The Long Last Week Before School Starts
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NCLB News
Conservative Scholar Opposes Multiple Measures
Bush Administration
NCLB "Coming Through," Says Departing Rove
Karl Rove Still Spinning The News On His Way Out The Door
Urban Education
Next Stop For Unionized Charter Schools Might Be Chicago
Media Watch
Reading Recovery Coverage: A Scandal Going On All Around Me
School Life
Exploding Playground Wood Chips ... And More
There's a scandal going on all around me. Or at least that's what Kevin DeRosa at D-Ed Reckoning says (Edweek Spins Reading Research). His post argues that EdWeek's story on the WWC report is way too pro-Reading Recovery, and that the requirements for WWC are substantially different from Reading First. And you think I'm too intense and argumentative sometimes. Check it out. Let me know what you think.
School officials defend tapping e-mails Boston Globe
No crime was committed when e-mails between Ottoson Middle School principal Stavroula Bouris and technology teacher Chuck Coughlin were intercepted by a school district technician, Arlington officials say.
Do School Cafeterias Make the Grade? USNews
Third graders gobbling down footlong hot dogs and extra-large burgers?
Who decides which children will be tried as adults? Slate
Last week, two 15-year-olds were arrested in connection with the execution-style murders of three college students in a Newark, N.J., schoolyard. Local authorities want to prosecute them as adults. Who decides which minors will be tried as adults?
Porn date leads to teacher's resignation MSNBC
Biagini, who uses a wheelchair, was interviewed on the radio show after returning home, and told the Valley Independent in Monessen that he was ridiculed for his disability and offended by how he was portrayed on the show.
Meanwhile, Yahoo News dredges up this overview of where other Texans from the early Bush years have gone (Departures diminish Texas flavor at White House). Who's next?
Teachers Grapple with Attaining Education Law's Goals PBS NewsHour
John Merrow's series looks at how some of the country's best teachers are dealing with the No Child Left Behind law.
Reading Curricula Don't Make Cut for Federal Review EdWeek
None of the most popular commercial reading programs on the market had sufficiently rigorous studies to be included in the review by the clearinghouse. [Reading Recovery did.]
ACT participation hits record USA Today
Most striking, perhaps, is the sharp increase in the number of minority students who take the ACT: 17.6 percent more black students and 23.4 percent more Hispanics than in 2003.
Not that letters from academics usually make much difference, especially when they're on the other side ideologically from the folks making the decisions, but here's a letter from Hoover Institute researcher Erik Hanushek from last week that was sent along to me, in which he tells Chairman Miller what a bad idea multiple measures, writ large, are for school improvement. PDF here. Keep sending those letters and secret memos in.
Mike Antonucci thinks that that the NEA may be censoring its own blog (The Mystery of the Missing Link).
Scott Elliott addresses the age-old achievement gap question: Is it racist to track minority group scores?.
The BoardBuzz likes the ACT news: Good news for American high schools.
Eduwonk reminds us that there's a good NYT column to read today: Dillon On Barber.
The AFT Blog derides the notion that the Newark kids might have been saved by vouchers: And vouchers will cure the common cold, too.
Joe Williams has pennant fever: Baseball and Education Reform.
Ed Sector's Elena Silva goes long: School Time Update.
Sherman Dorn slices and dices reauthorization: Multiple issues in multiple measures.
The Hall Monitor tells us about exploding wood chips: Something new to worry about.
Forced to Pick a Major in High School NYT
A high school in New Jersey is requiring students to declare a major as freshmen.
School Districts Find Loopholes in No Child Left Behind Law PBS
School districts are getting around certain requirements of the No Child Left Behind law by setting the bar measuring student progress low in the beginning. PLUS: Failing San Diego Schools Work to Meet Standards PBS
Grants Given for Nonexistent Students Washington Post
The D.C. school system received almost $4 million in federal funds for educating migrant children when it did not have any, city and federal officials said yesterday.
Colleges rant, rail against magazine rankings MSNBC
Colleges are having a hard time quitting the magazine’s annual beauty contest.
Today is Katherine McLane's last day as Press Secretary for the EdSec, she says. Heading back to Austin to work for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is the given reason. Time to go may be the implicit one. Interim press secty will be Samara Yudof. Mclane was in the job just over a year, according to this press release. Want to know more? Check out her astrology reading from Capitol Weekly. Congrats, condolences to McLane and Yudof.
UPDATE: This guy doesn't like the sound of the book at all.
As States Tackle Poverty, Preschool Gets High Marks WSJ
It took a well-orchestrated campaign to put pre-K on the top of political agendas -- and new tactics that didn't rely on do-gooder rhetoric.
Dodd Outlines K-12 Education Plan EdWeek
Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd planned to unveil his ideas Thursday morning at the National Education Association of New Hampshire meeting in Bartlett, N.H.
Same-Gender Cleveland Schools Slow to Get Applicants Cleveland.com
The highly touted single-gender academies opening later this month in Cleveland haven't made much of a splash yet with parents.
District's Ex-Charter Schools Chief Admits Fraud Washington Post
Brenda Belton had some gall, by her own admission.
The irrepressible David Denis Doyle is now blogging (The Doyle Report) and it's already clear that one of his strengths is finding and posting video snippets like this music video whose refrain is "Test The Kids!":
Catchy. Welcome to the blogosphere, Denis.
Joanne Jacobs points to another district, in Arizona, that's trying something similar to what they're planning in NYC (see "Paying Kids..." below). Are there any places that have tried this and it hasn't worked, I wonder? Or where it's worked but they've run out of money for it like with teacher bonuses?
Gerald Bracey points out in this Huffington Post post (Nothing Will Happen with NCLB) that adding more tests (ie, multiple measures) is no guaranteed solution because it could well overwhelm the testing infrastructure. It's an interesting argument, in part because I hadn't heard it before and mostly because it puts Bracey in the position of arguing against multiple measures.
UPDATE: I'm not the only one who took note of this piece. D-Ed Reckoning says US News got it all wrong on the phonics thing.
12th Graders Show Better Grasp of Market Forces Than Expected NYT
The nation’s high school seniors performed significantly better on the first nationwide economics test than they did on other recent national exams in history and science.
State Colleges Prepare To Measure Their Own Performance WSJ
Participating schools will use one of three tests to gauge the performance of students with similar entering SAT scores at tasks that any college grad ought to be able to handle.
NCSL Declares Opposition to National Standards Ed Week
The NCSL today took a hard-line against any form of national academic standards, declaring that any attempt to unite school curricula across states would be unacceptable until perceived flaws in the federal No Child Left Behind Act are fixed.
Dade Schools Chief Crew on Guard after Threats Miami Herald
Threatening phone calls and voice-mail messages are prompting Miami-Dade schools Superintendent Rudy Crew to take extra precautions with his safety as police investigate the intimidation, officials said Tuesday.
Principal Tried ‘Magic' To Cure School NY Sun
A principal who took an unusual approach to improve her TriBeCa high school — allegedly hiring a "black magic" practitioner to cleanse evil spirits through a ceremony involving sprinkled chicken blood — is being forced out a month before the school year starts.
Hard times for centrist Democrats when NCLB reauthorization is lurching left and all the candidates go to YearlyKos in Chicago and no one shows at the DLC confab. So much for claims that left-right politics were a thing of the past -- during primary season at least.
So last night everyone continued to work hard to seek union endorsement. Forbes quotes HRC with this gem: "We need growth models for students. We need broader curriculum. We need to make sure that when we look at our children, we don't just see a little walking test. We've got to have a total change in No Child Left Behind." There's an overview from the Washington Post here.
It's no real surprise, despite the fact that they have in the past toyed with some not-so-labor-friendly ideas. Kerry did the same thing, as this Boston Globe article points out. Time magazine has a nice explainer on why the unions are holding off on endorsing anyone. Clinton seems like the frontrunner when it comes to NCLB-bashing (and in the polls), but who knows what happens in the next few months.
Serve Breakfast in Class, Advocates for Poor Urge NYT
Advocates said that the practice of serving breakfast in cafeterias failed to attract most of the children who need it.
Marketing Tricks Tots' Taste Buds EdWeek
Anything in a McDonald's wrapper tastes better, youngsters said in a recent study.
Foundation Gives $20 Million to Fight Obesity in Schools EdWeek
The program is designed to promote healthy eating and exercise in schools in 17 states.
Quotes From the Democratic Debate Forbes
On NCLB: "It was an unfunded mandate. And part of it is that the Department of Education under President Bush did not absolutely enforce it..."
Schools losing Texas teacher bonuses Dallas Morning News
More than half of the 1,150 Texas schools rewarded in the first year of the landmark teacher pay-for-performance plan have fallen out of the program this year. Via EdNews.org.
Shuttle Endeavor to Carry Teacher into Space PBS
Teacher Barbara Morgan joins the Endeavor crew for a planned Wednesday launch. She was selected as the backup candidate to Christa McAuliffe in the ill-fated 1986 Challenger mission. Idaho Public Television reports on her story.
Sparse Foreign Language Instruction Cincinnati.com
Despite the increasing demand, foreign language instruction before seventh or eighth grade remains sparse, available in less than one-third of U.S. elementary schools, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics. Via DA Daily.
High school reading lists get a modern makeover Christian Science Monitor
Find out what recent bestsellers are taking their place next to classics at schools across the U.S.
Mom, I’m at the Gym Doing Homework (Really!) NYT
The latest hangouts for teenagers are health clubs that cater to them.
Margaret Spellings' Summer Reading List NPR
Spellings says that she just finished this novel, which she found "reflective and thought provoking." Gibert's spiritual memoir follows her recovery from a messy divorce as she battles depression and loneliness.
Disney Acquires Web Site for Children
Racing to solidify its dominant position in children’s entertainment on the Internet, the Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it had acquired a subscription Web site aimed at preteenagers, Club Penguin, in a deal that could total $700 million.
A letter signed by dozens of civil rights groups -- but not by the Education Trust, Citizen's Commission On Civil Rights -- shows just how divided the broader civil rights community is on whether to include other tests and evidence of performance in the AYP school rating system of NCLB.
"Today's letter -- signed by many more organizations, several with large grassroots membership bases -- demonstrates, among other things, that those two groups [Ed Trust and CCCR] do not represent the views of the broader civil rights community on NCLB," says Bob Schaeffer of the FEA.
There's nothing particularly new about this divide. See below for the press release from the pro-multiple measures umbrella group known as the Forum on Education Accountability. See herefor the Ed Trust's statement, which calls these changes a giant step backwards.
CIVIL RIGHTS, DISABILITY ORGS. CALL FOR “MULTIPLE MEASURES”
IN “NO CHILD” OVERHAUL LEGISLATION;
FORUM ON EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PRAISES GROUPS’ LETTER
AND REP. MILLER’S LEADERSHIP ON THIS ISSUE
Nearly two dozen major civil rights and disability advocacy groups today called on Congress to include “multiple forms of assessment” and “multiple measures or indicators of student progress” in legislation currently being drafted to overhaul the controversial “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) federal education law. In a letter delivered to members of the Senate and House education committees, the groups wrote, “If education is to improve in the United States, schools must be assessed in ways that produce high-quality learning and that create incentives to keep students in school.”
Signers of the letter included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), ASPIRA Association, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Alliance for Bilingual Education, National Urban Alliance, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Civil Rights Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Indian School Board Association and ACORN,
The groups’ letter continued, “A number of studies have found that an exclusive emphasis on (primarily multiple-choice) standardized test scores has narrowed the curriculum. An unintended consequence has been to create incentives for schools to boost scores by keeping or pushing low-scoring students out of school. Push-out incentives and the narrowed curriculum are especially severe for special needs students, English language learners, and students without strong family supports.”
Among the arguments made for including multiple measures:
* attention will be given to a comprehensive academic program and a more complete array of learning outcomes;
* higher-order thinking and performance skills can be assessed;
* checks and balances will be added to ensure that emphasizing one measure does not come at the expense of other important educational goals; and
* schools will be encouraged to attend to the progress of students at every point of the achievement spectrum, not just those near a test cut-point labeled “proficient.”
The letter concluded, “A multiple measures approach that incorporates a well-balanced set of indicators would support a shift toward holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement. This is a necessary foundation for genuine accountability.”
The Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA), a group formed to advance the proposals made in the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB (now signed by 138 national education, civil rights, religious, disability, parent, civic and labor organizations), praised the letter and cited a recent National Press Club speech by House Education Chairman George Miller as indicators of the wide support for making multiple measures of achievement an important part of any federal education law.
“Clearly, there is an emerging consensus that judging our schools largely on the basis of simple-minded reading and math tests undermines educational quality and equity," said FEA Chair, Dr. Monty Neill.
Two of the Joint Statement's principles explicitly support the use of multiple measures:
* “Provide a comprehensive picture of students' and schools' performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these tests.”
* “Help states develop assessment systems that include district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely information about student learning.”
The full list of organizations that have signed the letter: ACORN, Advancement Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, ASPIRA Association, Civil Rights Project, Council for Exceptional Children, Japanese American Citizens League, Justice Matters, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., National Association for Asian Pacific American Education, National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA), National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents, National Council on Educating Black Children, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, National Indian Education Association, National Indian School Board Association, National Pacific Islander Educa