Media: "This American Life" Vs. Oprah Winfrey

Some of the people who've seen Blackboard Wars -- the Oprah Winfrey Network reality series about the effort to fix a New Orleans high school -- are objecting to the depiction of the kids, teachers, and school.

One blog post against the show calls it “Cops” meets “Dangerous Minds,” describing the show as promoting a tired trope about urban teen violence and exploiting poor kids "for ratings and national school reform cred."

To be sure, the decision to invite cameras into John Mac was a controversial one -- not only in the school community -- where 90 percent of kids but only half the teachers signed release forms -- but also within Future Is Now Schools, the nonprofit charged with making things better there. I've written extensively about FIN founder Steve Barr and am no stranger to his strengths and weaknesses as a school reform leader.

But I have to ask, how is Blackboard Wars really all that different underneath it all from This American Life's recent depiction of life at Garfield Harper High School in Chicago, which generated widespread admiration and (so far as I know) very little backlash locally or otherwise?  

Morning Video: Vallas Turnaround Talk

"At the 2012 CraigMichaels K12 Summit, highly recognized school Superintendent Paul Vallas shared his insights in effectively turning around some of the most disadvantaged school districts in the US and abroad."

Afternoon Video: Red-Band Trailer For "The We And The I"

This movie I saw over the weekend (by the guy who directed "Eternal Sunshine...") focuses almost entirely on a bunch of Bronx high school kids who ride home on a New York City bus on the last day of school for the year, and are impressively wise, amazingly clueless, casually mean, and extremely sweet.

Refreshingly the teens are treated as individuals, rather than superficial representatives of their race or economic status (or merely as victims of the environment they've been born into).  Remember:  "Red band trailer" means so volume down or headphones up if you're at work (swear words!). Here's the NYT review.  

Quotes: Moving Past The Union-Reformer Stalemate

The moneyed coalitions can't make the union go away. Try as it might, the union can't exclude civic elites. -- Claremont University professor Charles Taylor Kerchner in the LA Times.

Alt Cert: TFA "Interns" Allowed To Keep Teaching ELLs (For Now)

Yesterday afternoon, the California Teaching Commission -- headed by Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond -- decided to tighten down on alt cert requirements for roughly 2,200 teachers working with ELL kids -- rather than immediately disqualifying the teachers (officially known as "interns".) 

But it was a close call, and TFA and other alternative certification providers aren't out of the woods just yet.  Read all about it: Interns lose status as authorized English learner instructors, Stricter state controls placed on teaching interns, Higher standards coming for state’s intern teachers.

One of those who testified against allowing alternative certification candidates to teach ELLs was a TFA alumna Rigel Massaro (pictured, courtesy EdSource Today).  

This is just the latest in a decade-long skirmish between alternative certification critics such as LDH and TFA over the eligibility of its members to work with disadvantaged children.  In California and nationally, TFA members are deemed to be "highly qualified" according to a controversial Bush-era regulation that's been repeatedly challenged in court and in Congress. 

The TFA loophole was last extended by Congress in 2012, with the requirement for a report on the distribution of alternative certification teachers within a year. Read all about it here:  How TFA Almost Got Left Out Of NCLB.  

Update: Defiant LA Mayor Has No Regrets Over Bloomberg Backlash

Photo by Don Liebig / UCLA Luskin

Before and during a Wednesday evening education event held at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, a tired-looking Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed frustration about the previous day’s election results — and pledged to keep working on school reform issues even after his term expires.

“Obviously I was disappointed with the results in the fourth district,” Villaraigosa told LA School Report. ”I had hoped Kate Anderson would prevail.”

However, he said he was emboldened by District 2 incumbent Monica Garcia‘s victory and was already rolling up his sleeves to help elect District 6 challenger Antonio Sanchez in the runoff. He cast the election in startlingly personal terms.

“I won one, I’m leading in another, and I lost one,” he said, referring to Tuesday’s outcomes. “And I’m not giving up.”

Cross-posted from LA School Report.  Read the rest of this post here:  Defiant Mayor Promises Continued Involvement

Thompson: Building A *Better* Better Reform Taxonomy

Eric Horowitz’s In Search of a Better Education Taxonomy is a rough draft for better terms for discussing education policy.

Horowitz  identifies himself with a complicated formula that boils down to a fair summary of the beliefs of many members of the faith-based movement known as school "reform." His post reads like something a teacher might expect in a blog entitled, “Peer Reviewed by My Neurons." After apologizing in advance for mischaracterizing anybody’s position, Horowitz misstates that of Diane Ravitch.

But, even so, his post is constructive. Let me take you through his taxonomy, and then share with you my own.

Media: How Everyone's Spinning LAUSD

Still trying to figure out what really happened in LA -- or how to spin it to your own advantage?

Some of the best and worst reporting and commentary since yesterday is rounded up in this post I wrote over at LA School Report ( Tea Leaves, Wishful Thinking, & Self-Justifications).

As you’ll see, the roundup items include questions about the ineffectiveness of the attacks on Zimmer, a couple of stories that wonder why the Coalition took Zimmer on in the first place, and some attempts to connect the LAUSD race to education elections in other places.

There are also an awful lot of quotes from USC’s Dan Schnur -- brother of Jon -- and an LA Times headline that comes to a much stronger conclusion about the outcome than anyone else except perhaps Diane Ravitch.

Thompson: Small Town Scandal with Big Implications

Oklahoma is in a mess created by its new A-F School Report Card. 

Since its grading system is based on Jeb Bush's and Florida's report card, its flaws are of national importance. 

The more interesting story, however, is the suspension of the Ryal School System's superintendent -- which grew out of the report card controversy.

The Daily Oklahoman joined the chorus of laypersons and scholars criticizing the A-F Report Card. It also showed that schools' grades were almost completely the result of their demographics.  For instance, schools earning an "A" had an average low income rate of 33%, while schools earning a "D'" had an average rate of 85%. The paper cited the Ryal district as a rare exception.  Although 100% of Ryal's students are low income, and although 40% of them were on special education IEPs, it earned a "B."

Now, Superintendent Scott Thrower has been suspended, and the Principal Chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has called on him to resign.  The patrons are upset about the newspaper article praising the district's efforts to overcome generational poverty.   The public is angry over Thrower's description of alcoholism, meth labs, and families without electricity or shoes. “The vast majority of our kids live in houses with electricity," it was argued, "They do have shoes." 

It has been nearly five decades since Daniel Patrick Moynihan was condemned for using the phrase, a "culture of poverty."  Education is about the only part of our society that has not moved on. In lieu of undertaking honest conversations about what it would really take to overcome the legacies of generational poverty and trauma, education wonks still dismiss reality-based school policies as "excuses," "low expectations," and "blaming the victim." 

As Paul Tough explained in How Children Succeed, the contemporary school reform movement grew out of a "liberal posttraumatic shock" due to losing the War on Poverty.  We will continue to fail to improve poor schools, however, until we are capable of discussing the reality of extreme poverty.-JT(@drjohnthompson) Image via.

 

Quotes: "Where Dreams Are Narrowed Down."

Technical high school, that's where dreams are narrowed down. We tell our children, "You can do anything you want." Their whole lives. "You can do anything!" But this place, we take kids – they're 15, they're young – and we tell them, "You can do eight things. We got it down to eight for you." -- Louis C.K.

Update: Stalemate In LA -- For Now

How anticlimactic.  In a showdown that's fast approaching 2007's $7 million campaign spending record, the teachers union and reform groups each succeeded in protecting one of their key supporters on the LAUSD School Board last night -- but failed to score any decisive victory against the other side.

Board member Steve Zimmer -- one of the main targets of the Coalition for School Reform -- led from the start despite being outspent at every step.  The outside attacks on his performance on the Board didn't stick.  His challenger was a competent candidate who failed to distinguish herself sufficiently from the reasonable-sounding if indecisive Zimmer (who was endorsed by Mayor Villaraigosa the last time around).

Board President Monica Garcia -- the main target of the teachers union -- jumped out to an early lead over her four challengers despite a scathing LA Times endorsement, and kept it throughout the long process as more votes came in. The union's strategy of endorsing three of her four challengers was intended to force a runoff but may have backfired by failing to give Garcia opponents a champion to back. 

There were nasty mailers and misleading TV and radio ads, to be sure, but the candidates didn't fight during public appearances, and the issues over which they disagree -- charter expansion, making student achievement 30 percent of teacher evaluations -- appear somewhat mild on the surface compared to disagreements in other places (or in LA at other times). Conventional wisdom has been that Superintendent John Deasy's job is on the line, though a recent LA School Report story suggests the real question may be how well Deasy can tolerate having one or two Board members who agree with him most -- but not all -- of the time.

There will be a runoff for the third open seat in May.  The union endorsed but didn't fund both of the candidates who made the runoff, but one of the two also won a surprise endorsement (and tons of cash) from the Coalition so it seems likely that the union will focus on supporting his opponent.

Coverage: Incumbent L.A. Unified School Board members poised to keep seats KPCC, In L.A. school board race, 2 backers of Deasy take early leads LAT, Two reform candidates leading in Los Angeles school board race Reuters.

Campaign 2013: Education's Insider Problem

This recent oped by former LAUSD Board members Yolie Flores and Marlene Canter has me thinking about whether education has an outsider problem or, really, an insider problem.  

I'll leave the outsider argument to others, who have been repeating it ad neauseam -- and to reformers who've been falling into it over and over again (ie, disclosing a $250,000 campaign donation from Rupert Murdoch within 24 hours of primary day).

Let's focus for a moment on education's insider problem, in which public schools are invisible or inscrutable to anyone but those inside the system.

According to Flores and Canter -- good Democrats, both of them -- teachers, stakeholders, and community members used to working with them don't like it when their schools, systems, and the like are meddled with by anyone else. Their calls for democracy and local control are really just code for "go away."

Nowhere is this better illustrated than union leadership elections and school board elections, where the turnout is typically very low and thousands or even hundreds of votes make determine the outcome. According to Terry Moe, turnout for local school board elections is typically less than 10 percent.  In places as big as LAUSD, that means that control over the school board can be won by board members who receive fewer than 20,000 votes -- in some cases fewer than 10,000.

Of course, reformers stand like deer in the headlights when accused of being outsiders, make weak apologies (most of them) about campaign donations or mutter something about it being a broken political system that needs to be fixed.  But there's nothing particularly special about "insider" status, nor particularly awful about being an outsider -- especially when all it means is that you're doing or saying something that insiders don't like. 

For futher reading:  Terry Moe 2006 The Union Label on the Ballot Box  Image via Education Next.

Quotes: "Outsiders" Vs. Vested Interests

When people with no vested, personal interest in the outcome try to help elect reform-minded candidates, they are branded as "outsiders" ... Yet, when "insiders" who do have a vested, personal interest in the outcome contribute significant funding, this is somehow seen as more acceptable. -- Former LAUSD board members Yolie Flores and Marlene Canter

Charts: Gender Gap In Education Administration Among Highest

According to this chart from NPR, female education administrators make just 67 percent of what their male counterparts make -- among the highest gender gaps in the nation. 

Books: New Book About New Orleans Schools Out Today

Today's the day that Sarah Carr's new book, Hope Against Hope: Three Schools, One City, and the Struggle to Educate America's Children.  Check it out.  Buy it.  

Or you can start out with this Atlantic.com excerpt:  The Arcane Rules That Keep Low-Income Kids Out of College. "The labyrinth surrounding scholarships and admissions doesn't account for the messy realities of poor families' lives."

Carr is a longtime journalist who's covered New Orleans schools during a particularly tumultuous time.  She was also a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, and writes for the Hechinger Report at Columbia. 

Carr, Sarah Garland, Warren Simmons, and others are appearing at a panel at Teachers College on March 16th.  Register here.

 

Afternoon Audio: What Happens When Harper's SIG Ends?

If you haven't checked it out, you can listen to Part Two here. Or, you can read the transcript here. Or you can donate to the school here. It's not all about street gangs and violence this time -- it's also about SIG Turnaround funding, and Cheerios, and chocolate milk. 

Quotes: "The Union May Not Like It, But They Should Get Used To It"

Mike Bloomberg is proud to help level the playing field on behalf of children and their families. The union may not like it, but they should get used to it because he is just getting started. -- Bloomberg spokesman in LA Times Steve Lopez column (that's critical of Bloomberg's involvement)

Thompson: The Line Separating Reformers from "Reformers"

A light went on while reading Alexander Russo's Charter Advocates Denounce Reuters Reporting. It illuminates the fundamental difference between school reform and "reform."

The dividing line is not evidence-based disagreements over charters, competition, collective bargaining or teachers' due process.  The issue is how do "reformers" deal with inconvenient truths. 

Stephanie Simon's Class Struggle - How Charter Schools Get Students They Want explains that "charters and traditional public schools are locked in fierce competition - for students, for funding and for their very survival, with outcomes often hinging on student test scores." Simon then punches holes in the hype of "reformers" who claim that this is a "fair fight" and that charters get better results with the same types of students. 

Conservative reformers like Mike Petrilli and Frederick Hess acknowledge that charter students come from more motivated families.  Hess says that charters' supposedly open access policies make for popular talking points, but "there's just one problem: It's not true."  He adds, "There's a level of institutional hypocrisy here which is actually unhealthy."

The real issue is not the fate of individual charters. A bigger problem is that the proliferation of charters has become a drain on traditional public schools. As Simon explains, even some staunch fans of charters agree that "the charter sector as a whole may be skimming the most motivated, disciplined students and leaving the hardest-to-reach behind."

Chicago: Mayor Emanuel, President Lewis Both Under Fire

Two notable items from Chicago for you to ponder:

While as many as 8 current or recent CPS students may have been killed since the start of 2013, Chicago Public Radio is reporting that Mayor Emmanuel has reversed a longstanding practice of allowing Chicago Public Schools to tell reporters what school, if any, homicide victims come from. "For years, school officials deliberately collected and shared information about whether or not homicide victims also attended a public school in the city. But CPS spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus said they’re trying to protect parents and students privacy. She said the district’s legal team advises the district not to tell reporters whether shooting victims attend public schools in the city... It’s a practice they say they’ve followed since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office."

Also: Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis and her leadership team are facing a challenge from a slate of teachers who believe that Lewis et al did not go far enough -- or get enough -- during the past two years: “'We did our part. We spent weeks on the street, rallied and gave Lewis all the power she needed,' said Tanya Saunders-Wolffe, potential candidate for union president. 'What did we get? Firings, closings, lower pay.'" (Karen Lewis to face opposition in May CTU election Sun Times, Chicago Teachers Union members to run against CTU President Karen Lewis' leadership team Tribune).  Though it may be hard to imagine a more hard-charging local union leader, remember that Lewis was lambasted for allowing SB7 to pass and has so far been unable to stop the school closing juggernaut that City Hall says is necessary because of dwindling enrollment.

You can read more about this -- and teachers' reactions -- at my Chicago blog.

 

Campaign 2013:: Two-Week Countdown In Los Angeles

Two weeks to go before primary election day, and the teachers union and the reform coalition in LA have already spent $2.2M on flyers, mailers, and TV ads -- and already raised more than double that.  

AFT head Ranid Weingarten slammed NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg for putting $1M into the race -- but state and AFT are considering contribuing to the UTLA campaign fund themselves.

The LA Times editorial page endorsed two out of three reform candidates -- but in such harsh terms that the pull quotes will be worth more to their opposition than the endorsements themselves.  

Celebrity endorsements are all the rage -- Eva Longoria is backing one reform challenger (and might be dating LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa).

Superintendent John Deasy issued a teacher evaluation guidance on Friday telling principals to make student achievement 30 percent of the teacher evaluation -- a reasonable figure given what's being done in other states and districts -- but the district neglected to tell the teachers union ahead of time, and the underlying union-district agreement lacked any specific percentage.  

Last but not least, it's not all campaign battles and conflict in LA.  The school board recently approved 12 new "pilot" schools -- an in-district alternative to autonomous charters and parent triggers.  It's union's least favorite of the three autonomy models that have been negotiated, but appears to be popular among teachers.

All this and more at LA School Report. 

Charts: Charters Up 191 Pct In Chicago (But Still Only 11 Pct Of Kids)

That's a pretty impressive enrollment surge for Chicago -- also St. Louis and Atlanta -- but Chicago's charter enrollment remains 11 percent (Atlanta is at 10 percent).  At 31 percent, only St. Louis is both growing quickly and making it anywhere near the Washington DC, NOLA, and Detroit crowd. Via Chicago Magazine.

Quotes: "Unproductive Extremes.... As Hostile To Reform As Ever"

At times, the reform movement is given to its own unproductive extremes... Meanwhile, the close allies of United Teachers Los Angeles are as hostile to reform as ever. -- LA Times editorial page (Friday)

 

TV: What's New, What's Familiar In "Blackboard Wars"

So I had the chance to watch the first two episodes of "Blackboard Wars," the new Oprah Winfrey Network reality series that premiers tomorrow night (a month earlier than originally scheduled), and I have to say that I liked it.  Not because it's necessarily accurate, or even particularly new or original (Locke High School, anyone?) but because it's a good reminder of the day to day struggles, the retail work, of making a broken school better.  This is messy, one-kid-at-a-time work done by teachers, counselors, and administrators, and so many of the real setbacks and successes have nothing to do with learning geometry or American history. 

Stone: Mistake To Try & Dismiss New Teacher Leader Groups

This is a guest commentary from Evan Stone, co-founder of Educators for Excellence (E4E), in response to a recent post from John Thompson about an Education Next article, Taking Back Teaching:

What Richard Colvin’s piece. “Taking Back Teaching” made clear is that all across the country teachers want to be more involved in the policy decisions that affect their classrooms and career.  That was the impetus for us starting Educators 4 Excellence nearly three years ago—a group of like minded teachers got together to advocate for the changes we believe will help elevate our profession and improve outcomes for our students. Since then, more than 8,000 teachers across the country have signed on to our Declaration of Principles and Beliefs. At the same time, we recognize that we don’t represent the viewpoints of all teachers – that was never our intention— but rather we are a movement of teachers who have agreed on a common stating point, a direction and a set of norms for debate.   

Our declaration is a broad set of ideas that ground our work in three key areas: elevating the profession, focusing on student achievement, and recruiting, retaining, and supporting effective teachers.  These are not radical ideas and they should not be controversial.   

E4E's membership is diverse. Over a quarter of our members have more than ten years of experience. We are pushing for a system that empowers teachers and schools to have the flexibility and the resources necessary to give their students what they need.  We have fought for teacher-led schools in Los Angeles, leadership pathways in New York City and more revenue in both California and New York.  We believe in local collective bargaining and see the union as critical to improving education.    

E4E is not alone in this work.  There are a number of organizations working to give teachers a more prominent voice - some that agree with our declaration and others that do not. This is a good thing. We need more of these conversations, more teacher leaders, and, above all, a more thoughtful debate about how we can give teachers the respect they deserve and help them do a better job serving their students. 

Quotes: No Parent (Or Board) Opposition To Trigger In LA

I had no knowledge of ‘opposition’ in the world of parents. None.

-- Superintendent John Deasy on LAUSD's unanimous approval of a trigger petition. via @hechingerreport

Morning Video: Reforming Education Reform

 

Speaker Deborah Kenny (from Harlem Village Academy ) gets off to a slow start, and some of her educator/parent concerns seem focused on middle- class communities rather than the more nuts-and-bolts issues low-income communities and schools are dealing with, but bear with her. You might get something out of it. I did. 

Thompson: Two Charter School Soundbites That Should Be Retired

If we are serious about deescalating this destructive conflict over school “reform,” we must stop hurling two unsubstantiated charges:

The soundbite that high-performing charter schools are serving “the same students” as high-poverty neighborhood schools should be retired. We who teach in the toughest schools that serve all students who walk into the door also deserve an apology for that slander, but I’m ready to move on without it. 

Similarly, the equally serious charge against charter schools – that they intentionally “push out” difficult students in order to raise test scores - is wrong.  Such an attack on the integrity of charter school educators is just as serious as the idea that we in neighborhood schools could have the same success as the top charters if we had their “high expectations.”

Media: "This American Life" At Chicago's Harper High School

What does it mean -- what does it feel like -- to go to school every day not knowing if you or friends will make it through the day? Since the end of the summer, WBEZ reporter Linda Lutton, author Alex Kotlowitz, and Ben Calhoun have been embedded at Harper High School, whose students and recent alumni included 29 shot or killed last year. Starting this Friday, This American Life is running a two-part show about the school and the surrounding community, and from what I've heard already it's pretty amazing.

So far as I've listened to the press preview, the story's not much about the classroom but rather about what goes on in the halls, in the counselors' offices, and on the way to and from school.  The administrators try and keep tabs on what's going on among students, in order to prevent or limit confrontations.  The students describe a bewildering mix of ever-shifting min-gangs that little resemble the old days of Bloods and Crips with top-down control and formal initiation rituals (if those days were ever portrayed accurately).

Harper High School, Part One airs this Friday and covers the start of school and the tumultuous events of the fall.  The following week, Harper High School, Part Two describes the easy access to handguns and the students' ideas of what can be done to make things better. Press release is here.  Summer 2012 WBEZ story by Lutton is here. Image via TAL.

Quotes: "The Most Important Voice In Education Reform Today"

Mayor Bloomberg is the most important voice in education reform today... [His $1 million] gift will help us support candidates who stand for greater accountability and more choices for parents and students.  -- LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Update: Unified Applications & Matched Assignment For Everyone!

Echoing Al Baker's much-discussed January NYT piece about the many factors that shape how richer, whiter students get into NYC's selective schools at disproportionately high rates compared to poorer, nonwhite students (Gifted, Talented and Separated), Chicago's Catalyst Magazine has a big story about similar dynamics going on there.

Called Getting a chance, the new Catalyst story summary is simple -- and is applicable to many other places besides Chicago:

"Smart students from poor neighborhoods are less likely to test into gifted and classical elementary schools. Later, they are more likely to become disengaged and eventually drop out. A special initiative is giving some students a last-minute shot at elite programs."

Read it. Save it for the weekend.  Come back to it.  Ask your education friends what they're doing to fix the problem. Berate them if they don'thave an answer.

Think about what it would take to reduce these inequities:  Better outreach, ending or limiting sibling preferences, better options to choose among, and -- first on my list -- universal choice (one application for all charter, magnet, and selective schools) and assigned matching systems to make sure every parent knows all the options and bring order to the chaotic and often unfair acceptance-hoarding that goes on when some parents apply everywhere and only release their spots at the last minute.  

Previous posts on universal application and assignment matching here, here, here.

Morning Video: Violence / Prevention In Chicago

Just in time for the Duncan/First Lady trip to Chicago for Hidaya Pendleton's funeral today, PBS has this profile of a Chicago program attempting to head violence (and other things) off before they take root in kids' lives:

 

Mayor Emanuel announced the tripling of support for a somewhat different program focused on mentoring at a Thursday press conference (via WBEZ) 

Thompson: Jeff Henig & "The New Coaching Project"

Jeffrey Henig’s Education Week Commentary, Reading the Future of Education Policy, explains the centralizing shifts in schooling from local control to federal and state government and towards for-profit and nonprofit organizations. He astutely describes "the end of exceptionalism," where American education, for better or for worse, is handled like other major domestic policies.

Unfortunately, Henig neglects the two most important factors that have shaped educational exceptionalism and he thus ignores the lost opportunity which could have tempered the top down micromanaging of recent years.

People: When (Former) Reformers Get Reformed*

Chicago's Seth Lavin taught for a few  years, worked a non-education job for a little while, and built a fun weekly education blog called Chicago School Wonks before he returned to the classroom at the start of the 2012-2013 school year.  

Along the way Lavin learned a lot about school reform, including its weaknesses and disappointments, and it was fascinating if disheartening to witness his evolution. (See previous posts: Citizen Journalist Extraordinaire Seth Lavin, Lost In Chicago)

The latest news is that Lavin has been pulled back into the school reform process -- this time on the receiving end -- through his wife, Kate, also a teacher, and the potential closing of their neighborhood school in fast-gentrifying Logan Square.  Called Brentano, it's a place Kate and Seth plan on sending their child. She's already on the local school council, as a community representative.  But Brentano curently on a list of roughly 100 possible schools to be closed for low performance and/or under-utlization.  The school is better than it looks, and less empty than it might have seemed in the 2010 Census which is being used.  Etc.

This is just one incident, and my purpose is not to lambaste Lavin or anyone else but rather to highlight the reality that it feels different when you're on the "being reformed" side (to the extent that school consolidation can be considered reform) than it does when you're the one doing the reforming to others, and that as the current reform movement has grown and evolved it seems like there are more folks like Seth and Kate who've been through a cycle and ended up in a somewhat different place than where they started.

Click below for news coverage of the Brentano pushback against the possible closing. You can find Lavin on Twitter @sethlavin. Image via CCFlickr

*Correction:  The original version of this post had Lavin's wife Kate teaching at the school, and omitted that she is on the LSC.

Quotes: Growing "Cynicism About The Ed Reform Community"

The number of ed reforms that hold up when the evidence is looked at critically seems to be tiny. The number that continue to work when they're scaled up seems to be tiny. The number that continue to show results all the way through high school seems to be tiny. The number that can withstand critical scrutiny seems to be tiny. And of the ones that are left, the cost to keep them up usually appears to be prohibitive... My cynicism about the ed reform community grows by leaps and bounds every time I read a story like this. And that's pretty often.  - Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum, responding to news that early results from a much-imitated San Jose reform effort were inflated.

Violence: Killings In Chicago Undercut Reform Efforts

Now this is is extra sad:  Fifteen year old Hadiya Pendleton went to the Inauguration in DC, came back to her South Side high school in Chicago, and was shot in the back and killed last night (Sun times, DNAI, Daily Mail).  

The murder didn't take place during school, or on school grounds.  There is little or no direct connection to education.  But this -- gun violence and street gangs -- is a big part of what's going on in some parts of Chicago -- the South and West Sides, mostly -- and it's a big part of the reason that the Board of Education's Utilization Commission recommended that no general high schools be closed in Chicago even if they were half-empty.  (Remember that the brutal videotaped death of a Fenger High School student several years ago in Chicago was caused, some say, by a school closing that required students to travel outside their home neighborhood.)

Chronic poverty, discrimination, unemployment, and inadequate housing are all important to understand and address. But violence is the out of school factor that trumps all the others. In places like New York City where it has been addressed (legally or otherwise), school reform efforts have some hope of progress.  In places like Chicago, where violence has been shoved aside and ignored (thanks, Mayor Daley and the current one), efforts to improve schools really struggle.  

Books: What Reformers Can Learn From Integrationists

Today's the day that Sarah Garland's new book, Divided We Fail: The Story of an African American Community That Ended the Era of School Desegregation, finally comes out in bookstores.  Get it.

Despite the title, Garland doesn't consider the book anti-desegregation.  "I found [desegregation], in the end, still to be a very compelling idea, and argue integrated schools are essential for a successful future. It's the way it was implemented that was often problematic. "

Garland also finds much to compare between deseg efforts and the current reform movement:  "As the era of desegregation ended, black communities across the nation were once again facing unilateral school closings and mass firings of black teachers. Many felt disenfranchised, and wondered whether reformers cared about their own vision for their children’s education. Some took to the streets in protest. Others filed lawsuits."

Garland writes for the Hechinger Report and was a Spencer Fellow, too.  She grew up in Louisville and experienced school integration efforts there herself, which is more than most education journalists can say about the topics they cover.  

Morning Video: Los Angeles School Board Candidate Forum

They still have elected school board members in LA -- so quaint! -- and the forum for two candidates running against each other to represent the Westside -- that's how they spell it! -- was held Thursday (hosted by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles) and posted online over the weekend.  The candidate on the left is Kate Anderson, a parent and advocate who's challenging incumbent Steve Zimmer, center. 

Reckhow: The Short, Sad Story Of PENewark

This is a guest post from MSU political scientist Sarah Reckhow:

The Newark education story often looks like ed-reform goes to Hollywood. The cast is packed with larger than life personalities (Cory Booker, Chris Christie, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah!). The plot line starts out so out heroically (Young billionaire tries to save city schools!).

But the protagonist is facing some setbacks.  The latest is the Christmas Day email release showing how team Newark and team Facebook (mostly Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg) managed the PR surrounding the announcement of Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift. The media coverage of the emails has emphasized how the Facebook and Newark teams sought to burnish Zuckerberg's image, but the emails also contain some juicy nuggets about the working assumptions of big budget education philanthropists. 

Some of the key takeaways include: internal jockeying among matching funders over what interventions to support, an expensive but ineffective community outreach effort, and the dangers of creating brand-now (and short-lived) nonprofits to do foundations' work.

Los Angeles: School Board Candidates Debate Deasy

Last night was the first of three candidate forums being hosted by the United Way of Los Angeles (among others), this one featuring the Westside's current Board member, Steve Zimmer (center), and his challenger, parent and advocate Kate Anderson (left).  

According to this account from LA School Report (which I edit), the discussion focused on core issues such as teacher evaluations (Anderson called the new agreement "too mush"), charter school oversight (Zimmer is pro-charter but has proposed a moratorium), and whether LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy is receiving the support he deserves.  Both Anderson and Zimmer claim to support him.

Unlike many other big city school systems, LAUSD is still governed by an independent elected school board.  Zimmer has been endorsed by the teachers union.  Anderson is being supported by the Coalition for School Reform, which includes charter school supporters and allies of Mayor Villaraigosa.

Image courtesy LA School Report

Quotes: "The Objective Here Is Not To Have More Charters"

The objective here is not to have more charters; the objective is to have great schools. -- Green Dot CEO Marco Petruzzi, appearing on a Southern California public radio show about the parent trigger.

Events: "Education Mayors" Headline West Coast Summit

Just over a month from now -- and just a week before a key election day -- United Way Los Angeles is hosting its Education Summit 2013, which will feature three "education mayors" (Emanuel, Villaraigosa, and Booker) as well as many of those who want to replace Villaraigosa and become the next Mayor of LA.  

United Way LA has been active on education issues and is hosting candidate forums for the three LAUSD board member spots that are also up for grabs on March 5. The first one is tomorrow night, featuring incumbent (and TFA alum) Steve Zimmer, who's been endorsed by the teachers union, and parent / advocate challenger Kate Anderson, who's been endorsed by the pro-charter, pro-accountability Coalition for School Reform.

Update: First Lady's Alma Mater On School Closing List

They're not closing high schools (because gangs are in charge) and even half-empty schools might be allowed to live another day in Chicago, but Michelle Obama's elementary school alma mater is on the Chicago Sun-Times' unofficial list of 193 schools that might get closed in order to help downsize Chicago's school system and help it deal with a $1 billion deficit.  According to her Wikipedia page, the First Lady went to Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy.)  The school has been trying to turn around since at least 2008. Image courtesy of CPS.

Thompson: A Daring New Idea - Trust Teachers

Eduwonk guest blogger Kim Farris-Berg's recent post, "What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots," reminds us that each student is different. Teachers continuously adapt to our students’ varying needs. That is why reformers need to tap the collective wisdom of teachers.  

Even better, Farris-Berg critiques the single worst policy to grow out of our mistrust of teachers. Top down curriculum pacing "guides" often tell teachers what textbook pages to cover and how many minutes to spend on what days.  Some scripted mandates tell teachers what to say on each page. In an effort to ensure that all students are exposed to the same content,  schools are turned into assembly lines. Advanced students get bored. Struggling students get frustrated and drop out.  The joy of learning is squeezed out of classroom instruction.

These mandates are designed to help transient students, but I would add that they are among the worst victims.  Teachers of highly mobile students need more, not less discretion in determining the the pace of instruction. With my high school students, however, I earn my salary by building relationships, reading my kids' body language, probing their understanding, and timing my instruction.

I will never forget the introduction of our old school's pacing mandate.  In one day, I was supposed to cover, "Standard 16.4, Examine the rise of nationalism, the causes and effects of World War II (eg Holocaust, economic and military shifts since 1945, the founding of the United Nations, and the political positioning of Europe, Africa, and Asia)."  

I ignored the guide, but teachers is tested subjects couldn't.  Across the school, 40% of the students dropped out during the semester-long fiasco.-JT(@drjohnthompson) Image via TrustingTeachers.org

Bruno: DC Blame Game Distracts Us From Root Causes

One of the larger Michelle Rhee-related controversies revolves around how much cheating on standardized tests took place during her time running the schools in Washington DC, and whom to blame.

Richard Whitmire came to Rhee's defense in the Washington Post last week, but in the process he got bogged down in an unhelpful game of finger pointing, going on at some length about how the right targets for "blame" are teachers rather than the administrators holding them accountable.

There's obviously some reasonable appeal to assigning blame for cheating, and it's intuitive enough to assign that blame to the individuals most directly involved. As satisfying as it is to assign blame, however, it's only tangentially related to the policy issue at hand: namely, the extent to which cheating is a problem under Rhee-style reforms and what we should do to mitigate it. The causes of cheating are therefore much more relevant than the assignment of guilt.

Movie Trailer: "The New Public"

"The New Public" depicts the successes and struggles of seven teachers and 108 students who start BCAM, a small Bedford-Stuyvesant high school, directed by my friend and neighbor Jyllian Gunther. 

 

The effort begins with confidence and hope -- and no small degree of naivete -- and its founders experience just as much of an education as the students BCAM serves.  Check it out here - catch it at the Boulder International Film Festival next month. 

Chicago: Roughly A Third Of Turnarounds Remain Low-Performing

The industrious folks at Chicago Public Radio have gathered together data on 12 years of school closings and turnarounds.

Not only that, they also mapped the changes, and determined that roughly a third of the buildings closed and/or turned around remain at the lowest level of performance (Tier 3).

It's well worth a look, whether you're a fan or critic of school turarnound efforts.

Others will disagree, but the 32 percent failure rate doesn't seem objectionable, given the enormity of the issues faced at 100 percent of the schools deemed bad enough to be closed or turned around.

 

Update: Rebuilding The Reform We Lost

Someone else, really, should be the one to write about Anil Dash's thought-provoking blog posts, The Web We Lost, and Rebuilding the Web We Lost.  Ideally, it would be someone who's worked inside the reform movement, and remains sympathetic, but is reflective and independent enough to point out where things seem to have gone wrong and what needs to happen next.

Until that happens, let me see if I can describe the basics.  The much-discussed pair of pieces document how those who originally developed the ideas behind the Internet 20 years ago and more were over time distracted and distorted to the point that the original (open-source, browser-based) Internet has become eclipsed by what's called the "social web" (but is actualy walled, warring kingdoms with names like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

[Despite its name (social media) and its apparent dominance, social media isn't particularly "social" and most of what's shared online is still shared via email and web links.]

Some will argue with Dash's assessment of the evolution of the Internet, and of course with my comparison to the education reform movement.  And there are many obvious differences, large and small.  

But the fundamental similarity remains -- to me, at least: Education reform started out as one thing, became something quite different in the process of becoming much larger, and there are at least some now who are wondering how to re-engineer the reform movement to keep the size and momentum but return to some of its core vision and potential impact.

According to Dash, the keys are to: Take responsibility and accept blame. Raise the bar. Rethink funding fundamentals. Pursue talent outside the obvious. Exploit their weakness: Insularity. Dont' trust the trade press. Create public spaces. 

Quotes: Board Member Decries Defense Of "Broken" School

I want to know why anybody would want their child to go to a broken school? -- LAUSD board member Marguerite Lamotte, explaining her vote in favor of reconstituting Crenshaw High School (via KPCC)

Preview: TV Series Trailer Heats Up Charter Meeting

Tuesday night in New Orleans, there were at least a few people upset at the charter board meeting for John Macdonogh high school, which is going through a controversial turnaround.  The school has both a board and an advisory committee to represent community interests.  Control over the charter was given to Future Is Now Schools, Steve Barr's current charter network.  The meeting was eventually cut short.You can read all about it at The Lens.

One key aspect of the event was the first public showing of a trailer for the forthcoming OWN reality series, "Blackboard Wars."   As is fairly standard, the three-minute video (which I've seen) begins with dramatic footage (a 2003 incident in which suspects brought an AK47 into the school and began shooting), as well as scenes of fistfights and security takedowns. the implementation of school uniforms and tuck-in requirements.  There are dramatic graphics  ("One of the most dangerous schools in America... Nobody believes he can do it... An Angry Community.") There's even a Survivor-style wail in the background (all that's missing is a bone-rattling dubstep drop). Also depicted: overwhelmed teachers, a strong-willed new principal, angry community members -- and glimmers of improvement.  

Previous post: Oprah Network Features NOLA Turnaround Story

Bruno: School Discipline Doesn't Have To Be Complicated

In the past, I've expressed my skepticism about school-wide discipline initiatives like Restorative Justice that may be too complex to implement effectively. A recent Education Week commentary by Los Angeles Unified assistant superintendent Earl Perkins gives us a good opportunity to remember that we shouldn't make school-wide discipline issues more complicated than they need to be.

According to Perkins, LAUSD has seen a 43% drop in student days lost to suspension after adopting a district-wide framework for school discipline. The plan is striking in its simplicity: students are taught and rewarded for good (or "positive") behaviors, expectations are consistently enforced school-wide, and interventions are "tiered" so that the students who struggle most with the rules receive the most support (or, in some cases, more severe consequences).

What Perkins is describing is "Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports,"a well-established school-wide disciplinary program. It probably sounds commonsensical, and it is. That's one reason I've mentioned it favorably in the past: it doesn't in most cases require a radical departure from what schools and teachers are already doing, it only requires a concerted effort to do those things better.

Keep an eye on PBIS-type programs, which seem to be proliferating rapidly - at least in California. Not only is LAUSD implementing the program, my current school (not in LAUSD) uses it and my previous school in Oakland just began implementation as part of a district-wide experiment with both PBIS and Restorative Justice. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)