
Thompson: The Discipline Gap
I and others have long believed that the achievement gap is largely a function of a gap in time on task. So I was initially annoyed by Noguera’s repetition in this Education Researcher article (PDF) article of the same old studies from a generation ago placing so much blame for classroom disruptions on teachers’ misperceptions. But Noguera et al also cited newer, more balanced research in their writing, which asks if "the achievement gap and the discipline gap" are "two sides of the same coin?" Maybe we are all saying the same thing, and I’m like most teachers in being sensitive on this issue.
Media: Opening School Scenes
Schools are so convenient. I'd forgotten that this (in)famous 1996 Times magazine cover story started out with a schoolhouse anecdote: "AS THEY PUT ON PLASTIC GLOVES FOR THEIR first litter hunt, the
third graders knew what to expect. They knew their garbage. It was part
of their science curriculum at Bridges Elementary, a public school on
West 17th Street in Manhattan. They had learned the Three R's -- Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle -- and discussed how to stop their parents from using
paper plates. For Earth Day they had read a Scholastic science
publication, "Inside the World of Trash." For homework, they had kept
garbage diaries and drawn color-coded charts of their families' trash.
So they were primed for the field experiment on this May afternoon." (Recycling
Is Garbage)
USDE: 2010 Teacher Of The Year (From Iowa)
"Teacher of the Year, HS English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling, honored by Pres. Barack Obama (VIDEO) - Johnston High School English teacher, Sarah Brown Wessling of Johnston, Iowa, was honored by President Barack Obama with the Teacher of the Year Award at the White House on Thursday, April 29, 2010."
AM News: Revamping Seniority Hiring In NY, CA, & AZ
Cartoon: A Hacker Ate My Homework
Thompson: Embracing Tenure
If Secretary Duncan wants moderates in teachers unions to persuade the rank-in-file to make compromises on seniority and using student growth data in evaluations, he should embrace Governor Crist’s veto of Florida’s "reform" legislation. The concessions that Duncan seeks are possible only when built on the rock of tenure.
Conservatives in the education providers complex who oppose unions may hope that teachers will follow telephone operators into oblivion as we become clerks monitoring the data systems that they peddle. But progressives would be horrified if their alma mater ended tenure, thus driving the First Amendment from their beloved college campus. Liberals who would never allow their own kids to be subjected to non-stop test prep may not understand that tenure is the only protection for poor kids from the educational malpractice "reform" de jour. Without tenure, in large parts of the country who would teach Evolution or a multicultural view of history that challenges the Texas standards?
Media: EWA Editor Praises "Teacherpocalypse" Story
Nice to see Las Vegas' Emily Richmond get some Linda Perlstein love (An education reporter who always delivers) but too bad that the article Perlstein links to is one of those highly speculative "Teacherpocalypse" stories (‘Almost
catastrophic’ budget cuts on horizon) going around right now. I'm also a Richmond fan, and am glad that she notes in her story that the funding forecasts are preliminary. But she and her editors (and Perlstein) should do a better job of noting that these stories are fed to reporters by agencies seeking to influence state legislators with doomsday scenarios, and that actual layoffs are months away and usually end up being much smaller than predicted.
Vouchers: Chicago Mayor, District Suppor Voucher Bill
The myth of Arne Duncan's Chicago 'miracle' continues to implode, along with the myth that vouchers are done as a policy remedy: Parents of 22,000 kids attending Chicago's worst schools might get vouchers to attend private or parochial schools -- "creating in one motion a program as large as Milwaukee's - which took
more than 20 years to become the nation's largest," according to State News Service's Jim Broadway. Ditto for kids attending overcrowded schools. And -- this is particularly unusual -- the Board of Education and City Hall are apparently down with that (according to this Tribune editorial Chicago
vouchers), along with Democratic lawmakers who would usually go along with the teachers union and oppose. Effectiveness be damned. Then again, they're talking about bringing in the National Guard, too.
AM News: Senate Committee Ducks Standards-Money Link
Thompson: What To Do About Teens and Texting?
The recent Pew study on cell phones found that students condemn "arbitrary enforcement or a lack of clarity around school rules for mobile phones." Pew also found that "in-class texting varies little with regard to the aggressiveness of a school’s regulation" of phones.
Indeed, there's no easy way to enforce the rules. "If you get caught using your phone you can pull out a fake phone, turn it on and give it to them," said one student. I’ve fallen for that one. And in retrospect, perhaps I should have adopted the typical strategy of
confiscating phones seen in class and then returning them at the end of
the period so the next teacher could repeat the process. Instead I fought the
losing battle of enforcing the school's rule that parents must retrieve
confiscated phones.
But all is not lost. Parents who limit their children’s text messaging, get positive results. Schools could get similar benefits if they established credible consequences for inappropriate texting, just as they taught proper use and etiquette for cell phones. Then, teachers could incorporate appropriate texting into classroom instruction. Otherwise, I suspect our laissez faire attitude towards teens and phones will be seen as one of the great betrayals of this young generation by the adults who should have taken charge of this powerful and potentially destructive technology.
Media: New York Magazine Profiles Eva ("Evil") Moskowitz
RTTT: Backing Up The Truck
Defining low performing schools "entirely differently from how the ESEA
does" is the mismatch between ARRA and RTTT that is going to have the most practical effect on how school reform works going forward. But it's not the only example. Russ Whitehurst flags several this excellent Ed Week commentary (Did Congress Authorize Race to the Top?). The unprecedented latitude Congress gave -- and Duncan took -- is one of the main reasons that I've been so critical and cautious about NCLB reauthorization prospects. Congressional approval for things like charter cap removal (and performance pay, and prescriptive turnaround choices) would be extremely hard to come by. RTTT is the product of a seemingly unique situation. I don't think that the USDE is going to get the same carte blanche from Congress next time around. The big challenge for them is to figure out how to back up the RTTT truck to get back to something that could make it through reauthorization without undercutting themselves and the states that have already moved forward on RTTT.
AM News: Three CA Districts To Apply For RTTT Funding
TV: New HBO Series Takes On Charters & Choice [corrected]
Leave
it to The Wire's David Simon to work some scathing dialogue about school reform into his new HBO series,
Treme, set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Here's a snippet from a father-daughter scene from the second episode:
Where'm I gonna to go to school?
Tulane's working on something for faculty kids. Lusher.
Lusher's not a high school Daddy.
They're adding high school.
Plus it's public.
Not anymore, it's charter.
Where are they going to put the high school?
They're taking over Forshey Fortier.
What about the Forshey Fortier kids? Where are they going to go?
Somewhere else, I guess.
That's not fair. Probably not. That's where we're at now.You want to go to school in New Orleans? So this is how it works. It's a zero-sum world, honey. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.
AM News: Vermont Out Of RTTT Running
Vermont will not seek federal education grant AP: Vermont will not seek millions of dollars in a federal
grant program aimed at improving failing schools, joining a handful of
states in dropping out of the "Race to the Top" program despite strapped
budgets... Political war continues to rage in Capistrano Unified
School District LA Times: Teachers’ strike over a 10% pay cut is just the latest
dust-up. Now there’s another school board recall effort — the third in
five years...Angst as teachers reapply for jobs Boston Globe: Anxiety rippled through seven “underperforming’’ Boston
schools yesterday, as more than 350 teachers and staff members faced a
deadline to reapply for their jobs as part of an overhaul by
Superintendent Carol R. Johnson...Johnson to lead two national education panels Sacto Press: The
Duncan panel is one of two education panels to which Johnson was
recently appointed: He will also lead a U.S. Conference of Mayors task
force on K-12 public schools...Duncan:
Detroit Schools at 'bottom of the barrel'. Newsday: U.S.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has voiced concern about the very high
dropout rates in the Detroit school district, but says it shouldn't
count on the federal government to step in and save it.
Commenting On The Commentary
Thompson: The Washington Teachers Union Contract
What do you get when you combine the District of Columbia's IMPACT evaluation system with the side letter of the proposed contract negotiated by the WTU? If implemented in good faith, you could get the Delaware RttT's teacher evaluation system. Since teacher evaluation is not negotiable in D.C., the union made the best of the situation by winning an independent evaluation and internal review of the problems with the district's system. And it did so without giving up tenure. The WTU maintained "just cause" as the standard for disciplining permanent employees. The union even got Michelle Rhee to agree to the unusual provision that the standard for removing probationary teachers must be "not arbitrary and capricious." (Typically, those teachers are "at will" employees.) We should also remember that the key to performance pay is not the extra money, but the collaboration that it can foster. The proposed contract thus includes comprehensive mentoring and induction programs, as a system for building a team approach to increasing student performance. Equally important, it includes provisions for enforcing the disciplinary code of conduct, and providing supports for disruptive students.
Washington: Teachers Of The Year Take Over
Continue reading "Washington: Teachers Of The Year Take Over" »
Video: NPR Duped By Classroom Laptop Smash Hoax
What NPR didn't say, however, was that the incident was a stunt, and that the professor did the same thing with a defunct cell phone five years before. Now, what were you supposed to be doing right now?
Quote: "An Annual Ploy" To Win Public Support
"In part, these alarm bells about massive layoffs are part of an annual ploy to win public support while legislators hammer out budget details." -- Larry Abramson (NPR)
AM News: Internal Clashes Hinder RTTT Efforts
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Thompson: Roland Fryer's Learning Process
"’To my surprise, incentive programs that rewarded process seemed to be more effective than those that rewarded outcomes,’" said Roland Fryer, regarding his latest experiment. Fryer belatedly recognized something that had long been the centerpiece of educational wisdom. Teachers have long been taught to concentrate on their students’ "observable behaviors." We have always been taught to jealously guard time on "task on task." Teachers have always urged kids to focus on what they can control, and not get carried away with the issues of others. "Sweat the details," we have hoped, and learning will follow.
Fryer also concluded "it might be less effective to give teachers incentive pay (test scores of their students) relative to inputs (staying after school to tutor students).
Continue reading "Thompson: Roland Fryer's Learning Process" »
USDE: Teachers Of The Year (Should) Heckle Duncan
Nothing much to get excited about in Duncan's weekly media schedule for next week, though there's always hope that the teachers of the year will get brave and and heckle him. One year not too long ago the teachers got together and weighed in with policy recommendations, which was pretty cool. But mostly they just act meek and obedient, which is a shame. Maybe a couple will Twitter heckle him during the event, at least?
Continue reading "USDE: Teachers Of The Year (Should) Heckle Duncan" »
Video: Scott's Tots On "The Office"
Last week's rerun of "The Office" showed lamebrain boss Michael Scott visiting the kids to whom he'd unwisely promised college tuition if they graduated and -- almost as good -- made fun of the goofy chants and songs that teachers get kids to do and put on YouTube. Here's a snippet:
Want more? The episode doesn't seem to be online anymore but here's a fake interview with Scott about how he came up with the idea of sponsoring the kids, and here's a recap from Wikipedia.
Thompson: New Rules for Replicating D.C.'s "Pathbreaking" Contract
Media: "Teacherpocalypse 2010"
Kudos to Reason for coming up with a name for the saturation coverage of possible job cuts in education: Teacherpocalypse 2010. Most of the numbers you're seeing in the paper are speculative, possible cuts, not actual job cuts. The numbers are being put out there to pressure for more money. Some teachers have lost their jobs, no doubt, but the actual job losses are unknown and probably small in proportion to the 6 million Americans who are already out of work. Let's have some perspective, and some transparency from the media about where the numbers are coming from.
AM News: Pensions Not Pink Slips
Districts: Former Duncan Colleague To Head Tiny IN District
Rolling Updates
Thompson: Its The Talent Not The Playbook
Its people, not policies, that teach kids. Nowhere is this clearer than at LA's Markham Middle School: "After 11 years of continuous, often overlapping reforms, (and) the expenditure of over $3 million dollars in extra funds," writes Robert Manwaring, "Markham Middle School is still, educationally speaking, a wreck. Sixteen percent of teachers are working under an emergency credential, 30 percent of classes in core academic subjects are taught by teachers who are not "highly qualified" under NCLB. After a turnaround partnership fired all of Markham staff, "almost half of the new hires were first- and second-year teachers, and many of them were under-qualified." I don't doubt Manwaring's indictment of the Los Angeles Schools System's policies, but we should keep our eye on the real problem with ambitions to scale up turnarounds. "The school has had difficulty finding candidates that will work in this potentially dangerous environment. ... By March 2010 over halfway through the year, 20 percent of the classes were taught by long-term substitutes."
AM News: Big Cuts Coming, Districts Say
School Districts Warn of Even Deeper Teacher Cuts NYT: Hundreds of thousands of teachers around the country are being told that their jobs may be eliminated in June... Education Department Rescinds 2005 Title IX Change NPR: Under
the policy, schools could show they were in compliance with the law's
guarantee of equal sports opportunities for girls merely through
surveys that gauged interest and ability. They'll now have to prove
compliance using other factors... Students seek a say on homework assignments Boston Globe: Sometimes,
they say, the homework doesn’t appear to have anything to do with
what’s being taught in class. Other times, teachers hardly check to see
if students completed the assignments or had difficulty with it... Regents Approve New Route to Master’s in Teaching NYT: The
New York State Board of Regents voted to approve a pilot program that
would allow educational groups like Teach for America to create their
own master’s programs... Teen Texting Soars; Will Social Skills Suffer? NPR: The
number of teenagers who say they text-message daily has shot up to 54
percent from 38 percent in just the past 18 months, a new report finds.
The typical American teenager sends 50 texts a day. Teachers worry the
texting trend will hurt their students' interpersonal communication
skills... New Community College Standards Could Hike Graduation Rates NewsHour: Community
colleges are playing an increasing role in the country's higher
educational system, but a high percentage of their students never
finish their coursework. Jeffrey Brown talks to experts about a new
national accountability standard aimed at bolstering graduation rates.
Media: Canceled Show Leaving Classroom Legacy
Teaching: How Long Until Outsourced Grading Comes To K12?
This recent article in the Chronicle (Outsourced Grading Comes to College) describes how some college professors have turned to outsourced grading as a solution to the chronic problem of grading papers.
How long until this comes to K12 (if it hasn't already)? Is it any worse than the alternatives, which include assigning less, not grading everything students write, or burning out? Are you really as good a paper grader as you think, anyway?
AM News: Duncan Pushes Change Despite Budget Crunch
Thompson: Fifteen Years After
If school reform in Oklahoma City succeeds, it will be a legacy of the cooperation that grew in response to the Murrah Building bombing. Our union president, for instance, was with his students on a field trip to the nearby hospital when the casualities flowed in, and he vowed to never again push away from the bargaining table. At our best, a bipartisan educational reform coalition continued the community spirit and it is exemplified by the nation's seventh Educare. Hard times, however, still damage our most vulnerable. We have worked collaboratively to turnaround our city's Central Falls. It even required new legislation authorizing the position of a full-time substitute. And now, the nation's worst act of domestic terrorism since 1921 in Tulsa is a part of our curriculum.
Media: Darling-Hammond Tells Her Version
Continue reading "Media: Darling-Hammond Tells Her Version" »
AM News: Okla. Victims' Children, 15 Years Later
USDE: Duncan's Weekly Schedule
Weekend: Catching Up On A Busy Week [updated]
Add National Prayer Day Ruling To Reading List NPR: Because her legal opinion is likely to be a subject of discussion for a
while, it's well worth taking some time to read U.S. District Judge
Barbara Crabb's controversial decision Thursday that holds that it is
unconstitutional for the president to proclaim, under Congress'
direction, a National Day of Prayer.
Outsourced Grading Comes to College Teaching Chronicle: The graders working for EduMetry are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, along with some in the United States and elsewhere. They do their work online and communicate with professors via e-mail.
Your Text Messages And E-Mails May Not Be 'Private' If You Use Co. Equipment NPR: There's a case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court that should be of
interest to anyone who has an employer-provided cell phone, computer or
other device that can be used to send electronic messages.
Arizona School Bans Lunches With 'Processed' Foods NPR: Children's Success Academy in Tucson, Ariz. doesn't allow any foods made with processed and refined ingredients.
Judge To Mississippi County: Stop Segregating Schools NPR: The order issued today by the court requires the district to modify its transfer policy to permit students to transfer to a school outside their residential zone only if the student can demonstrate a compelling justification for the transfer.
Rise of the Female Nerds The American Prospect: Glee is one of a handful of television shows offering unabashedly smart, awkward ... well, nerdy, female characters. Will Hollywood take to the trend?
Continue reading "Weekend: Catching Up On A Busy Week [updated]" »
Thompson: Bubble Families
New York City has abandoned a pilot project to pay parents for things like going to the dentist ($100) or holding down a full-time job ($150 per month). Children were rewarded for attending school regularly ($25 to $50 per month) or passing a high school Regents exam ($600). The reason? It didn't work for most families. Only "high school students who met basic proficiency standards before high school tended to increase their attendance, receive more class credits and perform better on standardized tests; more families went to the dentist for regular checkups."
As with NCLB, the incentives program helped those who were on the bubble. We must throw out the conceit that all poor children of color and their families are the same, and that the same simple incentives and disincentives will work for all.
Standards: NCLB Author Slams Ravitch, LDH
Here's a pretty heated email Sandy Kress sent out this morning about the East Palo Alto charter school whose charter school was denied an extension, and standards recanter Diane Ravitch:
"Linda Darling Hammond and Diane Ravitch have built their careers recently beating up on standards based reform, Teach for America, charter schools, choice, and NCLB, among other initiatives that reformers have put in place over the last 15 years. They've distorted data to attempt to show that these reforms do not work, even when objective data show otherwise.
"Now the results are in on THEIR approach. I won't attempt to explain or manipulate the data. Look for yourself. Linda Darling Hammond had all the money in the world and the Stanford faculty, all the advantages and more than the typical charter school would have. Look at the chart of student results from her school and similarly situated schools in California, and judge for yourself."
Real-Time Roundup [Friday]
Charters: Darling-Hammond School In Trouble
Districts: Teacher Suspended For "Crashing" The Tea Party
AM News: FL Governor Rejects GOP Teacher Pay Plan
Real-Time Roundup [Thursday]
AM News: Harkin Proposes Teacher Bailout
Continue reading "AM News: Harkin Proposes Teacher Bailout" »
Real-Time Roundup [Wednesday]
Quotes: "It Was, Like"
A fun list of bad (brilliant?) metaphors and other attempts at creative use of language, supposedly taken off of high school essays but also some of them intentional (as in part of bad writing contests). Via Daily Dish. My favorite? "Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do." What's yours?
