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.

HYPE: Updated Hype Warning Levels (June 2009)

After a long delay, the Hype Threat Awareness Office at the Department of Homeland Security has finally updated the National Hype Warning System:

Race To The Top Fund
Harlem Children's Zone

Charter Cap Removal
Sexting
Green Dot USA
KIPP To The Rescue

Growth Models
Performance Pay
Michelle Rhee

Universal PreK
National Standards

Pedophiles and Stalkers On MySpace (& Other Techno-Fearmongering)
NCLB

The Return Of The Hype Warning System 2007
This Week In Education: Hype Threat Levels 2006

Race To The Top Fund
Harlem Children's Zone

Charter Cap Removal
Sexting
Green Dot USA
KIPP To The Rescue

Growth Models
Performance Pay
Michelle Rhee

Universal PreK
National Standards

Pedophiles and Stalkers On MySpace (& Other Techno-Fearmongering)
NCLB

The Return Of The Hype Warning System 2007
This Week In Education: Hype Threat Levels 2006

WEEKEND READING: May 23-25

Catching up on new and recent magazine articles and blog posts while everyone else is at the BBQ:

Embrace your inner show-tunes nerd Salon

Pretty much anyone who remembers the merciless absurdities of high school life a little more vividly than they'd like to will savor this very clever, very original new comedy.

Some Teachers Offer to Share the Economic Pain NYT
Even in some of the places where unions have voted to help out management, some members have balked.

The charter school alternative The Week
Are small, independent public schools the future? [note error re DC charter program]

The Case for Working With Your Hands NYT Magazine
Changes in the economy have had the surprising effect of making the manual trades more attractive.

Across District Lines TAP
"School choice" does not have to be code speak for privatizing public education.

How to make charitable donations that also boost the economy. Slate
How to make charitable donations that also boost the economy.

Stimulus money going to scofflaw companies Salon
Major recipients of U.S. contracts have paid big fines for breaking environmental, safety and discrimination rules

The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss Salon
Why do we often care more about imaginary characters than real people? A new book suggests that fiction is crucial to our survival as a species.

A Prom Divided NYT Magazine
Outside the classroom at Montgomery County High School in Georgia, segregation endures.

MEDIA: Just How Many Dropout Factories High Schools Are There?

The NYT editorial page ran a piece about high school reforms earlier this week (Dropout Factories) but mis-stated the number of high schools in the US by a factor of ten.  There are apparently 20,000 high schools in the US, not just 2,000. 

BLOGS: PBS NewsHour Team Adds Blog To Podcasts, Broadcasts

John Merrow's outfit, Learning Matters, has now added a blog called the News Desk to its podcasts, emails, and signature broadcasts (usually on the PBS NewsHour).  They're a welcome addition, though the field for daily news roundups is already crowded.  Here are a couple of recent posts to give you a taste of how the blog is developing so far:

• EduBloggerCon Coming This June
• More Sex! Ed
• ‘Stuff’ is Online and in Classrooms
• Facebook … for parents?

MEDIA: Fact-Checking The Administration's Claims

The AP's Libby Quaid digs into the stats and pronouncements that are coming out of the Obama administration and finds that things aren't quite as dire as we're being led to believe:

"While they're not in first place, U.S. students generally hold their own on international tests. They spend more time in school than the Obama administration would have you believe. And their college graduation rates stack up better than reported."

Check it out for yourself:  Are US students really that bad?

By the way, this isn't the first time that the Obama folks have been called out for their education rhetoric. Factcheck.org hit them on similar items a few weeks ago (Tearing Down US Education Achievement). 

WEEKEND READING: May 16-17

To Report or Repeat? Columbia Journalism Review
The researchers’ intent—presumably—was to warn the public of shortcomings in these med-center missives to the media.

Biden Grilled by Fifth-Graders Daily Beast
Under normal circumstances, a politician being grilled by fifth-graders is hackneyed political theater.

The Promise Academy’s Real Lesson Pedro Noguera
Schools like the Promise Academy are derived from the combination of quality education and a focus on their social and emotional needs.

Small big education rally on the Ellipse
Knowledge Alliance
Under threatening skies on Saturday we participated in this highly publcized but sparsely attended gathering next to the White House organized by the EEP.

What we've learned so far about President Obama. Jacob Weisberg
He sees the middle ground as high ground. He's the decider for real. He likes it hot. He's ruthless.

Meet The 1,400 Jobless Teachers Still Getting Paid The New Republic
Two hundred and five of them have been without full-time work for three years.

Kindergarten Admissions Tests Go Missing on the Upper West Side. Everybody Freak Out! Gawker
Not quoted, but certainly existent: Parents who know their kids aren't that talented or that gifted.

MEDIA: Baltimore Sun Reporter Heads out

Baltimore  Sun education reporter Sara  Neufeld is  leaving the paper to pursue  other options. 

Read her goodby blog post here. 

Via GothamSchools.

MEDIA: Free Hechinger Seminar For New Education Reporters

Stuck covering the education beat?  Absolutely no idea what people are talking about?  Stop complaining.  At least you have a job.  And they want you in New York City:  "The Hechinger Institute is seeking reporters new to the education beat (three years or fewer) for a weekend seminar in New York City; airfare, hotel and meals covered!"

WEEKEND READING: May 9-10

Search Lobbying Reports on the Stimulus ProPublica
Over 2,500 associations, cities, counties and corporations have already shelled out for lobbyists to talk stimulus with the feds.

Obama is Spock Jeff Greenwald 
Our president bears a striking resemblance to the rational "Star Trek" Vulcan whose mixed race made him cultural translator to the universe.

Stop worrying about your children!  Katharine Mieszkowski
Kids today are just as safe as they were in the '70s, says "Free-Range Kids" author Lenore Skenazy, and what's really distressing is an alarmist culture that refuses to let them grow up.

How David Beats Goliath: Reporting & Essays Malcolm Gladwell
A non-stop full-court press gives weak basketball teams a chance against far stronger teams. Why have so few adopted it?

Constitution May Guarantee Right To Not Pull Up Your Pants Jezebel
The Tennessee attorney general has advised state legislators that their proposed Saggy Pants bill, which bans low-riding pants, may be unconstitutional, as it "arguably interferes with a liberty interest to dress as one chooses."

1990 MCREL
What things were like in 1990.

Christian School Threatens To Expel Student For Taking Girlfriend To Secular Prom Jezebel
Most 17-year-olds head into the final months of their senior year looking forward to two major events: the Senior Prom and Graduation. But if Tyler Frost attends a prom , he can kiss his graduation goodbye.

MEDIA: "Way Up There Is Where I'm Going," Says Dallas Reporter

Uber-reporter Kent Fischer, formerly of the Dallas Morning News (and the much-loved Dallas ISD education blog), points in the general direction of where he's going now that he's left the paper. 

He describes his new employer as "a respected consulting firm that works with non-profits and philanthropists around the world." Hmm.  I wonder who that could be?

BLOGS: Credit Where Credit Might Be Due

The Huffington Post has a bad rap for scraping other peoples' content and putting it on their own site.  But the other day it did me right.  It credited me for finding and posting a ProPublica article about Arne Duncan's disclosures, promises, and possible conflicts of interest, instead of just pretending to have found the article on its own. 

VIDEO: Colbert Debuts Lackluster Education Feature

The Colbert Report debuted an education segment (I's On Edjukashun) that looks like it might be intended as a regular feature. Here's the clip:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
I's On Edjukashun - Textbooks, AmeriCorps & Strip-Search
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor First 100 Days

It's from last week but I haven't seen it going around yet. Maybe because -- I hate to say this --
it isn't all that funny or fresh.  (Oh, crap.  Why did I say that?  Now I'll never get invited on the show.)

REFORM: A Love-Fest For Locke High School

If you thought that Green Dot's Steve Barr and the Locke turnaround story had reached some sort of saturation point last year, think again. It's all Locke High School, all the time these days. 

Thursday night, Arne Duncan publicly talked up the school in front of a roomful of eager education journalists -- a first, I think.  He usually talks about a turnaround in Chicago, or the Harlem Children's Zone. Click below to watch the Duncan clip.

A New Yorker article about the school and Green Dot founder Steve Barr is coming out today, focusing in part  on the school's exquisite positioning to become an Obama education reform model.  See Jim Warren's blurb about it here. If it's not yet findable online, you can read a bootleg copy (PDF).

The warm feelings are apparently mutual.  Scroll to the bottom here to read Barr profess his admiration for Obama from last week.

WEEKEND READING: Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3

Kindergarten Cram NYT Sunday Magazine
Today’s kindergartners prepare for a life of multiple-choice boxes by plowing through standardized tests and toiling over reading curricula.

Lobbyists adjust to stimulus rules that shut them out The Hill
The policy discourages people from registering as a lobbyist. If they are a lobbyist, the policy encourages them to deregister through a termination report.

After the Great Recession NYT Magazine
Obama:  "I think it would be too rigid to say everybody needs a four-year-college degree."

The perils of analyzing test scores by race. Slate
The Times implies that the racial angle is important because it shows the No Child law failed. But the same angle is being touted by exponents of hereditary differences in intelligence.

How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds
WSJ Books via A&L Daily
Will the discoveries of neuroscientists help us to think, learn and remember?

Your burning swine flu questions, answered. Slate
As of Friday, there were 141 confirmed cases in the United States and 331 cases worldwide. With the rising numbers come new questions. PLUS: Is it worth it to wash your hands in a public bathroom?

How Obama can succeed in the next 100 days and beyond Salon
His first 100 days has been a sprint. But the success of his second 100 days -- and his presidency -- hinges on a series of tough decisions.

Why can't we concentrate? Salon
Twitter and e-mail aren't making us stupider, but they are making us more distracted. A new book explains why learning to focus is the key to living better.

DISTRICT [SWINE] FEVER: Thursday In At The EWA Conference

JOBS:  Time is passing and the jobs are filling up fast on Maryland Avenue.  It sems more and more like Jon Schnur isn't going to end up working at the Department after all.  Ditto for Andy Rotherham.  So what happened?  Personalities?  Nanny problems?  Ideological differences?  Power politics?  Someone should find out.  Both were considered shoo-ins not so long ago.

OLD TIMES:  Back in DC for the EWA annual conference, good to see lots of familiar faces and friends though I'm always aware of how different what I do is from what most ed journalists do. 

NEW MEDIA NEWS:  At a new media session (the web, it's so neat, so new!), Alan Gottlieb is telling a story about how his online education watchdog outfit (Education News Colorado) is creating all sorts of battles within the board and with the Denver Post.  The suburban supes don't like the scrutiny, the business folks are all for accountability.  The print and web sides of the Denver Post don't know what to do with each other's education coverage.  (Extra credit:  "Objectivity is over-rated," says Gottlieb.)

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Green from GothamSchools says loves doing the online reporting and the quick response and transparency and awareness are great, but that she's not sure what happens next with the site, given the economic situation.  Sounds like they're putting out for outside foundation money for next year.  No news yet on what happens to Green's time once she starts her Spencer Fellowship in September.

MEDIA: Comparing NAEP Headlines

Here's a look at how the mainstream media covered yesterday's release of the latest NAEP scores.  Well, the headlines at least:

The AP headline states the results simply (Kids make gains in reading and math).  What could be clearer?

Lots of folks - the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, US News and EdWeek - focus their headlines on lagging secondary school students (Younger Students Show Gains in Math, Reading Skills, High-schoolers have made little progress, Younger Students Outshine High Schoolers in Reading, Math, Older Students Less Successful on Math NAEP).  Always playing the age card.

The Times focuses on the achievement gap and its political implications (‘No Child’ Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap).  Saucy!

NB:  Looking beyond the headlines, there is some substantive disagreement.  Contrast the Times story immediately above with the AP's Libby Quaid, who writes: "The biggest gains came from low-achieving students. That probably is not an accident; the federal No Child Left Behind law and similar state laws have focused on improving the performance of minority and poor children, who struggle the most."

Weekend Reading (April 24-26)

Sometimes I worry that skimming and posting these things mean I'll never actually reflect and write on them:

Getting Smarter About IQ The American Prospect
Simple advances, like adequate vision and dental care, can do more for the nation's children than theoretical debates about education inequality.

Woman Hires Stripper To Take Her Place At High School Reunion Jezebel
Wachner, class of 1995, decided that instead of returning to her high school, which she notes was "a pressure cooker"...decided she'd send a representative on her behalf—a stripper she hired to assume her identity and shock her former classmates. 

Obama Tactic Shields Health Care Bill From a Filibuster NYT
The tentative agreement would also apply reconciliation rules to a less-partisan fight over student lending, but does not include filibuster protection for energy or climate-change legislation.

Fighting Deadly Flu, Mexico Shuts Schools NYT
Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 61 people and infected possibly hundreds more in recent weeks, closed museums and shuttered schools for millions of students in and around the capital on Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work.

Brain Gain The New Yorker
Unlike many hypothetical scenarios that bioethicists worry about—human clones, “designer babies”—cognitive enhancement is already in full swing.

Moving Beyond Bias.The New Republic
Which falls more into the spirit of black uplift that you could explain to a foreigner in less than three minutes: teaching black candidates how to show what they are made of despite obstacles, or banning a test of mental agility as inappropriate to impose on black candidates?

Columbine Questions We Still Don’t Ponder In These Times
Neither the availability of firearms nor of Grand Theft Auto creates the original desire for violence.

Comment Is King NY Times Magazine
Most journalists hate to read it [reader commentary], because it’s stinging and distracting, and readers rarely plow through long comments sections unless they intend to post something themselves.

The Supreme Court takes failing to get it to a new level. Slate
That the school in question was looking for a prescription pill with the mind-altering force of a pair of Advil—and couldn't be bothered to call the child's mother first—hardly matters.

Is Gum Chewing Really Good For Your Health?
In yet another study touting the benefits of chewing gum, researchers suggest it may boost academic performance in teens.

MEDIA: Good Stories I Missed

I asked my colleagues to send me some stuff they're writing that I might have missed in my morning roundups.  Here are some of the stories -- good stuff, I think:

National Curriculum Inching Forward [In Australia] EdWeek
Some [Australian] states have questioned whether national benchmarks would lower the bar for students already immersed in rigorous studies. Subject-area experts have suggested that draft outlines, particularly in English and history, have set unrealistic expectations.

School district looks hard at travel funds Times-News (Idaho)
There's no state law governing school district travel policies, and conference spending varies greatly from district to district.

KIPP is ready to start bargaining Gotham Schools
Levin’s enthusiasm to begin bargaining suggests that he does not intend to abandon the Brooklyn school, a possibility some observers privately raised after the teachers first said they wanted to form a union.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Age of Testing Harvard Ed Letter
“You can’t move forward with another half-hour of math if you see the kids are bouncing out of their skins,” says Alice Keane, a first-grade teacher at Lake Bluff Elementary School in Shorewood, Wis.

Schools to try educational effort on heroin Gazette Xtra
While heroin use among high school students seems to be mainly among 12th-graders, the last time Janesville students get any formal drug education is in freshman health class.

MEDIA: New York Times Steals (Back) From Me

Besides a quote from Dave Levin and a nice picture of Kashi Nelson, the KIPP teacher who belatedly changed her mind about unionization, yesterday's NY Times story about the KIPP AMP mess (here) didn't seem to add much to the story I  reported last month (A Teacher Changes Her Mind). Yes, reported.  Take a look and I think you'll see what I'm talking about. 

To be sure, I would have loved some acknowledgment for having been first to report this.  My scoops are rare, since I do so little reporting.  Then again, everyone knows that big papers don't like to credit competitors who beat them to a story, especially annoying little blogs.  Things like this happen all the time. 

And of course, I steal stuff from the Times every day, including for example this nice picture of Kashi Nelson, the KIPP teacher who belatedly changed her mind about unionization. So I don't like it, but I guess it serves me right. You know I broke this story.  They know, too.  They're probably just trying to even the score. 

MEDIA: Hoff Hoofs It

I knew something was up when David (The) Hoff's once-vibrant NCLB blog fell into disuse this past few months.  (Readers may recall that for a time he was so busy with posts that he made regular incursions into Politics K12.)  And now we know why.

Congrats, condolences to all.

What to make of Hoff hoofing it over to the other side?  Click below for some thoughts. 

Weekend Reading

With Finance Disgraced, Which Career Will Be King? NYT

Public service, government, the sciences and even teaching look to be winners, while fewer shiny, young minds are embarking on careers in finance and business consulting. 

PLUS: Community Organizing Never Looked So Good

Thanks to Barack Obama community organizing is now seen by many young people as an exciting career.

Sex, Drugs and ESL In These Times

It wasn’t until the 2006 arrest of John Mark Carr—infamous for falsely confessing to the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey—that people began to look at the lawlessness of the English teaching profession.

Columbine Book Review Esquire

I was sitting in a middle-school classroom only a few miles down the road. I was sure I knew what took place. The truth is, I didn't have a clue.

PLUS:  What you never knew about Columbine Salon

Dylan's [journal] is — he's literally talking about love on almost every page, and he's growing up. You can take his journal, and just take your thumb and just flip through it and it will shock you. You see these hearts all the way.

Which Union Do I Belong To Now? American Prospect

Universal health care, for which labor has fought since the 1940s, and labor law reform, for which unions have campaigned since the 1970s, are now genuine possibilities,

A beat-sweetener sampler. Slate

This time out, I've created a sampler of real beat-sweeteners: a chart that identifies author, subject, one or more examples of shamelessly flattering writing, one or more examples of less-flattering details that were left out, and links to less-flattering information sources that might serve as antidotes to the praise—a beat-sourer, if you will.

You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care? NYT

In an age of instant information gratification, the burden of having to dial in to a mailbox, enter a passcode and sit through “um’s” and “ah’s” from unwanted callers can seem too much to bear.

Taxing soda to make you stop drinking it Slate

Three years ago, I thought the movement to legislate against junk food was politically futile. But that was before the successful assaults on trans fats, calorie counts, and opening fast-food restaurants.

Oprah Defends Her Sex School Gawker

Last month, the school expelled four students and suspended three others for, in the words of a letter reportedly sent to one of the girls' parents, "physical contact of a sexual nature with another pupil on campus, harassment, bullying other girls on campus."

MEDIA: New Publication, New Education Reporter

Politico.com reports that AOL's new site PoliticsDaily.com will include lots of veteran journalists and will feature education coverage from Linda Kulman, who has done work for NPR and wrote for US News & World Report.  Click here for a Google News list of Kulman's mentions. Click here for a US News list of Kulman's writings. 

Crossed fingers that Kulman will dodge the "Duncan fever" that seems to have affected much of the education beat, and see through the various education types who will -- starting now -- try to praise and manipulate her to get the coverage they want. 

Congrats, condolences. 

PBS NEWS: New(ish) Education Correspondent For The NewsHour

Check out John ("JT") Tulenko, the longtime producer for John Merrow, who is now also doing some on-air work as a correspondent:

Looking very Anderson Cooper, I think.  Watch out during the close-ups, ladies (and others who might be susceptible)

The segment on schools in Green Bay dealing with increased homelessness first ran last week, but it's pretty powerful if you haven't seen it already -- especially the part where Tulenko asks a kid what his classmates think when they find out he's homeless.

I'm not sure that the focus should be on the kids' individual struggles living in shelters, or even on schools' struggles to help these kids. The real issue here is whether cities have developed effective, flexible systems to help families who become homeless -- usually for short periods of time -- so that the cycle doesn't worsen. Homelessness sucks, but it's not new.

Clip below.

MEDIA: Edu-Blogging's Newest Star

Ignore the Michael Jackson-style epaulets on his jacket and the goofy Kangol cap. Anthony David (The Truth) Adams, co-founder of DetentionSlip.org, was on Fox News last week, talking about the ongoing use of corporal punishment by parents and teachers.

Someone -- EdWeek? Comedy Central? -- grab these guys up fast.  Crass and negative as they may be, they still know how to make people engage with education issues.  The price is only going to go up. 

MEDIA: Same Story, Different Headline

A couple of weeks ago, Andy Rotherham and Richard Whitmire (the new Tom Toch?) co-wrote a piece in The New Republic about Randi Weingarten. The headline of the story read Making the Grade: Can AFT president Randi Weingarten satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?.

But when I came across the story on Bloglines, there was an interesting (and much more pointed) headline there: Is Union Leader Randi Weingarten A True Educational Reformer Or Just A Shill For Obstructionist Teachers?

Which version came first? I have no idea. Who determined that the original headline was too harsh? Again, no idea.

The Bloglines version is much spicier, and the conspiracy theorist who lives inside me imagines that it was something dreamed up by a sleep-drived editor and then deemed too hot by Whitmire and Rotherham.  But the official headline is in fact more fitting to the piece itself, which raises the possibility of Weingarten's duplicitousness but then moves on to other, gentler and more constructive possibilities and observations. Weingarten's not playing us, we're told; she's just not seeing all the opportunities.

MEDIA: Weekend Catch-Up

Things I didn't get to until over the weekend:

No Touching Allowed At Connecticut Middle School Jezebel
A Milford, CT middle school recently banned all physical contact between students, including high-fives, handshakes, and hand-holding, in an attempt to cut down on "horseplay."

How much school reform will $23 billion buy? Josh Greenman
Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, should be thinking much bigger.

Why can't governors spend stimulus money however they want? Slate
What's really stopping governors from spending stimulus money however they see fit?

Education Is Like, So Totally Rad, You Guys! Jezebel
Maybe I'm just a bitter old lady who hates to see the American Idol/High School Musicalization of EVERYTHING, especially education.

The Culture Of Poverty NPR
Can a little money can make a difference to those who were born and live in poverty? And is poverty something you have control over?

"Sexting" Teens File Lawsuit Against DA Jezebel
Ultimately, the terrible, no good, very bad, scary "sexting" trend that uptight crazies think is threatening the purity of our teenage girls is something that should be a conversation between those children and their parents, without the involvement of the courts.

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse? The Onion
Panelists debate whether games are teaching children skills they'll really need in the End Times.

MEDIA: Jacques Is Bacques

 After six years in exile, former NYT education reporter Jacques Steinberg is returning to the beat -- sort of.

Steinberg reported on NYC and then national K12 stories from 1995 to about 2002.  He only covered the national beat for a few years but I recall his pieces on the education industry and testing as being particularly memorable and well-reported. (Got any faves, let me know).

He left education in protest over the passage NCLB.  (No, not really.  There were widespread reports that journalists would quit the beat over NCLB but none of them actually followed through.)

Now Gawker reports (here) that the Timesman will be the lead writer of a new blog on the Times' favorite education topic: college admissions.   Called The Choice, the site officially debuts today.

Congrats, condolences.

VIDEO: "Where The Wild Things Are" Trailer

A favorite childhood book is finally coming to movie screens:

I only hope that it turns out to be good. Via Jezebel

BOOKS: The Return Of "Relentless Pursuit"

It's about four TFA teachers in their first year at a rough South Central LA school.  It's been through four hardcover printings.  It paints a pretty rough picture of the school and the experience, but it doesn't seem to have soured anyone on TFA.  Applications are way up for 2009.

Now it's about to be out in paperback. 

Catch author Donna Foote on Talk Of The Nation this afternoon for an update on how the four teachers are doing and all the changes at the school.  None of the teachers is still at Locke, but at least two are still in education:  One of the teachers (Rachelle) is working at a tutoring program and still comes back to the school. Another Hrag) just got his new charter school approved.

Related posts:

What "Relentless Pursuit" Reveals About TFA
How TFA Thinks About Supporting New Teachers
TFA Week: The Relentless Pursuit Of TFA

MEDIA: The Jim Cramers Of The Education Press

Last night, Jon Stewart interviewed castigated TV money guy Jim Cramer about the financial press's role in selling economic fantasies to the American public.  It was in many ways an echo of Stewart's famous "You're hurting America" segment on Crossfire, in which he accused Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson of entertaining the public while pretending to inform them. 

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

What does this have to do with education?  Well, what Stewart was saying reminded me of similar issues with the education press and the commentators who are so frequently quoted in it.  Click below to read all about it.

IDEAS: Big Stories I'm Too Lazy To Cover

I know, I know.  Journalism is dead.  But still, here are some stories that I hope someone -- not me -- is working on:

Mr. Duncan Goes To Washington:  He talks like a goofball.   He hates the law he now oversees (NCLB).  He probably can't name the ranking members of the House and Senate education committees.  The stimulus gives him all sorts of dollars to dish out. He's the 2009 version of Rod Paige.  Someone should tag along with him all year and give us a sense of what it's like to walk into the beast's lair - if only for the pleasure of being able to drink hang out with Peter Cunningham after work once in a while.

Stimulating School:  Watch school districts and state agencies squander billions in taxpayer dollars just like in the past (Class Size Reduction, School Modernization, E-Rate, Empowerment Zones).  Hang out with a stimulus czar and see how government regulations, logistics, politics, and compliance-minded stupidity get in the way of making much good out of the Stimulus money.  Happy to be wrong, but I bet that South Carolina school is still dilapidated a year from now. 

The "Anti-Michelle":  Michelle Rhee may be the first TFA alum to run a big-city school district (besides Cami Anderson, of course), and she won't be the last.  But what about finding a rising star who came up the old way -- teacher, principal, etc. -- and is doing good things at scale?  What's new is old, what's old is new.  Polka dots for spring. 

The Modern American Ed School:  Ed schools have been under attack for at least a decade, and many have tried to revamp what they do in order to get better at preparing teachers.  But tradition, financial incentives, and faculty politics often get in the way of change. Carpetbagging political scientists and economists aren't helping any.  Find a reform-minded ed school dean and, over the course of a year, watch him or her get beat to smithereens.  Expert quotes from Art Levine. 

MEDIA: Ed Writers Award The Good (Mostly)

There's lots of good writing among the EWA winners that were just announced -- as well as a number of stories I'd never seen before and a couple of awardees that I have issues with:

Francisco Alvarado, Miami New Times, gets kudos for what may be the best story title of the bunch ("The F-School Bomb").

Emily Alpert's story looks like the one I most want to read:  "The School Guru Who Promised Rescue and Brought Ruin."

I recall having some issues with the reporting and causality in the Chicago Sun-Times' series, “Schooled in Fear,” though it was no doubt vivid writing.

Yay, Sarah Karp and John Myers for their Catalyst oevre, “Class 2011.”

I loved the time-lapse story by David Andreatta, Max Schulte, Scott Sheils “Class Picture, catching up to a group of kindergarteners 12 years later.

I thought KCET's special, "Inside Locke High," was powerful but perhaps too sentimental in its portrayal of some of the kids attending the "new" Locke high school.  (Then again, I saw Revolutionary Road last night.)

Check 'em all out.  Congrats to all. 

POP CULTURE: Homeschooling Makes "Saturday Night Live"

The January 10 episode of SNL that aired this weekend included a slam on homeschooling, which longtime readers of this blog will recognize as yet another sign that homeschooling has arrived.  Or something.

At the end of Weekend Update, host Seth Meyers reported:

“A new study shows that, in recent years, the number of home-schooled children in the US has ballooned to 1.5 million.

"Or, if you’re home schooled, five eleventy thousand.”

Yuck yuck yuck.