Duncan's Weekly Media Schedule: Let It Be Your Guide.

Here's Duncan's media schedule for the week.  Plan your days around it.  Let it be your guide.  It is the center of the education universe.  There is nothing about it that is stale, empty, or without news value.  What Duncan says and where he says it is vastly more important (and easier to cover) than anything going on in a real school, district, or statehouse. Ignore all other temptations.

Blogs: Time To Get Out Of The School Reform Bubble

Those inside the school reform bubble are pretty much solely focused on things like Race to the Top, mayoral control, and the like.  But everybody else out there -- teachers, principals, parents -- is probably focusing on more mundane (immediate) issues like H1N1 and the gang rape of a teenage girl in Richmond, California.

In Richmond Rape, One Teen Did The Right Thing Jezebel
"I'm like 'We should call the cops because that's the right thing to do.' I didn't think about it twice."

Richmond rape survivor speaks out Jezebel
School officials are planning to improve security with cameras, improved lighting, and fences. According to West Contra Costa School District superintendent Bruce Harter, these measures have been in the works for a long time, but administrators "couldn't find the money until now."

Proper Loading and Unloading The Bus Driver
Aren't all students, including those in wheelchairs supposed to be ready for pickup and not sitting inside the house waiting for the bus to come?

How Discrimination Creeps Into Grading Practices Inside Research
An innovative study shows how discrimination toward students from low social castes plays out in teachers' test-grading practices.

Are you inside the reform bubble, or outside?

Charters: The Art Of Manipulating Oversight Boards

"Without you saying anything to them, they will believe that they are responsible for making big decisions about budget matters, school policies, hiring of the principal and dozens of other matters."

Imagine charter schools CEO Dennis Bakke in a recently revealed email about how to pick and manipulate charter boards. (Pick your board members carefully)

Thompson: Reclaiming Our Children

After fretting over the most troubled students who undercut the opportunities of his lower-performing kids in his Study Skills classes, "Coach" may have stumbled across the solution, "why not send the knuckleheads to the rich schools? Instead of sending the troublemakers to alternative schools with the other troublemakers, let them see how great school can be."

Oklahoma City is maxed out in terms of a market for charter schools - all of the more easily educated kids have been creamed off by all types of magnet schools - so our district would have leverage in negotiating arrangements for our most challenging students. In return for the contract which allows charters to operate under the philosophy of their choice, they must accept a certain percentage of suffering children.

So, we could either adopt the proposals of Mayor Cory Booker et al for expanded alternative schools, or Coach's comparable musings.  The key would be negotiating "win win" contracts with per student payments generous enough to ensure quality programs.

News: FLA Lawsuit, $87 Per Kid, Income Not Race, & More

Florida Officials Fail to Provide Quality Education, Suit Claims NYT
The American Civil Liberties Union, citing low graduation rates, says officials are violating a requirement in the Florida Constitution.

Race to the Top education grant propels reforms USA Today
If distributed to each of the USA's schools, which educate an estimated 50 million students, it would equal only $87 more per student.

Obama Offers States Rewards For Overhauling Schools NPR
In order to qualify for the money, schools may have to grade not only students, but also teachers.

More districts use income, not race, as basis for busing USA Today
More than 60 school systems now use socioeconomic status as a factor in school assignments. Students in Champaign, Ill.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Louisville have returned this year to income-based assignments.

Military to Debut Virtual School US News
A new online curriculum is in the works to ease school transitions for itinerant members' children.

More report cards go online USA Today
Districts in Louisiana, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas are among those that have gone paperless since 2008.

Media: Discriminating Against Teenagers

Reading the news it's not hard to start thinking that teenagers are most of them up to no good.  The vast majority of stories about them are, it seems, about dumb, irresponsible, strange, or unlawful actions.  The occasional warm and fuzzy (or heroic) story only makes the day to day negativity all the more striking.  

But if teens were actually as many of them as bad as they're usually portrayed in the press then none of us would be safe and things would be a lot lot worse than the are.  

Is this mere stereotyping, or is it discrimination?  I'm not sure.  What's clearest to me is that it's easy to get into the habit of thinking of kids in a negative light, and that some portion of the struggle that this country has in doing right by kids comes from the fact that we're exposed to little of what they do that's neither heroic or villainous but rather simply human. Here's a video I think I got off Adrants that's about how this plays out in England.  

Poetry In Ads: Can We Live With It?

As several readers noted, it turns out it was an actor who voiced O Pioneers! in the ad I told you about last week (Levi's Uses Rare Walt Whitman Recording To Sell Jeans ).The real Walt Whitman's voice is here, reading his poem America:  

I'm still on the fence about this.  But not everyone's upset about the use of a famous poet to sell jeans. Seth Stevenson says he's always wondered what ads set to poems would look like (Slate Magazine).  "That scratchy Whitman recording also sets a mood of vague disquiet. Paired with the music behind it and the startling crack of sudden fireworks, that raspy, distant voice sounds rather ominous." At least it's not all about sex. 

Hot For Education: Dakota Fanning Crowned Homecoming Princess

That great new blog "Hot For Education" is something else, even if the content is sometimes a little bit silly or racy. 

A home-schooled nerd's dreams of becoming a fantasy fiction... (video)
School Pictures That Don’t Make You Want to Vomit
High School Sweethearts Reunite After 50 Years
‘Glee’ Cast Sings National Anthem (video)
Tracy Morgan: “I wanna take you out behind that middle school and...'
Matilda Ledger Scoots to School
‘Glee’ Guys Hit Continental Midtown
High School Wrestler Sues District For MMA Fight At School (video)
Dakota Fanning Crowned Homecoming Princess

You should really check it out. Or not. 

People: Carnegie Foundation Snags Reformy Chicago Guy

First the Carnegie Foundation picked a new president Tony Bryk (instead of Linda Darling Hammond).  Then the foundation came up with a whole new set of priorities (something about community colleges, I think). Now they're bringing John Ayers, one of Chicago's best-known education connectors out to make things really work.  

In Chicago, Ayers was longtime head of LQE, a pro-charter nonprofit, and then helped with Greg Richmond's National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Most recently, he helped launch Union Park High Schools, an effort to bring unionized charter schools to Chicago.  

Bryk and Ayers know each other from the bad old days when they worked on the Chicago Consortium on School Research, a quasi-independent research outfit that other cities like NYC are currently trying to emulate.  

NY Times Praises Chicago's Secret School Safety Plan

So disappointing.  The Times editorial page comes out strongly for Chicago schools superintendent Ron Huberman's youth violence prevention plan (A Powerful Idea on Youth Violence), thrilling over Huberman's beat cop cred and way with a spreadsheet and calling his plan new and ambitious. If only most of the ideas in the Huberman plan hadn't already been tried, and if only Huberman wasn't keeping everything but a simplified PowerPoint version of his analysis and his plan under wraps.  

I'd love for the plan to work, but unlike the Times editorial page I'd need to see it first. Huberman's quickly developing an unfortunate reputation for being Cheney secretive.  Six weeks ago he tried to slip through a rules change that would have allowed him to hire senior staff and give them raises without having to notify the public or even the Board.  

Obama In Madison: What The Trip Really Meant

SETTING THE SCENE
Speaking in front of a blue backdrop with words "Race to the Top" scrawled in white letters, Obama spoketo about 250 students as well as hundreds of parents, teachers, staff and local dignitaries packed into the an auditorium that normally serves as the school's lunchroom. (Obama pushes education reforms Tribune)

POLITICAL CONTEXT
Mr. Obama’s visit to Madison, which is the first by a sitting president to this city in 59 years, comes as the Republican National Committee is running a radio ad in Madison criticizing the $787 billion stimulus package..(Political Punch ABC News)

A CHARTER SCHOOL, YOU SAY?
Wright is a charter school with the highest population of minority students in the area. (Race to the Top and Higher Goals Fox News)

PRESIDENT WONK
The president's speech moved from a brusque defense of his time in office to a turgid review of his education proposals, replete with terms such as "firewall laws" and four-point measures for reform. Students yawned.  (Obama marks election anniversary by talking education Washington Post)

RTTT=NCLB
He spent a large chunk of the speech trying to educate people about those four "assurances" in the stimulus law, which are clearly becoming the education reform vision of the Obama administration. (Politics K-12 EdWeek)

PIMPING OUT MALIA
The president went off script for a few moments, telling of a C grade that his 11-year-old daughter, Malia, brought home from school recently. It didn't meet the standards at the Obama home, he said, and Malia knew it. (Obama calls for end of 'firewall' rules that shield teachers LATimes)

YES, KIDS ASK TOUGHER QUESTIONS THAN THE PRESS
All right. Okay. Now we're going to kick out everybody so I can let you -- you guys can ask me all the really tough questions without having the press here. (Transcript of President Obama, Secretary Duncan with Students WBAY)

DUNCAN LITERALLY NEEDS NEW WORDS
"We have lots of written comments come back -- literally thousands.  Our staff has been staying up literally all night going through all those." (White House Press Gaggle by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Forest Park News)

News: Sacto Changes, Election Impact, Stimulus Trickle, VA Charters

California Senate OKs school changes to seek federal funds Sacramento Bee
These measures address the criteria President Barack Obama and US Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan said would make a state competitive in vying ...

Election Offers Varied Impact for Education EdWeek
From ballot measures with funding implications to high-profile mayoral races, school issues factored into a number of state and local races.

Charter school supporters sound warnings over union win in Denver schools CO Independent
Even as charter school supporters swept the Douglas County School Board election Tuesday, charter school advocates were losing power in the Denver Public School Board election, according to unofficial election results.

Stimulus Money Trickling Into the Classroom PBS NewsHour
John Tulenko of Learning Matters Television explores how stimulus money is making its way into classrooms in upstate New York.

Va. dip toes in charter school waters, as D.C. student numbers soar Washington Post
The number of charter schools in the District has skyrocketed over the past decade, and charters are on track to claim 38 percent of public school students in the city. The charter scene is a comparative desert in Virginia and Maryland, but that might be changing.

Foundation giving is expectedto drop more than 10% in '09 Washington Post
Foundation giving is expected to drop more than 10 percent this year from 2008 and to continue falling next year, according to a survey conducted in September of almost 600 large- and mid-size organizations by the Foundation Center.

LAUSD: 'Public' Charters Don't Want To Serve Neighborhood Kids

"Many charter operators are rebelling against a provision in the initiative that requires them to give enrollment preference to students within each school's attendance boundaries." (Policy skirmishing puts LAUSD reform at risk LA Times)

Old Book Titles: "Sometimes I Hate School"

"My daughter writes this book every weekday morning; every afternoon it unravels with stories of strange snacks and funny boys who do the boy-ey-est things."  (Three Weeks In - Sweet Juniper)

Quotes: A Super - Reformy View Of Yesterday's Elections

"Teachers unions are only as powerful as we let them be." ( edspresso)

Obama: White House Background On Madison School Event

Click below to see what the White House says the trip to Madison is all about - a revealing little peek into what they think is going on (and hope that you will think, too).  

Chicago Science & Technology Guy Heading To USDE

Mike Lach, longtime science curriculum guru at the Chicago Public Schools, is heading to DC to work on STEM issues.

Watch out, DC.

Congrats, condolences. 

Lach is the most recent of several Chicago education insiders who have flown the coop since Arne Duncan left and Ron Huberman came in. 

Media: The NY Times Looks Like It's Borrowing Others' Ideas (Again)

On August 17 of this year, Diana Senchal got inspired by a Diane Ravitch commentary about how easy it had become to pass some of the state assessments used to promote students from one grade to another and a NY Daily News story on the same topic.  With credit given to all, Senechal took the next step and guessed all the answers and still passed.Then, a month later the Times published a suspiciously similar story but credited neither Ravitch nor Senechal nor the Daily News.

Amazing news, Times readers!  You can guess the answers and still pass the test!  Who knew?  I know, I know.  I'm sure it was just a coincidence.  Great minds think alike.  Everybody knew about that.  The Times did lots of extra reporting in its version.  The Daily News is just a tabloid and who reads GothamSchools, anyway?   

Thanks to Claus Von Zastrow at the Learning First Alliance for the helpful tip.

Previous Posts
Do They Think We're Blind?
Mickey Mouse Ideas About Credit

Thompson: Data

Back in the day when teachers took roll by scan sheets and we quickly received printouts of the reasons for absences (cutting, medical, bereavement, legal, etc.) that data was far more valuable than all of the test score and benchmark statistics of today. Not wanting to sound like a Luddite, I have censored my true thoughts on data until I was inspired by Sherman Dorn’s "channeling"of Gerald Bracey.

The last time I had professional development on the nuances of special education laws, we were allowed to know which students were identified as ADHD. Presumably that data is still in those mysterious "504" files along with equally confidential information about students' mental illness, risk for suicide, and the ways that they are coping with family tragedies. For all I know, there may be school files on students' homelessness and/or probation status. If teachers can not be trusted with such crucial information, shouldn’t there be professionals in our schools who can use that data to help address the socio-emotional needs of our most troubled children?

While young teachers are indoctrinated into data-driven instruction, it is the veterans who figure out ways to obtain the really important data in real time. In my district, for instance,

Need Technology? There's An App For That

The well-regarded Karen Cator is coming in from Apple to head the USDE's ed tech efforts.  We'll try not to hold her previous place of employment against her.  (Hey, at least she's not from Google.)  And it's been too long since there was some good edtech coming out of the USDE.  Read all about it here and here.

RTTT: All States Should Apply...No One's Ineligible

Education Department said Massachusetts did not break stimulus rules AP
The department's inspector general had singled out Massachusetts and two other states, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, for using stimulus dollars to plug budget holes instead of boosting aid for schools.

Ed Secretary Advises Oregon To Compete For Funds OPB
“You know, there’s literally hundreds of millions of dollars that could come to states that are willing to lead the country where we need to go. So it’s a huge, huge opportunity at a time of great need, and I absolutely hope and anticipate that Oregon will put its best foot forward.”

No way to secure school funding  LA Times
Legislation by state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) and several coauthors would pave the way for those changes, but the bill is so awkwardly constructed at this point, with so many unnecessary and possibly harmful additions, that it doesn't deserve the fast-track passage Romero is seeking.

Evaluating Stimulus Reporting EdWeek
Despite the Obama administration's efforts to make economic-stimulus spending as transparent as possible, the first quarterly stimulus reports filed by states and other stimulus recipients don't go into very much detail about how the money was actually spent.

Minnesota Group Pushes 'Good Samaritan' Rule US News
Under new rule, students could call emergency services if a friend is drunk and not get in trouble.

Obama In Madison: Distraction From NJ & VA Election Results

Obama coaxes states to change with school dollars AP
Obama is visiting Wisconsin, where lawmakers are poised to change a law to boost their state's chances at $5 billion in education grants, the most money a president has ever had for overhauling schools.

Obama Puts Spotlight on Education Grants NYT
The decision to highlight Race to the Top makes political sense for the president: the competition, which has drawn favorable reviews from some Republicans, is already prompting states to change their education practices – even before any money is handed out. Under the draft criteria for the competition, states must not prohibit the use of student achievement data in evaluating teacher performance.

Obama to spotlight education reform efforts Washington Post
President Obama on Wednesday will highlight education reform efforts in 10 states where governors and lawmakers are maneuvering for a piece of the $4.35 billion to be awarded in the "Race to the Top" competition that will begin in the next several weeks.

Colleges: Backlash Against Male Affirmative Action

"Colleges don’t favor men to help struggling boys. They do it to keep their gender ratios from pushing past the dreaded 60% threshold..." (Seminal moment arrives in the ‘boy troubles’ debate Richard Whitmire)

Blogs: Grading Obama, Abolishing Arne, Debunking Canada

One year after his election, what has Obama achieved? Christian Science Monitor
Obama got off to a quick start. But almost one year after winning the presidency, his deeds are at risk of paling next to his aspirations.

A Powerful Identity, a Vanishing Diagnosis NYT
It is one of the most intriguing labels in psychiatry.

Performance Pay for Pundits Claus Von Z
First up for evaluation: Jonathan Alter.

Why we don't need an education secretary Jay Mathews
Let's abolish the office and get that talent back where it belongs, where school change really happens, in our states and cities.

High stakes testing arrives in PA
This month the state Board of Education approved new state graduation exams for all high school students in Pennsylvania.

Canada: not the educational mecca we've been led to believe  KDeRosa
Canadian edu-pundits have been leading us to believe that Canada's lefty social policy programs have nearly eradicated both income and racial inequality and have lead to an educational mecca in which achievement gaps are no more.

Some People Wear Two Hats in Common Standards Process Curriculum Matters
Some of the individuals who have been selected to provide feedback on mathematics or English/language arts standards for college- and career-readiness are also part of the group of people charged with "validation" of the standards.

High school girls’ MySpace photos lead to sports suspension True/Slant
That’s, like, so not fair.

Politics: Democrats and Vouchers and Wile E. Coyote

Last week in Chicago, firebrand state senator James Meeks (D-IL) suggested that things were getting to be so bad with the Chicago Public Schools that he might be open to private school vouchers. Andrew Coulson at Cato notes that Meeks joins a "small but growing" handful of local Democrats.  As for the national Dems who remain opposed to vouchers, Coulson suggests that they are, like Wile E. Coyote, experiencing a "temporary suspension of the law of gravity." 

Thompson: Come, Let Us Compromise Together

I can’t believe I’m saying nice things about the districts that beat us out for the American Federation of Teachers Innovation Grants. Seriously, each proposal is excellent, and when seen as a diverse whole, and also in the context of comparable innovations by our brothers and sisters at the National Education Association, we glimpse the future of education as it should work. And when you consider the diverse funders, including the Broad Foundation and the Gates, the promise of these innovations is even greater.

The driving force in all of the innovations is collaboration, and an old-fashioned word that is even better - compromise. California fulfills the dream of any teacher/policy wonk with an innovation that "builds on its successful district-level labor-management partnership, and moves decision-making for 10 high-needs schools from the central office to the schoolhouse." Philadelphia will build a "community schools program,"

A Reformy Halloween

I'm a week late to this (The Ed Deformer's Monster Mash) but there's still much to enjoy if you haven't seen it already. 

Duncan is a particularly enthusiastic Frankenstein, and Rhee is a deliciously emotionless BOF. Thanks to PURE

News: Stimulus Jobs, Suicide Clusters, Nosy Administrators Sued

Report says aid kept, added 7,000 area education jobs Washington Post
Education spending accounted for a large portion of the overall federal economic stimulus package, which injected $159 billion in grants and loans into the economy and had created or saved about 640,000 jobs, according to the board.

Madison School Prepares to Welcome Obama WBAY TV
Staff and students say they're not sure why the White House picked their school.

Anguish Over Calif. Teen Suicides Spurs Action AP
A fourth Palo Alto teen had died after stepping in front of a commuter train in less than six months.

Stunned students grieve for slain classmate LA Times
Mourning students at Long Beach's Wilson High School gathered Monday by the pavement where classmate Melody Ross was shot after the homecoming football game.

Has Fame Spoiled the 'Slumdog Millionaire' Kids? TIME
After school attendance fails and reports emerge of "attitude" problems, the child stars' trust threatens to cut off their allowance.

School sued for punishing teens over MySpace pix.
The American Civil Liberties Union, in a federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the girls, argues that Churubusco High School violated the girls' free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn't involve the school. 

Blogs: Feuding, Furloughing, Teachers, Starlets

The Answer Sheet: The feuding is getting in the way Valerie Strauss 
I just might scream if I hear one more person invoke what is "best for the kids" in the growing conflict between D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and her critics.

Hawaii’s Children, Left Behind NYT
Every state has sacrificed. But Hawaii has sacrificed its own schoolchildren.

Teachers: inspired, exhausted and poor Learning Matters
Last week, GOOD magazine published “The GOOD 100″ a sort of Martha Stewart ‘good things’ for the non-profit world. One of the list’s education-related highlights is the Teacher Salary Project.

Online Grading: Treat--or Trick? Nancy Flanagan
My estimable teacher-blogger colleague, Ms. Bluebird, is sputtering about the parent-accessible online grading system in her district.

Picture:  Guess the celeb.  Guess the kid-related costume.

Ready-made dissertation topic on local school politics Sherman Dorn
Anyone looking for a dissertation topic on school policy or politics can now rest easy: read the Palm Beach Post's description of a local reform effort that blew up in the face of a superintendent.

Op-Ed Contributor Teach Your Teachers Well NYT
Arne Duncan the secretary of education, recently called for sweeping changes to the way we select and train teachers. He's right.

Evaluating D.C. teachers a confusing job Jay Mathews
In the last half of the 19th century, many inventors pursued the dream of building an airplane.

The R.O.T.C. Dilemma Michael Winerip
Is it time to bring R.O.T.C. back?

Cartoon: "Greetings, Earthling."