January 2012 Archives

Richard Laine, who most recently served as director of education at the Wallace Foundation, is moving into a top position on school issues at the National Governors Association.

The NGA has played an active and influential role for years in shaping state education policy, most recently in pushing for the adoption of common academic standards.

Laine will serve as director of the education division in NGA's Center for Best Practices. The post was most recently held by Dane Linn, who announced late last year that he was taking a position at the College Board.

Before working at the Wallace Foundation, Laine had stints as director of state policy and initiatives at the Illinois Business Roundtable; associate superintendent for policy, planning and resource management at the Illinois Board of Education; and the executive director at the Coalition for Educational Rights. (He also served on Ed Week's Quality Counts technical advisory committee back in 2008.)

He will begin work with NGA on March 12.

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The percentage of charter schools that are being closed when they are up for renewal has fallen for two straight years, a new report finds, though it's unclear whether the decline is a result of improved quality, or lax oversight and persistent political pressure to keep low-performers open.

In the 2010-11 year, 6.2 percent of charters reviewed for renewal were shut down, a decrease from 8.8 percent the previous year and 12.6 percent the year before that, according to a report released today by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

NACSA officials acknowledge that they don't have clear explanations for why closure rates fell.

One possibility is that the quality of charters has risen, though the organization did not seem inclined to accept that explanation at face value.

"[O]ur experience suggests that authorizing agencies should be closing more, rather than fewer, poor-performing schools," said Greg Richmond, president and CEO of NACSA, in a statement. "Across the country, we need strong policies and practices to make sure authorizers are making the right decisions to keep good schools open and to close weaker schools."

The report also notes that closure rates can be affected by the length of terms established for charters by authorizers. Charters with longer terms may have less chance of closing simply because they aren't reviewed as intensely as often. (Another recent report on charter schools examined the reasons behind the closures and pointed to financial problems as a major contributor.)

It's possible that the declining rates of charter closures are a result of the improved quality, but "there really isn't evidence that's the case," said Alex Medler, the vice president of research and evaluation for the organization, in an interview.

Another possibility is that charter authorizers are trying to shut down low-performers, but are meeting resistance, or at least the process is taking longer, because of "political pushback," he said.

NACSA's report points out that the policies for authorizing charter schools—and closing weak ones—varies greatly across states.

For instance, the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board oversees 98 campuses and has been fairly aggressive in shutting down those that don't meet its standards—14 over the past three years, the authors of the report say. The Denver public school system has also been a leader in creating clear performance standards for charters and closing those that don't stack up, NACSA officials contend.

By contrast, the Utah State Charter School Board closed only one school between the 2008-09 and 2010-11 school years—a little over 1 percent of its portfolio of 75 charter schools, according to NACSA.

NACSA says current state policy in Utah allows charters to automatically renew, which prevents the state school board from "conducting high-stakes, periodic reviews that are common elsewhere," the authors found.

There is no right or wrong number of closures, Medler said, but charter authorizers—whether those duties are handled by state, local, or other entities—need to set clear standards for charters and hold operators to them. NACSA has set out 12 "essential practices" for authorizers, in areas such as establishing renewal and revocation criteria, creating specific terms for charters, and requiring external financial audits of them. Yet authorizers' performance in meeting those standards varies greatly, the report found. (See the table in this post.)

"We want authorizers to be able to articulate what's expected, and measure whether or not it's being achieved," said Medler, adding that the goal is to "put tools in place to make an informed decision about when to make a school closure."

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North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, who faced tough odds for re-election, announced she won't seek a second term and said she hopes the decision will clear partisan barriers that would otherwise imperil her education agenda.

The Democrat's decision was considered a surprise, despite polls showing her facing an uphill battle in her re-election bid against likely Republican opponents, such as former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

"We live in highly partisan times, where some people seem more worried about scoring political points than working together to address the real challenges our state faces," Perdue said in a statement.

"And it is clear to me that my race for re-election will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools. A re-election campaign in this already divisive environment will make it more difficult to find any bipartisan solutions."

The governor has battled during her first term with Republicans, who control the state's legislature, over school spending, one of many similar fights that have played out in statehouses across the country in recent years.

Her statement pointed to "shortsighted legislative actions and severe budget cuts inflicted by a legislative majority with the wrong priorities." She said she hoped her decision would defuse hyper-partisan divides and "open the door to an honest and bipartisan effort to help our schools."

President Obama, who won North Carolina in his 2008 election, issued a statement crediting Perdue for her work on education issues, saying she helped "transform the state's public schools, improve the health care system, protect and attract jobs for members of the military and their families, and create the jobs of the future."

The North Carolina Republican party viewed Perdue's tenure differently, saying the governor's agenda was unpopular among the public, and unwise.

"Governor Perdue's decision today is not shocking," state GOP chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement. "Perdue's economic agenda was defined by her desire to raise taxes on all North Carolinians."

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Jeb Bush believes Republicans need to do a lot more if they're going to win over Hispanic voters in 2012 and beyond. Focusing on education issues, he says, is one way for them to do it.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, the former Florida governor says that Latino voters—a crucial constituency, in his and many others' view—have "drifted away" from his party.

But Bush, who many Republican state officials credit with having shaped their thinking on school issues, says his party can bring them back, by focusing on making substantive changes to education. Those do not include getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education, he notes:

[W]e should press for an overhaul of our education system. Republicans have the field to themselves on this issue. Teachers unions and education bureaucrats have blocked Democrats from serious reform—it will happen only with Republican political leadership. But we have to move beyond simplistic plans to "get rid of the Department of Education" and focus on substantive, broad-based reform that includes school choice, robust accountability for underperforming schools and the elimination of social promotion, in which kids are passed along without mastering grade-level skills. Such improvements, it was noted in 2009, plus efforts to embrace digital learning, helped Hispanic students in Florida lead the nation among their peers. And Hispanic voters, who often feel their children are trapped in failing schools, notice.

As governor of Florida, Bush was a major backer of private-school vouchers, and since leaving office he's tried to rally state officials behind the idea of increasing students' access to online education.

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Earlier this month, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal unveiled a broad series of education proposals, which included an expansion of private school vouchers in his state and overhauling how teachers are evaluated and compensated.

"This is a bold plan and a signal to teachers—at all career stages—that help is on the way," the Republican said.

Leaders of the state's teachers' unions, however, don't see it that way.

Union officials heavily criticized the governor's proposals, and in particular the language he used to sell them, which they found demeaning to teachers. In his speech announcing his plan, the governor drew an unfavorable comparison between public education and the way businesses are run, saying that K-12 systems' use of tenure and seniority-based protections drive effective teachers out of profession. (See my previous post on the governor's arguments.)

Jindal said teachers "are given lifetime job protection. Short of selling drugs in the workplace or beating up one of the business' clients, they can never be fired." Calling for changes to the system, he said his message to young teachers is that if changes are not made, "you will never get recognized for your talent, you will never be paid what you are worth, and you will have to pick up the slack for your underperforming colleagues," according to a transcript of the Jan. 17 speech. He said that if "any actual business was set up like this, they would go under in a matter of months."

At one point he called for changing tenure practices so that they recognize high-performers, rather serving as indicators that teachers "have merely survived for three years." He said teachers need to be paid based on performance "instead of for the length of time they have been breathing."

The Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers weren't too keen on the governor's presentation.

The LFT's president, Steve Monaghan, said Jindal was wrong on the facts and said his descriptions of educators was "unjust and insulting,"

"It would indeed be unfortunate if the tone set in his speech is an indicator of the attitude he and his allies will assume in the upcoming legislative session." Monaghan said in a statement. He asked that state officials stage a "civil conversation with educators."

But this week, the governor said the unions were out of touch with the concerns of parents in the state. He pointed to a comment made by a Louisiana union official who questioned whether parents would be given adequate information to make informed decisions about participating in a state voucher program.

"To me that is incredibly offensive and exactly what is wrong with the top-down approach," Jindal said earlier this week, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

This feud partly reflects the divisiveness surrounding voucher proposals in the states—which have been determinedly opposed by unions. But it's also another reminder of how hard elected officials and unions are fighting to frame their arguments about how teachers should be paid, evaluated, and rewarded as professionals with language that they believe will appeal to the public—and how loaded a lot of that language is.

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California voters strongly support Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to raise taxes to stave off school cuts. But that doesn't mean they're confident the state is spending their money wisely.

Those were some of the findings of a new poll of California voters, as the Democratic governor touts his plan to allow state residents to vote in November on temporary tax hikes on sales and on wealthy individuals.

First, the good news for Brown: 68 percent of likely voters are in favor of his plan, according to a statewide survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, released today.

But when they were presented with a detailed summary of Brown's budget proposal of his idea of tax-hikes-for-schools, likely voters were more divided, with 48 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed.

Asked how they preferred to deal with the the state's budget gap—estimated at about $9 billion—40 percent of likely voters indicated they favor a mix of tax increases and cuts (Brown's preferred approach). Forty-one percent say they favor mostly spending cuts, while 13 percent want mostly tax increases to deal with the problem.

At the same time, Californians also said the state could do more with what it has: 55 percent of likely voters said the state could cut spending and still provide the same level of services.

Yet there's also an inclination to protect schools. Sixty-two percent of likely voters said they were willing to pay higher taxes to maintain K-12 services, while 46 percent said the same thing about higher education and 12 percent about prison/correction services.

If voters shoot down those tax hikes, Brown has warned that the state will have no choice but to pare an additional $5 billion from the budget, with a lot of it coming from education. Those cuts would come as many school districts say they're already struggling because of lack of state aid.

Around the country, debates over taxes and budget cuts are likely to emerge in force heading into this fall's elections.

Many states have made deep and unpopular cuts to state government, including schools, which elected officials—in many cases Republicans—have argued are necessary and justified. Democrats, unions, and local school district officials argue those cuts have gone too far. Statewide votes to raise taxes, particularly in a tough economy, can be a tough sell, as evidenced by recent events in Colorado.

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What policies have the biggest potential to drive changes in education in the states in 2012?

The Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan research organization, is out with its predictions. It sees state officials focusing on prekindergarten-through-3rd grade instruction, strategies to figure out ways to make the best use of limited funding, and "blended learning"—or combining online and face-to-face instruction—among other topics.

ECS' forecast, "12 for 2012," is not meant as an exhaustive list of hot topics, the organization explains. It's instead meant to "stimulate thinking around how best to craft the '2.0' of powerful policy across the states," based on the organization's read on current trends and research, the authors of the report say.

Other emerging issues to watch over the next year include:

-- Implementing the "Common Core" academic standards;
-- Improving teacher quality—such as figuring out how newly promised models for evaluating educators will actually work;
-- Promoting improved approaches to education in rural and impoverished communities;
-- Focusing on "individualized" instruction to meet the needs of diverse students. Few state models exist that show what accomplishing this is supposed to look like, ECS says; and
-- Improving the use of data, particularly to identify struggling learners early, and reducing costs.

Every year state legislators take education policy in new and unexpected directions. (See Ed Week's legislative preview from earlier this month, for our take on what's to come in statehouses in the short-term.) What emerging issues do you see rising to the surface?

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Florida school districts are the subject of a new state grading system—though not everyone is convinced the rankings are a good idea.

The grades, unveiled today, are based on a formula rooted in districts' various scores on Florida's statewide test, the FCAT.

The state's education commissioner, Gerard Robinson, said Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, created the system so that it would be easier for parents, students, and taxpayers to compare performances across districts.

One of the main goals "is to start a conversation about how we can encourage districts to move in different directions," Robinson said in a video message explaining the grades, and to help the public understand how they can "support our public school system, and to support reform and innovation."

Robinson, perhaps acknowledging criticism of the grading metrics, said he was aware the system does not account for the very different socioeconomic challenges facing Florida's districts, which could affect their scores. But he said the grades would nonetheless provide a valuable tool in helping the public track districts' improvement, or lack or it, over time.

The St. John's County school district, based in St. Augustine, had the highest point total and garnered an A, followed by Santa Rosa, Martin, and Sarasota systems, which all pulled the same grade.

The Madison County schools got the only D in 2011, and the Jefferson, Hamilton, and DeSoto county schools were the next-lowest, in ascending order, receiving Cs. On the whole, the system did not produce particularly tough grades: 53 of Florida's 67 districts received an A or a B.

Florida was a pioneer in establishing individual grades for schools based on academic performance—a controversial step taken under former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, which has since served as a model for some other states.

The Florida Education Association, a union and a frequent critic of the state's use of testing, took a dim view of the new district grades. Spokesman Mark Pudlow said in an e-mail that they reflected "how the testing culture has perverted the idea of education in Florida. Standardized testing should be used for diagnostic purposes, to help students and teachers, but it has turned into a blunt instrument that is used to reward and punish teachers and schools and districts."

[UPDATED (4:54): One local superintendent of a district that received a C grade noted that it was based on "one measure" and did not mesh with other signs of high performance in her school system.

"[W] are trending upward and seeing growth in student performance," said Sherrie Nickell, superintendent of the Polk County schools, in a statement. "The takeaway message from this ranking is that we live in a competitive, market-driven society. Regardless of all of the differences among the districts, Polk is held to the same standard as other districts in the state....The path to take us where we want to be will require tremendous support from all, but our students deserve nothing less than our best."]

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States across the country are debating or making sweeping changes in education policy, and it seems that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants to get into the act.

The Republican is calling for a major expansion of private-school vouchers and other derivations of school choice, while also asking lawmakers to curb a number of teacher job protections rooted in seniority—a step taken by several states recently.

"Today, we say to parents, 'tough luck,' if you happen to live where there aren't a lot of options," Jindal said in a speech this week, announcing his proposals. "We say 'tough luck,' if you can't afford to pay to send your student to a private school. The current system is unacceptable and unfair."

Jindal said he wants to create a statewide voucher program that allows students attending a school that receives a "C" mark or lower on the state's grading system to receive public money to attend a private school.

He also called for expanding students' virtual education options, and allowing high school students who graduate early to use one-half of the dollars that would have been spent on them to attend college. That idea would seem to bear simliarities to a program signed into law in Indiana last year.

Jindal also said he wants to "ban the practice of using seniority to make personnel decisions of any kind" in teaching. He would do away with "last-in, first-out" policies, which require the most-recently hired educators to be the first ones to lose their jobs during layoffs, and make it easier for school districts to make salary adjustments for teachers based on merit.

Speaking to a gathering of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the governor argued that there is broad frustration among teachers at having to work alongside ineffective colleagues. He drew a comparison to private sector employment and suggested that school practices would not be tolerated in the private sector. He spoke of the shortcomings in how teachers are evaluated and rewarded by describing a "hypothetical company" and its employees.

"They are expected to keep working hard even if they have colleagues who are not working hard next door," Jindal said. "They are expected to make up the work that is not being done by their colleagues by working even harder."

The governor went on to criticize a system that he said rewards teachers for length of service, not performance, and makes it difficult to remove low-performers.

"Our system today often crushes talented teachers and makes their jobs harder, not easier," Jindal added, according to a transcript of his speech. "If any actual business was set up like this, they would go under in a matter of months. That's what's about to happen to our education system. This is one of the most critical professions we have in Louisiana, and yet we are strangling it by chasing the talent away."

Jindal seems to be suggesting teachers leave the profession because of ineffective colleagues down the hall. Is he right?

Research has suggested the ability to recruit and retain teachers hinges largely on working conditions—but those conditions seem more tied to administrative support—as my colleague Debbie Viadero reported in a story a few years ago. Conditions that teachers say undermine them tend to include problems with administrators, heavy courseloads, student-discipline issues, and lack of resources (lack of pay is not typically a top concern).

On the other hand, the story notes that having collegial, motivated colleagues is often cited as a positive among educators, as is not having to work in isolation.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is attempting to kick-start his state's adoption of a new teacher-evaluation system—a move that potentially has big implications for his state's $700 million Race to the Top award.

Cuomo has seen New York's efforts to craft an evaluation system that ties teacher evaluation partly to student test scores subsumed by legal and political battles with unions. So when the governor unveiled his $132.5 billion state budget this week, he said he would link an increase in state aid to schools to districts' compliance with a new, statewide teacher-evaluation system.

To recap the situation: In 2010, New York lawmakers approved a new evaluation system that said that a portion of teachers' evaluation should be tied to student test scores. The state's Board of Regents adopted regulations last year to put the law in place. But the New York State United Teachers union sued to block those regulations, saying they went beyond what was intended in the law. A judge, in large part, agreed with the union's complaint, and the state is appealing.

But the teacher-evaluation law was considered a major piece of New York's winning $700 million plan in the federal Race to the Top competition. State officials have warned that if the issue isn't resolved, it could put the state's award in jeaporady—a concern echoed by Cuomo this week.

As part of his budget plan, Cuomo said that school districts will not be eligible for a boost in funding he's offering unless they have implemented the new teacher-evaluation process by Jan. 17, 2013. (See page 27 of the budget document.)

In order for that to happen, the state and the NYSUT would presumably need to reach an agreement. The governor said he would give the them 30 days to do so, or he will ask the legislature to approve a brand new teacher-evaluation law.

"I believe if we implement this system, the federal government will accept this and will not withdraw our Race to the Top money," Cuomo said in a speech outlining his plan. "The equation is simple at the end of the day—no evaluation, no money."

Yet Cuomo followed that by adding, "It's not just about losing $700 million. This is the way to reform education. Every state in the nation is doing it."

John King, the state education commissioner, welcomed the governor's announcement. A statement from his agency said the regulations adopted by the board were a "good starting point" for negotating with the statewide union.

The NYSUT said that position was "problematic" and voiced doubts about the governor's proposal.

The union "shares the governor's frustration over delays in implementing the evaluation law," said union president Richard C. Iannuzzi, but it believes "there are better ways to achieve implementation rather than tying it to funding increases that benefit students."

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California Gov. Jerry Brown, whose state has teetered through continual budget crises in recent years and made major cuts to schools, is again pitching temporary tax hikes as a way to avoid making even deeper reductions in education.

The governor, a Democrat, used his annual State of the State address Wednesday to promote a plan to raise taxes temporarily on the wealthy and on sales through a public vote in November.

Republican state lawmakers in 2011 stymied Brown's efforts to place a series of tax increases and extensions on the ballot. This year's plan would put tax decisions directly in the hands of California voters.

If the ballot measure is not approved, Brown said the state will have no alternative but to pare $5 billion from the budget for the coming year—much of it from K-12. California faces an estimated budget shortfall of $9 billion, after closing a much larger fiscal gap, of $26 billion, last year.

Brown told lawmakers that a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts to the overall budget would help put California's schools on sturdier ground, financially. "Neither is popular, but both must be done," he said. His argued that his proposal for new taxes is both "fair" and "temporary."

The governor also touted his recent proposals to overhaul California's school funding and testing systems. Brown is calling for replacing the state's current funding system with a "weighted student formula" that provides a basic level of funding with additional money flowing to disadvantaged students and English-language learners.

"This will give more authority to local school districts to fashion the kind of programs they see their students need," he told lawmakers, according to a transcript of the speech. "It will also create transparency, reduce bureaucracy and simplify complex funding streams."

Brown also said the state's testing system eats up too much class time and is too slow to provide schools information that can inform instruction. He said he wants to cut the number of tests and "get the results to teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months." He also called for a "qualitative system of assessments," such as a "site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated," and said he will work with the state's board of education to develop such a plan.

The governor took a couple of jabs at backers of various, unnamed education policy proposals, who he said were overly eager to stamp one kind of rigid plan or another on his state's massive, and diverse K-12 system.

"Since everyone goes to school, everyone thinks they know something about education and in a sense they do," Brown said. "But that doesn't stop experts and academics and foundation consultants from offering their ideas—usually labeled reform, and regularly changing at ten year intervals—on how to get kids learning more and better. ... In a state with six million students, 300,000 teachers, deep economic divisions, and a hundred different languages, some humility is called for."

Brown was elected in 2010, returning to an office he held for two earlier terms, from 1975 to 1983. He inherited a $26 billion budget shortfall. He and state lawmakers eventually approved an $86 billion state budget that cut state spending by 6 percent. Funding for K-12 was kept relatively level, but lawmakers were counting on revenue projections that did not occur. The new reality has in turn left open the possibility of triggering $2 billion in spending cuts in areas of government, including schools, state officials said late last year.

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from guest blogger Lesli A. Maxwell

Now that every state has the tools to track individual students' academic performance over time, the hard work of actually making the hordes of data usable to teachers and policymakers must get moving.

So says the Data Quality Campaign, the nonprofit, Washington-based organization that champions the use of data in education to improve the academic achievement of students. DQC—which released its seventh and final report last month examining states' progress in adopting what the nonprofit considers to be the 10 "essential elements" of student data systems—is turning its attention now to helping states effectively use their longitudinal data systems.

Today, the DQC is hosting a national data summit (you can watch it online) with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to highlight what concrete steps states need to take to turn the data collection into information that policymakers, school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers and parents can use to improve student achievement.

"States have undeniably made tremendous progress in collecting quality data, but, simply put, it isn't enough," said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, the executive director of the DQC. "The hard work lies ahead, and we won't meet our educational goals until everyone in education, from parents to policymakers, is empowered to use data to make informed decisions aimed at improving student achievement."

In conjunction with the summit, the DQC is releasing a new report—Data for Action 2011: Empower with Data—which outlines four "game-changing priorities" for states to follow:

1. Tap a broad range of stakeholders to help determine the key policy issues that will shape how states develop data efforts and put them into practice. The best example, says the DQC: The Illinois P-20 Council.

2. Give clear decision-making authority over student data systems to a governing body that will oversee and be held accountable for thorny issues such as privacy, data-sharing and transparency. The DQC's model state: Maryland for its Longitudinal Data System Center Governing Board.

3. Provide data on how teachers impact student performance to the colleges and universities that trained them. The DQC's exemplar state: Louisiana for the feedback it gives to its teacher preparation programs on how their graduates are affecting student achievement.

4. Judge whether reports on high schools, which include data on important issues such as graduation rates and college-going rates, are meeting local needs in a timely way. The DQC's pick for best state: Kentucky, for providing feedback reports on high schools within a year for a graduating class, rather than two years, and breaking down college-going rates and student performance by race and income.

DQC's report also spells out 10 policy actions for states to follow to ensure that their data systems don't just function as repositories for information that doesn't get used. Among them: Linking K-12 data systems with early childhood, higher education, workforce, social services and other agencies; providing funding for the state data systems; creating progress reports using individual student data that give information that educators, parents and students can use to improve student performance; and providing training to teachers and principals on how to read and interpret student data and use it to adjust classroom instruction and make decisions about practices in schools.

The data summit today will also feature Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the school system in the District of Columbia; former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen; and Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday.

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Nearly a year after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker launched his push to curb teachers' collective bargaining powers, opponents say they've turned in more than 1 million signatures to recall him from office.

United Wisconsin, a group that organized the recall campaign, said this afternoon that it submitted the signatures to the state agency that oversees elections.

The group boasts that the drive is the largest such recall effort in the nation's history. In order for a recall to make it onto the ballot, supporters need to have collected 540,208 valid signatures, or one-quarter of the 2,160,832 votes cast during November 2010 general election, when Walker, a Republican, defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat.

It will take the state's Government Accountability Board at least 60 days, and possibly longer, to review the petitions to determine how many signatures are valid, said Reid Magney, a spokesman for the agency, in an e-mail.

Walker's opponents still face serious obstacles to removing him from office, such as rounding up a viable Democratic challenger. Some speculation focuses on Barrett pursuing a rematch, while other names floating about include former longtime-U.S. Rep. David Obey. Some big-name Democrats, such as former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, have said they're not interested.

The Walker recall effort follows Ohio voter's rejection of a similiar law, which would have reduced collective bargaining powers for teachers and many other public employees. That measure, signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich, was rejected by voters in November by a wide margin.

Like Kasich, Walker has argued that the collective bargaining law, which was approved last year after a bruising fight in the statehouse, will save taxpayers money, drive down school district costs, and give school boards and administrators more negotiating power with teachers' unions.

Wisconsin Republicans have alleged irregularities in the collection of signatures for Walker's recall, and they took a dim view of United Wisconsin's announcement that their count had topped a million.

"We had no doubt the Democrats would be able to rally their left-wing supporters around this baseless and expensive recall effort," said Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brad Courtney in a statement. "This shameful recall attempt of the Governor will accomplish nothing but saddle Wisconsin taxpayers with over $9 million in unbudgeted costs. Regardless of what the radical left may believe, Wisconsin families will continue to stand with Governor Walker, who has balanced a $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, and created thousands of new jobs."

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An Indiana judge has upheld the state's ambitious new voucher law, saying it meets the standards of the state's constitution, despite objections about it directing money to religious schools.

Superior Court Judge Michael Keele found that whether students choose to use public money to attend sectarian institutions is ultimately "immaterial," because families are exercising their choice to do so.

Court decisions over state voucher programs typically turn on the language of individual state constitutions, and the extent to which they restrict the flow of public funds to religious and other non-public institutions, such as schools.

The Indiana case has drawn broad interest both from supporters and opponents of private school choice, in large part because of the large-scale nature of Indiana's program.

While many voucher programs limit eligibility to students of low-incomes, or those with special needs, Indiana's measure, which was supported by the state's GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, took the unusual step of setting relatively loose restrictions on eligibility, allowing some students from middle-income families to take part. The measure was one of several voucher programs created or expanded in states last year. Backers of vouchers say they expect a lot of activity on that same front in statehouses in 2012.

A lawsuit challenging Indiana's program was filed last year by a group of parents, teachers' union members, and other state residents. They argued that it violated various pieces of Indiana's constitution, in part because it allows students to attend religious schools on the public dime.

But in his ruling, issued January 13, Judge Keele found that "the precise degree of religiosity of schools participating in the [voucher program] has no bearing on the program's constitutionality."

The Indianapolis judge examined the drafting of Indiana's state constitution and the history of education funding in the state, and found that they do not restrict the flow of public money to private schools under all circumstances.

Indiana laws are not about "restricting the government's use of general tax revenues" but rather "protecting citizens from forced tithing or other, similiar government coerced, direct, individual support for churches or ministries," Keele found.

Stay tuned for whether opponents of the law seek decide to continue to fight the case, despite losing this round.

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Most studies of charter schools use unsophisticated methods and are flawed in ways that prevent researchers from accurately gauging those institutions' impact on student achievement, a new review concludes.

And while researchers have options for collecting more accurate information about charter school performance, they also face obstacles along the way—some of them related to the unwillingness among states and schools to provide crucial data, the analysis finds.

A meta-analysis of charter school studies revealed that about 75 percent of them do not meet rigorous research standards because they don't account for the differences in academic background and academic histories of students attending charters, when comparing them with those attending traditional public schools, according to the review, published in the renowned journal Science. Those studies typically fail to "disentangle school quality from the preexisting achievement level," or student self-selection of schools, the article says.

The article was written by Julian R. Betts, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, and Richard C. Atkinson, a former president of the University of California system who also once served as director of the National Science Foundation.

High-quality research on charters is nonetheless beginning to emerge, they say. Much of it is coming from charters that have so many applicants that they must use lotteries for admission. Because getting in or not getting in is based on chance, the students who fail to secure a spot represent a sound "control" group necessary for a study, Betts and Atkinson say.

The relatively small number of lottery-based studies of charter schools have generally shown that they either outperform or perform at the same level as traditional public schools, according to the authors. But those studies cover only a small fraction—about 2 percent—of charter schools nationally.

Of course, many education advocates and scholars have long been frustrated by the paucity of rigorous research across the spectrum of school policy—not just with charters. (See my colleague Debbie Viadero's exceptional reporting on this.) The shortage of research is sometimes attributed to the difficulty of arranging high-quality, sustained studies of student populations in school settings.

While the authors say that more randomized controlled trials should be done on lottery-based charter systems, they also recognize limitations in that approach. Most of the nation's charters, for one, do not have more applicants than space, meaning that such studies might not reveal much about the overall effectiveness of charters. In addition, charters that are so popular they need lotteries for admission may be unusually good schools, the authors say, skewing the overall picture.

State policies also stand in the way of good charter research, say Betts and Atkinson.

State laws typically don't require charter schools to make public information about their lottery systems, a policy the authors call "shortsighted."

"Lottery data should not be viewed as the property of the charter school," they argue. "It is incumbent upon authorizers to gather and scrutinize these data, not least to verify that the lotteries are being done in a fair manner."

States could do this and still protect individual students' identities, they say. And the authors believe states can take steps to ensure that researchers are allowed to study and evaluate the lottery process, so that they can understand the process charters follow in admitting students from their wait lists—and whether that process is random or shows favoritism of one kind or another.

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John White, who has experience working in school districts in New York City, New Orleans, and Chicago, was selected Wednesday by Louisiana's state board of education as the state's superintendent of education.

The new schools chief was Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's pick for the job, and his supporters included U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

White moves into the state post after having led the Recovery School District, a state-run system created in 2003 to turn around low-performing schools, many of them in New Orleans. He was appointed by a 9-1 vote by the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

White worked on New York city schools Chancellor Joel Klein's senior leadership team, serving as deputy chancellor of talent, labor, and innovation. During his time with the city, he worked closely with teachers' unions, focused on developing technology to personalize student learning, and focused on turning around low-peforming schools, according to his bio. Previously, he was executive director of Teach for America's Chicago division.

"Improving our educational system will require bold leadership and innovative ideas," Jindal said in a statement, "such as empowering parents with more choices, rewarding highly effective teachers, and giving our schools the flexibility to pursue the most effective reforms for students in their communities. John is just the type of passionate, competent, and committed educator we need as superintendent to build on our record of reform."

Duncan, a native Chicagoan, called White "a visionary leader who has done great things in New York City and New Orleans," and said he was "confident he'll do the same for the whole state of Louisiana."

The Louisiana Association of Educators, a teachers' union, had voiced objections to the appointment, saying state officials were overly focused on White and should have conducted a broader search for qualified candidates.

LAE President Joyce Haynes described White in a statement as "a very charismatic, kind-hearted and courteous fellow," but said her organization's concerns were ignored. She said she believed White would be asked to support an agenda championed by the governor that includes "more charters, the use of vouchers and [a] flawed value-added teacher evaluation model."

"Educators, once again, have been disrespected by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education," Haynes said, "since the board did not allow for a transparent, open selection process for those who could have met the qualifications to apply for the state education superintendent position. ... This is typical Louisiana 'poli-tricks'—using our students as the reason for the rush in appointment, rather than doing the right thing."

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who oversaw major cuts to school funding last year, is now asking state lawmakers to boost spending on education, though Democrats say his proposal doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

The first-term Republican, in his annual State of the State address, reiterated his call for increasing state spending on schools by $1 billion annually, a plan that would boost per-student funding by about 2 percent, to $6,372.

In a speech that was otherwise heavy on anti-tax and anti-government themes, Scott said he was proposing increased funding for schools in response to calls from state residents.

"I heard one thing very clearly, over and over," said Scott, according to his prepared remarks. "Floridians truly believe that support for education is the most significant thing we can do to ensure both short-term job growth and long-term economic prosperity for our state. And you know what? They are right."

Last year, the governor and the state's Republican majority in the legislature approved sweeping changes to the state's school systems, many of which angered teachers and other education groups. Those steps included new laws phasing out tenure and implementing merit pay for teachers and requiring them to pay more for pensions. The state's largest teachers' union has argued that those changes will make their jobs more difficult and less attractive to aspiring educators and take too much power from districts.

Scott praised the state's teachers in his speech, singling out a first-year teacher in the rural town of Immokalee, who was sitting in the legislative gallery, as an example of educators' commitment to their craft.

Florida Democrats greeted Scott's call for new education funding skeptically, saying he was proposing to raise funding for schools by gutting other government programs, particularly in health care. Those gains would not fill the hole left by earlier cuts, they argued.

Nan Rich, the Democratic minority leader in the state Senate, said Scott's budget created a "false choice, pitting our hospitals against our teachers." She said that Republican policies have had a severe toll on the government's—and schools'—ability to function because of so many public workers "on the front lines getting pink slips."

Photo: Florida Gov. Rick Scott delivers his State of the State on Jan. 10 during the first day of the Florida legislative session in Tallahassee, Fla. (Chris O'Meara/AP)

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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says she wants to encourage greater involvement by parents in their children's education, and evidently that includes giving parents easy access to teachers' disciplinary records.

The Republican governor proposed creating "searchable database" for parents that would allow them to research the licensing background and disciplinary actions teachers have faced. She also says she wants to change the process through which teachers can be decertified.

The governor described her creation of a database in a proposal released yesterday, the same day she delivered her "State of the State" speech to lawmakers. The speech does not offer details of the creation of the system, according to a transcript, and it offered few specifics on education policy.

Brewer's state, like many around the country, has struggled to close budget gaps in recent years, and education programs have absorbed signficant cuts. Arizona voters approved a temporary sales tax in 2010 that was pitched, in part, as an effort to spare schools from even deeper reductions. In her speech, the governor applauded the fact that the tax measure would expire after three years.

In more detailed policy documents released yesterday, Brewer said the state must "continue the conversation to assure sufficient resources for our public education system." She said that she was asking a special council to study school funding issues and how the state could higher standards for schools. She suggested she favors making major changes to how schools are funded.

The current system fails to recognize "remarkable innovations in instructional delivery, and it leaves too much to chance in rewarding great teachers and principals who know how to bring out the best in students," she said. Rather than rewarding "institutions for merely finding students to occupy desks for part of the day of part of the year," she added, "we must invest our resources in schools and support the teachers who deliver the results we seek for our children, no matter the educational setting." The goal is not to "pour more money into a system that is not delivering the results we need or want."

Posted by Sean Cavanagh at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The Obama administration has yet to make an official decision on states' requests for waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act.

But the reviews are in on New Jersey's waiver plan from one advocacy organization, which claims the plan would diminish resources going to needy schools—a charge rejected by the state.

The objections to New Jersey's plan were raised by the Education Law Center, which advocates for equal opportunities for students, particularly disadvantaged ones. The ELC, in a Dec. 22 letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, asks federal officials to defer making a decision on New Jersey's waiver until "several serious concerns are properly addressed by the state."

The ELC, which laid out its objections to New Jersey's acting commissioner of education Christopher Cerf a month earlier, says the state did not give enough time for public comment on the plan before submitting it to federal officials. The organization also says that the state's plan to allocate Title I money to "reward schools" could result in that money flowing to New Jersey schools with "very low proportions of low-income students and English language learners."

The organization also says some of the proposals in New Jersey's waiver application are not authorized under state law, such as proposals to create a new teacher-and-principal evaluation system, and a plan for private school vouchers.

The New Jersey Department of Education responded in a statement by saying the waiver plan will "revolutionize" the state's ability to turn around struggling schools and bring the kind of flexibility on testing that schools have been craving for years.

"Regrettably, ELC continues to focus almost exclusively on spending levels," the department said, "while ignoring—and in this case, seeking to delay—reforms that would materially improve the lives of disadvantaged students."

State officials also acknowledge that some of the policy ideas they included in their waiver plan—such as private-school choice—will require legislative approval.

The ELC said a "full record" of public comments, including its own, on New Jersey's draft plan were not included in the state's submission to federal officials, and that the public wasn't given enough time to review the plan.

State officials counter that they sought input from the public and educators in crafting the waiver proposal, and they included comments in the application. However, some of those comments "were cut off because they exceeded the size allowed through the website."

How much public comment is required in state waiver plans? Section 9401 of the No Child Left Behind Act says that states must provide school districts with notice and a "reasonable opportunity" to comment on a waiver request, and submit those comments to the secretary. (That notice applies to school districts, not the public, federal officials say.) The law also says states must notify the public about the waivers in a manner similar to how they provide other public notices.

Federal officials require that states "meaningfully engage teachers, their representatives, and other diverse stakeholders and communities," during the waiver process, said Elizabeth Utrup, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, in an e-mail.

States' waivers will be judged by teams of peer reviewers selected by the Education Department. We'll have to wait to see what they think of New Jersey's proposal.

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UPDATED

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told state lawmakers that the state's 2010 law that ties teacher evaluation to student test scores—a major piece of the state's winning, $700 million Race to the Top award—is not working, and he suggested it needs to be revised.

In his second "state of the state speech," Cuomo said he would appoint a bipartisan commission to work with lawmakers on the issue—though he did not say specifically how he wants the teacher evaluation law to be changed.

"We need a meaningful teacher-evaluation system," the Democrat said today, according to a transcript of his speech. "The legislation enacted in 2010 to qualify for Race to the Top didn't work."

But if lawmakers set about a process for overhauling the state's teacher-evaluation standards, it's unclear how that could affect New York's Race to the Top award, which it won through the federal competition in 2010.

While the U.S. Department of Education has given states flexibility in carrying out their plans, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has also made it clear that he expects states to stick to their promises. His department last month issued a blunt warning to Hawaii officials, saying state was in danger of losing its $75 million award if it did not show that it is serious about carrying out its plan.

Since it was approved, New York's teacher-evaluation law has been the subject of a major court fight. Last year, the New York State United Teachers sued to stop regulations adopted by the state's Board of Regents, claiming they strayed from the law's intent and placed too much weight on judging teachers' performance on the basis of student achievement.

In August, a judge agreed with the union, saying parts of the regulations went too far. At the time, the state said it would appeal the decision.

New York is also the center of teacher-evaluation controversy on another front. This week state Commissioner of Education John King announced that he is suspending funding for 10 districts receiving federal School Improvement Grants, saying they had not made enough progress in establishing teacher and principal evaluation systems.

[UPDATE: In an interview with Education Week, New York's education commissioner says he's worried about the state standoff over teacher evaluation undermining the state's Race to the Top plan.

"We are concerned about district capacity to execute on commitments they made on Race to the Top," King told my colleague, Christina Samuels.

"We are concerned about being able to fulfill our state race to the top objectives. I'm hopeful that working together with our partners—school boards, superintendents, as well as the representatives of principals and teacher unions—we'll be able to move forward. But we're unquestionably concerned."]

Posted by Sean Cavanagh at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Elected officials in a couple of states are expected to take on one of the trickiest issues affecting elementary schools: how high to set the bar for allowing students to move between grades 3 and 4.

Governors in Iowa and New Mexico have proposed setting a reading skill level for students to advance beyond 3rd grade, an idea they hope their legislatures will take up as they convene this winter.

It's a proposal that a number of states have shown an interest in recently, though it's also a controversial one. Critics say flunking 3rd graders risks derailing their education at a young age; but supporters say the policies are needed to prevent students from simply being shuffled on to the next grade without regard for whether they're ready for the work—a practice they label "social promotion."

Many state officials have credited former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who placed an emphasis on building students' early reading skills, with having pioneered the concept.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, offered his support for the concept in a far-reaching series of education proposals released last year. In a recent interview with Education Week, Jason Glass, the director of the Iowa Department of Education, said he hopes to build legislative backing for the concept in the state legislature, where each party controls one chamber.

While the idea of retaining any student is an "awful prospect," Glass said, he added that "we're not doing students any favors by promoting them to the next grade and just hoping something happens" to help them academically.

In New Mexico, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is backing a similiar proposal. The governor has supported the concept as part of a larger early reading effort that would include support for new reading coaches and supplemental instruction for struggling students.

"We know that a child that can't read by the 3rd grade is four times more likely to drop out of high school," Hanna Skandera, the governor's education secretary, designate, said in a statement. "Our children will be the leaders of our state before we know it. It's time we give them the opportunity they deserve."

Skandera knows Florida's policies well: She once served as a top education aide to Bush.

Posted by Sean Cavanagh at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of the influential Council of Chief State School Officers, is recovering from a heart attack that occurred over the holidays.

In a note sent to state schools superintendents today, Wilhoit said that he suffered a heart attack on Christmas Eve, when he was with his family and friends. He said he expects to make a full recovery and return to work at the CCSSO full time in six to eight weeks.

The CCSSO has been a major player on education issues spanning the state and federal policy spectrum. It was one of the main organizers of the effort to establish common standards across the states, and it has taken a lead role in voicing state concerns over the No Child Left Behind Act and in trying to shape the law's reauthorization in Congress.

"Please know that CCSSO will continue to support your efforts to advance your education reform priorities while I am out," Wilhoit wrote in a letter to state chiefs. "This is a great time for state education reform, and I am confident that states will continue to deliver in this new year."

Wilhoit has served as CCSSO's executive director since November of 2006, according to the organization. A former social studies teacher, he led state education agencies in Arkansas and Kentucky earlier in his career. During his recovery, he asked the chiefs to work with Chris Minnich, CCSSO's membership director. Minnich said that his boss was already eager to return.

"He's ready to go," Minnich said. "If you know anything about Gene, his doctors are going to have to hold him back."

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