, I like to take my school reform without 1,800 deaths and $80 billion in damages—but it is true that much of a bad system is being basically rebuilt from scratch. I have said this before, but Sarah Carr at the Times-"

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The Educated Guess: Good report, for the moment, on districts’ finances

The Educated Guess


Good report, for the moment, on districts’ finances




Call it remarkable management or, more likely, the lull before the crash. The number of school districts in financial distress actually decreased from a year ago, according to report issued last week by FCMAT, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. That’s the agency that intervenes when districts are struggling financially.
For the reporting period ending Oct. 31, only a dozen districts – out of about 1,000  – reported a negative status, compared with 19 in the last reporting period of 2009 and 16 in the comparable period a year ago. The latest total  is preliminary, since county offices of education have yet to certify that the districts’ self-reporting is accurate. (View FCMAT’s latest report for a 15-year comparison of the number of districts in financial trouble.)
(Read more and comment on this post)
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Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.



Parents' role in college admissions

I know parents who don’t get involved in their child’s college application process. And I know parents whose child doesn’t get very much involved in his or her own college application process. Somewhere in the middle is the right space to inhabit.
I asked a private college admissions counselor to talk about the right kind of parent involvement in college admissions. Here is what Marcia Libes Simon, director of College Planning Service, LLC, in Potomac, Md., has to say:
Continue reading this post »

Rhee: Uncompromising

Late last week I had an interesting telephone conversation with D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. She called with a comment on a post in which I suggested she be more careful of her public words--like her statement that some of the teachers she fired hit or had sex with kids--in order to make sure she stays in her job and applies her considerable skills and knowledge to fixing our failing school system.
I suggested she apologize for offending teachers with her words so that we could get past this point and back to helping kids.

She said, in essence, that she is not going to do that. She said she wished that the Fast Company magazine item that sparked the controversy had included her statement that many of the teachers she had to fire for budget reasons were good people. But, she said, she was not going to compromise her methods or her beliefs. Some teachers did hit kids and have sex with kids, she said. She thought that was something people should know. It was important to root out such behaviors.
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Spingarn H.S. principal out

DCPS has confirmed Candi Peterson's weekend report in The Washington Teacher that Spingarn High School principal Blanca Reyes was replaced on Friday. As is usually the case with such personnel moves, there's no official word on why. Reyes was in her first year as leader of the 560-student school on Benning Road NE.
Spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said Gary Washington, principal of CHOICE Academy Middle School/Senior High School, will take over Monday. CHOICE (Choosing Options for Individually Centered Education) specializes in students serving long-term suspensions from neighborhood high schools. No word yet on who will replace Washington. Lloyd Bryant will be the new assistant principal.
Continue reading this post »


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Anne Frank's diary is back on Culpeper schools' reading list - washingtonpost.com

Anne Frank's diary is back on Culpeper schools' reading list - washingtonpost.com


The Culpeper County school superintendent said Monday that the school system had never formally removed a version of Anne Frank's diary from classrooms following a parental complaint that some passages were objectionable.


Director of instruction James Allen last week told The Washington Post that the definitive edition of the diary would not be used in the future and that the decision was made quickly, without adhering to a formal review policy for instructional materials that prompt complaints. The remarks set off a hailstorm of criticism online and brought international attention to the 7,600-student school system in rural Virginia.

Superintendent Bobbi Johnson said Monday that the book will remain a part of English classes, although it may be taught at a different grade level.

Johnson will convene a committee of English teachers and curriculum specialists this spring to review the diary along with scores of other books to develop a reading list for middle and high school English classes that teachers can use and that parents can
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Sacramento Press / City departments in trouble: What is the city manager’s role?

Sacramento Press / City departments in trouble: What is the city manager’s role?



City Manager Ray Kerridge oversees a city government that is struggling with major controversies in its Community Development and Utilities departments.
Council members are reacting to claims in a Jan. 6 grand jury report that the city may be breaking Proposition 218, a state law that mandates how city funds are used.
City officials are also confronting findings from an investigation into the department’s approval last year of 35 permits in a Natomas flood zone. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a recent report that the department broke federal rules by approving the permits.
The report lists new issues, including possible violations of city planning rules, that involve the building services division of the development department.
And the Sacramento Bee is reporting that Advantage Demolition & Engineering gained city contracts by allegedly turning in fake paperwork. The city has fired the firm, which was supposed to install water meters, the Bee reported.
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voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.


Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz
Local school news is skimpy today, so take the chance to read part two of this incredible series by Kelly Bennett and Dagny Salas on how -- and why -- the social safety net in San Diego County is failing. Kids fall through that gap too. I'm also loading up your newsblitz with interesting tales from California and afar:
  • The Associated Press sums up what to expect when Obama rewrites No Child Left Behind. The San Bernardino Sun reports on a new study that finds, yet again, thatteachers dislike the existing law. And a blogger writes that Obama is walking "a rhetorical tightrope."
  • Also on No Child Left Behind: A psychology professor argues in The New York Times that what schools need is to focus on fewer, deeper goals instead of "the laundry list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students." And blogger Alexander Russo picks out a few telling details from all the reporting on NCLB and cautions that the new NCLB is just a proposal at this point.
  • Educated Guess blogs that there are actually
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Schools Matter: Obama Budget Eliminates School Library Funds for Poor Schools

Schools Matter: Obama Budget Eliminates School Library Funds for Poor Schools



AASL President, Cassandra Barrett, is shocked that schools with large large numbers of students living in poverty are having their federal school library funds eliminated in the Oligarchs' new education budget. What she does not realize is that the new corporate charter schools for the poor have been planned with no school libraries or librarians, which neatly eliminates the need for federal library funds. When the goal is segregation, containment, and psychological neutering of the poor by highly unqualified "teachers," who needs libraries?

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal,02/01/2010

President Obama has delivered a slap in the face to school librarians. In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, he completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost 
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Parents implore district: Stop tinkering, fix schools | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/02/2010

Parents implore district: Stop tinkering, fix schools | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/02/2010



Parents at one North Philadelphia school that may be radically overhauled in the fall had a clear message for the Philadelphia School District last night: Enough is enough. Stop tinkering with our school and figure out how to help our kids.


Winifere Thornton said she wasn't sure about the announcement that, by landing in the bottom 10 percent of schools districtwide, Dunbar might be operated as a charter, or by outside management. It might remain under district control, but with big changes in staff and school day.


If chosen as a "Renaissance" school, Dunbar, on 12th Street near Temple University, would be on its third manager in eight years. Parents and students feel whipsawed by all the upheaval, Thornton said.


"Too many changes," Thornton said. "Everything failed. Different principals all the time."
Her grandson, she said, is in sixth grade but reads at a third- or fourth-grade level. Several parents in attendance said their children were also behind.


Nikia Denby, one of the 30 parents and teachers in attendance last night, went to Dunbar when it was a good school, she said, and now she's the parent of three children there.
She's undecided about Renaissance schools, but she knows she wants something better for her children.


"Why pass kids along when they don't know the curriculum? They're moving, but their brains aren't moving with them," Denby said. "When it's time for my son to compete in the real world, he will struggle."


Dunbar doesn't have enough 
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EducationNews.org - The School Garden Debate: To Weep or Reap?

EducationNews.org - The School Garden Debate: To Weep or Reap?


2.2.10 - Lisa Bennett - I was speaking today with a mom at my sons’ school. She was concerned about a teacher who was doing such a poor job that even his students were complaining that they weren’t learning enough.
The School Garden Debate: To Weep or Reap?
By Lisa Bennett


I was speaking today with a mom at my sons’ school. She was concerned about a teacher who was doing such a poor job that even his students were complaining that they weren’t learning enough.

“We’re all worried about the economy,” she said. In this climate, any sign that a school (even an excellent or basically good one) may be failing to absolutely and definitively prepare our children for whatever the future will bring is likely to provoke greater anxiety than usual.

This collective economic angst, I believe, is what Caitlin Flanagan played into in “Cultivating Failure,” an article that lambastes school gardens in the January/February 2010 Atlantic. But to separate the angst from the facts, it is necessary to first look at the angst and then the facts.
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