This Week in Education

Alexander Russo's inside scoop on education news.

Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education covers education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge. (For archives prior to January 2007, please click here.)

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October 31, 2007

Creepy Congressman Wants To Eliminate Digital Divide For All The Wrong Reasons

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October 16, 2007

Saving Money By Investing In High-Quality Teacher Retention

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I'm moderating an event in Dirksen next Tuesday on the savings that come from investing in high-quality teacher retention programs. The New Teacher Center is releasing a cost-benefit study, and Senator Reed and other luminaries are going to be there. Retention programs (aka mentoring and coaching) are a dime a dozen these days, but NTC has found that you get what you pay for. Intensive induction -- full release coaches, lower staffing ratios, etc. -- makes a difference both on the retention side and on the effectiveness side. I don't know how much of this is already written into Miller and or the Kennedy draft, but it doesn't seem like the door is going to be closed before the 23rd.

October 11, 2007

House Republicans Blame Miller For Slow NCLB Progress

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The folks from Cong. Boehner's office were kind enough to send me a copy of this Roll Call article ($) suggesting that little if anything is happening on the NCLB front, despite all efforts on their part. Boehner's specific objections include the loosened accountability provisions in the Miller-McKeon draft, and the creation of 28 new programs.Republicans are claiming that Miller is being inflexible, and won't meet with them. He says he hasn't been able to get a meeting. Fun!

October 9, 2007

Kennedy Playing Tough On NCLB

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Wondering when Ted Kennedy (pictured, file photo) was going to get a word in on this whole NCLB mess? Well, today was the day -- but it wasn't warm and fuzzy like the White House or the NCLB supporters wanted. Said Kennedy (via a press release):

“It’s regrettable that the Bush Administration has made the renewal of the No Child Left Behind school reform law far more difficult by its failure to fully fund and implement it. The President is right that we must continue to hold schools accountable for results. But over the past five years of working with this law, we have learned more about what works and what does not work and we should take those lessons into account. While we press forward with school reform, practical changes to the law are needed to ensure that we do not lag in our commitment to helping every parent, teacher and child succeed.”

So he wants more money, plus a new law that takes the past five years "lessons" into account, plus other "practical" changes. Sounds like he's not so excited about the Secretary's ideas, or the Miller proposal. Setting things up for a Kennedy bill, no doubt.

Are They Water-Boarding Teenagers Yet?

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Are they water-boarding teenagers yet? Probably not. But the House Dems are going to look into so-called "boot camps" for wayward teens tomorrow, and it's the closest thing to Abu Ghraib that we have going on in education these days. "The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a full committee investigative hearing to examine allegations of child abuse and neglect, including cases resulting in death, at residential treatment facilities (often called boot camps or wilderness programs)." Tasteless, I know.

On The HotSeat: Former Committee Insider Charles Barone

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The last few weeks have been somewhat of a triumphant return for longtime Hill staffer Charles Barone (pictured), who started posting knowledgeable comments on various blogs in September and then wrote a fascinating backgrounder on NCLB last week. There'll be a parade next, I'm almost sure.

In the meantime, check out the HotSeat interview below, which touches on key topics like why there wasn't differentiated rating in the old NCLB and the history of Miller-CTA dustups. Whether you know him from back in the day (I first met him back in the Hart Senate Office Building when we were both newbies) or never heard of the guy before, Barone always has interesting things to say. Not the least of which being that NCLB is going to get reauthorized sooner rather than later.

Continue reading "On The HotSeat: Former Committee Insider Charles Barone" »

October 1, 2007

Don't Dump Disaggregation, Says Former Dem Hill Staffer

"Disaggregation is the key to comparability," writes former Miller staffer Charlie Barone in a new analysis of NCLB then and now. "Comparability is the key to assessing equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is the key to closing achievement gaps."

September 24, 2007

Renaming NCLB

If anything is certain, it's that NCLB will get a new name when it's reauthorized points out this Washington Post article. It's been that way in the past, and will all but certainly happen again due to the law and President Bush's current unpopularity (Education Law Could Leave Behind Its Name). Check out some of the names that are being proposed -- it's easier to make fun the current name than make up a catchy new one.

September 18, 2007

Campaign Finance Done, School Reform Next

Having successfully fixed our nation's campaign finance system, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is rolling up his sleeves to help fix NCLB. Thanks, Russ. I'm sure the committee staff appreciate your jumping in like this. Not that I was ever particularly nice to committee staff myself. Yes, of course, they should have taken your language into their bill. Every Senator's prerogative, etc.

September 17, 2007

The "Testing Hawks" Vs. Union "Special Interests"

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Friday's National Journal story ("Schoolyard Quarrel" -- subscription required) is the first piece I've really paid attention to from reporter Lisa Caruso, who recently moved over from the lobbyist beat to help cover education. She gives prominent placement to DFER -- the new kid on the block -- and to one of their main notions, which is that the teachers unions are a special interest group that doesn't represent what's good for kids. But the special interests / legitimacy argument goes both ways,as union leaders like to point out. Not all the "testing hawks" -- civil rights groups that favor NCLB (Ed Trust, CCCR, La Raza) are led by minorities or are membership organizations represent them in great numbers. Other things I learned or was reminded of: John Yarmuth (D-KY pictured) is shaping up to be the key freshman Democrat on the committee for the anti-NCLB crowd. Ted Kennedy has just as many if not more troubles on the Senate side with his trio of Presidential candidates on the committee (all of whom have endorsed NEA bills, BTW). Somehow, the NEA ($1.65M) isn't among the top 20 PACs for 2006, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, but the AFT ($2.08) ranked #15.

September 14, 2007

Why Did Miller Include Merit Pay In His Draft?

If you're not already sick of the NEA-Miller story, there's a new Klein-Hoff EdWeek piece up online today that fleshes out some of the events of the past week. Included are not only the whole he-said, she-said about the TEACH Act language that you probably already know, but also some interesting tidbits like how the NEA made sure to have folks from each of the House ed committee members' districts at the Monday hearing, the toe-the-NEA-line responses of some Dem House members about the issue.

That leaves two questions: Why did Miller include the merit stuff in the first place, and what's going on between the NEA and CTA? I don't know if Miller had to include the merit pay stuff to have any chance of McKeon's support, or for other reasons. But fighting the merit pay thing and revamping the AYP system at the same time (and comparability) continues to seem to me to be biting off more than necessary. Or I'm missing something -- Miller puts in the merit pay stuff just to give something for the NEA folks to focus on, hoping to preserve the standards and accountability provisions. Let me know if you've got it figured out.

Having Done So Well On The War, Dems Turn To Domestic Issues

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Maybe she'll have changed her mind by today, but as of Wednesday afternoon's edition of CQ today the House majority leader was saying that she still wanted to do a full NCLB reauth as part of the Dems' return to domestic issues (where they think that they may be able to do better than they have on the war). Wow. That makes me feel really confident about its chances. (Domestic Issues to Claim Spotlight)

September 11, 2007

What Was Good Enough In 2005 Isn't Good Enough Now

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I'm still not exactly sure how, in the carefully-choreographed no surprises world of Congressional hearings, there were actually a couple of mildly unexpected developments at yesterday's monster NCLB gabfest: the CTA's media campaign against the Miller draft (see previous post below) and the late-breaking flareup with Reg Weaver over merit pay (that's why the teachers didn't go first, eh?). The AP has that one covered here, via EdWeek. You can check out the long list of speakers and download their testimony here. You can watch the whole six hours of testimony here. Things get fun at around the 5:23 mark. [Listening back, it sounds like there was a breakdown in talks between Miller's staff and the NEA folks sometime last week, during which the NEA folks were looking for but didn't get something more than they were willing to take in 2005.]

September 10, 2007

What To Make Of This Tentative Witness List

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The only folks I can think of who aren't on this tentative witness list for today's NCLB hearing are EdSec Spellings (not invited? disinclined to appear?) and General Petraeus. By having everyone speak, the committee pretty much ensures a certain amount of cacaphony. And by putting Kati Haycock -- one of the draft's most vocal critics -- off in the teacher quality corner, the committee sends a clear message that it doesn't like being called out.

UPDATE: From Mike Antonucci: "EIA has the exclusive tip that "Sammy the Bull" Gravano will be called in as a surprise witness. Gravano will reveal that "multiple measures" and "growth models" are mobspeak for racketeering of Title I funds."

Continue reading "What To Make Of This Tentative Witness List" »

September 7, 2007

What Next For Teacher Quality?

More interested in what happens next on the teacher quality front? Check out the latest discussion draft from the Miller camp, which includes Title II and all the rest:

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View the text of the Title II draft
View the text of the Title III-Title IX draft
View the summary of this draft

I can't wait to hear what you think.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. EdWeek summarizes here ("The draft proposal also would keep intact most of the current NCLB law’s reporting requirements on whether teachers are “highly qualified” and add new requirements that states identify the districts and schools most in need of highly qualified teachers."). The Ed Trust crows below ("The provisions of the Title II discussion draft released yesterday by the Education and Labor Committee are a critical step forward for teaching and learning in classrooms throughout the country, especially the classrooms of low-income and minority students.")

Continue reading "What Next For Teacher Quality?" »

September 5, 2007

Spellings Calls NCLB Goals "Righteous";
Miller Schedules Own Conference Call

During an early afternoon press conference call, EdSec Spellings reiterated her concerns about the M&M (Miller and McKeon) discussion draft and said she was sending them comments in the hopes that they were still open-minded. She called the current NCLB and its 2014 goals "righteous, proper, and do-able." Some of the differences between the two positions seem relatively minor -- what form differentiated interventions should take, for example. Others -- multiple measures and other changes to AYP seem more problematic to Spellings.

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She's not willing to discuss how much of the changes she could implement without reauthorization, and she denied that there was any surprise or disappointment between her and the House leaders over their proposal or her remarks. However, Miller has scheduled his own conference call for 3:00 pm, so there's obviously more to be said.

August 7, 2007

Chairman Miller Needs An iPhone

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This post from Washington Whispers about just how tech-crazy Congressman G. Miller is sounds like a thinly-veiled invitation to some lobbyist out there to get him an iPhone (YouTube Not Just for White House Hopefuls). He's got just about everything else -- a Second Life avatar, a video podcast, a Blackberry, etc. Maybe if some of the civil rights groups get him one they can get back in his good graces. Or maybe they should buy them for the committee freshmen instead.

August 1, 2007

Putting Freshmen In The Spotlight, Putting NCLB Under

Right on schedule, CQ Today has a piece about how the Dems are focused on helping the freshmen keep their seats (Democrats Put Freshmen in Spotlight). Doing so makes obvious sense for the Dems, but not so much for NCLB supporters given the newbies' understandably skeptical views of NCLB. It's not entirely wishful thinking to say (as some do) that the freshmen ran against Iraq and -- to a much lesser degree -- NCLB.

July 30, 2007

(You Are) Live-Blogging The Big Miller Speech Today

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Chairman George Miller is scheduled to give a "major" speech on NCLB reauthorization at 10 today at the National Press Club -- should be lots of tidbits and hints at what happens next. Antsy and bored? Make good use of that Blackberry and email me your impressions and observations about the speech, who's there, and -- most important -- what they're wearing. Yes, you can do it anonymously. To: thisweekineducation @ gmail dot com.
UPDATE: EdWeek confirms the delay until September and rehashes some of the conflicts that may be causing it (ie, multiple measures).
UPDATE: McKeon statement (below) emphasizes "content" over "calendar."

Continue reading "(You Are) Live-Blogging The Big Miller Speech Today" »

July 27, 2007

How Congressional Earmarks Work

Think the Dems are allocating education and social services money any better, or differently, than those big bad Republicans did? Think again.

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"When the House divvied up $282.1 million in earmarks for schools, hospitals and social programs, many poor congressional districts took a back seat to those represented by appropriators, party leaders and politically vulnerable lawmakers," according to this story from CQ Today (CQ Today - House Earmarks for Social Programs Follow Power and Political Needs). "The disparity can be seen by comparing the proposed disbursements to Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles, who represents the fourth-poorest House district as measured by median household income, with the earmarks corralled by Ron Klein of Florida, whose 22nd District includes the beachfront condominiums in Boca Raton and gated retirement communities in Palm Beach and Broward counties."

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July 25, 2007

Miller Speaks Monday -- Who's "DanB"

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This just out: "On Monday, July 30, at the National Press Club, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) will deliver a major speech on the future of Lindsay Lohan's acting career the No Child Left Behind education law." 10:00am ET at the Press Building. NB: Eagle eyed readers of the Miller memo (see below) want to know who DanB (the author) is. Any ideas? I'm too lazy to figure it out for you.

Our Hottie Is So Much Hotter Than Their Hotties

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As you can see, our education hottie, Jade Floyd of AACTE (left), is so much hotter than any of the other two front-runners (Jessica Ferguson, Sen. Thune in the orange, Pepper Pennington, Rep. Feeney in the black top). And more scantily clad, to boot. However, stuck at the bottom of the ballot, Jade needs your help to leap past these two other contestants. Go here, scroll to the bottom, click the little circle next to Jade's picture, and click "vote." No registration or anything else is required.

EXCLUSIVE: Miller Reauthorization Memo To Freshmen

Thanks a ton to a brave reader for sending in the Miller memo to House freshmen from earlier this month, which outlines where things are (or were) on the House majority side at least. As you can see, the two-page memo (PDF) dated July 7 outlines nine key proposals and asks for feedback. The proposals range from the obvious ("Allow states to use growth models that recognize progress over time," improve test quality, prioritize schools with the most problems) to the highly controversial ("Allow states to use more than test scores to measure student learning and school performance") to the ho-hum ("Address the high school dropout crisis and take comprehensive steps to turn around low-performing high schools," increase funding, etc.). This explains some of the recent weeks' twists and turns, including the new left-right coalition to save NCLB and -- most obviously -- the Friday the 13th letter to Chairman Miller from concerned parties.

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July 24, 2007

Senate Higher Ed Bill Endangers Quick NCLB Reauthorization

The last time the Senate reauthorized the HEA was a long time ago. I was still working for Jeff Bingaman and we thought that we could really, finally, get ed schools to do a better job on teacher prep. But now the Senate has passed its version of the bill -- no House companion to go along with it, and congrats to everyone there for getting that done.

The implications for NCLB as I read them are bad, however. With two weeks left before August recess and a big education bill in hand, no one on the Senate side at least is going to feel any great rush. And we still don't have any bill language (do we?) from Kennedy or Miller to look at, though I know it's out there and you can send it to me anonymously at thisweekineducation at gmail dot com. Last but not least, there's the exhaustion factor. Many of the same folks work K12 as well as higher ed.

July 17, 2007

Running Out Of July

AFT John reminds us to read Congressional Quarterly a little more often, especially when it includes tidbits about the increasing unlikelihood of a summer bill introduction and markup for NCLB (Slouching towards 2009). Not enough July left, and not enough of a majority for either party to push something through.

July 13, 2007

Fresh Off The FritzWire

Appropriations: On Wednesday, July 11, the House Appropriations Committee completed mark-up on a $607 billion Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that will set funding levels for education, health and labor programs for FY 2008. The bill allocates $62.6 billion for the Education Department, an increase of $2.3 billion over current funding. Overall, the total bill is roughly $7 billion more than that approved for FY 2007. Go to: http://appropriations.house.gov. The measure next moves to the House floor for consideration. The Senate has yet to move on its version of the bill.

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Introduced Legislation: S 1775 (Burr, North Carolina) introduced, the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2007” to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ensure that no child is left behind. (http://burr.senate.gov).

New Reports: Today, the Center on Education Policy released a report examining the kind of assistance that schools identified for improvement under NCLB receive and how effective district and state officials believe that assistance to be. Moving Beyond Identification: Assisting Schools in Improvement is posted on the Center's home page (www.cep-dc.org) under "What's New."

June 4, 2007

"Finding, Grinding, & Minding": How Ocean Spray Gets In The Schoolhouse Door

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Take a look at this overview of big-time DC lobbyists from Washingtonian and you'll not only see a lot of names that should be familiar to you (if you're in DC) -- Podesta, Boggs, Podesta, Weber -- but also learn a lot about how it all works -- the dark art of the earmark (a favorite of universities needing new buildings), the rivalry between private lobbying firms and law firms with lobbying practices, and the big money that's involved to get things done. (You find a client with an unmet need, you grind out an earmark or a change in the law, and then you mind it to make sure it stays in there through committee, the floor, and the conference report.) Education insiders and Hill staff may have better day to day access know more about the issues in a general sense but they're often outmatched when it comes to specific interests, deep political knowledge, and legislative ins and outs. Really, it's not fair. Funny that nearly all the firms are now owned by three big multinationals. And now we know why there's so much Ocean Spray in the schools.

June 1, 2007

When A "Congressional Report" Is Not A Congressional Report

As I first pointed out two weeks ago, the Kennedy report on Reading First was not a "Congressional study" in the sense of something like CRS or the GAO would do, despite being described as such in the press. It was internal, and partisan from the start. The good folks at the Title I Monitor have dug into this further, exposing some of the report's problems. RL Colvin over at Early Stories thinks that's a good thing. I agree.

Recent CRS Reports

Looking for some dry but informative weekend reading? Check out these CRS reports from Open CRS: School and Campus Safety Programs, Head Start Reauthorization: A Side-by-Side Comparison, The ESEA, as Amended by the No Child Left Behind Act: A Primer, and High School Graduation, Completion, and Dropouts: Federal Policy, Programs, and Issues. From Open CRS.

May 23, 2007

Why Are Miller & Kennedy Not Calling Beth Ann Bryan?

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What's the connection between former Justice Department official Monica Goodling (no relation, far as I know), who is testifying about her role as liaison between the White House and DOJ on the fired attorneys, and education?
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Well, Goodling's counterpart in the Reading First scandal has yet to be heard from. Her name's Beth Ann Bryan, and once this whole Gonzales thing is done with I hope we'll get to hear from her, too -- ideally under oath and without immunity.

May 11, 2007

Special Treatment For Spellings -- From Congress & The Press

The Times (Spellings Rejects Criticism on Student Loan Scandal) and Post (Education Secretary Defends Loans Record) both take it pretty easy on Spellings, whose performance was to my view neither particularly effective or especially believable.

I think that this is in part due to the ongoing tendency in the press to take it easy on her and also because it was mostly Miller and other Dems, not Republicans, who challenged her. This is in a stark contrast to the treatment that, say, Alberto Gonzalez is getting during his Hill appearances, where it is Republicans who are ridiculing Gonzalez as much as anyone else.

You can watch a video of the testimony from yesterday here.

UPDATE: EdWeek notes Spellings' uncertainty and refusals to take strong action on the Reading First front here.
How much longer will the Congressional Republicans defend her, and when will the press get out from under the Spellings spell?

May 10, 2007

Miller Gets Worked Up At Spellings Explanations

Wearing a somber black top and pearls, EdSec Spellings endured repeated interruptions, refutations, and harrumphs from a worked-up Chairman Miller in the first leg of this morning's oversight hearing (now on break, video here).

Essentially, Spellings is claiming that the student lending program is complex and not entirely under her jurisdiction, and that taking lenders to court would have been difficult. For show or for real, Miller is lambasting the USDE for not having told the lenders to stop, and pointing out that many lenders did so without going to court.

"Nobody at the Department of education showed up at the front door and said you can’t do this," said Miller, who called Spellings' arguments a crutch, not plausible, and unacceptable. And we haven't even really gotten to Reading First yet.

Behind The Scenes: Spellings, Miller, & Kennedy

I love all the infighting and maneuvering that's going on behind the scenes leading up to Thursday's student lending and Reading First hearing. It's so very familiar and delicious. On Tuesday, the USDE announced that its top student loan officer had resigned -- giving Spellings the chance to tell Miller that appropriate action has already been taken on that front. (Nearly everyone associated with Reading First is already gone.) Then she gave some sort of a friendly pre-interview to Andy Rotherham on Wednesday, where she apparently repeats much of her defense from EWA last week -- some of it word for word. On Wednesday, Kennedy's office released its own Reading First report (EdWeek, AP), reminding everyone that it's not just Miller who's on the case -- and perhaps pressuring Miller not to ease up on the gas pedal.

UPDATE: Some more stories:
Four Officials Profited From Publishers, Report Finds Washington Post
House Passes Ban on Gifts From Student Lenders NYT
Federal Student Loan Official Is Resigning NYT