Edu Commentary

In the Summer 2004 City Journal Sol Stern takes a look at No Child Left Behind, its origins, status quo, and prospects.   Parts of the article are the journalistic equivalent of a lap dance – some squirming and faux enthusiasm but no real payoff.  That said, it’s well worth reading because: (a) It shows many of the counters of the debate today, and (b) Stern gives a peak at the Republican hole card should an overhaul of NCLB become a real possibility.

 

Stern notes that a lot of schools are being identified as needing improvement under NCLB’s parameters for “adequate yearly progress,” causing angst in many communities.  He offers the deal that will likely be part of the Republican endgame should push come to shove on NCLB:

 

“… the top education reform goal of a second Bush administration should be to revisit NCLB’s accountability and choice provisions when the act’s reauthorization comes due in 2006. Since the branding of so many schools as “failing” has vexed public school officials around the country, President Bush, along with his education reform allies in Congress, could offer Democrats this deal: “Let’s agree to limit the number of schools considered failing, but if we can’t find room in successful public schools for the kids from the really bad schools, then at least let’s give those children a chance at private schools.”

 

This sort of gambit is what is waiting in the wings, which is why NCLB foes would be wise to tread lightly.  It will be interesting to see if the urban schools are willing to stand by while suburban schools get let of the hook for comparable achievement gaps.

 

By the way, the root cause of the strictness of the accountability system?  Well, it’s not this gem of revisionism (Quick!  Look out for the falling anvil!):

 

A second concession changed the definition of a failing school, since liberal Democrats wanted to include not just schools with consistently atrocious test results for all students, but also those in which a small racial or ethnic subgroup was doing poorly, even if most of their classmates were doing fine. “Some of the Democrats on the other side didn’t want to say that it’s okay to have one group falling behind in a school,” recalls the administration’s point man in the negotiations, Sandy Kress, a former chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. “In effect, they were telling us that if you really want to say, ‘No Child Left Behind,’ then let’s really leave no child behind.”

Hmmm…didn’t the President campaign on the importance of disaggregated results and how integral they were to the Texas model?  Besides, minority kids in suburban schools deserve a fair shake, too, don’t they?  And NCLB doesn’t require states and districts to respond to poor subgroup results with whole school interventions, only interventions targeted to improve results for the specific subgroup, so these rules are less onerous than they’re commonly made out to be.

The Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality is looking for a policy analyst.  If you have a good grasp of K-16 education issues and can write and think independently, this just might be for you.   Teaching experience and/or a policy background a must.   NCTQ is a small, entrepreneurial organization, so it’s a great chance to gain a lot of experience if you’re willing to pitch in with whatever is necessary.  For more information email Kate Walsh at kwalsh AT nctq.org

It’s hard to think of a more effective way to erode public support for public education than the tactics of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.  Are they secretly getting payoffs from the pro-voucher folks?  There is really no other plausible explanation…

 

More Detroit charter news here.  17 percent of Detroit students have moved to public charter schools since 1999. Perhaps a message?  Apparently one that’s lost on DFT…

NY Post says Klein-Bloomberg are doing pretty well.  OK, actually, in the NY Post Klein says that Klein-Bloomberg are doing pretty well.

 

Don’t miss Bob Herbert in the NYT today, major education hook.

 

More Praxis Disaster.  Possible class-action lawsuits in PA and OH.

 

NYT’s Gootman reports changes to the NCLB transfer provisions in Gotham.  Expect a dust-up over this one.  Here’s Eva Moskowitz putting a shot over the bow of the SS Bloomberg-Klein:

 

“My fear is that this is a step backward in terms of the implementation of choice for poor parents,” Ms. Moskowitz said.

  

The Chicago Trib looks at how the provisions are playing out there through the experience of one student.

 

Another look at Washington’s SEED School.  Via Educationnews.org

 

Wash Post’s Balz says that when President Bush decides to share his plans for a second term, higher ed policy will play a role.

 

In Florida, more evidence that doing school choice right is harder than just doing it.

 

The right is thrilled about the NLRB ruling on graduate student organizing.  The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation writes, “While some students may have Marxist dreams that they are ‘workers,’ rather than students, who will be in the vanguard of an economic revolution when the workers of the world unite, the fact remains that they are students and not employees, and have little commonality of interest with most employees.”

 

Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.  The obvious counterpoint is that assuming all teaching assistants have little commonality with most workers is to buy into a romanticized view of life in academia.  It’s not all seeking truth in the groves…

 

New, and positive, data on the well-being of American youth reports AP.   And, AP’s Feller writes up the formal AFT endorsement of John Kerry for president.

 

EIA’s Mike Antonucci has some interesting thoughts on what the new AFT president means for that organization and for labor more generally.  And, he outs the rumor of the week on that front.

 

Ms. Frizzle proposes a cool summer science experiment.   Pinky Nelson, call your office.  Number Two Pencil points out logical flaws in some arguments against standardized testing.

 

And, Ed Fitzgerald notes that the more obesity there is in a state the more likely it is to vote for Bush.  He also notes that the same is true the less a state spends on education.  The connection?  Obvious!  Weighted student formulas!

In the July 9, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education Review Robert Zemsky and William F. Massy discuss ($) the promise and pitfalls of e-learning. They write that a “pervading sense of disappointment” now surrounds e-learning because of unfulfilled expectations.   Still, they caution that dismissing e-learning is foolish because it’s here to stay and can play an important role in education. 

Zemsky and Massy cite three common assumptions that they argue have been proven wrong:

*If we build it, they will come.

*The kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water.

*E-learning will force a change in how we teach.

They say that instead, “faculty members use the electronics to simplify tasks, not to fundamentally change how they teach their subjects” and conclude that,

The technology’s skeptics, emboldened by the fact that, to date, its failures have been much more prominent than its limited successes, will challenge each new product and innovation. Yet despite the difficulties of the recent years, we count ourselves among the optimists who believe electronically mediated instruction can eventually become a standard mode of instruction. E-learning is still alive and kicking. On most campuses, money is being spent, smart classrooms are being built, and faculty members are experimenting with new ways of bringing electronically mediated learning into the classroom. Ultimately, the lure of learning anytime, anywhere will prove irresistible. 

Worth reading…

No, not this Hans Moleman.  This one is a lifelong Democrat, National Education Association employee, and is getting some things off his chest on National Review Online.  

In response to this, this, and this post (and in particular Edu Commentary’s assertion that the recent Virginia homeschooling bill vetoed by Governor Warner was a political gimmick) a home-school parent writes Edu Commentary to say:

 

It wasn’t the [VA homeschool] legislation that bore the political agenda, but how it was promoted: aggressively, with repeated, intentional misinformation, in a time when “accountability” is the big educational buzzword. Some also believe it is part of a larger push by Home School Legal Defense Association to change homeschool laws across the country, perhaps spurred by a reduction in cash flow; this hyped-up promotion of a small change in the law gets them lots of exposure, reinforces hyperbolic visions of the educrats against the poor little homeschooler, and demonstrates how much homeschoolers “need” this organization.

You pretend it doesn’t bother you, but you just want to explode…

Secretary of Education Rod Paige cut loose in the Wall Street Journal yesterday criticizing the NAACP on several fronts, but in particular about NCLB.  The same day, moderate John McWhorter said essentially the same thing in the LA Times. There are larger politics at work here as parts of Paige’s too partisan op-ed make clear. (Hint to reflexively partisan ghostwriters: Cheap shotting Clinton is (A) ridiculous on the merits and (B) doesn’t help your case. Clinton was in the trenches laying the groundwork for what became NCLB in the ’80s and early ’90s and by almost any measure the 1990’s were a pretty good decade for low-income Americans).

Nonetheless, this increasingly loud debate will impact education and only an ostrich can still think something is not happening. Here’s the nut of Paige’s NCLB argument:

School should be a leg up on life, which is why No Child Left Behind is designed to provide a quality education to all children, regardless of their race, spoken accent or street address. How a civil-rights organization could characterize NCLB as “disproportionately hurting” African-American children is mindboggling, since it is specifically designed to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.

By the time African-American students reach 8th grade, only 12% can read proficiently and only 7% are proficient in math. Or, as education researchers have put it, the average black high-school senior is leaving 12th grade with 8th-grade skills. We know they can learn. Now we must educate…

Although the NAACP says it is committed to erasing this pernicious achievement gap, has it put its money where its mouth is? No Child Left Behind is the most aggressive attempt to attack this problem to date, and it is the law. Yet, the NAACP would prefer to attack it merely because of its origins in the Bush administration. How sad for black children everywhere.

Important new study (PDF) on school finance finds that weighted student formulas are more equitable for low-income youngsters.  From CRPE.

 

In the New York Sun Greg Forster says that Michael Winerip got it wrong on his major July 4, special education story.   Here’s more on a possible Department of Ed investigation of NYC from Educationnews.org.

 

NYT’s Gootman reports that a self-response email survey of New York City principals (with a 13 percent response rate) found that respondents don’t like the new Bloomberg-Klein way of doing business and believe they don’t have enough money.  In other news, it’s hot in the summer in Florida…

 

The NLRB said yesterday that graduate students at private colleges and universities do not have a right to unionize.  The decision reverses current policy and seems pretty partisan.  This is a potentially major decision with ramifications for union membership, universities, and, of course, the students themselves .  Inside baseball background: A lot of testy back and forth behind the scenes between the American Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers as both unions seek to organize graduate students.

 

Once an urban myth, Wash. Post’s Strauss reports that colleges are taking a harder line on the senior slump.

 

CSM reports that the Texas accountability system won’t take into account small charter schools.  A problem yes, but a solvable one.

 

AP offers a sneak preview of John Kerry’s AFT speech and focuses on the money, let’s hope Kerry doesn’t.

 

When the recent and flawed Department of Ed “study” of sexual abuse in schools came out, Edu Commentary asked, how long before the voucher crowd picks up on it?  Well, this essay is not exactly a clean hit but reading between the lines it looks like the answer is about two weeks.

 

Detroit News ed board says bring on the charter schools in the Motor City.

Still wrinkles to iron out on the NCLB teacher provisions and rural schools.

Finally, more bad news about collegiate diploma mills.  This time, mainstream schools…

ECS puts on a great conference. You can tell because during the sessions the hallways are pretty empty, meaning people are inside the sessions rather than chit-chatting in the halls.

A couple of noteworthy things:

*The big rumor making the rounds is the same one kicking around D.C., namely that Margaret Spellings will be the next Secretary of Education if President Bush wins reelection in November. Smart money says the President is on board with this and that political folks in the department are, well, scared.

*Between ECS, the National Governors Association, and his work in Virginia, Mark Warner is the education governor right now. He also got Virginia out of the red, no mean feat.

*This new ECS report on NCLB is full of interesting information. USA Today’s Toppo writes it up here. Secretary of Education Paige likes the report, but key recommendations (PDF) fly in the face of Bush Administration policy.

*A lot of rumbling about a tacky move by an NEA staffer at a morning session. Apparently displeased that the “so called” No Child Left Behind law had been referred to as a civil rights issue at the opening session, this staffer took to the microphone at a mid-morning session, asked all ECS staff and commissioners to stand up, and then proceeded to express her displeasure at NCLB being referred to in this manner at an ECS forum. Maybe this is considered laudable back at NEA headquarters, but in the real world it’s rightly regarded as boorish, and the ECS staff present deserved better.

By the way, in today’s environment, if ensuring that public schools teach minority kids to read and do math at grade level is not a civil rights issue, what the hell is? Incidentally, ECS believes (PDF) it’s a civil rights issue.

*A relatively senior Department of Education staffer who will remain anonymous confirmed late yesterday afternoon that: (a) The bags US DOE gave away last month in Miami were indeed man purses and (b) By a long shot the ECS bags were better.

*RD, your quote was by far the funniest thing I heard at this conference, or probably any conference ever for that matter, but as a family friendly venue Edu Commentary cannot repeat it here.