Edu Commentary

Michigan State Sup’t Watkins is resigning…no more of this.

The Department of Education and Chicago have settled their dispute. Who won? Well, if you were rooting for Chicago you’re disappointed …

And Jerry Brown is still a radical.

Good RMN look at KIPP. Great program, not for every kid though. Still, not something to be reflexively against.

Spellings says mea culpa about Strong-Arm Gate. Will this shift attention from Lesbian Bunny Gate? By the way, concerning the bunny episode, all things considered it’s hard to think of anything Spellings could have done coming into office that wouldn’t be seen in a favorable light, yet they persevered and figured something out anyway!

This is funny.

Though not as explicit as these comments from last year, yesterday’s important NYT Magazine profile of SEIU’s Andy Stern carries obvious implications for education policy and politics. It’s also worth reading in general; Stern’s trying to address some serious realities.

However, the article, though not Stern, implicitly puts forward the notion that just changing positions on school vouchers is the way for Democrats to deal with their education problem. That’s a little simplistic (though a surprising number of Democrats think it…). The larger, and more substantive, issues the party must confront include accountability that actually carries consequences for adults and the teacher quality problem, which does as well. Those issues are more cross-cutting and have more impact than most of the small voucher programs currently on the table.

Yet, addressing one aspect of the teacher quality problem — the archaic steps and lanes pay system that doesn’t reward teachers who, for instance, take challenging assignments, have special or scarce skills, or do an outstanding job — cuts against the grain of industrial unionism. Would be interesting to hear Stern’s thoughts on squaring that circle.

Incidentally, for a good look at one approach Dems could pursue on choice, see this article by Siobhan Gorman in a recent Washington Monthly.

Avert your eyes if you don’t like dirty secrets…concerning this and other ongoing shenanigans in Colorado, an astute and partisan Democratic observer of politics there writes Edu Commentary to say the following about education policy and politics in the Rocky Mountain State:

The Democrats here seem to have a 10-year plan to forfeit all Latino and black votes to the Republicans. Once the Republicans get over their latent racism enough to recruit minority candidates, it will be even worse. The Democratic education “reform” agenda is dedicated to giving the schools and teachers a break from reform, easing up on them, and congratulating their suburban districts for doing such a good job with their affluent white students. I’m not really exaggerating, it looks that bleak.

Ouch. Thank goodness this isn’t happening elsewhere…

The other day Edu Commentary bemoaned that this letter from Tom Watkins was not online. Now it is. Thanks to Edu Commentary tipster TE for the link.

Also, see this editorial for one take on this whole dust-up…via School News Monitor.

Only in education could a local group, in this case the teachers’ union, be rebuffed multiple times in their efforts to do in a superintendent and tirelessly stick with it long enough to prevail. At least in the short run, concentrated and focused power will usually prevail over a general interest only loosely organized and represented. Last night the Board of Education in San Diego came to an agreement with schools sup’t Alan Bersin to buyout the remainder of his contract, he leaves in June. Ignore the shallow coverage from the local paper, the real backstory on all this is here (pdf).

Here’s an excerpt from Bersin’s note to school district staff, it’s really useful that they’re running guys like this out (and at taxpayer expense no less…):

The revised data issued this week in Sacramento shows that 107 of our schools (60 percent) now score at or above 700 on the statewide API compared to 75 schools in 1999. In 1999, 53 schools (fully 37 percent) of our schools placed under 600 on the API; today only 16 schools (less than 9 percent) of our schools operate at that unsatisfactory level. We have narrowed the academic achievement gap dividing our students based on factors of race, ethnicity and class. We are one of only two districts in California (the other is Long Beach) to meet all 46 Adequate Yearly Progress performance indicators for two years running under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). San Diego City Schools tests more than 98 percent of its students and ranks second among urban districts in the state (slightly behind San Francisco) in the number of students performing at proficient or advanced levels on the California Standards Test in English Language Arts and third in mathematics (tied with Sacramento).

Yet it was this sort of nonsense that won out in the end.

Senator Kerry returned to the spotlight yesterday with an important speech on health care for children. Vitally important issue, but very passé, doesn’t he know that these days the preeminent children’s issue is tolerant rabbits?

On Monday at 10AM at the National Press Club the Charter School Leadership Council will launch an important national campaign to address the dual goals of charter school growth and charter school quality. National charter leaders and charter school operators from around the country will be on hand. New analysis on charter performance from national expert – and all around good guy – Bryan Hassel coming, too.

The event is open to all.