Lessons From LA: Sentimental Selections, Bad Polling, Unintended Results

There are some obvious lessons from Monica Ratliff's stunning and instructive defeat of Antonio Sanchez in this week's LAUSD School Board runoff for District 6. 

Ratliff went from having come in ten points behind Sanchez in the primary (34-44) to beating Sanchez by four points in the runoff (52-48).  The Coalition and the SEIU spent over $2 million to elect Sanchez. Ratliff, meanwhile, spent roughly $50,000 and had no special interest support.

Many of these are covered in Valerie Strauss's latest piece (The billionaires lose one), and I hope they'll be remembered the next time there's a race like this.  Money and political pedigree are no guarantee of victory.  Sometimes at least the underdog wins.  

But there are other less obvious lessons and considerations:

Sanchez was recruited and selected by Mayor Villaraigosa in what seems like a sentimental move more than a clear-eyed decision about who would stand the best chances of winning the seat.[Rumors are that Ratliff was recruited to run by the UTLA from her spot as a House of Representatives delegate have never been confirmed.] There were other candidates that could have been chosen, none of them perfect but in hindsight Sanchez seems extremely weak.

The reform community in LA has been personality-based, an ad hoc set of individuals who come together for a brief period of time and then go back to their day jobs in between elections.  There's an independent expenditure committee, the Coalition for School Reform, that appears every couple of years as a collection point for contributions, but there's no nonprofit c(3) or c(4) organization laying foundations and building relationships in between elections along the lines that UTLA and many other operations have.

Last but not least, the union's decision to endorse all the candidates from the start (rather than have to go through the process of re-endorsing candidates along the way) seemed to most of the world like a big win for Sanchez, who was also getting massive outside support from the Villaraigosa camp, but also prevented Sanchez from attacking Ratliff for her union affiliations. UTLA couldn’t spend any real money on Ratliff, but it also meant that the Coalition couldn’t attack Ratliff for being beholden to the union.

“We took away from the Coaltion the one thing they desperately needed — a negative message,” said Brent Smiley, a Ratliff supporter. “We didn’t let them hit the teachers union. They had absolutely nothing negative to say.”

Tidbits:  Going negative is not a prerequisite for winning. Field work and turnout are key, as are absentee (vote by mail) ballots.  Internal polling isn't reliable.  (The Coalition's polling had Sanchez ahead by 20 points, leading them to pull back on spending the more than $750,000 they had in reserve.) Refrigerator magnets. 

For two post-election reports on what happened, read here and here.

Morning Video: Chicago Board Votes to Close 50 Schools

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NBC Nightly News coverage of yesterday's 50-school closing day, plus NYT coverage (Despite Protests, Chicago to Close 49 Schools) and a roundup of local coverage at District 299.

Video: The Myth Of "Crack Babies"

A small, preliminary study, a talkative researcher, media hype, plus underlying cultural stereotypes and fears. Sound familiar?  Retro Report via Kottke.

Thompson: The Columbus Cheating Scandal

The Columbus Dispatch editorial, Another Blow to City Schools complains that the city's schools “scrubbed” 2.8 million attendance records since 2006.  They allegedly marked some students with low scores as withdrawn so they wouldn’t be counted against the district. 

Columbus schools are also facing criminal investigations for grade changing. Obviously, I have no idea whether Columbus schools are guilty and, if they are, whether they did something qualitatively different than accumulating millions of speeding tickets.

Statistical gamesmanship predated data-driven "reform," and those policies are not an excuse for cheating.  They just create a "perfect storm" where the damage done by education's longstanding "culture of compliance," is combined with inherently destructive and punitive accountability schemes, and where all are made worse by the resulting malfeasance.  I also know that I must be particularly careful with my words when addressing this tragedy.

"Juking the stats" is not limited to schools.  It has long been said that the prime qualification for a policeman, for instance, is a course in creative writing.  As it was cryptically explained in The Wire, our legal system could not function without the ability to "turn felonies into misdemeanors." 

I suspect that the cumulative damage of manipulating the nation's withdrawals and grades, as well as other tricks for jacking up attendance rates, will dwarf the consequences of outright cheating scandals. But, the Ohio case prompts die-hard supporters of test-driven accountability, such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Andrew Rotherham, to grasp at more straws. They seem to claim that because test-driven accountability has opened multiple doors to a wide variety of scandals that, somehow, their favored policies aren't to blame.

Afternoon Video: Top Ten Reasons To Become A Teacher

 

David Letterman, 10 TFA newbies, and Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher." via TQATE's Quick Hits.  Gotta give TFA credit for snagging yet another chunk of free media. 

Books: The San Diego School Board Fight That Started It All

This is a guest commentary from longtime journalist Richard Lee Colvin comparing the current debate over the leadership of LAUSD to a similar one that took place more than a decade ago -- in San Diego:

School board elections typically are low-cost, low-turnout, low-visibility exercises in democracy.

But, in this one, philanthropists and other moneyed interests spent big money backing reform candidates whose opponents enjoyed the strong support of the teacher union. It featured lots of partisan campaign ads, some that pushed right up to the edge of truth. The fate of the aggressive superintendent, who had made improving teacher effectiveness the centerpiece of his administration, seemed to hang in the balance.

The election I’m talking about took place in 2000 in San Diego, not Los Angeles earlier this year. But the similarities are such that an analysis of the former yields insights that may be relevant to the latter as well.

In Los Angeles, Superintendent John Deasy had deep-pocketed supporters including  New York City’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and philanthropist Eli Broad contributed nearly $4 million to support friendly candidates in the primary. (Another $600,000 has been put into a run-off for one of the seats.) The results were mixed in the primary, with one Deasy supporter winning and the incumbent union loyalist retaining his seat.

The superintendent in San Diego was Alan Bersin, who had been the U.S Attorney in San Diego before being hired in 1998 as one of the country’s first non-traditional superintendents.

Advocacy: Bloomberg Won't Say Much About Contributions

Heading over to the Bloomberg Philanthropies-sponsored reception to start the NewSchools Venture Fund education summit, I thought there was no time like the present to update you on my progress figuring out the ins and outs of outside spending on local school board elections like that being done by NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

As you may recall, Bloomberg and others have been giving funds to various local school board candidates over the past few years, either directly to the candidates or via an independent expenditure committee.  The funding is intended to provide a counterbalance to union contributions, local and otherwise, and is entirely legal but raises lots of issues when it is so new and novel (for a school board race) and also when it comes from outside the city or state where the race is taking place.

My issue is not with the campaign contributions themselves, which are perfectly legal, or even with the need for a counterbalance to union power in low turnout events.  The AFT spent $1M to get rid of Adrien Fenty, and the CTA spent $300K to block board members favorable to former San Diego superintendent Alan Bersin.

My question is whether the funding is worth the blowback, and whether reform advocates like Bloomberg (and DFER, and StudentsFirst) will ever figure out a way to tell their story and give their money without spending all their time defending themselves.  I also want to know how much of it is out there, on both sides.

Update: Chicago "Clout List" Revealed

CPS secret clout list

After a FOIA and a year's delay, Chicago Public Radio has unearthed the infamous "clout list" from the Arne Duncan era in Chicago -- highly redacted but revealing the process through which VIPs sought to get their own or their friends' kids into selective schools.

Diversity: School Integration's Nagging NIMBY Problem

Weeks later and I'm still thinking about this NYT Magazine article about the surprising integration of schools in leafy Greenwich, Connecticut.  But not in a good way.

One of the key things that the wonks and idealists who favor socioeconomically integrated schools consistely leave out in their discussions of the benefits and policy tools available is the simple, consistent, but extremely powerful factor of resistance from middle- and upper-class families who are already in place at schools they like.  

It seems to me that it's much easier -- though still quite difficult -- to persuade parents with other options to consider a new school (with a new program or in a gentrifying neighborhood) for their children than it is to persuade them to tolerate the arrival of growing numbers of low-income, minority kids in a school their children already attend.  

Given that the number of gentrifying neighborhoods is quite limited, and their "gentrifying" status is temporary, the real challenge for pro-diversity advocates and policymakers is to figure out how to persuade kids, teachers, and parents at medium-to-good schools that the arrival of a new set of kids -- and the reduced spaces for siblings and friends -- is somehow worth it, even if it's of no direct or immediate benefit to them. 

Of course, this was one of the main issues that integrationists of a previous era had to deal with, and was perhaps one of the main stumbling blocks to previous efforts.  What I don't know is whether anyone in the current era has figured out an approach or workaround for this underlying issue.   

Image via Wikemedia Commons

Media: Chicago Teacher Critiques "This American Life"

I was somewhat surprised at the lack of pushback against the big This American Life episodes about school violence earlier this year, so you can imagine my interest in coming across this letter written by a disappointed Chicago high school teacher named DJ Cashmere (@cashmeredaniel) to This American Life's Ira Glass about the coverage of Harper High School in two recent shows:

"While I understand that you were interested in investigating the impact of violence on Harper, I was still stunned that education and learning were completely absent from a two-hour broadcast about a school. In the end, I believe that your coverage served to excuse many of the most harmful practices in our schools today and perpetuate some of the most harmful myths about urban education."

Read the letter and let us know if you think it's a fair critique. Did the show convey an imbalance of compassion over a critical eye?  Did the show convey the belief that gangs were inevitable?  

Image CCFlickr

Campaign 2013: Undaunted Bloomberg Gives More to LA Board Race

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given another$350,000 to the Coalition for School Reform, an independent expenditure (IE) group in Los Angeles supporting Antonio Sanchez for School Board in the East Valley District 6 LAUSD School Board race that will be decided May 21.

“For years, the funding in these sorts of races was only on one side with the union,” said Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna (pictured on the left). Mayor Bloomberg is “committed to providing a counterbalance.”

During the primary, Bloomberg gave $1 million to the Coalition, which supported three candidates: Monica Garcia, Kate Anderson and Sanchez. According to the LA Times, this was the largest campaign contribution in School Board history.

Anderson lost narrowly to incumbent Steve Zimmer; some blamed a backlash to big out-of-state donations from non-Democrats such as Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch.

When asked if Bloomberg had any second thoughts about giving to the Coalition after the primary results, LaVorgna replied simply: “No.”

The Coalition, whose chief fundraiser is LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, recently got checks for $250,000 from Eli Broad, and $100,000 from Michelle Rhee’s organization, StudentsFirst.

So far, the Coalition has spent roughly $130,000 in support of Sanchez in the May 21 general election. SEIU local 99 and the Los Angeles Federation of Labor are also running IEs for Sanchez. His opponent, teacher Monica Ratliff, currently enjoys no IE support.

Cross-posted from LA School Report. Image via LinkedIn

TV: "TED Talks Education" On PBS Next Month

A couple of weeks from now will be the broadcast premier for the PBS "TED Talks Education" which is slated to include talks from familiar names (Bill Gates, Geoffrey Canada) and new ones -- to me, at least (Angela Duckworth , Ramsay Musallam, and Pearl Arrendondo, among others).

Morning Video: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Watch The Central Park Five on PBS. See more from Central Park Five.

PBS broadcast the Ken Burns documentary about the Central Park jogger and the desperate but tragically flawed attempts by the authorities and the mainstream media to find her assailants.

Bruno: Teaching English Learners Is Hard For *Everybody* (Not Just TfA)

Over at his blog Anthony Cody highlights the battle brewing in California over whether "intern" teachers - including most Teach for America teachers - can be certified to teach English learners.

Almost one quarter of California's students are English learners, so losing that certification would seriously impact TfA's ability to staff schools in the state.

The crux of the issue for Cody is that it's doubtful that "Teach for America's five week summer training adequately prepare[s] its interns for the challenges" they will face in the classroom in general and as teachers of English learners in particular.

I agree with him that TfA's preparation regimen is probably inadequate. I've known and worked with some extremely impressive TfA corps members, but they all struggled significantly and had major complaints about their training.

 As is so often the case, however, it's worth asking, "Compared to what?"

Cody makes much of the relative brevity of TfA training, but the existing evidence does not suggest that in general Teach for America teachers are significantly less effective than other teachers. Some studies suggest they may be more effective.

If there is research about the effectiveness of TfA teachers on English learners in particular I'm not aware of it, but I think it's also possible to make too much of additional certification requirements imposed on traditional training programs by the state.

It's true, as Cody points out, that California has for years "required attending a special course" on teaching English learners, but it's an open question whether that coursework is valuable in the field.

Indeed, I earned my EL certification through the aforementioned coursework requirement, but found it to be mostly useless as a new teacher. While ostensibly about teaching English learners effectively, the class was in fact mostly about issues of "social justice"; teaching was discussed only occasionally and English learners as such almost never.

There is undoubtedly variation between credentialing programs, and some may adequately prepare their teachers for the challenges of teaching English learners.

I'm agnostic, however, on whether requiring intern teachers to jump through these particular regulatory hoops will do much to improve their EL instruction. After all, when it comes to teaching English learners traditional certification is often pretty inadequate, too. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)

Quotes: What "No Confidence" Really Means In LA

They have no confidence that Deasy would put teacher interests above students. They have no confidence that he won't figure out who the non-performing teachers are by evaluating the success of their students - and fire them. And they have no confidence that Deasy won't give raises to excellent teachers, which might hurt the feelings of mediocre teachers. -- LA Daily News editorial (Deasy should be thrilled with union's no confidence vote)

Morning Video: Chicago Union Head Launches Campaign Against Mayor

 

Union heads are often at odds with district administrators and mayors, but in Chicago the union head has just announced a campaign to register 100,000 new voters and run primary candidates against Mayor Emanuel and other city officials.  Here's the announcement.  

Update: Unions Try To Organize Charters (Again)

Here's a new WSJ piece on charter organizing in Chicago and nationally (Unions' Charter-School Push) suggesting that the effort continues or is even on the rise, which I hadn't known (and isn't really quantified in the piece).  

Previous pushes on this front have generally stumbled - though the organizers in Chicago have done better than in NYC.  

The focus in the WSJ story is on the agreement between AFT and UNO to share contact information with 400 teachers in Chicago.  (UNO is a controversial operator in Chicago with strong ties to Mayor Emanuel.)

Other drives are happening in San Diego and Philly.  

Nationally about 12 percent of charters are unionized.  

Over all, both AFT and NEA are losing members.

Morning Video: MSNBC's Michelle Rhee Memo Segment

Here's the eight-minute Friday night segment with John Merrow as guest where they dissect the new memo and its implications locally and nationally:

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Campaign 2013: Unions Still Loom Large

Read about New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago, and you might get the sense that political candidates and elected officials don't have to worry much about organized labor any more.  

But those three high-profile situations might well be the exceptions rather than the rule -- and in the cases of LA and NYC are about to change, anyway.  

Last weekend, the NYT's Jennifer Medina penned a fascinating piece about the challenges of running for office in a highly unionized environment (Unions Loom Large).  

Read it and you'll see what a challenge it is for the two main candidates to court -- but not become overly tied to -- public and private unions, both of whom remain powerful (and in some ways increasingly so).  

"The two candidates for mayor face the challenge of simultaneously fighting over this powerful force in Los Angeles politics while trying to convince weary voters that they will be independent enough to force unions to accept cutbacks needed to solve the city’s looming budget problems." 

The situation Medina is writing about is the Los Angeles mayoral contest, in which one candidate (Wendy Gruel) has won much of the support of the public unions, and another (Eric Garcetti) has won the support of private unions (and UTLA, the teachers union). 

But much of would seem to apply to many other situations such as Democratic primaries and big-city school board races where organized labor remains powerful.  Perhaps the most obvious example is the upcoming race for mayor in New York City.

The big issues in Los Angeles right now are the parent trigger, the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluations, speedy dismissal of teachers accused of misdeeds, and support for the current head of the district, John Deasy.

The focus on education has been intermittent and weak, according to outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who made the issue a top priority despite having no direct control over the district.

“Education reform can’t be a footnote on a campaign mailer or fodder for an attack ad,” said Villaraigosa in a recent speech.  

Greuel has recently been talking about her school reform ideas, in an effort to ensure that she's not seen as overly tied to the unions that support her.  Garcetti has had a difficult time demonstrating his school reform bona fides without alienating UTLA -- especially on the difficult issue of the parent trigger.  They're currently bickering over when to hold an education debate.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Morning Video: First Lady "Hadiya Was Me" Speech

Michelle Obama Addresses Violence In Chicago: 'For Me, This Is Personal' Chicagoist

Quotes: The "Disqualification Morass"

You don't have to have a kid in private school to support more choices for families, and you don't need to be a public school parent to know that kids getting the shaft in a terrible district school should matter to you. - Derrell Bradford

 

Update: Two More "Parent Triggers" In Los Angeles

Tomorrow morning at 9 am Pacific time, the decision of the parents over the fate of 24th Street Elementary School is scheduled to be announced at a park near the school.

The decision will be based on a vote of the 369 parents who signed the original parent trigger petition, according to the LA Weekly.  

Whichever of the four possible school governance models the parents choose, it will be a historic moment because of the lack of a court fight, notes the Hechinger Report.

But the parent trigger -- a controversial state law that gives parents the right to initiate dramatic changes at a low-performing school -- is already being used or considered by parents at at least two other LAUSD schools.

Read all about it at LA School Report here.

Afternoon Video: Deasy Lays Out Accomplishments & Challenges

 

Over the weekend, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy spoke at a TEDx school reform event, outlining the highs and lows of his nearly three-year stint as head of the nation's second-largest school system. Cross-posted from LA School Report. Remarks begin at 54:00. 

People: Meet New Haven's "Phosphorescent" Dave Low

One of the stars of last week's Yale School of Management education summit was New Haven teacher and union VP Dave Low.  And I'm not just talking about the shirt.  

Read all about what Low had to say here: Union VP: Let Teachers Lead. Image courtesy Melissa Bailey/New Haven Independent.

Morning Video: Treacly DonorsChoose Promo Goes Viral

 

Remember DonorsChoose?  Still around.  And this promo video featuring Harlem teacher named James Walter Doyle (!) is super sweet but that hasn't stopped 130,000 folks from watching it. (That's viral, right?) Or maybe it's the lilac button-down he's sporting.  Via ViralVideos.  He's also been featured in GQ.

Audio: Parent Trigger Ups & Downs

Curious about how the parent trigger is evolving in Los Angeles and nationwide?  Here's the audio from a Friday morning panel at Yale University on the parent trigger featuring Parent Trigger's Ben Austin and former state Senator Gloria Romero, who authored the controversial law, along with the Fordham Foundation's Adam Emerson and moderator Andy Rotherham.

The most interesting tidbits include Austin's description of how the 24th Street parents came up with the idea of having LAUSD and a charter school operator share control of the school -- and how the mere threat of a trigger has persuaded teachers at some schools to approach parents about making changes -- and Emerson's description of how civil rights groups in Florida have come out strongly against the trigger idea there -- a sharp contrast to their role in favor of the trigger legislation in California. [Cross-posted from LA School Report]

Morning Video: Project-Based Learning In Kentucky

Watch School District Uses Project Based Learning Over Testing on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

From the PBS NewsHour

Thompson: Cleveland, Detroit -- But Not Chicago

Chicago Teachers Union social media guru Kenzo Shibata’s recent post in In These Times -- CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett May Have Met Her Match in Chicago -- explains that the primary prerequisites for a Chicago school CEO were “an ability to address the media and a talent for glad-handing power brokers (and, in some cases, a willingness to fall on the sword after new policies failed).”

By that measure, CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett seemed perfect for the job. In Cleveland, she was called the “$300,000 wonder.” Byrd-Bennett was expensive, “but worth every penny.” She closed over twenty schools and cut hundreds of teachers positions. As “chief academic and accountability officer” in Detroit, she closed 59 schools and cut 30% of the workforce, while adding 41 charters.

Shibata writes that Byrd-Bennett has “proven herself so skilled at the art of “cleaning” districts that she has part-time job with the Broad Academy."  

Shibata argues, however, that Byrd-Bennett and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are now in a very different political landscape. I agree. 

Part of the reason for school “reform’s” political success is the politics of resentment.  Until recently, teachers had not been punished by the new economy as badly as most workers.  

However, the corporate powers who seek to micromanage schools do not have a very good record in improving the living conditions of most people.  At some point, angry workers will ask why the billionaires think they can improve learning conditions in schools. If the elites had the power to improve schools, voters might ask, why won't they use their power to make life better for families and communities?

Here's the problem.  Cutting jobs is no better of a strategy for building a strong society than closing schools is for improving education. Corporations have had great success in increasing their bottom line, as they have reduced wages and benefits for most Americans. Somehow, we must rebuild a value system which affirms that all working people are in the same boat.

Who knows?  Perhaps a revitalized public sector labor front in the "City of the Broad Shoulders" will lead to a broader consciousness that reorganizes all citizens.-JT(@drjohnthompson) Image via.   

Documentaries: Could Principal Minor Have Done More?

Below are some interesting things I learned chatting Monday afternoon with Jacquie Jones, ED of the National Black Programming Consortium, about last week's "180 Days."  

NBPC is the outfit behind the documentary, which was also funded in part by the Ford Foundation, and according to Jones was conceived of as a way to deepen the school reform conversation but not necessarily as a response or rebuttal.

Jones puts the core question the film raises this way:  "How could this person [Principal Minor, pictured] who se so clearly smart in a real pratical way as well as passionate about these kids -- working at full capacity every day -- how could she be doing all this and it still sucked like this?"

I came away from the conversation much enlighted about some of the issues that had intrigued me -- especially the question of what if anything could have been done differently -- and informed about the thinking behind the scenes that were (and weren't) shown. 

Morning Video: Noguera, Bradford, & Taylor Discuss Testing On MSNBC

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Media: Teaching Writing -- and Gangs in Politics

There are at least two education-related articles in the 2013 National Magazine Awards Finalists list that came out earlier today.  The first is Peg Tyre's September 2012 Atantic Magazine article, The Writing Revolution, which described a (pre-Hurricane Sandy) writing program at a Staten Island high school that actually seemed to help low-income kids learn.  The second is a Chicago Magazine article by David Bernstein, Gangs and Politicians in Chicago: An Unholy Alliance, which describes how political candidates sometimes work with gang leaders to get themselves elected and govern.

AM News: Hall Included In Atlanta Cheating Indictments

Ex-Atlanta Schools Chief Charged in Cheating Scandal NYT: As she has since the beginning, Mr. Deane said, Dr. Hall has denied the charges and any involvement in cheating or any other wrongdoing and expected to be vindicated. 

More Diagnoses of Hyperactivity Causing Concern NYT: Eleven percent of American school-age children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and some doctors say that the diagnosis and its medication are overused.

Students look for Obama's help as deadline looms on loan rate hike The Hill: Advocates urging another extension say they're hopeful Obama's April 10 budget will includes a plan to hold the line on rates once again. “Congress is a bit more muted,” said Chris Lindstrom, higher education program director.

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Fires Superintendent NBC: Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts has fired the district's superintendent.

Fourth Round of Investing in Innovation Kicks Off With Pre-Screening EdWeek: It's important to note one significant change to the development grants this time around. The matching requirement—which requires winners to secure private dollars to help cover the costs of their projects—has been relaxed even further. 

Making Mistakes NPR: We try so hard to be perfect, to never make mistakes and to avoid failure at all costs. But mistakes happen — and when they do — how do we deal with being wrong? In this episode, TED speakers look at those difficult moments in our lives, and consider why sometimes we need to make mistakes and face them head-on.

Morning Video: PBS's Peabody-Winning "Poverty" Series

Watch Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream on PBS. See more from Why Poverty?.

Here's just one of the several PBS segments on poverty that ran in late 2012, focused on the giant chasms between rich and poor and the reduced class mobility that has arisen in recent years.

Morning Video: Rhee Talks At Brookings

Check out the video of Rhee and others at Brookings yesterday, talking charters, quality teachers, and the role of districts.

Thompson: The Essence of Inner-City Teaching and Learning

Watching Part 1 of PBS's "180 Days" is like gazing across the Grand Canyon.  You want to share your feelings about it, but first you must silently revere its majesty.

This masterpiece chronicles a year at the District of Columbia's  D.C. Met High School. When students like Raven Q., Raven C., and Rufus open up to the camera, this viewer forgot he was sitting on a couch.  I was back in school, listening, sharing, contemplating, and feeling the same gratitude that fellow human beings would open up the way these teens do. School is not the place for adults to impose solutions.  Our job is to contribute our experience, love and support, as we accept the invitation to join in their journey.

And, who would not commit to following principal Tanishia Williams-Minor wherever she dares to venture? Watching her coach the cheerleaders, I bet she could even teach me some moves! Ms. Williams-Minor understands that teaching and learning is an affair of "the Heart," not "the Head."  She knows that the moral and emotional consciousness of students is the rock on which schools must be built.

I am glad that I missed the first five minutes which foreshadowed a problem with the D.C. Schools central office, so I forgot politics. For the next two hours, the filmmaker portrayed so much of humanity's most profound emotions that I completely forgot that the D.C. accountability hawks were also watching the school. Even the central office IMPACT evaluator seemed cool. Surely, any administrator could see the genius at work in leading D.C. Met. 

Watching the previews for part 2, which show Ms.  Williams-Minor crying before the faculty, I got sick at my stomach. I didn't feel outrage that some bureaucrats might think they know what is better for her students.  I just mourned. 

Bruno: The NPE's Positive Agenda

Last week I complained that the Network for Public Education seemed to be defining itself mostly in negative terms.

I'd therefore be remiss if I didn't note that the NPE has since begun articulating an affirmative agenda.

In a note in the group's most recent newsletter, leader Diane Ravitch says that while you probably already "know what we oppose", the NPE also intends to advocate for a variety of education policies.

Some of those policy positions are a bit vague, like "professionalism for teachers" and "democratic control" of schools. And others are still essentially slightly-repackaged opposition statements.

Some of that is inevitable, especially early in a group's development, and as I said before there's nothing wrong with an advocacy organization dedicating itself substantially to opposing policies it considers ill-conceived.

I also happen to like most of what I see in the NPE's "positive agenda," so I'm hoping they flesh it out and advocate for it vigorously. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)

Afternoon Video: "180 Days, Part 1"

Watch 180 Days : A Year Inside an American High School Episode 1 on PBS. See more from 180 Days.

Maybe you missed it last night. Maybe you're wondering what a Ford Foundation-funded education documentary looks like (as opposed to a Gates Foundation-funded one). Maybe you just can't get enough of this stuff, or want to catch up with the series before Part 2 airs tonight.

Morning Video: Tavis Smiley's "Education Under Arrest"

Watch "Education Under Arrest" Promo on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

This show is supposed to air tonight.

Weekend Reading: Duncan Backs Chicago School Closings

Duncan statement on #cpsclosings: “No educator ever wakes up in the morning wanting to close a school..."

How powerful groups (think higher ed) can use the rulemaking/regulatory process to block statutes they don't like ow.ly/jmBeX (The Washington Monthly)

Smart poor kids still don't apply to highly competitive colleges despite scholarships etc. ow.ly/jlKtW

From Jay Mathews: Why my grandson, 4, won’t be taking a gifted ed test: My eldest grandson, Ben Mathews, just ...bit.ly/ZN23Xt

Think you could turn a school/district around better? That's what the star of Apple & Target thought about JC Penney ow.ly/jmZgy

"Hey, wait a second, you're reading Carol Dweck? I'm reading Carol Dweck!" ow.ly/jlI25

That's singer/performer Rihanna, at Barrington (IL) High School, where she appeared four hours late on Friday and stayed for less than a half hour.  Via Instagram.

Report: Mayoral Control Helps Districts (Mostly)

A new report out from a Washington DC think tank closely associated with the Democratic Party takes a look at the history of “mayoral control” of big-city school systems in which City Hall runs a district rather than an independently elected Board of Education.

According to the report, written by a pair of academics from Brown University and the University of Minnesota (and funded by the Broad Foundation), mayoral control doesn’t work everywhere but is associated with rising test scores and “can be a catalyst for reform.”

A recent oped in the Washington Post suggests that mayoral control limits community engagement and has proven itself not to be the silver bullet that had been hoped.

Voter turnout in the recent LA school board elections was roughly 14 percent, and the two candidates won election outright did so with roughly 15,000 and 30,000 votes.  Image via CAP. Cross-posted from LA School Report.

Listen: Newark Officials Discuss School Improvement, Local Control

A forum last night featuring Newark's Cory Booker, superintendent Cami Anderson, and others seemed pretty interesting from the recap discussion I heard on WNYC earlier today:

 

Or, if you want to hear the entire thing as it happened, live, click here: 

 

Show page comments are here.

Update: Reformers Reflect On Los Angeles

This is a post I wrote yesterday for LA School Report in which insiders defend -- and critique -- the Coalition-funded campaign on behalf of three LAUSD school board members:

Insiders who spoke with LA School Report over the past few days generally rejected criticisms aimed by some outside observers at the Coalition for School Reform-funded campaign to elect a slate of reform-minded candidates to the LAUSD School Board.

“Because Kate [Anderson] lost, every single thing [the Coalition] did looks wrong,” said one insider who — like most of those contacted for this story — declined to talk on the record.

In particular, insiders denounced the notion that the campaign consultants hired by the Coalition were incompetent or conflicted by their work for other clients including labor groups.

“The way consultants get clients is by winning,” said another insider.  “Pulling punches for the possibility of future client work makes no sense.”

However, the insiders – a half-dozen campaign and school reform veterans familiar with the Coalition and its consultants — generally agreed that there were specific strategic decisions and actions that SCN Strategies, the consulting firm hired to do most of the Coalition-funded work, might have wished it had decided differently – and might have affected the outcome of the District 4 race, which Zimmer won with 52 percent of the votes.

One insider described SCN as “good people who didn’t run a great campaign.“

Read the full post here: A Good - But Not Great - Campaign.  Of particular interest nationally is the discussion of how LA reformers failed to respond to the "outside money" attack and will continue to hear it until they come up with a better response.

Chicago: Closing 50 Schools

After an interminable and complicated process, Chicago Public Schools is announcing 50 schools to be closed for underutilization today -- roughly 10 percent of the system.

Proponents say it has to be done, due to enrollment declines and demographic shifts within the city.  Critics say it doesnt, and that Mayor Emanuel is off skiing.

Follow live updates about #CPSClosings from the various news outlets on Twitter.

#CPS is another hashtag to try, though you'll also get Persepolis and other topics that way.

Tweets about "#cpsclosings "

Morning Audio: What It's Like To Be A School Security Officer

Roughly a third of schools in the US have some kind of armed security on campus, and here's NPR's long segment about them from yesterday morning (How To Be The Good Guy With A Gun At School)

Reckhow: "You Can't Bring Reform To A Community"

The feature article in the newest issue of One Day (the Teach for America alumni magazine) struck a chord for me.

It tells the story of George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans--a historically black high school and anchor of the black community in NOLA's Ninth Ward. The school was reopened after Katrina, but it has been restructured and currently houses 2 charter operators.  

The article shows reformers who bear little resemblance to Michelle Rhee in their style and approach to politics, and includes voices of community members who fought the charters in Carver.

The article still advances some bold claims about academic progress in NOLA and details Teach for America's substantial presence. But once you get past those few paragraphs, it's not typical "One Day" material, and it's an interesting read.

Photos: Former Pro Athlete Becomes School Crossing Guard

Why Is One Of The NBA's All-Time Greatest Scorers Working As A Crossing Guard Now? For health insurance, apparently.  Deadspin via @gothamschools

Morning Video: Poor & Black - At Prep School

 

"Two African-American Boys Enter a Prestigious Private School and Their Families Confront the Opportunities and Frustrations Presented by the Changing Face of Success in America" (POV) Airing this Fall.

Update: Growing Criticism Of LA Reform Campaign

The Republican National Campaign isn't the only outfit trying to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening in the future.  

Somewhat reluctantly, reformers are trying to understand the outcome of the March 5 primary day election for the LAUSD School Board, which included a win for incumbent Monica Garcia but a frustrating loss for challenge Kate Anderson.

According to many observers, absentee ballots played a big part in giving UTLA-endorsed candidate Steve Zimmer a massive lead even before primary day votes were cast -- and before the Coalition-funded campaign got into gear  (How Steve Zimmer *Really* Won).  

But there were other issues.  Challenger Kate Anderson and her allies declined to attack Zimmer for his videotaped 2009 remarks in support of UTLA (The Zimmer Attack Ad That Never Was) or to make him explain his position on the removal of teachers accused of sexual abuse, which is a hot-button issue in LA.  

Most recently, a rival campaign consultant sent a letter to former Mayor Richard Riordan slamming the Coalition-funded campaign for over-relying on mailed flyers and running a static cable TV ad campaign (Coalition Campaign was “Half-Hearted and Incompetent”). 

More to come.  All via LA School Report.  Image via RNC.

Thompson: Trauma Treatment At Heart Of "Harper High"

This American Life's brilliant radio documentary about Harper High School describes a "Turnaround" school as it comes off a year in which 29 current and recent students were shot. Eight died, and there were dozens of other incidents where bullets were thrown.

Reporter Alex Kotlowitz, author of the masterpiece, There Are No Children Here, reporting with Linda Lutton, Ben Calhoun, and Ira Glass, spent five months at Harper.

Nearly every time Kotlowitz visited the school's social work office, a student named Thomas would be there. Asked why he hangs out there so much, Thomas replied in a "muffled and sluggish" voice, as if he's "speaking from deep inside a cave:"

"Nay, I ain't gonna give you no answer for that. Every time I come here, you come. And I'm for real."

Thomas sounds like the type of black male who frightens so many people who don't understand his world. "His braided hair hangs over his eyes. He often has a hood on. He won't look you in the eye." And perhaps society should worry about Thomas' expressed fears that he will "try to hurt somebody." Angered by a bully, Thomas punched the aggressor so hard that one of the boy's teeth got stuck in Thomas hand

But what most strangers don't know is that, last June, Thomas was standing on a porch, talking with another Harper student, Shakaki Asphy, when she was shot and killed. In 2006, at a birthday party for 10-year-old girl, "Nugget," Thomas saw her brains laying on the floor after she was shot. And according to his social worker, there have been "many, many in between."

The suffering I witnessed over, say, a decade in my high school has been compressed into just a few years at Harper. "Harper High School" explains a world that is even indecipherable to many educators.  Ira Glass stresses that Harper is not alone and gives voice to seven other school administrators who described the more typical levels of violence that our kids have endured. 

Perhaps society has imposed a school reform experiment devoted to remediating academic weaknesses because we dare not confront the emotions of Harper High School.

Pictures: Colorado Reformer Pushing Gun Control

At the risk of fanning the flames of hype and/or fear already surrounding him, I wanted to point out Colorado state lawmaker Mike Johnston is a pretty good example of someone closely associated with school reform (ie SB 191) who doesn't just focus on school reform.

He's been strong on immigration reform for quite a while -- I'm talking about much more than making a speech or issueing a position statement, though that's a start -- and now he's  apparently pushing hard on gun control legislation, too. (image via The Denver Post).

It's on these so-called "side" issues -- the DREAM Act, gun control, postsecondary access, and more resources for schools -- that reformers stand a much better chance of finding partners from within education and among parents that they need, at least some of the time.  

Previous posts: Introducing Mike Johnston, A Softer, Gentler Version Of Reform, Best Education Speech Ever?, Notes From Yale SOM 2011, Few TFA Alums Running For Higher Office.