BoardBuzz is happy to announce that March 24, 2010 marks the 14th anniversary of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Kick Butts Day, a day for kids everywhere to stand up to the tobacco industry and let them know that their actions targeting youth are unacceptable.  The focus area this year is on smoke-free workplaces and public [...]

The Debbie Almontaser/Khalil Gibran School saga in New York took another turn this week.  The EEOC ruled that she was discriminated against.  Gotham Schools has all the primary docs and a write-up.    The school is also getting a new principal this week.

I already noted that Checker Finn’s take on Diane Ravitch’s new book would be the most important thing written about it. So everyone else is playing for second place.  Here is my view on what’s good and what’s not from TNR’s roundtable discussion with Diane and others.

Time takes a look at whether ESEA renewal could become the bipartisan issue this year.   Count me among the skeptical.  Especially after this week.

But it contains the seeds of an issue that hasn’t received much attention.  How much of the teachers’ unions anger over this proposal is about the proposal itself and how much actually stems from simmering tensions on Central Falls, health care, and card check and is really about a larger set of politics?

Also in Time,  here’s Bloomberg and Klein on the proposal.

The Obama administration recently released its first National Education Technology Plan, with the goal of raising national college completion rates from 40 to 60% in the next ten years. In a recent Education Week article, the Director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology, Karen Cator, spoke about the Plan. She stressed that it is important [...]

Thanks to NSBA’s advocacy team and state associations, an attempt to renew the pilot DC voucher program for five years and to add new students was defeated on the Senate floor yesterday.  Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) offered the amendemnt to the FAA reauthorization bill being debated. You can see a vote count here to find out what your Senators [...]

Nice tribute to Paul Hill from Dom Brewer and Robin Lake.

For how many long years has NYT’s Sam Dillon yearned to write this graf?  I have a hunch he kept it in a pretty case above his desk on a little doily:

The administration’s proposal, if enacted into law, would encourage states to raise academic standards after a period of dumbing-down, end the identification of tens of thousands of reasonably managed schools as failing, refocus energies on turning around the few thousand schools that are in the worst shape and help states develop more effective ways of evaluating the work of teachers and principals. And those are just some of its goals.

A little over the top, yes, but he’s been patient.  Still, it does raise two important issues.

First, is our goal “reasonably managed schools” or, you know, ones where students are learning?  For a long time The Times thought the former, generally viewing schools through a more general social policy or welfare state prism rather than as a distinct policy issue where outcomes matter.  Let’s hope that’s not coming back.  And, the sentiment raises the question of how much accountability remains for underserved kids in the vast swath of schools in the middle is an enormous outstanding question in this reauthorization.

Second, even the Fordham Foundation after a exhaustive search couldn’t find evidence of a dumbing down race to the bottom.  The best they could come up with was a “walk to the middle.” I’m all for college and career ready standards but it’s essential that we not lose sight of (a) how much variation there was in standards prior to No Child Left Behind and (b) to the extent there is dumbing down it’s generally the result of state-level political pressure that favors looking good over doing well.   There is no inherent pressure to do that.   The effectiveness of the new ESEA law will hinge on how the policy accounts for those issues.

Dillon’s next day story on how much the unions hate it is important reading. A lot riding on that.

Longtime readers will recall the controversy over whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York should be allowed to have a few of New York’s coveted charters to run schools.  I thought they should and still think that having teachers’ unions run charter schools is a good idea.   Skeptics pointed to the poor record of union run charters and the NEA’s disastrous foray into charter schooling.

Well, the UFT charter came up for renewal and there is something for everyone.   As close observers know the school had some struggles and still does and as a result the authorizer gave it what amounts to a conditional renewal (pdf). In other words a mixed verdict because of performance and operations issues.  Jim Merriman, who also supported the schools at the time, and in fact originally authorized it, has more in a must-read blog post.

Like the Stanford charter school this shows that running great schools in challenging environments is brutally hard work.  In both that case and with the UFT school observers assumed, wrongly it turns out, that the schools would be outstanding given all the resources at their disposal.  But what’s really discouraging is how little desire there is to learn from schools that are succeeding in these places.   In both cases there are schools that are hitting the leather off the ball nearby.  And in both cases those schools a more commonly attacked than learned from.  The UFT frequently leads the attacks these days.

And before the usual suspects scream that “skimming” is the cause for performance variations, it turns out the UFT charter enrolls fewer free-lunch students, English-language learners, and special education students than surrounding schools.   I don’t think that’s because the UFT school is skimming, either, but I assume union will now stop irresponsibly making that claim against other charter schools.

If you’re looking for a quick overview of I3, Dutko has one for you (pdf).

AFT’s American Educator looks at 21st Century Skills in a big package.  Ravitch, Munson, Senechal…Dan Willingham and I offer our take on the substantial challenges here (pdf).

There is a lot to like in the Obama Administration’s blueprint for a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The idea of college and career ready standards, a push for innovation, attention to public school choice, and some big changes around programs intended to support better teaching are all good as priorities.   And this proposal clearly tries to weave together the various policy themes the administration has championed to date through its school improvement grants, Race to the Top, and I3. That’s good, too.  But there seems to be a four-pronged problem that isn’t getting a lot of attention in the generally effusive praise.

First, the document is largely aspirational.   It’s hard to argue with the priorities but the action is in the details.   You’d think that at some point the administration would get wise to the problems of leaving the details of major policy priorities to the Congress.   Given the suburban composition of the House there is a real risk that this ends up being a piece of legislation that lets suburban districts off the hook for educating under-served kids.    Chris Edley gives voice to some of that in The Times write-up of this.  It’s fine to focus intensive intervention efforts on the most seriously dysfunctional schools but the data clearly show that serious and life-constraining achievement gaps exist in all kinds of communities.

On the other hand, assuming they have some assurances from leaders in Congress, this may be a smart strategy since if the goal is to maintain accountability there will be fewer changes than you might think.  The document implicitly recognizes the reality that much of the No Child policy was misconstrued in the public debate and/or poorly implemented by states and school districts.  For instance the blueprint makes the point that new accountability systems will reward success as well as point out failure.  Well, the old law specified that states should do exactly that for Title I schools.   Few did in a meaningful way.  Likewise, the idea of customized interventions in low-performing schools is not new, the current law specifies that.  Hence, despite the rhetoric, you can’t find examples of schools being completely restructured because one subgroup of students lags behind.  In fact, when states were even encouraged to come up with even more customized approaches as part of a pilot program that Secretary Spellings offered they came up pretty lame.

But this raises the second problem:  The plan relies on state capacity and will and arguably over-relies on it.   The track record there is not good and that may prove to be an enormous implementation hurdle for this plan.  Ambitions for the states outstrip what they can do right now or what they want to do.  In fact, a close reading of the Race to the Top applications shows that while you’ve got a few outliers on the high side (less than 16, one can only assume that cut off for finalists was a substantial natural break in the scores) most states were pretty unimpressive even when presented with that opportunity.  And the kind of accountability systems the administration envisions are a long way from reality right now in most states, how will that problem be bridged without creating a (much wanted by many interest groups) hiatus from today’s pressure for school improvement.  Finally, absent federal pressure, what evidence is there that all (or even most) states will remain ambitious on accountability, especially for under-served populations?

Third, on the politics, how is this not 2007 all over again?  The teachers unions hate it, the Republicans on the Hill seem to be lying in wait, and so you again have an enthusiastic secretary and a seasoned reform leader in George Miller trying to draw to an inside straight.  So that’s your third problem here, what’s the political strategy?  The glimmer of hope seems to be some desire for bipartisanship after health care.  But now it seems that almost however things go this week the environment will poisonous on the other side.  And given the context of this election year, what is the incentive for Republicans to hand Democrats a win on a top priority?

Finally, also on the politics, so far the political detractors of common standards are having trouble getting traction because it’s hard to paint an initiative with a lot of Republican governors on board as a big federal power grab.   But common standards are a linchpin on this proposal (assuming it is supposed to happen with any rigor) so does that threaten to drag that effort into the partisan back and forth?  It’s not as though the perception of Washington overreach isn’t a potent political issue right now…

The first public draft of core standards for K-12 education was released this week by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards, both welcomed and panned by critics, are intended to provide a consistent framework to prepare students for college and the workforce. NSBA [...]

Smarick with a smart post on Central Falls.  More context.  Other links on this below.

Here’s an important entrant in the ESEA sweepstakes that lays out some issues that could prove lively as ESEA reuthorization is debated.

The cat’s climbing out of the bag.   National Journal recently wrote about Bellwether Education Partners(pdf).   Ed Week’s McNeill, the Fordham Flypaper blog and a few others did as well and New Schools has a press release with some information.     More to come this spring.

Basically, Bellwether will be a hybrid organization that is part think tank, part organization builder, and part professional services firm.  It’s non-profit and funded by a blend of grants and specialized and actionable services the organization will provide.   While the organization is ecumenical about who it works with — public and private sector, philanthropy, NGOs, socially entrepreneurial ventures, and individuals — Bellwether only works with entities with a clear and demonstrated commitment to dramatically improving educational outcomes for low-income youngsters.   

Bellwether’s work is organized around four core areas:  Executive search and placement, strategic advising and consulting, leadership and organizational development, and thought leadership and knowledge generation.  Monisha Lozier, Mary Wells, Kim Smith, and I will lead those four areas, respectively, but we’re in the process of  adding and figuring out relationships with some terrific people in different roles.  Sara Mead is on-board as well, adding some great capacity on a few issues.

For my part, I’m also going to do a few other things including publishing, along with John Bailey, a subscription-based forecasting and analytic newsletter about trends and likely outcomes in education policymaking.   That will be published by WhiteBoard Advisors, a non-lobbying affiliate of Dutko Worldwide. 

And I’ll continue to pen this blog.  Starting next week Eduwonk will look a little different, physically, but will otherwise be the same.  Depending on who you are I guess that’s good or bad news.

Stay tuned for some news about what’s next at ES, some good stuff.   The ES experience has been a great 5+ years for me and I’m excited about what’s next for the organization and about what’s next for me.

Half of all kids in the United States will be on food stamps at one time or another in their young lives: Half of American kids will live in households receiving food stamps before age 20, according to a study reported Monday in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.Although one in five children rely on food stamps for years, many more live in families who turn to food stamps during a

Higher expectations for student achievement are a must — but today’s education news is rife with contradictions about setting and reaching them.  

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have just offered their draft of much-needed college and career readiness curriculum standards for students, reflecting the demands of the 21st century world in which students will live as adults. Thus far, however, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is paying too little attention to the context in which these standards will be firmed up. And while the group led by NGA and CCSSO acknowledges the need for new investments in higher quality performance assessments and the spread of teacher expertise, we do not hear how sorely these investments are needed.

Next we look to the latest MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, which reveals that fewer teachers in schools with high proportions of low-income students strongly agree that their schools uphold high standards for all students. Teachers in these schools are also less likely to be confident that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to help their students succeed academically. That shouldn’t surprise us: More and more of the teachers who enter high-needs schools have less and less high-quality teacher preparation. Too many are flying solo in classrooms with only a few weeks of training — mostly tips on how to manage classrooms — when they need serious preparation to help our most challenged students master the 21st century skills called for by the Common Core student standards.

And then there's the recession. As the need to make deeper investments in students and teachers becomes ever clearer, we are now learning the extent to which the current economic crisis is forcing districts to lay off teachers and cut back on the number of days students attend school. Yesterday, the Kansas City Board of Education voted to close almost half of its schools and cut 700 of 3,000 jobs directly related to student achievement, including almost 300 classroom teachers. When a school district like Kansas City with many high-need students has to cut $50 million from its budget, one wonders how our nation will muster the extra resources to help millions of American children on the wrong side of the achievement gap reach new global standards of achievement.

And then there’s the media hysteria.

Newsweek blares a cover page story claiming that the key to saving America’s “failing public schools” is to fire all of the bad teachers protected by their unions. Yes, there are unfit teachers and we shouldn’t let them teach anybody’s children. But few experts would suggest that the number is very high — and certainly not so high that by removing them we will instantly solve the complex problems that plague high-needs schools and communities. Newsweek’s editors never once reflect on root causes — like the large numbers of ill-prepared teachers who enter and exit teaching quickly, or the many high-needs schools led by a revolving door of ill-trained principals who botch teacher evaluation and undermine the potential for effective teachers to work together to solve the problems in their own schools. Most blatantly, the article fails to consider just how our present mechanisms for teacher recruitment and preparation will replace teachers lost in wholesale firing frenzies. With laid-off journalists, perhaps?

If we expect all students to jump the bar of higher expectations now being raised by the Common Core Initiative, we will first have to own up to the contradictions that are impeding progress in our most challenged schools. Serious investments. Teacher preparation and support. Better leadership development. These are the things that will strengthen our schools. Not a teacher witch hunt.

Evan Thomas and Elizabeth Green debate teaching in Newsweek. 

Worth reading.  But per the post below, Elizabeth casually compares two studies of Teach For America teachers.   Not to pick on her, but this is a classic example of the problem our field faces.  Those two studies she cites are not the same in terms of their methodological quality.   Until our field learns how to actually consume research rather than just piling up “studies” to see which stack is higher we are going to chase our tails. 

In the case of TFA, the evidence base is quite clear based on multiple high-quality studies done independently of the organization:  Teach For America teachers perform as well or better than other teachers, including veterans etc…

But, and you’d think this is what the critics would seize on because it has implications for the debate Evan and Elizabeth are having, the variance among TFA teachers is as great as among other teachers and, overall, while substantively significant (hence the popularity of the program among school districts) the effect sizes are not enormous.    But to make that point you still have to acknowledge that the organization is doing a lot of good and has other important externalities as well.  Yet right now the critics are more interested in castigating TFA than figuring out how to learn from what they’re doing, hence the confusion that surrounds the various “studies.

Big front page story in the WaPo today about a debate over getting rid of congressional “earmarks” for for-profit entities.   But is the problem that for-profits can get earmarks or that the earmark process is just not very meritorious in its selection regardless of the tax status of the recipient?  Plenty of for-profits will continue to get federal money through a variety of avenues.  Meanwhile, not every non-profit is a model of efficiency, virtue, or effectiveness.

In K-12, and education more generally, we have a similar problem when it comes to thinking about quality.    In the absence of serious signals or cues for quality we, too, rely on secondary cues like tax status.   Consider school management organizations.  In much of our field  for profit is synonymous with bad, non-profit and school district is synonymous with good.   Yet in practice there is wide variance in quality within all three sectors and the highest performing ventures across all three sectors have much more in common with each other than they do with their low-performing peers.  In other words, tax status doesn’t necessarily tell us much.   And to the extent this is ideological, anyone arguing that for-profit ventures shouldn’t be involved in education has no idea how school districts operate or procure a variety of goods and services.

Or consider research.  We constantly have debates about whether research from academic institutions or from certain kinds of organizations is inherently more reliable.  It’s a stupid debate.  In fact there is wide variance in the quality of research across all sectors and consumers have to be able to make discerning choices and put information in context.  For instance while the NEA or AFT,  rightly in my view, come in for criticism because of some of their policy positions it would be a mistake to dismiss their research efforts out of hand because they collect some important data.  Conversely, not every federal study offers strong explanatory leverage on the questions it is examining.  And Lord knows university research and think tank research are mixed bags and just because something comes from a university hardly makes it bulletproof.  Again, the superficial cues are pretty useless.

Here, in my view, is where the common standards push offers the most promise.   It won’t actually solve most of the problems many of its adherents claim it will.  But it could do one very powerful thing:  Help rationalize the field by creating a common framework for evidence of effectiveness that transcends geography.  The implications of that — in a $600+ billion industry where right now any claim goes and there are hardly any cues for quality  — are powerful.