Edu Commentary

New data on distance learning in elementary and secondary ed from NCES.

Georgia now moving in the same direction as South Carolina and a few other states (pdf) to better target differentials for National Board Certified Teachers toward teachers working in high-need schools. Edu Commentary’s not very familiar with the rest of the package that the article refers to, but this particular provision is certainly meritorious. As one GA teacher wrote Edu Commentary:

I teach in a high performing school and was going to pursue certification next year, so as a teacher, I’m bummed. As a citizen, I think they have done the right thing.

Update: More here from the AJC’s edublog.

Update II: Good timing. New analysis (pdf) of this issue from EPAA.

Strong Education Trust statement about the anti-NCLB flavor of the month, Utah.

Update: Could be more fizzle than sizzle for NCLB foes…Utah blinks first. And, the feds push back on CT.

Matt Yglesias makes an interesting historical point about Bill Gates’ interest in high school reform. What struck Edu Commentary though was Gates’ specific emphasis on equity, something we don’t hear enough about considering how the system is set-up to screw poor kids. From his LA Times op-ed today:

If we keep the system as it is, millions of children will never get a chance to fulfill their promise because of their ZIP Code, their skin color or their parents’ income. That is offensive to our values.

Disclosure: In case you missed it, the 21st Century Schools Project at PPI is a recipient of Gates Foundation grants, they fund things like this.

With all the manifestations of this issue, worth reading again this essay from the 21st Century School’s Project Bulletin by Leo Casey of the UFT about federalism and education.

Analyst Art Hauptman points-up the good aspects of the President’s higher ed proposal but lays out the case for doing a lot more than what the President has put on the table.

Here’s the National PTA’s position on testing:

The National PTA opposes:

*federal legislation and/or regulations that mandate standardized testing or would lead to such testing;
*federal policies that mandate comparisons of states, school districts or individual schools.

Wait a minute. Obviously parents, and pretty much everyone else — though you wouldn’t know it from the hyperbolic tone of the current debate — thinks there is a lot more to schools than test scores. But isn’t information — including test scores — to make such comparisons, and the comparisons themselves, exactly what parents do want? Ask any realtor for God’s sake. For that matter, how do people who work at the National PTA choose schools for their own kids? Randomly?

Oh wait, nevermind, dumb question, that’s the NEA’s position on testing! Is it the political manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome or something else? PTA leaves an obvious state loophole with the wording of this policy, but they have not been doing much lobbying of state legislatures for this either…

PTA also has a new poll out about NCLB and what parents want. Except Edu Commentary can’t locate the poll, only the highlights in a press release. Even those are not a slam dunk for the anti-NCLB crowd…when the NEA buys a national interest group, don’t they expect them to stay bought? Is there a warranty?

Update: One urban parent writes: At my kids’ school, parents would trip over themselves trying to get this info.

More on the odd new approach to federalism that seems to be animating the Democratic left. Via Brink, who doesn’t like NCLB for all the usual reasons, but wants national standards?

Bill Gates’ keynote speech at the HS Summit this past weekend has everyone buzzing. Good wrap-up, outstanding headline, from LA Times’ Alonso-Zaldivar. See also this outcome from NYT’s Pear.

Very good editorial from the NY Post.

What’s really sad is that though these three charters aren’t getting the job done, they’re in the middle of the pack in terms of comparable schools. You won’t hear too much about that though or about the other charters that are doing well.

The bottom line is that a little more tough love would be good across the board, but don’t hold your breath for such an admission from the usual suspects… these two quotes from this AP story tell a sorry tale…

“We mean it when we say that if schools don’t perform, there will be consequences,” Philips [Bill Philips of the New York Charter Schools Association] said. “It’s not enough to just enroll the neediest kids.”

Dave Ernst, spokesman for the state School Boards Association, acknowledged that charter schools are being held accountable as proponents said they would. Still, he said, “It’s disappointing whenever you see that children haven’t gotten the education they’re entitled to.

“The record indicates that certainly, it’s time to take a long pause in New York to reassess the charter school experiment,” Ernst said.

When you hear the school board association folks talking (and acting) like Phillips, then you’ll know things are changing. Until then, this is politics.

Update: More here.