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WEEKEND READING: July 4-5 [updated]

Page0000001_3Testing Testing TAP
Beneath the feel-good press releases about national education standards lie unresolved policy differences.

New plans for schools Economist
TO HEAR Ed Balls, the schools secretary, tell it, the saga of British education since the Labour Party came to power in 1997 is a rousing one of derring-do...Another version is that the government has blown £2 billion on micro-managing teachers, and to little effect.

Private schools in the recession Economist
There is little sign of a recession-induced meltdown in private schooling.

The secret life of an American schoolteacher.The New Yorker
The title of the new HBO Sunday-night series “Hung” isn’t meant to be a double entendre of the kind that induces snickers--it’s straightforward descriptive slang, a reference to the physical endowments of the show’s main character, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane).

Sunday Update:

Can Debutante Classes Break Troubled Teens' Cycle of Pregnancy and Poverty? Dallas Observer             The Ladies by Design Junior Debutante Course is part of a trend in programs springing up to help low-income teens. Often promoted as lessons in such things as hip-hop dance or engine building, the programs are in fact holistic youth development gigs.... From Dallas Observer.

No Swimming Pools Or Frisbee Golf Atlantic                                                                                                    For the White House, it's critical that the $787 billion gets spent efficiently and appropriately, and it's worth noticing that we haven't heard as many rumblings about ridiculous pork projects as one might expect from a spending initiative of this size:

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Aptitude Times Magazine                                                                              Do our merit-based ideas of fairness get us what we deserve?

BLOGS: A Quick Spin Around The Blogosphere

Happy holiday weekend to everyone.

What should be done with the stimulus money for education? Teacher Ken
"Matches can be purchased to burn all standardized tests, ending the absurd notion that these exams have anything to do with educating a child and preparing him or her for life."

New Idea for Stemming Summer Learning Loss? LFA
"Hunger can be a positive motivator." -- Missouri State Representative Cynthia Smith, who opposes free school lunches for children during summer months.

Studies Show Pupils Benefit from Tutoring--A Little Inside Research
A trio of recent studies evaluating the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act's tutoring provision show that students in some districts are making small, but not great, learning gains.

Boy Banned From School For Moustache Detention Slip

Everyone knows that moustaches lead teen boys down a destructive path of drugs and violence.

THOMPSON: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason

StateEducationPic Oklahoma’s "bubble" or gap between soaring NCLB test scores and flat NAEP scores has been one of the worst in the nation, but Secretary of Education Sandy Garrett just announced that scores are being recalibrated for this spring’s data. We can expect Reading scores, for instance, to drop from passing rates of 77 to 92% to 63 and 70%.

Oklahoma acted because we listened to social scientists, and to Robert Balfanz’s Everyone Graduates Center which just published the brilliant study, "Keeping Middle Grades Students on the Path to Graduate." Sandy Garrett is in the tradition of heroic progressives who have "used smoke and mirrors" to keep Oklahoma from being another Mississippi. State educational leaders mostly have to rely of "the bully pulpit." Garrett has used her pulpit to promote universal pre-school, graduation coaches, and "the Gift of Time." - John Thompson

NEWS: Big Stories Of The Day

I know, it's a holiday.  But I don't know what else to do with myself.

Mayor says Detroit should be outraged over school shooting DetroitNews.com
Mayor Dave Bing on Thursday enlisted federal authorities and everyday citizens in a community fight against youth violence like Tuesday's bus stop rampage that wounded seven near Cody Ninth Grade Academy.

More Minnesota schools fall behind in math, reading Minneapolis Star Tribune
State test scores for math and reading are up, but not enough for No Child Left Behind law.

L.A. school board lets Birmingham High go charter LA Times
A newly constituted Los Angeles school board took its first action Wednesday by giving up control of its largest campus, allowing Birmingham High to convert itself into a charter.

Duncan Stresses Merit Pay to Teachers Union
Seven-year-old Leilani Granados reads her thank-you card to Education Secretary Arne Duncan during the unveiling of NEA's "teacher thank-you ...

School requests pour in for stimulus building aid Milwaukee Sentinel Journal
A new program that allows school districts to borrow money interest-free has attracted requests for nearly six times the amount allocated to Wisconsin.


SIC: "Similar To The Of A Lawyer Or Doctor."

"I told him that the best way to raise standards was to pay teachers more but require them to get a graduate degree similar to the of a lawyer or doctor." (Arne Duncan Really Does Listen PK12)

BLOGS: The Best Part Of The Day

All Stimulus, (nearly) all the time:

Stimulus Spending, Breakdown by States WSJ via ProPublica
Mouse over a state for details, or sort the rows in the chart below the map.

Another Year, Another NEA Convention Intercepts
The signature media event appears to be U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s “town hall” meeting with the delegates tomorrow morning.

Women on Par With Men in Principalship, Says Report Inside Research
More than half the nation's principals are now women, according to one of five statistical reports released yesterday by the National Center for Education Statistics.

State Budget Troubles Worsen CBPP via TAPPED
Federal stimulus funding is closing 30 to 40 percent of state budget shortfalls, thanks to its timing and flexibility.

States Get $2.7 Billion in Early Stimulus Aid PK12
This chunk of the stabilization fund is meant to help out states as they face increasing budget pressures.

Hidden curriculum Joanne Jacobs
Parents can’t check out Baltimore County Public Schools curriculum, complains BaltoNorth. It’s password protected on an intranet.

National Journal’s Ed Insider Petting Zoo TCKB
National Journal…tear down this wall!

CARTOON: "Tear Down This [Fire] Wall"

TearDownThisWall
Via Swift And Changeable.

NEWS: Big Stories Of The Day

Facing Deficits, Some States Cut Summer School NYT
Thousands of school districts across the country have trimmed or eliminated summer classes, ignoring pleas from the Education Department to use stimulus money to retain them.

California Leads States Facing Deepening Budget Crises PBS
Several states are struggling to find solutions for deep budget gaps as a new fiscal year begins.

Custom_1244054502373_newspapersL.A. Group in Talks to Run D.C. High School Washington Post
This summer, Friends of Bedford will take over operation of Coolidge and Dunbar high schools. Friendship schools will assume control of Anacostia High School this summer.

N.J. has school districts without schools -- but not for much longer USA Today
The school districts in such New Jersey hamlets as Hi-Nella (population 1,029), Teterboro (population 18) and Victory Gardens (population 1,546) will be history by the time schools open in fall 2010 under a bill signed by the governor Tuesday.

Expert Panels Named in Common-Standards Push EdWeek
One group will draft standards for the initiative being led by governors and state schools chiefs, and the other will critique their work.

Graduation for autistic kids CNN
Graduation day at a New York City school for autistic children is a coming-of-age moment years in the making.

QUOTE: Reformers "Need To Get Their Act Together"

"Human capital (e.g., TFA), charter, and gap-closers, with support from the business lobby, need to get their act together--and push."  (Tom Vander Ark)

STIMULUS: Biden Jumps The Gun Praises USDE

“I’m pleased to announce today that the Department of Education will be making over $2.5 billion in Recovery Act funds available to states in the coming days to support state education budgets, thereby helping states in fiscal distress...I applaud Secretary Arne Duncan and his team for moving so quickly, and will continue to press the Cabinet to find ways to accelerate the pace of Recovery Act spending.”

Continue reading "STIMULUS: Biden Jumps The Gun Praises USDE" »

TV: New HBO Dramedy About A Desperate Gym Teacher

Thomas Jane stars in HBO's new comedy 'Hung.'
Another TV show with a (tangential) connection to education.  This one is HBO's NSFW show, "Hung" (An early look):  "The new HBO dramedy is set in Detroit against the backdrop of a financially ruined automotive industry skyline, and as the world crumbles around him, Ray is forced to re-evaluate his life while everything he cares about slowly slips away. It's unsettling and sad, but in some ways, fortuitous ... at least for HBO anyway. Considering the current economic crisis many Americans are experiencing, a lot of people are going to relate to this show."

Have you seen it?  Does it look any good?  My guess is no.  Sad that in the world of pop culture working in a school is still considered to be such a horrible thing that it might justify an illegal job on the side.  Hung is not to be confused with Breaking Bad, the AMC drama about (sort of) a high school chemistry teacher, which just finished its 2nd season (Walter White's Report Card).

BLOGS: The Vuvuzelas Of School Reform

800px-Vuvuzela_red44Civic Committee stabs Duncan in the back Small Talk
A flabbergasted Duncan, who rode the myth of the Chicago turnaround miracle all the way to Washington, tried to defend his record. But, well, 8th grade test scores did rise by a few points, was the best he could do.

Grading reports that grade states, which have schools that grade Sherman Dorn
C'mon folks: can't you figure out a more substantive way of evaluating states?

U.S. Ed Secretary Refining Postion on Charters? Peter Murphy
Richard Iannuzzi, the head of the state teachers union, NYSUT, told the School Boards Association blog, On Board, that Arne Duncan "may be refining his position" on tying charter caps to a state's chances of being awarded "Race to the Top" funds.

In the Same Boat LFA
The education “establishment” and education “reformers” are not so different from one another after all. Just ask the Fordham Foundation’s Mike Petrilli.

What's Missing from National Journal's New Education Blog? Sara Mead
Mainstream outlets tend to treat early childhood education as a sub-component of the lifestyle/parenting/mommy wars/let's-debate-feminism genre, while more policy-oriented outlets tend to view it from a childcare or even welfare reform lens.

Glasnost Big Charlie
Believe it or not, several states including New York, Wisconsin, and California, have laws that create a firewall between students and teacher data.

THOMPSON: Real World Standards

Chicago_pov_poor_schools The best thing about Linda Lutton’s series on Robeson High School in Chicago is that it dared to quote an eminent scholar with the courage to say, "They should kick them (disruptive students) out ... If they don’t want to learn. ...Start writing more people up." Just kidding! That sentiment was expressed by a student named Sarah.

Only 150 of the incoming freshmen were identified as at-risk due to academic and/or absenteeism issues, but apparently, little attention is paid to the other 250. Just having good "soft skills" is enough for A’s. Consequently, only 17 graduates of the 2004 class attended college and only four of them remain on track to graduate. One teacher explained, "My standards have gone down so much since teaching here. Part of me, when kids show up and sit down and write - anything ... I want to pass them. Which is really unfair to them ..."

Continue reading "THOMPSON: Real World Standards" »

LA: Cortines Upset Over GQ Magazine Photo Shoot

Sacha Baron Cohen
Mark Seliger / men.style.com/gq

Los Angeles superintendent Ramon Cortines doesn't think this was very funny. Seems pretty harmless to me, considering all the other issues that LA has to worry about -- including the secession of this very same high school from LAUSD.

CHICAGO: Former Allies Slam Duncan Education Record

I had all but given up on mainstream coverage of Arne Duncan's lackluster record "turning around" the Chicago Public Schools, but now a report from a business group long allied with the Mayor on school reform issues has come out slamming the district's record of achievement -- and Crain's Chicago has picked it up.

 
Arne DuncanChicago Public School reform largely has failed, reports Crain's political reporter Greg Hinz, based on a just-release report from the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club -- a longtime ally of the city in its reform efforts.

"The report directly challenges widespread claims by current and former CPS officials that local students have shown substantial progress over the last decade on standardized tests." 

In response, spokespeople for Arne Duncan cited improvements in 8th graders' performance, even after adjusting for the changes in the tests, and increases in ACT scores. Really?  That's all they have.

NEWS: Big Stories Of The Day

States, Districts in Delicate Dance on Stimulus EdWeek
Striking the right balance on use of federal education aid requires accommodation on both sides—and produces some friction.

Not going to college? How about a 'career diploma' from high school? CSM
The provision in Louisiana puts the state in the center of a national debate about where to set the bar for high school graduation.

In high-dropout Camden, Big Picture kids prep for college USA Today
In a city where dropout rates are consistently among New Jersey's highest and test scores are among the lowest, there were no dropouts at MetEast -- not a charter school, but one run by the city's school district, established with the help of nonprofit Big Picture Learning.

Birmingham High's charter-conversion struggles show difficulty of reform LA Times
Few chapters in recent Los Angeles public school history have been uglier than the one that is expected to culminate today with a Board of Education vote on whether to allow Birmingham High School to effectively secede and become a charter school.

Atlantic City schools shed 'need improvement' designation Press of Atlantic City
The district has worn that unwelcome designation since the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

FB: Online Quiz Useful For Teacher Recruitment, Evaluation, & Pay

QuizThere are lots of goofy quizzes on Facebook these days, and this one is probably no better or worse.  Except it's about schools:  What kind of teacher are you?. I know!  I haven't taken it but 57,000 others have.  Give it a try and tell us what you find out.  Maybe this is something districts could use instead of all that pricey Haberman stuff.  Or, even better, maybe we can work it into someone's teacher evaluation or performance pay program. 

BLOGS: "Back In Five Minutes."

Custom_1242498847209_2203227980_a224534bc4The Revolving Door of Teachers In Chicago Liam Goldrick 
While these statistics are slightly worse than Illinois as a state and the nation as a whole, CPS is not a huge outlier with regard to teacher mobility. It is a problem across the board.

The Firefighters' Case and the Schools Mark Walsh
What are the lessons for schools and school employees in the decision today in favor of white and Hispanic firefighters in New Haven?

Find the typo! and other national-stage blogging Sherman Dorn
The National Journal unveiled its new education policy blog yesterday. My first response has an embarrassing writing goof; see if you can spot it!...

Simple Math Change.org
"Everyone knows," he said, "that the subject matter itself isn't that hard. What's hard...is beating it into the heads of youngsters who hate every step.

Can teachers have lives outside of school? Get Schooled
A Gwinnett County teacher was named Miss Georgia Saturday, but Kristina Higgins turned down the honor the next day, saying she was worried about balancing her duties.

DC: Behold The Shiny New (Sponsored) FritzWire

Fritzwire logo It's a slow week in DC but the FritzWire is on fire.  The new version is formatted and (generally) nice-looking.  Plus it still has all the reports, events, jobs it always had. (Not that there's much going on this week.)  And Fritz is getting paid.  Check out today's version below -- sponsored by Widmeyer! -- and sign up at the bottom if you want to get it daily. 

Continue reading "DC: Behold The Shiny New (Sponsored) FritzWire" »

THOMPSON: Robeson High School

Bryan Robeson High School in Chicago has 400 incoming freshmen, with 150 already identified as "at risk." Despite having 17 pregnant freshmen, the school’s options are constrained by the lack of counselors and the district only has one alternative school for young mothers. Not surprisingly, many of the younger students have limited educational horizons, thinking that they just need "Food. Water. Place to Live. (and) You gonna need weed."

Continue reading "THOMPSON: Robeson High School" »

BLOGS: New Blog Options To Liven Things Up

Thanks to Dana Truby at Scholastic Professional Media for passing along this favorite education blogs list, which includes a number that  are new to me (10 education blogs I've been reading).  It's easy to let things get stale, and high time for some new voices and ideas.  Some of the new names on the list:

1911781644_fe16c0eb932.  Prone to Laughter
Should the teacher dance to the raunchy song?

3.  Line 46:
Intimacy and honesty from inside a classroom.

4. Change.org's Education Blog:
Straight out of Eugene, OR.

6.  Learn Me Good:
A male teacher in primary school, teaching math.

8. Wicked Teacher of the West:
How teachers misinterpret kids, and other classroom realities.

Are any of these any good?  Let me know. Or maybe your blog, or someone you know, has an even better one. 

NEWS: Big Stories Of The Day

Chief Justice Roberts: High court not setting school rules USA Today
At a judicial conference, Roberts was asked how school administrators should interpret seemingly conflicting messages from the court in two recent decisions, including one Thursday that said Arizona officials conducted an unconstitutional strip-search of a teenage girl.

In Hartford, Stimulus Funds for Schools Leveraged for State Budget Crunch PBS
John Tulenko of Learning Matters reports on how one school district in Connecticut is weathering the recession, and how the state is using stimulus funds to close budget deficits rather than increase education spending.

75462598Sacramento vice mayor kicks county school board leader out of meeting Sacramento Bee

A meeting to discuss locating a school for at-risk youth at the corner of Florin Road and 24th Street took an uncomfortable turn Thursday afternoon when Sacramento Vice Mayor Lauren Hammond refused...

One College Sidesteps the Crisis WSJ
Harvard University put the brakes on a major campus expansion. Wellesley College froze salaries and laid off employees. Middlebury College cut financial aid for international students. But one private college is quietly skirting the ...

States weigh setting one bar for students CSM
A 'common' standard for K-12 education is in the works.

Montgomery, Md., Schools Made Teen Wait and Wait to Go to School WP
Jeff Sukkasem is a U.S. citizen and legal resident of Montgomery County, with a passport, a library card and a volunteer job at a local Thai Buddhist temple. For the past two years, however, he essentially has been barred from public school.

MEDIA: School Reform Goes Tabloid

Nypmasthead2
"WHICH former elected official has been cheating on her husband? This wife and mother was spotted going into a Midtown hotel with the head of a group pushing school reform, who's also married. Said our source, "Not the first time and not the last time" . . ." (NY POST JUST ASKING)

BLOGS: A Quick Spin Around The Blogosphere

Stim 2: The Stimulus Strikes Back? PK12
Another stimulus package could very possibly be Coming Soon to a Congress Near You, at least if Warren Buffett has his way.

Money moneyNever Can Say Goodbye Charlie B.
No one booed when Arne Duncan said: The "charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist."

Don't Mess With Success at This High-Achieving Charter Middle School Uncle Jay Mathews
Sometime last year, while negotiating a teacher contract for the KIPP Ujima Village charter middle school in Baltimore, founder Jason Botel pointed out that his students, mostly from low- income families, had earned the city's highest public school test scores three years in a row.

You want coverage of Malcolm Gladwell? We got it. Dangerously Irrelevant
If you can’t figure out what Gladwell talked about after looking at all of these, there’s no helping you! The Twitter hashtag for Gladwell’s talk was #necc09mg...

High School Secretary Uses School Computers To Change Her Daughter's Grades Jezebel
Perhaps this case speaks to the weird competitiveness of high school, the push for that ever-important class rank and the scholarships it may bring.

THOMPSON: Same As It Ever Was - or Not

Clockers The week before I began teaching in an alternative school for juvenile felons, NPR introduced me to Richard Price and his novel Clockers. A decade of living in a neighborhood devastated by the Reagan/Bush recession and crack and gangs had taught me what happens when the fragile wiring of our brains and the fabric of our social institutions are unraveled.

Price’s Clockers, and afterwards The Wire, were able to articulate the human struggle for survival and dignity in a thrown-away community. Soon, I intimately knew students like the "Buffalo," who was a teenaged version of Price’s character, Rodney, who knew every species of tree in the neighboring nursery and loved to watch the backhoe in operation. And I understood the logic of my scarred, brain-damaged young sociopath destined for life in prison, who was the spitting image of the character in The Wire, who in the last episode accepted a sweet deal and traded murder for legitimate profits.

Continue reading "THOMPSON: Same As It Ever Was - or Not" »

USDE: More Windy City Natives Heading East

Compass-east A few more folks are heading to East, according to Catalyst, including staff for John Easton's IES communications office and new early childhood analyst for AIR. Check it out here

Meanwhile, Duncan's former Chief of Staff is headed to HHS, according to Lynn Sweet (here).

Anything else?


EDSEC: Duncan's Weekly Schedule

6a00e54f8c25c988340115700effab970c He's in Chicago, then back in DC, then out to Aspen for the Aspen Ideas Festival on his way out the NEA convention on Thursday.

Details below.

Friday is a holiday. 

 

Continue reading "EDSEC: Duncan's Weekly Schedule" »

MEDIA: National Journal "Experts" Blog Starts Today

National journal logoThere's a new education blog out there, starting today. (Just what the world needs, I know.)  This one's being hosted by the National Journal Group, and it's main appeal seems to be that it's somehow enticed all sorts of folks who aren't known to blog (Duncan, Paige, Spellings, Bennet, Kline, etc.) to give blogging a try in addition to the usual set of blowhards and know-nothings (myself included).  Hell, the NEA's even going to be there.  Of course, staffers will do most of the actual writing, and it remains to be seen whether anyone says anything interesting or new.  But I will do my best to call out any Beltway BS that I find, and urge you to check it out. It's being hosted by NJ's education reporter, Lisa Caruso. 

Continue reading "MEDIA: National Journal "Experts" Blog Starts Today" »

NEWS: Big Stories Of The Day

Gerstner Says Obama Picked Wrong Advisers to Lead Auto Overhaul Bloomberg
Gerstner, a longtime proponent of education overhaul, praised White House efforts in that area and said he's “excited” about Education Secretary Arne Duncan...

Peer Review Programs Offer Mentorship to Struggling Teachers WP
Jean Bernstein rang a cowbell, her cue to quiet the sixth-graders at Roberto Clemente Middle School for a lesson on multiplying decimals. "You need to settle down," she said.

Urban high school's rare feat: No dropouts MSNBC
Angelo Drummond wears a pressed white shirt and a red power tie for his two-hour presentation to his harshest critics — a panel of fellow students at Camden's MetEast High School.

Mom charged with changing daughter's grades MSNBC
A high school secretary illegally changed grades in a school computer system to improve her daughter's class standing, according to criminal charges filed Thursday.

How Should We Teach English-Language Learners? NPR
The Supreme Court last week ruled that Arizona has not violated federal laws that require schools to help students who do not speak, read or write English. The decision raises a bigger question about why these students have been so poorly served to begin with.

BLOGS: The Best You've Ever Read

States Should Decide How Tests Work Under NCLB PK12
The brand-new top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, said this morning that he's not wedded to the idea that states should test their students in reading and math once a year...

The Mod Squad Eduwonk
Dem moderates in the Senate weigh-in on the Obama education agenda with a letter to the President (pdf).  Depending on how all this goes down they could prove to be a key voting block for reform. 

SchoolchoiceWhat School Choice Looks Like Dana Goldstein
Doing away with school choice entirely seems like a bad idea...And yet, through both "choice" enrollment and neighborhood sorting, we are creating segregated mini-systems within larger school districts.

The Trouble With School Choice Ezra Klein
It's crucial not to leave behind the schools with little potential for excellence. Those, after all, are where the children will need the most help, and where we can't rely on their parents to give it.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Peer-Assistance and -Review...But Were Afraid to Ask Sawchuk
That could have been the title, anyway, of this Web site on peer-assistance and -review programs.

Better organized free stuff  Tom Vander Ark
Just a few years ago we had to rely on our weekly fix from EdWeek and now our inboxes and twitter boxes are full of news and views—a storm of info.

Vikky and Deoine, a Mott Haven high school’s “best couple” GothamSchools
Victoria Cruz and her girlfriend of two and a half years, Deoine, were voted “best couple” at their high school, Mott Haven Village Prep.

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