But the more I read these well-intended documents, the more I wonder. Haven’t we had enough of this stuff? Are we really going to get significant improvement in our lowest-performing schools through more reports telling us how to fix the federal rules?
I share the view of the majority of Congress, and the leaders of both major parties, that No Child Left Behind was a good idea. It forced the states to pay attention to the poor teaching in our low-income neighborhood schools. That was something many of those states failed to do under an earlier law that asked them nicely but had no serious penalties if they told Washington to mind its own business. Nearly everybody in education applauds No Child Left Behind’s insistence on measuring the progress each school and district is making in helping low-income students, learning-disabled students, students from immigrant families and students from the most neglected minority groups.
Beth Moss and Rick Thomas Advance in Tuesday’s Madison School Board Primary Election
Beth Moss and Rick Thomas will face off in the April 3 election for one of three open seats on the Madison School Board.
They came in first and second in Tuesday’s primary for the seat being vacated by Shwaw Vang.
Pam Cross-Leone came in third.
Results here.
Getting Kids Off of Google
Teachers, take back the online research process! (If you are asking the question: “Did we ever have control of the online research process in the first place?” then you get a gold star for your healthy skepticism).
Before Google and other search engines got so good, I think we did have some control. I remember the days, not so long ago, when kids couldn’t always find material for their research topics using Google, especially if their topics were just a little unusual or offbeat. They would then be forced to ask for help, and I took advantage of some great teachable moments to help students refine their keywords and search techniques.
Being with students as they refine search skills leads naturally to the next opportunity: helping students evaluate the reliability and credibility of the sites we’d find together.
These teachable moments worked well.
Concessions Made in Advance of MTI Negotiations by a Majority of the Madison School Board
It will be interesting to see how voters on February 20 and April 3 view this decision by a majority of the Madison School Board: Should the Board and Administration continue to give away their ability to negotiate health care benefits ($43.5M of the 2006/2007 budge) before MTI union bargaining begins? Read the 2005 MMSD/MTI Voluntary Impasse Agreement [1.1MB PDF; see paragraph’s 2, 10 and 11]. The 2007 version, alluded to in Andy Hall’s article below, will be posted when it sees the light of day.
This is an important issue for all of us, given the MMSD’s challenge of balancing their growing $331M+ budget, while expenses – mostly salaries and benefits – continue to increase at a faster rate. Mix in the recent public disclosure of the district’s $5.9M 7 year structural deficit and I doubt that this is the best approach for our children.
Recently, the Sun Prairie School District and its teachers’ union successfully bargained with DeanCare to bring down future costs for employee health insurance.
Andy Hall, writing in the Wisconsin State Journal asks some useful questions:
But with the Madison School Board facing a $10.5 million budget shortfall, is the board giving away too much with its promises to retain teachers’ increasingly pricey health insurance and to discard its legal mechanism for limiting teachers’ total compensation increase to 3.8 percent?
Yes, School Board Vice President Lawrie Kobza said Saturday, “I feel very strongly that this was a mistake,” said Kobza, who acknowledged that most board members endorse the agreement with Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers union.
State law allows districts to avoid arbitration by making a so-called qualified economic offer, or QEO, by boosting salaries and benefits a combined 3.8 percenter a year.
“To agree before a negotiation starts that we’re not going to impose the QEO and negotiate health care weakens the district’s position,” Kobza said. She contended the district’s rising health-care costs are harming its ability to raise starting teachers’ salaries enough to remain competitive.
The “voluntary impasse resolution” agreements, which are public records, are used in only a handful of Wisconsin’s 425 school districts, according to the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.
Four of the 7 current Madison School Board Members were backed by MTI during their campaigns (Arlene Silveira, Carol Carstensen, Shwaw Vang and Johnny Winston, Jr.). Those four votes can continue this practice. Independent School Board members Lawrie Kobza and Ruth Robarts have spoken publicly against the concessions made in advance of negotiations. If you support or oppose this approach, let the board know via email (comments@madison.k12.wi.us), or phone.
Related links, media and transcripts:
- What’s the MTI Political Endorsement about?:
In 2006-07 the Madison School district will spend $43.5M on health insurance for its employees, the majority of the money paying for insurance for teachers represented by Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI) That is 17% of the operating budget under the revenue limits.
In June of 2007, the two-year contract between the district and MTI ends. The parties are now beginning negotiations for the 2007-09 contract.
The Sun Prairie School district and its teachers union recently saved substantial dollars on health insurance. They used the savings to improve teacher wages. The parties joined together openly and publicly to produce a statement of the employees health needs. Then they negotiated a health insurance package with a local HMO that met their needs. - The MMSD Custodians recently agreed to a new health care plan where 85% of the cost savings went to salaries and 15% to the MMSD.
- Ruth Robarts discussed concessions in advance of negotiations, health care costs and the upcoming elections with Vicki McKenna recently. [6.5MB MP3 Audio | Transcript]
- What a Sham(e) by Jason Shephard:
Last week, Madison Teachers Inc. announced it would not reopen contract negotiations following a hollow attempt to study health insurance alternatives.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but anyone who suggests the Joint Committee on Health Insurance Issues conducted a fair or comprehensive review needs to get checked out by a doctor.
The task force’s inaction is a victory for John Matthews, MTI’s executive director and board member Wisconsin Physicians Service.
Losers include open government, school officials, taxpayers and young teachers in need of a raise.
From its start, the task force, comprised of three members each from MTI and the district, seemed to dodge not only its mission but scrutiny.
Where is Sport Steering Youth?
For generations it has been one of the great American axioms, accepted truth on diamonds, courts and gridirons everywhere: Sports builds character, instilling the values of teamwork and good sportsmanship.
But amid fresh headlines of alleged cheating in auto racing, continuing controversies over steroid use in baseball, track and cycling and ugly brawls among basketball players comes a nationwide survey suggesting a decidedly darker vision of sports.
“There is reason to worry that the sports fields of America are becoming the training grounds for the next generation of corporate and political villains and thieves,” says Los Angeles ethicist Michael Josephson.
The latest two-year study of high school athletes by the Josephson Institute found a higher rate of cheating in school among student-athletes than among their classmates. It also found a growing acceptance of cheating to gain advantages in competition.
Josephson’s report, based on interviews across the country with 5,275 high school athletes, concluded that too many coaches are “teaching our kids to cheat and cut corners.”
America’s Perfect Storm
A report from ETS’s Policy Information Center, America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future, looks at the convergence of three powerful sociological and economical forces that are changing our nation’s future:
- substantial disparities in skill levels (reading and math)
- seismic economic changes (widening wage gaps)
- sweeping demographic shifts (less education, lower skills)
There is little chance that economic opportunities will improve among key segments of our population if we follow our current path. To date, educational reform has not been sufficient to solve the problem. National test results show no evidence of improvement over the last 20 years. Scores are flat and achievement gaps persist. Hope for a better life — with decent jobs and livable wages — will vanish unless we act now.
Madison’s Kindergarten Climate & Student Support
A drop in Hispanic children’s scores is largely responsible for fewer students beginning kindergarten with the skills needed to succeed in Madison schools.
Just 26 percent of Hispanic children in this year’s kindergarten class passed a screening test designed to show whether they were ready to start school, down from 29 percent four years ago, according to Madison School District data.
That drop led to a decline in the overall percentage of Madison students ready for kindergarten – from 62 percent to 58 percent.
While educators across the country focus on helping such children catch up with their classmates, two emerging efforts in Dane County will aim to get at the root of the problem by helping children be ready to enter kindergarten:
Parenting vs. Poverty
In football, a quarterback’s blind side is the side of the field opposite his throwing arm—the left side of the field for a right-handed quarterback, for instance. One shouldn’t confuse the blind side with a blind spot, which is what our policy-makers and media often have when discussing American poverty: it is a product of our unjust economic system, they say, and we should fight it with redistributive government programs. These experts would do well to read Michael Lewis’s wonderful new football book, The Blind Side. Though the book’s publisher pitches it as a sports story, it’s more notable as a portrait of the social dysfunction that shapes much of America’s inner-city poverty and, by extension, of the reasons that so many government efforts to alleviate that poverty have come to naught.
At the heart of The Blind Side—in fact, occupying more pages than its ostensible subject, the evolution of college and professional football—is the astonishing life story of National Football League–bound Michael Oher. Oher is born into horrific circumstances that give him little chance at succeeding in our society: his mother is a drug addict who, though unable to care for children, has 13 kids by various men, none her husband. Each of these children fends for himself on the mean streets of West Memphis. Oher’s mother collects her welfare check on the first of the month and disappears for ten days or so, stranding the kids without provisions or supervision. Oher recalls going days with nothing to eat or drink except water, begging food from neighbors, and sleeping outdoors.
Implied Threat in Homework Paper
The Oregon Police Department has reopened an investigation into an alleged threat in a writing assignment against an Oregon Middle School teacher after the teacher provided police with additional information about the incident.
The teacher went to police early Thursday with more information, said Oregon Police Chief Doug Pettit.
“We are now in the process of further investigating the perceived threat,” he said.
School Climate Words from Steve Jobs & Michael Dell
In a rare joint appearance, Jobs shared the stage with competitor Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc. Both spoke to the gathering about the potential for bringing technological advances to classrooms.
“I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way,” Jobs said.
“This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy.”
At various pauses, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Dell sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.
“Apple just lost some business in this state, I’m sure,” Jobs said.
Dell responded that unions were created because “the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good.
“So now you have these enterprises where they take good care of their people. The employees won, they do really well and succeed.”
Former computer science teacher Alfred Thompson:
Today’s rash of quick fix answers started with Steve Jobs telling us the teacher unions are broken in the worst possible way. Principals can’t get rid of poorly performing teachers. Plus Jobs says we need online books that are updated like Wikipedia. Brilliant job of stating the obvious and repeating things everyone in education knows. Yes, teacher unions help protect the jobs of poor teachers and yes textbooks are not being updated fast enough. I have yet to meet a teacher, a principal or a school board member who doesn’t agree with those statements.
Don Dodge jumps in to support Jobs and to add that the other part of the problem is that principals have no way to reward top performers. Is there someone in education who doesn’t know that this is a problem? It is a problem hardly anyone wants to fix though because it depends on people being fair and no one respects principals enough to give them a job like that. Robert Scoble agrees with both Jobs and Dodge and suggests that teachers need to be paid more. And he should know because he used to be married to someone who used to be a teacher. They all mean well but the problem is bigger than they think it is. In fact it is much too large to cover in a blog post. One of these days I’ll write a book.
Heaven save us from experts. They all seem to have one thing in common – they think that teachers are, if not the only problem, the largest problem with American education. By my reckoning there are several groups that are a much larger problem. They are:
- Government officials and the rules they lay down
- Parents and the lack of support they give education
- Students and their lack of willingness to do their part
- Voters for not supporting the needs of good education.
My Life and Times With the Madison Public Schools
Up close, the author finds that politics obscure key educational issues
Marc Eisen:
Where’s the challenge?
I’m no different. I want my kids pushed, prodded, inspired, and challenged in school. Too often—in the name of equity, or progressive education, or union protectionism, or just plain cheapness—that isn’t happening in the Madison schools.
Advanced classes are being choked off, while one-size-fits-all classes (“heterogeneous groupings”) are created for more and more students. The TAG staff has been slashed nearly in half (one staffer is now assigned to six elementary schools), and even outside groups promoting educational excellence are treated coolly if not with hostility (this is the fate of the most excellent Wisconsin Center For Academically Talented Youth [WCATY]). And arts programs are demeaned and orphaned.
This is not Tom Friedman’s recipe for student success in the 21st century. Sure, many factors can be blamed for this declining state of affairs, notably the howlingly bad way in which K-12 education is financed and structured in Wisconsin. But much of the problem also derives from the district’s own efforts to deal with “the achievement gap.”
That gap is the euphemism used for the uncomfortable fact that, as a group, white students perform better academically than do black and Hispanic students. For example, 46% of Madison’s black students score below grade level on the state’s 3rd grade reading test compared to 9% of white students.
At East, the state’s 10th grade knowledge-and-concepts test show widely disparate results by race. With reading, 81% of white kids are proficient or advanced versus 43% for black students. The achievement gap is even larger in math, science, social studies, and language arts. No wonder TAG classes are disproportionately white.
Reality is that the push for heterogeneous class grouping becomes, among other things, a convenient cover for reducing the number of advanced classes that are too white and unrepresentative of the district’s minority demographics.
How do Madison School Board Candidates Work With Others?
Kristian Knutsen continues Isthmus’ excellent Take Home Tests with two interesting questions this week:
Only a few days remain until the Madison school board primary on Feb. 20. Just one of the three spring races –for Seat 3 — will be on the ballot as voters narrow the three-person field of Beth Moss, Pam Cross-Leone and Rick Thomas to two finalists on the April 3 ballot. In his final pre-primary query, we ask the school board candidates how they work with others, when it’s appropriate to compromise and when it’s best to dissent.
- Seat 5: Maya Cole and Marj Passman.
- Seat 4: Tom Brew and Johnny Winston, Jr.
- Seat 3: Pam Cross-Leone, Beth Moss and Rick Thomas.
There’s some discussion of this issue (working with others) at the Daily Page Forum. Jason Shephard touched on this issue in “Spring Elections Could Bring New Directions“.
Much more on the election here.
Madison School Board Seat 3 Primary Overview
Watch the candidates' video presentations here.
At first glance, the three primary candidates seeking the seat that Shwaw Vang is leaving open on the Madison School Board appear far more similar than different.
Beth Moss, Rick Thomas and Pam Cross-Leone are all married, white, middle class parents of students who attend Madison public schools. Their ages range from 37 to 47, and all bring impressive records of school volunteer work and community involvement to the table.
Major props to Susan Troller and Lee Sensenbrenner for these online interviews:
The Capital Times recently asked the three Madison School Board candidates running in next week’s primary election for Seat 3 to come to our office to discuss their priorities for the Madison district and to participate in a couple of exercises that might offer an unusual glimpse into how they view city schools.
We marked 10 cards with issues that the district has dealt with over the last year and asked the candidates to place them in order, based on what they would most like to protect from cuts. We also gave them a couple of wild cards they could use for items we had not included on the list. Then we asked them to take paper and a packet of crayons and use them to present their ideal classroom. Finally, we asked them to talk about each of these exercises, for which they were given 10 minutes to complete.
Both Pam Cross-Leone and Beth Moss listed class size and competitive salaries as among their top three priorities. Rick Thomas listed his top priority as school safety, and he placed competitive salaries last. Cross-Leone used multiple colors to write about her ideal classroom, while Moss drew a diagram using only a green crayon. Thomas drew a simple picture, with stick figures.
To hear what the candidates had to say, how they ordered their priorities and how they put their crayons to use, click on each of their names listed above.
Links, video interviews and more election information here.
Vote February 20 and April 3, 2007.
UW-Madison hosts summer youth activities fair
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Summer Youth Activities Fair will be held from noon-2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Villager Mall, 2300 S. Park St. [map]
Parents and students will find exhibitors from many of the skill-building programs — academic, recreational and athletic — offered by postsecondary educational institutions in Dane County this summer.
This program is open to all youth and families of Madison and Dane County. Many of the programs have a special focus on the recruitment and retention of families of color and low-income families for summer and academic precollege programs.
Editorial on Milwaukee School Board Candidates
The trick for voters is to elect a School Board that is most likely not only to keep up the momentum but to accelerate it. To that end, in Tuesday’s primary, we recommend Bruce Thompson for the citywide seat, Michael Bonds in the 3rd District and incumbent Joe Dannecker in the 8th District.
Reformers now run the School Board, but barely. Almost with each election, control of the board has long switched back and forth between the reform side and union side, which is beholden to the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. We prefer the reform agenda, which is laying the foundation for success.
A K-12 View from 35,000 Feet
I happened to sit next to the Curriculum Coordinator (20+ years in that District) for a large, growing US School District recently ( north of 100,000 students). I found some of the comments interesting:
- They cycle through superintendents every 2 to 3 years. The Supers are paid $300K+ with “lots of benefits”.
- The new super is decentralizing all over the place, pushing control down.
- They use trailers as enrollment moves around the community.
- The new super wants to require any children in grades K-3 not reading at grade level to have only one task per day (beyond lunch, recess and PE) – read. This involves tracking.
- I asked what sort of curriculum they used for reading: Whole language with “lots of phonics”. I asked if they used Reading Recovery. The person said that they evaluated RR but felt it was “far too expensive”.
- Offer a great deal of IB and AP courses. They also have magnet schools, though the person said that they are less popular now that the district has gone back to neighborhood schools (evidently there was a successful reverse discrimination lawsuit). They have evidently received “a great deal of federal funds” to support IB and AP.
- 8th graders who cannot read at grade level will go to a different set of curriculum or school than those who are at or above.
This district spends about $7,900 per student annually (Madison is in the $12,500 range).
Interestingly, this is the 2nd time during the past 12 months that I’ve sat next to an educator on their way to a conference sponsored by curriculum publishers.
How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise
But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this.’ ” With no more than a glance, Thomas was dividing the world into two—things he was naturally good at and things he wasn’t.
For instance, in the early grades, Thomas wasn’t very good at spelling, so he simply demurred from spelling out loud. When Thomas took his first look at fractions, he balked. The biggest hurdle came in third grade. He was supposed to learn cursive penmanship, but he wouldn’t even try for weeks. By then, his teacher was demanding homework be completed in cursive. Rather than play catch-up on his penmanship, Thomas refused outright. Thomas’s father tried to reason with him. “Look, just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you don’t have to put out some effort.” (Eventually, he mastered cursive, but not without a lot of cajoling from his father.)
Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges?
Thomas is not alone. For a few decades, it’s been noted that a large percentage of all gifted students (those who score in the top 10 percent on aptitude tests) severely underestimate their own abilities. Those afflicted with this lack of perceived competence adopt lower standards for success and expect less of themselves. They underrate the importance of effort, and they overrate how much help they need from a parent.
Tom Ashbrook talked with Bronson, Carol Dweck and Bob Younglove. Listen here.
Mayors and Schools
John Nichols noted that Madison’s Mayoral challengers have not raised substantive questions of the incumbent Mayor’s (Dave Cieslewicz) record, including schools:
No. 2, he has failed to offer much in the way of a vision for how this rapidly changing city should approach the future. How green should it be? Where does mass transit fit in? How do we diversify the economy? How do we make sure that the schools remain strong and popular with all the city’s residents? The mayor thinks about all these issues. He works on them in incremental ways and, frankly, he’s done so ably. Unfortunately, he has not communicated in a particularly bold or effective manner with regard to them. Once again, the vulnerability remains.
In politics, an incumbent’s vulnerabilities are meaningless if they are not exploited by his or her challengers. Ray Allen and Peter Munoz have failed, so far, to put a dent in Cieslewicz. One of them will survive the primary, and that candidate will have a chance to mount a more serious challenge. With the first critical test just days away, however, Allen and Munoz give every sign of having boarded the wrong trolley.
I’ve been surprised at the lack of Mayoral involvement in our K-12 climate. The Madison school district’s enrollment has been flat for years, while surrounding schools have grown significantly. Continued growth of our edge cities, business migration (Epic systems move to Verona), a growing budget, safety concerns and curriculum questions provide plenty of issues relevant to the health of our community. Around the country, as Jill Tucker notes in San Francisco, many mayors are active for obvious reasons on K-12 issues.
Why have the Mayor (and challengers) been quiet on substantive school issues?
Perhaps in Madison, where a local elected official recently remarked to me that “we don’t have a democracy” (think about that), the endorsement merry go round (maybe the deal with schools is that a candidate gets ground and monetary support, or help with a holiday party, if they stay out of K-12), the “remain silent” requirements of some and the fact that political upside in K-12 is difficult leads to the present situation. Or just indifference?
What do we, as a community, give up when candidates who have cut deals and agree to remain silent on certain issues are elected? What sort of example does this leave for future generations?
February 20, 2007 Madison School Board Primary Election Summary
Three Hopefuls Say Close Examination Of School Budget Is Needed Before Any Cuts Are Made.
In the lone primary race for Madison School Board, three candidates are competing for a chance to confront the district’s chronic budget shortfalls and help pick a successor to Superintendent Art Rainwater when he retires next year.
The two top vote-getters in the Feb. 20 primary election will face off in the April 3 general election. The seat is being vacated by Shwaw Vang.
2005-2006 Milwaukee Public Schools Report Card
School by school reports are presented along with a district overview.
“We have to do much better,” School Superintendent William Andrekopoulos said, summarizing it all.
But he pointed to improved graduation and dropout rates as encouraging and said he remains convinced reforms will bear fruit, even though it may take years to see that. “We need to stay the course,” he said.
The course itself has had plenty of bumps, as the high school redesign report showed. There are now 33 small high schools in MPS, with a wide range of success. An administrative report concluded, “New, small high schools continue to be difficult to develop and implement but show promise with some significant gains.”
‘No Child’ Commission Presents Ambitious Plan
A commission proposed a wide-reaching expansion of the No Child Left Behind law yesterday that would for the first time require schools to ensure that all seniors are proficient in reading and math and hold schools accountable for raising test scores in science by 2014.
The 230-page bipartisan report [2.5MB PDF], perhaps the most detailed blueprint sent to Congress thus far as it considers renewal of the federal education law, also proposes sanctions for teachers with poorly performing students and the creation of new national standards and tests.
The recommendations from the Commission on No Child Left Behind underscore that the emerging debate over the law is not over whether it will continue, but rather over how much it will be expanded and modified. Even the panel’s leaders acknowledged that their proposal is more sweeping than many politicians had expected or wanted.
“You’re never going to hit a home run unless you swing for the fences, and this is swinging for the fences” said Tommy G. Thompson, a former secretary of health and human services in the Bush administration and a former governor of Wisconsin. Thompson, a Republican who is weighing a run for president, co-chaired the commission with former Georgia governor Roy E. Barnes, a Democrat.
Testing My IQ and Yours
Why am I wandering into this ethereal topic? I can’t stop thinking about the three op-ed pieces on education and intelligence that Charles Murray had in the Wall Street Journal last month.
Murray is one of the most interesting bad boys of the American intelligentsia. He regularly tweaks conventional views of social and educational progress. His three “On Education” pieces in the Journal are worth discussing not only because parts of them are infuriating, a Murray trademark, but also because they point toward new ways of thinking about schools that even Murray’s many adversaries might embrace.
Differentiate This!
Friday afternoon is not an optimal time for academic focus, but when Keesia Hyzer peers over her glasses and commands three minutes of “think time,” the 21 students in English 10 at West High School get busy.
“The only thing you’re thinking about right now is what you can get passionate about!” she proclaims as she snakes her way around aisles of desks.
Hyzer is teaching a new “core curriculum” class that puts the most-struggling students together with the highest-performing. It’s part of the Madison school district’s effort to reduce the achievement gap between racial minorities and whites.
The students are being asked to brainstorm topics for a semester-long research project. One by one, they stand and share their ideas, which Hyzer scribbles on the blackboard. Among the topics: Greek mythology, genocide in Sudan, prejudice against gays and lesbians. The students quiz each other on these ideas before breaking up into topic-based groups, listing on posters what they already know and what they want to learn.
Wisconsin Governor’s 2007 Budget Address
First and foremost, this budget maintains the state’s commitment to fund two-thirds of the cost of our kids’ education.
Especially when you consider how much more it costs just to fuel the busses and heat the schools, the funding I’m providing is hardly extravagant. Schools will have a modest, 3 percent increase to keep up with inflation – so that our kids continue to get a great education.
Second, we should make a major new investment in school breakfast, four-year-old kindergarten, and smaller class sizes from kindergarten through third grade … because getting the right start is so critical to our kids’ education.
Third, we must reform the school financing formula to make it fairer, more flexible, and more focused on the needs of our kids.
We can start by helping rural districts with transportation costs, providing relief to schools with declining enrollment, and continuing to address the disparity faced by our lowest spending districts.
Denise Jackson & the Madison Schools
Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin:
Denise Jackson may be on the road to fame, but there is another important story about this potential American Idol. She represents thousands of youngsters who entered the Madison Public Schools in the past twenty years after a less that promising future in another city.
Denise’s story is not finished, but we hope the best for her and her contemporaries. Here are the salient points form the Wisconsin State Journal story on Sunday. Denise’s road to ‘Idol’
Madison Schools Superintendent Art Rainwater on Budget Season
Budget season is not as much fun as the other seasons. We approach budget season with anxiety because each new budget season means that we will again reduce the services that our students need. Under the current revenue cap law, yearly service reductions are a fact of life for most school districts in Wisconsin. The demands for students to gain more knowledge and skills increase every year while resources to meet their needs decrease every year.
Budget season creates intense concern among staff and parents and makes adversaries among friends. Priorities must be set, and when all of the input has been gathered and discussion completed, it is the responsibility of the elected Board of Education to make those final priority decisions.
The School Referendum Season Commences
What’s needed now in terms of facilities wasn’t even an illusion 50 years ago. How many of us would like to have heart surgery in a hospital built in 1950 but never upgraded? How about taking the car to a repair shop that looks just like it did in 1955? Comparatively, schools built in the 1950s cannot provide the educational facilities needed for a 21st-century education.
Yes, property taxes will increase. Until there is reform on that front, that’s how we provide for education in Wisconsin.
A significant motivation for today’s families moving to the suburbs is the potential of better schools. The taxpayers of yesterday built and paid for the schools that today’s students attend. Now it’s our turn to continue the strong academic tradition of quality schools in our communities.
Henok Mehari’s High School Graduation Speech
Henok Mehari’s high school graduation speech at the Notre Dame Education Center:
I was just fourteen years old and a teenager in Ethiopia, when the civil war broke out. I found myself all alone without my mother and father in a hot and dusty refugee camp stuck in the middle of Kenya, struggling to survive. Do you have any idea what life in a refugee camp is like? Let me tell you, it’s hell. Eighty thousand refugees crowded together and doing their best to stay alive survived on just one meal a day suffering in the heat and the dust. No matter how dusty the road, no matter how empty my stomach, I did what I thought was important for me at the time. And I had a crazy dream, but I never gave up hope.
February 2007 Madison West High School Memo to Freshman Honors Parents
Students Voice Flaws in DC
Students from D.C. public and charter schools crammed into the chambers of the city’s John A. Wilson Building yesterday, clutching sheets of paper with stories of crumbling buildings, a textbook shortage and absent athletic and arts programs.
And they expressed fear that little will change, even if Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) succeeds in taking control of schools.
Donnell Kie, a sophomore at Ballou Senior High School, said it should not be too much for students to want safe buildings, up-to-date libraries, books when school opens in the fall and music, arts and foreign language programs.
Seat 3 and Seat 5 Madison School Board Candidate Video Conversations
A Parent’s Worst Nightmare
The phone rang. Linda O’Connor let it ring. And ring and ring and ring. She knew.
She was sitting in the family room on her blue sofa, as she always did, waiting for Kyle to return to their Pleasanton home. Kyle, 16, had never given her cause to worry, but over the last few weeks, since the start of her son’s Christmas vacation, she had felt a disquiet she could neither define nor shake.
She went upstairs and woke her husband, Steve.
“There is something wrong,” she whispered. “You better get dressed.”
Spring 2007 Madison School Board Election Update
I’ve updated the election page with the following information:
- January, 2007 campaign finance filings which show that retired Madison Teacher and seat 5 candidate Marj Passman (who faces Maya Cole – $135.00) has raised $5,530, far ahead of the rest. Beth Moss is next at $822.00 (Moss faces Pam Cross-Leone – $75.00 and Rick Thomas – $100.00 in the February 20, 2007 primary.)
- Isthmus Take Home Test; Week 5, on Curriculum governance and an extra-curricular activities: Pam Cross-Leone, Beth Moss and Rick Thomas, Seat 3, Tom Brew and Johnny Winston, Jr.Seat 4, Maya Cole and Marj Passman, Seat 5
Wisconsin Governor Doyle Proposes a 4% Increase in Property Taxes
Gov. Jim Doyle will ask the Legislature to let local governments raise their fall property tax levies by 4% – double the limit of the past two years, but a rate the governor said would still control local taxes.
He also said his plan would impose tight limits to protect homeowners, who now pay about 71% of all property taxes. In 1990, homeowners paid 60% of the property tax burden.
Last year, property taxes in the state hit a record $8.7 billion. Two state credits lowered the total that property owners had to pay to $7.9 billion.
Levy controls that expired on Jan. 1 limited local governments to increases of 2% a year or the growth in new construction in their communities, whichever was greater. That allowed Milwaukee, where new construction grew by 3.3%, and other local governments with similar growth to raise their levies by more than 2% last year.
Public school spending is controlled by separate formulas. Partly because of the passage of so many local referendums, the average statewide levy for public schools rose 5.4% last year, according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
Wisconsin Resident’s Total 2006 Tax Rate: 33.4% of Income according to WISTAX:
For the third consecutive year, total taxes paid by Wisconsin individuals and firms relative to personal income increased in 2006. They now claim 33.4% of income, up from a 2003 low of 30.7%. Both the federal and state tax burdens increased in 2006, while the local government burden dipped slightly.
Students Charged in Snow-Day Hoax
Two teenage girls posted a fake announcement on their school district’s Web site that said school was closed for the day due to winter weather, police said.
Wisconsin Governor Doyle Proposes an Expanded 4 Year Old Kindergarden
s part of his two-year budget proposal to be unveiled Tuesday, the Democratic governor said he will pay for prenatal visits for poor expectant mothers, expand 4-year-old kindergarten classes and help provide in-home care for the elderly. The plans will help students succeed and frail seniors stay in their homes while saving the state money over the long run, Doyle said.
“I believe really strongly in good early childhood development and I think everybody who is involved in education understands how important it is for kids to get off to a good start,” Doyle said in an interview. “To me, this is one of the best investments that you can make and the payoff comes in very many ways.”
But unlike his previous two budgets, Doyle has an ally in the state Senate, now controlled by Democrats. Political observers said at least some of Doyle’s ideas could pass, including proposals to expand 4- year-old kindergarten and send more money to struggling rural school districts, often represented by Republican lawmakers.
“We need to set our priorities, and one of the priorities is our children, and we’ve just got to find the funding for them,” Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit.
Doyle has not said how he would pay for the programs.
Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said it was unclear whether Doyle’s proposals actually increase spending or redistribute existing money for schools or other items.
New Jersey Math Teacher Leon Varjian Discusses his Madison Roots
Now that the lakes have finally frozen over, longtime Madison residents may gaze (if their eyes don’t tear up too badly) over the bleak landscape of Lake Mendota and reminisce about that fateful February 28 years ago when the Statue of Liberty came to town.
Of course it wasn’t the real statue (which is still firmly planted in Upper New York Bay) but an elaborate prank that came at a time when the city was still feeling the effects of anti-war riots and a fatal bombing nearly a decade earlier.
Leading the march toward levity – literally – was a scruffy UW-Madison student named Leon Varjian. The New Jersey native organized boom- box parades and toga parties on State Street and was one of the architects of the Statue of Liberty ruse, which has been named one of the top college pranks of all time.
Varjian, who already held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from other universities in mathematics, came to the city in the fall of 1977 with the goal of studying in “the graduate school of fun.”
Wisconsin Economic Outlook
Wisconsin Department of Revenue [300K PDF]:
Based on the current economic forecast and recent collection experience, General Purpose Revenue (GPR) tax collections in fiscal year (FY) 2007 will increase 3.8% relative to FY 2006 to $12.491 billion. This Department of Revenue (DOR) estimate is $69 million (0.6%) below the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) estimate for FY 2007 collections issued in January 2006.
GPR tax collections are estimated to increase 3.6% in FY 2008 to $12.941 billion and 4.0% in FY 2009 to $13.462 billion.
GPR tax collections by DOR during the first four months of FY 2007 increased 3.6% over the comparable period of FY 2006 from $3.322 billion to $3.443 billion. During this period, individual income tax receipts increased 4.3% to $1.888 billion; sales tax revenue increased 2.8% to $1.111 billion, and corporate collections increased 12.5% to $261 million.
Wisconsin State K-12 Budget Notes
Gov. Jim Doyle will maintain in his upcoming budget proposal the state’s commitment to funding two-thirds of the cost of public schools – the state’s single biggest expenditure and the largest source of revenue for most schools, a Doyle spokesman confirmed Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said that the state’s funding level for schools was important to property taxpayers.
“It’s good to keep that commitment because then we can keep the property taxes even or lower the property taxes,” Robson said.
Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, agreed but noted that more money from the state doesn’t necessarily mean more money for schools overall. That’s because their revenues are kept under state limits and they could have to lower property taxes if their state aids rise, he said.
Though Doyle and other past Republican governors have referred to the state’s funding commitment as a full two- thirds, it technically has fallen short of that in the past because calculations don’t include other fees and federal money that schools might receive, Berry said.
Notes on School Violence
Violence in our schools is preventable, but we don’t seem to understand how to do that. Our first response is to blame the Milwaukee Public Schools: If something goes wrong, it’s the fault of the school system.
I wonder how many of us who hold MPS responsible have visited a school and seen for ourselves how difficult life there can be.
What we don’t see from the outside are talented and devoted teachers and staff who make it their duty every day to educate and support our kids. What we don’t know is how many disadvantaged youth have no hope for the future, give up and become part of the problem. And what we don’t feel is the anxiety of thousands of parents for the safety and well-being of their children in a public school.
Connecticut Governor Proposes Income Tax Increase to Raise $3B for K-12
Using a decisive election victory to take a political risk, Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Wednesday proposed raising Connecticut’s income tax to 5.5 percent from 5 percent to pay for a $3.4 billion increase in education spending over the next five years.
Ms. Rell also proposed increasing the state’s cigarette tax by 49 cents, to $2 a pack, which her assistants said would bring in an additional $169.2 million during the next two years.
In delivering her budget message to the Democratic-controlled State Legislature, Ms. Rell, a Republican, characterized the income tax increase as a “wrenching decision,” but said it was the best way to pay for the record-breaking increase in financing the state’s public schools. But even as she called for increased taxes as part of her $35.8 billion, two-year budget plan, Ms. Rell also proposed eliminating the estate tax and the often-criticized car tax, which local governments assess on automobiles at widely varying rates.
Minnesota Governor Proposes $75M for Additional College Prep
In his State of the State speech last month, Pawlenty argued that too many Minnesota students coast through high school with no plan for what they are going to do after graduation.
To combat that, the Republican governor wants lawmakers to give $75 million over the next two years to high schools so they can teach tough courses that clearly relate to future careers or majors and to require every student to earn one year of college credit before they graduate.
He also wants all high school students to take four years of a foreign language and to get workplace training and internships so they can be qualified for jobs at companies that will have to compete in a global economy.
The College Board’s AP Report to the Nation
Wisconsin ranked 13th in the percentage of public school students scoring 3 or higher on an AP exam during their high school years.
The College Board:
Almost 15 percent (Wisconsin = 15.8%) of public school graduates from the class of 2006 achieved during their high school years an AP® Exam grade of 3 or better (the score predictive of college success 1). This achievement represents a significant improvement since the class of 2000, when just 10 percent of public school graduates were achieving this result. The College Board, the not-for-profit membership association that administers the AP Program, released the third annual Advanced Placement Report to the Nation, which also showed that since 2000, all 50 states and the District of Columbia achieved an increase in the percentage of high school graduates that had earned an exam grade of 3 or higher on the college-level AP Exams.
The Report also highlights new independent research, which bolsters previous research findings that students who participate in AP have significantly better college grades and college graduation rates than academically and economically similar students who did not take the demanding courses and exams.
Media and others occasionally rank states, districts, and schools on the basis of AP Exam results, despite repeated warnings that such rankings may be problematic. AP Exams are valid measures of students’ content mastery of college-level studies in academic disciplines, but should never be used as a sole measure for gauging educational excellence and equity.
92K Wisconsin Summary pdf.
Sam Dillon:
More high schools across the nation are offering Advanced Placement courses to help students get into college and get ready for its academic rigors. In the process, however, many minority students who often need help most urgently are missing out.
“Taking rigorous courses is good for high school students, and there’s a lot of evidence that kids who have taken A.P. courses — even if they don’t do well on the tests — do better in college,” said Mike Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., a nonprofit organization created by state governors and business leaders that works to raise academic standards.
As increasing numbers of high schools offer the courses, minority enrollment in them has become a focus of study. Although African-American students were underrepresented last year, Asian students were the opposite; 11 percent of students who took the tests were Asian, while only 6 percent of the student population was Asian. About 62 percent of students who took the exams were white, while 65 percent of the nation’s student population was white, the report said.
Doyle wants state to pay for added school choice
Steven Walters & Stacy Forster:
Making good on a promise, Gov. Jim Doyle today will announce that he wants the state to pay all costs associated with last year’s expansion of the school choice program – a change he said could save Milwaukee residents about $21 million in property taxes over the next two years.
It will be one component of what is expected to be a wide-ranging package that the governor is to unveil at Elm Creative Arts Elementary School to help revitalize Milwaukee. Last week, Doyle promised that the package would also include anti-crime and job-creation elements.
It will also include a “substantial commitment” to Milwaukee Public Schools, Doyle said Tuesday. He declined to give details of how his plan would help the troubled district, however.
Seth Zlotocha has more, as does Mark Belling.
Too Many AP Courses?
How many Advanced Placement courses are enough? Here in the Washington area, a hotbed of AP mania, the College Board provided an answer for the first time yesterday: Five is plenty in a high school career. Any more, the official response suggested, might be just showing off.
Trevor Packer, executive director of the AP program, said he had spoken to a number of college officials about how many of the college-level courses were needed to impress admissions officers and prepare for the rigors of higher education. They told him that “three, four or five AP courses are sufficient” in a high school career, he said. Under that scenario, a student could max out with one AP course as a sophomore and two each in junior and senior years. “Beyond that, they are interested in seeing students participate in other activities.”
Local School Climate Tea Leaves?
At a time when Madison should be discussing the very real challenge of retooling our schools so that they can educate our young to be the leaders of the 21st century, when we should be getting serious about how to ensure that all citizens have access to affordable housing, and when we should be strategizing about how to diversify our economy in order to provide the jobs that will be required by our burgeoning population – and to protect the dwindling number of unionized industrial jobs that remain – the City Council will tonight discuss whether to put an advisory referendum about trolleys on the spring ballot.
Yikes!
School Board Candidate Meet and Greet: Wednesday, 2.7.2007 @ 7:00p.m.
Madison Public Library (Central) [map]
Democracy for Wisconsin:
Our February meeting will be an opportunity for you to meet many of the candidates running for election this spring in Madison. It can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in nonpartisan races, so I encourage you to come on out and judge the candidates for yourself. We will be voting on endorsements in at least some of these races.
Virtual Schools Are Right for Some Families
As principal of Wisconsin Connections Academy (WCA), the state’s first virtual K-8 school, I see on a daily basis the benefits a standards-based virtual education provides for students from around the state.
Every student has unique learning needs. Some students learn best by reading, others by listening and still others by doing. In the same manner, a traditional school is best for some students and a virtual school is best for others. Wisconsin has been an educational leader for many years, and virtual schools are just one of the ways in which Wisconsin is staying at the forefront of education.
Virtual school teachers work with each student to modify lessons, and generally meet the student’s unique needs and learning style. This personalized approach to education is a good option for students who may be far ahead of or behind their peers, for students who need a more flexible schedule, or for students who learn best outside the walls of a traditional school, such as Jacob Martin.
Jacob is an 8th grade student at WCA. Because of his autism, Jacob benefits from learning in a more personalized setting: his home. Jacob recently wrote an essay about why he likes attending a virtual school, and he explained in his own words why a virtual school works best for him.
Harlem program forms a circle of success for kids
Canada’s other key innovation: Think big. What good is it to save one child and send him into a neighborhood where every other child is failing? “Well, after a while, it has an impact on your child. That kid either never goes outside again or they learn to adjust in that environment.”
He calls that a ”negative contagion.” And, he asked, ”What if we could create a positive contagious effect?” Meaning, what if we could send that child out into a peer group of other children who were also doing well? As he sees it, it’s not enough to save a child here and there. We have to save the children.
So overall, the zone serves more than 9,000 kids. They have smaller classes, a longer school day and a longer school year than their peers. Their teachers are paid more and given more classroom freedom, but are also held more accountable. After school, the kids take karate and yoga classes, get tutored, paint murals, practice plays, dance, write.
From a good friend.
Arbitrator Rules in Favor of MTI vs WEAC
Arbitrator Peter Feuille ruled the 1978 agreement between the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) is an enforceable contract and its provisions remain in effect. The decision is seen as a victory for MTI in a long-festering dispute with its parent union.
WEAC had long chafed under the Madison agreement, reached at a time when the state union was in danger of being splintered into many independent locals. The document committed WEAC to reimbursing MTI for its legal expenses, and acknowledged a large degree of autonomy for the local. During a conflict in 2001, WEAC sought to unilaterally dissolve the agreement. After years of court battles, the two unions finally agreed on binding arbitration last year.
How Not to Pick a School
Brigid Schulte, via a reader:
We are a white, middle-class family. Our children attend our neighborhood public school, Mount Vernon Community School, two blocks from our house in Alexandria. The student body is 55 percent Hispanic, 22 percent black and 19 percent white. More than 60 percent of the children are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. More than 40 percent speak a language other than English at home. And the test scores, while passable, aren’t among the school district’s best.
It’s a school with the kind of statistics that can so unnerve some white, middle-class parents that they move to mostly white areas — or spend tens of thousands of dollars on private schools.
Last week, I held the PTA open house for parents of prospective students. I posted the announcement on our neighborhood e-mail group list. I received some enthusiastic responses from people who know parents with children already at the school. And I also got this one: “We are in the process of starting the research. I am plowing through the state website with the test results now so I will see how this school compares.” The writer mentioned two other schools she was considering, schools with more white kids and higher test scores.
Madison Schools’ “Restorative Justice”
The superintendent, school board president and other school board candidates are already talking as if this were a done deal. But what is “restorative justice,” and what will it mean to have student misconduct addressed with a “restorative justice” approach? A layperson’s online search leads to academic papers in the criminal and juvenile justice area from fields ranging from sociology, social work, philosophy and theology, but not much specific research or data on whether or how “restorative justice” has been found to work as an approach to addressing misconduct in schools. The decision to move away from a discipline-based approach to a “restorative justice” approach will have an immediate, on-the-ground, daily impact on the school climate and educational experience encountered by the students and teachers in our schools, and parents of children in the public schools here may very well have the following questions:
New Orleans’ Schools: Reading, Writing, Resurrection
The storm ravaged the city’s architecture and infrastructure, took hundreds of lives, exiled hundreds of thousands of residents. But it also destroyed, or enabled the destruction of, the city’s public-school system—an outcome many New Orleanians saw as deliverance. That system had begun with great promise, in 1841, as one of the first in the Deep South. It had effectively ended, in 2005, in disaster—and not just the natural kind. Its defining characteristics were financial high jinks and low academic performance. On the last state achievement test before Katrina hit, 74 percent of eighth-graders had failed to demonstrate “basic” skills in English/Language Arts, and 70 percent scored below “basic” in math. The Orleans Parish School Board, which ran the city’s schools, was $450 million in debt. Yet these numbers did not begin to capture the day-to-day texture of the schools: when students held a press conference to express their post-Katrina wishes, they asked for textbooks, toilet paper, and teachers who liked them.
Dayton School Practice Test Controversy
And seventh graders knew that the square Coral drew was a rhombus because it had four sides.
The question is, how did they know?
In each case the students had seen these questions — or questions that were nearly identical — on practice tests they took the week before the school administered the Ohio Achievement Tests.
In all, a Dayton Daily News investigation found 44 questions on practice tests taken by City Day students that were identical or substantially the same as questions that appeared on the actual state exam they took just days later.
And when state report cards came out last year, huge gains in the percentage of students who passed the test helped propel the chronically underperforming school out of the state’s lowest rating category of “academic emergency.”
School Board Candidate Video Chat: Seat 3 Candidate Rick Thomas
Watch a video conversation with Madison School Board Seat 3 Candidate Rick Thomas [8MB]. Pam Cross Leone, Beth Moss and Thomas face off in the February 20, 2007 primary election.
Much more on the election, here. Rick’s literature has a handy Sudoku puzzle on the back.
Whole-language Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
Louisa Moats 324K PDF:
How to Tell When “Scientifically-Based Reading Instruction” Isn’t.
In this practitioners’ guide, renowned reading expert Louisa Moats (author of the American Federation of Teachers’ Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science and an earlier Thomas B. Fordham Foundation report, Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of “Balanced” Reading Instruction) explains how educators, parents, and concerned citizens can spot ineffective reading programs that surreptitiously hide under the “scientifically-based” banner.
While the field of reading has made enormous strides in recent years—especially with the publication of the National Reading Panel’s landmark report and enactment of the federal Reading First program discredited and ineffectual practices continue in many schools. Although the term “whole language” is rarely used today, programs based on its premises, such as Reading Recovery, Four Blocks, Guided Reading, and especially “balanced literacy,” are as popular as ever. These approaches may pay lip service to reading science, but they fail to incorporate the content and instructional methods proven to work best with students learning to read. Some districts, such as Denver, openly shun research-based practices, while others, such as Chicago, fail to provide clear, consistent leadership for principals and teachers, who are left to reinvent reading instruction, school by school.
Book: The Outrage of Project Follow Through: 5 Million Failed Kids Later
The book is not designed for educators but for the general public. The events start in 1964, when I got my first job in education (at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois) and proceed from there to the present through a series of first-person vignettes and episodes that present the human side of what we did and why we did it. I think it delivers a powerful message.
Many episodes are dramatic—at least they were when we experienced them. I believe they show that we knew what we were talking about because we’d done more than theorize or observe through the sterile literature. We were completely involved in working with teachers, kids, and schools for more than 20 years in different manifestations of Follow Through. The book also provides short tours of work we’ve done with various types of learners, from the autistic, those with traumatic brain damage, and the deaf, to preschoolers, at-risk high school students, and the gifted.
The theme of the book is that urban school districts, as they are currently configured, can’t possibly work because their structure, logic, and philosophy are anti-scientific. Overall, the book will probably sadden you, but hopefully, it will provide an interesting journey and won’t discourage you.
Online Classes Go Mainstream
Hathaway, who hopes to be a novelist, is among 1 million kindergarten through high school student enrollments in virtual schooling across the nation, according to the North American Council for Online Learning, a nonprofit organization for administrators, teachers and others involved in online schooling.
Enrollment, counted as the total number of seats in all online classes, not the number of students, has grown more than 20 times in seven years, and the group expects the numbers to continue to jump 30% annually.
To deal with the growth, the University of California is launching an extensive effort to make sure applicants’ online high school courses are on par with traditional classroom instruction.
Nearly half the states offer public school classes online, and last year Michigan became the first in the nation to require students to take an online course to graduate from high school. In California, a state senator introduced a bill last week to allow public high school students to take online classes without depriving schools of the state funding they receive for attendance.
Comments on the 2006 Madison Edge School Referendum & Possible Closure of a “Downtown School”
I’m somewhat incredulous about the comments from the Madison School Board President Johnny Winston Jr. in Susan Troller’s article about Monday’s meeting. Do I understand correctly? The School Board packaged the new west side elementary school with two other spending items to ensure its passage as a referendum on last November’s ballot, and now the School Board is reluctant to put forth a referendum to fully fund downtown schools? And they give no reassurance about seeking to keep the downtown school curriculums and class size intact?
And what of these comments about no public outcry? If the public is to do the political footwork to get rid of draconian state-imposed caps, we wouldn’t need a School Board.
From someone who has no vested interest in one’s own children’s education yet recognizes the importance of a solid education for everyone, I say Madison’s school system is in obvious decline.
My opinion is that if the modus operandi is school funding by referendums and we get a referendum for a new school on the edge of the city, then we get a referendum to fund downtown schools.
If that referendum fails, then it fails, which would be a good indication of where priorities in the community lie and also a sad disappointment.
Dan Sebald Madison
This is a fascinating issue, particularly given the folks that lined up to support last fall’s referendum.
Spring 2007 Madison School Board Candidate Updates
Isthmus’s latest very useful school board candidate take home tests are now available. This week’s topics include volunteerism and the contents of an 8th grade graduation speech:
- Pam Cross-Leone, Beth Moss and Rick Thomas, Seat 3
- Tom Brew and Johnny Winston, Jr., Seat 4
- Maya Cole and Marj Passman, Seat 5
Much more on the election here.
More Federal Money for Pell Grants, Special Education, Title I and Head Start
This week, House and Senate Democrat Appropriators agreed on a long overdue funding resolution for fiscal year (FY) 06 that provides $2.3 billion in additional funding over FY06 and includes an additional $1.17 billion for education over FY 06 levels.
Highlights from the House appropriations resolution include:
- Pell Grants: $13.6 billion, an increase of $615.4 million to increase the maximum Pell grant by $260 to $4,310.
- Special Education: $10.7 billion for IDEA Part B state grants, an increase of $200 million to help school districts serve 6.9 million children with disabilities.
- Title I K-12 Grants: $12.8 billion, an increase of $125 million to provide approximately 38,000 additional low-income children performing below grade level with intensive reading and math instruction.
- Title I School Improvement Fund: $125 million for this new program to target assistance to the 6,700 schools that failed to meet No Child Left Behind requirements in the 2005-2006 school year.
- Head Start: $6.9 billion, an increase of $103.7 million.
See also the Committee for Education Funding.
“MIDDLE SCHOOLS ARE the great disaster of the education system”
With so many middle schools performing poorly, the movement for K-8 schools is gaining momentum in Boston and nationwide. But some education reformers think combining the middle grades with high school, rather than elementary school, is a better formula.
Seattle School Board creates ‘profile’ of the next superintendent
The next leader of Seattle Public Schools should be inspirational, able to work well with others, committed to reducing the academic achievement gap and ideally will have experience as an educator, the Seattle School Board agreed.
During a marathon work session Wednesday, the board fine-tuned a list of 10 qualifications to create a “profile” of the person who will take over for departing Superintendent Raj Manhas later this year.
Seattle School Board Superintendent Search Page.
Zogby on Philadelphia School Governance Reforms
Guest Post from Charles Zogby, he’s currently Senior Vice President for Education Policy with K-12* and the former Secretary of Education Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was active in the reform efforts in Philly while he was secretary. Responding to this post he writes: I wanted to respond to your recent post regarding RAND’s analysis of the various school management options deployed in Philadelphia. You note in your post that for profit and non-profit managers received more resources but did no better in producing academic performance. This is not an entirely accurate picture of either the conditions of the schools or the challenge that the private mangers were handed.
Seat 3 Madison School Board Candidate Pam Cross-Leone Nominated for the Athena Award
The red carpet season is under way in Hollywood, and Madison has its own recognition programs this time of year. Among them is The Business Forum’s annual ATHENA Awards.
Ten nominees will be honored this year, and one will be named the 2007 ATHENA Award recipient when the business group presents its 10th annual fundraiser March 6 at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.
This year’s nominees are:
Pam Cross-Leone, team trainer, Madison Gas & Electric Co.
Beth Moss and Rick Thomas are also running for Seat 3. The primary is February 20, 2007.
Toffler on the Future School
Alvin Toffler tells us what’s wrong — and right — with public education, by James Daly:
Forty years after he and his wife Heidi set the world alight with Future Shock, Alvin Toffler remains a tough assessor of our nation’s social and technological prospects. Though he’s best known for his work discussing the myriad ramifications of the digital revolution, he also loves to speak about the education system that is shaping the hearts and minds of America’s future. We met with him near his office in Los Angeles, where the celebrated septuagenarian remains a clear and radical thinker.
You’ve been writing about our educational system for decades. What’s the most pressing need in public education right now?
Shut down the public education system.
That’s pretty radical.
I’m roughly quoting (Microsoft chairman) Bill Gates, who said, “We don’t need to reform the system; we need to replace the system.”
Why not just readjust what we have in place now? Do we really need to start from the ground up?
We should be thinking from the ground up. That’s different from changing everything. However, we first have to understand how we got the education system that we now have. Teachers are wonderful, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who are creative and terrific, but they are operating in a system that is completely out of time. It is a system designed to produce industrial workers.
Let’s look back at the history of public education in the United States. You have to go back a little over a century. For many years, there was a debate about whether we should even have public education. Some parents wanted kids to go to school and get an education; others said, “We can’t afford that. We need them to work. They have to work in the field, because otherwise we starve.” There was a big debate. Late in the 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, business leaders began complaining about all these rural kids who were pouring into the cities and going to work in our factories. Business leaders said that these kids were no good, and that what they needed was an educational system that would produce “industrial discipline.”
Let’s have a little exercise. Walk me through this school you’d create. What do the classrooms look like? What are the class sizes? What are the hours?
It’s open twenty-four hours a day. Different kids arrive at different times. They don’t all come at the same time, like an army. They don’t just ring the bells at the same time. They’re different kids. They have different potentials. Now, in practice, we’re not going to be able to get down to the micro level with all of this, I grant you, but in fact, I would be running a twentyfour- hour school, I would have nonteachers working with teachers in that school, I would have the kids coming and going at different times that make sense for them.
The schools of today are essentially custodial: They’re taking care of kids in work hours that are essentially nine to five — when the whole society was assumed to work. Clearly, that’s changing in our society. So should the timing. We’re individualizing time; we’re personalizing time. We’re not having everyone arrive at the same time, leave at the same time. Why should kids arrive at the same time and leave at the same time?
Well, well worth reading. We do need to re-think and re-implement a system that is, as Toffler points out, largely based around Frederick Taylor’s early 20th century thinking.
How Should We Fund Education?
We are sure that this statement will shock this community: The Waukesha Taxpayers League agrees that we have an educational funding problem in Wisconsin.
While there may be widespread agreement with that statement, how we got into this predicament and, more importantly, how we resolve the funding issue is where disagreement exists. As the saying goes, “one must know history well or history is bound to repeat itself.” A brief review of school funding history is in order.
During the late ’80s and early ’90s, education spending was out of control. Double-digit property tax increases were common. The only way to control school taxes and spending was to oust local school board members – always a difficult feat. Fiscally responsible school boards were rendered helpless by state mediation/arbitration law which sent contract disputes to an arbitrator for resolution. The problem was, the arbitrator’s decision was heavily influenced by settlements in surrounding districts. If one district settled at a high level of salary and benefit increases, soon all districts were mandated to provide such settlements. Large settlements combined with increased hiring led to escalating school spending and taxes. Property taxes in particular rose at unbearable rates, angering taxpayers across Wisconsin.
In the early ’90s, responding to an angry electorate, the Legislature passed a “revenue cap” law limiting the amount of revenue a district could collect from property and state taxes, effectively limiting spending. This cap was formulated to allow for inflation and student enrollment changes. Some contend that districts are only allowed to increase spending by 2 percent annually, but Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance figures show that school spending increases have averaged 4 percent yearly since 2001.
To make revenue caps workable, salary and benefits (80 percent of school budgets) also needed to be reined in. The Legislature passed what is commonly called the QEO: qualified economic offer. This law prohibits mediation/arbitration if a district offers the teachers union at least a 3.8 percent salary and benefit increase. However, huge loopholes developed in QEO law, resulting in average salary increases of more than 5 percent annually, not including the increasing cost of health and retirement benefits.
This legislation intentionally created a shortfall between the money generated by revenue caps and the QEO to force districts to prioritize spending within their budgets that had become padded with new programs and staff for years. To provide for some local control of spending, the Legislature included the referendum process for any spending over the revenue caps.
Also passed was “two-thirds funding.” This means that the state provides two-thirds of the cost of education in Wisconsin. This was a huge shift in taxes from the local to the state level. This two-thirds funding is actually a very complex formula that distributes this money unevenly. Property rich districts and big spending districts get less state money than property poor districts and lesser spending districts. Waukesha is considered a property rich district, so we receive less than twothirds funding.
The state of Wisconsin currently spends $5.89 billion on kindergarten through 12thgrade education. This represents 39.3 percent of the state’s general fund. Local property taxes (after all credits) increased 5.4 percent to $3.79 billion. These figures demonstrate how generous Wisconsin taxpayers are to our schools.
Christ Lufter is President of the Waukesha Taxpayers League.
Palo Alto School Board Rejects Classes in Mandarin
It would have seemed to be a perfect fit: an academically ambitious plan for an ambitiously academic city.
But after weeks of debate occasionally tinged with racial overtones, the Palo Alto Unified School District decided early Wednesday against a plan for Mandarin language immersion, citing practical concerns as well as whether the classes would give the small group of students in them an unfair advantage.
The proposal, which was voted down 3 to 2 after a marathon six-hour meeting of the district school board, would have established two classes taught mostly in Mandarin — the world’s most spoken language, used by nearly one billion Chinese — to 40 kindergarten and first-grade students at a local elementary school.
Grace Mah, a second-generation Chinese-American and the founder of Palo Alto Chinese Education, which lobbied for the program, said the vote was a major disappointment.
“I think there’s a number of people who are afraid of change,” said Ms. Mah, a 46-year-old computer engineer and a mother of two, including a third-grader in Palo Alto schools. “I think here’s a number of people who don’t believe in alternative education. And I think there’s a number of people who insist on equity, when in life, it just isn’t.”
Mandarin is offered at one Madison High School – Memorial.
A Tide for School Choice
Fifty-seven years later, Sumner Elementary School in Topeka is back in the news. That city’s board of education is still wrongly preventing the right people from getting into that building. Two educators wanted to use Sumner for a charter school, a public school entitled to operate outside the confinements of dictated curricula and free from many work rules written by teachers unions. Their school would have been a back-to-basics academy from kindergarten through fifth grade, designed to attack Topeka’s 23-point gap between the reading proficiency of black and Hispanic third-graders and that of whites.
When the school board rejected the application of the two educators — African American women — but praised their dedication to children, one of the women was not mollified: “A bleeding heart does nothing but ruin the carpet.”
Sumner is a National Historic Landmark because in 1950 Oliver Brown walked with his 7-year-old daughter Linda the seven blocks from their home to Sumner, where he unsuccessfully tried to enroll her. But Topeka’s schools were segregated, so Linda went to the school for blacks 21 blocks from her home, and her father went to court. Four years later came Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Notes on Washington DC’s School Climate
Somehow, when good, bright people get serious about the fact that thousands of children emerge from this city’s schools year after year without knowing how to read well enough to get a decent job, those good people end up busying themselves with little boxes on a piece of paper.
Both say the schools alone can’t make the fix; the city must intercede in the lives of dysfunctional families before children are born. Both agree the District has to knock down the walls that separate the agencies that deal with family pathologies — agencies focused on prenatal care, child abuse, substance problems, street crime, absentee parents, unemployment, adult illiteracy, and on and on must finally coordinate how myriad arms of the city deal with a single child.
Both Reinoso and Bobb can and do catalogue the failures of the school board, the impossibility of getting stuff done in the labyrinth of the school bureaucracy and the fact that there is precious little reason for parents to send their kids to D.C. schools if they have any choice.
Milwaukee Schools to “Cull Troublemakers”
Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos said Thursday that his budget proposal for next year will call for more students to be placed in alternative schools, with the goal of reducing the number of students who are doing poorly – and who frequently are the source of problems – in the main body of high schools and middle schools.
Related Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Editorial.
How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?
Jay Greene and Marcus Winters:
Education policy discussions often assume that public school teachers are poorly paid. Typically absent in these discussions about teacher pay, however, is any reference to systematic data on how much public school teachers are actually paid, especially relative to other occupations. Because discussions about teacher pay rarely reference these data, the policy debate on education reform has proceeded without a clear understanding of these issues.
This report compiles information on the hourly pay of public school teachers nationally and in 66 metropolitan areas, as collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its annual National Compensation Survey. We also compare the reported hourly income of public school teachers with that of workers in similar professions, as defined by the BLS. This report goes on to use the BLS data to analyze whether there is a relationship between higher relative pay for public school teachers and higher student achievement as measured by high school graduation rates.
“No Need to Worry About Math Education”
From a reader involved in these issues, by Kerry Hill: Demystifying math: UW-Madison scholars maintain focus on effective teaching, learning
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 – By Kerry Hill
New generation of Math Ed
Many people still see mathematics as a difficult subject that only a select group of students with special abilities can master. Learning math, they believe, consists of memorizing facts and mastering the application of complicated concepts and procedures.
“That’s simply not true,” says Thomas Carpenter, who has plenty of research to justify his succinct rebuttal.
A pioneering cohort of education researchers at UW-Madison – led by Carpenter, Thomas Romberg, and Elizabeth Fennema, all emeriti professors in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction – have shown, for instance, that children of all abilities enter school with an informal base of mathematical knowledge that enables them to learn more substantive material than traditionally taught.
Why Johnny can’t read very well and what to do about it
Juan/Sean/John doesn’t read too well because we don’t teach him how very well. Results from the 2005-’06 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations show that 55% of Milwaukee Public Schools 10th-graders do not read at a proficient level. The majority of our kids have reading problems.
Leaders in the school district, in the Legislature and at the federal level need to take a stand and do something practical, like earmarking funds for literacy wherever literacy is a problem.
We need to go way beyond literacy coaches and in-content-area reading programs to try to solve this problem.
Reading should be made a department in every high school just as math, science and English are, and reading classes should become a part of every high school curriculum.
I’m not saying that we don’t teach reading in the high schools. But, primarily, we teach reading to students who already can read. Those who can’t, or who can’t read well, struggle, and many fail. If they aren’t designated special education or a special needs learner, these students disappear into the cracks of the system.
Typically, the struggling reader who has fallen behind somewhere in his education gets to high school and is expected to take the same English, history, science and math classes as the proficient reader.
The student in junior-year English who reads at a third-grade level but is studying the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson or “The Fall of the House of Usher” will drown in language he doesn’t understand. The textbooks he has to read for history, science and math will be eight grades beyond his reading level.
Arkansas Town Offers Students Free College Education
Prospects for the future changed significantly for many students at El Dorado High School on Monday with the announcement by an oil company that it is putting up $50 million for college scholarships in its working-class hometown over the next 20 years. Murphy Oil Co. said it wants to increase the number of students who attend college and perhaps attract new businesses to El Dorado, with the scholarships a selling point. It said it also hopes the program will help create better jobs here for students to come back to after graduating from college.”This is a huge day. As of today, El Dorado High School graduates will have an unprecedented opportunity to continue their education,” Superintendent Bob Watson told students.”For some students, this is life-changing. Students who have worked hard, but would not have been able to attend college because of financial limitations, now have the means to do so.”The program begins with this spring’s graduating class. El Dorado High School has about 250 graduates each year, about 65 percent of whom go to college.Students gathered at an assembly screamed and applauded when the program was unveiled.
Spring 2007 Election Update: Cross-Leone, Moss and Thomas Discuss Volunteerism
Let’s skip the issues this week and probe the Madison school board candidates on their community involvement and their advice for students moving up to high school. We’ve asked them to describe their most fulfilling volunteer experiences, as well as what they would say to a graduating class of eighth graders.
Here are the responses for the candidates for Seat 3: Pam Cross-Leone, Beth Moss, and Rick Thomas.
Much more on the election here.
Denver Schools Get Bonuses for Student Population Growth
Some of the Denver’s most popular public schools will get pots of cash this spring for attracting students from out of the district or from charter schools.
The move is designed to draw students back to Denver public schools, which have lost more than 8,000 students in the past six years.
Places like the Center for International Studies, the Denver School of the Arts, and East and Thomas Jefferson high schools will receive cash – from $20,000 to $156,000 – because they attracted “new” kids this year to their rolls, Denver Public Schools administrators said Thursday.
District leaders consider “new” students as those previously attending school out of the district or at a charter school.
Charter schools are public but are operated privately and get to keep the bulk of state per-pupil money. In Denver, that is about $6,500 per student.
For each “new” student, Denver schools will receive $1,395, but to receive the money, the school had to have a net gain of students.
School Finance: K-12 Tax & Spending Climate
School spending has always been a puzzle, both from a state and federal government perspective as well as local property taxpayers. In an effort to shed some light on the vagaries of K-12 finance, I’ve summarized below a number of local, state and federal articles and links.
The 2007 Statistical Abstract offers a great deal of information about education and many other topics. A few tidbits:
1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
US K-12 Enrollment [.xls file] | 40,878,000 | 41,216,000 | 47,203,000 | 47,671,000 | 48,183,000 | 48,540,000 | NA |
US K-12 Deflated Public K-12 Spending – Billions [.xls file] | $230B | 311.8B | $419.7B | $436.6B | $454.6B | $464.8B | $475.5B |
Avg. Per Student Spending | $5,627 | $7,565 | $8,892 | $9,159 | $9,436 | $9,576 | NA |
US Defense Spending (constant yr2000 billion dollars) [.xls file] | $267.1B | $382.7B | $294.5B | $297.2B | $329.4B | $365.3B | $397.3B |
US Health Care Spending (Billions of non-adjusted dollars) [.xls file] | $255B | $717B | $1,359B | $1,474B | $1,608B | $1,741B | $1,878B |
US Gross Domestic Product – Billions [.xls file] | 5,161 | 7,112 | 9,817 | 9,890 | 10,048 | 10,320 | 10,755 |
Health Literacy
Whether you left school at 16 or have a doctorate; whether your annual income is in four figures or six; whether you are black, white, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian, chances are there have been many medical encounters that left you with less than optimal understanding about how you can improve or protect your health.
National studies have found that “health literacy” is remarkably low, with more than 90 million Americans unable to adequately understand basic health information. The studies show that this obstacle “affects people of all ages, races, income and education levels,” Dr. Richard H. Carmona, the United States surgeon general, wrote in the August issue of The Journal of General Internal Medicine, which was devoted to health literacy.
Grammar Girl
Mignon works hard to balance the needs of her business with the growing success of the Grammar Girl podcast. If more than a few days pass without a new Grammar Girl episode, it is almost certain that she has a deadline for a client’s project. Never fear! She will return.
Grammar Girl believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study. She strives to be a friendly guide in the writing world. Her arch enemy is the evil Grammar Maven who inspires terror in the untrained and is neither friendly nor helpful.
Spring, 2007 Madison Referendum?
Is there another school referendum in Madison’s immediate future?
If it means saving small schools in the center of the city that face closings or consolidations in the path of this year’s $10.5 million budget-cutting juggernaut, some neighborhood advocates argue it would be well worthwhile.
Matt Calvert, a Lapham-Marquette elementary school parent, said he favored a referendum that would provide money to the district for the next several years so that it would not close schools, increase class sizes or cut programs in an effort to close its budget gap.
Madison School District’s Press Release on Reduced State Special Education Funding
Madison Metropolitan School District:
The state’s failure to pay for mandated special education and English Language Learner (ELL) costs reduced available resources to Madison Schools by over $11.6 million, according to information released to Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB).
At the district’s request, Pocan asked the LFB to calculate the reimbursement for special education and ELL expenses comparing the level of state categorical aid during the 1993-94 school year (the first year of state-imposed revenue limits) and the 2005-06 school year. School districts statewide were reimbursed for special education expenses at nearly 45% for 1993-94. The reimbursement for 2005-06 slipped to below 29%, translating to a loss of over $9.4 million in resources for Madison Schools compared to 1993-94.
For ELL students, the 1993-94 state reimbursement to districts for expenses was 33.1%. Currently, school districts are reimbursed at 11.5%, a loss of over $2.2 million in resources for Madison Schools compared to 1993-94.
For decades the state had a statutory provision requiring reimbursement for special education to be 63%, but the statute was eliminated from law in the 1999-2001 biennial budget.
The State of Wisconsin has been increasing it’s overall K-12 funding during this time, including the much discussed commitment to fund 2/3 of school district budgets. It would be interesting to see a summary of the spending changes over time, including areas that saw increases, and like this example, decreases.
Sun Prairie’s February 20 New School Referendum
On February 20, 2007, voters within the Sun Prairie Area School District will be asked to vote on a referendum to build a 7th elementary school within the school district.
Cliff Miller has more.
Whole Language in Sheep’s clothing
In a Fordham report, Whole-Language High Jinks, reading expert Louisa Moats warns that ineffective whole-language reading programs with names like “balanced literacy” are trying to grab funding intended for programs that have been proven far more effective. New York City, Denver and Salt Lake City have been misled by programs that are whole language in disguise, Moats writes. Warning signs include:
- Use of memorization and contextual guessing, instead of direct, systematic teaching for word recognition and actual comprehension;
- Rejection of explicit phonics, spelling, or grammar instruction;
- Application of the whole-language principles for English language learners.
NY Governor Spitzer to Tie Increased School Funds to Performance
Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York said today that he would allocate more money to the state’s public education system in his 2008 budget proposal, but he said the increased spending would be tied to better results from schools, educators and students.
“There will be no more excuses for failure,” Mr. Spitzer said. “The debate will no longer be about money, but about performance.”
The governor, in office for less than a month, did not tip his hand today on how much the public school system will get in the budget that he will submit to the state Legislature on Wednesday. But in an address to school leaders and legislators, he said that every school district that receives at least $15 million more this year in his new budget, or 10 percent more than in the previous year, would be subject to a new “contract for excellence” that will dictate how they can spend those funds.
Schools that do not perform well, he said, would be shut down. Educators who do not meet performance goals would be dismissed. A new accountability system would monitor how schools are performing academically and whether they are making the best use of their money, he said. Also, the schools will be judged on whether their academic programming is helping students perform better.
“We should be ready to close more schools that fail — perhaps as many as 5 percent of all the schools in the state if we have to,” he said.
Spitzer’s Speech, “A Contract for Excellence” is available here.
Jonathan Mandell comments.
Stretching Truth with Numbers: The Median Isn’t the Message
My life has recently intersected, in a most personal way, two of Mark Twain’s famous quips. One I shall defer to the end of this essay. The other (sometimes attributed to Disraeli), identifies three species of mendacity, each worse than the one before – lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Consider the standard example of stretching the truth with numbers – a case quite relevant to my story. Statistics recognizes different measures of an “average,” or central tendency. The mean is our usual concept of an overall average – add up the items and divide them by the number of sharers (100 candy bars collected for five kids next Halloween will yield 20 for each in a just world). The median, a different measure of central tendency, is the half-way point. If I line up five kids by height, the median child is shorter than two and taller than the other two (who might have trouble getting their mean share of the candy). A politician in power might say with pride, “The mean income of our citizens is $15,000 per year.” The leader of the opposition might retort, “But half our citizens make less than $10,000 per year.” Both are right, but neither cites a statistic with impassive objectivity. The first invokes a mean, the second a median. (Means are higher than medians in such cases because one millionaire may outweigh hundreds of poor people in setting a mean; but he can balance only one mendicant in calculating a median).
Studies Find Benefits to Advanced Placement Courses
In the midst of a national debate over whether Advanced Placement courses place too much pressure on U.S. high school students, a team of Texas researchers has concluded that the difficult courses and three-hour exams are worth it.
In the largest study ever of the impact of AP on college success, which looked at 222,289 students from all backgrounds attending a wide range of Texas universities, the researchers said they found “strong evidence of benefits to students who participate in both AP courses and exams in terms of higher GPAs, credit hours earned and four-year graduation rates.”
A separate University of Texas study of 24,941 students said those who used their AP credits to take more advanced courses in college had better grades in those courses than similar students who first took college introductory courses instead of AP in 10 subjects.
Madison United for Acadmic Excellence has a useful comparison of AP and other “advanced” course offerings across the four traditional Madison high schools. Much more on local AP classes here.
Wisconsin Advanced Placement Distance Learning Consortium.
Verona High School Course Prospectus, including AP.
Middleton High School Course List.
Monona Grove High School Course Catalog [320K PDF]
Sun Prairie High School Courses.
Waunakee High School Course Index.
McFarland High School Course Guide.
Edgewood High School.
Jay Matthews has more in a later article.
On Musical Talent
How can we explain the vast differences in musical ability? How can one species produce Paul Simon and William Hung? Are we born with musical talent, or do we develop it? Let’s sort through the research:
Wisconsin School Finance: QEO, Revenue Caps and Sage
The revenue caps and QEO are transforming the operations of public schools, pushing school officials and the public into a never-ending cycle of cuts, compromises and referendums.
Most districts reduced the number of academic courses, laid off school support staff and reduced programs for students at the highest risk of failure, according to a survey of 278 superintendents during the 2004-05 school year by groups representing administrators and teachers.
Public schools, the most expensive single program in Wisconsin, account for about 40 cents of every dollar spent out of the state’s general fund.
In the old days, school boards wanting more money for school operations could simply raise taxes, and risk retribution from voters if they went too far.
Revenue caps stripped school boards of that power, requiring them instead to seek the permission of voters in ballot questions.
“We’re literally governing by referendum,” complained Nancy Hendrickson, superintendent of the Pecatonica Area School District in Blanchardville, 35 miles southwest of Madison.
Much more on the Madison School District’s $331M+ budget here and here.
Milwaukee Schools’ Enrollment Dip
Enrollment in the main roster of Milwaukee Public Schools is expected to take its sharpest dip in years this fall, dropping by more than 3,300 students.
Less than 10 years ago, enrollment in traditional MPS schools was at about 97,000, and this September officials predict it will be only about 81,600.
The projections were released Friday night by MPS officials as part of a budget forecast for next school year. Superintendent William Andrekopoulos attributed the accelerated slide to growth in the private school voucher program, decreasing population in the city and crime and poverty rates scaring off potential newcomers.
“There are not as many families migrating to Milwaukee as in the ’90s,” he said.
Why Teacher Unions Are Good for Teachers and the Public
They Protect Teachers’ Rights, Support Teacher Professionalism, and Check Administrative Power.
We live in an era when leaders in business and the media demand that schools function like businesses in a free market economy, competing for students and staff. Many such voices say that such corporate-style school reform is stymied by the teacher unions, which stand in the way of leaders who want unchecked power to assign, reward, punish, or remove their employees. Some academics blame the unions when student achievement remains stagnant. If scores are low, the critics say it must be because of the teachers’ contract, not because the district has a weak curriculum or lacks resources or has mediocre leadership. If some teachers are incompetent, it must be because of the contract, not because the district has a flawed, bureaucratic hiring process or has failed to evaluate new teachers before awarding them tenure. These critics want to scrap the contract, throw away teachers’ legal protections, and bring teacher unions to their collective knees.
It is worth recalling why teachers joined unions and why unions remain important today. Take tenure, for example. The teacher unions didn’t invent tenure, despite widespread beliefs to the contrary. Tenure evolved in the 19th century as one of the few perks available to people who were paid low wages, had classes of 70 or 80 or more, and endured terrible working conditions. In late 19th century New York City, for example, there were no teacher unions, but there was already ironclad, de facto teacher tenure. Local school boards controlled the hiring of teachers, and the only way to get a job was to know someone on the local school board, preferably a relative. Once a teacher was hired, she had lifetime tenure in that school, but only in that school. In fact, she could teach in the same school until she retired—without a pension or health benefits—or died.
More on Diane Ravitch. Joanne adds notes and links to Diane’s words.
Notes on Outsourcing Public Education
Edwize has obtained a copy of the RFP [Request for Proposal] for “Partnership School Support” that the New York City Department of Education has hidden from the general public in a remote precinct of its website accessible only to private vendors with passwords. In it one finds the details of one of the central components of the latest structural reorganization Chancellor Klein want to impose on New York City public schools.
What is remarkable about the RFP is the general plan to outsource to these private ‘partnership’ entities virtually all of the educational support functions traditionally fulfilled, for better or for worse, by the DOE. Instructional program, professional development, special education: all of these and more will now be organized and supported by the Partnerships. And in contrast to the current intermediaries such as New Visions and Urban Assembly, this RFP invites ‘for profit’ EMOs [Educational Maintenance Organizations, modeled after Health Maintenance Organizations or HMOs] like Edison Schools and Victory Schools to become Partnerships.
More on the Proposed Madison Studio School
The Madison School Board discussed the proposed Madison Studio School recently. Watch the video and read these recent articles:
- Mayoral Candidates Endorse the Studio School by Susan Troller
- Board Wants Study of Studio School by Deborah Ziff
- Don’t Rush Approval of Studio School by John Keckhaver
- Chafing at Charters by Jason Shephard:
But citizen praise was matched by district badmouthing. At every stage, district officials exaggerated the potential problems posed by the school, and at no point did they provide evidence that they had worked to resolve them.
For example, Rainwater wants the 44-student school to have its own full-time principal and secretary, while Studio School backers want to save money by sharing Emerson’s resources.
Rainwater’s insistence on spending more money, which could torpedo the proposal, left some shaking their heads. Kobza asked whether it would make sense to even consider other charters, as Rainwater’s rules would make them financially unviable.
Rainwater, amazingly, conceded the point: “I agree that you would never have a charter school” given these requirements, he said.
High School Research Studies Database
Education Commission of the States:
This unique resource is for you:
- If your governor or your legislator has asked you to tell him/her what the research says on education issues
- If you don’t know whom to trust — and find it difficult to navigate potential bias and the selective use of data
- If you don’t have time to read 25 pages and trudge through complicated explanations of methodology
- If you need to cut through the mud right to the findings and policy implications.
The Baltimore Algebra Project
was recently trying to list the 10 most encouraging initiatives by black people in 2006 and I thought I’d share one with you. It’s the Baltimore Algebra Project, a group of African American inner-city teens who’ve evolved from tutors to activists in an effort to force change in the failing Baltimore City School system. The Algebra Project, many of you may know, was created by the brilliant soft-spoken civil rights activist and organizer Robert Moses, who left the U.S. to live in Africa, in the 1960s. When Moses returned to the U.S., he became convinced that the abysmal performance of African American students in math and science are a major barrier to full citizenship and empowerment. He created a program designed to help African American students excel in math in science. There are Algebra Projects in several U.S. cities. The Baltimore Algebra Project began as a tutoring program, but the young people in the project – students at many of the city’s struggling schools – have become increasingly more activist over the past 3 years. Finally, frustrated at continuing inequities in the school system, the Project announced the launch of “Freedom Fall” [fascinating – more at Clusty] this past September. They marched on the headquarters of the school board, and in a stroke of courage and brilliance created an alternative school board, called the Freedom Board.
Spending & Education Commentary
Richard S. Davis, writing in the Spokesman Review:
What should the state spend on public schools?
In Olympia today, there is only one right answer: More.
And that answer has budget-busting consequences.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, the current education governor – when has the mansion not been occupied by an education governor? – has proposed increasing per student spending by 25 percent. Republicans don’t disagree, though they might spend it differently. And the governor has called her education budget, which goes a long way toward depleting a $1.9 billion surplus, just a down payment.
Not satisfied with promises, nine school districts went to court earlier this month, suing for more state money. They didn’t say how much they wanted, possibly to avoid low-balling the judge. The courts can be very generous with other people’s money.
But there are limits to how much is available. The current surplus will be spent in a few years. And when “more” means higher taxes, public support erodes quickly.
Perhaps, rather than focusing on how much we are spending, we should be asking how well existing money is being spent.
Making our schools a top priority: Investment in education will always pay off in society
When I was first contacted about writing a guest opinion, I thought, “What a great opportunity to share my strong feelings about public education.” Then I realized I need to be aware that everyone will not feel the same as me nor for the same reasons and I must be cautious lest I alienate them. But I was asked for my views, so I will give them.
I believe education of our youth is the most valuable thing we as adults can provide to them. Similarly it is a great responsibility we hold. For the youth it gives them the future. They, of course, must decide how to use it. Often overlooked is the value that is returned to us as providers. If we have done well, we will have real contributors to our society in our future: our doctors, nurses, community leaders, engineers, lawyers, writers, ethical politicians and journalists. And we will provide the teachers for that next generation so this responsibility can go on.
None of this comes free. There is a cost and I agree it is substantial. But if you look at it as an investment, you will find a return on your money. There is the development of the future as shown in the preceding paragraph. There is also the concrete value of your community and the property you hold. It is accepted that the quality of life and property values are directly related to the education provided in that community. We all can think of areas where we would rather not live and raise our children, but you would also find that in many of those you could afford to buy a house. There is a direct correlation between the quality of local education and property value. Why else is an evaluation of the schools always a prime part of buying a house?
NYC Public Schools, Minus the Public
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein unveiled yet another in a permanent revolution of structural reorganizations, highlighting a program which would allow private entities to assume a prominent role in the management of New York City public schools. For months, there had been rumors swirling around the exact nature of this “Partnership” program, so much so that the New York Times had published an October article on the DOE’s plans, describing them as private management of scores of schools. When a large group of labor, community based organizations, education advocates and elected officials met earlier this month to plan opposition to these efforts, Klein announced publicly that “as long as I am the chancellor of the public school system… the city of New York public schools will remain public schools.” With that announcement, speculation shifted to what the exact nature of the RFP for the “Partneship” would be.
The RFP is now out, sort of. It is hidden deep on the DOE web site, and only registered DOE vendors, such as Edison and Urban Assembly [two entities which have publicly indicated their interest], can actually see it.
A Thought on Education
Bill:
My wife is a teacher, she teaches in Middle School. To be polite, a lot of her kids appear to be uninterested in the learning experience. Instead of wasting their time and the time of kids who actually wanted to learn, I’ve suggested that the school remodel a few classrooms to give these uninterested kids a leg up in their future careers. This special classroom would be equipped with a cash register, a cooking surface, a deep fryer, a soda fountain, and a system that offers orders for the students to fill correctly. The kids would be graded on their ability to operate the equipment, and tests would include simulated customer orders. Additional equipment would include mops and brooms, which they would use to clean up the room at the end of the class. Extra credit could be offered for asking “would you like fries with that, ma’am?” or “Biggie size, sir?”
Singapore Math is a plus for South River students
It’s also different from American math in that fewer topics are taught in an academic year, giving the instructor the opportunity to teach the concept until it is mastered. “There’s a tendency in the United States to teach a topic, then it’s never seen or heard from again,” said Jeffery Thomas, president of SingaporeMath.com Inc., the official distributor of the math books based in Oregon City, Ore.
The American Institute for Research, one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world, says Singapore Math is better than American math because Singapore’s textbooks provide a more thorough understanding of concepts, while traditional American math books barely go beyond formulas and definitions. Before someone in Singapore can become a teacher, she must demonstrate math skills superior to her American counterparts, according to the AIR, which is based in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Singapore offers an alternative math framework for low-performing students, but at a slower pace and with greater repetition.