Edu Commentary

Edu Commentary readers will en masse enter silly contests to win free CDs or to win a man-purse, but the response to a request to help a couple of teachers trying to launch a small initiative in LA is underwhelming. Even if you just have a few dollars to give, they’re needed and in-kind help is especially appreciated. The team needs t-shirts, transportation, and meals for the day of the competition as well as a lot of help getting ready. Email us at ‘education AT dlcppi.org’ and we’ll put you in touch with the teachers leading the project.

Remember, for large donations of time or donations of more than $100, Edu Commentary will kick in a personalized, signed copy of Wendy Kopp’s recent book about Teach For America. We’ll handle getting it signed and shipped for you. Makes a great holiday gift!

Edu Commentary’s not so sure this is a worrying trend and apparently some experts don’t think so either. Playing poker requires analysis, mathematics, and logic so there are certainly worse ways kids can spend time. Besides, you can grow up to be famous like these guys.

Don’t forget to see if you can help out with this project.

The American Crisis was written by:



a) Thomas Jefferson

b) Thomas Paine

c) E.D. Hirsch

d) Alfie Kohn

Laissez-faire is French for:

a) Not expensive

b) Let people do as they chose

c) We hate George Bush

d) CATO

If you have bad news that you have to share with the press, the best time to do it is:



a) First thing Monday morning on a slow news week

b) Friday at 5:30 PM unless there is a major breaking news story earlier in the week

If you answered ‘b’ to all three questions, then you’re likely qualified for this job at the Core Knowledge Foundation in Virginia’s heaven-sent Albemarle County and might want to check it out.

Last month PPI analyst Sara Mead outlined a plan for universal access to high-quality pre-kindergarten education. This month EPI analyst Robert Lynch makes the case that investments in pre-k pays dividends down the road. There is widespread agreement that this is a glaring problem that should be addressed, it’s just politics now.

Profile In Discourage: Not too hard to see what happened here in Buffalo…

More Buffalo here, the potential of charter schools.

Edu Commentary does not solicit funds or do any e-panhandling on the site because we’re supported by some generous philanthropic grants. But we are going to ask you for some help here on behalf of another effort.

FIRST LEGO League is a project that engages middle and high school students in hands-on robotics and scientific research. They are given a challenge to meet through the construction and programming of robots using LEGO parts. Teams compete regionally, at the state level, at the national level, and internationally. It’s a great program but, according to a Brandeis University study, few U.S. participants, less than 10 percent, are minorities and girls are underrepresented as well.

A couple of Los Angeles teachers are trying to get more students involved. This year they’ve created a team from Lynwood Middle School in LA. Lynwood has about 2/3 of students learning English and 3/4 living in poverty. Results from the 2004 California state assessments show that only 15% of seventh graders and 13% of eighth graders tested proficient or above in English Language Arts, and 8% of seventh graders and 0% of eighth graders tested proficient or above in Mathematics.

The 10 student team they’ve built is representative of the school’s population: Almost all are English Language Learners; about half have participated in Special Education or Resource Specialist Programs. Some are currently enrolled in the school’s alternate placement for students extremely far below grade level and at high risk for school failure, and others are enrolled in Special Day Classes. One-third are female, and all are either Hispanic or African-American. In the competition, the team will compete against students from more affluent communities near LA.

UCLA, the Lynwood School District, and some generous individuals in Los Angeles are helping out but the team needs more help. If you have either technical expertise with science and robotics (or even LEGOs) and live in the LA area, or if you can make a monetary contribution to help the team (every little bit helps) please e-mail “education AT dlcppi.org” and we’ll put you in touch with the two teachers helping to lead the project.

These teachers have stepped up: Please step up for them. For donations of $100 or more or 8 hours of time or more, Edu Commentary will send you a personalized, signed copy of Wendy Kopp’s book One Day All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way. Be sure to mention this when you e-mail us.

Why wait until Tuesday night? Get your post-election education analysis right now! First, Kerry should win by a sizeable margin, say Kerry 299 and Bush 239. Edu Commentary is uncertain on the popular vote but thinks Kerry will win a reasonably handy margin in the Electoral College. Barring some last minute surprise event, Bush’s act seems to have run its course and around the country there seems to be a decidedly pro-Kerry tenor and we may be seeing the top end of Bush’s support while Kerry still has some room to grow. Indicator to watch with education implications going forward: How well Senator Kerry performs with African-American voters, particularly in the cities.

What will a Kerry win mean for education? Well, most notably and somewhat ironically, it’s probably better for keeping the main thrust of the No Child Left Behind reforms in place. Kerry has put forward a pragmatic and sensible set of ideas for introducing more tools to make NCLB work. Had Bush won, the partisan climate in Washington would have gone from really bad to Sherman-like. Anything associated with Bush would be a target, regardless of its merit, and the conflation of politics and education policy around NCLB would continue in the states.

Kerry will oversee a reauthorization of NCLB that will see some foreseen and unforeseen changes to the law. But it will be a lot easier for him to work with NCLB supporters on the Hill and ensure that the baby is not thrown out with the bathwater than it would be for Bush who would be even more of a lightning rod than he is now.

Kerry offers better policies for higher ed, too, and should put enough priority on education that the backload of stalled reauthorizations gets addressed.

Update: Of course, you can’t minimize the impact of GOTV efforts like this one. Via Andrew Sullivan.

Update II: In the event of October surprises like these, all bets are off.

Part I, from the Boston Globe…

Part II, from Wonkette.

From an urban teacher, identity withheld:

[My district] sent out letters to all parents that we are now in program improvement. Unfortunately, no one told the teachers. Oops. I had to answer parents today with, “What letter?”

With such disorganization, it’s not really a mystery why we’re in this situation.

Now I’m asked to write the bit about school choice for the letter from the school to be sent home to parents tomorrow (far too late, in my opinion). A moral dilemma for me… I know that we are improving and I know that many kids are successful at our school. I also believe that it weakens the school community when anyone decides to leave, especially to be bussed to a school where they may be overcrowding someone else’s classroom or where the teacher may not be prepared to meet their unique needs.

But if I were a parent, I would jump on the opportunity and I don’t know that I can discourage parents from doing something that may be a huge benefit for their kids. Even if the impact on the school as a whole may be negative.



Isn’t this also a microcosm of part of the Democratic dilemma on vouchers?