Category Archives: Best Practices

by | November 12, 2007 · 4:59 pm

The political landscape of NCLB may be changing

It is increasingly looking likely that there will not be any legislative movement to reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB) before the next election. At the same time, it’s worth mentioning the results from the last Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll published in August (the grandaddy of polling American’s attitudes towards public schools for the past 39 years). In the conclusion sections you’ll see that the public is shifting quite significantly away from this public policy. One of the most encouraging results (see table 14 in the report) is the growing disenchantment with the increasing reliance on standardized testing. As the pollsters’ conclusions suggested, it is probably no coincidence that the criticism of standardized testing has developed since this form of appraisal became the principal strategy in implementing NCLB.

Robert Godfrey

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Gimme Some Truth, National News, nclb, No Child Left Behind

by | November 10, 2007 · 6:57 pm

What George Fails To Mention Could Fill a Book

From Richard Russell, via the Progressive Dane email list (posted with permission).

The op. ed. referenced can be found here. More on this story on AMPS here.

What George Fails To Mention Could Fill a Book

I used to be one of the “educrats” whom George Lightbourn belittles in his essay “School choice is working and should be expanded”. Now retired, I spent my professional career as an analyst for the Department of Public Instruction. For part of that time, my opposite number at the Department of Administration was a bright, insightful, competent (and, as it turns out, ambitious) young guy named … George Lightbourn. Yes, George fails to mention that he himself got his start as an “educrat”.

But that’s only one of many things that George — now in the pay of the corporate-backed Wisconsin Policy Research Institute think tank — fails to mention.

For instance, he insists that parents should have the right to choose the school their children attend. And so they do. Guaranteed by law. What he fails to mention is that the general public is under absolutely no moral or legal obligation to pay for it.

Even though WPRI now recognizes that parents aren’t doing a particularly good job of choosing schools for their children, George contends that they alone should make the call. Another thing he fails to mention is that raising children is a responsibility shared between parents and society as a whole. It’s the entire culture that insists that kids be immunized, fed, clothed, and schooled (and, in societies more enlightened than ours, provided with health care), and gets downright intolerant of parents who abuse or neglect their kids, or try to use them as cheap labor.

George also fails to mention that public-school choice is a direct competitor against the darling of the neocon movement: PRIVATE-school choice. And, while WPRI was happy to do a study showing the shortcomings of PUBLIC-school choice, the right wing has resisted every effort to subject PRIVATE-school choice to comparable scrutiny.

The reason for this is simple. When Milwaukee’s program was first instituted as a limited experiment, it had an evaluation component. After 5 years, the study (headed by highly respected UW-Milwaukee Education Professor Alex Molnar) had piled up lots of data, the reports were filed, and the private-school kids had done no better than their public-school counterparts. This was a far cry from the glories that had been promised when the “experiment” was begun. The reaction of Gov. Tommy Thompson’s administration? Declare victory, remove the “experimental” tag, expand the program, and eliminate the evaluation! To this day, the private schools are exempt from the kind of accountability that the public schools face on a daily basis.

George advances the corporatist party line that the invisible hand of the market will inevitably cause top-quality schools to bubble up to the top. Quality, quality, quality. That’s all anybody ever looks for in a school, according to the propaganda. The George Lightbourn of a quarter century ago would not have been so naïve as to presume (nor so disingenuous as to pretend) that this is remotely close to reality. I could cite several dozen reasons OTHER than quality that parents use in choosing schools, but just consider a couple of parallel situations: entertainment (vigorous exercise vs. violent video games) and nutrition (a healthy, balanced diet vs. junk food). Those choices are just as free and unfettered as they are with respect to the schools. Do parents invariably choose quality, 100% of the time? The correct answer is another thing George fails to mention.

George also fails to mention that WPRI’s cover has long since been blown. It’s clearly a front for the twin pillars of neoconservatism: corporations and churches. Neither of these institutions is primarily concerned with children as human beings. The former wants their money; the latter wants their souls. They’d be thrilled to see what they derogate as “government schools” close up shop altogether. But they DO foresee a role for government in the final picture: as an endless source of funding.

For the rest of us, their hope is that we’ll end up like George Lightbourn: glossing over the whole truth to focus on the party line, ignoring the big picture for the big bucks.

I suppose it’s POSSIBLE that WPRI could be the source of an honest study on education. It’s also POSSIBLE that the tobacco industry could have done honest research into the health effects of smoking. Sometimes honesty really IS the best policy, if it furthers your agenda. But keen observers will always want to know: Even if what you DID show us is true, what is it you’re NOT telling us? What do you fail to mention?

Now, these folks will undoubtedly counter that we advocates for the public schools have an agenda of our own. And they’re right. We do. It was best stated about a century ago by John Dewey: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children.”

George fails to mention that, too.

Richard S. Russell

The 5 greatest bargains in America:
(1) sunshine
(2) fresh air
(3) clean water
(4) public libraries
(5) public schools

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Accountability, AMPS, Best Practices, Gimme Some Truth, Local News

by | November 10, 2007 · 12:17 am

Quote of the Day

We don’t usually venture into higher ed, but the local angle, the applicability to k-12 education and the fact that it comes from one of my favorite education bloggers (and historians of education) inspired this exception:

Wisconsin is essentially drinking the Kool-Aid of poorly-constructed standardized testing as a proxy for accountability.

Sherman Dorn

The context is the University of Wisconsin’s preemptive and premature embrace of an unproven and unwise accountability system.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Accountability, AMPS, Best Practices, Local News, National News, Quote of the Day

by | November 8, 2007 · 8:23 pm

Teacher shows folly of No Child Left Behind

Dave Zweifel on high stakes testing in Madison:

“David Wasserman, the Sennett Middle School teacher who was threatened with firing when he refused to administer one of those questionable No Child Left Behind tests, needs to be commended for having the courage to open a few eyes.

Wasserman eventually administered the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam when he learned his protest was a firable offense. He was prepared to accept a reprimand, but, like most of us, he needs his job and the family health insurance that goes with it.

His actions, though, served to get the NCLB issue on the table where it needs to be thoroughly examined not just by educators, but by everyone concerned about the direction of our schools. It’s one of those tough ones to oppose — who, after all, doesn’t want to make sure that no school child is left behind? — but it’s just another example of how this administration has succeeded in hoodwinking the country with empty and optimistic promises. A quick war in Iraq, but one example.

Rather than training young people to be well-rounded adult citizens, the act has forced teachers to teach only for tests that are focused on mathematics and reading, subjects held in high regard by corporate America.

Meanwhile, courses that make up the bedrock of good citizenship — history, social studies, arts, music, geography and science — get short shrift because if the kids don’t do well enough in those reading and math tests, their schools will be penalized.

Just last week the Chicago Tribune ran a story on Huntley High School in the city’s suburbs, a school that has doubled its student enrollment over five years and has had to hire 30 new teachers fresh out of college to take care of them.

But, because the NCLB act allows no consideration for any outside forces that may impact a school, Huntley High is given no slack as it works to get those 30 teachers up to par. Education experts say it takes teachers two or three years just to learn the school climate.

Another story detailed how the act requires that special education students meet the same test standards.

“It’s a great theory. Of course we want all students to do well, but it doesn’t always work that way,” one teacher lamented.

In Illinois, 297 schools failed to meet the NCLB standards this year. A third of them did so solely because their special ed kids couldn’t meet the requirements.

Problems like that have been reported throughout the country, but the administration and Congress act as though everything is going well. Just this week, a congressional committee that was working on improving the act signalled that it wouldn’t get to it this year.

Maybe — just maybe — teachers like David Wasserman can wake them up.”

Robert Godfrey

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by | November 8, 2007 · 5:41 pm

Ohio Goes After Charter Schools That Are Failing

The New York Times chronicles the wide spread phenomenon of failing charter schools in Ohio.

Ohio became a test tube for the nation’s charter school movement during a decade of Republican rule here, when a wide-open authorization system and plenty of government seed money led to the schools’ explosive proliferation.

But their record has been spotty. This year, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.

Now its Democratic governor and attorney general, elected when Democrats won five of Ohio’s six top posts last November, are cracking down on the schools, which receive public money but are run by independent operators. And across the country, charter school advocates are watching nervously, fearful the backlash could spread.

Some 4,000 charter schools now operate across the nation, most advertising themselves as a smaller, safer alternative to the neighborhood school. Nationwide, the movement has gained traction among Democrats, partly because of the successes of a few quality nonprofit operators.

But some charters are mediocre, and Ohio has a far higher failure rate than most states. Fifty-seven percent of its charter schools, most of which are in cities, are in academic watch or emergency, compared with 43 percent of traditional public schools in Ohio’s big cities.

Behind the Ohio charter failures are systemic weaknesses that include loopholes in oversight, a law allowing 70 government and private agencies to authorize new charters, and financial incentives that encourage sponsors to let schools stay open.

Robert Godfrey

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Gimme Some Truth, National News, No Child Left Behind, We Are Not Alone

by | November 6, 2007 · 8:47 pm

Behind the Praise for Ability Grouping …The Truth

The Washington Post’s education coverage — beginning with columnist Jay Mathews and extending to beat reporters — is generally more faith than reality based. A recent story praising a Montgomery Co., MD school is no exception. Luckily, this time Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler was on the case.

From the WaPo Story:

Roberson and the Rock View faculty are having remarkable success lifting children out of that gap, the achievement gap that separates poor and minority children from other students and represents one of public education’s most intractable problems.

They have done it with an unusual approach. The Kensington school’s 497 students are grouped into classrooms according to reading and math ability for more than half of the instructional day.

From Somerby:

Has Rock View Elementary made score gains during the four-year period in question? Absolutely. In 2003, 63 percent of its fifth-graders scored proficient in reading; in 2007, 75 percent passed. But guess what? In that same period, the state of Maryland as a whole recorded very similar gains, going from 66 percent in 2003 to 77 percent in 2007. (Links to all data below.) By the way: Did Maryland’s fifth-graders improve at reading during this period—or did the state’s fifth-grade reading test get easier? We have no way to sort that out. (Other explanations are possible.) But in Grade 5, Rock View’s score gain is not “remarkable” in the way de Vise suggests. It virtually matches the state-wide result.

And uh-oh! The comparison is slightly less flattering for Rock View when it comes to Grade 3 (though the differences here are all trivial). How does the school compare to the state? In 2003, 66 percent of Rock View’s third-graders scored proficient on Maryland’s reading test. In 2007, the school’s passing rate was much higher: 85 percent. But as a w hole, the state of Maryland recorded a larger score gain during this period. In 2003, 58 percent of the state’s third-graders scored proficient in reading. In 2007, it was 80 percent. In Grade 3, Rock View’s score gain wasn’t “remarkable” at all. It was actually smaller than the gain achieved by the state as a whole.

Let’s make sure we’re all semi-clear: This doesn’t make Rock View a bad school, or anything like it. And it doesn’t mean there’ something wrong with the educational changes the school has made. Beyond that, there may be ways Rock View has progressed that somehow exceed the state as a whole,. But we’ll never learn such things from the Post.

This report from Science Daily (unmentioned in the WaPo article) may also be of interest: Grouping Kids By Ability Harms Education, Two Studies Show

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | November 6, 2007 · 4:04 pm

New Study: Private High Schools Are “Not” Better Academically Than Public High Schools

Report: Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?

This study, based on an analysis of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988-2000, finds that, once family background characteristics are taken into account, low-income students attending public urban high schools generally performed as well academically as students attending private high schools. The study also found that students attending traditional public high schools were as likely to attend college as those attending private high schools. In addition, the report also finds that young adults who had attended any type of private high school were no more likely to enjoy job satisfaction or to be engaged in civic activities at age 26 than those who had attended traditional public high schools.

Robert Godfrey

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by | October 24, 2007 · 9:19 pm

A Surprise Report – What’s Going On Here?

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s October 23rd edition is a report about a new study from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank that has supported school choice for almost two decades, and Milwaukee has been a major part of their focus since it became the nation’s premier center for trying the idea. This is an institute that is funded largely by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a strong advocate of school choice. For this study, it only examined parents choosing public schools within the Milwaukee Public Schools system. It does not discuss those who select private schools in the publicly funded voucher program or charter schools that are not affiliated with MPS.

From the Journal Sentinel article:

That reality [of the study] can be summed up in two phrases: “bad schools” and “little change.”

Bad schools: A Journal Sentinel investigative report in 2005 of the then-115 schools in the voucher program found that about 10% showed startling signs of weak operations. In short, many parents were choosing bad schools and sticking with them. Escalated government oversight of schools’ business practices and a new requirement that all voucher schools be accredited by an outside organization have played roles in putting most of those schools out of business.

Little change: Milwaukee has been a national laboratory for school reform such as the voucher program, yet there is little evidence that it has yielded substantially improved academic results – at least so far. Test scores in MPS, especially for 10th-graders, have been generally flat for years. The record of the voucher schools is unclear, though results from a major study of the program are supposed to begin coming soon.

One of the main arguments for school choice was that, with little government oversight of schools, parental decisions in a free market would dictate which schools thrive. However, the results of this study proved otherwise.

The overall conclusion: Only 10% of MPS parents make school choices by a process that involves considering at least two schools and that brings academic performance data from a school into the choice.

“Given this number, it seems unlikely that MPS schools are feeling the pressure of a genuine educational marketplace,” wrote the report’s author, researcher David Dodenhoff.

Not surprisingly, the authors concluded,

“The report you are reading did not yield the results we had hoped to find” George Lightbourn, a senior fellow at the institute, wrote in the paper’s first sentence.

It is worth noting that this is the same institute that has issued reports attacking choice critics, contesting for example the widely accepted idea that class size reduction has an effect on academic achievement.

One has to wonder if the assumptions of this report are correct, then how much is left of the argument for choice? If the market for choice doesn’t work, then what is left for this concept?

Robert Godfrey

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by | October 24, 2007 · 4:07 pm

MMSD Superintendent Ad

Posted on Education Week

Superintendent
Madison Metropolitan SD
Madison, WI

The Madison Metropolitan School District serves 25,000 students in the capital city of Wisconsin. The school board seeks a student-centered educational leader with demonstrated success in a diverse environment. The successful candidate should offer leadership to challenge and engage students at all points along the education performance continuum. He/she must be a collaborative and visionary leader with unquestioned integrity. The new superintendent also must possess excellent organizational and fiscal management skills.

The board desires an accessible superintendent with the ability to develop positive working relationships and deal fairly with a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders. The new superintendent must be a consensus builder who considers all points of view before making decisions.
For more information about this highly desirable district and opportunity,
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An Equal Opportunity Employer

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | October 24, 2007 · 4:09 am

Another Principal for a Day

Anjuman Ali of the Wisconsin State Journal was another Foundation for Madison Public Schools principal for a day (see here for Dave Zweifel’s report). Ali was at JC Wright Middle School, where our older son attends.

Where Zweifel ended with the most important message, Ali begins with it:

Madison’s schools are doing a remarkable job of educating children despite challenges posed by changing demographics and shrinking budgets.

But schools need our help to keep giving kids the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life.

Ali’s words of praise for the Wright staff also ring true:

At Wright, I interacted with an extraordinary group of educators and staff, including Principal Nancy Evans.

As a parent, I can’t say enough good things about Nancy Evans and the entire staff at Wright.

The column highlights the insufficient resources we provide to schools:

There is a looming crisis in K-12 education not just in Madison, but also in other Wisconsin municipalities. And lawmakers, school officials and others have to recognize the magnitude of this crisis and act now.

Much of the budgetary crunch is due to Wisconsin’s school funding formula, which is seriously outdated. The revenue limits do not allow property taxes and state aid to keep up with rising costs. Lawmakers need to examine and change this system. Meanwhile, school districts have no option but to continue to find ways to become leaner

Ali calls for more volunteerism, more help from businesses and individuals and a plea to do what you can to make sure our children have the schools they deserve.

The city and the state’s healthy future depends on children getting a quality education and life skills. Please consider contributing to their success by supporting Madison’s public schools.

I agree with all of this, although I’d put a little more emphasis on enacting a school finance system that would make private contributions a bonus and not a necessity.

Thomas J. Mertz

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