When A "Congressional Report" Is Not A Congressional Report

As I first pointed out two weeks ago, the Kennedy report on Reading First was not a "Congressional study" in the sense of something like CRS or the GAO would do, despite being described as such in the press. It was internal, and partisan from the start. The good folks at the Title I Monitor have dug into this further, exposing some of the report's problems. RL Colvin over at Early Stories thinks that's a good thing. I agree.

Educating Journalists: The Best Of Both Worlds

Instead of relying on the current proliferation of disconnected three day workshops or the small handful high=prestige yearlong residential programs, the Kaiser Family Foundation has come up with a more flexible, nonresidential program for health care reporters that seems like a little bit of the best of both worlds. With seminars and field visits throughout the year, the nonresidential Kaiser program length can be as little as 10 days or as long as nine months depending on the needs of the journalist. With lower costs to operate the program, more than a couple of fellowships can be awarded each year. Perhaps most important, Kaiser fellows are expected to keep filing stories, rather than getting pulled out of the newsroom. And even though Kaiser is a foundation with its own point of view, they seem to have figured out how to ensure that the fellowship program is considered to be independent and nonpartisan. Today Kaiser announced its most recent nine fellows (2007 Kaiser Media Fellows).

Who's Paid What In The Nonprofit World.

Over at the PEN NewsBlast, they're worried about how to get more folks into public service. Me, I just want to know how much people make. Government salaries have long been public record, and apparently now you can get at least some salary information for nonprofits and foundations from GuideStar by looking at organization's IRS form 990. Ever wondered what Wendy Kopp makes, or your local program officer? Who's the highest-paid education ED? I don't know yet. But it's fun looking around on a hot Friday afternoon.

Recent CRS Reports

Looking for some dry but informative weekend reading? Check out these CRS reports from Open CRS: School and Campus Safety Programs, Head Start Reauthorization: A Side-by-Side Comparison, The ESEA, as Amended by the No Child Left Behind Act: A Primer, and High School Graduation, Completion, and Dropouts: Federal Policy, Programs, and Issues. From Open CRS.

EdSec Spellings Playing The "Girl" Card

EdSec Spellings doesn't play the "girl" card nearly as hard as former DOJ hatchet woman Monica Goodling apparently did last week in front of Congress (The Goodling Girl). But there are some parallels worth noting from Spellings' recent performances in front of Congress (and on the Daily Show). Spellings is a notorious charmer of the press, and disarms men (you know who you are) especially quickly with what seems awfully close to flirtatiousness. Not that there's anything wrong with being charming or flirtatious. Lots of men do it, too. But it shouldn't be used to cloud things, either. And I think it has.

Taking The Pulse Of The EduSphere

Over at Intercepts, Mike A. blogs about the apparent slowdown in education posts (Intercepts: Are We Running Out of Stories?) from me and others. This morning aside, I'd say that I'm still keeping things at a pretty good clip (five or so posts a day). And there is a big new juicy audio post to listen to this AM. However, there has been a falloff in other places, as Mike points out, which I'm hoping is just a cyclical thing. In LA, School Me is gone largely because its founder, Bob Sipchen, took a job at the Sierra Club. I don't know what's going on with Eduwonk or the Education Wonks, though I've noticed as well that they are slowed down. I'd blog more if I could afford to, but in fact should probably blog less given the time it takes and the fact that it doesn't pay very well.

PS: One thing that I've also noticed is that there's a lot less linking between and among blogs than it seems like there used to be, other than the occasional fisticuffs. Folks know how to get stories on their own, or are less willing to share credit, or...maybe it's global warming.

Booze-Filled Flip-Flops

Along with all the other things teachers have to look out for, along comes booze-filled flip-flops. “Kids wear flip-flops to school and all over the place,” said Mike Gimbel, former drug czar for Baltimore County and director of substance abuse education at Sheppard Pratt. “You would never know the kid was walking around with vodka in the bottom of their shoe.” Baltimore Examiner. Thanks to an eagle-eyed reader.

Breakaway LA Teachers Want To Go Charter

In most cases, charter schools are new starts promoted by a charter group, or occasionally conversions (as in Chicago and San Diego). But rarely that I know of have teachers decided that they wanted to go charter, and signed petitions to do so. That's what's going on at Locke high school in LA, where teachers are trying to break away from LAUSD and form a cluster of charter schools operated by Green Dot, whose teachers have abbreviated collective bargaining rights. And regardless of what happens there it creates a fascinating new grassroots way for teachers to get in the charter game, if they want to. Two other LA schools have already expressed interest, and I've gotten emails from teachers in Chicago wondering if they can do the same.

The Month In Review: Secrets, Missed Stories, & More

You'd think that folks I invite to participate on the Month In Review would agree with me on all things, given my role as host. But they don't. And that's a good thing, since I learn all sorts of new things and am corrected in at least some of my misguided beliefs. In this month's roundtable MP3 here), I learned all sorts of things, including that LA Mayor Villaraigosa is a winner, not the loser I thought he was (Shuster), that the testing industry is a beast about to explode if Fairfax is any indication (Mathews), that some teachers and a principal at Locke HS in LA want to create small charter schools but so far can't (all). But that's not all. Check it out while you read your email or something.

Big Stories Of The Day (June 1)

Californian wins spelling bee with 'serrefine' CNN
Read full story for latest details.

U.S. Data Show Rapid Minority Growth in School Rolls NYT
Driven mainly by an extraordinary influx of Hispanics, the nation’s population of minority students has surged to 42 percent of public school enrollment.

Financial Aid Group Adopts Conduct Code After Loan Scandal Washington Post
The trade group for university financial aid officers said yesterday that it would no longer allow student loan companies to court its members with gifts or sponsor its conferences, responding to a spate of revelations of conflicts of interest in the $85 billion-a-year industry.

Suburbia's fortress mentality Christian Science Monitor
My three boys sprawl on the couch, fingering their Game Boys. I wish I could shoo them outside until dusk. I wish they could tromp to the marsh to search for polliwogs. I wish we didn't have to live in a fortress...Instead, like other families in this neighborhood, we've built private playgrounds in the back.

Kennedy Report Details Ties Between Publishers and Reading First Contractors Title I Monitor
An analysis of the document and further reporting by the Title I Monitor shows that the committee occasionally overreached or provided insufficient context in an attempt to judge Reading First officials by standards that, by its own admission, did not exist at the time.

Big Stories Of The Month?

Later today three big-time education journalists -- the Post's Jay Mathews, the LA Times' Beth Shuster, and USA Today's Greg Toppo -- are going to weigh in on what they think are the big stories of the past month, what got too much coverage (or not enough), and what the big stories are going to be in June.

But what do they know, anyway? you can get a head start by looking over the cheat sheet that I sent them -- a list of stories and blog posts -- and see what you think. Let us know, or listen along when I post the audio from the conversation later today and see what we missed.

Big Stories Of The Day (Thursday, May 31)

Besides the spelling bee, that is...

A struggling school finds reason for hope CSM
By forming community partnerships, Hope High School in Rhode Island and other struggling public schools are showing signs of improvement.

Narrowing The Grade-School Standards Gap CBS Evening News
After five years of No Child Left Behind, it's time for a report card. What's evident is that schools are focusing on testing, but it isn't an even playing field, becuase each state defines "proficiency" differently

Most Americans want 'No Child' law left behind Scripps News
A survey of 1,010 American adults reveals that nearly two-thirds of them want Congress to rewrite or outright abolish the landmark No Child Left Behind Act that mandates nationwide testing of elementary students to determine whether public schools are performing adequately.

How Nebraska Leaves No Child Behind Time
Eschewing the Washington-created remedy, they have developed a homemade model called the School-based Teacher-led Assessment Reporting System (STARS) that has yielded impressive results, been praised by education scholars and attracted interest from Edward Kennedy, NCLB's Senate custodian.

What People Mean When They Talk About Human Capital

There's a lot of talk about "human capital" these days, and that talk can get awfully dry. Out there in the real world, perhaps no one else besides Tomas Hanna epitomizes this trend. 

A former career principal in Philadelphia, Hanna was brought into the central office to revamp teacher recruitment and retention, with the help of community groups and others that had focused on the teacher retention crisis.  Now in Providence, Hanna is trying to do the same thing as [deputy] superintendent. 

I met him recently, and he seems to have that elusive combination of school-level credibility and central office savvy, and knows how to switch back and forth to get things done.

Kennedy Began Immigration Push At NCLB White House Meeting

From NCLB to Medicare to the current immigration reform bill, Ted Kennedy's ability (and willingness) to make deals and get things done is legendary. In fact, it was a meeting over NCLB that led in part to the current push on immigration reform, according to the Post article ( here), which also hints at Kennedy's desire for some additional influence this time around on NCLB. "I'm not trying to be cute with anybody about this. I want to get things done [on] challenging public policy issues that affect real people," he is quoted as saying in the article.

Teacher Firings: Still A Myth Until One Percent Go

Over at the AFT Blog, they're still mulling over whether NCLB-caused teacher firings are a myth (as I contend) or not. Most recently, they've found someone who was fired and declared that, therefore, teacher firings are real (here). But that doesn't change things, really. Sure, handfuls of teachers have been fired through NCLB closings and conversions in San Diego and Chicago, among other places. But there are 3 million teachers out there. Teacher firings due to NCLB are still a myth, to me at least, until one percent get pink slipped. And we're nowhere near that.

To Sir, With Sarcasm: Just What We Need With Two Weeks Left

Maybe I'm the last person to hear about this, but there's a new-ish mockumentary about new teaches that came out last month called Chalk that seems to be the antithesis of the sappy inspirational education movies that we all can't stand (but watch anyway). Check out the trailer here -- it might make you giggle:

Getting Ready For The Obama Switcheroo

A lot of folks still seem not to understand that candidates' views and positions are going to change,once we get out of this long, tiresome Democratic primary thing -- and it may be an unpleasant surprise for many educators. This seems especially likely for Obama, who's already indicated some of his centrist (some would say conservative) views and ideas on schools, while Clinton has gone the safe (UPK) route and kept her mouth tightly shut on that front. (As I've noted in the past, Obama has already come out for charters, and has in the past said that he's open to the idea of vouchers.) Some of the best tea leaves on Obama come from the recent New Yorker profile of him (The Conciliator), which among other things parses the differences between Obama's voting record (liberal) and his rhetoric (conservative-ish): Obama "speaks about liberal goals in conservative language." Indeed, in the article he's quoted as saying that "the impact of parents and communities is at least as significant as the amount of money that’s put into education.”

More Rolling Water Jugs In Education

Some juicy tidbits from the last few days include an article about the not-so-bad real life experiences of ELLs taking English exams (As Tests Begin, English Learners Have Troubles but Few Tears Wash Post). At the same time, apparently year-end exams are going the way of the Dodo in some schools (More schools are ditching final exams LA Times). Then there's a coupla pieces about schoolgirl gossip (Grade-School Girls, Grown-Up Gossip NYT) and weed-laced yearbook photos (Yearbook photos ignite storm MSNBC). A refresher on science basics (The Known World NYT), plus yet another NYT thing on elite colleges (Elite Colleges Open New Door to Low-Income Youths). Last but not least, a piece about inventions to help the poor -- including a luminescent map, a safe drinking straw, a rolling water jug (pictured), and the supercheap laptop (Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor NYT). I wish that there were more such inventions and ideas coming out for education -- are there?

Guest Commentary: Kevin Kosar On Muddled AYP Fixes

In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Ann Hulbert wrote (Standardizing the Standards) that “With “high stakes” testing, N.C.L.B. introduces an incentive not to cheat, necessarily, but to manipulate. Signs are that states define proficiency down while schools ramp up narrow test prep.”

What’s the solution to this problem? “The National Assessment of Educational Progress could serve as a model for a test that judges students’ ability to apply their knowledge and thus discourages [sic] rote coaching. But recent experience … argues against making test results the sole trigger of federal sanctions.”

This is a bit of a muddle. The feds should create a new test for reasons unclear but the test results are not to be the “sole trigger” for accountability.

Big Stories Of The Day (Wednesday May 30)

Well, not really that big...

A Bush Brother Spreads His Vision NYT
Neil Bush, brother of the President of the United States, is behind a teaching method that is intended to bypass textbooks.

Putting His Wealth to Work To Improve Urban Schools Washington Post
He counts the Prince George's County school superintendent and D.C. school board president among his disciples. He has advised the D.C. mayor on cuts in school system bureaucracy.

With lawsuit looming, Spellings discusses No Child Left Behind Danbury News
US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings vigorously defended the No Child Left Behind Act today in Connecticut, which has filed a federal ...

Big Stories Of The Day (Tuesday May 29)

The student loan rip-off Salon
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings sounded like a reformer when she testified on Capitol Hill earlier this month over recent revelations of waste, fraud and bribery in the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry.But education experts weren't buying it -- and neither were Democrats.

Report Card: No Child Left Behind Good Morning America
So on its report card, ABC News gave No Child Left Behind's central element — testing students to meet standards — an A-. The standards themselves got a C. Equal money to schools got a D. Improving teacher quality earned a C. The handling of special needs and non-English speaking students got a C. Rescue plans for failing schools got a D.
Standardizing the Standards NYT
Testing has never been more important; inadequate annual progress toward “proficiency” triggers sanctions on schools. Yet testing has never been more suspect, either.

Charter Schools Look to Address Educational Woes NPR
Charter schools are an increasingly popular alternative to traditional public schools. Ted Hamory, co-founder of New City Public Schools, and Jennifer Stern, a partner in the Charter School Growth Fund, talk to Farai Chideya about whether these schools are living up to their hype.

Assessment Industry Faces a Test of Its Own Washington Post
One in an occasional series on the culture of testing.

The Week In Review (May 21-28)

On The Hill/Campaign 2008
Early Childhood Proposals, Realistic and Otherwise
Why Are Miller & Kennedy Not Calling Beth Ann Bryan?

USDE
Spellings Is To Gonzales As "I Don't Recall" Is To Lunchables
Five Questions For Jon Stewart To Ask Spellings Tonight
The Secretary's Necklace: Too Bad It Wasn't Larimar
Spellings Suck-Up, Part 234

NCLB News
Growth Models For Everybody!
How NCLB Is Like A Russian Novel
Does More Reading Make For Better Social Studies?
The "Lost Teacher Jobs" Myth

Policy Trends
Check Registers: Do They Help?
I Find It, You Read It: The Failed Takeover Story In LA
Utah Puts Seven K12 Admins On HIgher Ed Boards

School Life
Now They're Outsourcing Your Kids' Fast Food Jobs, Too
Finding The Hidden Gems In The System

Media Watch
Snap Judgements In Education Reporting
Watch Out, Cambridge
Now I Know Your Home Phone Number

Site News
More Misogyny And Anger (And Irony, Too) At The HuffPo
Mother Jones Mention
The Worst Blog On EdWeek