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I was a little surprised by the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)' response to my recent Wisconsin Interest piece on the district's long-term fiscal challenges. Specifically, I was confused by the following two paragraphs in a blog item posted yesterday by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel education reporter Erin Richards:MPS officials on Wednesday objected to the assertion that the district is headed toward financial insolvency. They reiterated that they have raised the minimum retirement age, raised the number of years needed to reach retirement, and increased future retiree contributions, all of which should make a significant impact on legacy costs.MPS Spokesman Tony Tagliavia reported there is a report coming out in the coming months that will reflect the impact of the changes made.First off, my article makes clear that I took MPS' aggressive actions to address their legacy costs into account (Incidentally I have also blogged about these actions and applauded MPS as they have been taken). In the article I write:
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After scrounging up $6.7 million to preserve free after-school care, the Los Angeles Unified board on Thursday approved a $6.3 billion budget that shortens the 2012-13 school year, eliminates thousands of jobs and reshapes some of the district's most iconic programs.The Los Angeles School District's 2011-2012 enrollment was 677,538 ($9,298.37/student spending). Madison spent $14,858/student during the 2011-2012 fiscal year, 40% more than Los Angeles.The board's 6-1 vote, with South Bay representative Richard Vladovic dissenting, capped an 11th-hour scramble to salvage the Beyond the Bell after-school program. It operates from 3-6 p.m. weekdays at every elementary and middle school in the district.
About $4 million will come from money the district had set aside to put a parcel tax on the 2013 ballot -- although district officials are still considering that plan -- and the balance from an unexpected surplus in preschool revenue in the state budget that Gov. Jerry Brown signed on Wednesday.
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When Teach for America alumnus Bill Ferguson took on six-term incumbent George Della for a Maryland Senate seat two years ago, he benefited from the energetic support of his fellow Teach for America alumni--but he had to overcome the strident opposition of the teachers' unions.Ferguson upset Della in the Democratic primary and went on to win the general election, making him only the second Teach for America alumnus to secure a seat in a state legislature--following Mike Johnston, who joined the Colorado Senate in 2009.
Johnston and Ferguson aren't likely to be alone for long: At least six TFA alumni are running for state legislatures this year, and many others are running for boards of education. Like Ferguson and Johnston, most of these former teachers likely will have to overcome union opposition to win.
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Editor's note: America isn't the only place where school choice raises questions about not only education, but pluralism, citizenship and social integration. Noted school choice expert Charles Glenn, a Boston University professor and American Center for School Choice associate, writes that European countries with far more evolved choice systems continue to wrestle with these issues - but have no reason to fear faith-based schools.Early in June I was one of the speakers at a conference on educational freedom in The Netherlands and Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). It is no exaggeration to say these are the poster children of "school choice," the two areas where its implications have been worked out most fully over the past two centuries (see my Contrasting Models of State and School, Continuum, 2011). Today, upwards of two-thirds of pupils in this area of some 23 million inhabitants attend non-government schools with full public funding.
Much of the discussion among the participants was about the details of how schools have been able - or not - to preserve their independence in the face of government regulation. I will not try to summarize that discussion here, except to note that as always the devil is in the details and we can learn a great deal from the experience over many decades of the interaction between schools seeking to maintain a distinctive religious or pedagogical character and government officials seeking to impose common standards. (The updated 2012 edition of Balancing Freedom, Autonomy, and Accountability in Education will include, in four volumes, detailed descriptions of how this relationship plays out in nearly 60 countries, most of them written by leading education law experts from each country, including these two.)
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The 25.4 percent increase -- from $43.3 million to $54.3 million -- is the fifth-largest percent increase among the state's 424 districts and by far the largest dollar amount increase.Related: Notes and links on Madison's 2012-2013 $374,700,000 budget.Madison's increase accounts for more than half of the $21.1 million increase in state aid for districts next school year.
School Board President James Howard said the development was good news, though he wouldn't speculate whether the board would keep current spending levels or increase the preliminary $376.2 million budget when it takes up final approval of the tax levy in October.
.....
Howard, who was the only board member who voted against the preliminary budget, said he questions why the district was so far off in its state aid estimate, adding "there has always been discussion about why do we need to approve budgets so early."
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Florida's public schools were handed another solid but overlooked report card this week from another respected, independent source.Related: Excellence in Education explains Florida's reading reforms and compares Florida's NAEP progress with Wisconsin's at the July 29th Read to Lead task force meeting.The 27-page, data-stuffed, "Decade of Progress" progress report from the Southern Regional Education Board is yet more evidence that Florida's public schools are making steady progress despite the claims of some critics. The trend lines are often especially strong for low-income and minority students.
For example, between 2003 and 2011, the percentage of low-income eighth-graders scoring at the basic level or above on the reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress rose from 55 to 65 percent in Florida - a 10-point gain. Over the same period, the percentage of more affluent eighth-graders who reached the bar rose 5 percentage points, from 78 to 83 percent.
For each of its 16 member states, the SREB looked at a wide array of academic indicators to see how much the needle moved over the past decade, and how those gains or losses compared nationally and regionally. Besides commonly cited indicators like NAEP scores, graduation rates and AP results, the board looked at less-publicized statistics like college enrollment rates, ninth-grade "enrollment bulges" and grade-level progression in high school.
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When Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church, Va., recently renovated its classrooms, Vern Williams, who might be the best math teacher in the country, had to fight to keep his blackboard. The school was putting in new "interactive whiteboards" in every room, part of a broader effort to increase the use of technology in education. That might sound like a welcome change. But this effort, part of a nationwide trend, is undermining American education, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. It is beginning to do to our educational system what the transformation to industrial agriculture has done to our food system over the past half century: efficiently produce a deluge of cheap, empty calories.I went to see Williams because he was famous when I was in middle school 20 years ago, at a different school in the same county. Longfellow's teams have been state champions for 24 of the last 29 years in MathCounts, a competition for middle schoolers. Williams was the only actual teacher on a 17-member National Mathematics Advisory Panel that reported to President Bush in 2008.
Williams doesn't just prefer his old chalkboard to the high-tech version. His kids learn from textbooks that are decades old--not because they can't afford new ones, but because Williams and a handful of his like-minded colleagues know the old ones are better. The school's parent-teacher association buys them from used bookstores because the county won't pay for them (despite the plentiful money for technology). His preferred algebra book, he says, is "in-your-face algebra. They give amazing outstanding examples. They teach the lessons."
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Eric Nadelstern, via a kind Deb Britt email:
A growing number of districts have begun to understand that changing the role of the central office and giving principals more control over their schools' money can yield dividends in improving student achievement. These districts don't think the central office or any single organization can meet the needs of a diverse set of schools. They therefore allow schools to use their money to buy services from any vendor they choose, and encourage formation of a rich supply of independent support providers.This paper is a personal account by Eric Nadelstern, a co-architect and collaborator to then-chancellor Joel Klein, about the effort in New York City to change the central office and create a system of support organizations to oversee networks of autonomous schools. The story of New York City shows how early investments in local outside organizations can lay the groundwork for this evolution, as well as how strongly political and community interests may resist this effort.
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Steve Rankin, via a kind reader's email:
The State Journal demonstrates once again that it values students primarily as athletes. If your gifts lie elsewhere, look for validation elsewhere.Sunday's paper devoted pages to the area "athletes of the year" -- and that was only to cover spring sports. Every week includes "prep profiles," again glorifying athletes.
Once a year the paper used to run a feature section on the top 4 percent of Dane County graduating seniors as scholars, but that section has been discontinued.
This year's National Merit scholars, most of whom were announced to the press in April, are still a secret here. Music and theater are nowhere to be found, even though Madison is home to an entirely student-run orchestra. So kids, be a jock or get out of town!
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The Sonnets presents William Shakespeare's immortal collection of love poems in an interactive digital edition that allows you to explore, appreciate and understand this great work of literature as never before. All 154 sonnets are performed to camera by a star-studded cast including Sir Patrick Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men, Royal Shakespeare Company), David Tennant (Dr Who, Hamlet), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City), Fiona Shaw (The Waste Land, Harry Potter), Stephen Fry (The Hobbit) and Dominic West (The Wire). These performances - all specially filmed for the app - are synchronised to the text, which highlights line by line as each sonnet is spoken.Touch Press does beautiful work.
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There are times when Hayley Goldberg wishes she knew Chinese and could offer more help to her daughter Ativa. A Primary Two pupil, Ativa attends a local school in Ma On Shan, where every subject apart from English is taught and assessed in Chinese."At the beginning there were six notices from the school every second day. I didn't know what was going on," says Goldberg, a South African who teaches at an international school. "I have to get everything translated by my students. It's crazy that I can't be a part of my child's life."
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The official agent in Beijing for universities in the elite Russell Group claimed that it could secure over-subscribed places for a Chinese student purporting to have scored three C grades in their A-levels - when British students are required to have at least A, A and B.Undercover reporters were also told to tell the UK authorities that the student would be returning home immediately after graduation - even if that was not their intention - in order to secure a visa.
Universities were accused of profiteering by rejecting tens of thousands of British teenagers, currently sitting A-levels, so they can fill places with more profitable foreign students.
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A virtual charter school with the potential to siphon millions of dollars from traditional public schools will pit school-choice advocates against the state's education establishment at a Monday court hearing.A Wake County Superior Court judge is scheduled to hear arguments on whether an online charter school program that would be run by a for-profit company should be allowed to open in North Carolina in August, as a state administrative law judge ruled in May.
The state Board of Education hopes to persuade the Superior Court judge that proper procedures were not followed for a new program that represents one of the more overt commercial aspects of the school-choice movement.
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Mavis Roesch began teaching in the St. Louis Public Schools in 1967. Soon after, she moved to Milwaukee, teaching first at a private high school and then in the Milwaukee Public Schools. For the past 15 years, Roesch has taught at Rufus King High School, recently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 200 high schools in the country."I care about young people and their future and the future of our city," Roesch says with passion. "I believe that I make a difference in my students' lives. I work to inspire them to do things they thought they couldn't do. I believe that all children can learn -- maybe in different ways and on different days, but I want to be there when it happens."
And then Roesch, who runs King's International Baccalaureate program, adds something that is already evident in her self-declared mission: "I do not work for a paycheck or benefits."Clearly, teachers like Roesch are not what ails MPS. Dedicated professionals like her are the reasons for academic success stories like Rufus King. Yet, paradoxically, she is soon to join the ranks of those who are at the root of MPS' looming fiscal crack-up: Retirees.
By 2022, the cost of MPS pensions and health benefits will absorb just more than 50 percent of the district's state aid and property tax, up from one-third in 2012. More to the point, less than half of MPS' state aid and local tax revenue will be available for teacher salaries, classroom materials, new technology and other educational needs. There is little MPS can do to stem this decline in discretionary spending. As shown on the following chart, it could be a death knell for the district.
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Edward Yacuta felt rushed and nervous when he took a test to determine whether he was ready for college-level English classes at Long Beach City College.The 18-year-old did poorly on the exam, even though he was getting good grades in an Advanced Placement English class at Long Beach's Robert A. Millikan High School.
Most community colleges would assign students like Yacuta to a remedial class, but he will avoid that fate at Long Beach. The two-year school is trying out a new system this fall that will place students who graduated from the city's high schools in courses based on their grades rather than their scores on the standardized placement tests.
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Your child's education is a universal cause of anxiety for almost every parent.In many countries, school systems are underfunded and over-enrolled while teachers have too much material to cover in too little time.
But one Silicon Valley entrepreneur has developed a teaching method that completely rewrites the basic principles as Sumi Das finds out.
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Since I have established relationships with both Lumina and HCM Strategists, the consulting group in question, and have blogged (and hosted guest blogs) before on the large role that foundations are playing in pushing the higher ed reform agenda, I want to fully disclose as much as possible my role and assessment of this situation.Fascinating....First, readers of this blog know my work as an expert on college student success, and as an outspoken champion for expanding college access to underserved populations. I am proud of the major role I played in the fight against the New Badger Partnership and other local efforts to prioritize institutional prestige over the needs of Wisconsin residents. I am constantly engaged in the struggle to ensure that public institutions of all types survive and thrive. At this point I have been active in Wisconsin research, policy, and activism circles for more than eight years.
In my work I spending a lot of time interacting with the higher education reform movements nationally. It is for this reason, over the last decade I have engaged with both Lumina and HCM many times. I am also very well-acquainted with the Gates education initiatives, having been both a grantee (to the tune of $1.2 million for the Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study) and a consultant. Moreover, I participant frequently in the bipartisan higher education working group hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and funded by Gates.
Why do I do these things, despite recent evidence that these places have ties to ALEC and others?
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I have been writing critically about states' school rating systems (e.g., Ohio, Florida, Louisiana), and I thought I would find one that is, at least in my (admittedly value-laden) opinion, more defensibly designed. It didn't quite turn out as I had hoped.One big starting point in my assessment is how heavily the systems weight absolute performance (how highly students score) versus growth (how quickly students improve). As I've argued many times, the former (absolute level) is a poor measure of school performance in a high-stakes accountability system. It does not address the fact that some schools, particularly those in more affluent areas, serve students who, on average, enter the system at a higher-performing level. This amounts to holding schools accountable for outcomes they largely cannot control (see Doug Harris' excellent book for more on this in the teacher context). Thus, to whatever degree testing results can be used to judge actual school effectiveness, growth measures, while themselves highly imperfect, are to be preferred in a high-stakes context.
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On Monday June 25, 2012, the School Board will be going into closed session to "develop negotiations parameters" with SPEA and Local 60. We have a teensy weensy couple of issues with that.First--and foremost-- why on earth would the Board be discussing raises before the Board has seen even a peek at the budget? (Raises, of course, is what "negotiations parameters" means, since under Act 10, the only thing which CAN be negotiated is wage increases)
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The East Alton Elementary School Board moved forward with the plan to implement a One to One iPad initiative and approved a lease-to-purchase agreement at Tuesday night's meeting."We'll be leasing them directly from Apple," Superintendent Virgil Moore said. "At the end of the four-year lease, we will be able to buy the iPads for $1 apiece."
Required by the agreement to lease in bundles of 10 machines, the district plans to order 650 iPads for student use. An additional 70 Mac Book Air laptops will be ordered for teachers to be able to write lessons that can be transferred to the students' iPads.
The cost of the lease payment will be $129,000 per year, Moore said.
"We went through our current budget line by line and decided we could fund the leases ourselves," Moore said. "When we looked at areas that we could reallocate funds from items we wouldn't need to purchase once we have the devices, we were able to find $130,000."
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Online education is on a tear. Every few weeks or so, it seems like yet another startup offering online classes announces a multimillion dollar funding round. This week, San Francisco-based UniversityNow, which provides affordable higher education degrees online, said it raised $17.3 million. In the past three months, at least seven online course startups have launched or announced funding."I think we're hitting a tipping point where online education is accepted," said Gene Wade, CEO and co-founder of UniversityNow. "There's enormous demand for education around the world."
In the past decade, he said, more than a billion people have joined the middle class, creating new demand for educational opportunities. Globally, 150 million people will seek higher education in the next eight years and, domestically, 2 million will pursue higher ed over the next ten years.
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A new app claims to be able to help you tear through documents improving your reading speed by at least a third, and in some cases more. WSJ's Ben Rooney meets the start-up behind the app.
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On the morning of June 7 every year, Beijing's normally chaotic streets fall silent. Police patrol the main roads on motorcycles, as construction workers put down their hammers and power down their cranes, and rowdy taxi drivers finally take their hands off the horn. It is the first day of gaokao, the annual, nationwide college entrance exam, which will decide the college matriculation of the nine million or so students who take it. Sitting for nine hours over two days, students are tested on everything from Chinese and math to geography and government. The intense, memorization-heavy, and notoriously difficult gaokao can make the SAT look like a game of Scrabble. How they do on the test will play a big role in determining not just where they go to college but, because Chinese colleges often feed directly into certain industries and fields, what they do for the rest of their life. It's an enormously important moment in any Chinese student's life, which is part of why high schools here dedicate months or even years to preparing for the test.In many ways, the gaokao is symbolic of China's rise, with millions of Chinese striving and competing to pull up themselves and their nation. But it's also symptomatic of how far China still has to go, as the country tries to shift its economy from exports to domestic consumption, from assembling products to designing them. China's gaokao-style education system has been great at imparting math and engineering, as well as the rigorous work ethic that has been so integral to China's rise so far. But if the country wants to keep growing, its state economists know they need to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity, neither of which is tested for on this life-determining exam.
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Ellen Goldstein, the mother of first-grade twins at Public School 130 in Brooklyn, recalls with a twinge of nostalgia certain items that came home from school this year. There was the all-about-fish book, the Popsicle picture frames and two tissue-paper roses for Mother's Day -- all made by her sons.What Ms. Goldstein, 46, will not miss plucking from her children's backpacks are the seemingly endless requests for money and supplies that also came home from their small school on the border of Kensington and Windsor Terrace.
It began in September, Ms. Goldstein said, when she and her 6-year-olds lugged in $300 worth of construction paper, index cards, markers and crayons requested by their teachers. Soon, she was regularly receiving Scholastic booklets and permission slips for trips to bowling alleys and pizza parlors that required $5, $6 and $7 to be stuffed into envelopes. The school also organized two photo drives, including one in which she was sent key chains and bookmarks with images of her children on them.
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For North Koreans, the systematic indoctrination of anti-Americanism starts as early as kindergarten and is as much a part of the curriculum as learning to count. Toy pistols, rifles and tanks sit lined up in neat rows on shelves. The school principal pulls out a dummy of an American soldier with a beaked nose and straw-coloured hair and explains that the students beat him with batons or pelt him with stones - a favourite schoolyard game, she says."Our children learn from an early age about the American bastards," Yun Song-sil says, tossing off a phrase so common here it is considered an acceptable way to refer to Americans.
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Jeff Selingo, via a kind Rick Kiley email:
NO matter what the University of Virginia's governing board decides today, when it is scheduled to determine the fate of the university's ousted president, Teresa A. Sullivan, the intense interest in the case shows how much anxiety surrounds the future of higher education -- especially the question of whether university leaders are moving too slowly to position their schools for a rapidly changing world (as some of Ms. Sullivan's critics have suggested of her).There is good reason for the anxiety. Setting aside the specifics of the Virginia drama, university leaders desperately need to transform how colleges do business. Higher education must make up for the mistakes it made in what I call the industry's "lost decade," from 1999 to 2009. Those years saw a surge in students pursuing higher education, driven partly by the colleges, which advertised heavily and created enticing new academic programs, services and fancy facilities.
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Dr. Catherine Decker, via email:
1. Significantly improve the math department's instruction to include completion of the entire Algebra I textbook in one school year, so that students are prepared to enter directly into geometry no matter what High School they attend. Teachers should ensure that the students completing Algebra I in middle school understand all of the materials on the high school placement exam to directly enter geometry in high school. Students who are strong in their baseline math skills simply have not had further challenging math instruction in VASD.2. Discontinue the practice of using class time to have middle and high school students complete a 160+ question survey regarding their sexual & substance use practices (just to bring in more $ to the school district). Instead, if this is a desire of the Verona Area Superintendent, than he should ask parents to bring their children into the schools to participate in this ridiculous survey after class/instructional time. Really, what is the Superintendent thinking?
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The Massachusetts association considered the ballot question long and confusing and worried that passage would take away even more job security rights of teachers than the compromise legislation.Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, which belongs to the teachers federation, said in an interview Wednesday night that it made no sense to wage a battle over legislation that already had garnered the support of the highest-ranking officials on Beacon Hill: Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo. It is expected to land on the governor's desk by July 3.
"We are not fighting it, because it's a done deal," Stutman said.
Jason Williams, executive director of Stand for Children Massachusetts, was pleased the two union organizations have decided not to fight the legislation. "It's a positive step," Williams said. "I feel there is strong momentum toward passage."
Locally, support for the legislation appears to be is growing. The Boston City Council voted 8-5 Wednesday for a resolution supporting the measure. The vote was symbolic and does not directly impact the pending legislation.
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So far I've received a couple of these letters (from acquaintances and close associates) and had to restrain myself from firing back a frank response. While it's generally recognised in the global workplace that there's a serious issue with Generation Y and their neediness, lack of general knowledge (I'll just Google that ... ) and understanding of authority, it's hard to write off a whole generation when their parents (and teachers) are largely responsible for creating such a culture of entitlement.It's increasingly rare that people applying for internships in my field (publishing and branding) have spent time stocking shelves, scooping ice cream, waiting tables or scrubbing floors. Sometimes I wonder if part-time jobs are left off CVs because they might say too much about a potential candidate, or whether many simply can't be bothered to hold down a job between terms. Sadly, I suspect it's more of the latter.
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Deborah Kenny, via a kind Rick Kiley email:
Twenty years ago, the country's first charter school opened in Minnesota. This is a momentous anniversary not just for the two million families who now send their children to public charter schools, but for all Americans. The charter movement is not only about opening charter schools--its goal has always been to fundamentally transform public education in this country.Critics claim that charter schools are successful only because they cherry-pick students, because they have smaller class sizes, or because motivated parents apply for charter lotteries and non-motivated parents do not. And even if charters are successful, they argue, there is no way to scale that success to reform a large district.
None of that is true. Charters succeed because of their two defining characteristics--accountability and freedom. In exchange for being held accountable for student achievement results, charter schools are generally free from bureaucratic and union rules that prevent principals from hiring, firing or evaluating their own teams.
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These days the heritability of intelligence is not in doubt: Bright adults are more likely to have bright kids. The debate was not always this calm. In the 1970s, suggesting that IQ could be inherited at all was a heresy in academia, punishable by the equivalent of burning at the stake.More than any other evidence, it was the study of twins that brought about this change. "Born Together--Reared Apart," a new book by Nancy L. Segal about the Minnesota study of Twins Reared Apart (Mistra), narrates the history of the shift. In 1979, Thomas Bouchard of the University of Minnesota came across a newspaper report about a set of Ohio twins, separated at birth, who had been reunited and proved to possess uncannily similar habits. Dr. Bouchard began to collect case histories of twins raised apart and to invite them to Minneapolis for study.
By 1990, he, Dr. Segal and other colleagues were ready to publish their results in Science magazine. By then they had measured the IQ of 48 pairs of monozygotic, or identical, twins, raised apart (MZA) and 40 pairs of such twins raised together (MZT). The MZA twins were 69% similar in IQ, compared with 88% for MZT twins, both far greater resemblances than for any other pairs of individuals, even siblings. Other variables than genetics, such as material possessions in the home, had little influence, nor was the degree of social contact between the twins in each pair associated with their similarity in IQ.
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By now, you may be getting sick of reading articles and blog posts about the crisis in higher education. This post is different. It proposes an explanation of why students have been willing to pay more and more for undergraduate and professional degrees at the same time that these degrees are becoming both less scarce and more dumbed down. And that explanation rests on a simple and plausible economic hypothesis.First, let me dispose of the idea that "college (and business school) is all about signaling." The explanation I present allows signaling to represent a major part of the value of higher education, but it says that the historical increase in willingness to pay for education is not caused by an increase in its signaling value. (And the evidence for signaling or screening education premia, as opposed to human capital accumulation, is pretty thin anyway.) I'm certain signaling plays a role in creating value for certain degrees from certain institutions for certain people in certain situations. That it dominates the value proposition for college seems like a stretch.
My hypothesis is that it is precisely the dumbing down of U.S. education over the last decades that explains the increase in willingness to pay for education. The mechanism is diminishing marginal returns to education.
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Critics of Western democracy are right to discern that something is amiss with our political institutions. The most obvious symptom of the malaise is the huge debts we have managed to accumulate in recent decades, which (unlike in the past) cannot largely be blamed on wars.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the gross government debt of Greece this year will reach 153 per cent of GDP. For Italy the figure is 123, for Ireland 113, for Portugal 112 and for the United States 107.
Britain's debt is approaching 88 per cent. Japan - a special case as the first non-Western country to adopt Western institutions - is the world leader, with a mountain of government debt approaching 236 per cent of GDP, more than triple what it was 20 years ago.
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At some point, discussions about the quality of higher education in the U.S. come around to the subject of tenure. And the disagreement could hardly be more stark.Critics of tenure for college professors say it is ruining the education of millions of students. In pursuit of tenure, they say, professors have become experts at churning out research of questionable value while neglecting their teaching duties.
On top of that, critics say, tenure has become the tool of a stifling orthodoxy in academia, rewarding only those whose views on curriculums, administration and finances are in line with the status quo.
Proponents of tenure say it's the only way to preserve the quality of higher education in this country. It sets the bar high for professors, supporters say, ensuring that only the very best are retained.
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It has become an educational cliché to say that "students will rise to the level of expectations." But how do we explain the students whose work rises well above our level of expectations? Mostly, we just ignore them. In the local media, coverage of high school sports "blanks" any and all accounts of exemplary academic work by high school students.
In the mid-1980s, when I was teaching (as I thought) United States History to Sophomores at the high school in Concord, Massachusetts, I assigned, following the advice of my colleagues, history papers of just 5-7 pages, but I did tell the students that the title page did not count as one of the pages.
One quiet student, who I did not know at all, turned in a 28-page paper on the current balance of nuclear/thermonuclear weapons between the United States and the USSR. He later graduated summa cum laude from Tufts in economics. Why did he do that paper? He didn't need to, and he didn't do it for me. He was "rising" to the level of his own expectations. As Laurence Steinberg wrote in Beyond the Classroom: "Within a system that fails (flunks) very few students, then, only those students who have high standards of their own--who have more stringent criteria for success and failure--will strive to do better than merely to pass and graduate."
In the last 25 years I have published more than 1,000 history research papers by crazy motivated secondary students like that from 46 states and 38 other countries. (I am happy to provide pdfs of some of these exemplary history research papers on request to fitzhugh@tcr.org).
Since the 1960s, the International Baccalaureate has been expecting students to complete a 4,000-word Extended Essay to qualify for the Diploma. In 2011, I published an 11,000-word (Emerson Prize) paper on the stagnation in science and technology in China for five centuries after 1500, and the student had to cut it down to 4,000 words to meet the expectations for the Extended Essay and the IB Diploma. ACT and the College Board have not yet included an expectation for that sort of academic expository writing.
Often we work to limit what students do academically. Several years ago, when The Concord Review was receiving submissions of high school history research papers of 6,000, 8,000, and 10,000 words, I asked the Executive Director of National History Day, which has as one option for competitors a 2,500-word history paper, if they had considered accepting essays that were longer. She said that no, they didn't want any paper that took more than 10 minutes to read.
Recently when I published a 108-page (Emerson Prize) paper on the War of Regulation in North Carolina in the 18th century by a student from an independent school west of the Mississippi, I found out that she had to reduce it to 9 pages, without endnotes, to enable her to win first place nationally in the National History Day competition.
One student whose (Emerson Prize) work I published went to her teacher and said: "My paper is going to be 57 pages, is that all right?" And the teacher (may his tribe increase) said, "Yes."
Five or six years ago I received a paper (Emerson Prize) on the history of economic reform in China in recent years from a student at a public high school in Ohio. Like high schools generally, hers expected her to complete their requirements in four years. Instead she did it in two and spent the next two years as a full-time student at The Ohio State University before applying to Harvard as a freshman. She recently graduated from there with high honors in mathematics, with an economics minor.
I should say that, even though Asian students have the highest academic achievement of any group in the United States, not all of the students I have published have been Asian, nor did the high level of expectations for their own academic work all come from the Confucian influence of their parents.
When it comes to academics, we seem to give the vast majority of our attention to, and spend the bulk of our efforts on, students whose efforts fall far below our expectations, those who, if not among the 25-30% who fail to finish high school, may enter community college reading at the fifth-grade level, and more than half of whom will drop out from there. Naturally we want to help those who are doing poorly in school. Still, we do want our most brilliant students to start companies, become scientists, be our judges, diplomats, and elected officials, teach history, write good books, and otherwise work to sustain and advance our civilization. But our basic attitude is--let them manage on their own.
How different it is for our promising young athletes, for whom we have the highest expectations, on whom we keep the most elaborate statistics, and to whom we dedicate the most voluminous local media coverage, as well as nationally-televised high school football and basketball games.
If we matched for them the expectations we have for our students' academic work, we might be asking them to run just one lap, do two pushups, and spend most of their time helping out in gym classes, or playing video games, instead of practicing their sport. But our young people, being the way they are, would no doubt "cheat," as some do in academics, by deriving higher standards from their own ambition and from seeing the achievements of their peers, and the athletes for whom we might try to set such low expectations, like the young scholars for whom we do, would continue to rise above them, and to astonish us with their accomplishments. Dumb Lucky us.
Will Fitzhugh
The Concord Review
25 June 2012
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As for superintendent candidates, someone with the pugnacious edge of our 67-year-old mayor might serve the city well.I'm glad that Paul has written on this topic. I disagree, however, regarding "time". The District's singular administrative focus must be on the basics: reading and math.In a recent interview, Paul Soglin told me he's believed for 40 years that the quality of a school system is the "number one driver" for a city's success.
Soglin said Madison's schools are excellent, and, yes, the achievement gap needs attention. But Soglin said it's unfair to expect schools here to shoulder blame for children who arrived only recently. The school district "has not done a good enough job explaining itself," Soglin said.
It is hard to disagree.
So, in sum, our next school chief should have Soglin-like skills at the big vision and respond to sniping at public schools, be able to boost the morale of embattled teachers and staff, collaborate effectively with a disparate set of civic partners, and bring experience and keen judgment to tackling the achievement gap.
Good thing we have some time.
Those behind the rejected Madison Preparatory IB charter school may have a different view, as well.
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Henry Tyson, Superintendent of Milwaukee's St. Marcus school recently talked with me [Transcript | mp3 audio] about his fascinating personal and professional education experience. St. Marcus is one of, if not the most successful voucher school in Milwaukee.
Henry discussed student, parent and teacher expectations, including an interesting program to educate and involve parents known as "Thankful Thursdays". He further described their growth plans, specifically, the methods they are following to replicate the organization. In addition, I learned that St. Marcus tracks their students for 8 years after 8th grade graduation.
Finally, Henry discussed special education and their financial model, roughly $7,800/student annually of which $6,400 arrives from State of Wisconsin taxpayers in the form of a voucher. The remainder via local fundraising and church support.
He is quite bullish on the future of education in Milwaukee. I agree that in 15 to 20 years, Milwaukee's education environment will be much, much improved. High expectations are of course critical to these improvements.
I appreciate the time Henry took to visit.
Related:
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There was confusion at the University of Virginia two weeks ago when the board forced the resignation of Teresa Sullivan, the sociologist who has served as president for the past two years. Ms Sullivan was popular among the faculty staff. There was no warning that anyone had it in for her. But the affair was not as mysterious as it looked. Helen Dragas, the rector, said UVa needed more reforms "in financial resource development and in resource prioritisation and allocation". Translated, this means the university's accounts are a mess. The confusing bit concerns whether this is Ms Sullivan's fault. (Her supporters hope to get her reinstated next week.)It sounds like a familiar episode in the American culture wars. On one side are woolly headed academics unwilling to reform hidebound institutions. On the other is a board, in this case made up of politically connected venture capitalists and property developers, who think every human activity, from an assembly line to a church picnic, ought to turn a profit. Ms Dragas was nominated by Virginia's former Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, who was considered as a running-mate for Barack Obama in 2008. Her vice-rector, Mark Kington, is a former business partner of Virginia's Democratic senator Mark Warner. Academia is not their natural home. The Washington Post reported that Ms Sullivan had been blamed for her unwillingness "to trim or shut down programmes that couldn't sustain themselves financially, such as obscure academic departments in classics and German".
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The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute today released a new article by me, titled "MPS' Looming Fiscal Crack-Up." The basic point is that the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) face a near impossible fiscal challenge over the next ten years. The problem is that retiree health benefits costs are growing at a faster rate than the district's capacity to raise revenue through state aid and property tax.Much more, here.In English, this means MPS as an entity will be receiving more public support, but will have less money to spend in the classroom. The scariest aspect of this situation is that there is little MPS can do to fix the problem. A few points:
First, this article is not meant to be anti-MPS by any means. In fact, today's quote from MPS superintendent Greg Thornton shows he gets the problem. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"The cost of doing business for Milwaukee Public Schools and Wisconsin is relatively high," Superintendent Gregory Thornton said. "But because of legacy and structural costs, we were not geared toward driving those dollars back into the classroom."
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THERE is no debate about this fact: The first year that American teenagers have their driver's licenses will be among the most dangerous of their lives. Nothing kills more of them than car crashes.There is a debate over this carnage, but it is over the effectiveness of driver education courses. Do they save lives, as most everyone thinks, or weaken safeguards that have been in place for years?
It at first sounds like an argument not worth having, but over the last 15 years every state has passed graduated licensing laws, which grant driving privileges for young drivers in stages. Among other restrictions, inexperienced drivers can be barred from driving at night or having young, nonfamily passengers.
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Unless our children begin to learn together there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together. -- Justice Thurgood MarshallI agree more than ever with these wise words and yet my recent experiences as superintendent make me wonder whether we are any closer today to achieving this vision than we were in 1974, when Justice Marshall wrote them as part of a dissenting opinion over a school integration plan for Detroit.
I say this because even when efforts to increase the achievement of all students are effective and working, it's simply too easy for school boards and other community leaders to work against the notion of all children learning together. I lived through such an experience and it has led me to support positions I would have dismissed a decade ago.
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Ray Cross readily admits that for-profit online colleges grew rapidly because traditional universities missed the boat. They weren't flexible and affordable enough for adults who wanted to earn a degree, but couldn't sit in a classroom while juggling a full-time job, family or military duty.For-profit colleges now enroll about 17,000 students in Wisconsin, according to Cross, chancellor for the University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW Extension.
"That would be our third largest campus" if all 17,000 could be captured by the UW System, said Cross, who is leading two new state initiatives to make earning a college degree more flexible and affordable. An online degree program announced last week is expected to offer courses by this fall.
Nationwide, more than 6 million students take at least one college course online, according to the 2011 Survey of Online Learning published by the Babson Survey Research Group with data from the College Board.
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A few weeks ago, 10 Madison schools learned they have been labeled "focus" schools under a new accountability system expected to replace No Child Left Behind.More recently the School District has received more detailed explanations from the Department of Public Instruction for why each school received the label.
The schools are among the 10 percent of the state's Title I schools demonstrating the largest achievement gaps or lowest performance in reading, math or graduation rates among low-income and minority groups. Title I schools receive federal funding targeted at low-income student populations.
The "focus" status replaces the old "schools identified for improvement" or SIFI status (pronounced like the cable channel that plays Battlestar Galactica reruns).
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in his education plan, unveiled recently, that if he is elected, he will push for policies that will allow low-income and special-needs students "to attend public schools outside of their school district that have the capacity to serve them."Notes and links: Open Enrollment & Madison School District: Private/Parochial, Open Enrollment Leave, Open Enrollment Enter, Home Based Parent Surveys.This is part of a broader Romney plan to expand school choice, including promoting charter schools, voucher programs for private schools and virtual schools.
The idea caught my eye because we already have open enrollment, as we call it around here, on a large scale. And not much attention has been paid to its impact.
Milwaukee has gotten a lot of attention since the early 1990s for its private school voucher program, arguably the most important and far-reaching such effort in the country, at least until now. But the Milwaukee area can also been seen as an important laboratory for open enrollment.
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When Caren Berg told colleagues at a recent staff meeting, "There's new people you should meet," her boss Don Silver broke in, says Ms. Berg, a senior vice president at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing and crisis-communications company."I cringe every time I hear" people misuse "is" for "are," Mr. Silver says. The company's chief operations officer, Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with "like." For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. "I am losing the battle," he says.
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Best Defense guest provocateur, via Thomas Ricks:
Three years ago, Tom proposed shuttering West Point as an expensive anachronism. At the time I thought he was barking up the wrong tree, but after reflection upon my own career as an army officer, I think he is on to something. It is not just West Point that should be done away with, it is also ROTC that should go.Before anyone get's their panties all knotted and wadded up, let me be up front: I am a product of ROTC, and I attended one of the "senior military colleges" -- the Virginia Military Institute. What I am proposing will have an impact on my alma mater, as well as the other "senior military colleges."
I think that America's fiscal resources could be better utilized in the following manner:
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Scholarly publishing is a very unique business. In a typical business, you have two parties: sellers and buyers. In scholarly publishing you also have sellers and buyers, these are the publishers and the research libraries. However, you have two additional parties. On one side, you have authors, who freely and eagerly provide content ("publish or perish"). On the other side, there are editors and reviewers, who act as gatekeepers. They do so for a variety of reasons: sometimes for financial remuneration, but mostly out of civic duty and to gain scholarly prestige.For scholarly publishing to be successful as a business, publishers must convince libraries to subscribe to their publications. Because budgets have become tighter over the last few years, librarians are quite resistant to increase their subscription inventory. The trend, in fact, is to prune, prune, and prune. Librarians, therefore, must be convinced of a journal's high quality before adding it to their subscription inventory. This resistance by libraries has been an important force for maintaining quality in scholarly publishing.
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No doubt this is old news to many of you, but yesterday, in a vote of 40-0, the Senate approved Sen. Teresa Ruiz's tenure reform bill. Here's coverage from NJ Spotlight, Star-Ledger, and Courier Post; also see NJ School Boards Association's overview (infused with some grumpiness about the retention of seniority-based lay-offs) and NJEA's discussion. which makes an admirable attempt to resist gloating and largely succeeds. Here's my big-picture take.John Mooney:The current version of the bill, which deleted the sections on ending seniority-based lay-offs and mutual consent, was endorsed by NJEA. A key moment in negotiations over the bill was Gov. Christie's decision to step back on an ultimatum that the bill must eliminate LIFO.
There's something in the complex bill to make everyone unhappy - which most likely means that it's a very good bill.
Many of the last hurdles were removed yesterday from what now seems like all-but-certain passage of a tenure reform law for New Jersey that would make it harder for teachers to gain tenure and easier to lose it.The Senate passed the bill sponsored by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) with a remarkable 39-0 vote, the Republicans' unanimous support virtually assuring that Gov. Chris Christie will support it as well.
There remains a different Assembly version, but Ruiz met yesterday for a half-hour with state Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), the Assembly's education chairman and sponsor of that bill, to work out differences.
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Though parents have been teaching their children not to argue with adults for generations, new research from the University of Virginia shows that young teenagers who are taught to argue effectively are more likely to resist peer pressure to use drugs or alcohol later in adolescence."It turns out that what goes on in the family is actually a training ground for teens in terms of how to negotiate with other people," said Joseph Allen, a U.Va. psychology professor and the lead author of the study, results of which were published in a recent edition of the journal Child Development.
Allen said that parents are often "scared to death about peer pressure," but also frustrated by argumentative children.
"What we're finding is there's a surprising connection between the two," he said. Allen noted that teens "learn they can be taken seriously" through interactions with their parents.
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The bullying that bus monitor Karen Klein endured on a ride home from an upstate New York school was painful and egregious, but also shows how student harassment of teachers and administrators has become more spiteful and damaging in the online era.Much attention has been paid to students who bully students in class, after school and on the Internet. Less has been given to equally disturbing behavior by students who harass instructors, principals and other adults.
It's something that's long existed; think ganging up on the substitute teacher. But it has become increasingly cruel and even dangerous as students get access to advanced technology at earlier ages.
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The chief problem is that children's educational attainments are falling, even as more money is being lavished on the schools. Thailand now spends about 20% of the national budget on education, more than it devotes to any other sector. The budget has doubled over a decade. Yet results are getting worse, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries in South-East Asia.Thailand's own ombudsman reported earlier this year that, despite the extra cash, the national standardised examination results show that students' scores in the core subjects of English, maths and science have been largely falling. The most recent Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum ranked Thailand a dismal 83rd in terms of its "health and primary education", one of four basic indicators. This is below others in the region such as Vietnam and Indonesia; only impoverished Cambodia performs worse.
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The day after Michelle Rhee's education lobbying group, StudentsFirst, got dumped by progressive petition site Change.org because of intense pressure from teachers' unions, StudentsFirst waved a thorny olive branch of sorts at the nation's two largest such unions.On Wednesday afternoon, StudentsFirst, along with other education groups such as Democrats for Education Reform, Students for Education Reform and Hispanic CREO, wrote a letter to Dennis Van Roekel and Randi Weingarten, presidents of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, asking for a "new opportunity to collaborate to improve public education for kids."
The letter, provided to The Huffington Post by StudentsFirst, points to recent education legislation in Connecticut that ultimately created a teacher evaluation system that grades teachers in part on their students' standardized test scores; a "commissioner's network" that allows the state to take over some failing schools; and increased funds for charter schools. Despite the attack ads that appeared during the legislative process, StudentsFirst's letter to the unions acknowledges that both groups have claimed victory in establishing these policies -- in some cases even going as far as to call them a "national model."
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The Washington Post's Jay Mathews mused last month about the similarities between the education platforms of President Obama and Mitt Romney, but he was also a little too eager to dismiss their differences on school vouchers as irrelevant. The issue of equal access to private schools speaks to the core values of each party, but the topic is particularly important to Democrats who were deeply divided on the issue in the 1970s, and are so again today.Let's start with some history. In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan pushed a referendum in Oregon, which the voters passed, making it illegal for children to attend private schools. The Klan thought outlawing private schooling, especially Catholic schools, would help reduce cultural pluralism in the United States. The Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, which ran a Catholic girls school in Oregon, sued, and the law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925 (Pierce v. Society of Sisters).
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The Economist interviews Satoshi Kanazawa:
So intelligent people do not behave better than less intelligent people?No, sometimes they do stupid things. What intelligent people prefer is not good or bad, right or wrong, but it is always evolutionarily novel. More intelligent boys (but not more intelligent girls) are more likely to grow up to value sexual exclusivity. This is because humans are naturally polygynous. Sexual exclusivity is evolutionarily novel for men but not for women, so more intelligent men are more likely to value sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men. There is also some evidence that intelligent people are more likely to be vegetarians, because humans are evolutionarily designed to be omnivorous.
Criminals on average have lower intelligence than law-abiding citizens. Firstly, most behaviours designated as crimes are just natural means of competition that men have engaged in throughout evolutionary history. Secondly, institutions and technologies that control criminal behaviour today--CCTV cameras, police, court, prison--are all evolutionarily novel, so less intelligent men are less likely truly to comprehend such entities.
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A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides one of the first large-scale comparisons of special education enrollment between charter and regular public schools. The report's primary finding, which, predictably, received a fair amount of attention, is that roughly 11 percent of students enrolled in regular public schools were on special education plans in 2009-10, compared with just 8 percent of charter school students.More from Andrew Rotherham.The GAO report's authors are very careful to note that their findings merely describe what you might call the "service gap" - i.e., the proportion of special education students served by charters versus regular public schools - but that they do not indicate the reasons for this disparity.
This is an important point, but I would take the warning a step further: The national- and state-level gaps themselves should be interpreted with the most extreme caution.
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Stacey Smith is an Oakland school district parent and volunteer who has served on the District GATE Advisory Committee, the school board's Special Committee on School Based Management, and the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education. I invited her to contribute periodically to The Education Report; any topic she writes about -- including the below piece - does not reflect the view of any group. -- KatyI'm trying to understand the June 12 memo from outgoing Special Education Director Sharon Casanares to Oakland school district program specialists that eliminates their jobs as of June 29 and lays out over $4 million dollars of staffing and program cuts for special education in Oakland -- cuts that may severely impact the support special education teachers and over 5,000 special education students receive.
According to the memo, personnel costs make up the bulk of the department's budget so the majority of reductions are in that area. The number one criterion used to make cuts was to "make changes that will have the least impact on students in classrooms." Substantial cuts are proposed in several key areas:
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A Landmark Monograph in Gifted Education, and Why I Disagree with Its Major ConclusionIn 2011, Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell published a landmark monograph that should be read by anyone interested in gifted education. However, I find their belief that the field ought to be devoted to encouraging eminence troubling.
Last year saw the publication of one of the most important pieces of scholarship in the field of gifted education of recent times, a monograph entitled "Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education: A Proposed Direction Forward Based on Psychological Science." The authors are Rena F. Subotnik, of the American Psychological Association; Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, of Northwestern University; and Frank C. Worrell, of the University of California, Berkeley. The monograph can be found at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications /journals/pspi/rethinking-giftedness-and-gifted-education.html, as can a brief video in which the authors set forth some of their ideas.
Anybody with a serious interest in gifted education should read, and reread, this monograph. The authors have produced some of the best, and freshest, thinking about giftedness that is likely to emerge from this field in this or any year. Fourteen pages of single-spaced references attest to the sheer amount of material they have read, digested, synthesized, and critiqued. The authors masterfully summarize much of the major work on giftedness and gifted education and then add to it with compelling ideas of their own. These include a definition of giftedness, rather too long to quote here, that earns its length by virtue of its breadth and depth. We spend quite a bit of time in my classes at Teachers College analyzing definitions of giftedness, and this one, newly added to the curriculum, gives my students quite a bit of intellectual meat to chew on.
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What is it like to teach a free online course to tens of thousands of students? Dozens of professors are doing just that, experimenting with a format known as Massive Open Online Courses. And there are more providers than ever, some working with elite universities, and others that allow any professor to join in.The Chronicle asked four professors, teaching on different platforms, to share their thoughts on the experience so far. The responses are based on e-mail interviews, which have been condensed and edited for publication.
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Listen up. It's Father's Day, and, believe it or not, the old man still knows his way around the block. He still has a few lessons worth learning.So The Wall Street Journal Sunday asked some really, really smart people in the business and financial world what they learned at home.
The question: What did you learn from Dad about money and finance?
The answers (in a nutshell): Work hard, save your money and diversify your investments.
There. And what dad would disagree?
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Lisa Wachtel & Tim Peterson [153 page PDF]:
Data Analysis and SynthesisThe analysis of the data highlighted 5 key elements: time for science, an unacceptable failure rate, teacher preparation, science in high schools, and the process for implementing the Next Generation Science Standards.
Recommendations
- Time for science: in trying to balance the need to close the achievement gap with regards to Literacy and Mathematics, the committee believes that science provides a context for the use of these two content areas.
- Unacceptable failure rate: too many students are failing at key transition points in their academic careers.
- Teacher professional development: where professional development has occurred, student achievement has improved. There is a lack of professional development for teachers at elementary and high school.
- Science in secondary schools: consistent 9th grade courses, improved communication with guidance, and opportunities for middle school and high school teachers to plan need to be implemented in order to respond to the new standards, focus on student achievement, and connect students to science career pathways.
- Process for implementing the Next Generation Science Standards: the new standards will require significant work in order provide the educational program envisioned by the standards.
The recommendations were categorized similar to the Literacy Program Evaluation from 2010-11. There are seven broad recommendations, each with several specific action steps to support the recommendation. The recommendations are below, as well as 1-2 significant action steps.
1. Consistent, culturally relevant and aligned K-12 curriculum
a. Scope and Sequence development along with core practices
b. 9th grade course development2. Align program with the 8 Scientific and Engineering Practices of the Next Generation Science Standards; increase the use of data within the district program
a. Increase science credit graduation requirement to 3 credits
b. Ensure minutes of instruction in science are met3. Implement science interventions and assessments that support the Response to Intervention and
Instruction process within the district
a. Implement science specific programming options available to all students
b. Implement interventions and progress monitoring to support science instruction for all
students4. Review and purchase science program materials to achieve consistency and equity district-wide
a. Identify material that supports implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards
b. Phased implementation with strong professional development5. Implement science assessments which provide data to drive program improvement
a. Implement a comprehensive science assessment system to include common summative assessments
b. Implement a process to ensure that data helps inform classroom instruction and overall program improvement6. Work collaboratively to provide a culturally diverse science teaching staff across the district a. With HR, work to increase hiring highly effective, culturally aware science teachers b. Work to develop building level science expertise through teacher leadership
7. Establish a comprehensive and flexible science professional development plan
a. Develop and provide strong on-line professional development for every grade level
b. Improve classroom safety through a district-wide safety professional development program
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The U.S. has a problem: Today's young Americans are falling behind their peers in other countries when it comes to academic performance. What makes the situation particularly concerning is research showing a close link between economic competitiveness and the knowledge and skills of a nation's workforce.What's the solution?
One school of thought says the U.S. needs to set clear standards about what schools should teach and students should learn--and make it uniform throughout the country. These advocates say our decentralized approach to education isn't preparing students for the demanding challenges they will face in a global economy.
The Wall Street Journal
Others say be careful what you wish for. Proposing that all children meet the same academic standards, they say, is essentially proposing a nationalized system of education, where everyone is taught the same thing at the same time and in the same way. The best way to improve student performance, they argue, is to give schools the ability to experiment with different standards, assessments and curricula to see what does and doesn't work.
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A team of Madison students from Hamilton Middle School has won the junior division National African American History Challenge in Atlanta.Congratulations!Hamilton students Jada Dayne, Nanceny Fanny and Avion Silas competed against 17 other teams from around the country.
Awards include savings bonds and scholarships. The Madison team won the junior championship twice before in 1996 and 2008.
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Lisa Wachtel, Executive Director of Curriculum & Assessment [104 Page PDF]:
Grades K-2 Literacy WalkthroughsRelated: 60% to 42%: Madison School District's Reading Recovery Effectiveness Lags "National Average": Administration seeks to continue its use.Background: Observations of literacy classes, or, walkthroughs, were scheduled for seventeen of MMSD' s highest poverty elementary schools during the months of April and May. Three administrators visited each school for a half-day for a minimum of 12 hours of observation per school. All K-2 classrooms are observed for at least an hour by one of the three administrators. Second/third grade classrooms were observed in schools with multi-aged instructional designs. When substitute teachers are present, follow-up observations were attempted.
The purpose of the walk throughs was to provide schools with a baseline of literacy practices and to communicate a district snapshot of K-2 observable literacy practices when student routines and independence are well established. Although not a complete picture, the walkthroughs provided evidence of teaching emphasis, expectations, school/district implementation efforts and additional anecdotal information that might suggest potential areas for consideration.
Timeline: April16- May 25, 2012 Observations
May 30-31,2012 Meet with principals to discuss results of the observationsObservation Tool: Please see the attached document. This is an observation protocol merging documents developed by Fountas and Pinnell and Dom. This observation tool was selected because it captured the general categories of literacy instruction that would be included in a 90-120 minute literacy lesson. Observers could capture any of the elements observed during the 60 observations. An additional section, classroom environment provides a way to document materials and classroom structures.
Preliminary Findings:
1. The majority of primary literacy environments were organized around a Balanced Literacy Model. However, within that model, there was significant variation in what the model looked like. This lack of consistency was seen both within and across all 17 schools.
2. Most classrooms were organized in a planned and thoughtful manner. Attention was given to the development and use of a classroom library, individual book boxes and areas where students could work in pairs or small groups.
3. Although classrooms in most schools were thoughtfully organized, some classrooms were cluttered and there were not optimal environments for learning. It is recommended that IRTs work with teachers to create good physical environments in all classrooms.
4. Although the majority of classrooms had at least a 90 minute literacy block, some did not. Attention to direct instruction for at least 90 minutes is crucial for the success of all learners. Principals must make this a clear expectation. The literacy block must also be implemented with fidelity.
5. There was a lack of consistency both within and across grade levels based on common core standards and best teaching practices. This should be an area of emphasis for all schools. IRTs and principals will need to develop a tight structure of accountability that supports the Common Core State Standards and the Curriculum Companion tool.
6. In most cases, instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness was clearly evident. This instruction reflected the professional development both at the district and school level around phonics instruction, phonemic awareness and word work. Instruction appeared to be more systematic, targeted and focused than in previous years.
7. Guided Reading Instruction was observed in the many of the classrooms. It should be noted that in several schools guided reading did not occur five days a week. A wide range of practices were observed during guided reading. Teaching points were often unclear. Observers noted few teachers administering running records or maintaining other types of formative assessments.
8. Targeted, focused instruction around a precise teaching point is a critical component of quality literacy instruction. Focused feedback emphasizing areas of student mastery was also inconsistent. Again, consistency related to core practices as well as ongoing specific assessment practices should be apparent within and across elementary grades.
9. Professional development work should continue around the use of assessment tools. Principals must require the practice of ongoing assessment in all classrooms.
10. The development and use of anchor charts and mini lessons are critical pieces of strong core instruction. Anchor charts and mini lessons were seen in some classrooms and not in others. Professional development should address these ideas so that there is consistency across the district.
11. In many classrooms, the quality of independent student work was of concern. Teachers in all classrooms must pay careful attention to independent student work. This work must support the structure of the literacy block, be consistent with the focus of guided reading and be at each student's independent level. Emphasis must consistently be on authentic reading and writing tasks. Work should be differentiated. Coloring, cutting/pasting and copying of other printed work would not be considered quality independent literacy work and this was seen in many classrooms (bold added).
12. Teachers were inconsistent in giving feedback to students related to specific learning. Clear, corrective feedback and/or affirmation of solid understandings will accelerate individual student learning and help learners tie the known to the new.
13. All students should also be receiving ongoing, focused feedback related to independent work and independent reading. Regular conferencing and assessment of independent reading and writing is a crucial component of a rigorous literacy curriculum.
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Lisa Wachtel, Executive Director of Curriculum & Assessment [104 Page PDF]:
Grades K-2 Literacy WalkthroughsRelated: 60% to 42%: Madison School District's Reading Recovery Effectiveness Lags "National Average": Administration seeks to continue its use.Background: Observations of literacy classes, or, walkthroughs, were scheduled for seventeen of MMSD' s highest poverty elementary schools during the months of April and May. Three administrators visited each school for a half-day for a minimum of 12 hours of observation per school. All K-2 classrooms are observed for at least an hour by one of the three administrators. Second/third grade classrooms were observed in schools with multi-aged instructional designs. When substitute teachers are present, follow-up observations were attempted.
The purpose of the walk throughs was to provide schools with a baseline of literacy practices and to communicate a district snapshot of K-2 observable literacy practices when student routines and independence are well established. Although not a complete picture, the walkthroughs provided evidence of teaching emphasis, expectations, school/district implementation efforts and additional anecdotal information that might suggest potential areas for consideration.
Timeline: April16- May 25, 2012 Observations
May 30-31,2012 Meet with principals to discuss results of the observationsObservation Tool: Please see the attached document. This is an observation protocol merging documents developed by Fountas and Pinnell and Dom. This observation tool was selected because it captured the general categories of literacy instruction that would be included in a 90-120 minute literacy lesson. Observers could capture any of the elements observed during the 60 observations. An additional section, classroom environment provides a way to document materials and classroom structures.
Preliminary Findings:
1. The majority of primary literacy environments were organized around a Balanced Literacy Model. However, within that model, there was significant variation in what the model looked like. This lack of consistency was seen both within and across all 17 schools.
2. Most classrooms were organized in a planned and thoughtful manner. Attention was given to the development and use of a classroom library, individual book boxes and areas where students could work in pairs or small groups.
3. Although classrooms in most schools were thoughtfully organized, some classrooms were cluttered and there were not optimal environments for learning. It is recommended that IRTs work with teachers to create good physical environments in all classrooms.
4. Although the majority of classrooms had at least a 90 minute literacy block, some did not. Attention to direct instruction for at least 90 minutes is crucial for the success of all learners. Principals must make this a clear expectation. The literacy block must also be implemented with fidelity.
5. There was a lack of consistency both within and across grade levels based on common core standards and best teaching practices. This should be an area of emphasis for all schools. IRTs and principals will need to develop a tight structure of accountability that supports the Common Core State Standards and the Curriculum Companion tool.
6. In most cases, instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness was clearly evident. This instruction reflected the professional development both at the district and school level around phonics instruction, phonemic awareness and word work. Instruction appeared to be more systematic, targeted and focused than in previous years.
7. Guided Reading Instruction was observed in the many of the classrooms. It should be noted that in several schools guided reading did not occur five days a week. A wide range of practices were observed during guided reading. Teaching points were often unclear. Observers noted few teachers administering running records or maintaining other types of formative assessments.
8. Targeted, focused instruction around a precise teaching point is a critical component of quality literacy instruction. Focused feedback emphasizing areas of student mastery was also inconsistent. Again, consistency related to core practices as well as ongoing specific assessment practices should be apparent within and across elementary grades.
9. Professional development work should continue around the use of assessment tools. Principals must require the practice of ongoing assessment in all classrooms.
10. The development and use of anchor charts and mini lessons are critical pieces of strong core instruction. Anchor charts and mini lessons were seen in some classrooms and not in others. Professional development should address these ideas so that there is consistency across the district.
11. In many classrooms, the quality of independent student work was of concern. Teachers in all classrooms must pay careful attention to independent student work. This work must support the structure of the literacy block, be consistent with the focus of guided reading and be at each student's independent level. Emphasis must consistently be on authentic reading and writing tasks. Work should be differentiated. Coloring, cutting/pasting and copying of other printed work would not be considered quality independent literacy work and this was seen in many classrooms (bold added).
12. Teachers were inconsistent in giving feedback to students related to specific learning. Clear, corrective feedback and/or affirmation of solid understandings will accelerate individual student learning and help learners tie the known to the new.
13. All students should also be receiving ongoing, focused feedback related to independent work and independent reading. Regular conferencing and assessment of independent reading and writing is a crucial component of a rigorous literacy curriculum.
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Of the 50 largest school districts by enrollment in the United States, Milwaukee Public Schools spent more per pupil than all but three East Coast districts in the 2009-'10 school year, according to public-school finance figures released by the Census Bureau on Thursday.Madison's 2009-2010 budget was $370,287,471, according to the now defunct Citizen's Budget, $15,241 per student (24,295 students).MPS ranked near the top among large districts by spending $14,038 per pupil in the 2010 fiscal year. It was outspent by the New York City School District, with the highest per-pupil spending among large districts - $19,597 - followed by Montgomery County Public Schools near Washington, D.C., and Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland, which spent $15,582 and $14,711, respectively, per pupil that year.
MPS officials on Thursday acknowledged Milwaukee's high per-pupil costs in comparison with other large districts, but they also pointed to unique local factors that drive up the cost, particularly the city's high rate of poverty, the district's high rate of students with special needs and other long-term costs, such as aging buildings and historically high benefit rates for MPS employees that the district is working to lower.
"The cost of doing business for Milwaukee Public Schools and Wisconsin is relatively high," Superintendent Gregory Thornton said. "But because of legacy and structural costs, we were not geared toward driving those dollars back into the classroom."
"What we have to be is more effective and efficient," he said.
Why Milwaukee Public Schools' per student spending is high by Mike Ford:
To the point, why is MPS per-pupil spending so high? There are two simple explanations.Comparing Milwaukee Public and Voucher Schools' Per Student SpendingFirst, as articulated by Dale Knapp of the Wisconsin Taxpayer's Alliance in today's story, MPS per-pupil spending is high because it has always been high. Since Wisconsin instituted revenue limits in the early 90s the amount of state aid and local tax revenue a district can raise (and correspondingly spend) per-pupil has been indexed to what a district raised in the prior year. In every state budget legislators specify the statewide allowable per-pupil revenue limit increase amount. Because MPS had a high base to begin with, the amount of revenue the district raises and spends per-pupil is always on the high side. Further, because annual increases are indexed off of what a district raised in the prior year, there is a built-in incentive for districts to raise and spend as much as allowed under revenue limits.
Second, categorical funding to MPS has increased dramatically since 2001. Categorical funds are program specific funds that exist outside of the state aid formula and hence are not capped by revenue limits. In 2001 MPS received $1,468 in categorical funding per-pupil, in 2012 it received $2,318 per-pupil (A 58% increase).
State and local categorical funding to MPS has gone up since 2001, but the bulk of the increase in per-pupil categorical funding is federal. Federal categorical funds per-pupil increased 73% since 2001. Included in this pot of federal money is title funding for low-income pupils, and funding for special needs pupils. The focal year of the study that spurred the Journal Sentinel article, 2010, also is important because of the impact of federal stimulus funding.
Note I am not trying to calculate per-pupil education funding or suggest that this is the amount of money that actually reaches a school or classroom; it is a simple global picture of how much public revenue exists per-pupil in MPS. Below are the relevant numbers for 2012, from MPS documents:Spending more is easy if you can simply vote for tax increases, or spread spending growth across a large rate base, as a utility or healthcare provider might do. Over time, however, tax & spending growth becomes a substantial burden, one that changes economic decision making. I often point out per student spending differences in an effort to consider what drives these decisions. Austin, TX, a city often mentioned by Madison residents in a positive way spends 45% less per student........
Though not perfect, I think $13,063 (MPS) and $7,126 (MPCP) are reasonably comparative per-pupil public support numbers for MPS and the MPCP.
Ripon Superintendent Richard Zimman's 2009 speech to the Madison Rotary Club:
"Beware of legacy practices (most of what we do every day is the maintenance of the status quo), @12:40 minutes into the talk - the very public institutions intended for student learning has become focused instead on adult employment. I say that as an employee. Adult practices and attitudes have become embedded in organizational culture governed by strict regulations and union contracts that dictate most of what occurs inside schools today. Any impetus to change direction or structure is met with swift and stiff resistance. It's as if we are stuck in a time warp keeping a 19th century school model on life support in an attempt to meet 21st century demands." Zimman went on to discuss the Wisconsin DPI's vigorous enforcement of teacher licensing practices and provided some unfortunate math & science teacher examples (including the "impossibility" of meeting the demand for such teachers (about 14 minutes)). He further cited exploding teacher salary, benefit and retiree costs eating instructional dollars ("Similar to GM"; "worry" about the children given this situation).Finally, there's this: Paul Geitner:
The Court of Justice had previously ruled that a person who gets sick before going on vacation is entitled to reschedule the vacation, and on Thursday it said that right extended into the vacation itself.
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Marcus Winters via a kind Rick Kiley email:
Here's what looks like a policy dilemma. To attain the economic growth that it desperately needs, the United States must improve its schools and train a workforce capable of competing in the global economy. Economists Eric Hanushek, Dean Jamison, Eliot Jamison, and Ludger Woessmann estimate that improving student achievement by half of one standard deviation--roughly the current difference between the United States and Finland--would increase U.S. GDP growth by about a full percentage point annually. Yet states and the federal government face severe budgetary constraints these days; how are policymakers supposed to improve student achievement while reducing school funding?Related: State Income Tax Collections Per Capita, Madison's 4.95% Property Tax Increase, http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2012/05/madison_schools_79.php and 60% to 42%: Madison School District's Reading Recovery Effectiveness Lags "National Average": Administration seeks to continue its use.In reality, that task is far from impossible. The story of American education over the last three decades is one not of insufficient funds but of inefficient schools. Billions of new dollars have gone into the system, to little effect. Luckily, Americans are starting to recognize that we can improve schooling without paying an additional dime. In fact, by unleashing the power of educational choice, we might even save money while getting better results and helping the economy's long-term prospects.
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On Thursday David Dudley did something that surprised his colleagues at Georgia Southern University. He sent all of them an open letter [300K PDF] in which he described -- in detail -- the extent of dysfunction he sees at the university.Related: Madison Schools' Administration has "introduced more than 18 programs and initiatives for elementary teachers since 2009".He described an administration disconnected from the faculty, with oversized ambitions that could move the institution away from its teaching mission. He described a faculty governance system willing to adopt the wrong resolutions just to make the administration pay attention. And he described professors who have spent their careers at the university (in November he'll have been there 23 years; he currently serves as chair of literature and philosophy) who feel besieged by one idea after another from administrators destined to be short-termers.
While his colleagues were a little stunned when they opened their e-mail, it wasn't because they disagreed. "I was so happy because someone stood up and said this out loud," said Eric Nelson, one professor. "We all have these sentiments, but no one has said so like this."
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When asked the question, "Why do colleges keep raising tuition fees?" I give answers ranging from three words ("because they can"), to 85,000 (my book, Going Broke By Degree). Avoiding both extremes, let's evaluate two rival explanations for the college cost explosion, followed by 12 key expressions that add more detail.University presidents and some economists (e.g., David Feldman and Robert Archibald) often cite the Baumol Effect (named after a Princeton economist), arguing that higher education is a service industry where it is inherently difficult to raise productivity by substituting machines for humans. Teaching is like theater: it takes as many actors today to produce King Lear as it did when Shakespeare wrote it 400 years ago. While there is some truth to the argument, in reality technology does allow a single teacher to reach ever bigger audiences (using everything from microphones to streaming video). Moreover, in reality a majority of college costs today are not for instruction--the number of administrators, broadly defined, often exceeds the number of faculty.
The second explanation comes from former Education Secretary Bill Bennett: rapidly expanding federal student financial assistance programs have pushed up college prices, so the gains from student aid accrue less to students than to the colleges themselves, financing an academic arms race. Recent studies (by Stephanie Rieg Cellini and Claudia Goldin, Andrew Gillen, and Nicholas Turner) support the Bennett Hypothesis. Student aid has fueled the demand for higher education. In the market economy, increased demand for a product made by one company (say the iPhone) quickly spurs competition (other smart phones), so prices do not rise. That fails to happen in higher education, as many providers restrict supply to enhance prestige. Harvard has an Admissions Committee, McDonald's does not.
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WSJ: Dr. Vedder, you've written that we currently have a glut of college graduates. Why do you think college is no longer the valuable investment it once was?DR. VEDDER: First, the proportion of society's resources going to fund higher education has tripled over the past half-century, and tuition costs are rising significantly faster than inflation.
Second, the reality is that at least 40% of full-time students entering four-year programs fail to have their degree in six years, and the dropout rate is even greater among lower-income students. There are vast numbers of universities where the four-year college graduation rate is less than 30%.
Third, the biggest problem is that we are turning out vastly more college graduates than there are jobs in the relatively high-paying managerial, technical and professional occupations to which most college graduates traditionally have gravitated. Do you really need a chemistry degree to make a good martini? Roughly one of three college graduates is in jobs the Labor Department says require less than a bachelor's degree.
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Many colleges ask applicants if they have a parent or grandparent who went to the school. The student's answer is often the difference between acceptance or rejection.At some of the country's most selective colleges, one study has shown, having an alum parent boosts the applicant's probability of acceptance by 45 percentage points. That is, if one candidate has a 30% chance of admission, an applicant with the exact same academic record and extracurricular activities but also a parent who attended the school as an undergraduate would have a 75% chance.
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A new partnership between Milwaukee Public Schools and a prominent all-male Southern college has attracted enough local business dollars to support near full-ride academic scholarships for 10 Milwaukee-area graduates.MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton on Tuesday announced the partnership with Morehouse College, a 147-year-old historically black institution for men in Atlanta. The kicker: $800,000 has been provided by local businesses to help pay for the 10 teenagers to attend Morehouse for four years.
The recipients included seven MPS students, one from Homestead High School in Mequon, one from Shorewood High School and one from Madison La Follette High School in Madison.
All 10 sat in Rufus King International High School's library Tuesday morning during the announcement and subsequent ceremonial signing of letters of intent to attend the school. They all wore crisp button-down shirts and matching maroon-and-white striped ties.
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DeKalb County property owners will pay more in school taxes next year while class sizes rise under an austerity budget approved by the school board Thursday.Dekalb County schools will spend $774,600,000 to support approximately 95,958 students ($8,072/student). Madison plans to spend about $15,132 / student during the 2012-2013 budget cycle, about 46% greater than DeKalb schools.The board voted to raise taxes. It also increased class sizes, even for special education students, while adding two furlough days for teachers and cutting the number of their aides.
The Fernbank Science Center suffered, too, but not as badly as previously proposed. The board cut $1.9 million -- about 40 percent -- from the center's $4.7 million budget; Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson had recommended a $3.2 million cut.
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Nothing unites a community and makes people want to live there like a good school for the kids, particularly a high school. But in these days of very tight finances, what you want and what you can get often are two different things.Add in some stark socioeconomic differences plus a dash of good ol' Chicago politics and you get an idea of what's at stake in a revealing dispute over what kind of public schooling to offer in the fast-growing South Loop.
On one side are Ald. Bob Fioretti, 2nd, and a group of constituents who want Chicago Public Schools to convert the old Jones College Prep high school on South State Street to a neighborhood school when the new controlled-enrollment Jones opens in the fall of 2014.
On the other side is the Board of Education, which insists that there just aren't enough students in the South Loop and adjoining areas to warrant the expenditure. The board now plans to demolish the old Jones.
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If you are a nerd, or just an aspiring one, there are few things more fantastic on the Internet than iTunes U. One of the earliest online education initiatives, the feature -- a little corner of the broader iTunes content environment -- brings together video- and audio-recorded lectures from colleges and universities around the world. Want to learn philosophy from Oxford? Download the 41 lectures from the university's eight-week-long General Philosophy course. Curious about the history of ancient Greece? Turn Yale's lectures on that subject into podcasts that you listen to as you're doing your dishes. iTunes' education initiative is an occasionally overwhelming and often enlightening smorgasbord of digitized, customized learning.And! The whole thing is free for users. Which means that you -- the nerd, whether current or aspiring -- can recreate the university lecture experience for pretty much any subject, for pretty much nothing save your time.
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Asians are the fastest-growing, most educated and highest-earning population in the U.S., according to a new report that paints the majority-immigrant group as a boon to an economy that has come to rely increasingly on skilled workers.The number of Asians in the U.S. quadrupled between 1980 and 2010 to about 18 million, or 6% of the total population, according to "The Rise of Asian Americans," a study released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The bulk of Asians in the U.S. trace their roots to six countries: China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam.
As a group, Asians place more value than Americans overall on marriage, parenting, hard work and careers, according to the report. Irrespective of their country of origin, Asians overall believe that American parents are too soft on their children.
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Americans' confidence in public schools is down five percentage points from last year, with 29% expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in them. That establishes a new low in public school confidence from the 33% measured in Gallup's 2007 and 2008 Confidence in Institutions polls. The high was 58% the first time Gallup included public schools, in 1973.
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The Wall Street Journal, via a kind Rick Kiley email:
The U.S. is stress-testing Herbert Stein's law like never before, but maybe the economist's famous dictum--trends that can't continue won't--is being vindicated in education. Witness the support of America's mayors for "parent trigger," the public school reform that was denounced as radical only a few years ago but now is spreading across the country.Over the weekend in Orlando, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously approved a resolution endorsing new rules that give parents the running room to turn around rotten schools. At "persistently failing" institutions, a majority of parents can sign a petition that turns out the administrators and teachers in favor of more competent hires, or dissolves the school, or converts it to a charter. Teachers unions loathe this form of local accountability.
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I read your piece on the resignation of Hans Binnendijk, the head research guru of the National Defense University and one of America's leading strategic thinkers. It comes amidst much turmoil imposed on the university from the top. It isn't pretty, and it will surely not serve the national interest. I am not directly involved in it, but this is what I have been told by many who are.The new uniformed leadership of the Armed Forces, i.e., General Dempsey and his staff, apparently intend to prune NDU back to where it was a few decades ago. There will be some modest resource savings, but since the entire university budget doesn't amount to the cost of a single joint strike fighter, one has to wonder what is motivating all of what is happening here. In the cuts that have been discussed, Dempsey's deputy, Marine Lt. Gen. George J. Flynn has wielded the meat axe, often with the aid of micromanaging action officers. No one here in the rank-and-file is sure if the urbane chairman is on board with the details of all of this. (Ironically, both the chairman and J-7 are NDU graduates with advanced degrees.)
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Stanford's iPhone and iPad Development class has had over 10 million downloads on iTunes U, making it one of the most popular online courses on earth. And it's about to get better, because now you can do it with friends.For the first time, Stanford's most celebrated iTunes U course includes peer collaboration, so you can learn alongside fellow mobile developers from around the world. If you've tried it alone and gotten stuck, now there will be people to help. If you've taken it before and aced it, now you can sharpen your knowledge by helping others. And if you've been meaning to learn Apps for iPhone & iPad, there may never be a better time.
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StoryCloud is a collection of 12 online stories that you can read, listen to and download. Click on icons to see a story and choose to read or listen. Then go and find the surprises in the pictures and see the challenges and tasks for you to write a story of your own.
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As modern government has become a framework for ameliorating grievances, I have a proposition: Let's construct a hierarchy of gripes, beginning with those who deserve the most sympathy at the top. The highest spots would be populated by, for instance, women who have been abandoned by their children's fathers, men in their 50s who are let go from their jobs after 20 years, and Native Americans.Nowhere on this list would be America's latest theatrically aggrieved group: people who don't want to pay back their student loans.
It is true, student loan debt has risen rapidly over the past several decades. The average college graduate in 2011 finished school with $24,000 in debt, while tuition and fees have increased by 440% in 30 years. Last year, total student loan debt in America outpaced credit card debt for the first time in history.
Thus, while the Occupy movement struggled to find a common issue upon which to coalesce, student loan debt forgiveness seemed to tie them together. Yet one Occupier in New York City's Zuccotti Park, wielding a sign that read "Throw me a bone, pay my tuition," made national news when he failed to articulate a single reason the government should bail him out. Asked by National Review reporter Charles C.W. Cooke to explain his sign's meaning, the young man simply said, "just because it's what I want."
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If you're feeling anxious about how U.S. kids lag the world in science and math, or just in a funk about politics or the mess in Europe, take in this story of a high school freshman from Crownsville, Md. who came up with a prize-winning breakthrough that could change how cancer and other fatal diseases are diagnosed and treated.His name is Jack Andraka, and he loves science and engineering with every inch of his 15-year-old soul. Just spend a minute or so watching this video. Seriously, do it now before you read more. Nothing from the Oscars or Grammys comes close to the unabashed excitement and joy of Andraka charging up to the stage to accept his $75,000 grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May. This is the Olympics of youth science, with more than 1,500 entries from 70 countries competing, each of which already won their national competitions.
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Young men and women used to dream about starting a business in their garage, or discovering a way to make a living while doodling on the back of a napkin in an all-important moment of inspiration. Today, they're more apt to dream about finding a taxpayer subsidy or low-interest, government business loan.Subsidies are easy to find. Wisconsin's Legislative Audit Bureau published a review of the state's economic development programs the other day, and found that since 2007 there have been 196 of them that dispersed up to $1 billion in financial assistance.
No one, I suspect, has any real idea just what these programs accomplish.
There's a small problem. Many of the recipients, the audit discovered, don't always submit the reports that are supposed to help taxpayers determine whether the loans and grants and tax credits are a good investment. But there's also a much larger problem the audit ignored. The case of Mercury Marine, the Fond du Lac engine and boat manufacturer, shows why.In March of 2010, the Wisconsin Department of Commerce gave Brunswick Corp., the parent company of Mercury Marine, a $10 million grant. The cash, federal stimulus money actually, was funneled through the State Energy Program and was spent on new windows, HVAC improvements and energy-efficient lighting at the Mercury Marine plant, among other things.
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Jeff Jarvis wrote provocatively about disrupting journalism education.Pretty sure he would agree with this, but I'd like to add my own two items.
1. Every j-school student operates their own server. A requirement. Installs software to run a linkblog, river of news, and whatever else they want.
2. Every undergrad, no matter what their major, is required to take a semester of journalism. Today's students are going into a world where blogging is something many if not all educated people will be doing, for a lifetime. Prepare them to do it well.
Write a story that grabs the readers' attention and holds it. Learn how to interview someone. Learn how to listen (that is actually a skill that can be taught, btw). The importance of multiple sources. How to care for the Internet (especially important for future VCs).
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Albuquerque is using a new system to assess potential hires. Rather than relying on requiring high school diplomas or GEDs, they're using a test called the Work Keys assessment.
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Rafael Gomez, viaa kind email: If you are interested to have a dinner for Dr. Nared contact Rafael Gomez at filosistema@yahoo.com
It's official: the Birmingham Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday night officially hiring Daniel Nerad at the district's next superintendent.Much more on departing Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad, here.School Board President Susan Hill said Nerad -- the current superintendent of the Madison (WI) Metropolitan School District -- signed a contract with the district earlier Tuesday, with an official start date of July 1.
The school board selected Nerad, 60, as the next superintendent on June 11 after a two-month search process. Nerad was one of two finalists after five semifinalists interviewed in late May and early June.
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This is one of my favorite anecdotes: Last year, the University of Phoenix enlisted renowned Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen to record a lecture. The university reserved a harbor-view room for Christensen and populated it with young people, so that the camera operators could record their reactions.Before he began to speak, Christensen noticed that the audience appeared unusually engaged and attractive.
"What school do you guys go to?" he asked.
"We're not students," a young man told him. "We're models."
When Christensen told me this story, I laughed. (Hear the whole interview here.) But the University of Phoenix is serious -- and smart. Putting a Harvard professor in front of a lecture hall filled with models is an acknowledgment that, in a Web-recorded lecture, appearance counts -- even the few seconds of cutaways to reactions from gorgeous, engaged "students."
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What was it like giving a TEDTalk, as opposed to some of the other talks you've given?It was a lot scarier, for one thing.
So how did you get through that?
Well, there was "How did I prepare for it?" and then "How did I get through it when it was really happening?" One of the things I did, which I wouldn't usually do, is I worked with a coach for the week beforehand. Partly just for the moral support of preparing when somebody is there. But also, the coach did this really smart thing: I had told him at the beginning that I'm comfortable talking with people one-on-one, but the whole thing of performance on a stage, a red-carpeted stage, freaks me out a little bit. And he said, "You're going to go through your TEDTalk as if it were a regular conversation." And that's what we did. It really, really helped, because it got me more emotionally comfortable with the words. It felt more like it was me, as opposed to this other creature who was supposed to be the performer.
I tried to bring that with me, even when I was standing under those lights. I was also trying to talk as if it were just me talking. But it's funny, if you ask me, "What was it like to be actually standing up there and delivering it?" I don't know, because it was such an otherworldly experience that I can't remember it exactly. I know I was there. I know that much. But the details kind of escape me.
The best part of the experience was not the moment of being up on stage -- it was the aftermath. I was lucky to be one of the earlier speakers. That meant that all week long I got to talk to people one-on-one about how they had reacted to what I'd been saying. And that was really, really special.
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In the early 1980s, Paul Sackett, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, began measuring the speed of cashiers at supermarkets. Workers were told to scan a few dozen items as quickly as possible while a scientist timed them. Not surprisingly, some cashiers were much faster than others.But Mr. Sackett realized that this assessment, which lasted just a few minutes, wasn't the only way to measure cashier performance. Electronic scanners, then new in supermarkets, could automatically record the pace of cashiers for long stretches of time. After analyzing this data, it once again became clear that levels of productivity varied greatly.
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A modest program in Missouri -- similar to one in the District -- has found a way to help parents improve their children's education. But nobody is paying much attention.Instead, something called the parent trigger, the hottest parent program going, has gotten laws passed in four states even though it has had zero effect on achievement.
The Missouri program, the Teacher Home Visit Program or HOME WORKS!, trains and organizes teachers to visit parents in their homes. It is quiet, steady, small and non-political.
The parent trigger, begun in California by a well-meaning group called Parent Revolution, is also authorized in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana and is deep into electoral politics. Both the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns have embraced it.
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School's out, but that's no excuse to stop reading, according to a local educator and avid reader."We're really trying to encourage students to read over the summer, so they won't lose any of the skills that they gained last year," said Louis K. Morris, the East Park Elementary School librarian.
Morris is encouraging Danville schools K-5 students -- and their parents -- to participate in the district's Summer Accelerated Reading Program at the Danville Public Library.
"Last year, our main focus was to get more kids involved. This year, it's to get more parents involved," said Morris, the program coordinator. "When a parent shows enthusiasm for something, the child will, too."
"When parents read with their children, it shows the kids that reading is important, and it's a lifelong skill," added Julie Cox, a Title 1 coordinator for the school district.
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"New Jersey Has a Bad Idea." She pontificates further on Sen. Ruiz's tenure reform bill,It is part of the rightwing assault on the teaching profession. The state gets to define "effective," then can take the right to due process away from those who don't meet the benchmarks arbitrarily created by the state, which is eager to fire teachers and make room for teaching temps. I have said it before and I'll say it again. Teachers without the right to due process may be fired for any reason or for no reason. Teachers without the right to due process will never teach anything controversial. Teachers without due process rights will never disagree with their principal. Teachers without due process rights have no academic freedom.
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In an announcement that could have implications for the affordability of education and professional development, and possibly help address the skills gap, Gov. Scott Walker, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin P. Reilly, and UW Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor Ray Cross have announced a competency-based degree model that they claim will transform higher education in Wisconsin.Under the self-paced, competency-based model, students will be allowed to start classes anytime and earn credit for what they already know. Students will be able to demonstrate college-level competencies based on material they already learned in school, on the job, or on their own.
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Meanwhile, the Madison School Board approved a 4.95% property tax increase Monday evening. Channel3000.com:
The Madison Metropolitan School District's Board of Education passed a budget on Monday night for the 2012-2013 school year.The $376,200,000 2012-2013 Madison School District budget spends $15,132 for each of its 24,861 students. Madison's per student spending is about 45% higher than the Austin, TX school district.The $376.2 million budget passed late Monday increases overall spending by 0.8 percent, and the levy by 4.95 percent.
Taxes on the average Madison home are expected to increase by approximately $85 a year. The board also decided to dip into its "rainy day" fund to cover additional expenses.
Related: Madison's property taxes flat in 2011 after a 9% increase in 2010.
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I spoke recently with Richard Zacks, author of An Underground Education and a number of other books (I also recommend The Pirate Coast).
We discussed education, parenting and a list of book recommendations. I appreciate Richard's time and hope that you enjoy the conversation.
Listen via this 17mb mp3 audio file, or read the transcript.
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Residents will get a chance to voice their thoughts on the Austin school district's $724.2 million operating budget for 2012-13 at a public hearing tonight.Austin will spend $724,200,000 for 86,697 students ($8,353/student). The 2011-2012 Madison school district budget spent roughly $369,394,753 for 24,861 students ($14,858.40 / student), or 43% more than Austin.The school board then will vote on the district's spending, though it will not approve the final budget, which includes district revenue, until August.
Board members originally considered voting on the entire budget tonight but put off the decision because they haven't decided whether to move forward with a tax rate election in November.
The spending plan includes using $14.2 million from the district's reserves to give employees a one-time payment equivalent to a 3 percent raise. That bump in pay could become permanent if the board moves forward with, and voters approve, a tax rate increase.
School trustees have said they want to wait on the tax decision until they know what other jurisdictions are doing.
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When I trashed private schools in a recent column because they hid their data to avoid comparison with other schools, I expected criticism. But the reaction was surprisingly friendly. I am apparently not the only past or present private school parent who rejects the widespread view among headmasters that we cannot intelligently assess comparative statistics.The one complaint was from Washington International School head of school Clayton W. Lewis, after I ranked his school very high on my latest High School Challenge list. He sent this message to his school community:
"By their nature, ranking systems are based on minimal and inconclusive data and highlight only a small window of what a school has to offer, leaving out the particular strengths that are quite often the final determination in finding the best fit for an individual student. Because we realize choosing a school is a significant, very personal experience, we prefer individuals to develop their own 'ranking' based on informed research, including visits to the school."
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Property values in the ritzy communities of Beverly Hills and Brentwood have fallen along with those elsewhere amid the recession. But prosecutors here say that for some of those houses and businesses the drop isn't because of the economy, it's criminal.An investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office last month led to the arrest of a former county appraiser on felony charges for allegedly improperly lowering dozens of property values by a combined $172 million.
The arrest was part of an continuing criminal investigation of the Los Angeles County Assessor's office to determine whether homeowners and businesses in some of the nation's richest neighborhoods were given tax breaks in exchange for campaign contributions to the assessor.
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I've been diabetic for almost two decades. It's tiring, let me tell you. Here's a video of my routine when I change my insulin pump and continuous meter. I'm not looking for pity, sadness or suggestions for herbs and spices that might help me out. I'd just like a day off. Just a single day out of the last 7000 or the next, I'd like to have a single piece of pie and not chase my blood sugar for hours.Every time I visit the doctor (I do every 3 months) and every time I talk to someone in industry (I do a few times a year) I'm told that there will be a breakthrough "in the next 5 years." I've been hearing that line - "it's coming soon" - for twenty.
I used to wait a minute for a finger stick test result. Now I wait 5 seconds but we still have blood sugar strips with +-20% accuracy. That means I can check my sugar via finger stick twice and get a number I'd take action on along with one I wouldn't. Blood sugar strip accuracy is appalling and a dirty little secret in the diabetes community.
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When I first heard complaints that the admissions process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology had gone soft, I guessed that the cause of the unrest was an effort by our nation's most selective school to become more diverse.Of the freshmen who entered the Fairfax County public school in 2010, only 13 were Hispanic and four were black. That amounted to 3.5 percent of the class, even though 52 Hispanic and 29 black applicants had academic records good enough to survive the first cut. I assumed that the school, reacting to those numbers, had begun to admit more Hispanic and black students, which in turn might be the source of criticism for a downturn in this year's freshman grades.
I was wrong. More freshmen this year needed remediation, but growing ethnic diversity cannot be the reason.
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Hotz talked about how he wrote his first computer program when he was five, while sitting on his father's lap at their Apple II. By fifth grade, he was building his own video-game console with an electronic-projects kit from Radio Shack. His parents often found household appliances (remote controls, answering machines) gutted. "He always liked learning stuff, and if that was how he did it, great," his father, George Hotz, Sr., a high-school computer teacher, told me. Hotz, bored with his classes and letting his grades slide, became known at school as an inventive joker who rolled down the hallways in wheeled sneakers and once hacked several classroom computers to simultaneously play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. His mother, Marie Minichiello, a social worker, told me that although she punished him for his acts of mild disobedience, she always supported him. "I didn't want school to kill his passion," she said.When Hotz was fourteen, he beat thousands of students from more than sixty countries to reach the finals of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He appeared on the "Today" show with his invention, a small robot on wheels that could plot the dimensions of a room using infrared sensors, and wirelessly transmit the information to a computer. "Well, I think it's very cool to be good in science," Katie Couric told her viewers, as Hotz, in an ill-fitting dark suit, stepped forward, "and George Hotz is an example of that." Couric asked if the technology could improve automated vacuum cleaners. But Hotz was more excited about helping soldiers fight terrorists. "They can send it into a complex before the military infiltrates it!" he said, his voice not yet broken. "Well, I'm impressed, George," Couric replied, nudging him in the shoulder. "You're a little brainiac, you."
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Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad's impending departure raises questions about the future of this year's biggest budget initiative: the School District's $49 million achievement gap plan."It's a big question mark" whether a new superintendent will want to adopt the plan or make changes, said Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County.
"I don't think (the School Board) should adopt the whole plan and hand it over to the new superintendent," Johnson said. "I wouldn't take a job if a board of directors said, 'Here's the plan we came up with and want you to execute.'"
Nerad said Friday he plans to accept a superintendent job offer in Birmingham, Mich., and leave Madison by September.
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Madison School Board Member Ed Hughes:
When I reviewed the many sound initiatives in the Achievement Gap Plan (AGP), I came to think that a piece was missing. The plan addresses the need for our teachers and schools, our community partners, and our parents all to do their part to assist in the academic achievement of our students. Nowhere in the plan, however, do we acknowledge the basic fact that ultimately our students are the ones responsible for their own learning.Related: Madison Schools Administration has "introduced more than 18 programs and initiatives for elementary teachers since 2009"The only way students who are behind will be able to catch up is by putting in the time and effort necessary to expand their learning and increase their skills. It's pretty simple. If we are to narrow the achievement gap in the sense that we expect students of color to achieve at the same level as white students - and not merely expect that a higher percentage of students of color will achieve proficiency as measured on standardized tests - then the students of color will have to work harder than the white students in order to make up the ground between them. There is simply no other way. The white students aren't going to just sit around and wait for the others to reach their level.
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Leaders of three teaching unions have written to MPs urging a rethink of the phonics checks for six-year olds which are starting in schools.The unions say the controversial tests are an expensive way to tell schools what they already know and will do nothing to improve children's reading.
They describe the checks on how well children can read both real and made-up words, as "flawed".
Schools minister Nick Gibb called the unions' position disappointing.
Mr Gibb said: "Many of their members have already told us how this quick check will allow them to identify thousands of children who need extra help to become good readers.
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A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling."They would say, 'We don't care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,'" recalled Reynoso, a gardener from Palmdale, Calif.
Reynoso's son, Freddy, had been the pride of his family and the first to go to college. In 2005, after Freddy was accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music, his father co-signed on his hefty private student loans, making him fully liable should Freddy be unwilling or unable to repay them. It was no small decision for a man who made just over $21,000 in 2011, according to his tax returns.
"As a father, you'll do anything for your child," Reynoso, an American citizen originally from Mexico, said through a translator.
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So what's so cool about Montessori schools?"I was a slow convert," Meagan Holman answers. It took until she saw her 6-year-old son bloom in first grade at Fernwood Montessori School in Bay View for her to be convinced about the distinctive Montessori approach, built on a child's choices to pursue learning in a classroom without conventional grades and textbooks.
"They get them where they need to be," she said of Montessori programs, which, among other things, emphasize hands-on projects for learning and classrooms where students range across three ages (6- to 9-year-olds, for example), with students staying with the same teacher for three years.
Now, Holman, who represents the southeast side on the Milwaukee School Board, has become a key figure in a drive to increase Montessori offerings in the city - and, in her view, improve the prospects for Milwaukee Public Schools to rebound from the buffeting it has taken for years.
The prospects for a Montessori surge were underscored when a School Board committee voted Thursday to support opening a new program on the south side in September. Isn't this MPS, where the wheels grind slowly? Not in this case.
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badgerbots.org, via a kind Brion Fox email.
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THE Vice-President, Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal, on Friday launched the Tanzania 21st Century Basic Education Structure in Mtwara and urged the public to adopt and accept it saying it is the best compared with other systems in East Africa.He said the structure was aimed at enhancing the development of primary education in Mtwara Region. The ceremony was held in Kambarage Primary School in Mtwara Region.
The project is implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the information and technology system. According to Dr Bilal, most people have developed poor perception with the structure calling on such people to accept and adopt it for the betterment of education.
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Statistics is about extracting meaning from data. In this class, we will introduce techniques for visualizing relationships in data and systematic techniques for understanding the relationships using mathematics.Change is coming to education.
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The IEEE's Computer and Reliability Societies recently published "Embracing the Kobayashi Maru," by James Caroland (US Navy/US Cybercommand) and Greg Conti (West Point) describing an exercise in which they assigned students to cheat on an exam -- either jointly or individually. The goal was to get students thinking about how to secure systems from adversaries who are willing to "cheat" to win. The article describes how the students all completed the exam (they all cheated successfully), which required them to provide the first 100 digits of pi, with only 24h to prepare. The students used many ingenious techniques as cribs, but my heart was warmed to learn that once student printed a false back-cover for my novel Little Brother with pi 1-100 on it (Little Brother is one of the course readings, so many copies of it were already lying around the classroom).
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But as the School Board prepares to sign off on a final, scaled back version of the district's achievement gap plan on Monday night, it appears a little wind has been taken out of the sails of an initiative that had many in the community talking this past winter.Related: notes and links on the 2011-2012 Madison school district budget, which spent roughly $369,394,753 for 24,861 students ($14,858.40 / student)."This whole discussion has been a bit hard to follow in recent weeks," says Kaleem Caire, the president of the Urban League of Greater Madison. "The plan started out as one thing and then became something else and then became something else. To be honest, though, I'm not sure this issue ever got the momentum in the community that I thought it would."
The School Board is meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at the district's Doyle Administration Building (545 W. Dayton St.) to give preliminary approval for a 2012-13 budget. Superintendent Dan Nerad's $374.7 million budget proposal released late last month includes $4.4 million next year to fund the achievement gap plan, which is down significantly from the $12.4 million price tag that was originally attached to the project.
"When the original plan was presented it was based on a view that there isn't just one thing that any school district can do, and there isn't any one thing that the community can do, to solve this problem," says Nerad. "Instead, we needed to look at the many things that need to be in place if we're going to have the elimination of this disparate achievement. But in the end, we also had to make sure we took into account other budget needs and to present a sustainable plan, so reductions were made."
Nerad's budget proposal also includes a $3.5 million increase in funding for maintenance. The entire budget, as proposed by the superintendent, would increase the amount the district levies for taxes by 4.1 percent -- to $11.78 per $1,000 of assessed value. For the average-priced home in Madison, it's estimated that school property taxes would increase $68.12.
And, more from Birmingham, Michigan on their Superintendent search. Birmingham spends about 10% less per student than Madison.
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Catholic school was not the ordeal for me that it apparently was for many other children of my generation. I attended Catholic grade schools, served as an altar boy, and, astonishingly, was never struck by a nun or molested by a priest. All in all I was treated kindly, which often was more than I deserved. My education has withstood the test of time, including both the lessons my teachers instilled and the ones they never intended.In the mid-20th century, when I was in grade school, a child's self-esteem was not a matter for concern. Shame was considered a spur to better behavior and accomplishment. If you flunked a test, you were singled out, and the offending sheet of paper, bloodied with red marks, was waved before the entire class as a warning, much the way our catechisms depicted a boy with black splotches on his soul.
Fear was also considered useful. In the fourth grade, right around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, one of the nuns at St. Petronille's, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, told us that the Vatican had received a secret warning that the world would soon be consumed by a fatal nuclear exchange. The fact that the warning had purportedly been delivered by Our Lady of Fátima lent the prediction divine authority. (Any last sliver of doubt was removed by our viewing of the 1952 movie The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, wherein the Virgin Mary herself appeared on a luminous cloud.) We were surely cooked. I remember pondering the futility of existence, to say nothing of the futility of safety drills that involved huddling under desks. When the fateful sirens sounded, I resolved, I would be out of there. Down the front steps, across Hillside Avenue, over fences, and through backyards, I would take the shortest possible route home, where I planned to crawl under my father's workbench in the basement. It was the sturdiest thing I had ever seen. I didn't believe it would save me, but after weighing the alternatives carefully, I decided it was my preferred spot to face oblivion.
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ARE geniuses just born with their brains wired differently? Or do their early experiences fashion a richer set of neuronal interconnections that let them view the world through a sharper lens? The literature is replete with accounts of people who went on to accomplish great things--in the arts, sciences, philosophy or even politics--after exhibiting little promise in their youth. It would be encouraging to think that, if nurturing does indeed play a crucial part, there could yet be hope for the rest of us.An outfit in San Francisco called "tenXer" has begun testing a service that aims to help people boost their mental accomplishments by up to tenfold--hence its name. That has made your correspondent wonder what distinguishes the truly talented from the journeymen of any trade. And what, if anything, the rest can do to improve their more menial lot.
Several years ago, your correspondent wrote a column about innovative operating systems (see "Heading for the clouds", June 17th 2010). The software he admired the most was PC/GEOS, from a tiny firm in Berkeley, California, which crammed a full multitasking operating system and a whole suite of applications with scalable fonts and a stunning graphical interface into a couple of megabytes. The Microsoft equivalent of the day needed nearly ten times more memory and came with half the tools and none of the applications. In the early 1990s, GeoWorks Ensemble (as the program later became known) was the hare to the Mac and Windows tortoises.
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Geoffrey Fowler & Nicholas Bariyo:
It is time for a vocabulary lesson in Bernard Opio's sixth-form class at the Humble Primary School in Mukono, Uganda. One new word the students have already learned this year is "Kindle."Mr. Opio instructs them to pull out their Amazon.com Kindle e-reading devices. Within seconds, most of the teenagers have a digital Oxford English Dictionary open on their screens. "It took the kids just a few days to learn how to use them," says Mr. Opio.
The Humble School, which serves needy children in a part of Africa ravaged by poverty and HIV, is on the front lines of an effort to reinvent developing world literacy programs with technology. The premise is that the new economics of digital publishing might make more and better books available in classrooms like Mr. Opio's.
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Yet there is one project he's happy to talk about. Frustrated that his (and fellow Googler Peter Norvig's) Stanford artificial intelligence class only reached 200 students, they put up a website offering an online version. They got few takers. Then he mentioned the online course at a conference with 80 attendees and 80 people signed up. On a Friday, he sent an offer to the mailing list of a top AI association. On Saturday morning he had 3,000 sign-ups--by Monday morning, 14,000.In the midst of this, there was a slight hitch, Mr. Thrun says. "I had forgotten to tell Stanford about it. There was my authority problem. Stanford said 'If you give the same exams and the same certificate of completion [as Stanford does], then you are really messing with what certificates really are. People are going to go out with the certificates and ask for admission [at the university] and how do we even know who they really are?' And I said: I. Don't. Care."
In the end, there were 160,000 people signed up, from every country in the world, he says, except North Korea. Rather than tape boring lectures, the professors asked students to solve problems and then the next course video would discuss solutions. Mr. Thrun broke the rules again. Twenty-three thousand people finished the course. Of his 200 Stanford students, 30 attended lectures and the other 170 took it online. The top 410 performers on exams were online students. The first Stanford student was No. 411.
Mr. Thrun's cost was basically $1 per student per class. That's on the order of 1,000 times less per pupil than for a K-12 or a college education--way more than the rule of thumb in Silicon Valley that you need a 10 times cost advantage to drive change.
So Mr. Thrun set up a company, Udacity, that joins many other companies attacking the problem of how to deliver the optimal online education. "What I see is democratizing education will change everything," he says. "I have an unbelievable passion about this. We will reach students that have never been reached. I can give my love of learning to other people. I've stumbled into the most amazing Wonderland. I've taken the red pill and seen how deep Wonderland is."
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Florida Education Commissioner Gerard:
Public pronouncements by any governing institution remain one of the best ways to measure its tenacity of purpose. Embodied inside the words adults choose to convey an important message are their hopes and fears about the future. That is particularly true when schoolchildren are the topic of conversation.Yesterday's vote by the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) in favor of an anti-high-stakes-testing resolution is a perfect example of adults expressing concern about the future. Unfortunately, the resolution is short on providing hope to schoolchildren who are Florida's future. Similar to the national resolution that calls into question the need for educational assessments, the FSBA's resolution claims the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is too expensive, narrows the curriculum and is a detriment to student success. Let us separate rhetoric from reality.
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ALBERT EINSTEIN was a singular genius. The Albert Einstein model of discovery, however--the solitary mind producing remarkable insight--was not particularly unusual for his time. For much of the period from the beginning of the industrial revolution, scientific and technical advances--including the occasional stroke of brilliance--were within the reach of the diligent amateur and the garage tinkerer. That is no longer the case. As the stock of human knowledge increases, the time needed to move oneself to the knowledge frontier grows. In a 2009 paper, Benjamin Jones noted:
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Easy A's may be even easier to score these days, with the growing popularity of online courses. Tech-savvy students are finding ways to cheat that let them ace online courses with minimal effort, in ways that are difficult to detect.Take Bob Smith, a student at a public university in the United States. This past semester, he spent just 25 to 30 minutes each week on an online science course, the time it took him to take the weekly test. He never read the online materials for the course and never cracked open a textbook. He learned almost nothing. He got an A.
His secret was to cheat, and he's proud of the method he came up with--though he asked that his real name and college not be used, because he doesn't want to get caught. It involved four friends and a shared Google Doc, an online word-processing file that all five of them could read and add to at the same time during the test.
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For the past two months, one of my favorite reads has been Never Seconds, a blog started by 9-year-old Martha Payne of western Scotland to document the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches she was being served in her public primary school. Payne, whose mother is a doctor and father has a small farming property, started blogging in early May and went viral in days. She had a million viewers within a few weeks and 2 million this morning; was written up in Time, theTelegraph, the Daily Mail, and a number of food blogs; and got support from TV cheflebrity Jamie Oliver, whose series "Jamie's School Dinners" kicked off school-food reform in England.Well, goodbye to all that.
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Charter schools, publicly financed alternatives to traditional public schools, are drawing more than just increasing numbers of students: Bond investors also are signing up.As charter schools have grown, their bond sales--which usually go toward financing construction of new facilities--have gotten bigger as well, a sign of rising interest from investors. And while the relatively high yields are burdening the schools with higher borrowing costs, they are proving particularly enticing to market participants at a time of near-zero interest rates.
Bond offerings of $30 million or more accounted for nearly 12% of all charter-school bond sales last year, compared to 5% in 2007, according to Wendy Berry, a former analyst at Moody's Investors Service and a charter-school finance consultant for the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a community development organization. About 10% of the new deals this year have crossed that threshold.
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When Christina Kondos receives her bachelor's degree at Caltech's commencement Friday, she will represent a tiny and little-known minority at the prestigious science and engineering campus in Pasadena.Kondos is the only one in her graduating class of 247 to have majored in humanities or social sciences -- economics and history in her case -- without double-majoring in science, math or engineering.
Since 2008, only a dozen Caltech students have done the same, and they received bachelor of science degrees because Caltech doesn't offer a bachelor of arts, campus officials said.
Science, of course, rules at Caltech, but it doesn't eliminate the likes of James Joyce or Immanuel Kant.
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Jack Nicas & Cameron McWhirter:
A panel of business and academic leaders warned funding cuts to higher education are hurting the global competitiveness of U.S. research universities, the latest sign of financial strain that is intensifying battles over school leadership and has led to several high-profile departures of university presidents.U.S. research universities "are in grave danger of not only losing their place of global leadership but of serious erosion in quality," the committee of 22 academic, business and nonprofit leaders warned in a 250-page report issued Thursday. The report, commissioned by Congress, called for a combined effort among the schools, governments and corporations to reverse the decline.
Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and retired economics professor at Ohio University, reviewed parts of the report Thursday and was skeptical. He said he has found no correlation between extensive university research and a nation's economic prosperity. The Center for College Affordability is a research group that focuses on free-market solutions for rising college costs.
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A standing-room-only crowd of teachers filled the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District Board of Education meeting room Monday night to protest staffing reassignments throughout the district. Proposed staffing changes, which involve approximately 38 percent of the faculty, or 19 teachers, at Lloyd Road Elementary School in Aberdeen, were tabled after approximately 100 teachers raised concerns during the board's June 11 workshop meeting at Cambridge Park Elementary School.An additional 12 teachers are being reassigned to other schools. "My transfer along with the other involuntary transfers are not only ethically egregious but, most importantly, detrimental to our students," Barbara Danback, a school counselor at the grades 4-5 school, said.
Teachers lined up to take turns at the podium to tell the board the transfers are involuntary and to ask the board to reconsider such a large move.
"My colleagues and I believe that the transfers being recommended are not educationally sound," Wendy Winchel, a fifthgrade teacher at Lloyd Road, said.
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The recent Wisconsin recall election showed that even voters in blue states are willing to reward leaders who take on entrenched government unions. Have Pennsylvania Republicans missed the memo?The question is raised by Pennsylvania's continued failure to enact school vouchers, even as Harrisburg has been run for two years by Republicans who campaigned on school choice. Gov. Tom Corbett has talked the talk, calling education "the civil rights issue of the 21st century," blasting a system in which "some students are consigned to failure because of their ZIP codes," and identifying vouchers as his top educational priority. But with legislators' summer break approaching on June 30 (and elections dominating the calendar after that), vouchers are already off the table. Apparently the fury of teachers unions would be too much for the Keystone State to bear.
Last October, Pennsylvania's Senate passed a bipartisan voucher bill to throw an immediate lifeline to low-income students in the worst 5% of schools, with roughly 550,000 low-income kids becoming eligible within three years. Eight months later, Speaker Sam Smith and Majority Leader Mike Turzai--both Republicans who claim to support choice--haven't brought the bill up for a vote in the House.
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A backlash against high-stakes standardized testing is sweeping through U.S. school districts as parents, teachers, and administrators protest that the exams are unfair, unreliable and unnecessarily punitive - and even some longtime advocates of testing call for changes.The objections come even as federal and state authorities pour hundreds of millions of dollars into developing new tests, including some for children as young as 5.
In a growing number of states, scores on standardized tests weigh heavily in determining whether an 8-year-old advances to the next grade with her classmates; whether a teen can get his high school diploma; which teachers keep their jobs; how much those teachers are paid; and even which public schools are shut down or turned over to private management.
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President Obama likes to say that everyone in America should "play by the same rules." Okay, so then why does the Administration's new student-loan rule apply to for-profit colleges, but not nonprofits?The regulations that go into effect in July cut off federal student aid to career and technical colleges whose former students don't meet the Education Department's definition of "gainful employment." Education programs would be cut off from the government trough if their former students don't meet one of three thresholds for three out of four years: They must have at least a 35% loan repayment rate, 30% debt-to-discretionary-income ratio, or 12% debt-to-annual earnings ratio.
The stated purpose of the regulations is to protect taxpayers. Fine. If the feds are going to subsidize higher education, it makes sense to attach strings to the taxpayer purse. If only the White House had been as scrupulous when it doled out billions to its for-profit friends in the green lobby. But then shouldn't the White House apply the same medicine to all colleges?
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ACADEMIC economists like to make fun of businesspeople: they want competition when they enter a new market but are quick to lobby for subsidies and barriers to competitors once they get in. Yet scholars like me are no better. We work in the least competitive and most subsidized industry of all: higher education.We criticize predatory loans by mortgage brokers, when student loans can be just as abusive. To avoid the next credit bubble and debt crisis, we need to eliminate government subsidies and link tuition financing to the incomes of college graduates.
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Recently in America, nothing has been argued about more, or more vociferously, than child-rearing methods. As though such a thing existed. One might as well talk about wolf-watching methods. They do it to you, you don't do it to them.You may have heard, for instance, of the self-proclaimed "Tiger Mom" - that Asian mother who boasted of pushing her kids brutally through school and towards success - though surely the memoir of the Tiger Cub will be the one to read.
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When the school year started, 103 children were enrolled in the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's attempt to run its own charter school -- an endeavor being watched nationally as the well-known research foundation becomes the practitioner.
More than nine months later, as the inaugural class's fifth-grade year finally ends this week, 91 are still on board.Between the longer year and the longer days, they've spent 35 percent more time in school than students on a regular school calendar.They've endured daily double doses of math and reading and extra tutoring.
In return, Principal Hannah Lofthus said, the students on average have gained 2.4 grade levels in math, 2.1 grade levels in reading and 2.3 grade levels in science.
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Eleven weeks ago I wrote about a lawsuit that posed a threat to my daughter's voice. Maya, who is four years old and unable to speak, uses an app called Speak for Yourself (SfY) to communicate, and the creators of SfY were being sued for patent infringement by Prentke Romich Company (PRC) and Semantic Compaction Systems (SCS), two much larger companies that make designated communication devices (not iPad apps). You can read the original post here, and see the numerous news articles that were spurred by this case here. Maya was poised to become a very real, very human, and very adorable casualty of patent law.After that blog post, two big things happened. First, I learned a tiny bit about patent law, most notably that while in the worst case scenario (for us, a verdict again Speak for Yourself) the judge could shut down the app, it was also quite possible that PRC/SCS would only be awarded monetary damages. I was able to relax a little and lose some of the terror that SfY (which Maya was already relying on) would be suddenly yanked away or disappear. The second, and far more exciting development, is that Maya's progress in using the app to communicate has been staggering. In my original post I imagined a future in which I could hear Maya "speak" in phrases and share her thoughts . . . now, only weeks later, we are living that future. She politely makes requests, tapping out "I want cookie please." She makes jokes, like looking out the window at the bright sunshine and tapping "today rain" and laughing (what can I say, 4 year olds don't tell the best jokes). And two days ago she looked at my husband as he walked by and tapped "Daddy, I love you."
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A tentative agreement to shorten the school year for Los Angeles students -- for the fourth consecutive year -- is almost certain to weaken academic gains, and was driven, critics said, by expediency more than the best interests of students.Related: What more time can (and can't) do for school turnarounds, by Elena Silva.The deal reached last week between L.A. Unified and its teachers union calls for canceling up to five instructional days from the 2012-13 school year. It also could reduce teacher pay by the equivalent of 10 days overall, about a 5% salary cut. This would bring to 18 the number of school days cut over four years.
All sides agree that the pact is bad for students but some insist it was unavoidable. The district had come under increasing pressure to avoid eliminating adult education and elementary arts programs and sharply increasing class sizes, among other things. The union wanted to spare more than 4,000 teachers and others from layoffs, although it still stands to lose more than 1,300 members.
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WRITE EVERY DAYWriting is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.
DON'T PROCRASTINATE
Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to Google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. A wicked temptress beckoning you to watch your children, and take showers. Well, it's time to look procrastination in the eye and tell that seafaring wench, "Sorry not today, today I write."
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The National Education Association took a body blow when it failed to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, but even before the results were known, the union's national leadership recognized that the serious troubles it faced extended far beyond a single state.As reported here two weeks ago, NEA plans a reorganization to concentrate its efforts on stemming the loss of revenue and membership and establishing a better public image. Whether it will succeed is open to debate, but judging by the budget numbers presented to the union's representative bodies, NEA's lofty position as the most powerful political force in education is in serious doubt.
The union's reorganization is being introduced to NEA activists this way:
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has poured more than $4 billion into efforts to transform public education in the U.S., is pushing to develop an "engagement pedometer." Biometric devices wrapped around the wrists of students would identify which classroom moments excite and interest them -- and which fall flat.The foundation has given $1.4 million in grants to several university researchers to begin testing the devices in middle-school classrooms this fall.
The biometric bracelets, produced by a Massachusetts startup company, Affectiva Inc, send a small current across the skin and then measure subtle changes in electrical charges as the sympathetic nervous system responds to stimuli. The wireless devices have been used in pilot tests to gauge consumers' emotional response to advertising.
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Madison Teachers, Inc. via a kind Jeannie Bettner email.
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Pueng Vongs, via a kind reader's email:
Social media was buzzing about a Boston-area high school teacher's blunt commencement speech that told students they "are not special."Wellesley High English teacher David McCullough Jr. told graduates "You are not special. You are not exceptional," quoting empirical evidence:
"Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That's 37,000 valedictorians ... 37,000 class presidents ... 92,000 harmonizing altos ... 340,000 swaggering jocks ... 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs," he said in the speech published in the Boston Herald.
He added: "Even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."
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The school system's chief recovery officer was trying to explain how broke the district is, but no one could hear him."Save our schools! Save our schools!"
More than 200 protesters had packed the Philadelphia school board meeting and were drowning out the official presentation; they also waved signs expressing "No confidence" in next year's austere budget. It was the second major demonstration at district headquarters in just over a week.
The City of Brotherly Love is boiling over with frustration. It's not just the $700 million in education cuts this past year. It's not just a loss of state aid, which led to a massive rally and 14 arrests. And it's not just the plan to close 40 of Philadelphia's 249 schools within a year.
"For 10 years we've lived with promises that privatization and choice options would be the magic bullet to a lot of the problems," said parent Helen Gym. "What we found is chasing after these silver bullets has really drained schools of resources and starved them to the point of dysfunction."
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If Wisconsin wants an educated workforce that can compete in a global economy, it has to stop thinking in terms of education pieces: K-12, colleges and universities, technical schools. It has to start thinking in terms of one system that students can navigate with ease to get the education they want and need, both in basic knowledge and upgrades when they want them; a system aimed at best serving their needs, offering them enrichment and skills.The devil is in the details, as always.An important step in that direction was taken Tuesday with the signing of a dual enrollment agreement by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers and University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension Chancellor Ray Cross at UW-Marathon County in Wausau. The agreement allows high school students - mostly juniors or seniors - to earn credit that can be transferred easily to state four-year universities or two-year colleges after graduation, along with many private colleges.
Evers said in an interview Tuesday that the initiative "creates some synergy between systems that have not been directly connected in the past," according to an article by Journal Sentinel reporters Erin Richards and Karen Herzog. "Even though we're all differently governed, we need to make our systems look more like one instead of two or three or four."
This helps students in several ways, including reducing the cost of a college degree. That's more important than ever in light of the increasing cost of a college education. Just last week, UW officials announced a 5.5% hike in tuition.
Much more on credit for non-Madison School District courses, here.
UW Colleges and DPI announce expanded dual enrollment programProgram will allow students to take UW Colleges courses at their high schools
High school students in Wisconsin will be able to earn college credits while still in high school under a new dual enrollment program announced by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
Tony Evers, state superintendent of public instruction, and Ray Cross, chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension, signed an agreement and announced the new statewide model for dually enrolling high school students in high school and UW Colleges courses. They spoke at a June 12 ceremony at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, one of the UW Colleges campuses in Wausau. UW Colleges is the UW System's network of 13 freshman - sophomore campuses and UW Colleges Online.
Evers and Cross said the new partnership would allow students across Wisconsin to access UW Colleges courses in their high schools via classroom teachers and online. The new dual enrollment program would accelerate students' ability to earn UW credits, reduce the cost of obtaining a college degree, and increase the readiness of high school graduates for either college or the workplace. The program should be in place no later than the 2013-14 school year.
"We're trying to better serve high school students by bringing our University of Wisconsin courses right into their high schools in a cost-effective way," said Cross. "We're committed to making these UW credits as affordable as possible for high school students, their families, and the school districts."
"More students need the opportunity to take advanced courses and earn high school and college credit simultaneously," Evers said. "This statewide dual enrollment agreement is a great way for students to get an introduction to college coursework and earn credits before even enrolling in a school of higher education. This will increase the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers."
Additional information is contained in the complete news release. A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding is available online.
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One-third of businesses are dissatisfied with school leavers' literacy and numeracy skills, according to a new survey - a problem the government will try to address this week with a draft primary school curriculum that will specify words and grammar that children must learn at each age.The survey of 542 companies, undertaken by the CBI employers' group and Pearson UK, the British education arm of the company which owns the Financial Times, suggested that there had been little improvement in basic skills over the past decade, when a similar question received similar answers.
A further proposal for reforming the primary curriculum, also under consultation, would make foreign languages mandatory from the age of seven. In 2010, the coalition government had dropped the previous administration's plans to make them compulsory.
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Air Force Academy officials recently stated that the honor system works because, they said, 78 cadets were caught cheating on a Math 142 (integral calculus) exam.The Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, and the Vice Dean, Col. Richard Fullerton, have gone on record stating that fragmentary evidence of declining honor cases in recent years is evidence that the honor system is working. So if the number of cadets caught in honor violations is up, the system is working. And if known honor violations are down, the system is working. It's no wonder that the Center for Character Development and Leadership, the Air Force Academy unit responsible for running the honor system, has been consistently uninterested in using the best available data sets in assessing the effectiveness of the honor system.
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I fired my children. It was a cold Saturday in December, when I told them they no longer had jobs and should leave the house. I didn't care where they went, as long as they got out of my hair for three hours so I could do their chores without bitterness.Our detailed checklist-based system, with jobs paying from 50 cents to $3, was a failure. Every weekend I'd nag my four girls--ages 10 to 15--for a day or so to start. The girls would bicker throughout, as one tried to sweep before another had gotten around to dealing with rugs. Every time I'd turn around, another girl would have wandered off before finishing, distracted by a book or the iPad. Then they'd fail inspection.
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International Supercomputing Conference:
ISC'12 will feature a new activity this year in collaboration with the HPC Advisory Council - the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition. The HPC Advisory Council is the main organizer for the competition; please visit their website for detailed information (http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/events/2012/ISC12-Student-Cluster-Competition/index.php).The competition consists of five teams of university students from around the world that will compete to demonstrate the incredible capabilities of state-of-the-art high-performance cluster hardware and software. The teams will be competing in real-time and will build a small cluster of their own to demonstrate the greatest performance across a series of benchmarks and applications. The students will have a unique opportunity to learn, experience and demonstrate how high-performance computing influences our world, including day-to-day learning.
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For all of the hemming and hawing about spending cuts in Washington, the Congressional Budget Office's latest long-term budget forecast reflects two painful facts for Washington: How large the nation's problems remain, and how the GOP's 2010 surge into Washington has had only a limited impact in changing America's fiscal trajectory. The annual report, released on Tuesday by Capitol Hill's nonpartisan budget umpires, argues that if Congress's current policies continue - meaning that the Bush tax cuts are renewed at year's end and Medicare providers don't face drastic reductions in payments, among other issues - federal debt held by the public will reach 93 percent of gross-domestic product (GDP) by the year 2022. That's down about seven percentage points from CBO's 2011 forecast, which saw the nation's debt as a share of GDP rising to 100 percent by 2021. That's thanks in large part to the Budget Control Act of last summer - also known as the debt-ceiling deal - where Congress achieved more than $2 trillion in savings over the next decade through a combination of spending cuts and discretionary spending caps.Related: How Safe are US Treasuries?
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Since the state (CT) passed education reform a few weeks ago, we should be looking forward to the prospect of more help for struggling schools. Instead, we're probably looking forward to more teachers losing their jobs.Because school reform, at its base, is not about education. It's about money.
In some cases, that means cashing in. You'd have to be blind to think there aren't people looking to get in on the giant pile of public education money in this country. That means testing companies, privatizers and more. But that's only a part of the story.
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Growing numbers of teenagers are being forced to drop GCSEs in religious studies because of the introduction of new-style league tables that prioritise other disciplines, it was claimed.In some schools, pupils are no longer allowed to take RE at all in the last two years of secondary education.
It is also feared that an expansion of independent academies - state schools run free of local authority control - is leading to rising numbers of schools dropping locally-agreed syllabuses in the subject.
The comments by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales were made despite claims of strong backing for the subject.
A survey of 1,800 adults - published by the council tpday - shows that more than half of people back compulsory lessons in RE up to the age of 16. Only a third said it should not be mandatory, it was revealed.
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Last November I wrote about the different types of charter schools operating in Wisconsin. My hope was to list in one place a simple description of a reform model that people often find confusing.Today I am going to dig a little deeper into the demographic profile of Milwaukee's independent charter school sector. In 2011-2012 18 independent charter schools operated in Milwaukee. Seven were authorized by the City of Milwaukee, and 11 were authorized by UWM.
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It was nice. It felt...comfortable. But of course that maybe because things went as expected and as they usually do: a phenomenal percentage of honors and high honors graduates.Sure, there floated the occasional beach ball until confiscated by the aisle monitors. There were several bold souls that "shook their stuff" on the stage before accepting their diploma case. But could anyone help but notice the inverted triangle of high honor grads?
Last year 1 in 4 students graduated with high honors. This second verse very nearly mirrored the first. By our unofficial tally, 109 students graduated with "high honors" (cumulative GPA greater than 3.50, or between a B+ and an A-). We don't have a final tally on the number of graduated, but with we use 440, the number of 12 graders in SPHS, the percentage is 24.9%. If we total all 12th graders (including PPA and virtual schoolers, the number of kids is just under 500 and 109 represents about 22%).
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The conversation covered much ground, but mostly we talked about WEAC's new reality, and the daunting task facing a union that just lost a huge political battle in a decisive way.WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators. Much more on WEAC.Some highlights:
- Did WEAC make a mistake in endorsing Kathleen Falk so early in the process? "She was a strong and viable candidate," Bell said. "And we needed to make sure there was another voice in the arena."
- What does the future hold for WEAC? "Every election has lessons," she said. "Scott Walker is going to be in office for at least two more years, and we have to figure out how we can work with that."
- Can WEAC sustain its membership in a post-Act 10 world? Burkhalter said membership was about 90,000 before Walker's strict limits on collective bargaining for most public workers kicked in. Once all the current teacher union contracts expire and individual teachers are free to choose whether to pay dues or not, WEAC hopes to retain 60,000 to 70,000 of that base, he said.
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Sarah Fudin, via a kind email:
As the 2012 school year begins to wind down, many students across the country are diligently preparing for Advanced Placement exams in 34 different subject areas. AP courses are designed to help high school students acquire the skills and study habits essential for success in college. With test dates running from May 7 through May 25, AP students are poised to hit the ground running when beginning their post-secondary careers, should they earn a score high enough to gain them college credit.In keeping with the testing season, we are very excited to launch an infographic that highlights the progress made within AP curricula over the past decade. Our graphic, "The Rise of the AP," shares information and statistics from the College Board's 8th Annual "AP Report to the Nation."
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Rising student debt levels and fresh academic research have brought greater scrutiny to the question of whether the federal government's expanding student-aid programs are driving up college tuition.Studies of the relationship between increasing aid and climbing prices at nonprofit four-year colleges found mixed results, ranging from no link to a strong causal connection. But fresh academic research supports the idea that student aid in the form of grants leads to higher prices at for-profit schools, a small segment of postsecondary education.
The new study found that tuition at for-profit schools where students receive federal aid was 75% higher than at comparable for-profit schools whose students don't receive any aid. Aid-eligible institutions need to be accredited by the Education Department, licensed by the state and meet other standards such as a maximum rate of default by students on federal loans.
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As observers outside Wisconsin attempt to divine what the failed attempt to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker means for November's presidential election, let us instead focus on what the so-called union-buster's triumph says about Big Labor.My favorite comment on the matter came via Twitter: "Please explain: why so many people I know who are in unions (trades or schoolteachers) so excited for Walker's win?"
Let me take a crack at that one: Because not every tradesman or teacher wants to be forced into joining a union. And they certainly don't want to pay hefty union fees that go toward supporting political agendas that have nothing to do with, say, educating children.
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Gamification, depending on what's being gamified, can either be elegantly fitting or weirdly redundant. Gamified social networking? Generally fantastic. Gamified shopping experiences? Generally not so much. One space that's obviously ripe for a little game-changing, though, is education. Kids like games; games can help kids; and BOOM! Win.In February, the education services company Pearson introduced Alleyoop, a personalized digital-tutoring service that tries to gamify the classroom -- and to do it, specifically, outside of the classroom. Think Zynga, but smart. (And also: Zynga, but trying to make you smart.) The platform focuses on middle- and, in particular, high-school curricula, and emphasizes the immediate feedback aspects of the gamification model. Instead of a once-a-semester report card, featuring the blunt assessment metrics of letter grades, students get real-time feedback on the details of their performance -- from real-time tutors who are not their teachers. The system is personalized, iterative, and adaptive, so a student having trouble with, say, trigonometry can delve into trigonometry at his or her own pace, learning from mistakes and gaining immediate rewards from successes.
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Children will be introduced to times tables, mental arithmetic and fractions in the first two years of school as part of a back-to-basics overhaul of the National Curriculum.Ministers will this week announce key tasks pupils are expected to master at each age under wide-ranging plans to counter more than a decade of dumbing down in schools.
A draft mathematics curriculum suggests that five and six year-olds will be expected to count up to 100, recognise basic fractions and memorise the results of simple sums by the end of the first year of compulsory education.
In the second year, they will be required to know the two, five and 10 times tables, add and subtract two-digit numbers in their head and begin to use graphs.
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Richard Phelps, via a kind email:
"In scholarly terms, a review of the literature or literature review is a summation of the previous research that has been done on a particular topic. With a dismissive literature review, a researcher assures the public that no one has yet studied a topic or that very little has been done on it. A firstness claim is a particular type of dismissive review in which a researcher insists that he is the first to study a topic. Of course, firstness claims and dismissive reviews can be accurate--for example, with genuinely new scientific discoveries or technical inventions. But that does not explain their prevalence in nonscientific, nontechnical fields, such as education, economics, and public policy, nor does it explain their sheer abundance across all fields."See for yourself. Access a database that allows searching by phrases (e.g., Google, Yahoo Search, Bing) and try some of these: "this is the first study," "no previous studies," "paucity of research," "there have been no studies," "few studies," "little research," or their variations. When I first tried this, I expected hundreds of hits; I got hundreds of thousands."
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The more I thought about the comic, though, the more I realized we can actually read it two different ways:The interviewee is trying desperately to use the appropriate (yet empty) buzzwords that give him the credibility he needs. But to the Boss, it's being translated into a completely different message: I'm a high school drop-out who failed three times at starting my own business. I'm not competent enough to make it through the formal education process, so I just try patch together the skills I need here and there. Instead of going to school, I went online and signed up for a few free courses, and printed off the completion certificates myself.
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The 10-year flight of Wings Academy will end Tuesday. The closing of the small school on the south side where the vast majority of students qualify for special education leaves me thinking that nationwide we haven't worked hard enough on figuring out what to aim for with special ed kids and how to figure out if we're achieving it.To what degree should we set the same goals for at least a large portion of special ed kids as for other kids, largely measured by test scores? Is success on less measurable fronts - personal development and preparation for adulthood - good enough? Better? Settling for too little?
Wings was an independent charter school, authorized to operate by the Milwaukee School Board. It had the atmosphere of a friendly, energetic, but, as one staff member put it, squirrelly family. Its program included phonics-oriented reading instruction, individualized and project-based work in many classes, tae kwon as its physical education focus, and a lot of relationship building among staff, students and families.
Test scores at Wings were, as Nicola Ciurro, co-founder and head of the school, put it, terrible. "We always knew that," she said. Among 10th-graders in last fall's testing, 34% were proficient in reading, 6% in math.
About 80% of the 150 students, who ranged from first- to 12th-graders, had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, autism, Asperger's syndrome, dyslexia or other special circumstances. Many of the other 20% were "gray area" kids when it came to special needs, Ciurro said.
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For more than a decade, New York's charter-school advocates and other supporters of education reform have had a powerful ally in Mayor Michael Bloomberg.But that is likely to change after next year. None of the presumed mayoral candidates fully support Mr. Bloomberg's policies, which have been at the forefront of a national movement to promote school competition, accommodate charter schools and use test scores to judge schools and teachers.
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Teachers from across Kentucky showed how their new approaches to teaching math and literacy skills are paying off for students, both in greater interest in learning and achievement results.An audience of about 200 from Kentucky and other states learned from the teachers' experiences. The new strategies are backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and have been guided in Kentucky by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and the state Department of Education, which is now leading expansion of the program. The new approach to math puts students in the center of problem solving that taps students' thinking skills; the new language arts assignments require deeper thinking and stronger writing in English, science and social studies classes.
The approaches highlighted at the June 4 showcase here are now being used in 17 school districts across the state, up from nine districts last year. Nationally, the project is expanding to new states, with educators from Colorado, Louisiana and Florida in the audience here to learn about what Kentucky teachers are doing.
"This is the second year we've heard that all teachers in the state need to be able to do this type of work," said Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee. "I know I want my grandkids to have the chance to be part of classrooms where teachers do this."
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Tuitions and fees have risen more than 440 percent in 30 years as schools happily raised prices -- and lowered standards -- to siphon up federal money. A recent Wall Street Journal headline: "Student Debt Rises by 8% as College Tuitions Climb."Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that as many people -- perhaps more -- have student loan debts as have college degrees.
Have you seen those T-shirts that proclaim "College: The Best Seven Years of My Life"? Twenty-nine percent of borrowers never graduate, and many who do graduate take decades to repay their loans.
In 2010, The New York Times reported on Cortney Munna, then 26, a New York University graduate with almost $100,000 in debt. If her repayments were not then being deferred because she was enrolled in night school, she would have been paying $700 monthly from her $2,300 monthly after-tax income as a photographer's assistant.
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Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) introduced three amendments to the recently passed Energy & Water appropriations bill that would have eliminated a slew of business subsidies at the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, House Republicans once again teamed up with their Democratic colleagues to keep the corporate welfare spigot flowing.
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If you judge the process by the questions, it would appear Dr. Daniel Nerad has the edge in being offered the job as the next superintendent for Birmingham Schools.Nerad is the Madison School District superintendent in Wisconsin and one of two finalists for the Birmingham job. The other person is Robert Shaner, executive director of instruction and technology at the Warren Consolidated district.
Nerad has been superintendent for Madison Schools since 2008. Before that, he spent seven years as the superintendent for the Green Bay Area Public Schools. Shaner has less than a year of administrative experience.
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It is interesting to compare and contrast Board member amendments to the Administration's proposed 2012-2013 Madison School District budget. The 2011-2012 budget spent $369,394,753 for 24,861 students or $14,858.40 each.
Mary Burke: Require Accountability for All Achievement Gap Programs.
Maya Cole offers 11 amendments, the first seeks to address the District's literacy problems. Cole's amendment 6 questions the Administration's use of WPS health care savings ("general fund").
James Howard seeks a student data analysis assistant and the implementation of a parent university.
Ed Hughes offers 3 amendments, the first seeks to moderate proposed administrative staffing growth, the 2nd requests $3,000,000 in additional maintenance spending (500K less than the Administrative proposal) and a change (reduction) in the use of the District's reserves (or "fund equity"). Mr. Hughes' amendments would result in a 5.7% property tax increase. Related: controversy and a possible audit over past maintenance spending.
Beth Moss requests additional middle school media library staffing and increased funding for the middle school Avid program. Much more on the AVID program, here.
Arlene Silveira requests $75K for the Superintendent Search and a possible interim candidate, a dropout recovery program, a Toki Middle School "Expeditionary Learning Program" and the creation of an implementation plan for all achievement gap programs. Notes and links on Toki middle school and the "Expeditionary Learning Program".
Somewhat related: Madison Schools Administration has "introduced more than 18 programs and initiatives for elementary teachers since 2009"
I continue to wonder if all schools are held to the same academic and financial standards expressed during the debate and rejection of the proposed the proposed Madison Preparatory IB charter school?
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EDUCATION SEEMS to be plagued by false dichotomies. Until recently, when research and common sense gained the upper hand, the debate over how to teach beginning reading was character- ized by many as "phonics vs. meaning." It turns out that, rather than a dichotomy, there is an inseparable connection between decoding--what one might call the skills part of reading--and comprehension. Fluent decoding, which for most children is best ensured by the direct and systematic teaching of phonics and lots of practice reading, is an indispensable condition of comprehension."Facts vs. higher order thinking" is another example of a false choice that we often encounter these days, as if thinking of any sort--high or low--could exist out- side of content knowledge. In mathematics education, this debate takes the form of "basic skills or concep- tual understanding." This bogus dichotomy would seem to arise from a common misconception of math- ematics held by a segment of the public and the educa- tion community: that the demand for precision and fluency in the execution of basic skills in school math- ematics runs counter to the acquisition of conceptual understanding. The truth is that in mathematics, skills and understanding are completely intertwined. In most cases, the precision and fluency in the execution of the skills are the requisite vehicles to convey the conceptual understanding. There is not "conceptual understanding" and "problem-solving skill" on the one hand and "basic skills" on the other. Nor can one ac-quire the former without the latter.
It has been said that had Einstein been born at the time of the Stone Age, his genius might have enabled him to invent basic arithmetic but probably not much else. However, because he was born at the end of the 19th century--with all the techniques of advanced physics at his disposal--he created the theory of rela- tivity. And so it is with mathematics. Conceptual ad- vances are invariably built on the bedrock of tech- nique. Without the quadratic formula, for example, the theoretical development of polynomial equations and hence of algebra as a whole would have been very dif- ferent. The ability to sum a geometric series, some- thing routinely taught in Algebra II, is ultimately re- sponsible for the theory of power series, which lurks inside every calculator. And so on.
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Getting any school choice legislation passed in California is a daunting task. The Legislature, in thrall to the teachers unions, is unwilling to disrupt the moribund status quo, which has led to disastrous consequences for public education. But the Open Enrollment Act has jumped through various legal and political challenges and miraculously survived, though efforts are under way to have it weakened.Included in California's 2010 sweeping reform package, the Open Enrollment Act has received far less attention than its sister statute, the "parent trigger" law. But while the parent trigger provision requires the signatures of 50 percent of parents at a school designated as chronically underperforming by the California Department of Education, the open enrollment provision requires only one. It is efficient, simple and unencumbered by the political obstacles that have undermined parent empowerment under the parent trigger law - one parent can rise to the challenge and demand change.
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That's why we are excited about the Education Data Initiative, an Administration-wide effort to "liberate" government data and voluntarily-contributed non-government data as fuel to spur entrepreneurship, create value, and create jobs while improving educational outcomes for students. The Education Data Initiative is part of a recently announced series of Open Data Initiatives in energy, health care, public safety, and education to spark new private-sector consumer-facing and business-oriented tools, products, and services - such as mobile apps and websites- all while rigorously protecting personal, proprietary, and national security information.Led by the U.S. Department of Education, in close partnership with the White House and other agencies, the Education Data Initiative seeks to (1) work with data owners inside and outside of government to make education-related data available, machine-readable, and accessible, while ensuring personal privacy is protected, and (2) collaborate with private-sector entrepreneurs and innovators to ensure they are aware of these existing and newly available digital assets and encourage them to include these data as inputs into their new products, services, and features that can improve student success.
For example, existing Federal databases of higher education information available on education.data.gov (e.g., institutional prices, graduation rates, loan default rates, etc.) can fuel new or improved online services that help students and their families make informed choices about which college to attend, based on indicators of affordability and quality. Similarly, making individual federal financial aid application and award data securely available to applicants and borrowers in machine-readable form promises to help customize and personalize college-choice tools and services.
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As June wanes, the pressure on NJ legislators to pass some sort of tenure reform increases. How long have they been working on this? Years. But, as NJ Spotlight reports today, dueling bills threaten to forestall progress.
The first bill, thoroughly vetted by, well, just about everybody, is Senator Teresa Ruiz’s TEACHNJ bill (S 1455), would make teacher tenure conditional on classroom effectiveness and (depending on the version) end LIFO, or last in, first out when making lay-off decisions. It would also tie teacher evaluations to student outcomes and give principals more responsibility and authority.
(New Jersey School Boards Association supports the Ruiz bill. NJEA doesn't.)
The second bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, isn’t even out there in final form (or any form for that matter), but it represents the greatest challenge to the possibility of tenure reform in NJ.
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In fact, if the adopted rate of return figure is less than 7.75 percent, the unfunded liability would continue to grow yearly, said Hans Zigmund, associate director at the Governor's Office of Management and Budget.TRS has an unfunded liability of $44 billion, or 55 percent unfunded, meaning it only has enough assets on hand to cover 45 percent of the cost of current and future pensions.
A recommendation for a change to the expected rate of return for TRS investments, which happens every five years, could come as early as its June 21-22 board meeting.
State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-Evanston, said the rate of return could be lowered because of pressure from the bond-rating agencies, which determine a state's credit worthiness.
"The rating agencies like Moody's and their counterparts have been more insistent in recent years that the return on investments be re-calibrated to be more accurate," Schoenberg said. "This is not only happening in Illinois, but across the nation as well."
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Stephanie Banchero & Jennifer Levitz:
It had been years since Principal Kathleen Lowry pulled extra desks from the dusty attic of St. Stanislaus, the only Catholic school left in this port city. But after Indiana began offering parents vouchers in the spring of 2011 to pay for private tuition, she had to bring down 30 spare desks and hire three teachers' aides.Thanks to vouchers, St. Stanislaus, which was $140,000 in debt to the Catholic Diocese of Gary at the end of 2010, picked up 72 new students, boosting enrollment by 38%.
"God has been good to us," says Ms. Lowry. "Growth is a good problem to have."
For the first time in decades, Catholic education is showing signs of life. Driven by expanding voucher programs, outreach to Hispanic Catholics and donations by business leaders, Catholic schools in several major cities are swinging back from
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Melissa Korn & Rachel Emma Silverman:
Stanford University's d.school--the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design--has gained recognition in recent years for introducing the trendy, but murky, problem-solving concept known as "design thinking" to executives, educators, scientists, doctors and lawyers. Now other schools are coming up with their own programs.Students at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design -- the d.school -- have their photos posted on the walls of a main meeting space.
Design thinking uses close, almost anthropological observation of people to gain insight into problems that may not be articulated yet. For example, researchers may study the habits of shoppers waiting to pay for groceries in order to create a more efficient checkout system that maximizes last-minute purchases while keeping customers moving quickly.
Traditionally, companies have relied on focus groups to get feedback on products that were already in development. With design thinking, potential solutions--products, processes or services--are modeled, often using simple materials like markers and pipe-cleaners, then tested and quickly adjusted based on user feedback.
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Since the collective bargaining measure was enacted last year, WEAC's membership has dropped from around 90,000 to 70,000, but the remaining membership became energized by the recall. Union leaders are hopeful that passion will continue as the union rallies around issues such as public school funding. The union is working on membership drives this summer.Related: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators."I think we will be smaller but stronger," Bell said.
Burkhalter estimated 25% to 30% of WEAC members voted for Walker in 2010 while on Tuesday about 5% voted for the governor.
"He really united our membership," said Burkhalter.
Bell said Walker prevailed in the recall partly because many voters don't like recall elections and some believed recalls should only be used in cases of malfeasance. She admitted public employees were easy targets for the governor and Republican lawmakers because of generous pensions and benefits, which Bell noted were mostly a result of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson's qualified economic offer law that gave better benefits in return for salary concessions to public school employees several years ago.
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I gave the Milton K Wong lecture in Vancouver on Sunday. I very much enjoyed the event- it was a stunning venue, a superb audience and a good discussion of the issues. My thanks to the Laurier Institution, University of British Columbia and CBC for inviting me. Entitled 'What is Wrong with Multiculturalism? A European Perpective', the lecture pulled together many of the themes about immigration, identity, diversity and multiculturalism of which I have been talking and writing recently. It was a long talk, so I am splitting the transcript into two. Here is the first part; I will publish the second part later this week. It will be broadcast in full on 22 June on the CBC's Ideas strand.It is somewhat alarming to be asked to present the European perspective on multiculturalism. There is no such beast. Especially when compared to the Canadian discussion, opinion in Europe is highly polarised. And mine certainly is not the European perspective. My view is that both multiculturalists and their critics are wrong. And only by understanding why both sides are wrong will we be able to work our way through the mire in which we find ourselves.
Thirty years ago multiculturalism was widely seen as the answer to many of Europe's social problems. Today it is seen, by growing numbers of people, not as the solution to, but as the cause of, Europe's myriad social ills. That perception has been fuel for the success of far-right parties and populist politicians across Europe from Geert Wilders in Holland to Marine Le Pen in France, from the True Finns to the UK Independence Party. It even provided fuel for the obscene, homicidal rampage last year of Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo and Utøya, which in his eyes were the first shots in a war defending Europe against multiculturalism. The reasons for this transformation in the perception of multiculturalism are complex, and at the heart of what I want to talk about. But before we can discuss what the problem is with multiculturalism, we first have unpack what we mean by multiculturalism.
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Greg Forster & James Woodworth
The recent explosion of educational innovation has focused primarily on creating wholly new models of what a school can be. From KIPP to carpe Diem, education is entering a revolutionary period driven by the reinvention of the entire school rather than by gradual programmatic reforms. Although some of these new models have been more successful than others, and the level of success for any given new model can be debated, there is a growing consensus that these new school models collectively represent a dramatic challenge to the status quo in education.These "greenfield school models" do not just challenge our assumptions about schooling. They also challenge the assumption that one school model can provide the right education for every child. The public mind has been opened to the potential of educational options as never before.
The nation faces two crucial challenges as we enter this new period. Only a tiny fraction of the promise and potential of greenfield school models has been tapped so far. how can we create far more of these models, with greater variation and more institutional support for innovation? And how is it possible for greenfield school models to create improvement in the vast majority of schools, the "un-reinvented" regular public schools, given that even gradual attempts at programmatic reform within those schools have been ineffective over the past 50 years?
Universal school choice has great potential to meet both of these challenges. Although the private school sector provides structures that should be inviting to entrepreneurs, currently they do not find the private school sector attractive. The "tuition barrier" locks out institutional change; private schools can't reach out to a large enough base of families seeking different learning environments, because they must charge tuition. By lowering the tuition barrier and allowing private schools to serve new populations, universal choice would provide educational entrepreneurs with dramatically more freedom and support than they currently enjoy even in charter schools. entrepreneurs would be more free to innovate beyond the confines of the "default" public school model, giving them the ability to truly reinvent the school.
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Michael Gove, the UK's Secretary of State for Education, has expressed a wish to see almost all school pupils studying mathematics in one form or another up to the age of 18. An obvious question follows. At the moment, there are large numbers of people who give up mathematics after GCSE (the exam that is usually taken at the age of 16) with great relief and go through the rest of their lives saying, without any obvious regret, how bad they were at it. What should such people study if mathematics becomes virtually compulsory for two more years?A couple of years ago there was an attempt to create a new mathematics A-level called Use of Mathematics. I criticized it heavily in a blog post, and stand by those criticisms, though interestingly it isn't so much the syllabus that bothers me as the awful exam questions. One might think that a course called Use of Mathematics would teach you how to come up with mathematical models for real-life situations, but these questions did, and still do, the opposite. They describe a real-life situation, then tell you that it "may be modelled" by some formula, and proceed to ask you questions that are purely mathematical, and extremely easy compared with A-level maths.
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Ben Wildavsky and Robert E. Litan, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation:
A far-reaching discussion is taking place in the United States about the challenges facing higher education and the possible forms postsecondary learning might take in the future. Notwithstanding the strengths of our best research institutions, the shortcomings of many U.S. colleges and universities are significant. There is growing evidence that they need to focus more effectively on student learning, improve completion rates, lower costs, make much better use of technology, boost productivity, improve delivery of instruction for nontraditional students, and take innovations to scale more quickly.To make this happen--and to provide brand-new alternatives to traditional models--a more entrepreneurial approach to postsecondary education is sorely needed. But even as a period of unusual ferment in U.S. higher education gets under way, numerous barriers continue to slow innovation and thwart experimentation, both in traditional institutions and in start-up ventures.
In an effort to understand the nature of those barriers and to generate ideas for overcoming them, in December 2011 the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation convened a diverse group of analysts and practitioners for a two-day retreat in Palm Beach, Florida. Participants included Shai Reshef, founder of the University of the People; the management editor of The Economist; the founders of startups 2tor, Inc. and StraighterLine; senior leaders of nontraditional universities such as Olin College and Western Governors University; the president and CEO of Kaplan, Inc.; the directors of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for American Progress; and professors who both study and participate in postsecondary reform initiatives.
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A recent report released by the National Science Foundation found that graduate enrollment in science and engineering grew substantially in the past decade.Approximately 632,700 graduate students were enrolled in science, engineering and health programs in the United States as of fall 2010. This was a 30 percent increase from 493,000 students in 2000, according to the National Science Foundation's Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.
The growth in first time, full-time graduate student enrollment in science, engineering, and health programs over this time was even greater, with a 50 percent increase from approximately 78,400 students in 2000 to almost 118,500 students in 2010.
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Register now for Teaching Labor History Course August 6 and 7Many MTI members have asked that MTI once again sponsor a staff development course conducted by the UW Extension's School for Workers on "Teaching Labor History Through Film and Media: Struggles from Our Past & Present, Part 2". Using films, music and other sources (which were not shown during last year's course) this class will look at some of the epic struggles of workers in recent and contemporary history and will discuss ideas about teaching labor history and collective bargaining in the classroom. The course will also examine the impact of economic, social and political conditions on workers and their unions, as well as the role played by business and government. The course will also examine the significance of immigration, and ethnic, racial and gender differences to the evolution of the American working class.
The ten (10 ) hour, two-day course will meet from 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. on August 6 and 7, 2012. The course is offered at no cost to MTI members, a light lunch will be provided. Space is limited to the first 40 registrants. Under the terms of MTI's Collective Bargaining Agreement, Madison teachers may be eligible for 1.0 PAC credits, subject to approval by the MTI/MMSD Professional Advancement Credit Committee.
Contact MTI to register (257-0491 or mti@madisonteachers.org)
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Back in the day, it was possible to go to a movie theater and watch the whole movie right through, without having unrelated matter introduced at various times. Now, with 21st Century presentation customs, a movie on television will be broken into a number of times for five or six advertisements for widely unrelated products and services.
This sort of fragmentation is not only present in education, but welcomed as a brave new way of motivating students and trying to retain their attention. A number of experts, seeing the popularity of video games, with their changes in level and constant supply of "rewards," recommend that the curricula we offer students should benefit from constant interruptions as well. With Milton's "On His Blindness"--
When I consider how my light is spent
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless....
Deep Reading practice suggests that students should often break into their own reading at some point to "interrogate" the material, asking questions about the relationship of text to text, text to world, text to self, and the like. So, for instance, in starting to read Milton's sonnet, they might pause to inquire, "Do you know anyone who is seeing-impaired?" "Is there a connection in the text between 'light' and 'dark?'" "How do you feel about the services for the blind in your community?"
...Though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd, I fondly ask?
Here again it would be possible to ask "Have you ever been chided for something?" "How did that change your feelings at the time?" "What sort of community service have you been involved in lately?" "What have you made that you feel most proud of?" "Is there a God?" These interruptions are recommended to help retain the students' attention and to support their motivation to continue reading, which, it appears, John Milton's sonnet could no longer do without such modern pedagogical aids.
Similarly, other academic matters may be modernized by introducing frequent scores, levels of difficulty, and, of course, extensive visual and auditory stimulation. Modern students who have watched hundreds of thousands of hours of chopped-up television shows, and played hundreds of thousands of hours of fragmented video games just cannot be expected to pay attention for any extended periods to any "text" or academic task, without the sort of interruptions on which they have become dependent. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #1--
...It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved
for the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide
the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or
not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or
whether they are forever destined to depend for their political
constitutions on accident and force...
Deep Reading here might lead the student down the "labyrinthine ways" of questions about the use of force in society or the frequency of accidents on our highways?
Some might argue that this history of shattered attention has led to a kind of addiction to interruption which it should be education's mission to help students overcome. They would point to the research that shows that multitasking means each task will receive less attention and be done less well, and argue that students, instead of being encouraged (required) to break into their own attention with interrogatories, should be shown ways to sustain a focus on the academic works before them.
However, those who believe that nothing in what civilization has to offer can hold the attention of students today without the regular intrusion of pedagogical gimmicks and process techniques to jolt them with scores, questions, rewards, counts of the # of "reading minutes" and the like, might simply say that fragmented attention is not only a good thing, but it must be rewarded so that students will not drop out of school and sit slumped at home watching various media and playing digital games.
The Kaiser Foundation recently found that the average young person in the United States now spends about 53 hours a week with various electronic entertainment activities, so many educators (and hardware and software sales professionals) have come to the conclusion that unless we bring interrupted education into the newly digital 21st Century classroom, we will not have adapted successfully to the scattered brains of our young people today.
--------------------------
"Teach by Example"
Will Fitzhugh [founder]
The Concord Review [1987]
Ralph Waldo Emerson Prizes [1995]
National Writing Board [1998]
TCR Institute [2002]
730 Boston Post Road, Suite 24
Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776-3371 USA
978-443-0022; 800-331-5007
www.tcr.org; fitzhugh@tcr.org
Varsity Academics®
www.tcr.org/blog
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In 2006, you were the Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year. Can you address why some of your later evaluations in Madison haven't reflected that?Much more on outgoing Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad, and Birmingham, here.In March, the Madison Board of Education evaluated Nerad on the low end of "proficient" in an evaluations system designed to mimic the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Nerad scored lowest in "strategic leadership and district culture," and in "staff evaluation and personnel management."
However, Nerad said Thursday there are two things he has not been deserving of: being named superintendent of the year and being assessed as barely proficient.
"The last couple years in Madison have been challenging (and) there's no one that wishes I could be more of a unifying force than me," Nerad said. "I ask only to be judged on my whole record."
What is your recommended evaluation process between yourself and the school board?
"I'm a big believer in evaluation," Nerad said, noting that if he were hired, he and the school board would have to agree on evaluation metrics.
"We should have a conversation about what that assessment should look like, (but) I believe in holding myself to the highest standards when it comes to improvement goals."
How did you whittle down your plan to reduce the achievement gap from $12 million to $4 million?
Nerad admitted that upon cutting down his plan's price tag, it wasn't able to accomplish everything it originally set out to do. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the original plan included 40 strategies for reducing the achievement gap; the revised plan has 21 strategies.
"I felt it was my responsibility to present something (to the school board) that's stable financially," Nerad said, noting he and his team had to prioritize the most important strategies.
His plan to fund the first year of the achievement gap plan? Nerad said he is proposing to use Madison's fund balance -- similiar to Birmingham Public School's fund equity -- and leaving it to the school board to decide where funding should come from in coming years.
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Katy Murphy: Â
We've all seen the reports on college-level remediation -- the high numbers of kids who graduate from high school and are admitted to college with low reading comprehension and math skills. Here, you'll find the CSU freshman proficiency rates for 2010.One of my colleagues wants to explore some of the reasons behind this phenomenon. You'd think I would have a clear idea, after covering k-12 for so long, but I'm afraid to say that I don't.
That's where you come in -- the people who teach kids how to read and/or solve mathematical problems, who supervise or coach those who do, or parents who watch the system closely. As you look at the system from pre-k through high school, where do you see the breakdowns happening, and what are the fixes?
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Pension reform will help cities balance budgets, but will their schools still be able to attract talented teachers?Bad news for teachers and other public-sector employees: America is more than ready to cut your pensions and benefits. While most politicos had been focusing this week on the Wisconsin recall, an election 2,100 miles away in San Jose, Calif., may be a bigger harbinger of the kind of austerity voters are developing a taste for.In this city of about a million residents an hour south of San Francisco, voters on Tuesday approved arguably the country's boldest pension cuts. San Jose's Democratic mayor, Chuck Reed, has been grappling with ballooning pension costs that have increased from $73 million to $245 million in the last decade. Retirement costs already consume more than 20% of the city's general fund, which helps explain why Reed was pushing San Jose to pass Measure B, which would give voters the power to approve increases in pension benefits and give the city the power to suspend automatic 3% annual raises during a fiscal crisis. The measure would also make workers contribute half the cost of their pensions; employees currently pay $3 for every $8 the city contributes, and the city is financially responsible for any shortfalls. Also included are provisions to curb the abuse of disability benefits. It's a tough package -- and will certainly be challenged in court because it changes benefits not only for future workers, something everyone agrees is legal, but for current ones as well. Nonetheless, voters passed it by a stunning margin of 69.5% in favor, 30.4% opposed. A pension reform measure also passed in San Diego.
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Judy Woodruff:As part of our American Graduate focus on teachers, testing and accountability, Ray Suarez moderated a discussion with several New York public school teachers on the challenges they face in the classroom and how they think they should be evaluated.Finally tonight, our series on teachers, testing and accountability.
On Monday and Tuesday, we heard from philanthropist Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation, and Diane Ravitch, a historian and former assistant secretary of education.
Ray Suarez recently moderated a conversation, one of a dozen events in the past year held with teachers around the country. This one was organized by WNET in New York City, featuring educators from each of the city's five boroughs.
It's part of our American Graduate project sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Nancy Cordes: Â
It's high school graduation season, and one young woman who is getting her diploma this evening is our choice for "most likely to succeed" -- because she already has, against some incredible odds.At 6 this morning, long before her classmates were even awake, 18-year-old Dawn Loggins was already pushing a mop through her high school in Lawndale, N.C. -- where she also works as a custodian.
"I'll work two hours before school. And then I'll go to school. And then I'll come back and work two hours after school," Dawn said. Then homework when she gets home.
Home -- for Dawn -- is complicated. For years she moved around, sometimes squatting with her drug dealer stepfather and unemployed mother.
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It is a time-honored ritual for high-school students: flouting authority one last time before graduation.But this year, the senior prank has been no laughing matter at schools around the country. Administrators have suspended or even filed criminal charges against students for pranks that have ranged from the classic food fight to creative uses of animals to cause an uproar.
"Schools understand that students want to leave their mark on the way out the door, but a better way to do that is to take up a donation and plant an oak tree," said Mark Goulet, a lawyer for the school board in Smithville, Texas, where students last month were suspended after a cafeteria food fight involving burritos.
"Some kids ordered double lunches," Mr. Goulet said. "It was a melee."
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A version of this joke appears in a 1941 dissertation on "the gestural behavior of eastern Jews and southern Italians in New York City, living under similar as well as different environmental conditions." The study was written by David Efron, who grew up in an orthodox Jewish home in Argentina and arrived in New York for graduate study in the 1930s. By his own account, when he spoke Spanish, he gestured with "the effervescence and fluidity of those of a good many Argentinians." When he spoke Yiddish, his gestures were more "tense, jerky, and confined." He sometimes combined the two styles, as when "discussing a Jewish matter in Spanish, and vice versa." After living in the United States for a few years, he found his gestures becoming "in general less expansive, even when speaking in his native tongue." His gestural identity was further complicated by the "symbolic Italian movements" he had picked up from Argentine-Italians and reinforced on a trip through Italy. But no matter what language he spoke, he proved to be "an adroit table-pounder."Efron was one of the last students of the famous anthropologist Franz Boas. Boas spent his career arguing that it was culture and environment, not biological race, that accounted for differences in how groups of people behaved. Efron's study was designed as a challenge to the impressionistic explanations of gesture that the race theorists of the 1930s were passing off as science. One claimed that Jews of mixed race who no longer had other Jewish physical traits could still be identified by their gestures. Another categorized gesture by race: Nordic gestures were restrained; Mediterranean gestures were playful; the gestures of the Phalic race (as in the German region of Westphalia) reminded one of a fleeing chicken; Italian gestures were explained with reference to hot blood, light bones, and poor impulse control.
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Everyone agrees there has been a remarkable increase in autism diagnosis across the world. There is, however, considerable debate about the reasons for this. Three very different kinds of explanation exist.
- Explanation #1 maintains that something in our modern environment has come along to increase the risk of autism. There are numerous candidates, as indicated in this blogpost by Emily Willingham.
- Explanation #2 sees the risks as largely biological or genetic, with changing patterns of reproduction altering prevalence rates, either because of assortative mating (not much evidence, in my view) or because of an increase in older parents (more plausible).
- Explanation #3 is very different: it says the increase is not a real increase - it’s just a change in what we count as autism. This has been termed ‘diagnostic substitution’ - the basic idea is that
children who would previously have received another diagnosis or no diagnosis are now being identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This could be in part because of new conceptualisations of autism, but may also be fuelled by strategic considerations: resources for children with ASD tend to be much better than those for children with other related conditions, such as language impairment or intellectual handicaps, so this diagnosis may be preferred.
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The school year is winding down, but one faction within the world of education is ratcheting up: the anti-testing movement. More parents are pulling their kids out of end-of-year math and literacy assessments. More teachers and administrators are speaking up against testing--like the group of school district superintendents in Georgia who are calling on the state legislature to reconsider its test-based accountability system. And a national resolution condemning testing has now attracted the endorsements of more than 300 organizations and 8,500 individuals. Standardized testing is "an inadequate and often unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness," the resolution reads in part, and "the over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability programs is undermining educational quality and equity in U.S. public schools."
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If I were a member of the Chicago Teachers Union, I would vote for that strike authorization today. Mayor Rahm Emanuel hasn't given me much choice.Then I would pray -- a lot -- that a strike never occurs. And get on the phone to CTU President Karen Lewis to tell her she would be absolutely bonkers to actually take 'em out this fall.
The facts of life, Chicago-style, are that the CTU -- arguably the city's most powerful labor union -- is in the fight of its life this economically difficult time.
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Ten Madison schools and five others in Dane County have been identified among the lowest performers in the state in terms of low-income and minority student achievement under a new statewide school accountability system.Related: Wisconsin Education wake-up call is looming and www.wisconsin2.org.The Department of Public Instruction developed the system -- which identifies schools as "focus" and "priority" -- to obtain a waiver from requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which for the past decade has resulted in sanctions for certain schools.
The Madison schools identified as "focus" schools are Allis, Falk, Lakeview, Leopold, Midvale/Lincoln, Lowell, Orchard Ridge, Sandburg, Schenk and Thoreau elementaries. Other local "focus" schools include West Middleton Elementary in Middleton-Cross Plains, Bird Elementary in Sun Prairie, and Badger Ridge Middle, and Glacier Edge and Sugar Creek elementaries in Verona.
Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad, in a letter Tuesday to parents at the affected schools, said "the district is still learning the full details and impact on schools."
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Efforts are under way to place an initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot that would ask voters to allow 40 public charter schools around the state in five years. Supporters have until July 6 to gather almost 250,000 signatures. It's a worthwhile effort and a modest proposal, a mere foot in the door in Washington, one of just eight states that do not have charter schools.Before explaining why this is a good idea, we will first point out that this is precisely why the initiative process is important in our state. The Columbian believes the premier function of initiatives is not necessarily to change laws but more effectively to force action after the Legislature has refused to act. A good example is the statewide ban on indoor smoking in public places. After legislators continually neglected this issue, the people took the matter upon themselves. The result was Initiative 901, which passed in 2005 by 63.2 percent of voters statewide (65.6 percent in Clark County).We'd like to see the same public mandate expressed about charter schools. The concept has reached its time in Washington. Charter schools are much easier than public schools to open or close, and they have shown varying degrees of success around the country. Charter schools are run independent of public school districts. Each is governed by a multiyear performance contract that requires improvements in student performance.
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A generation ago Charles Sykes wrote a controversial, provocative, but I think 90 percent correct book, ProfScam. I think a better than decent case can be made for a new book, a sequel if you will, called CollegeScam. Professors are not the only ones engaged in using higher education for personal power and glory."Is College Too Easy?" is the headline of a superb story by Daniel de Vise on page one of today's Washington Post. In it, de Vise presents in substantial detail data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that show students study relatively little. Average total time on all academic work amounts to about 27 hours a week, the story says.
Since the typical student is in class at best 32 weeks a year, the total annual hours spent "learning" is on average about 864 (27 x 32), less than one-half the time the student's parents are spending on their jobs, partly to support the education of their child. As de Vise notes, five-year-old kids in kindergarten spend about as much time on school work as 20-year-old college students.
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The recall race for governor is over, and with teachers union contracts coming to an end, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton may have an opportunity to bargain for things that he could not have gotten if it were not for Act 10, the law that sharply curtailed collective bargaining for most public workers.So far, Thornton and the School Board have been quietly active. The board voted to require employees to contribute more to their health insurance premiums and retirement benefits, a move that will reduce the district's deficit and save millions of dollars that can be reallocated to the classroom. Years of rising benefits and retirement costs combined with budget cuts were choking the life out of MPS. With the last of the union contracts coming to an end in 2013, Thornton and the board will have more flexibility.
But it will take more than asking for bigger contributions from the rank and file to improve the district's performance. Right now, MPS ranks near the bottom for urban districts in the United States in fourth- and eighth-grade reading for minority boys. Last month, Thornton said he was disappointed that he has not been able to move the needle.
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How does a school district know when it has an effective program?Much more on outgoing Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad, here.This can be a struggle for school districts, Nerad said, but programs need to be evaluated over time, districts need effective ways to collect data, and there needs to be systems in place that allow teachers to collaborate around data and solve problems.
What is the role of principals, the school board and superintendent in terms of innovation and curriculum development?
According to Nerad, the school board ensures there are enough resources for curriculum development and innovation, the superintendent is responsible for outlining what that curriculum will look like, while schools have the responsibility to implement curriculum in the way that's best for each building.
What is your budgeting process and how would you go about cutting money from Birmingham's budget?
Budgeting has to be a year-round process, Nerad said, and should he be hired, he would go to district stakeholders -- whether they be parents, teachers or community members -- and ask: what are your priorities?
How would you engage the rest of the Birmingham community, including the local business community?
Nerad said he would work with the district public relations office to focus heavily on engagement and outreach. "I do believe in putting a face on the superintendency," he said.
How did you build consensus on an important issue?
When trying to reach consensus on tough issues, Nerad said he uses voting procedures and works to ensure people are heard. "My whole life has been dedicated to those kinds of practices."
How do you judge whether a school board is doing a good job?
According to Nerad, the school board should be a model for the entire district.
"I believe if the superintendent evaluates the board, the board should evaluate itself," Nerad said. "If we want our staff to grow, we have to model that kind of commitment. It's about the whole organization getting better, from the superintendent to the board to teachers to support staff."
A quick comparison of Birmingham and Madison schools.
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Sarah Archibald & Michael Ford:
Wisconsin is about to get a wake-up call about the quality of its K-12 education system.Using Value-Added Analysis to Raise Student Achievement in Wisconsin.The Department of Public Instruction's attempt to get a waiver from the federal government's flawed No Child Left Behind law includes plans to increase testing standards for Wisconsin pupils.
According to the DPI, the effect of this change will be "dramatic" because while Wisconsin students will take the same test they do now, they'll need much higher scores to be deemed proficient.
Currently, 83% of eighth-graders who take the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam are said to be proficient in reading, for example. Under the proposal to index scores to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, that percentage would plummet to just 35%.
In other words, state testing next year will show substantially fewer Wisconsin pupils proficient in core subjects.
More rigorous standards will demand smarter instruction. Fortunately, Wisconsin is well-positioned to use value-added analyses of standardized tests as a tool to improve instructional decisions in ways that benefit students.
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t was already something of a fig leaf for a district that rejected the much less expensive Madison Prep amid opposition from the teachers union and liberal activists who painted the school's chief advocate, Urban League of Greater Madison president Kaleem Caire, as something of a school privatization Trojan Horse for the right.Much more on the proposed Madison Preparatory IB charter school, here.(I never really understood how a black guy of modest origins who struggled in the Madison schools himself got tossed in with the likes of Newt Gingrich.)
This despite one of the widest racial achievement gaps in the state and a dismal four-year graduation rate for blacks of 50 percent.
I called Cummings on Saturday to see what he thought of Thursday's news.
"I hate to be a cynic," he said, but he'd seen it happen "over and over and over. ... It's easy to wear people out by giving them hope."
Cummings initially wasn't a big fan of Madison Prep. It would have served only a few dozen students, he argued, and what minority kids need is a districtwide attitude adjustment toward the issue.
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Tomorrow cities throughout China will divert traffic, close internet cafés, prohibit horn honking, muzzle public mourning and even change some aircraft flight paths so that 9m of the country's top students can concentrate on the "gaokao", the university entrance exam to beat all others, the final act in an educational drama that begins at birth and involves not just the whole family but the whole country.UK A-levels and the US Scholastic Aptitude Test are no slouches either, but one image from the internet last month captures the degree to which the gaokao is in a class of its own: students in Hubei province sit huddled over desks piled high with books - and each one is hooked up to an intravenous drip delivering amino acids to help them survive the ordeal. University places are scarce, and most students can forget about getting one if they do not do well on gaokao.
Western students, of course, have been known to mainline coffee (or worse) to keep awake at exam time - but the teacher is not usually handing out the uppers. In Hubei, the school was not only dispensing the drips but the government was providing a subsidy to pay for them.
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The current wave of new teacher evaluation systems around the country offers an opportunity to broaden the conversation surrounding teacher effectiveness and its relationship to school coherence, to look at how schools and school systems might take a more integrated and intentional approach to attracting, training, and managing high-quality teachers. Charter management organizations (CMOs) are an important but overlooked source of ideas for thinking about how to build talent management systems that get the right teachers into the right schools and create coherent work environments that develop and support teacher performance.This report examines how CMOs manage teacher talent: How do CMOs recruit and hire teachers? How do they develop teachers? And how do they manage teacher performance? CRPE researchers analyzed data from a larger study of CMOs conducted jointly by Mathematica Policy Research and CRPE. That study offered a rich array of data on how CMOs manage teachers, including in-depth case study data and survey data from CMO central offices and principals.
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One of the most important economic issues we face today is how much to spend on education, both individually and as a society. As tax revenues decline due to demographic changes and deteriorating business conditions, municipalities have to make tough choices about which programs to cut, and education is often an early victim. Because we don't yet have good measures of all the future benefits produced by better education today, school programs are easy targets for cost-cutting measures, especially in lower-income regions where parents are focused on meeting more basic needs and less likely to put up a fight. But experiments like Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone hint at the enormous impact that early educational support can have on lifetime achievement.I have my own example: Mrs. Ficalora, the best third-grade teacher ever.
In 1968, as a third-grade student at P.S. 13--a neighborhood public elementary school in Queens, New York--I had the amazing good luck of being in Barbara Ficalora's class. Mrs. Ficalora changed my life. A slender tallish woman with a radiant smile, a Jackie Kennedy hairdo, and a warm but commanding and confident presence, she was everything a third-grader wished for in a teacher. When she spoke, we all listened, and despite the fact that there were close to 30 students in her class, she always seemed to be speaking to each of us individually, managing to make each of us feel special, appreciated, and cared for. She lauded Richie Weintraub on his prowess in punchball during recess. She extolled the impressive acting ability of Bruce Bernstein in our school play. She cooed over the exotic sari worn by Nuri Tjokroadismarto at the international potluck dinner she organized for the students and their parents. And even when she teased the Vorcheimer twins for their messy desks--comparing them to Fibber McGee's closet--we all understood that she did it with great affection and respect for the two boys, despite the fact that no one knew who Fibber McGee was or what his closet had to do with their desks.
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Rebecca Bigler and Lise Eliot:
Educators have spent several decades trying -- and largely failing -- to improve public schools. What if the solution were as easy as re-sorting students into their classrooms? Some supporters believe single-sex schooling is just such a magic bullet. But multiple lines of research show that single-sex schooling is both ineffective and detrimental to children's development. This is why we support the American Civil Liberties Union's new effort to investigate potentially unlawful single-sex programs in school districts across the country.Throughout the United States, hundreds of public schools are segregating boys and girls as young as kindergarten age into single-sex classrooms based on highly distorted claims about differences in their brains and mental skills. What's worse, such schools are ignoring important research showing that such segregation may actually be harmful to children.
Consider the new Franklin Academy for Boys in Tampa, a public middle school whose charter application states that "the typical teenage girl has a sense of hearing seven times more acute than a teenage boy," and continues with this claim, "Stress enhances learning in males. The same stress impairs learning in females."
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A few links related to Wisconsin's recall election:
Madison Teachers, Inc Twitter Feed; Pro-Recall
True School Activists Vote for Walker by "Penelope Trunk", via a kind reader's email.
TJ Mertz: Why Scott Walker doesn't recall the QEO and how to help recall him
WisPolitics Elections Blog (WisPolitics is now owned by the Capital Times Company)
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel All Politics Blog.
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London Times & Thomson Reuters:
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings were developed in concert with our rankings data provider, Thomson Reuters, with expert input from more than 50 leading figures in the sector from 15 countries across every continent. We believe we have created the gold standard in international university performance comparisons.Read the analysis, here.Our rankings of the top universities across the globe employ 13 separate performance indicators designed to capture the full range of university activities, from teaching to research to knowledge transfer. These 13 elements are brought together into five headline categories, which are:
Teaching -- the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
Research -- volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
Citations -- research influence (worth 30 per cent)
Industry income -- innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
International outlook -- staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).
The University of Wisconsin-Madison ranks 27th.
Related: Towards a Global Common Data Set for World University Rankers
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John Hennessy and Salman Khan:
Is there anything to be done about the rising price of higher education? That was the question posed to John Hennessy, president of Stanford University, and Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit online-learning organization. They sat down with The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg to discuss how technology might be part of the solution.Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.
Cost Curve
MR. MOSSBERG: Is it either moral or sustainable for elite colleges and universities to be charging what is approaching $60,000 a year to go to college?
MR. HENNESSY: I think the real question is whether or not what we're charging is a worthwhile investment for the American public and for families. That's the key question. The elites have the advantage in that they have been able to significantly subsidize what they charge with financial aid. It's a really interesting business we're in. First we charge less than it costs us to provide an education, because we subsidize everybody to some extent. And then if you can't afford it, we give you a discount.
MR. MOSSBERG: You have a lot of money at Stanford. I've been, until recently, a trustee of Brandeis University. It's a very good university. It charges about what you do. But it doesn't have your money, and there are a lot of colleges like that.
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Steve Gunn, Research by Victor Skinner:
The School District of Philadelphia is facing a $218 million budget deficit in fiscal 2013, with forecasts for a $1.1 billion shortfall by 2017.
The district's School Reform Commission has responded with a controversial plan to close as many as 60 schools over the next five years and divert about 40 percent of the district's students into public charter schools, according to media reports.The plan has been met with a great deal of resistance from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Nobody knows at this point if the money-saving plan will be implemented, or how the district will find its way out of its deficit situation.
In the meantime, it's clear that the school district is in the midst of a severe financial emergency, and must find a way to cut costs without negatively impacting students.
A good place to start would be the PFT's collective bargaining agreement.
We recently inspected a copy of the agreement, then used a freedom of information request to measure the costs of various provisions in the contract for the 2010-11 school year.
We found numerous examples of huge costs that could have been postponed, trimmed or cancelled to save the district millions of dollars without affecting anyone's base salary.
The list included $14.4 million to cover a three percent salary increase for teachers, a $66 million contribution to the union's "Health and Welfare Fund" and $165 million for free- or low- cost employee health insurance.
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Paul Peterson, William Howell & Martin West:
However Wisconsin's recall election turns out on Tuesday, teachers unions already appear to be losing a larger political fight--in public opinion. In our latest annual national survey, we found that the share of the public with a positive view of union impact on local schools has dropped by seven percentage points in the past year. Among teachers, the decline was an even more remarkable 16 points.On behalf of Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance and the journal Education Next, we have asked the following question since 2009: "Some people say that teacher unions are a stumbling block to school reform. Others say that unions fight for better schools and better teachers. What do you think? Do you think teacher unions have a generally positive effect on schools, or do you think they have a generally negative effect?"
Respondents can choose among five options: very positive, somewhat positive, neither positive nor negative, somewhat negative, and very negative.
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Rudy Crew's mom died when he was 2. His dad had plenty of reasons to stay in bed in the morning, as Crew put it, but he got up every day and worked hard to raise his children right."My father," Crew wrote in a 2007 book, "made sure I had a safe place to take risks, to learn independence, and eventually to believe that poor for now did not mean poor forever."
Now Crew is Oregon's first chief education officer, tapped by Gov. John Kitzhaber and formally hired last week to lead the state's education enterprise from preschool to college. This core tenet of Crew's belief system -- that poor for now doesn't mean poor forever -- drove him to the top of the national heap of K-12 superintendents. It also makes him a bracing choice to help Oregon shake off the poverty mentality that drags down education in this state.
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The Des Moines Register, via a kind reader's email:
Beyond the personal side of this story, the emails raise questions about the school district's management and the relationship between the superintendent and the school board.For one, Sebring meddled far too much in a new Des Moines charter school that had been overseen by her twin sister, Nina Rasmusson. Scores of emails reveal Sebring was directly engaged in internal affairs of the school, and that Sebring sought to use her influence to shield her sister from criticism. Rasmusson resigned from the job on Sebring's advice to avoid being fired because of problems in the charter school.
One email reveals Sebring's attitude about her relationship with school board members: "We're having a little trouble reigning (sic) in two of our new board members," she wrote in a Feb. 10 email to Rasmusson. "They are well-intentioned but crossing the line."
It's easy to see how Sebring might have had the idea the board worked for her, not the other way around. Other emails suggest Sebring had a close personal relationship with at least one member of the board.
It appears she'd had them under her thumb for years. Members allowed Sebring to hire her sister, even though that clearly posed a conflict. They said nothing when she failed to promptly deliver a state accreditation report showing problems with the district.
And, to the end, board members seemed more concerned with protecting her than holding her accountable and being accountable to the public. They held a closed-door meeting to discuss her unexpected resignation May 10.
They knew Sebring had violated the district's technology policy forbidding the use of school computers or email for personal correspondence and the exchange of sexually explicit messages. Yet they issued a release that misled the public by failing to disclose the full story about why she resigned early.
This school board thanked Sebring for her service and let her go on her way, protecting her to the very end.
This is the same school board the public now must rely on to find and supervise the next superintendent. Members should be taking responsibility for their mistakes. They should be learning from them and making changes in how they do business. A school board is the boss of a superintendent. It's time for this board to finally figure that out.
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When oil rich countries get involved in global education projects, it is easy to be cynical and only expect some air-brushed philanthropy and gold-plated business school sponsorships.But the Gulf state of Qatar is providing something more substantial.
So much so that it is becoming one of the most significant players in the field of education innovation, supporting a raft of projects from grassroots basic literacy through to high-end university research.
As well as trying to fast-forward its own education system, it is supporting projects in some of the toughest environments.
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Howard, who supported Madison Prep, also favors launching pilots to test new approaches to helping struggling students.Related: Madison Schools Administration has "introduced more than 18 programs and initiatives for elementary teachers since 2009" and the Madison School District's strategic plan update."The assumption is that everything is working," he said, "and it's not."
The district should boost efforts to involve more parents in their children's educations, though that's not easy.
At the same time, the district needs to pay for a backlog of school maintenance projects without balancing the district budget on the backs of struggling homeowners. Madison is already a high-spending district, so more and more money isn't the solution.
The school administration's plan has some merit but mostly stays the course. And more of the same won't cut it.
The best path now is to recruit more black teachers, try even harder to engage parents, and seek innovation.
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We spend a lot of time talking about the reforms promoted by Education Reform Advocacy Organizations which we oppose. I also spend a lot of time correcting them when they say that those who oppose them are fighting for the status quo. So folks might wonder what reforms I actually support. It's a fair question.I absolutely believe that public K-12 education in Washington, and across the country, needs serious reform. It is build on a model that, in turn, is built on the faulty assumption that the students will fit a narrow mold. The system is set up to expect and serve students who come able and ready to learn in a traditional school setting. The whole thing needs to be reconfigured around a different, more accurate, set of beliefs around who the students are, what they need, and how public schools can deliver it.
The solutions presented by Education Reform Advocacy Organizations, such as LEV, are not serious reforms. They do not address the problem. Some of them, such as charter schools, create an opportunity to bypass the problem - an opportunity which, sadly, often goes unused. Some of them, such as merit pay for teachers, have nothing to do with the problem.
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In the closing moments of Thursday night's debate between the two candidates for governor, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett raised a point that intrigues me. In fact, separate from all the other aspects of Tuesday's historic recall election, I think it resonates across the debate about education in America:Brass knuckles or handshakes?
Share a cup of coffee or send incendiary tweets?
What's the best way to get things done amid differences?
Facing Scott Walker, the Republican governor who sat next to him at a round table at Marquette Law School, the Democratic challenger said, "You and I know that if you had accepted back in February of 2011 the offer from those employees to allow them to pay towards their health care and towards their pensions, we wouldn't be sitting here tonight."
Walker replied, "That's just fundamentally wrong." He said that even as public union leaders offered to accept cuts in benefits for their members, following Walker's proposal to strip public unions of almost all their powers, local unions across the state were rushing to make contract deals that protected their benefits.
"Actions speak louder than words," he said.
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Mitt Romney visited a charter school in West Philadelphia last Thursday and, either brazenly or cluelessly, addressed that third rail of education politics, class size."In schools that are the highest-performing in the world," he said, "their classroom sizes are about the same as in the United States. So it's not the classroom size that's driving the success of those school systems."
An opportunity for a rational discussion of the costs and benefits of small class size?More like a greedy Democratic pounce on Romney's education street cred. President Obama's spokeswoman sneered, "What planet does he live on?"
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter emoted, "I'm not sure what universe he's operating in, but we certainly know in Pennsylvania, every parent knows, every second-grader knows, that smaller class sizes are preferable."
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Mary Stegmeir & Jens Manuel Krogstad:
In a stunning reversal of fortune, former Des Moines Superintendent Nancy Sebring went from presiding over Iowa's largest school district to losing a new job she had landed to lead the Omaha schools, after disclosure she had used Des Moines school equipment to send and receive sexually explicit emails.Outgoing Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad interviewed for the Omaha position.The Omaha school board voted Saturday afternoon without discussion to accept her resignation from the job she was to start July 1.
The vote capped a rapid-fire series of developments that unfolded in less than 20 hours:
8:46 p.m. Friday: The Des Moines Register publishes an online story reporting that Sebring's abrupt, earlier-than-scheduled departure from the Des Moines district May 10 came after she was confronted by school board members about the discovery of the explicit emails.
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APIs are making information more accessible across many industries and sectors, but one area I haven't seen a lot of movement, until recently, is at Universities.Last month, Harvard openly licensed their library meta data and through a partnership with the Digital Public Library of America, made it available via APIs. But today's story is more about APIs driving the operations side of higher ed at the University of Washington.
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One of the more telling episodes in education I've seen over the past couple of years was a little dispute over Michelle Rhee's testing record that flared up last year. Alan Ginsburg, a retired U.S. Department of Education official, released an informal report in which he presented the NAEP cohort changes that occurred during the first two years of Michelle Rhee's tenure (2007-2009), and compared them with those during the superintendencies of her two predecessors.Ginsburg concluded that the increases under Chancellor Rhee, though positive, were less rapid than in previous years (2000 to 2007 in math, 2003 to 2007 in reading). Soon thereafter, Paul Peterson, director of Harvard's Program on Educational Leadership and Governance, published an article in Education Next that disputed Ginsburg's findings. Peterson found that increases under Rhee amounted to roughly three scale score points per year, compared with around 1-1.5 points annually between 2000 and 2007 (the actual amounts varied by subject and grade).
Both articles were generally cautious in tone and in their conclusions about the actual causes of the testing trends. The technical details of the two reports - who's "wrong" or "right" - are not important for this post (especially since more recent NAEP results have since been released). More interesting was how people reacted - and didn't react - to the dueling analyses.
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Something is wrong with conservatives' free market argument for privatization of Utah's public schools as promoted by several Republican legislators and their ally, the corporate lobbyist American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.If a free market were truly free, by definition our society would need to completely remove education from federal and state control, including eliminating funding by taxes.
Vouchers could not be used. This, too, pools society's money for redistribution. No, for pure competition, a family would need to use its own direct tax savings to pay for the education of each child. Conservatives may respond, "Federal and state governments still need to collect taxes, but then distribute the money for private schools of choice."
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"Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue."-- Ichabod Crane, in the 1999 film version of "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
"If you're going through hell, keep going."-Walt DisneyThose who still think America's public schools are focused on academics are behind the times. Money, control and influence are the priorities now. You can tell because of the battle being fought behind the scenes in our school districts over open government.
Citizens who want to know what government schools are doing with our dollars and children are finding that many in leadership don't want us to know. As we push for information, they're pushing back. This struggle is taking place earnestly - even fiercely. It's also happening quietly, largely because the media aren't much help. (Many of those whose job is to inform the public have become sycophantic defenders of the government and aggressive attackers of the people.)
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The NJ DOE released the 2010-2011 School Report Cards yesterday, with a few new bells and whistles. One new feature is accurate graduation rates, previously self-reported by individual districts; another spotlights the cost per pupil when other costs - mandated preschools, out-of-district tuition, debt, transportation - are added to the mix.(Weirdly, Trenton Public Schools is missing from the database.)
Here's a rundown of local coverage, which is primarily focused on school costs.
NJ Spotlight (its interactive Report Card here) comments on the impact of NJ's fiscal difficulties on school costs:
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Richmond Unified, the first school district in California to go bankrupt and require a bailout loan, made its last payment to the state Friday - four years early.District officials, in what is now called West Contra Costa Unified, squirreled away enough money during tough economic times to pay off the $29 million loan made 21 years ago.
The final payment of $8,130,607.58 was handed over to state Superintendent Tom Torlakson at Richmond's Ford Elementary Friday morning.
The settling of the debt ends two decades of state control over the district, which serves 30,000 students in 50 schools across five cities.
"We're ready to pay you off and get you out of our hair," school board President Charles Ramsey told Torlakson as he handed him the oversized check.
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A few years ago, the symptoms of academic failure at Audubon Middle School southwest of downtown Los Angeles were obvious. Students roamed the trash-strewn campus during class hours, unafraid of consequences. The principal was rarely around, and when he was, he almost never visited classrooms. Observations required for teacher evaluations often were not done, yet teachers still received good ratings. The faculty divided into camps. Some closed their classroom doors and did the best job they could. Others did little more than show videos, knowing it didn't matter. The nearest Subway restaurant did a brisk business delivering sandwiches to classrooms during instructional time. "This was not a functioning school," one teacher said. "It was sink or swim, and we were just barely keeping our heads above water."
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Madison School District Superintendent Dan Nerad made the cut Saturday to become one of two finalists for the top job at a school district in suburban Detroit, according to an online report.Much more on Dan Nerad, here.Nerad was selected as a finalist for superintendent of the Birmingham Public Schools at a special Saturday session of the School Board, the Birmingham Patch reports.
He apparently made a big impression on school board members in Michigan, particularly with his handling of controversy over the race-based achievement gap in Madison schools.
A few comparisons:
Birmingham's 2011-2012 budget is $107,251,333 for "more than 8000 students", or roughly $13,406/student. That is about 10% less than Madison's $14,858.40/student.
Birmingham's per capita income is $69,151, more than double Madison's $29,782. Birmingham's median household income is $101,529 while Madison's is nearly half: $52,550.
Birmingham had 6 national merit semi-finalists this past year while Madison featured 41. Michigan's 209 cut score was identical to Wisconsin's this past year.
Madison continues to spend more per student than most American school districts.
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Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.The following year, students of any income will be eligible for mini-vouchers that they can use to pay a range of private-sector vendors for classes and apprenticeships not offered in traditional public schools. The money can go to industry trade groups, businesses, online schools and tutors, among others.
Every time a student receives a voucher of either type, his local public school will lose a chunk of state funding.
"We are changing the way we deliver education," said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions. "We are letting parents decide what's best for their children, not government."
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In the course of tracing the changes from the religious foundations - the colleges - of the early American colonists through to the vast 'multiversitys' of today, Andrew Delbanco usefully draws attention to the fact that putting a big sign up on a college saying Committed to Providing Excellent Higher Education for All would probably signify that the very opposite was happening inside. He notes a grand inscription at Columbia University from the beginning of the twentieth century: 'Erected for the Students that Religion and Learning May Go Hand in Hand and Character Grow with Knowledge.' At the time, the buildings were actually going up for research staff, not for undergraduates, religion was 'certainly no longer at the center of campus life', tradition and the canon were being thrown over for the modern, and the idea that professionalised career academics should bother themselves with the moral improvement of undergraduates was quaint at best.
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Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Joel Hood:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's star power within the Democratic Party has put a national spotlight on the fight over the future of public schools in Chicago and attracted support from education reform groups eager to see how much change can be effected in a pro-labor city."The headlines from Chicago are emailed around to mayors and policymakers every morning," said Joe Williams, head of Washington,D.C.-based Democrats for Education Reform, a group started by Wall Street hedge fund managers. "I think people want to see what's possible, both politically and on the ground in schools and in communities."
Democrats for Education Reform and another major education organization, Oregon-based Stand for Children, have each established themselves in Chicago and are working to build backing for Emanuel's education agenda.
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Over 9 million students are at risk for increased educational debt, due to bank-affiliated campus debit cards that come with high fees, insufficient consumer protections, and few options. Financial institutions now have affinity partnerships with almost 900 campuses nationwide, grafting bank products onto student IDs and other campus cards to become the primary recipient of billions in federal financial aid to distribute to students."Campus debit cards are wolves in sheep's clothing," observed Rich Williams, U.S. PIRG Higher Education Advocate and report co-author. "Students think they can access their dollars freely, but instead their aid is being eaten up in fees."
The Campus Debit Card Trap, a new report released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, finds that banks and financial firms now control or influence federal financial aid disbursement to over 9 million students by linking checking accounts and prepaid debit cards to student IDs. For decades, students would receive their aid by check, without being charged any fees to access their student aid. Now, students end up paying big fees on their student aid, including per-swipe fees of $0.50, inactivity fees of $10 or more after 6 months, overdraft fees of up to $38 and plenty more. Financial institutions aggressively market or default students into their bank accounts to maximize these fees.
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The privilege bestowed on pupils from independent and grammar schools extends to greater links with business founders and lessons about what it means to be an entrepreneur, a report claims.The study of 1,002 young people by The Pearson Think Tank, funded by Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, and the Education and Employers Taskforce found that those studying at grammar and independent schools were twice as likely to have been involved in a long-term entrepreneurship competition than their peers in non-selective state schools.
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Americans are stepping up borrowing to pay for college while they cut other debt as a weak job market contributes to increased college enrollment, new Federal Reserve Bank of New York data show.Americans owed $904 billion in student loans at the end of March, nearly 8% higher than a year ago, the New York Fed said Thursday in its quarterly report on consumer credit. That is more than the $679 billion on their credit cards at the end of the first quarter.
The New York Fed estimates of student debt are slightly lower than the the more than $1 trillion figure cited earlier this year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The New York Fed's estimate is based on a sampling of consumer-credit-agency accounts; the CFPB estimate is based on government data and a survey of private lenders.
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Robert L. Nasson, via a kind email:
The National History Club (NHC) was formed in March 2002 to promote the reading, writing, discussion, and enjoyment of history among secondary students and their teachers by giving after school history clubs around the country a clearinghouse to share history-related activities and information with each other. We now have 445 chapters in 43 states and there are over 13,000 students involved. Each chapter sets its own course, and this has led to a wide array of activities that include: Veterans Day ceremonies involving local veterans, participation in National History Day, historic preservation outreach in their communities, and trips to such historic sites as the 16th Street Baptist Church, Valley Forge, and the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site.
This makes the organization unique. By encouraging students to take charge of the direction of their clubs, the NHC uses a bottom-up approach, where students passionate about history are doing the history activities they choose. Rather than a traditional top-down method, which often leads to apathetic students, the NHC has given an ownership stake to every chapter that has joined the organization.
History is the only topic taught in every secondary school that can engage students in learning from past to achieve understanding of, and tackling human problems in, the world today. In history there is truly something for everyone. History is political, artistic, social, economic, military, athletic, scientific, cultural, religious, technological, literary, philosophical, geographic, ethnic, and mathematical. History can be as contemporary as yesterday and as ancient as Mesopotamia, as near as the city one lives in and as far away as Andromeda. History can be seen and touched, read and written, made and remembered. Everyone is a part of history.
More importantly, the study of history builds the critical skills students need to become responsible citizens and effective leaders. Researching and discovering new information, as well as reading, synthesizing, and communicating that information effectively: these are the skills that help make someone successful in business, in civic life, and even in science.
We produce a tri-annual Newsletter that features chapter accounts from throughout the country, and run a number of award programs with various history organizations such as George Washington's Mount Vernon and The History Channel. Chapters are frequently sharing ideas and activities with each other, and this leads to an active and involved membership. Through this interaction, students and Advisors see that they are not alone in their passion for the study of history, and this encourages more schools to join.
The work of the NHC is as important as ever considering the deteriorating history standards in our schools. A 2010 Civics Assessment administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress displayed the lack of understanding of civics among students in our secondary schools. Among some of the key findings:Fewer than half of American eighth graders knew the purpose of the Bill of Rights.
Only one in 10 eighth graders demonstrated acceptable knowledge of the checks and balances among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Three-quarters of high school seniors were unable to name a power granted to Congress by the Constitution.
While there are many people and organizations now complaining about the historical illiteracy of the younger generation, we are one of the few actually doing something about it. The NHC has a sustainable model in place, and we are constantly adding chapters in schools from big cities and rural towns to our community. We want students, teachers, and schools that have a passion for history to join our movement. To view our latest Newsletter or to find out how to create a chapter and join the NHC please visit www.nationalhistoryclub.orgRobert L. Nasson
Executive Director,
National History Club
P.O. Box 441812
Somerville, MA 02144
www.nationalhistoryclub.org
rnasson@nationalhistoryclub.org
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A local voucher school has not paid teachers in months and has lost nearly two-thirds of its students, staff said Wednesday.St. John Fisher Academy, a private high school that opened in Racine last fall using state voucher money, has reportedly not paid staff members since March and has seen student enrollment dwindle from about 50 children to only 26, according to teachers who filed complaints this month with the state Department of Workforce Development.
Teachers have continued to show up for work each day despite going without pay from mid-December to February and from March to now, they said.
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It's not much past 9 a.m., and Khan, 36, founder of the online educational non-profit Khan Academy, gets set to record his 3,081st video lecture in a small office with a view of air conditioning ducts."In 1997, you see, there was a devaluation of the Thai currency," Khan says into a beefy microphone as he makes crude sketches on his monitor.
If you want gleaming high-tech, go down the road to Google's campus. If you're looking for a revolution, this is the right address.
Ever since quitting his job as a successful hedge-fund analyst two years ago to dedicate himself full time to this labor of love, Khan has managed to win fans worldwide and goad skeptical educators.
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Paul Vallas at LaFollette Video
School reform superintendent Paul Vallas spoke at LaFollette High School at the behest of Boys and Girls Club of Dane County CEO Michael Johnson. The two and a half hour presentation with question and answer periods as attended by about 100 people in the LaFollette Auditorium.
Paul Vallas has been the Superintendent of schools in Chicago (CPS), Philadelphia, New Orleans, and currently Bridgeport Connecticut. He is currently hired to improve the schools in both Chile and Haiti, and has been praised in two State of the Union addresses. His work as a superintendent has engendered both strong support and strong disagreement.
The two and a half hour meeting has been divided into five clips and I have tried to summarize comments made by Paul Vallas, the panel and the audience members who spoke.
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Research and experience make this clear: Great teachers change lives. They inspire and motivate students, and set them on a path for future success. By contrast, just one underperforming teacher can have a lasting negative impact on a student.Given this reality, significant time and attention has rightly been focused on ensuring that all children have outstanding teachers at the front of their classrooms. This includes improving how teacher performance is evaluated and using evaluations to guide a range of decisions about prepration, recruitment, training, assignment, salary, tenure and dismissal.
As states, districts and school systems across the nation work towards effective teacher evaluation systems, they must tackle difficult questions about design and implementation. This research report aims to help by offering a detailed look at the key components of 10 teacher evaluation models
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Great Oakland Public Schools, a school reform-minded coalition of families and school employees supported by the Rogers Family Foundation and other groups, has become increasingly involved in Oakland school district policy since its founding a few years ago. Now, for the first time, its board of directors has endorsed school board candidates in the November election, through this process.GO Public Schools announced today that it had endorsed two of the four candidates for District 3 (West Oakland): incumbent Jumoke Hinton Hodge and challenger Sheilagh Polk. The organization is also backing one of its founding members, James Harris, who is challenging incumbent Alice Spearman for the District 7 seat (East Oakland-Elmhurst).
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A devastating natural disaster destroys one of the nation's most under-performing school districts. Leaders of state takeover agency (Recovery School District, or RSD) focus energy on human capital, charter school development, and autonomous district schools. National philanthropy invests heavily. Entrepreneurial educators head south. Five years in, the RSD's third superintendent announces he will charter all schools and develop the nation's first charter school district. His successor, the fourth superintendent in six years and a former New Orleans teacher, commits to continuing down this path. Charter school and human capital efforts continue with full force. Test scores are up but there is still a long way to go. No plans exist for long-term governance of system.
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Governance reform is a seductive idea because it is usually presented as a silver bullet for addressing a policy problem. For example, if the elected school board does not provide students with an adequate education, let's replace it with one that will.If only it was that simple. The inconvenient fact is that a school board does not educate pupils, teachers do. A school board governance change alone will not turn Milwaukee schools around.
The same is true for other local governments. The actual delivery of services is performed by street level bureaucrats that go about their duties regardless of who happens to be in charge of the City or County.
But this does not mean governance is irrelevant. Governance, whether it is the setting of specific policies or merely the setting of an organizational culture, can be the difference between creating an environment where an organization can thrive, or one where mediocrity is the ceiling.
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Can finger-painting, cup-stacking and learning to share set you up for a stellar career?Research says yes, according to Dr. Celia Ayala, chief executive officer of Los Angeles Universal Preschool, a nonprofit that funds 325 schools in Los Angeles County, Calif., using money from tobacco taxes.
"When they enter kindergarten ready to thrive with all the social, emotional and cognitive skills, they perform at grade level or above," she said. "When they don't, that's where that achievement gap starts."
Kids without that early boost have been shown to be more likely to get special-needs services, be held back a grade or two, get in trouble with the law and become teen parents. Preschool alumni have a better chance, she said.
"Those who go to preschool will go on to university, will have a graduate education, and their income level will radically improve," she said.
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