NCLB: Signing Ceremony Kids - Where Are They Now?

I wonder what's happened to the kids who were onstage with Bush, Miller, Boehner, etc. that day ten years ago.

Who are they, what was their experience like, how did they experience school before and after NCLB was signed into law?  Far as I know no one's ever tracked these kids down.   Maybe someone's doing that in honor of the NCLB anniversary.  

What I remember best about that time is that the ink was hardly dry before Democrats started complaining about the Bush funding levels -- an understandable but disappointing flip-flop that didn't really do much good in the 2004 campaign and heralded a regressive period in Democratic education politics.  

Quotes: Emotion Trumps Intellect Nearly Every Time

Rather than “intellectualize ourselves into the [education reform] debate…is there a way that we can get into it at an emotional level?” -- Longtime union foe Richard Berman

Quotes: Service Providers Vs. Quality Services

All too often in the United States we have programs that are too dominated by the interests of the service providers. -- Matt Yglesias

Quotes: Herman Cain Talks Pizza & Vegetables

A manly man don’t want it piled high with vegetables. He would call that a sissy pizza. -- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain

Quotes: The Debt Is Too Damn High

Maybe we need to find ways to make colleges more productive places, which would mean radically changing our idea of what going to college is all about. - James Surowecki in The New Yorker

 

Five Best Blogs: Enzi, Weingarten, and Klein -- Oh, My

Bipartisan? Not So Much Chuck Edwards: Sen. Mike Enzi announced that his earlier vote to approve the committee’s ESEA reauthorization bill did not mean he fully supported it.

Teaching With the Enemy NYT:  You simply cannot fix America’s schools by “scaling” charter schools. It won’t work. Real reform has to go beyond charters — and it has to include the unions.

NY Mag: Bloomberg pushed Klein out before he was ready to go GothamSchools:  New details tucked into a New York Magazine profile of Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth seem to confirm that Bloomberg set the timeline for Klein’s departure — and suggest that Klein’s decision to head to Murdoch’s News Corporation was hastily made.

A Failure by Supercommittee Could Cost Early Education Programs CAP: The sequesters affect all mandatory and discretionary spending, both defense and non-defense, with the exception of a list of specific exemptions. The exemptions include various child nutrition and welfare programs, as well as the Pell grant program, but no early childhood education programs.

MORE BLOG POSTS INSIDE

Update: It's Not A Hearing -- It's A Roundtable

No one's ever been particularly clear of what Tuesday's #ESEA hearing was going to be all about, considering that the bill has already passed the committee.  Basically it was a way to buy off Senator Paul, who as you may recall blocked the markup during the early part of the process.  And now it turns out that it's not even a real hearing with written testimony and all of that, but rather what the committee is calling a round table discussion.  Will Senators asks questions, or participate?  Will the sort of random assortment of witnesses all sit around a table at the same time, or be divided in some way.  What happens if Hess gets overexcited and tries to filibuster -- or worse?  (Luckily he doesn't know about the five-second delay.)  No word if Charlie Rose is going to host.

Five Best Blogs: Hearing For Nothing

ESEA Bill Poised for Hearing PoliticsK12: Senate leaders may hold off on putting the ESEA bill on the floor until and unless the House approves an overhaul of the law's accountability and teacher quality provisions. PLUS: Charles Barone on ESEA Reauthorization Connor Williams: There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with finding unlikely allies on the other side of the aisle. 

MPR’s Unfortunate Sidestepping SchoolFinance101:  They fail to explore in any depth how successful charter schools allocate resources and the cost implications of those strategies. It’s time to start taking this next step!

The Book on Rhee’s DC tenure Matthew Ladner: While the needle is moving in the right direction in DC, I believe that the Cool Kids came out of the experience sadder, wiser and undeterred. That’s for the best.

Are Teachers Overqualified? Matthew Yglesias: The issue with American teachers isn’t that they’re “overpaid” it’s that we seem to have overinvested in quantity of teachers rather than quality. 

How Bill Gates throws his money around in education Anthony Cody: Invent a host of new mechanisms to reward success as well as punish failure. As much a possible, target these interventions down to the level of the individual teacher and student, to ensure compliance. 

MORE BLOG POSTS INSIDE

Quotes: Now Duncan Calls Harkin-Enzi "Weak"

#esea You don't want to have a weak bill or a bad bill at the end of the day. -- Arne Duncan

NCLB: Just Can't Stop Talking 'Bout #ESEA

Attack of the Ed Reform Killer ChimerasDFER Charlie Barone: NTEA Party. Accountability Chickenhawks. Amnesiac Historians.  Washington Knows Best States' Rights Purists. Test-Enlisting Anti-Testing Advocates. 

ESEA political scorecard: Halloween version Sherman Dorn:In the group category, I see that Education Trust, DFER, La Raza, and other civil rights groups are all wearing the Ghost of ESEA Past costume

Except For Them! Eduwonk: In his own subtle way Winerip’s work is actually a spectacular argument for No Child Left Behind-style policies requiring disaggregation, transparency, and accountability.

Night of the Living Reauthorization Thompson:  "It’s not much of a deal to offer states a choice between AYP and a test-based teacher evaluation system. Both are based on rhetoric rather than evidence of effectiveness in improving schools and neither will make a dent in the issues facing our most challenged students.” (Ellen Forte)

ESEA: Where Were *You* When NCLB Got Rewritten?

Whatever your position on NCLB, or the Harkin-Enzi bill, or the Duncan waiver plan, there's one thing that seems really clear:  Many of those who are (or could) be major players in the debate over federal education policy have yet not come anywhere close to exerting their full influence.  This is unfortunate, given that time is short (see Alyson Klein EdWeek story here) and the logistics are complicated (see Joy Resmovits here). We could end up with current law, or waivers, or -- who knows?  Michelle Rhee seems to have been ramping up her activities on the reauthorization front, including an email (see below) from last week calling on members to oppose Harkin-Enzi in its entirety.  Several other notables (Stand For Children, 50CAN) are absent from the field of battle, insofar as press releases, priority letters, or other declarations would seem to indicate. Others (Diane Ravitch, BBA, PAA) are taking positions so far outside the debate that no one involved in crafting legislation will take them seriously. Many (TFA, the Alliance, NSVF) are focusing on narrow issues of self-interest such as the highly qualified teacher definitions, the expansion of ESEA into high schools, or the creation of a new principal leadership initiative.  It's a strategy that is understandable enough but raises issues of leadership.  What is the point of building organization capacity and political capital if not to use them? How can education advocates call on educators and administrators and politicians to look beyond their own immediate self-interests without doing so themselves? 

Five Best Blogs: Souvlaki For Everyone!

Just say No! EdNext: The Harkin-Enzi bill “lowers the bar,” says the Times, and “backs away from requiring states to have clear student achievement targets for all schools.” 

What Our Kids Is Doing Mother Jones:  To be honest, I'm a little surprised that TV watching is only two hours a day for 5-8 year-olds. On the other hand, I'm sort of appalled that 75% of 0-2 year-olds watch TV, and of those, the average TV-watching time has increased from 1:02 to 1:30 over the past six years. 

A primer on corporate school reform The Answer Sheet:  Instead, they went after collective bargaining, teacher tenure, and seniority.  And they went after the universal public and democratic character of public schools. 

The Gap On The Gap Eduwonk: A decade after an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort to get serious about school accountability, it’s open season on a strong federal role in education. How did we get here? 

Comment on “A Perfect Confluence” ERS:  We are in the midst of the perfect confluence, and the prospect of converting it into a new educational order for school children is exciting indeed. 

MORE BLOG POSTS INSIDE

Five Best Blogs: Still More On The #ESEA Markup & Duncan Waivers

What Does ESEA Re-Write Mean for Ed Reform on the State Level? Alex Johnston: In taking the fundamental outlines of federal education policy for granted, we may not have looked closely enough... at what aspects of NCLB are essential to preserve, and what’s best left alone, and what’s most in need of an upgrade. 

 The Latest GREAT News NSVF:  Should we succeed in getting GREAT included in the House legislation... we may actually create a new legislative pathway to support high-performing teacher and principal training programs. 

 Senators Playing Politics with Education: The committee vote was a "stick out the tongue" moment by Sen. Harkin directed at President Obama, as well as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, for offering states waivers on the current NCLB law.

Harkin/Enzi ESEA Bill Would Formalize Rewards for High-Performing Schools New America: This is one of the few places where we see Congress attempting to create what are known as “communities of practice” – opportunities for schools to come together to share best practices and work together to improve student achievement. 

Arne vs. The Rules Title I Derland: One of the overlooked features of Duncan’s new ESEA waiver package is the fact that there is no new money in it. Yet state and local educational agencies are supposed to implement a host of intensive interventions in “priority” schools. 

MORE BLOG ITEMS POSTED INSIDE

NCLB: No One Needs Harkin-Enzi To Happen But Harkin

Several folks including the National Journal are now -- finally! -- taking note of just how much Harkin and the Democrats gave up last week during the #ESEA markup, without much of a fight, in order to get just three Republican votes (The Saga Continues).  But was that a good call, politically and substantively?  

Education Sector notes that the Harkin strategy leaves room for further Republican demands on the Senate floor and in the House (Markup Roundup).  What else do they have to ask for? I'm sure they'll think of something.  

Title I Derland thinks that it made sense for Harkin to pull and replace his own bill over the weekend, given what happened to stall the Miller plan four years ago (The Lessons of 2007).  Well, maybe, if you think movement is absolutely necessary.  

If anything, Harkin seems to be working off the playbook of the Obama administration's first two years, during which the White House gave up tons to get its priorities done, sometimes offering concessions in advance of Republican demands.  You see, Congressional Republicans might not relish hearing the President bash them for inaction -- Politics K-12 reminds us that this is indeed the plan -- but the Duncan waivers will bail Republicans as well as Democrats out in terms of giving relief states and districts.  Republicans don't really need this reauthorization to go through, and neither does the White House.  With the waivers in its pocket and the knowledge that the President could veto a bill if it was truly awful, the Duncan team seems generally unconcerned about the shape and speed of the reauthorization.

How much more Harkin (and perhaps Miller) will give up to get a bill through when their allies are so divided over the process is unclear.  What happens if  the reauthorization plays more than a passing role in the Presidential election is another unknown. 

Senate: Random Support For Harkin-Enzi #ESEA Bill

Wondering who supports the Harkin-Enzi legislation?  Me, too.  Good thing the folks in Harkin's office put out this press release with blurbs from a variety of folks (many of whom are praising specific provisions of the bill not endorsing the whole thing).  It's a pretty random list, I have to say.  Among those listed includee Save the Children, America Forward, City Year, Alliance for Excellent Education, American Public Health Association, National Association of Charter School Authorities, Citizen Schools, Magnet Schools of America, Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Teach For America, Voices for America’s Children, First Five Years Fund, Conditions for Learning Coalition.

NCLB Reauthorization: Where Was Duncan?

The passage of Harkin-Enzi #ESEA out of committee last night was a victory for the committee (protecting its turf against the waiver option), conservatives and teachers unions and bureaucrats (a rollback of federal oversight over school performance), and innovation-oriented moderate Republican reformers (getting Washington out of the way). Perhaps reform opponents will also consider it a victory (fewer sanctions from the meanies in Washington, the end of NCLB), too.  But is Harkin-Enzi better than current law, or even the waiver option that's waiting in the wings?  I'm not so sure.  Civil rights and disability groups certainly seemed not to think so.  And so did Arne Duncan, though there was no full court press that I saw.  Duncan expressed his disappointment in the legislation on Monday but then went off to push the $35B teachers/first responders package (which failed last night).  Was there a desperate but ultimately ineffective behind the scenes effort to improve Harkin-Enzi from the Duncan folks and the White House, or do they want any bill they can get (see Mike Petrilli here), or are they just hoping that this all falls apart on the Senate floor and in the House so that they can do the waiver thing?  Others may know better but from afar the Duncan effort to restore accountability to the reauthorization vehicle seemed lackluster and ineffective.  

#ESEA Update: Harkin-Enzi Makes It Out Of Committee

Wow.  Late on Thursday Senator Harkin sent out a press release touting the passage of the #ESEA rewrite by the Senate education committee stating that "Tonight is a victory – both for our nation’s children and for bipartisanship."  

We'll see about that.  Meantime, here are some of the early writeups:  Senate Panel Approves ESEA Overhaul EdWeek:  Harkin hopes to move the bill to the floor of the Senate before Thanksgiving, and he believes it's "possible" that Congress could approve a rewritten version of the nation's main education law before Christmas.Senate committee votes to update education law AP:  A committee forwarded to the Senate Thursday evening a bill that rewrites the education law No Child Left Behind.  ESEA mark-up: Bill moved from committee, 15-7 Ed Sector: Here’s highlights of approved amendments from the afternoon, in the order they were considered (with some fun tidbits, when applicable).

There'll be lots more coverage and analysis but meantime inside are some blog posts and commentary from Thursday afternoon (along with the full Harkin press release touting the legislation):

Video: Bennet Gets Heated Over #ESEA Delay

"Finally, after two-and-half years, we're told that meeting for two hours is too long."

Reform: Rhee Organization Dips Toe Into #ESEA Debate

The folks at StudentsFirst sent out an email from Michelle Rhee this morning expressing concern about the teacher evaluation provisions in the Harkin-Enzi draft that was supposed to be considered earlier today: "The legislation sets up an unfair, two-tiered system where only some children would have access to teachers who receive meaningful feedback and are held accountable for their work...[and] would move us in the wrong direction." (see full text below).  There's some confusion over whether Rhee signed onto the broader accountability letter from the civil rights groups, reform chiefs, disability advocates, the Chamber, and a couple of reformy groups like TNTP and DFER (see EdWeek about that here).  She's not listed as a signatory but I'm hearing that she may have signed on at some point.  Either way, it's a good start that Rhee and her organization are getting involved rather than sitting on their hands or saying 'that's federal -- we don't do federal.' Symbolically and practically, reformers are going to have to go wherever the debate happens to be, and lead or be prepared not to be taken very seriously.  Most of the rest of the reform crowd -- TFA, KIPP, the Harlem Children's Zone, and Stand For Children -- remain AWOL.     

NCLB: Reformers Sit #ESEA Debate Out At Their Own Peril

Where have all the reformers gone? A year ago they were everywhere, pushing to revamp teacher evaluation and end LIFO.  Now when the NCLB debate is heating up it seems like they're nowhere to be found. 

A decade ago when reform-minded education organizations like KIPP and TFA stayed out of the ESEA reauthorization fight, it was curious but not really a surprise.  Nonprofits and reformers didn't really do policy back then, lobbied Congress only infrequently, and considered advocacy to be out of the question.  The outcome wasn't particularly good from a reform perspective, as you may recall.  The original version of NCLB's highly qualified teacher requirement classified TFA corps members as unqualified, which required schools to send a letter out to parents.  TFA had to get the law changed and has had to protect it every year since then against folks like Public Advocates who see the alt cert loophole as, well, a loophole.  As for KIPP, the law's weak restructuring options didn't require districts to create conditions that would have encouraged CMOs like KIPP who were interested in doing turnarounds.  (Ditto for SIG, by the way -- another missed opportunity.)

Maybe they're working behind the scenes, masterfully manipulating the process from their lakeside cabins and remote mountain lairs. Or, more likely, they've been told not to worry, that Team Duncan will take care of everything for them, and have forgotten  that the White House is currently pushing a reform-free Edujobs 2 bill and would sell school reform down the river without blinking an eye if it would look good for Obama next year.  If a bad bill goes through, reformers will spend the next year trying to work out operational fixes and the next decade having to work around it. 

Quote: NEA Denies Flip-Flopping On Harkin #ESEA Bill

NEA continues to stand by its policy statement released earlier this year, which calls for a comprehensive overhaul for both teacher evaluation and accountability systems. We don’t, however, believe that the federal government is the right entity to be mandating teacher evaluations. ... Our educators are having much success working at the local and state levels to create teacher evaluation systems that work for all involved. -- NEA Federal Advocacy Manager Mary Kusler

 

Photo: Name That Staffer

No one ever bothers to ID staffers in pictures that include elected officials but we all know that they do the real work, right?  That's Roberto R. sitting next to the red flag but who are the other three folks?  Extra points for seeing through Obama's head.  Pic via HuffED.

NCLB: Did The NEA "Goldilocks" Harkin?

There are currently two big pushes going on in Washington, neither of which it seems to me have much chance of going anywhere but nonetheless provide distraction and amusement:

The first is the ever-changing Harkin-Enzi reauthorization proposal, which went through a weekend switcheroo that seems not to have accomplished very much, substantively or politically.  Get yourself somewhat up to speed with these two articles: Teacher Evaluation Scaled Back in Senate's Revised ESEA Draft Politics K-12 and Federal Government's Role In Grading Teachers At Center Of Legislative Fight HuffED.  Enzi and the NEA may like the bill better now, which could help Harkin get the bill out of committee, but everyone else hates the thing even more than they did on Friday.    

"The NEA will always goldilocks you," [DFER policy director Charlie] Barone said. "Harkin took the evaluations statement Van Roekel made a few months ago and put it in the bill, and then didn't have his support. What they wound up with was nothing."*

The second is this White House's push to win $35B for its Teacher/First Responder proposal, which Duncan and others are going everywhere to push but seems unlikely to do anything other than give Democrats something to bash Republicans about for the next year.  It's not 2009, folks, you can't just propose stuff and have it get enacted.  For more on this: Democrats Planning Major Capitol Hill Rally To Push Obama's Jobs Bill Huffington Post: A Democratic source says that on Wednesday, the party is likely to host firefighters, cops and other first responders along with teachers who face the threat of being laid off should lawmakers not send additional funds to states.  ALSO: Democrats To Force Vote 'Very Soon' On Bill AND: Tester, Nelson unsure on teachers bill POLITICO.

*To be fair, Goldilocks did go through a reasonable decisionmaking process and eventually made a choice she could live with.  

COPPA: The Online Debate Educators Are Ignoring

Over the weekend, Emily Bazelon updated us on the growing interest from Facebook and others in lowering the requirements for allowing children under 13 to access their site.  (Last spring as you may recall Mark Zuckergberg floated -- and then retracted -- the idea of changing COPPA.) Salon has a story about how other countries have tried to address the issue.  Online protections for kids aren't technically an education issue -- they are often discussed in terms of parental rights, Internet porn, and bullying - but they will affect the shape and growth and perhaps even the quality of online offerings that are touted as educational.  I'm not saying that the law should stay the same necessarily but that the debate should include more than just online companies and children's safety advocates.

Quotes: What Lamar Alexander Wants To Do With NCLB

We know what the Lamar Alexander vision of public education looks like. It’s called “the early 1990s.” - Kevin Carey of the Education Sector in TNR

 

Quote: Rhee Endorses Obama Jobs Proposoal

Crumbling and inadequate school facilities are a reality for far too many of our students, and represent an unacceptable injustice. - Michelle Rhee, head of StudentsFirst

Congress: What Health Care Reform And NCLB Have In Common

Make it to the end of this long New Yorker article about the jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and you’ll see an interesting discussion of star-crossed Congressional efforts to influence what goes on in schools. As you may recall, the original version of the federal "gun-free schools" law omitted certain key statements related to the Commerce Clause, which holds that federal laws be limited to those with a substantial effect on interstate commerce. The Court overturned the gun-free statute in 1995's US v Lopez decision and Thomas argued that the current standard for Congressional involvement was much too lenient and should be revisited.  It's an argument he’s made several times since then and will almost certainly make again when the Court decides on the health care reform legislation passed during the early days of the Obama administration.  As for the gun-free law, Democratic proponents including my old boss Dianne Feinstein went back and added a bunch of findings and interstate commerce language and passed another version in 1996, which still stands.  But if the Court is moving Thomas' way, as the article argues, that kind of window dressing won't be enough. "By Thomas’s reading, Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act, to say nothing of Medicare and Medicaid, might all be unconstitutional," writes Jeffrey Toobin. Challenges to federal education laws might follow (if Tea Party lawmakers don't repeal them first).

Five Best Blogs: The Supercommittee & Education

Rick Perry Gives Up the Ghost on the 'Intelligent Design' Lie Gawker: Rick Perry was asked this morning if he believed in evolution, and his answer was surprising. Not because he does not, in fact believe in evolution (it's just "a theory that's out there"), but because he admitted that the alternative to teaching evolution in schools is essentially religious indoctrination. 

Bachmann and the changing Republican education agenda Slate:  It's safe to say that the political era of George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind is now officially over, even as the law's testing mandates continue to reverberate in classrooms across the country. 

Will Congress Sacrifice After School Tutoring Programs to Protect Yacht Owners? Unfinished Business:  Now that the super committee required by the recent debt deal reached in Congress is coming together, it's important to think about the choices our elected officials will have to make.

Poverty and education reform — and those caught in the middle Hechinger Report:  Increasingly, educators and experts are questioning the reformers’ tactics and asking whether the single-minded focus on schools has become an excuse to avoid the hard work of addressing poverty.  

MORE ITEMS BELOW

NCLB: AYP Minus One (Or Two, Or Three)

I'm one of a very small (but extremely wise and influential) group of people and organizations extremely worried about the Duncan administration giving in to state and local bureaucrats and gutting the accountability measures in NCLB in a cyncial deal to get states to adopt Race To The Top-style reforms (or at least promise to).  But I'm prepared to compromise on a couple of small, sensible fixes if it will help everyone feel better about themselves and get on with more important things (like checking to see how RTTT and SIG are actually being implemented).  Everyone talks about expanding the safe harbor/growth model provisions so that schools get credit for progress but what about -- this is my own crazy idea far as I know -- an "AYP minus one" system in which schools that make AYP for all but one, two, or three subgroups can still be said to have made AYP.  That would allow schools to focus on what they need to focus on but still keep the clear subgroup accountability for everyone.  Solved.  Next problem?

Chart: A Real-Time NCLB "Waiver Watch"

The Center on Education Policy has created  cool new #nclbwaivers page and map. "As of August 12 there are 4 states that have formally applied for waivers and are awaiting a response, 1 that has been granted a waiver, 1 that has been denied a waiver and 15 that have expressed interest in applying at some point in the future."

NCLB: Look At "Race" To See How Waivers Will Turn Out

#nclb #waiver  Despite the lack of details and the fact that they made pretty much the same announcement a couple of months ago, here's a steady flow of news coverage and analysis of the Duncan waiver plan (see lots of links below the fold).  Never underestimate Team Duncan's ability to pull things out of nowhere, I guess. Still, it remains pretty unclear whether the waiver notion can go forward and if it will do any good. CEP just released a study showing that low-income kids have been making strong progress during the NCLB era.  Opponents and cautioners remain numerous and powerful (House Republicans, Jeb Bush, NEA, Ed Trust, US Chamber).  Everybody wants a waiver, sure, but not everybody wants NCLB rolled back or diluted. (Where are the reformers on this, I wonder?  I'm calling around to see what the accountability hawks and "by any means necessary" types are saying about rolling back accountability.)  And - this is perhaps most important -- we know from the RTTT process over the past two years that peer reviewing doesn't always yield strong or consistent results, that folks will promise pretty much anything to Washington whether or not they're ever going to do what they say, and that the Duncan team's ability to enforce implementation of its reforms is shaping up to be pretty weak.  RTTT timelines are slipping like mad, and some Race states aren't making much progress at all. Want to know what the waivers will look like? Look at Race implementation.  Links below.

Five Best Blogs: Backdoor Blueprint - Or Massive Rollback?

Duncan's "Backdoor Blueprint" Strategy Rick Hess: In fact, the whole scheme sounds more like the framing of a back-door grant competition than anything else.

Obama Rewrites the NCLB Act  Brookings (Russ Whitehurst): The administration may well have the political clout it needs to overcome the ire of key committee chairs whose authority to legislate has been undercut.

Arne Duncan's Latest Step in the No Child Waiver Gambit RiShawn Biddle:  The footprint of mandated federal accountability [will] likely to be reduced under Duncan’s gambit from every school receiving Title 1 to just the 5,000 or so persistent failure mills. 

States Are Suddenly Redefining Expectations Richard Whitmire (USNews): Critics of these changes predict fallout from veteran teachers opting for early retirement and would-be teachers seeking other career paths.

 

How Much Time Have Ed. Reformers Actually Spent in the Classroom? Take Part:  How many years have today’s top reformers spent on the frontlines of America’s classrooms learning what it takes for schools to thrive? 

Confessions of a Presidential Fitness Test Underachiever The Tangential: The Presidential Fitness Test was invented by that same jerks who brought us Boy Scouts, energy drinks, and Michael Bay.  

Duncan: More Saber-Rattling Over NCLB Waivers

A quick roundup of the obligatory coverage of Duncan's latest pronouncements on NCLB -- still no real details (or changes in how the Hill is going to react): U.S. to grant waivers for No Child Left Behind WP:  The final decision falls to Duncan, who said he expects that successful states will receive waivers in the coming school year. States will get school testing waivers AP: State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call. Overriding a Key Education Law NYT:  The Secretary of Education announced he would waive rigid federal proficiency requirements for states that could prove they were taking appropriate steps to improve their schools. Obama Gives Go-Ahead for NCLB Waivers to States EdWeek:  Just what those reforms will be—and what freedoms states will gain in return—remain unclear. Those details will be made public in September, Obama administration officials said in a call to reporters.

Irony: Debt Reduction Deal Tied To Regional Education Labs

As if the debt deal wasn't already lamentably, unnecessarily bad, EdWeek's Politics K12 notes that the legislative vehicle being used to get the thing enacted is a proposal to extend the life of the regional education labs. The labs have been the subject of much criticism and reorganization over the years.  (Neither pure research organizations nor direct service providers, no one's exactly sure what they do or what kind of value they add.)  But a bill to restore and extend funding for the labs was in the queue and for scheduling reasons the Rules Committee needed to make the debt deal an amendment not a standalone bill.  

Best Five Blogs: Waivers & Government Breakdown

Obama administration reaches out to education activists Answer Sheeet:  Is this a repeat of the administration’s efforts last summer to blunt criticism by a coalition of civil rights groups?  

Saving Our Schools? Eduflack: If one is serious about school improvement (setting aside whether SOS' agenda can be considered "improvement"), you need to offer a little more than arts and crafts. 

Reform Without Legislation Matthew Yglesias: It’s clever, and since it’s probably not the kind of issue around which congress will organize a massive backlash (compare to, say, the EPA) it just might work. But it should also be taken as another sign of the increasing breakdown of our machinery of government. 

Unemployment Linked to Vasectomies, Chipped Teeth and Substitute Teaching Carolyn Bucior: Following the economic downturn that began in 2007, USA Today wrote that school districts nationwide were flooded with applications from people who wanted to work as substitute teachers. 

When the story is education, Rupert Murdoch gets involved GothamSchools: The same story reported that Murdoch relished his access to Journal reporters, with whom he sometimes discussed education issues.

Confession of a cheating teacher Philly Notebook:  She said she knows she's a good teacher. But she still helped her students cheat. 

The Gates Foundation and the Rise of the Cool Kids Jay Greene:  Whatever the mistakes to date, the Gates Foundation has in my mind has succeeded in serving as a counter-weight to the NEA. 

Video: "Untested...Competitions" Displacing Established Programs

Sen. Jack Reed had some tough questions for Secretary Duncan at yesterday's appropriations hearing, as reported in HuffED, but his concern apparently wasn't focused on the Promise Neighborhoods in particular but rather "untested, large-scaled competitive grant programs" pushing out established line-item programs like school libraries:  

"I’m concerned that the overarching strategy at the Department has been to focus almost exclusively on these untested, large-scaled competitive grant programs at the expense of some proven research-based programs that have a track record of success."  

PS:  Who's that sitting just off Duncan's left elbow, opposite Carmel Martin?  

Quotes: Obama The Patronizing Jr. High School Principal

Obama lectured the leaders of the House and Senate in the sort of patronizing tone that a junior high principal might use with immature delinquents. - NYT columnist David Brooks

Chart: What An 18 Percent Spending Cap Would Look Like

Capping federal spending at 18 percent of GDP, which is what many Republicans propose to do as part of the budget deal, is a funding level that hasn't existed since 1966, notes the Democratic-leaning Center on American Progress, at which time federal spending on education was roughly a third of what it is today (in constant dollars), or roughly $4,000 compared to the current $12,000 plus. Click the link to see how much things have changed since 1966 in other parts of American life. 

Budget: Obama Goofs Using Daughters To Mock Congress

"Malia and Sasha generally finish their homework a day ahead of time. Malia's 13, Sasha's 10... they don't wait until the night before!"  That's what President Obama said at a recent press conference, not so subtly mocking Congressional slowness getting a budget passed (or whatever they're trying to do).  Alas, the President was slightly off about one key fact. Malia isn't 13 until next week. Small error, to be sure, but that's what you get for using your kids as political props.  (Via Gawker)

People: Meet Senate Dem Education Committee Press Secty

Meet Justine Sessions, the majority press secretary for the Senate HELP committee, one of National Journal's Hill Staffers Under 30 to Watch.  Don't hate her because she's 27 -- it's not her fault you're old / wasted your 20s working on that Internet startup. 

Sessions is from Connecticut.  She started out working for Dodd.  Education is her favorite issue over all the other stupid topics that the HELP committee has to cover (I made that up). More (real) info here.

AM News: Committee Demands Details On Duncan Waiver Plan

GOP Lawmaker Challenges Duncan on No Child Left Behind WSJ: The Republican chair of the House education committee said Thursday he won't rush into a revamp of NCLB.

Republican Challenges Administration on Plans to Override Education Law NYT:  Representative John Kline of Minnesota said he would use a House rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law to rein in Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s influence.

Rep. Kline Seeks Details on Duncan's NCLB Waiver Plan Politics K12: Kline is especially uneasy with Duncan's assertion that the flexibility would be given in exchange for states' willingness to embrace a package of reforms dreamed up by the department.

Idaho Will Defy NCLB, Schools' Chief Luna Tells Duncan Politics K12: The Council of Chief State School Officersplans to lead an orchestrated effort to flood the department with waiver requests.

Hispanic, white achievement gap as wide as in 90s Seattle Times:  The achievement gap between Hispanic and white students is the same as it was in the early 1990s, despite two decades of accountability reforms.

Math Videos Go From YouTube Hit To Classroom Tool NPR: Now, some adventurous school districts are trying to bring Khan's approach into the classroom.

NFL Player Turns To Teaching During Lockout NPR: In April, Denver Broncos safety David Bruton started teaching math and social studies to students in grades one through 12.

Chart: Staffers Mostly White, Private-College Know-Nothings

Not only are top Hill staffers overwhelmingly (93 percent) white and disproportionately (51 percent) educated at private colleges, according to this National Journal story, they're woefully inexperienced (50 percent less than 10 years).  

NCLB: Waiver Debate, Week Two

Another mini-roundup of NCLB waiver commentary and analysis, though the issue seems pretty dead to me:  Can We Get 'Plain Writing' on Duncan's NCLB Waiver Plan? Politics K12:  How about Duncan explains what he means by "regulatory relief" in exchange for a "basket of reforms"... Reauthorize, Reauthorize, Reauthorize CAP: The secretary should grant waivers, not regulatory relief... The Regulation Threat Sandy Kress:  Every major administrative step the Administration has taken has had a weakening effect. And it appears that - for a favored few - more is in store...  Reauthorization, Waivers, and the Third Variable Problem DFER:  The decibel level from the usual suspects inside the Beltway is enough to rattle anyone's nerves, especially those new to the game... States Take the Lead on Accountability CCSSO Press release: Federal action must support, not hinder, state leadership on next-generation accountability systems and provide states with room to promote continuous innovation.  None of the Above The American Prospect: Next month, the National Education Association (NEA), the country’s largest teachers union, which has called for an overhaul, will decide at its convention whether to endorse Barack Obama in 2012... For additional takes on the issue see National Journal here.

NCLB: What's Your Favorite Loophole?

All this talk about NCLB waivers reminds me of all the waivers and examptions that are already part of the NCLB framework -- many of which make the law (according to me) too lax rather than too strict.  Some of the loopholes were added even before the law was enacted:  letting states backload AYP targets and lower state test standards, letting districts refuse student transfers out of hand, letting districts receive funding despite massive payroll inequities between schools. Others have been added since: redefining TFA corps members as highly qualified, letting low-performing districts provide their own federally funded after-school tutoring, letting schools use n-size definitions that limit subgroup accountability. These are only a few of the ones I can remember off the top of my head -- maybe you have a favorite? There are lots of waivers and loopholes and exemptions already in place for states and districts receiving billions in federal education money every year.  A few of them made sense but many didn't.  So let's make sure that any new set of exemptions is extremely targeted and justified beyond the short-term convenience of state and district administrators and their representatives in DC. Image via

NCLB: Waiver Proposal Fails To Break Logjam

Five days in and there's still pretty much no one besides the state and district administrators clamoring for relief who likes Duncan's Plan B "recess reauthorization" -- though Patrick Eduflack Riccards comes close -- and it's not at all clear that the idea has done anything to jumpstart reauthorization talks on the Hill, either (the underlying goal of the Duncan proposal).  NEA president Dennis Van Roekel came out against the idea almost immediately, caling it "more of the same bad patchwork quilt of disparities in our education system."  George Miller came out against it at yesterday's CAP event, according to EdWeek (Rep. Miller Not a Fan of Duncan's NCLB Waiver Plan) as did AFT president Randi Weingarten who said a waiver approach "creates a disincentive to get the law reauthorized (at about 44:20).  Chairman Kline noted on NPR that Race To The Top was already one giant waiver and NCLB didn't need to be turned into another.  It's a double whammy -- folks either don't like the idea of waivers, or they don't like the idea of attaching Race To The Top-like strings (see FireDogLake and Hess), or both.  Not even NCLB's harshest critics -- the Diane Ravitches of the world -- have come out in favor of the waiver plan.  Meantime, the tough work of making sure that Race generates some real changes continues with state implementation visits (Department Officials Visit Massachusetts to Learn About Race Implementation), and House Republicans are moving ahead with their piecemeal approach. 

Best Five Blogs: Does *Anyone* Like Duncan's Waiver Idea?

I mean, besides the bureaucrats?  If so, I can't find any:  Will States Accept Duncan-Style Reforms for NCLB Relief? EdWeek:  He offered so few details about what that relief would look like that the reporters spent much of the call flummoxed over what the news actually was... Duncan's Disregard for the Constitution Rick Hess:  Our earnest Secretary of Education, who famously (and bizarrely) promised Congress a billion-dollar edu-bonus if it reauthorized NCLB by the administration's deadline and to the President's satisfaction, was back at it on Friday... Duncan Wants to Use NCLB Sanctions to Force More Education Reform Measures FireDogLake: This just sounds like another version of Race to the Top, only a bit worse... What’s Plan C Anyway? Eduwonk:  Congress doesn’t like being preempted – and there is, of course, a natural tension between two co-equal branches of government.  But there are also a host of policy issues at play in this specific instance... “Give me the money or I shoot my foot!” and other political theories of education reform Sherman Dorn: If I had a crystal ball, I would guess this trial balloon will sink ignominiously by the end of the summer... Arnius Duncanus? Mike Petrilli:  Duncan’s plans to tie regulatory relief to new requirements indicates an incredible amount of tone-deafness, not to mention Constitutional ignorance... Give Us What We Want Or You're Dead Jim Horn:  There is a time bomb in your basement, and it is set to explode in 2014, maybe sooner.  Only two people have the ability to disarm it... Image via.  DID I MISS ANY GOOD ONES?  SEE MY TAKE BELOW.

 

NCLB: Duncan Parachutes Into Hostile Territory

It's an attack from above -- an all-out aerial bombardment!  Here's audio of the secret Friday conference call Team Duncan held with an elite group of education reporters (invitation only!). Here's the remarkable little slew of news stories that the call produced: Duncan Threatens to Alter No Child Left Behind WSJ, Arne Duncan's 'Plan B' May Leave 'No Child' Behind NPR, Duncan vows some easing of landmark education law AP,  Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on ‘No Child’ Law Requirements NYT.  Here's the commentary Duncan got published in Politico (Revamp No Child Left Behind - now) to go along with the one Spellings wrote in the same publication. And they're not done.  There's ANOTHER press call this afternoon, just in case anyone hasn't heard the word. But is it a good idea, what they're doing, and is Duncan right?  Read on for a few thoughts on the matter.

Weekend: Duncan Threatens "Recess Reauthorization"

Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on NCLB  NYT: Unless Congress acts by this fall to overhaul NCLB Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signaled that he would use his executive authority to free states from the law’s centerpiece requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014... Duncan Threatens to Alter No Child Left Behind WSJ: Mr. Duncan is promising to waive specific requirements of the law in exchange for states agreeing to adopt other efforts he has championed, such as linking teacher evaluations to student achievement, expanding charter schools and overhauling the lowest-performing schools... NCLB works but needs updates Margaret Spellings:  These are the same voices that once complained to me that No Child Left Behind was too draconian — then asked Congress to fully fund it... 5,200 New Teach For America Teachers TFA:  In the upcoming school year, 9,300 first- and second-year corps members will reach 600,000 students in 43 regions including new sites in the Appalachia region of Kentucky, Oklahoma City, Seattle, and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina... Department Officials Visit Massachusetts to Learn About Race Implementation USDE: Today's visit to Malden focuses on Massachusetts' progress in building statewide capacity for their education reform plan and the state's efforts to improve teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance... Self-control in childhood predicts future success Boston Globe:  What will children need to thrive in this environment? Not catalogs of facts, but the discipline of mind to focus, persevere, and make good choices. A good start would be to make Tools of the Mind — or something similar — a staple of the 21st-century classroom...  Where's Emma Watson off to this fall? Emma had quit US' Brown University in April saying she face trouble finding time to commit to her studies while also carrying out her film, promotional and modelling work.

Duncan: A(Nother) Light Media Week For The EdSec

The highlight of the week, such as it is, is probably the Center on American Progress event on Tuesday, which will feature Dunca, Miller, Weingarten, and Spellings.  Guess what the topic is going to be? More info about the event here.  Still, it's just a confab -- all fun and games until a bill lurches forward into markup or an amendment gets offered to a must-pass legislative vehicle. Click below for the rest of the EdSec's media schedule for the week. For day to day events and meetings, sign up for the FritzWire (still email-only, far as I know).  

AM News: Legislation Slowed In Dem-Controlled Senate

Democrats grumble over Harry Reid's agenda Politico:  Not having a budget, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor said, “makes it harder to do things that we just need to do — there are people talking about an education bill, a highway bill — a lot of other things you just don’t know how much you have to spend.”...  Judge Puts Philadelphia Layoffs On Hold EdWeek: District leaders have said that layoffs will damage the progress at those struggling schools, according to local news reports... PreK-3 movement trying to overhaul early education, but faces obstacles Hechinger Report:  A handful of foundations...and an increasing number of schools, districts and even whole states, including Nevada, Wyoming, and Washington, are in the process of implementing the reforms... Critics Target Growing Army of Broad Leaders EdWeek:  As the number of influential school leaders trained by the Broad Superintendents Academy grows, so does the criticism surrounding the program... Lobbyists Want Fries And Pizza To Stay In School:  Those lunchroom faves may be too popular for their own good. The USDA is proposing guidelines that would limit their availability to kids at school. Potato and frozen food lobbyists say their products are unfairly blamed for obesity... Considering the actual benefits of college Marketplace:  A study reveals confidence in higher education is low, but people may just be responding to these tough times right now... 2nd grader brings inert grenade to Michigan school AP:  Authorities say a second grader brought an inert U.S. military grenade to a central Michigan elementary school for show-and-tell, prompting a lockdown... Push for A’s at Private Schools Is Keeping Costly Tutors Busy NYT:  Private SAT tutors have been de rigueur at New York private schools for years, but the proliferation of subject-matter tutors is a newer phenomenon that is inciting a backlash...