Edu Commentary

One-stop shopping on Colorado Vouchers. Denver Post story here, the actual ruling here. Plenty of over-the-top dueling press releases but you’ll have to find them yourself.

USA Today strongly endorses Teach For America in the wake of the Mathematica study and also says experiment with other reforms. In response NEA’s Weaver ignores TFA but seems to come out against differential pay.

In this list of steps the Jacksonville NAACP wants taken to address low-performing schools and achievement gaps there, you will find differential pay.

LA Times’ Anderson looks at NCLB as a campaign issue. He misses, however, the real CA angle and important national angle on the recent Hechinger Institute confab about NCLB: George Miller’s passionate defense of the law which one attendee said “sounded exactly like [former Bush education aide Sandy] Kress and [House Education and the Workforce Chairman John] Boehner”…A good question is how the Bush Administration has managed to alienate strong NCLB supporters like Miller…so much for uniting and not dividing…[Brian Friel of National Journal tried to answer that question in a very good article a few weeks back but it’s not free online.]

USA Today’s Cauchon marshals new evidence to show what a lot of people have been saying for a while, college tuition isn’t as unaffordable for the middle class as the CW leads one to think (for low-income Americans it’s a different story…).

Denver Post’s Sherry profiles the talented head of the Denver teachers’ union, must read for the cognoscenti…

The Columbus Dispatch comes out strongly for allowing single-sex public education options.

Useful new product (PDF) from the Center for School Change about how charter schools can work with the media, though it’s more broadly applicable than that.

Important new study (PDF) by Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters about “promoting power” at high schools around the country. Don’t let the term throw you, it’s an important look at the dropout problem that isolates the challenge by region and school characteristics. It’s at once more acute but more manageable from a public policy perspective.

And, speaking of charter schools, the Lodi News Sentinel ran a three-part series looking at charter schools and pretty much, deservedly, beatifying Aspire Public Schools founder Don Shalvey. You can read about the debate over charters here, Shalvey here, and another CA charter here. If you don’t like charters, save time and just click here.

Joanne Jacobs notes a new kind of grade inflation in Iraq.

Columbia TC’s Belfied takes a short but sweet look at drivers of home schooling.

New NCES report looks at language minorities, trends, and relevant labor market indicators.

If you: (a) are into education, (b) are not going to the Democratic Convention in Boston, and (c) aren’t put off by a lot of lawyers, then there is a lot to recommend this conference in Portland, Maine, July 26-30.

Finally, a bunch of helpful comments and suggestions about state NCLB requests, but alert and well connected reader CC is now the proud owner of a brand new, genuine, U.S. Department of Education Collector’s Quality Man Purse. Thanks also to reader JE for additional info that was useful.

This AM the Colorado Supreme Court struck down the school voucher program there 4-3 because it violates local control provisions of the state constitution. Early implications: (a) the issue will be put before the legislature again because the decision seems to indicate that a redesigned program could pass muster, (b) it could be an issue in the CO Senate race because Colorado AG Ken Salazar who supported the program is running for the open U.S. Senate seat there, and (c) hyperbolic cheering and jeering from voucher friends and foes.

ETS says the mystery poll will be posted by July 2…you’ll find more fireworks elsewhere…for example in this new op-ed by ETS president Kurt Landgraf saying that the organization is going to start arguing for lessening the reliance on the property tax to fund schools…

The Chicago Trib looks at all sides of the debate over the mayor’s proposed new school initiative.

Carl Cohn, the candidate the Washington, DC, schools were wooing for the superintendent slot, has said no. Back to the drawing board…

At last, the dog that didn’t bark. AP’s Feller revisits the NEA’s threatened lawsuit against NCLB and finds, well, nothing…there is irony buried in there too…find it yourself…

Controversy over military recruitment at a high school in WI; Joanne Jacobs has more.

Wash Post’s Connolly and Weisman look at the role domestic issues, including education, will play in the election.

NY Post’s Sager takes some shots at New York’s small schools but is still well worth reading if you’re following the issue…

The NYT revisits the ongoing saga of the Belmont Learning Complex in Los Angeles. Also, NYT readers respond to last week’s “Top Colleges Take More Blacks, but Which Ones?” story, and more pledge letters.

A new analysis (PDF) from Mathematica about children’s health insurance for gap kids. Worth reading. It can be done.

Keep an eye out for a new Jay P. Greene, Marcus A. Winters, and Greg Forster study on high stakes testing forthcoming in Teachers College Record. No link yet, sure to stir some controversy.

There has been little press on the Kennedy – Miller NCLB bill which would retroactively apply the recent NCLB regulatory changes. And what has been written is pretty confusing.

For instance, Congressional Quarterly reported that Kennedy – Miller would “change a central component of the statute.” Not really, it would retroactively apply a few rules changes that have already been made.

In Education Week Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the bill would, deny many students “their No Child Left Behind-provided tutors or [force] them back to a school from whose shackles they had already broken away thanks to” the law. Again, not really. The bill would continue supplemental services for students for the remainder of the school year and allow students who had exercised their right to public school choice to stay at their new school until they had completed the highest grade at that school.

However, Kennedy and Miller themselves probably didn’t help defuse matters when they issued a press release headlined, “Legislation would spare thousands of schools from being

unfairly graded by the Bush Administration.”

That said, the Bush Administration foot-dragging here is inexplicable. Kennedy and Miller (who are obviously not NCLB foes) are right. Make the fix now (which the Department of Education can do). As this article points out, every time the Administration screws around on this sort of thing it just hands NCLB opponents an easy issue. Margaret Spellings, it’s time to crack the whip again.

Win A U.S. Department of Education Man Purse Afterthought: At least two, maybe more, states asked the Department of Education for authority to retroactively apply the new NCLB changes in amended accountability plans and were denied. One was North Carolina, and Senator Edwards is a Kennedy-Miller co-sponsor. The first reader who can identify the others (state department of ed officials take note…) wins a genuine U.S. Department of Education Man Purse. Email education AT dlcppi.org with any information (and include your address so we can ship this fine collector’s quality product to you!).

Edu Commentary’s a big fan of experiential education, but like most things, it can be taken too far…like this. Yes, it crosses the line even with the “three stalls and you’re out” policy…via School News Monitor.

There is a lot of buzz about a new ETS poll examining what the public thinks about public schools. USA Today wrote it up on Monday, but ETS apparently has yet to post the actual poll on their site so there is a lot of head scratching going on.

USA Today’s Toppo writes that:

The percentage of parents who give U.S. public schools a grade of A has dropped from 8% in 2001 to 2% today, and only 20% of parents give schools a B, down from 35%. Meanwhile, 45% of parents give schools a C, up from 33% in 2001.

Beware, there is less to these findings than meets the eye. Across a range of issues the public tends to view things in the abstract less favorably than concrete examples they interact with regularly or ones close to home. This is, for instance, why Congress as an institution rates poorly but individual members rate much better. In education this means that overall perceptions of education matter less than what the public and parents think about schools in their communities. Polls consistently show (with one important exception, more on that in a moment) that parents rate the schools in their communities more favorably than schools overall. That’s the number to watch.

And, in this poll (Edu Commentary’s had a look) there is nothing to indicate that those numbers don’t hold up. In fact, again, parents rate their own schools much more favorably (67 percent ‘A’ or ‘B’ in the ETS poll) than the general public does schools overall or than parents do schools overall. There is some movement on the numbers in the middle, (more C’s, fewer B’s, so much for grade inflation…) but no great shakes. One interesting finding tucked in there: The public seems increasingly to understand that public schools overall, and particularly affluent public schools, are not failing, but that low-income schools are in big trouble. That’s a healthy development because it’s a perception backed up by the facts.

The exception is minority parents. They give their own schools less favorable ratings than do other parents (in general, Edu Commentary didn’t see specific data on that question in this poll). What No Child Left Behind is doing is documenting empirically why they feel this way, and that makes a lot of people very uncomfortable for a lot of reasons…

ETS says the poll is evidence that either candidate can frame an effective message around education. Probably not because: (a) Bush can’t claim too much credit since he has not followed through on NCLB well, (b) Kerry has to be careful attacking it, and (c) the public does not vote education in national elections anyway…

In Education Week, Darcia Harris Bowman writes up the new Bryan Hassel and Michelle Godard Terrell Arizona charter school report.

Larry Summers a conservative? Read about it here in the Wash Post.

They’re high on small schools and charter schools in the Windy City, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that former U.S. Attorney, current San Diego School Superintendent, policy wonk, and all around very talented guy Alan Bersin is a dark horse candidate for the coveted Valenti job at the Motion Picture Association of America. What does this mean? Well, as one excited reporter emailed Edu Commentary this morning, “Yes! I could finally pitch my movie about teachers’ union work rules and the escalating costs of health benefits in the public sector!”

The New York Times has an important story on higher ed diversity, showing the larger need to peel back the onion when analyzing this issue. Also, AP looks at U-Mass in the wake of last year’s SCOTUS decision.

Also in the NYT, columnist Tom Friedman says beware the Chinese and do your homework to prepare to fend them off. Hmmm…hasn’t China always been the next big thing…and double hmmm…the Prussians, the Russians, the Japanese, yet somehow we muddle through every time…maybe a better reason to improve the schools is for basic equity and social cohesion reasons; the economics and security questions tend to take care of themselves in our society.

In Massachusetts, more charter school debate. Governor Romney is proposing a last minute change to the financing formula there to try to stave off a moratorium. You have to work hard to make Mitt Romney look good politically, but with this charter moratorium Democrats and school officials there seem to have stumbled on a way…

John Merrow offers some thoughts on grade inflation in the new Carnegie Perspectives.

With demographics like this it’s perfectly understandable why the teachers’ union in Detroit is fighting against efforts to improve the schools there…

A disturbing story from St. Paul (and one you’re not going to find in NBPTS promotional materials…)

More talented 10 debate in Texas (via educationnews.org).

If you’re into wine and/or public charter schools, this Ben Giliberti Washington Post column is for you.

A new report (PDF) on teacher induction from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Fordham Foundation’s Terry Ryan takes a look at the lawsuit against charter schools in Ohio. Worth reading because it shows (a) how legally suspect the lawsuit is and consequently (b) how politically driven it is.

Ryan notes that:

This federal claim follows two unsuccessful lawsuits filed (against most charter schools themselves) in state courts by the other teacher union, the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) and its allies in 2001. In April 2003, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick McGrath issued a strongly worded opinion holding that charter schools are indeed sanctioned by the Ohio constitution and are a legitimate part of Ohio’s public education system if the legislature says they are. In a devastating setback to the OFT and its dozen co-plaintiffs (including the OEA, which filed an amicus brief), the court dismissed all constitutional claims brought against the program. Judge McGrath ruled that: a) charter schools represent a constitutionally-sanctioned component of Ohio’s public education system; b) they are legally funded and do not illegally siphon locally raised property tax dollars; c) they do not represent a violation of the DeRolph decision dealing with the legislature’s constitutional obligation to establish a “thorough and efficient” system of public schools; and d) they are not private schools receiving public dollars. Let it be said again: charter schools are public schools.

Ohio charter schools are not without their problems but this lawsuit is a distraction from addressing them and complete BS. More importantly, where is the left? Ryan’s analysis is solid but shouldn’t liberals be outraged at a (baseless) lawsuit aimed at curtailing opportunity for disadvantaged kids in Ohio too? And, isn’t this the sort of thing Juan Williams was talking about in last week’s NYT. More through the looking glass…

Afterthought: Hold the outraged emails about the Fordham Foundation, meaning don’t send emails attacking them unless they have a specific policy disagreement to cite (and saying they’re “against public schools” doesn’t count, that’s a stupid argument). Incidentally, Fordham is now going to be chartering schools in Dayton Ohio which puts them more on the front lines of this issue than most…

In the NYT Samuel Freedman continues to revitalize the ‘On Education’ column taking a look at the small schools issue in New York.

In The Washington Post Jay Mathews points out that SAT scores are less than deterministic. For example, President Bush did pretty well on his…ha ha, just kidding!

Virginia Governor, and rising star, Mark Warner told a Washington audience yesterday how he managed to overcome enormous deficits left by his predecessor and promote innovative policies including in education. AP reports more.

In Arizona the Arizona Tribune reports some charter schools are resisting efforts to make salaries transparent. Back and forth about whether they’re on firm legal ground in doing so but it’s clear that they’re on very weak PR ground…via U.S. Charter Schools

More on the consortium of Northeastern states working together on testing and further evidence that a “bottom-up” approach to any national test is more realistic than a top-down one.

The CSM takes an interesting look at how Minneapolis is responding to more educational choices.

The new 21st Century Schools Project Bulletin is posted here. You can subscribe (free) here.

Over the weekend the NYT Magazine took a long look at Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone in NYC. It’s an excellent article. Pay particular attention to (a) Canada’s relentless use of data while still running very warm programs (b) the UFT shot across his bow (c) the enormous stakes people are ascribing to his plan and (d) the network issue.

The National PTA gets its signals crossed with a group representing gay students.

More back and forth between Moskowitz and the mayor in NYC. Also in NY, though no articles online yet, SUNY voted not to re-open discussions about the closure of the Reisenbach Charter School. An Edu Commentary source says that, after a “lively” discussion, the argument that the school had not acted with urgency to address problems or even appeal the decision carried the day.

The Washington Post has more on the voucher program in DC.

NYT readers respond to Juan Williams, including about vouchers.

And, who knows why, but this story about ABCTE in Florida is a hatchet job…

Finally, “Ask A Josten’s Class-Ring Salesman” advice questions here.