Monday
December 29, 2008
by desertjim
After years of being ignored by the Bush administration, advocates of early childhood education are anticipating a change for the better from the incoming Obama administration. President-elect Obama has pledged $10 billion for early childhood education. That money would be the largest federal initiative for educating young children since Head Start begain in 1965. When asked whether the current recession would force a scaling back in the pledge, transition spokeswoman Jen Pdaki said, “We simply cannot afford to sideline key priorities like education.”
Given that research shows the value of early childhood education, it is good to see that the new administration will be directing resources where they can do the most good. Noble Prize winning economist James J. Heckman has reported that, “Enriched pre-kindergarten programs available to disadvantaged children on a voluntary basis, coupled with home visitation programs, have a strong record of pormoting achievement for disadvantaged children, improving their labor market outcomes and reducing involvement in crime. Such programs are likely to generate substantial savings to society and to promote higher economic growth...” His research also indicated that ability gaps between disadvantaged and other children open up early, before schooling typically begins at age five.
Recently, eight national institutions, including National-Louis University, the National Head Start Association and the Aspire Institute issued a call for the reinvention of higher education programs for early childhood teachers and other professionals working with children from birth to age five. In their announcement, they point out that research has continually shown that, in order for children to have exceptional, high quality early care and education, they must have teachers and staff with specialized knowledge and skill. It would make sense for some of the billions of dollars pledged for early childhood education to go to the institutions that will train the needed early childhood educators.
President-elect Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been a strong advocate for early childhood education. That speaks well for growth in Head Start and related programs.
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Friday
December 26, 2008
by desertjim
President-elect Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package includes money for school construction and to expand broadband access for schools. The president-elect himself has said, “It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption...here in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have a chance to get online.” He has pledged a sweeping effort to modernize school buildings and equip classrooms with computers as part of the economic stimulus plan. So, it can reasonably be expected that the $500 billion economic recovery bill will include billions in grants for school modernization, computer linkups and renovation.
However, some school officials are lobbying lawmakers to include more money for education in the package . They hope that the stimulus bill will include money for special education, teacher training and grants for other educational needs. Edward R. Kealy, executive director of the lobbying group Committee for Education Funding says that over the long term, education is one of the best places for federal dollars because, “It actually has the strongest possibility of being able to pay back.” Since the main intent of the stimulus package is to create 3 million new jobs, it is not clear that such attempts to direct money to existing programs will be successful.
There are lots of questions to be answered at this point. How will individual public schools obtain their share of the stimulus money? How will the money be allocated, who will be eligible and will there be competition for grants? Details will become clearer when Congress returns to work after the holiday break. It behooves the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers to keep an eye on the process and offer teacher input to the writing of the final bill.
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Wednesday
December 24, 2008
by desertjim
Almost 30,000 United States public schools failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) this year. This was a 28 percent yearly increase of schools failing to meet the testing standards under the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB). Critics say that an increasing number of schools to be labelled as failing is inevitable. Those critics say the law has set unrealistic requirements, including the demand that all students be proficient in math and reading by the 2013-14 school year.
As far back as 2003, the National Education Association was pointing out that AYP rules caused many good schools to be listed as failures. In that year, for example, Ridgewood High School in New Jersey was placed on the early warning list because 3 students (who had left the school) did not take the required test. Despite the fact that Ridgewood High boasted an average SAT score of 1174 (the national average in 2003 was 1026) they were placed on the early-warning list. In Florida, Gulfport Elementary received a $40,000 bonus check from Governor Jeb Bush because of its academic excellence. However, that same year, NCLB test reported that the school had failed to meet AYP requirements.
The American Federation of Teachers points out that AYP does not in fact measure the yearly progress of the same students over time. Not surprisingly, the evidence shows that whether or not a school makes AYP does not necessaily depend on its effectiveness or the presence or absence or size of achievement gaps. The union predicts that almost all schools will have failed AYP by 2014 and points out that no other nation has been, or is close to, meeting the kind of standard that has been set by NCLB.
The superintendent of the Mat-Su school district in Arkansas recently felt compelled to write a letter to the parents explaining that the schools in his district that failed to meet AYP were not bad schools. He points out in the letter that many of his “failing” schools met 30 of the 31 target measurements this year but were still downgraded under NCLB rules.
NCLB has set standards and developed rules that will make it almost impossible for public schools to meet AYP requirements in future years. Whether this was the intended result of NCLB or not, major changes must be made as soon as possible. Arne Duncan, as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, has been no fan of NCLB’s requirements . Perhaps his tenure as Secretary of Education will include the revision or removal of NCLB high-stakes testing as the be-all and end-all of educational measurement.
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Wednesday
December 17, 2008
by desertjim
Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit heard arguments challenging the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as an unfunded mandate. Robert H. Chanin, general counsel for the National Education Association told judges, “States and school districts are prisoners of this law. There are obligations that are placed on them by [NCLB], but the money is not enough to implement those requirements.” The suit, Pontiac School District vs Spelling has been wending its way through the courts since April of 2005.
When President Bush vetoed the 2008 education appropriations bill it resulted in a $14.8 billion annual gap in funding for NCLB programs. That is on top of a previously underfunded gap of $56.1 billion. Section 9527(a) of NCLB states that, “Nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal government to mandate, direct, or control a state, local education agency....or any political subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act.” Despite the wording of the bill, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings argued, “NCLB is not an unfunded mandate. It is a voluntary compact between the States and the Federal government, which asks that in exchange for Federal tax dollars, results be demonstrated.”
The suit was originally dismissed in the US District Court for the Eastern Court of Michigan but the dismissal was reversed by a three judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The school district’s case has precedent behind it.In 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled in Arlington Central School District vs Murphy that in spending-clause legislation, Congress must clearly express its intent to impose conditions on the grant of federal aid.
I was not able to find a timetable for the release of the circuit court’s decision on the case. It certainly puts an interesting twist on the reconsideration of NCLB that will take place under the incoming administration. A court judgement in favor of the school district might well place the current stress on high stakes testing in question.
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Tuesday
December 16, 2008
by desertjim
The decision has been made. The next Secretary of Education will be Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. After seven years at the helm of the third largest school district in the nation, Duncan will follow his basketball buddy to Washington DC.
In tapping Duncan, the President-elect said, “When it comes to school reform, Arne is the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners. When faced with tough decisions, Arne doesn’t blink.” President-elect Obama went on to say, “[Duncan] is not beholden to any one ideology, and he’s worked tirelessly to improve teacher quality. In just seven years he boosted elementary test scores here in Chicago from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent. The dropout rate has gone down every year he’s been in charge.”
Mayor Daley selected Duncan to head the Chicago Schools in 2001. Prior to assuming the CEO position, Duncan was deputy chief of staff to former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas. Since his appointment, he has gained a reputation as a reformer willing to take on the teachers’ union and punish underperforming schools. His recent decisions to support a pilot program offering pay for good grades, consider public boarding schools, and create a gay-friendly high school have bolstered his image as being open to new ideas. (3)
Duncan’s selection as Secretary of Education leaves Chicago with the problem of finding someone as dedicated as Duncan is to the idea that education is a civil rights issue. I would be interested in hearing opinions about this appointment from members of TEN who are Chicago teachers. I am also curious as to who teachers would recommend as the new head of the Chicago public schools.
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Wednesday
December 10, 2008
by desertjim
Yesterday saw the release of the most recent results of the quadrennial Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The report is based on science and mathematics tests given to representative samples of students at the 4th and 8th grade levels. Fourth Graders from 36 countires and eighth graders in 48 different nations were tested.
The test results produced a mixed bag of commentary. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is discouraged. The NSTA website says, “Science scores for both fourth and eighth grade students have remained flat since 1995 and scores for minority students are dismal.” The NSTA blames the poor results primarily on the fact that science education has been eliminated from many K-6 classrooms. Education Week tends to agree with the negative assessment, using the headline, “Asians Best US Students in Math and Science.” The article goes on to point out measurable improvement in the math scores of US Fourth graders but noted that nothing has changed in the US position relative to other nations.
MSNBC finds more positive news saying that, “In math and science, American kids are doing better than people think...but some Asian countries have an edge in math that just keeps growing. US students have made significant gains in math since 1995 and score above average on international fourth and eighth grade tests.” The New York Times also picks out the higher math scores for their headline and quotes the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statisics who said, “We were pleased to see improvements in math, and wished we’d seen more in science.”
Overall, scores in the US were above the international average in each subject and grade. However, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong dominated the fourth grade tests. Several developing eastern European countries (such as Hungary, Latvia,and the Czech Republic) outscored the US on some of the tests. In one interesting part of the study, Massachusetts and Minnesota were graded as though they were separate countries. Both states did better than all but the top performing Asian countries. The overall TIMSS findings match the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that recently found some progress in math and less progress in science.
So, what should we draw from this latest test? Has the emphasis on reading under No Child Left Behind distracted schools from providing a more rounded education for our children? Should we be spending more time on science education?
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Saturday
December 06, 2008
by desertjim
I have been fascinated by the attacks directed at the auto industry over their request for government backed loans. Bankers and mortgage houses, with little Congressional debate, were awarded up to $700 billion to repair the credit industry they had destroyed. The auto industry has been lambasted in Congress and in the press since they asked for loans amounting to $25 billion. The difference seems to be that the auto industry is unionized. According to their critics, the awful union workers with their demands for health insurance, pension plans and decent wages (averaging around $28/hour - not the $70 touted by the news media) will soon drive Ford, Chrysler and GM to the brink of bankruptcy. In fact, base pay for a UAW worker is $24/hour and base pay at nonunion US Nissan is $21/hour. If the Big Three auto makers go under, the union isn’t likely to be the cause.
I bring this up on an educational website, because the attacks on the auto industry are part of a recent ratcheting up of anti-union rhetoric across the board. The rhetoric includes several recent attacks agains teachers unions. Columnist David Brooks, in a discussion about President-elect Obama’s choice of a secretary of education says he needs to pick a reformer not someone who will support, “...the teacher’s unions and the members of the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller class sizes and superficial reforms.” According to Brooks, union lobbying efforts against a real reformer are relentless.
A recent editorial in the Washington Post called for the selection of an education secretary who would encourage the kind of innovation and entrepreneurship typified by Teach for America’s Wendy Kopp. The Post is against someone who is, “[one of the] ‘incrementalists’ who are allied with teachers unions.” Interestingly enough, the Post puts reformer Linda-Darling Hammond in that group of incrementalists because she, like the teachers unions, has been more critical than supportive of No Child Left Behind.
I am not convinced that the unions are the bogeyman, either in the auto industry, or in public education. Of course, I am biased. I was an active teachers’ union member my whole career. As a result, I find myself in agreement with the organization of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG) that says, “Over the last 20 years in the US, education is becoming the business of education and we emphatically reject that model. We call upon the President-elect to choose someone who will embrace the ideas of civic involvement and public participation.” TAG specifically does not want a corporate executive with a vision of privatized, corporatized, and anti-democratic schools. Neither do I.
I think it would be useful to have discussions about ways to fix public education and help ailing auto companies that aren’t based entirely on the concept that unions are bad for America.
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Wednesday
December 03, 2008
by desertjim
The transition website of President elect Obama includes a page titled “America Serves”. The site says that the Obama-Biden administration intends to set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year.
Of course, community service for high school students is hardly a new idea. Many high schools started adding community service to their curriculums 15 years ago. Now, schools all across the nation require some number of service hours as a graduation requirement. Pacific Collegiate school in Santa Cruz, CA, requires 20 hours of community service a year for high school students and 10 hours a year at junior high. South Houston high school requires 25 hours a year (100 hours completed by graduation). The largest requirement I found was at Robert F. Kennedy high school in Queens, NY. Students (sophomore-senior) must accomplish 200 hours of community service before being allowed to graduate.
The push for more community service from high school students is coming even as cynics are calling existing programs a form of forced altruism. Not only are some college admissions officers rolling their eyes at bogus sounding claims of service, but high schools are scaling back the requirements, acknowledging that a lot of the so-called service is meaningless. Lauren Swierczal, who took over last year as director of community service at a private school in the Bronx said, “I was finding [a] fixation more on hours than acts of service.”
Not everyone is put off by the community service requirement. Angelica Body-Lawson, a junior at private Horace Mann in New York said her younger sister, a middle school student with no hourly requirements, recently volunteered for a project that made crafts for the children of battered women, and the work went late into the night. Amasheka Collins, a junior at Harlem’s Frederic Douglass Academy worked with Columbia University students on a self-sustaining greenhouse project. She enjoyed the challenge and working with the Columbia students as much as the act of construction. Frederick Douglass students are now coaching elementary students in the neighborhood in their own robotics league. (6)
What is a reasonable expectation for community service from high school students? Should the service be part of graduation requirements? Do such programs contribute to a citizenry that grows up to see value in voluntary contributions to the larger community?
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