The News Fly Express: Reader's Digest Version

There's good stuff in this week's PEN NewsBlast, as usual, including how Kentucky educators are trying to relieve test stress, a provocative piece about school violence, and a good catch on the topic of vouchers and suburban backlash. Ditto for The Gadfly, which this week includes some advice on Republican education strategy, some analysis of the Romer-led education campaign announced this week, and a slam on The Governator for his many education mis-steps. The Ed Trust's "Equity Express" (wish it was a blog or web-friendly) also has a slew of achievement gap stories (see messy email version below).

Big Stories Of The Day (Friday April 27)

Well, not so very big...

How to gauge a school's progress Christian Science Monitori
As Congress prepares to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, more educators want new definitions of achievement.

PCs Can Help Kids Pass NCLB Tests US News
Although the lion's share of U.S. schools still prepare students for achievement tests using the traditional paper-and-pen approach, some educators around the country are turning to high-tech programs designed to help students succeed in the testing-heavy educational environment created by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

Dean at M.I.T. Resigns, Ending a 28-Year Lie NYT
The dean of admissions at M.I.T. admitted that she had lied about having an undergraduate degree.

Schools Banning iPods to Beat Cheaters NY Post
Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious - students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other. Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device.

Has Chairman Miller Been Protecting Secretary Spellings?

Don't be put off by the boring title that the Title Monitor gives to its Reading First story (OIG Refers Reading First To U.S. Justice Department). There's interesting stuff in there about witnesses like former assistant secretary Susan Neuman who might have been expected to have been called to testify and some impassioned remarks from Mike Petrilli questioning the Committee's treatment of former RF director Chris Doherty and insulation of EdSec Spellings from the fiasco.

Who The Hell Is Whitney Tilson?

I've been scanning Whitney Tilson's education blog now and then for the past few months, but only just now looked up his bio, where I found that he was a charter member of TFA and is a honcho at KIPP New York and a money guy by day. Not only that, he's got three blogs, one of which is about school reform. Some recent posts include:

• Cory Booker's Battle for Newark
• Charter school math tournament in NYC
• Advocates Want Bigger Role for Charters Under NCLB...
• L.A. charter schools scramble for space
• President Addresses No Child Left Behind During Vi...
• Civil-rights leader: Give parents choice in school...
• Thoughts on vouchers

How To Read An Edu-Company Press Release

The ever-instructive Marc Dean Millot explains here just how to read between the lines of an education company press release: The Press Release in Context. "So, in a sense, PLATO is saying to Wall Street that its products have underlying value and, in a market full of close substitutes, its core clients have not abandoned it."

Bill Clinton Reverses Himself On Annual Testing

Perhaps in honor of his having proposed annual (national) tests a decade ago, Bill Clinton apparently reversed himself during a recent appearance in front of the NSBA and said that annual testing was too much (Clinton Criticizes Testing Required by NCLB EdWeek). Or perhaps he's just doing the pandering thing like his wife did a few weeks ago when she called NCLB tutoring "Halliburton all over again" in front of a teachers union crowd.

Big Stories Of The Day (Thursday April 26)

Report Undercuts Effects of Educational Software NPR
A new report from the Department of Education says that most education software does not boost test scores. But districts that have spent large amounts of money are not ready to give up on it.

Nutrition standards urged for foods sold in school CNN.com
The IOM recommendation covers items considered competitive with those foods, such as items sold in vending machines and other food and drinks sold in the school but not under the federal program, an area often profitable for the schools.

Cuomo: States Will Pursue Student Loan Fiasco NPR
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told lawmakers that if the federal government doesn't step in to regulate the student loan industry, the states will. Cuomo has persuaded 4 major lenders and 16 colleges and universities to sign a code-of-conduct pact.

Project Wants More Talk About Education Wash Post
Two of the world's wealthiest charitable foundations are bankrolling a $60 million initiative aimed at making education an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Teen to graduate college after just 1 year MSNBC
As a student at Lahser High School, Matisse had exhausted the curriculum by her junior year. Between the exams she passed on eight advanced placement courses and the eight classes she took at Oakland Community College, she had amassed enough credits to enter the university last fall as a junior.

Survivors of Shootings Face Long Road to Normalcy PBS
As classes resumed at Virginia Tech this week, survivors of the shootings had to try to get back into a normal routine, which has proven difficult for past communities affected by shootings, such as Columbine High School.

The KIPP Breakups

Thanks to KIPP's Mike Feinberg for walking the walk when it comes to transparency. He shared the little-known list of six KIPP "breakups" referred to in Jay Mathews' column this week, and his partner Steve Mancini added a seventh. As with the other kind of breakups, what exactly happened (who broke up with whom, and why) is in some cases at least open to different interpretation by the parties involved. My interpretations are in parenthesese: KIPP PATH in DeKalb County, GA and KIPP Sac Prep in Sacramento ("it was mutual")...KIPP Chicago Youth Village and KIPP Asheville Youth Academy (“never got that prenup signed")...KIPP Achieve in Atlanta and KIPP Sankofa in Buffalo ("it's not me, it's you")... KIPP Cole in Denver (never made it past the third date).

Gates Announces New Education Honcho

Late on Wednesday, the Gates Foundation announced who would replace the long-departed Tom Vander Ark as chief of the education operation: Vicki Phillips, currently supe of the Portland public schools, starting in August. OK, great. Now what?

Exclusive: Spellings Called To Testify On Lending & Reading First

House education committee chair George Miller has requested that EdSec Spellings appear to explain the whole student lending / Reading First mess (see PDF here) -- and she has (reportedly) agreed to show up on the 10th. It seemed like it was bound to happen eventually, given all that's going on. But it isn't going to be pretty, given the mood of things and recent performances by other Cabinet members. Thanks to a friend for letting me know. Exclusive, I think.

Looking Into VA Test Participation Rules

Over at Learning the Language, M.A. Zehr follows up on the whole Fairfax thing and looks into VA's test participation rules. What she finds (Virginia's Definition of Test Participation) is pretty amazing -- namely that any kid, ELL or not, can decline to complete an exam, and that the scores still count even if fewer than five items have been attempted. Check it out.

Teachers In NYC "Rubber Rooms"

Mike Antonucci links to a great if horrifying article in the Village Voice about 662 New York City teachers who are in administrative limbo and go each day to one of 13 "administrative reassignment centers (aka "rubber rooms") pending the disposition of their cases -- and suggests that their forced inactivity could be the making of a great reality show (Rubber Rooms Could Be a Gold Mine). From what I read, the Voice piece (Class Dismissed) sounds more like a nightmarish episode of Big Brother than American Idol. Not that I ever watch those shows.

Growing Pains For KIPP Schools -- Not Just The Press To Blame

In this week's column (Looking at KIPP, Coolly and Carefully), Mathews tries to get ahead of the news trend that's slowly leaking out about KIPP's dropout rates and spate of breakups (now numbering six). He rightly points out that the media are the ones doing most of the hyping -- desperate for success stories and things that seem new and different. But Mathews struggles to hide his enthusiasm even in the role of cool critic, and in reality it's more than that -- it's foundations pouring money into the KIPP approach and think tanks touting them as miracle solutions. I'm not against KIPP, but I have been warning against all the hype surrounding the rapidly-expanding network of KIPP schools for weeks and months now.

Related Posts: The Return Of The Hype Warning System, Jay Mathews On The HotSeat, KIPP Co-Founder Mike Feinberg On The HotSeat, NYT Magazine's Paul Tough On The HotSeat.

Jerald Joins $60M "Stronger American Schools" Initiative

Left out of today's NYT coverage of the new $60 million "Stronger American Schools" initiative (Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort) is that Craig Jerald, formerly of EdWeek and the Ed Trust, is going to be policy director for the effort. Kudos and condolences.

Don't Forget Virginia Tech

Aid Providers, Some Invited and Some Not, Arrive En Masse Wash Post
As thousands of students returned to class Monday at Virginia Tech, they were greeted by legions of people who came to help.

Schools Revisit Gun Policies After Va. Tech Rampage NPR
Last week's deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech shattered the image of college campuses as idyllic sanctuaries of safety. Virginia Tech -- like most American universities -- forbids students from carrying guns on campus. Now many schools are re-evaluating their gun policies.

Violence all around us, and we're numb SF Chronicle It's impossible to think about those events, just as it was with Columbine eight Aprils ago, and not wonder about the culture's routine and thoroughgoing saturation in violence.

Is "Proficient" Too Much To Ask For?

"Outside of a handful of Asian nations, the typical 8th grader in many foreign countries would not meet “proficient” levels on U.S. tests of mathematics and science, according to a reanalysis of international achievement data being published today," begins this EdWeek story (Most Nations Fall Short of NAEP Proficiency, Analysis Finds). "Then again, the study also shows, neither do most American students."

Big Stories Of The Day (Wednesday)

Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort NYT
Eli Broad and Bill Gates are joining forces for a $60 million foray into politics in an effort to vault education high onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

House passes bill to increase math and science teachers CNN.com
The bill, which passed 389-22, would authorize more than $600 million through 2012 for scholarships and stipends for college students studying math and science in preparation for teaching careers.

Wash. music teacher is top of her class USA Today
Peterson's selection is a victory for advocates of traditional teacher certification — she is the second National Board Certified teacher in a row to become Teacher of the Year, and the fourth in seven years.

Bush Presses Schools Plan During Trip to New York NYT
President Bush traveled to Harlem to seek common cause with the rival party, on its home turf, on his signature education initiative, “No Child Left Behind.”

Saving American Schools, One Pint Of Ice Cream At A Time

I never did get that invite to the Stronger American Schools lunch today (was it any good?), and may not make it to the big kickoff event tomorrow (take pics and email them if you feel like it). Even worse, I can't tell you who's working on the effort along with Romer (though many of you already know). What can I tell you? Well, I've figured out their strategy for making education a prominent and specific part of the 2008 presidential campaign: the Stephen Colbert spokesperson strategy. Yeah, that'll work.

Now Appearing On The Huffington Post, Too

Hard to believe that the Huffington Post -- Arianna Huffington's crazy effort to gather a somewhat diverse set of thinkers together on a single website -- is almost two years old, and wildly successful (60 million page views a month). Harder still to believe that they'd want little old me to join their ranks and cross-post things from here over there. But it's true -- a slightly expanded version of The Fairfax Fandango (see below) is going up later today. Clearly, they'll let just about anybody blog. One more sign of the coming Apocalypse.

UPDATE: Now it's up -- you can see it here.

The Fairfax Fandango: This Test Is Too Hard

For a time, Fairfax County educators were thinking about -- some would say threatening to -- give up $17 million in NCLB funds rather than give a test to ELL kids that they thought was too hard. Well, of course it is. Everyone knows that.

But threatening to give up NCLB funding -- resolutions, protests -- how 2003.

At the last minute, however, Fairfax figured out what everyone else has: take the money, comply nominally, and find a way to do what you want. In Fairfax's case, nominal compliance means making sure that teachers and ELL kids know that they can -- yes -- stop taking the test if it's too hard. All it takes is a shake of the head.

"A memo from the Virginia Department of Education on Thursday said students can "indicate to the test examiner either verbally, or non-verbally by shaking his/her head 'no'," according to the Post article (Va. Schools Yield, Yet May Shape 'No Child' Wash Post)..."that he or she is not able to complete any more items."

Sympathetic as I am to the plight of ELL kids and the anxieties of teachers about how their schools are going to be rated -- yes, that's part of this -- I can't imagine how this new policy is going to work out in practice.

In fact, all this thinking is making my head hurt even though I haven't finished this post. Teacher, I want to stop now.

Life At The High End

Power Trips for Tots WSJ (free)
Adventure vacations around the globe are becoming a status symbol for parents seeking an edge for their kids. Some families are heading to sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, while others are packing itineraries with extreme experiences, sending their children to the jungle or bicycling through rice paddies in Thailand.

He's going to Harvard (or Yale, or Princeton, or …) Houston Chronicle
These days, competition to get into a brand-name institution is so intense that desperate students apply to 10, 12 and even 20 schools. Twelve percent of students entering college last fall applied to seven or more schools, according to a survey by the University of California at Los Angeles.

Teaching Roundup

Thanks to contributor Regina Matthews for digging up these interesting articles about teachers and teaching:

Teachers: The Next Generation PEN NewsBlast
Generation Y, the 40 million people born between 1977 and 1986, is dramatically changing the composition of today's teaching staffs.

Union Influence on NCLB EdWeek
A Q&A with Joel Packer, chief NCLB lobbyist for the NEA and Antonia Cortese, EVP for the AFT, with moderator Kevin Bushweller

Teacher Contracts: Restoring the Balance PEN NewsBlast
Teacher contracts reflect an earlier era in America: the age of the rise of industrial unions, according to The Education Partnership.

Degree Drought Indianapolis Business Journal
Why can’t two-year public institutions turn out more students?

Obit: Marie Clay, Proponent of Early Reading Help, Dies at 81 Canton Repository
Clay's methods eventually became known as “Reading Recovery” and spread to other countries.

Reading First Quotes: Criminal Or Civil Investigation?

While it remains unclear whether the referrals to the Justice Department are going to be criminal or civil -- or result in any charges -- everyone's got a good quote or two in their Reading First coverage:

House Panel Grills Witnesses On Reading First EdWeek
In an interview after the hearing, Mr. Miller said: “This hearing made it pretty clear that there was a very incestuous relationship among a small group of people in the Education Department and among contractors. They were very clearly using this program … for profit.”

Reading program to get Justice review USA Today
It wasn't immediately clear on Friday who the subject of the investigation might be, or whether John Higgins, who led the Education Department's investigation, asked Justice to pursue criminal charges or a civil complaint.But Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee and is investigating the program on his own, told Higgins: "I think when we put the evidence together we may join you in those criminal referrals."

Justice Dept. Is Asked to Investigate Reading Plan NYT
The civil division of the Justice Department is looking into his findings, but has not decided whether to begin an investigation, a spokesman said....“Reading First was and probably will remain the highlight of my professional career,” Mr. Doherty said.

Key Initiative Of 'No Child' Under Federal Investigation Wash Post
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who declined to comment yesterday, has said management problems with Reading First "reflect individual mistakes." But Doherty said nearly every aspect of the program was carefully monitored by the department and the White House, where Spelling was Bush's top education adviser."This program was always firmly under the watch and control of the highest levels of the government," Doherty said.

Virginia Tech: The First Day Back

Virginia Tech copes with returning to class CSM
Virginia Tech history professor Woody Farrar is usually able to lecture for hours, but this time he worried about what he would say – if he could even get the words out – when his students returned to his class Monday, a week after the worst shooting in US history took place on campus.

Crime In The Quad US News
While murder on campus is exceedingly rare, its continued occurrence, along with the far more frequent incidence of sexual assault, has only increased calls for heightened security, improved alert systems, and more thorough crime reporting.

Emmanuel professor fired over Virginia Tech lecture Boston Globe
An adjunct professor at Emmanuel College was fired last week following a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings that included him pointing a marker at some students and saying "pow."

The Week In Review (April 16-22)

Best Of The Week
What Do Fairfax County And Sanjaya Have In Common?
Power Couples In Education, The Update

Campaign 2008
Reading First Heats Up: Criminal Investigation, DI Wife
Making Education A Top Issue For 2008 -- Somehow

NCLB News
It's All About The Bill Language
Thirty-One Pending NCLB Proposals
Tutoring Myths & Realities
What It Takes To Be An Effective Legislative Staffer

Policy Watch
A Reality Check For Education Rhetoric
FairTest Vs. TestingFacts
Voucher Rollback In Ohio?
Finding The Right Big-City Superintendent

Media & Blogs
How Community Colleges Story Won A Pulitzer
School Reform Vs. Global Outsourcing

School Life
Virginia Tech Update & Implications
Spellings Talks Safety On Sunday
Collective Hysteria Diagnosed For Mystery School Illness