#edGIF Of The Day: SAT Security Hole Plus Foreign Student Spike

Have you ever taken the SAT? You will want to read this: https://t.co/1EJ6JMJWyA via @specialreports pic.twitter.com/DMYf4g2wsu

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) March 29, 2016

The reason you care is that Reuters is reporting a "major security hole with the SAT" in which the College Board gave SAT tests that "it knew had been compromised in Asia."

Charts: More Cops Than Counselors In NYC, Chicago, & Miami-Dade (But Not LA)

Interesting to note that LAUSD has more counselors than cops, and many fewer of both than NYC, Chicago, or Miami-Dade. From The Seventy Four. See more detail here and here.

Morning Video: Clinton's Arizona Education Ad "No Matter What ZIP Code"

Phoenix New Times: Clinton Releases New Ad Targeting Arizona's Abysmal Education Record. It's so interesting to see everyone using the "no matter what ZIP code" language, given that folks mean such different things by the phrase. 

Charts: "Throwing Money At The Problem" Might Actually Have Helped

"New research... finds that an increase in relative funding for low-income school districts actually has a profound effect on the achievement of students in those districts." (“Throwing money at the problem” may actually work in education - Equitable Growth.)

Via WPost Wonkblog.

Update: Inching Closer To "Yelp For Schools"

A "Yelp For Education" used to seem like a joke, but maybe it's not so far off as we may think. 

There's already some use of Yelp for schools (see screengrab above). And now the Nieman Journalism Lab reports that ProPublica is teaming up with Yelp to make it easier to find good local health care services:

"ProPublica is collaborating with the recommendation app to help provide better health care information on medical facilities and other providers. The idea is that finding a good doctor, nursing home, or dialysis clinic in your neighborhood will now be as easy as finding a reliable taco joint."

"Instead of noting whether a place has wifi and if it’s good for kids, the health care data notes a provider’s wait time, noise level in patient rooms, and how well a doctor communicates with patients."

Sounds good, right?

To be sure, there are other sites that try and do the same kinds of things -- GreatSchools, SchoolBook, InsideSchools, etc.

And some will argue that rating schools is different from rating restaurants or even doctor's offices.

But give credit to Yelp for democratizing information about businesses and trends that otherwise would have been limited to a small set of people who are in the know, and note also that none of the existing sites has the ease of use, user base, and mobile options that Yelp provides. 

Related posts: A Yelp (Or Facebook) For Schools? (2012); Young Joins GreatSchools [Plus Unsolicited Advice] (2014).

 

Charts: New Report Makes Case For Teacher Development > Accountability

From New America's "Beyond Ratings" Report: "State education agencies are beginning to embrace the notion that both accountability and development play important roles in ensuring that evaluation systems have their intended effect of improving the quality of teaching for all students."

 

Charts: With 6 New Districts (Including Denver), NAEP Trial Reaches 27. But Where's Seattle?

Good news. Six more districts -- Las Vegas, Denver, Fort Worth, Greensboro, Milwaukee and Memphis -- will join the NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) starting in 2017, according to NAGB. Denver, Milwaukee, and Memphis are especially important additions, politically and otherwise. However, as you can see there are a bunch more districts who still aren't participating. And for some reason Seattle still isn't on the list of schools that are participating or eligible.

Live Event: #SXSWedu Starting Today*

#SXSWedu Tweets *Corrected.

Quotes: Few Of Nation's 19,000 School Police Officers Get Trained

The first thing I do [when a school police incident is publicized] is search our database to see ‘Did this person come through our training?’ And the answer is consistently ‘no.’-

Mo Canady of the National Association of School Resource Officers in The Seventy Four (Video of Baltimore Cop Slapping Student Reignites Big Questions About Child Training for School Cops)

Maps: Nearly 40 States Trying To Reduce Testing Time

At least 39 states are working to reduce testing time, @minnichc said. #ewaLA pic.twitter.com/lcXHjlWduk

— Nichole Dobo (@nicholedobo) February 26, 2016

"At least 39 states are working to reduce testing time," according to CCSSO's Chris Minnich in a Nichole Dobo tweet from #ewaLA. To see which states, click on the image and try to make them out. I'll see if I can get a better image. 

Quotes: Media Mogul Models Viral Site On Great Teaching

The best teachers don’t just say, ‘I have a good way of communicating or connecting with the students.’ They also change what they’re communicating. They think of a new curriculum that they know the student will be excited about.

-- BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti in Fast Company (Building A 100-Year Media Company) via Chalkbeat.

Events: Next Week's EWA Seminar

Next week in LA, EWA is hosting a seminar on Teaching and Testing in the Common Core Era that looks interesting. Here's the tentative lineup for one of the panels, including everyone from FairTest's Bob Schaeffer to Fordham's Robert Pondiscio:

Afternoon Video: High-Speed Internet Might (Finally) Come To Poor Rural Schools

From last night's PBS NewsHour/EdWeek: "New changes to an FCC program could help schools by offering to fund fiber networks of their own." (How schools with the slowest Internet could get re-wired)

Events: Here Comes Yale SOM 2016 (Crossed Fingers)

How great to run into Yale SOM15 organizer @DJGrambo, who's now working on starting a new charter in NYC. #tfa25 pic.twitter.com/GSB8k9gHrn

— alexanderrusso (@alexanderrusso) February 6, 2016

There were at least two former organizers of the Yale SOM education summit at the TFA conference last week - Edna Novak and Graham Brown (pictured with me above) -- and Yale SOM 2016 is fast approaching.

Keynote speakers include Shavar Jeffries, Sandra Abrevaya, and Sondra Samuels. As in the past, it's being held at the Omni in New Haven.

There are scheduled to be panels on Common Core testing, blended learning, college attainment, parent advocacy, teachers of color, segregation of schools, community colleges, school readiness, federal policy after NCLB, revisiting "no excuses" approaches, effective philanthropy, and many others. 

If you want to follow last year's social media, check out #backtowhy, or check out my livetweets from that day. There was some controversy about the lack of racial diversity on one or two of the panels -- even though the event was much more diverse than some of its predecessors.

Pic: Strange to go from @priforce and @howardlfuller to all white male panel #backtowhy #YaleELC pic.twitter.com/8HjiMJq0mZ by @Brandie_Burris

— alexanderrusso (@alexanderrusso) March 27, 2015

I wrote a blog post about it shortly after: 6 Ways To Diversify That Conference Or Panel (ie, "Pass The Mic")*. PIE's Suzanne Tacheny wrote more about the topic here: Notes to Self.

What I don't see on the program so far is anything that focuses on the state and local education agencies who govern most public schools, or the unions whose locals represent many educators who work with them. But the panel list doesn't look final and there are no panelists listed so far. 

It's on April 7th and 8th. The twitter is @YaleELC. The hashtag is#DefiningSuccess2016.

 Related posts: New Faces At This Week's Yale Education Conference (2105); Deray Does Colbert Show (Then Lets Him Off The Hook).

Event Preview: My #TFA25 Playlist - What's Yours?

The livestream begins Saturday morning at 9, but the conference officially starts Friday and there's sure to be a ton of Tweeting going on the next few days as #TFA25 ramps up. (Nearly 200 #TFA25 speakers/moderators, all in one Twitter List http://ow.ly/XRwRY.)

There are 20 sessions Friday, and another 60 on Saturday -- not nearly enough for all the interest in presenting and speaking at the conference. The Frequently Asked Questions makes clear that TFA was expecting (or experiencing) more demand to present than it could handle using the format it decided.

There's no opening plenary session -- the conference version of a outmoded home page -- or even keynotes. Topics covered at the 2011 summit are being avoided. As a result, "Even very senior/VIP speakers will be sharing a session with other speakers and panelists."

Here's a bit more information about what I'm doing -- or hoping to do (depending on which sessions are full, etc.) -- along with some information about what's going to be livestreamed. Take a look and then let us know what you're going to do.

What's on your #TFA25 wishlist? Or, even better, what are you already signed up for?

Charts: Urban District Spending/NAEP Scores Compared

"Some large urban school systems get more bang for their buck than others. After adjusting for certain factors outside a district’s control, such as cost of living and student poverty, some big-city school systems spend millions of dollars more than others—but get far lower results on national math and reading exams." CAP 2011- used with permission.

This comes up because of a couple of recent reports on district spending in 2013 (NCES via Washington Post) and district achievement 2015 (CAP via USA Today). Anyone who wants to match up the more recent spending and NAEP figures?

 

 

Numbers: Big-City School Spending Tops Out At $20K Per Kid (NYC

"The numbers [for the biggest 100 districts in the nation] ranged from $5,539 per pupil in Utah’s Alpine School District to $20,331 in New York City. After New York, the highest-spending large districts were in Boston, Philadelphia and Anchorage. Four of the 11 highest-spending large districts were in the Washington area, reflecting the region’s relative wealth and high cost of living. Montgomery County was ranked fifth, spending $15,080 per student; Howard County was seventh, at $14,884; Prince George’s County was ninth, at $14,101; and Fairfax County was 11th, at $13,670." - Washington Post's Emma Brown (Spending in nation’s schools falls again)

Today: New CAP Report/Briefing On Testing Better (#TestBetter)

Watch the event from this morning above. Featured are CAP's Catherine Brown, NY State's Mary Ellen Elia, CCSSO's Chris Minnich, Achieve's Mike Coehn, and DCPS teacher Chris Bergfalk, Ruidoso NM Supierntendent George Bickert, and NAACP LDEF's Janel George. 

Read more here: Toward a Coherent, Aligned Assessment System | Center for American Progress. Read the Twitterstream #testbetter here.

 

Maps: Declining Spending On Schools (Still Varies Widely By State)

"The new federal data were released on the heels of a report by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showing that state governments in at least 31 states are contributing less to public education than they did in 2008, before the recession." (Washington Post: Spending in nation’s schools falls again, with wide variation across states). Image used with permission.

Morning Video: A Tour Inside A Detroit Public School (Plus Detroit Q & A)

Lakia Wilson, the school counselor at Spain Elementary School, takes us around for a tour. Via AFT.

See also:  DPS Denied Injunction Against Teachers; New Hearing Set  Detroit Free News: Judge Cynthia Stephens of the Michigan Court of Claims said she needs more information and that there's no proof the Detroit Federation of Teachers or its interim president encouraged the mass teacher absences. 

Q&A: A look at the Detroit Public Schools teacher sick-outs AP: Detroit Public Schools teachers have complained for several years about poor pay, overcrowded classrooms, a lack of supplies, unsafe building conditions and uncertainty about their futures as the district struggles under a mountain of debt. Rolling teacher sick-outs have - so far in January - forced the district to close dozens of schools on some days. A preliminary hearing will be held next month on the district's lawsuit seeking to end the sick-outs....

 

Maps: Your State Makes It Hard For Poor Kids To Get A Four-Year Degree

"In some states, low-income students going to community colleges are much more likely to get a college degree....But there were some notable exceptions in this report, such as Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Hampshire, where the diploma gaps were significantly smaller." Via Mother Jones (This Map Shows Which States Make It Easiest and Hardest to Obtain a College Degree). Image used with permission.

Quotes: OECD Test Is Different (Optional, International, Public)

The truth of the matter is that in this global economy we talk about so much and so often, my students are competing with everyone... And so it was important to me to sort of find some sort of a tool where I could say, ‘I think these are the skill sets they’re getting that make them competitive.'

-- Tiffany Huitt, the principal of a 415-student Dallas magnet school that has administered the exam multiple times via EWA (Exam Gives Glimpse of How Schools Stack Up Globally) 

 

Quotes: Philanthropy > Campaign Contributions

Philanthropy is having as much influence as campaign contributions, but campaign contributions get all the attention. The imbalance is stunning to me.

 

-- Inside Philanthropy's David Calllahan in the New York Review of Books (How to Cover the One Percent)

 

Quotes: Sanders Opposes "Privately-Run" Charter Schools

I'm not in favor of privately-run charter schools. If we are going to have a strong democracy and be competitive globally, we need the best educated people in the world. And I believe in public education — I went to public schools my whole life. So I think rather than give tax breaks to billionaires, I think we invest in teachers and we invest in public education.

- Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire via Politico/Diane Ravitch (at 1:48:00 mark) in response to a question from a charter school-graduate concerned about funding cuts her school experienced. 

 

Morning Video: The Hoverboarding Principal

 

Shoutout to this cool principal @doctor_kool at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Maryland for inspiring kids to be the best they can be and always having their best interest in mind --- in the coolest way possible! P.S he used to be one of our staff member's Vice Principal back in HS and he's still doing it big I see! #TSRPositiveImages "Good, better, best...never let it rest... Till your good is your better, and your better is your best! "

Posted by The Shade Room on Tuesday, January 5, 2016

While some colleges and airlines are banning so-called hoverboards, and a priest who hoverboarded his way through part of a ceremony got in trouble, this principal [@doctor_kool] is using his hoverboard to try and hype his kids and staff. Go over to my Facebook page if the video doesn't render properly.

Or, listen to this housing/attendance zone story from NPR's Marketplace, via Mike Petrilli, or this WNYC segment about that Brooklyn school integration/rezoning story.

Afternoon Video: WriteLab's Ballroom Dancing Matthew Ramirez

By far the most interesting of Forbes' 2016 30 Under 30: Education list is WteiLab's Matthew Remirez, who not only thinks that 90 percent of feedback kids need to learn writing can be automated but also has time to do some ballroom dancing (and showed off some moves on camera). Thanks to the folks at Forbes for digging out this embeddable video.

Morning Video: Big TV Surprise For VA Second-Grade Teacher

"The average U.S. teacher spends about $500 of their own money to outfit their classrooms each year, and one in 10 teachers says he or she spends more than $1,000 each year, according to the National School Supply and Equipment Association," notes the Washington Post (Ellen heaps prizes on teacher who pays for class supplies out of her own pocket). "Lots of times, teachers do this quietly, without fanfare or thanks. But earlier this month talk show host Ellen DeGeneres highlighted the hidden sacrifices of the nation’s teachers with a surprise for Meghan Bentley, a Virginia second-grade teacher."

#TBT: Carpetbaggers, Charlatans, Martyrs, & Hustlers -Which Are You?

Way back in August 2010, there was a bit of talk about charlatans in education.

First there was a Rudy Crew quote via Larry F. about all the attention and money going into school turnaround efforts ("Carpetbaggers And Charlatans"):

“This is like the aftermath of the Civil War, with all the carpetbaggers and charlatans." 

Then there was a diagram via Kottke with the three options (Charlatans. Martyrs. Hustlers.). 

"Charlatans talk a lot but don't do much work.  Martyrs work a lot but don't talk.  Hustlers do both."

At the time, I identified myself as "a hustler -- or maybe a charlatan.".  How about you?

Thanks to CB for reminding me of this one. 

 

Magazines: Education Companies To Work For Next?

Somehow I missed this from last February, but EdWeek tells us that Fast Company's Most Innovative Education Companies of 2015 includes several familiar names:

 

"This is the fifth year that the magazine has identified its Top 10 innovators among education enterprises. The magazine casts a wide net for organizations to be considered, according to David Lidsky, the deputy editor who is in charge of the lists. As they make their selections, the judging team looks for selections that “reflect the themes and ideas that have been prime areas of thought, debate, and work” among people in the field, he said in a phone interview."

 

Image via FastCompany.

 

Implementation: Delivering On Education, Then And Now

It took me a few minutes to figure out what Conor Williams was talking about in his latest oped for The Seventy Four (Education Politics vs. Practice) but eventually I figured out that it was implementation. 

"What if we considered implementation seriously when thinking about education policy? What if we started with our big priorities, and then mapped theories of action for putting them into place? What if we insisted on only pushing policies that would powerfully improve kids’ experiences at school?"

Apparently there's a new "deliverology" book out by Sir Michael Barber. 

Longtime readers may recall that I wrote about this approach to making better policy turn into better programs a few years ago, for Harvard Education Letter.

Back then, the question was whether states could implement the new programs and policies that they'd promised to tackle in their Race to the Top applications.

Take a look here.

I had forgotten that Kati Haycock was involved in the creation of the The Delivery Institute, along with Mike Cohen. Said Haycock at the time:

“We’ve got to get out of this cycle where we think the job is done when a policy gets enacted,” says Haycock. “When you know what’s in the policymaker’s head and you see how distant that is from the heads of the people on the ground, you can’t help but feel urgency on this."

Related posts: RTTT: "Implementation & Support Unit" Needs Results.

On The Hill: Teachers Unions Spend $3.7M Lobbying Congress In 2015, Reports Politico

"The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers are on track to spend $3.7 million combined lobbying Capitol Hill before 2015 is done," according to Maggie Severns in Politico.

Quotes: Bracing Test Score Results In New Jersey - But Now What?

There may have been a false sense of proficiency under the previous state testing regime.... [But] simply by providing [Common Core test score] information and assuming that teachers and administrative leaders have the capacity to take that information and translate it into better practice seems to be — I’m skeptical of that.

- Rutgers University's Drew Gitomer on PBS (What the first round of test results say about Common Core progress)

Quotes: (Some) Republican & Democratic Govs. (Still) Support Common Core

 

The 2014-2015 school year marked the first time, after an initial practice run, that Delaware, Georgia and many other states across the country implemented end-of-year assessments aligned to the Common Core. That makes this year the first that we'll have meaningful data to serve as a benchmark against which we can measure student performance for years to come.

-- Jack Markell and Sonny Perdue in US News (Common Core Tests Are Working)

Live Event: Shanker Institute #TeachingQuality Event

#teachingquality Tweets

Live tweets from the event are above. Panelists and moderators include Josh Starr, Randi Weingarten, Dan Weisberg, Rob Weil, Stephen Sawchuk. Or go here and read and watch and grab materials.

Quotes: PISA Data Suggests US Kids Not Tested More

U.S. teachers don’t write their own tests as often as teachers do in other nations. And U.S. students aren’t graded on their writing or projects as often as students elsewhere. In Finland, by contrast, student portfolios are frequently evaluated.

- Hechinger Report's Jill Barshay (Education myth: American students are over-tested)

Morning Video: Comedy Central Takes On Texas Textbooks

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore
Get More: The Nightly Show Full Episodes,The Nightly Show on Facebook,The Nightly Show Video Archive

Comedy Central's Larry Wilmore Skewers Textbook 'Whitewash' (featuring a made-up children's book called "Good Night, Slavery.") Warning: NSFW ("Good night to wrongs done in this nation. Good night Native American decimation.) I'm not sure how I feel about Wilmore reading this story aloud to real kids. Via EdWeek. 

Update: School-Level PISA Goes Online

As you may recall, the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] Test for Schools has been around a few years now, giving schools that sign up for the assessment a snapshot of how their kids are doing compared to nations and regions that also take the PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment].

In the spring 2014 Harvard Education Letter, I wrote a story about the effort (Quietly, a New Test Gains Advocates) that had been piloted at 105 schools in the 2012-2013 school year and nearly 300 schools last year.  

The latest news is that NWEA is going to administer the 2016 version, which will also be available online. According to EdWeek (OECD Chooses NWEA for Testing Contract, Platform), the test costs $5,000 per school and NWEA is taking over from CTB/McGraw-Hill. According to a press release, more than 400 schools have participated in recent years.

Via email, America Achieve's Peter Kannam says that the new online version wil cost only about half of the previous version, and that 153 U.S. schools took the assessment this past spring (65 were repeat participants) along with 92 schools across England and Wales.

See also THE Journal: Northwest Evaluation Association Selected To Deliver 2016 OECD Test for Schools; NWEA:  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Selects NWEA.

Related posts: Ripley "Less Certain" Of PISA Towards End Of Book; The "PISA Myth" Everyone Loves; Nightly News PISA Coverage (Rigor Vs. Poverty); Don't Blame Students' Poverty For Academic Achievement.

Quotes: Charter Alliance Head Slams Online Charters

"If you were to eliminate the (test scores of) online schools, the performance of the state would dramatically improve... I don't know if these online schools are the right fit in the charter model."

- NAPC head Nina Rees in The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Online schools creating divisions in national charter school movement)

Morning Video: If Friedrichs Passes, CTA "Won't Have The Money..."

"The California Teachers Empowerment Network and the Association of American Educators hosted an event in September in which we examined the Friedrichs and Bain lawsuits and their possible ramifications for teachers and the general public. The panel discussion featured lawyers and plaintiffs from both cases, and a lively audience Q&A followed. " via Larry Sand. 

Update: Network For Public Education & STAND Claim November Victories

The Network for Public Education has put out a list of electoral victories from earlier this month, including Helen Gym (Philadelphia, Suzie Abijian (South Pasadena), and several others.

The email acknowledges losses in Louisiana, blaming the defeat on lack of money. (There's no mention of labor or progressive backing of their candidates.) Click the link above for the full email. 

Meanwhile, there's an email from Stand for Children's Jonah Edelman touting recent election victories. As you can see, the focus is on Louisiana and Denver, where Stand and its allies generally prevailed.

There's no mention of races where things didn't work out so well -- I've asked for some additional information and will let you know what I get back. The full email is below. 

I'm still looking for a DFER brag sheet, and haven't seen a roundup from NEA or AFT now that I think of it. Tell them I'm looking, will you?

Related posts: States Where StudentsFirst Claims Victories - & What Comes Next; Where's Michelle Rhee (& What's StudentsFirst Up To Now)?; Effective Advocacy Doesn't Stop With Policy Wins.

Maps: Which States Have Reported Common Core Scores

Here EdWeek rounds up which states have reported Common Core scores -- though some data are already outdated. Read the whole story here. Image used with permission.

Philanthropy: Funding Public Charters (Broad) Vs. Funding Private Schools (Geffen)

And Eli Broad is the bad guy? Whatever you think of Broad strategy, he is trying to help kids who need it the most. https://t.co/fRuw0qObpq

— Neerav Kingsland (@NeeravKingsland) November 12, 2015

"And Eli Broad is the bad guy? Whatever you think of Broad strategy, he is trying to help kids who need it the most." Neerav Kingsland responding to news of David Geffen's $100 million donation to create a new private school at UCLA.

Morning Video: Struggling Schools Tries "Self-Organized" Learning

"A public elementary school in Harlem, New York, is adopting a radical idea that threatens the education industry as we know it, SOLEs, Self-Organized Learning Environments." From the PBS NewsHour -- includes reactions from teachers and a union rep. 

Charts: Impact Of Personalized Learning On Student Achievement

 
“The longer students experiences personalized learning practices, the greater their growth in achievement,” asserts a new report from the Gates Foundation (Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning) #inacol15

 

 

Maps: Most Grade 3-8 Students To Be Assessed Online in 2016

"For the first time, most state-required summative assessments in U.S. elementary and middle schools will be administered via technology rather than by paper and pencil in the 2015-16 school year, according to a report released Thursday by EdTech Strategies, LLC, a research and consulting firm." Edweek (Paperless Testing: Most Grade 3-8 Students To Be Assessed Online in 2016). 

Quotes: Zuckerberg's Philanthropy "Not That Much Different"

Whatever you may think of Zuckerberg’s philanthropy, in most ways it’s not that much different than that of a great many other funders who gone before him. The same can also be said of most tech leaders. A notable exception to this point is that Zuckerberg and other younger tech funders seem unlikely to create large bureaucratic organizations to give away their money.

- Inside Philanthropy's David Callahan (What Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Announcement Tells Us About the New Philanthropy)

Maps: How Many States Have "Repealed" Common Core, Again?

There's some energetic back and forth going on behind the scenes about the accuracy of this WSJ piece and how it codes the states (Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout), but that doesn't mean you can't read it and check out the map of states.

Charts: The Great Convergence (Of NAEP Scores, Demographically Adjusted)

"Once you control for demographics, nearly every state performs about the same," notes a recent post from Neerav Kingsland (NAEP and the Great Convergence). "only 4-5 states are outside of the +/- six month band... This feels like a great convergence of some sort."

 

 

Charters: When "Thin" Contracts Were All The Rage (2009)

There was a moment, maybe six or seven years years ago, when it seemed like charter schools with "thin" contracts were all the rage. 

They combined the autonomy and flexibility of a charter with the protections against unwarranted dismissal or arbitrary treatment from supervisors. But not all of the schools that had them performed as well as some may have hoped (just like teacher-run schools and every other type of governance option that's been proposed), and charter stalwarts and union hard-liners both hated them equally. 

I wrote about them in Harvard's Education Letter (RIP): Charters and Unions: What's the future for this unorthodox relationship?. But that was long ago. I declared them "so 2009" in 2011.

These days, pretty much only the Century Fund talks about them. Some giant percentage of the charters in Chicago are now organized, thanks in part to the efforts of a smooth-talking South African(?) union organizer who's never been seen or photographed. But not with thin contracts, as far as I understand. Much more common seem to be traditional (antagonistic) organizing/unionization efforts like the one currently going on in LA. 

Eventually, one would imagine, reform advocates and critics would get their acts together and return to an idea like this -- or a new generation of parents, funders, and politicians would get sick of the more rigid charter and union ideologies. But it's going to be a little while -- and going to take a lot of bravery. 

Related posts:Would Unions Ruin Charter Schools -- Or Vice Versa? (2009); Thin Contract At Locke High School.; The Return Of The "Thin" Contract? (2010); "Smarter" Charters Are Diverse, Teacher-Led (2014); 

Campaign 2016: A Teacher-Led Campaign PAC

Had a great time in LA leading a forum w/ @GovHowardDean & @SteveBarrLA about our educational advocacy! #Hillary2016 pic.twitter.com/tT4VnpVlmu

— America's Teachers (@americateachers) October 22, 2015

More and more, it feels like it's going to take something new or different to break the current stalemate on education changes.

So it's hard not to be curious about America's Teachers, the teacher-led pro-Hillary PAC that popped up in the LA Times a few days ago. They two teachers behind the effort are TFA and union members. Take that reformers/critics.

 According to the America's Teachers site, "Teachers aren’t supposed to start Super PAC’s. That’s exactly why we created one." The priorities are universal preschool, college affordability, and education rights from DREAMers.

According to the LA Times (Meet the teacher lobby behind Hillary Clinton that's not the teachers union), the group's goals are to make sure that Hillary Clinton hears "from more than just unions or reformers." One main strategy is to focus on "friendlier, softer issues" rather than closing schools and limiting tenure.

What form "something new" is going to take, nobody quite knows. And not all of the new approaches coming along are going to be able to survive, much less thrive. Previous attempts at a middle-ground approach -- remember "thin" contracts for charters, anyone? -- have ended up being ignored even opposed by both of the major sides (who appear at times to prefer trench warfare to progress). And as soon as new people and approaches show up -- think Deray McKesson and Black Lives Matter -- they're claimed by one side and/or vilified by the other.

But eventually something/someone new is going to come along that's so compelling to the public and policymakers that entrenched interests can't ignore or avoid it any longer. The only real question in my mind is who/what will it be?