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.  

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

Journalism: Mickey Mouse Ideas About Credit

All day every day, education bloggers like me highlight the reporting and writing of the articles written by education reporters, linking and commenting and quoting madly (not to speak of sending readers in very small numbers).  But do education reporters ever return the favor?  Not as often as they should, given how much they depend on readers' perceptions of credibility.  Do they even care about the links they get coming their way?  Not as much as you'd think they should.  Then again, most mainstream news outlets don't even acknowledge others of their own kind -- as is exhibited again today.

Secretary Gladwell: Sports Are What City Schools "Do Best"

Proving yet again that pretty much everyone has a wacky idea about how to fix public schools (and that there are certain ideas that only a biracial New Yorker writer can get away with espousing), here's part of Malcolm Gladwell's response to a question about what he'd do if he were in charge of education:

"In inner-city schools, the thing they do best is sports....So I’ve always wondered about using the principles of sports in the classroom. Go same sex; do everything in teams; have teams compete with each other. I’d like to try that. I don’t know whether it will work, but it’s certainly worth a shot, and we could learn something really useful."

(via The Moderate Voice)

Media Watch: Who Wins The 2009 NAEP Math Coverage Contest?

As always, coverage of NAEP scores is rated on a ten-point "must" scale including (a) colorfulness of reaction quotes, (b) visual appeal of accompanying graphics, and (c) grabby headlines. Accuracy and clarity are tolerated but not considered as part of the judging process.

It's a close call this year.  Duncan uses the word "stuff" to describe test score results in Nick Anderson's WP story.  (He'll never get a live interview with Duncan again.)  Tom Loveless goes with a polling analogy in Libby Quaid's AP story. (A little bit off cycle but I like it.)  Amy Wilkins tries a strong if politically incorrect gasoline metaphor in the Christian Science Monitor.  But it's almost not even fair including Checker, quoted in Sam Dillon's NYT coverage, who makes test score results sound directional and vaguely existential.  That guy is the LazR swimsuit of sound bites.  Plus I like "sluggish" in the hed. So I give it to the Times.

The contenders and their top quotes are below. Who do YOU think did it best?

Dana Goldstein: From The American Prospect To The Daily Beast

The American Prospect's Dana Goldstein (pictured here with Washington Post blogger Ezra Kelein) is on the move from DC to New York City, where she's got a new gig at The Daily Beast.

Goldstein made frequent appearances on my daily blog roundup and wrote a bunch of features during her stint at the magazine that I found interesting and well-reported whether I agreed with them or not (The Selling of School Reform, Testing Testing, The Education Wars). 

Alas, she'll be focusing in her new job on women's issues and international policy not education.  But I've got my fingers crossed she'll feel the pull of the school reform beat sometime again in the future.  In the meantime, congrats, condolences. 

Media: Does Education Need An Angry Blogger?

Think that this blog and some others are too harsh on the funders, pundits, ideas, and elected officials that they cover?  Then you haven't read Nikke Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog, profiled in this week's New Yorker. 

A former LA Weekly entertainment industry columnist who churns out coverage that's so visceral and foul-mouthed that it makes the education folks who sometimes let our anger show (the Klonskies, Kevin DeRosa, Peyton Walcott, Bob Somerby) look like choirboys.  Plus she's a great reporter.

Part of me wishes that we had someone like Finke among the education bloggers - obsessive, hard-working, fearless in the face of all the money and power of those she's covering.  Part of me's just as glad we don't.

Upcoming: "Whatever It Takes" Documentary Coming To PBS

I was getting a bit depressed thinking that with the end of September there would be no more great documentaries about schools. 

But then I got this email blast from a guy I met two or three years ago, Christopher Wong, with great news about his school-based documentary, Whatever It Takes, which describes a career-changing rookie Chinese-American principal's effort to start a small new school called the Bronx Center for Math and Science. 

The big news is that the film is scheduled to run in April 2010 on the PBS show Independent Lens.  Read here for a post about the documentary from early 2007.  Read here for a CBS News segment that ran over the summer.  Read below for other details.  

TV: Colbert Fails At Making Fun Of Duncan / Race To The Top

Wow.  Arne did fine, I guess.  Colbert was sort of sucky.  I think he may like education too much to make good fun of its foibles.  My live-Tweets:

Colbert Report: "Our Kids Are Failing On Obama's Watch."

Why bother with my commentary when you can see the show yourself:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants longer school hours so American students can compete with the rest of the world. (06:30)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Arne Duncan
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Click below for the second clip: As a fifth grader and small businessman, Andy Gellman has to think about how longer school hours will affect the economy. (05:46)

Exclusive: Preview Of Arne's Colbert Report Interview

Duncan: More education means a bigger audience for you.

Colbert:  I never knew how much I loved education.

Video: Creepy Thriller About Boarding School Life

Not that real life isn't creepy enough these days:

Via Videogum

Times Magazine: The 2009 Education Issue

I'm always happy to see the New York Times Magazine's annual education issue, though sometimes I worry that it will turn into a glossy version of Education Life.  What did you think of this year's edition?

Coming Out in Middle School
How 13-year-old kids are dealing with their sexual identity — and how others are dealing with them.

Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?
Over the last few years, a new buzz phrase has emerged among scholars and scientists who study early-childhood development: executive function.

The Inner-City Prep School Experience
At the SEED School, the assumption is that inner-city students will learn more if they spend the school week living away from home. But can you leave the neighborhood behind?

The Lost Student
The difference an idealistic teacher can make, and the difference she can’t.

Video: "Bronx Princess" Stars In School But Not At Home

Wow there's been lots of new education-related media out this month -- books and films and all.  I guess it makes sense, it being back to school and all, though I wish they'd spread it out a little better.I haven't watched it yet, but the latest is the PBS POV documentarycalled Bronx Princess, which is available online for the next few weeks.  It's about a Ghanaian-American girl, Rocky, who lives in the Bronx with her mother and stars at school but is belittled by her parents even as she's on her way to  --  spoiler alert -- getting a full ride to Dickinson.

Media: Going Back To High School (To High School, To High School)

Thanks to new reader ED for passing along this blog (Todd vs High School) about a 33 year-old sports journalist Todd Gallagher, who's going back to high school and writing a book about it 

He's not doing it incognito as in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.  He's not just taking a math class like Michael Alison Chandler did for the Post last year.  He's apparently going whole hog (assuming you're still allowed to use that phrase).  He says he was inspired by the comedy Billy Madison. And a high school in Pittsburgh apparently is letting him. 

Sure, it's stunt journalism -- the guy's last book was about staging various strange sports contests (Andy Roddick with a frying pan, etc.) and he compares himself to George Plimpton.  He doesn't seem to have liked high school the first time around.  He's not even doing his own blog.  (He's hired a writer to keep it up for him.)  But he seems entrepreneurial and (annoyingly) irreverent and the book will probably be read by a lot of people -- maybe more than a serious book.  And it's on tumblr, which might be my new favorite blog software (esp. since the new Typepad is messing me up so badly). 

Video: Why No One Blogged About "The Principal Story"

It took me a while to get into last week's PBS NOW documentary The Principal Story about two Illinois principals, partly because I'm a hard-hearted jerk and partly because the early scenes are slow and feel a little propagandistic.  I knew that the project had involved AASA and other education groups like that, and for a while I felt like I was watching the principals' version of "Stand and Deliver" or "Freedom Writers." It didn't help that the show got so little by way of reaction or commentary from other education blogs that I read.  

Well I still have some questions but over all the intensity of the situations and the eloquence and heart of the school leaders are tremendously powerful and I am glad I finally turned it on.  What to do with the incompetent teacher in a real-life situation?  How to rally your staff without pissing them off or making them cave under the weight of expectations?  What to do about the tragedies that befall some of the students?  It's not so easy as it may seem from outside.

The documentary is beautifully filmed and scored -- even the visually mundane scenes of the principals going to or from work are poignant.  And it's not an obvious attack (or defense) of any particular policies or programs (though there is a great riff on "walkthroughs" near the end). That's why no one's blogging about it -- it doesn't support any simplistic agenda.  If you haven't watched it, you can do so online now.  If you have, I hope you liked it as much as I did and will share a favorite moment or two.  

Media: Journalists Asking Questions

It's ironic, I know, but many education journalists, like many school reform types, hate to admit publicly that they don't already know everything.  (Uncle Jay at the Washington Post is the exception that proves the rule.)  Kudos then to the much-respected LA Times education reporter Howard Blume, who recently took to Twitter, that most public of venues, to ask the "Twitter universe" (readers and colleagues) for examples of schools most affected by budget cuts.  It's a good question, and several of us passed it along in hopes of finding someone who could answer it.  Feel free to do your part and pass it along, too.  We'll all benefit from the result. 

Media: Big Changes At GothamSchools

The good news is that GothamSchools is going to be staying open.  And there's going to be a party.

Bad news is that co-founder Elizabeth Green is going to be diving into her Spencer Fellowship and that Philissa Cramer, the other co-founder, is heading to NYU for some more education. Both will remain involved part-time.  

So it won't be quite the same, though it could still be very good.  Read all about it here. 

Media: Where's The Journalism On This TFA Story?

Wow.  I don't mind running the picture that accompanies this EdWeek story (Growth Model), but I'm not so sure about the article itself, which tells the story of how TFA feels it has upgraded its training and support for its young teachers but lacks any healthy skepticism or outside perspectives. There's one quote where founder Wendy Kopp admits -- finally -- that the original training and support program was weak.  But that's all we get.  Is TFAnet any good?  Is the new vision of the program director position helping retention and effectiveness rates?  Do teachers really like and benefit from the TAL program?  No real idea.  EdWeek doesn't say, and the TFA insiders that are quoted don't provide much insight. [correction:  blog post was initially mis-categorized]

Bans: Over-Reacting Administrators (& Gullible Media)

"I swear this story comes out ever year, with no definitive proof that kids are actually playing this game."

From: You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them Jezebel

Media: Journalistic Timidity Affects Coverage Of Reform

“Journalists never get out front of reform. They are always the trailing entity.”

(Former LA Times report Richard Colvin in an Education Next article called Disappearing Ink.)

Media: Teen Hugging Spreads Swine Flu, Muddles Times Trend Piece

Gawker skewers the New York Times (as usual) -- this time over the paper's breathless coverage of teen hugging, combined with the new news that teen hugging may spread swine flu.

"Months after warning us of the teen hug epidemic they are now asking if teen hugs spread swine flu."

Swine Flu Imperils Times Trend Piece

Media: Reporters Making A Mess Of Education Reform

This Boston Globe article illustrates one of education journalism's most chronic problems -- articles written by journalists who are new to the beat who bring precious little new information to readers and mischaracterize the debate over early childhood education (and school reform in general).  It's hardly balanced.  It's not very informative.  It's still -- sadly -- all too common.

Here (Pressure-cooker kindergarten) Patty Hartigan rehashes middle-class parents' concerns about academic instruction in preschool and kindergarten, ignoring the fact that what's being proposed for low-income, academically deficient children is not the same as what parents like Hartigan might want to find for their own more advantaged children.  I'm not saying that teachers and parents don't complain about changes to primary education, but that these complaints shouldn't be taken at face value as they are here.

Blogs: Washington Post Adds New Education Blog

Valerie Strauss is heading up a new education blog at the Washington Post, announces Jay Mathews (The Sheet Joins the Struggle on Our New Ed Page).

"As many readers discerned years ago, [Strauss] is smarter, less opinionated and a better reporter than I am."

Oh, Uncle Jay.  You know we love your self-deprecating, ornery ways. 

NEWSLETTERS: If Only The ASCD SmartBrief Came Earlier, Via Twitter

 I'm not the only one who likes the ASCD SmartBrief. 

It's got good stuff, it's presented clearly. Lots of people read it.

It also makes the ASCD money, which makes it especially admirable. 

There's even a mobile version.

There's a super-secret RSS feed, too.

And you can Tweet entries (outbound) but you can't get via Twitter (that I know of).

A Twitter feed and a 9 am delivery time and the SmartBrief would be perfection.  

READING: Weekend Reading August 1-2

Can't wait for the week to start?  Here are some good readings from over the weekend:

Takeover Agents Confront the Challenges Ahead Washington Post
Neither Rhee nor Justin Cohen, her deputy in charge of the partnership program, would agree to an interview. Requests for copies of quarterly progress reports and evaluations were also denied.

A difficult summer for the White House

The next few weeks could determine the fate of Barack Obama’s presidency

Wage Learners Governing
New York is not the only city that’s been paying kids to hit the books. Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, D.C., all have tried out cash-for-grades programs on a pilot basis recently.

We're public...no, we're private In These Times
The questions of whether they indeed are public or private and whether their teachers can win the same collective bargaining rights are now being hotly debated, negotiated and litigated.

Rethinking Juvenile Justice in California's East Bay

Two local programs offer alternatives to the failing system. One of them transforms teenage offenders into attorneys. The other wants to change our notion of justice...

Broward School Officials Conspired to Build $395 Million in Unnecessary Classrooms

That rush to build has left the county with more than 25,000 empty classroom seats...That comes to about 1,400 classrooms... a staggering $350 million wasted on unnecessary classrooms additions and schools.

Mozart effect -- for real this time Miller McCune
A new study finds listening to Mozart can indeed provide a boost for the brain — but only in non-musicians.

MEDIA: Twitter Shuffles Education Rankings

A highly incomplete look at the numbers last night (see below) shows that some of those who may be big on blogs or elsewhere aren't so big on Twitter, at least in terms of followers.

Others don't even seem have a Twitter feed at all.

Where do you rank?  Who'd I miss?  What else do you notice?

MEDIA: Blogs Counterbalance "Village" Journalism

 Kudos to Joanne Jacobs, whose long-running education blog gets mentioned in this much-read New York Review Of Books article about the relationship between blogging a and traditional journalism (The News About the Internet). Jacobs' blog isn't particularly contrarian or watchdoggy but it's extremely successful at engaging readers in commenting.

JOURNALISM: "Wrong Wrong Wrong," Says AP's Quaid

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," writes AP's Libby Quaid in an email response to my melancholy post about education journalism last week.  "My mom was more excited about the ed beat than all my previous beats combined, including the presidential campaign.  It's also viewed as a good beat in my newsroom. Note that Toppo had it once. And that one of our White House folks, Ben Feller, had it." 

TWITTER: Twitter Fever For Toppo

USA Today's Greg Toppo is at the Duncan event in Baltimore and he's gone Twitter-crazy. Check him out. 

COLBERT: "No Excuses? At Least Let Us Have Lead Poisoning."

Geoffrey Canada on The Colbert Report again, this time talking about the President's NAACP speech last week.  Yawn.  What is Canada now, an all-purpose pundit? Skip Gates would have been a lot more fun, don't you think?

Best line of the night came from just before Canada came on, when Colbert reacts angrily to the President's fiery "no excuses" language: "No excuses?  No excuses?  At least let us have lead poisoning."[video here]

Click here to see Canada's December 2008 appearance: 
Harlem Children's Zone Founder On Colbert

PUNCH LINE: Weingarten Gets The Shanker Treatment

"I am Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Abaddon, Baal, Old Nick, Mr. Blackburn, Randi Weingarten, or whatever name I’m being given these days."  (The Temperature of Hell New Yorker -- thanks, RR!)

JOURNALISM: The Russo Seminar For Reporters New To The Education Beat

The Hechinger Institute is having a fancy seminar for education reporters New to the Education Beat, complete with a trip to New York City, appearances from fancy East Coast journalists, and ground-level propaganda presentations from reformy types like Charlie Barone, Cornelia Grumman, and Rick Hess. 

Oh, and there will be some actual educators there at the end, too. 

I got nothing like that, but I do have some advice -- serious and otherwise.  Maybe you can read it during one of the panels or something.  Good luck, and welcome!

GOING OFF RECORD: "I Find The Whole Thing Icky..."

Some insights from the EWA listserve about the issue of whether the public is well-served when journalists go off record (used with permission):

"If your reporting is solid, your sources grow, over time, to respect you and tell you things – on the record...I think in a way it strengthens the professional relationship and doesn’t open the door to misunderstandings."

-- Jennifer Jordan, Providence Journal

"I find the whole thing icky, icky, icky. Basically, it's acknowledging, "We won't say the truth when we can be held to it publicly. Then we will only speak in soundbites."...I do think there are some instances for sources to go off the record. Whistleblowers are the most obvious. But the idea this should apply in the same way to the big policy conversations? Puke."

-- Linda Perlstein, EWA public editor

Staying on the record 100 percent of the time doesn't apply to all situations (ie, with kids, teachers, parents),  Not all journalists feel this way, and some don't seem to feel they can get the job done without going off record.  But they can, and I hope they will.

JOURNALISM: Better Off Record?

In this recent post (Just Between Us...), Eduwonk Andy Rotherham makes the case against "on the record" conversations.  Going off the record more often would make for better journalism and a better-informed public, says professor Rotherham. 

From where I sit, the problem isn't that policymakers and advocates can't talk with candor or nuance on the record, in groups or solo; it's that some of them are getting out of the habit.  They aren't made to.  They don't like to.  Why should they?  It makes it so much harder to control what gets reported.  It puts the reporter on equal footing with the (often powerful) source.  It's convenient self-interest disguised as a favor.

The solution isn't to dummy down what gets reported with more off-the-record conversations.  Instead, let's get sources back in the habit of knowing that if they don't want to talk for attribution a journalist will find someone else who will. There's no shortage of knowledgeable sources out there. [And let's make sure reporters are held accountable for getting the full meaning of a source's statement, not just the sound bite.]

MEDIA: Tweeting The AFT Quest Event

Wish you were at the AFT Quest conference? 

Bored? 

Both?

Check out the small but growing set of Tweets at #AFTQ. 

Or just search AF and Quest. 

Even better, add your own Tweets from inside the conference. 

What's everyone saying, wearing, doing, thinking? 

Help us get through the afternoon.

MEDIA: 115 Education Reporters Who Twitter

Sepaking of Twitter, there's no section devoted to education reporters on Muckrack but there's a great list of education Twitters from Meranda Watling, a young Midwestern reporter who took the time to put together a list of 115 names and share it with all of us. 

Check it out and see if your local scribes are on the list.  Let her know if you or anyone you know should be on the list.  Still TBD:  which if any of the education Twitters are any good.  (Via the EWA list-serve.)

MEDIA: I Ruined Blogging. You Helped.

Speaking of blogs, there's a lot of conversation going on around the Internet about how blogs have changed over the past few years -- most of it for the worse.

See for example:  The Decline of Blogging, The Blogosphere 2.0, Outrage Blogging, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing.

Blogging has lost much of its charm, it's true.  I blame myself. And you.

MEDIA: Where Are All The Education Micro-Blogs?

 The education section of the blogosphere is falling behind, if you judge it by whether it's got many of the fun (mean) new single-topic micro-blogs that are everyone's favorites in the rest of the Internet ("This Is Why You're Fat" and other great single-topic blogs). 

Our only real education entry that I know of is DetentionSlip, which focuses in narrowly -- obsessively -- on misdeeds and mayhem at schools. 

But it only takes two minutes to start a new Tumblr blog, and there are lots of possible topics that might be intereting or entertaining:  F-- Yeah, Education (This is why I teach); GatesWatch (The ever-changing machinations of America's biggest education philanthropy); Worst Yearbook Picture Ever (Everyone has a horrible school picture hidden out there somewhere; Stupid Education Pundit (The obvious, self-serving, and ridiculously wrong things pundits say); and my current favorite, Arne Face (The many strange expressions of the education secretary).

Know of any good micro-blogs focused on education?  Let us know.  Got your own ideas about what would be fun?  Now's your chance to shine. 

REPORTERS: Don't Let Your Sources Get The Upper Hand

 EdWeek reporter Stephen Sawchuk's recent post (Van Roekel on Journalists) looks like a classic example of a reporter being beholden his sources. 

Sawchuck, who covers the teacher beat, first came out with a critical-minded but fair-seeming post about how sensitive the NEA is about how it's covered in the press, noting that the NEA president kept talking about how reporters are always looking for conflict.  Then Sawchuk "updates" his post in response to ruffled feathers at NEA headquarters.  It's not so much a clarification or a correction as an apology, in which Sawchuk notes that he hopes to talk to the NEA president in the future. Yuck. 

Sawchuk is not alone.  This happens all the time, if usually behind the scenes.  Access to sources demonstrates power, and makes the job a lot easier. Upset sources -- especially highly-placed ones -- complain to editors, make things uncomfortable at cocktail parties, take their time responding, talk to other reporters first.  And, unfortunately, many reporters let sources get the upper hand.

WEEKEND READING: July 4-5 [updated]

Testing 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?

MEDIA: School Reform Goes Tabloid

"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)

MEDIA: National Journal "Experts" Blog Starts Today

There'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. 

QUOTE: How To Make Sure Your Report Gets Covered

"Never go up against NAEP. Bad news sells better than good news and non-news. A slow newsweek in the dead of summer beats a crammed news week in June."  (Flypaper)

REFORM: Why Charters Get So Much Attention

Talking to a friend on the phone yesterday morning on my way into Locke High School (it's graduation week), we were trying to come up with the reasons that charter schools get so much attention despite their small numbers.  Here's what I remember coming up with:

Small set of very good charter schools.
Magic bullet status.
Still "new" to many people, 20 years later.
Still seem reformy.
Instant "maverick" cred.
Wedge issue for Dems.
Media loves wedge issues.
Evolving politics (ie Obama and McCain both supporting them).
Public ambivalence over unions.
Everyone loves a good startup (Ira Glass on "origin" stories).

Maybe you've got better ideas - this doesn't seem the whole story. 

I'd guess that charter schools get roughly 25 percent of the high profile media coverage going to education -- it might be higher these days (since Obama came into office).  This despite educating less than 5 percent of US kids, and not yet having "fixed" education.  Yes, I'm contributing to the problem by writing about it. Yes, I've spent the last year reporting on a charter school.  Totally hypocritical.

WEEKEND READING: June 13-14

Two Years of Hard Lessons for D.C. Schools' Change Agent WP
In her quest to upend and transform the District's long-broken school system, Rhee has acquired a sometimes-painful education of her own.

Reading Dickens Four Ways Chronicle
I decided to read Little Dorrit four ways: paperback, audiobook, Kindle, and iPhone.

Coal Mountain Elementary In These Times
An elementary school curriculum designed by the American Coal Foundation suggests that students learn about the costs and benefits of coal mining by using toothpicks and paper clips to "mine" chocolate chips out of cookies.

The Numbers Game TAP
We ought to be in a golden age of data. So why are so many of the statistics we hear just fuzzy math?

Lawmakers find ways to lobby for stimulus cash. Slate
USA Today leads with a look at how lawmakers have been "working behind the scenes" to try to get federal agencies to pour stimulus money into pet projects.

The Future of Philanthropy TAP
New movements reacting against the "nonprofit-industrial complex" are pushing the funding world to give grants with fewer strings attached -- and to give directly to grass-roots groups.

Why are you working so hard? Salon
Alain de Botton's riveting book examines jobs from painting to rocket science and wonders what it all adds up to.

The research on how gender influences judging. Slate
[Maybe all of education's problems have to do with gender-influenced judgements?]

A Review of Walt Mossberg's Review of the Kindle DX Esquire
The new Kindle needs bigger, bolder visuals.

MEDIA: Christian Science Monitor Won't Let Wire Reporters In

Wednesday morning, EdSec Duncan appeared at the Christian Science Monitor Newsmakers breakfast (aka the Sperling Breakfast), a longtime Beltway event which apparently still forbids wire (and TV) reporters like Libby Quaid, who Tweeted plaintively about being kept out of the event.  Blogger types like me are used to being excluded from all sorts of things, but for Quaid it must have been like being stiff-armed by Johnny Depp.  Ironically, Politico.com and other online types were invited to the event.  I bet they would have let her in if she'd showed up. 

MEDIA: The Moratorium On Basketball Questions Starts Now

It's one thing for idiots like me to fill the Internet with gossip and fluff.  It's quite another thing for real live journalists to do the same.  At what point can we declare a moratorium on reporters asking Arne Duncan ridiculous suck-up questions about basketball?

I say that the moratorium starts now.  Here, Politico's Patrick Gavin is the culprit (Arne Duncan dishes on hoops with Barack Obama).  It's a double fail since he doesn't even come close to getting Duncan to say anything interesting. 

MEDIA: Chicago's Merit Pay Program Not A Model

Just a reminder to Libby Quaid (Ed secretary: judge teachers on how students do) and anyone else who might want to tout Chicago's merit pay program: The Chicago initiative only involved a handful of schools, was reliant on federal TIF money, and was only "agreed to" by the teachers union in the sense that they signed a letter of support at the last minute after a lot of arm-twisting.  There may be good models for collaborative and effective performance pay, but Chicago's isn't one of them.

TWITTER: Who Tweeted It Best?

Turns out there were at least three of us Twittering at yesterday's charter schools hearing -- me, the National Alliance, and the Center on Ed Reform. 

My tweets were generally light and fluffy, while theirs were more serious (and advocacy-oriented). None of us was particularly brilliant, IMHO.  But still -- fun.  Who Tweeted it best? You be the judge.