Category Archives: National News

by | November 7, 2007 · 5:42 pm

Election Roundup

The biggest news is the overwhelming rejection of a statewide voucher plan in Utah.

Washington State has a requirement of a 60% super majority for school levies. There was a ballot measure to require only a simple majority. Returns aren’t final, but it appears to be failing. More info here.

Update: Voters say no to simple majority.

Many, many referenda in Minnesota (99 total, the second most in state history). 67.6% of the operating levy referenda passed; 50% of the districts asking for bond referenda and capital projects passed at least one request. For more, see these links:

Districts reel from levy failures

School levy wins don’t quiet calls for more state cash

School funding advocates offer day-after commentary on school levy elections

Latest: What’s next for schools? For many, plans for next referendum

Complete list of School Districts’ Referendum Results ( Minnesota School Boards Association)

Closer to home, there were a number of school referenda on the ballot Tuesday (and a few others, from September and October).

Voters Approve Abbotsford School Referendum (building).

Abbotsford passes $12 million building referendum

Denmark referendum fails for fourth time (building, maintenance and operation).

Galesville-Ettrick Voters Pass School Referendums (building).

Genoa City (building — I can’t find a report yet, but it passed, 250-227). Update: ‘Yes’ to school project.

Hartford voters reject school referendums (building and operating).

Holmen voters approve both school referendum questions (building and operation).

Lake Mills board members review failed referendum (10/2/07, building, maintenance, technology).

Montello considers program cuts (9/11/07, building and operating, failed).

New Glarus School Referendum Passes by 11 Votes (10/09/07, operating, see also here on AMPS).

Voters pass Prairie du Chien school issues (10/30/07, building and refinance).

Prescott school referendum passes (operating).

New Sun Prairie school approved (pool and pool operating failed).

West Bend rejects school referendum: It would have been state’s largest (building).

Park Falls/Butternut consolidation — Butternut voters reject Park Falls/Butternut consolidation (Park Falls voters voted yes, 965-389). More on Park Falls on AMPS here).

Thomas J. Mertz

(updated, 11/07/2007, 7:10 PM)

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Local News, National News, Referenda, School Finance, 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 | October 15, 2007 · 10:12 pm

More Presidential Education Info

I want to thank Jerry for his post and add a few things.

The Education Writers Association is doing an Education Election blog with regular updates.

Teacherken at the Education Policy Blog and the dailykos has posts up on Obama, Richardson and Edwards education statements. They are worth reading in full, but the titles give some idea:

Obama on education – decent, not spectacular

Richardson: education plan & conference call, but really not ready

A very good Education Plan from John Edwards

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | September 7, 2007 · 8:12 pm

When Race Matters

As Susan Troller recently explored, the demographics of MMSD continue to move toward more minorities and more poverty (the story was quite good and the comments are worth a look too). This essay from the Teacher’s College Record by Sean P. Corcoran & Jennifer Booher-Jennings of New York University offers a nice overview of research that demonstrates the continued salience of race in the quest for equity or equality of educational opportunity — particularly in reference to teacher “quality” — in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision.

Excerpt:

The Court’s decision to ban the use of race in school assignment may only serve to exacerbate the unequal distribution of teachers across schools. Through teachers’ “preference for home,” the nation’s residentially segregated communities are already mirrored in the segregation of teachers and teaching talent across schools. Where racially isolated schools serve as a deterrent to new teachers, any decision that further isolates minority students in individual schools will only accelerate the loss of talented teachers from high-minority schools. In integrated schools, children of color benefit from a cadre of higher-caliber teachers they simply would not have access to were their schools racially segregated

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | September 4, 2007 · 8:32 pm

Charter Problems in Oshkosh and Appleton

$600,000 of federal funding for charter schools that the Appleton district was counting on and $150,000 of funding for Oshkosh is in jeapardy.

At issue is the degree of autonomy the charters enjoy. In order to receive the monies, the schools must give the federal authorities “proof showing that the charter schools have autonomy in such areas as curriculum, budgeting and governance.” In Wisconsin, charter schools are legally “instrumentalities” of their school districts, an arrangement that may make it impossible to meet the federal requirements.

Barb Herzog of the Oshkosh district explains the predicament:

Barb Herzog, executive director of administration for the Oshkosh school district, said while all three schools already have their own governing board, the district doesn’t have an interest in making charter schools totally independent of the school board because there aren’t funds to do that.

Herzog said if the charter schools were to become totally independent they would have to become responsible for staffing, building, insurance and other costs on their own.

“Even though the charter grants are substantial, it still wouldn’t be enough money to do that,” Herzog said. “They rely on support from the district.”

Never count your chickens until they hatch; never count your federal money till the check is cashed.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | August 28, 2007 · 7:37 pm

Teaching to the Test

Sherman Dorn has a good post on the new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of public attitudes towards public education.

Excerpt:

My nomination for most significant result is from Table 14, asked of those who agreed in a prior question that “standardized tests encourage teachers to ‘teach to the test,’ that is, concentrate on teaching their students to pass the tests rather than teaching the subject.” The majorities answering yes to that first question (in Table 13) haven’t changed much between 2003 (when 68% of public-school parents and 64% of adults without children in school said yes, standardized testing encouraged teaching to the test) and 2007 (with 75% and 66% of each group saying testing encouraged teaching to the test).

While a clear majority has always seen testing as encouraging teaching to the test, American adults have changed their mind on whether that is good or not. In 2003, 40% of surveyed parents with children in public schools thought that teaching to the test was a good thing. This fits in well with arguments by David Labaree, Jennifer Hochschild, and Nathan Scovronick that a good part of the appeal of public schooling is to serve private purposes, giving children a leg up in a competitive environment. In that context, it makes enormous sense to value teaching to the test, since many parents understand how college admissions tests are related to access to selective institutions and scholarships. While 58% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test was a bad idea in 2003, a sizable minority thought it was just fine.

That opinion has changed, dramatically. In the 2007 poll, only 17% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test was a good thing. Fewer than one-half of one percent had no opinion, and 83% of public-school parents thought that teaching to the test is a bad thing. Adults who did not have children in school also have changed their minds, with 22% of those surveyed this year thinking that teaching to the test is a good thing.

Despite these findings, I don’t see an end to the obsession with standardized test data as the measure of districts, schools, teachers and students in the near future and this means that those who teach and learn “to the test” will continue to be praised and the discussion of what we want from our schools will continue to begin and end with test scores.

As always, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing has much to offer on testing in American education.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | August 21, 2007 · 3:15 pm

The Teacher Voice in Data-Driven Accountability

From Randi Weingarten (President of the United Federation of Teachers, NY), via EdWonk.

Excerpt:

We hear a lot these days about what I call “3-D reform,”—data-driven decision making and about using tests to improve teaching and learning. Sadly, in this respect, too often, testing has replaced instruction; data has replaced professional judgment; compliance has replaced excellence; and so-called leadership has replaced teacher professionalism.

What is really happening is that more than ever there is this industrial techno-centric view of teachers as interchangeable cogs in an education enterprise. This approach rewards their compliance above their creativity, and results in the denigration of teachers and disregard for their contributions to learning.

Consequently, and with good reason, teachers often say they feel they are the targets and not the agents of reform. Their “wisdom of practice” and real world experience with children is discounted or disregarded in policy-making deliberations and decision making.

Teachers’ voices must be an integral part of the conversation; they are on the ground, they know what works, they know what kids need to succeed, and we must attend to their experiences, suggestions and requests.

When faced with dilemmas of public education, the route of “least resistance” and, I might add, of least effectiveness, is the “teacher proof” road. Rather than invest in teachers, and capitalize on their knowledge, policymakers and administrators attempt to create systems that they hope will obviate the need for excellent teachers. They attempt to substitute cook book curricula, step-by-step instructional practices, computer-based instruction and bubble-in testing, instead of rich, student-centered teaching and learning.

Read the full post.

I’ve long counseled “data guided” policy and practice and agree with most of what Ms Weingarten has to say.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | August 17, 2007 · 7:23 pm

What Works? Reading Recovery!

The Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse has released their evaluation of early reading programs and the top rated program is Reading Recovery.

From Education Week:

Just one program was found to have positive effects or potentially positive effects across all four of the domains in the review—alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, and general reading achievement. That program, Reading Recovery, an intensive, one-on-one tutoring program, has drawn criticism over the past few years from prominent researchers and federal officials who claimed it was not scientifically based.

Federal officials and contractors tried to discourage states and districts from using Reading Recovery in schools participating in the federal Reading First program, citing a lack of evidence that it helps struggling readers.

“Tried to discourage” is a little mild considering what happened in Madison. Can we get our $2 Million now (with interest)?

More on Reading First from Jim Horn at Schools Matter

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | August 8, 2007 · 9:38 pm

Early-childhood program pays for itself, study finds

A new longitudinal study shows the effectiveness of intense early education intervention in our schools.

excerpts:

“More than 20 years later, educational attainment is higher and felony arrests are lower for the alumni of a Chicago early-intervention program for low-income children.

The enrollees, who are now in their late 20s, are also less likely to describe themselves as depressed and more likely to have health insurance, according to a follow-up study released this week.

According to co-author Arthur J. Reynolds, a child-development professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the gains in terms of reduced social-welfare costs already have far exceeded the program’s $5,000 per student-year cost to the Chicago public school system.

“By the time they’re 65, a conservative estimate would be a 10-to-1 gain,” Reynolds said, considering reduced societal costs for remedial education, health care, incarceration and underemployment.”
……..
“These results have profound and encouraging implications for our ability to close the achievement gap” among disadvantaged children, said Gordon Berlin, the president of MDRC, a New York nonprofit agency that identifies social policy strategies that work.
………..
“This study begins to answer the question of whether a high-quality intervention could fortify Head Start and other early-childhood interventions, and power bigger results.”

Robert Godfrey

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by | August 2, 2007 · 4:33 pm

(anti) NCLB Video

From Susan Ohanian via the Educator Roundtable and the Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting Agency (EDDRA)

Click here to watch.

Thomas J. Mertz

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