This Week In Education: Teachers & Teaching Archives

In The Classroom

Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math NYT
In a new wave of the global outsourcing of services, personal chores are moving offshore, and this is leading to some daunting challenges, both economic and cultural.

On Education: Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere NYT
There is no blackboard and no lectern, and, most glaringly, no students in the university classroom of the future.

With World Growing Smaller, IB Gets Big EdWeek
Amid heightened concern about preparing students for a global economy, the academically demanding International Baccalaureate program is catching on fast in U.S. schools.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Follow The Bouncing Ball

Using ball as chair helps focus, third-graders say
Grand Rapids Press
Katie Messina teaches to a sea of bobbing heads. Messina first experimented with using balls as chairs six years ago in another school, where her class included seven second-graders with attention deficit disorders.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Happy Welcome To Jail Mug Shot

Things started out so well for this new teacher (left), but ended recently with rape charges and a mug shot (right).

Via USA Today's On Deadline blog.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Higher Ed's Role In Creating An Oversupply Of Under-Qualified Teachers

Here the Economist details the struggles of various countries to improve public education and change the large variations in how much students learn, focusing in on a recent McKinsey recommendation that nations change the way they select teachers (How to be top). I know, McKinsey. And yes, other countries. I hate that stuff too. But there's some worthwhile thinking in there, much as I hate to admit it. If education programs attract the bottom third of college students, and universities accept and train them regardless of need, the built-in limitations are obvious. Of course, reining in universities, much less the ed schools, has proven difficult if not impossible for lawmakers to do. It's much easier to muck around in K12 and ignore the role of higher ed in all this. Via Eduwonk, I think.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Teacher Suspended For Graphic Book Recommendation

Teachers can get in trouble for pretty much anything these days. This time it's a book by Cormac McCarthy that was deemed a little too graphic for high schoolers: Town in uproar after teacher put on leave over book. Like high school kids haven't been exposed to tales of murder sprees and decomposing bodies before.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teachers Behaving Badly, States Ignoring The Problem

Between last week's report from the Small Newspaper Group (see chart) and today's AP story, we've got a glut of information about teachers behaving badly. According to last week's story, only Virginia revokes or suspends fewer teaching certificates than Illinois.States such as California, Georgia or Utah are 25 times more like to remove a teacher from the profession than Illinois.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hidden Teacher Violations...In Illinois & Nationwide

Speaking of teachers, there's a new slew of stories from the folks at the Small Newspaper Group in Springfield Illinois that may blow your socks off: Illinois does poor job of dealing with teacher misconduct "Small Newspaper Group filed open records requests with 50 state education departments and built a national database of revocations and suspensions of teacher licenses during its "Hidden Violations" investigation. Among the 50 states, only Virginia revokes or suspends fewer teaching certificates than Illinois. Even if a hearing officer upholds the firing of teacher, they are free to seek employment in another school district." These are the same folks who did an award-winning investigative report on teacher tenure two years ago.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Making Teaching A Career, Not A Drive-By Charity Stop

Over at Teacher In A Strange Land, teacher Nancy Flanagan riffs off of my Teach For America essay from last week. "TFA has done nothing to re-conceptualize the work of teaching as both socially valuable and complex professional practice. In fact, TFA and similar “fellowship” programs have spawned a rash of research projects bent on proving that teacher education isn’t particularly useful—that any smart person can teach." But, like me, Flanagan agrees that the potential is there: "When Wendy Kopp comes up with an idea to keep TFA folks in teaching or reposition teaching as a flexible, entrepreneurial professional career, I personally will carry signs nominating her for a MacArthur grant—or Secretary of Education."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pay For Performance... In The Blogosphere

Pay for performance is everywhere, these days. Once compensated purely based on how many posts they wrote, some bloggers are now being paid according to how many viewers and comments their posts generate, according to this in-depth New York Magazine article (Everybody Sucks ). How's that for pay for performance?

Meanwhile, the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights released a new report on PFP last week, focusing on a handful of districts doing it collaboratively. It's not so bad, they say. Check it out.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Gay Union Leader For New York City Teachers

According to this NY Daily News article, Randi Weingarten, head of the NYC teachers union and potential successor to AFT president Ed McElroy, came out at a recent event as a lesbian. This is probably not such a big deal in New York City, but in the rest of the country, who knows.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The School Is Flat

Working on an upcoming article for Edutopia I've learned some of the latest going on in the world of e-learning (aka distance education). For example, there's a great international project called The Flat Classroom Project, which takes the ideas of Thomas Friedman's World Is Flat -- appropriately enough -- asks teams of students from around the world to investigate them. As for the technology itself, podcasts and wikis are pretty much old hat for this crew. They're on to things likenings, FlashMeeting, and iEARN.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Lives Of Former Students

Over at Nick Kristof's NYT blog, Chicago teacher Will Okun describes attending the wedding of some former students, with beautiful pictures. "Last Saturday, I attended and photographed the Chicago wedding of Keith and Tarita Thomas. While all former students are remarkable and unique in their own individual ways, Keith is the once-in-a-career student who holds a special place in every teacher’s life. Keith is also one of the very few students I have taught in nine years who was raised in a two-parent household." It's nice stuff, and pretty amazing that they're giving him so much space. Plus 86 reader comments and counting.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Measure TFA By What It Does (Meh), Or What Its Alums Do (More)?

Finishing out what's been an informal TFA Week, TAPPED's Dana Goldstein puts it pretty well: "It feels heartless to criticize a program that's, well, so good-hearted...But while it appears that TFA is very effective at connecting business leaders and young professionals with the public school reform movement and imbuing them with a sense of commitment toward public education, it's unlikely TFA is impacting student achievement in any broadly-defined way."

Meanwhile, in The Economist: "It will be hard for even a corps of 10,000 teachers to have a large impact in a country that has 3m teachers in public schools alone. But the influence of TFA's alumni, supporters say, is at least as important as the direct impact in the classroom." Via Eduwonk.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Giving Shanker Credit For What He Wanted To Do

I wish Slate had taken my piece about Al Shanker (How Al Shanker Blew Up No Child Left Behind) instead of Sara Mosle's recent review, but I'm happy to report that Mosle and I make some of the same points. For example, that Shanker's work unionizing teachers affects nearly every classroom teacher to this day. ("Today, there isn't a teacher in America whose life hasn't been touched by Shanker's own.") But we disagree about his legacy, in that Mosle (The Man Who Transformed American Education) gives more credit to Shanker for his ideas and "prescience" than I do. Journalists and pundits and wonks (and AFTies) like to focus on all the rest -- the "good" Shanker, the ideas, the potential -- but to me, Shanker is all about his real-world accomplishments, which are powerful and far-reaching but aren't most of them really about school reform.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Performance Pay Not "Mandatory" In MIller Proposal, Group Says

For the last three weeks the NEA and most of the news coverage (for example here) have been referring to the merit pay provisions in George Miller's NCLB plan as "mandatory," but on Friday the Center on American Progress think tank put out a fact sheet claiming that the requirements are voluntary (and that Miller is not against collective bargaining). Who's right? It's hard to say. After all, NCLB itself could be described as voluntary -- states don't have to take the money and implement its rules -- but in reality it's not that way (states need the money). Still, it looks like there's more wiggle room and protections for teachers and local contracts in there than has been advertised (or reported).

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Charter Schools For Rich Kids

Charter schools aren't just for poor kids, anymore. This week's Education Gadfly digs out an interesting story from the San Jose Mercury about parents in affluent Palo Alto, Cal. successfully threatening to start a Mandarin immersion charter school if the district didn't create one on its own. Some folks in the article think this isn't what charters are "for." Not surprisingly, the Gadfly thinks differently (All in). If you don't give parents -- especially affluent ones -- what they want, then they simply exit the system. Which, as with health insurance risk pools, just makes things worse for those kids and teachers left behind.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Teacher's Thoughts In The New York Times

I've been remiss in not posting something earlier about Chicago teacher Will Okun, whose writing and photography is being posted on the New York Times website as part of Nick Kristof's "On The Ground" series. How nice to see a real teacher's voice on the pages of the New York Times, plus all the comments that follow. In his most recent posting, Okun describes the inverse relationship between parents who come to parent-teacher conferences and parents who need to come to them, and what if anything should and can be done to address the problem. In his previous post, Okun decries the "miracle worker" notion of teaching, for teachers as well as reformers, and the process of teaching in a more sustainable way - even if it means "giving up" on some of the most disinterested kids.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bringing Back Dunce Caps In New Orleans

Even if you don't care much what's happening in New Orleans, this USA Today update details some of the more hard-to-watch tactics that some schools there (and elsewhere) are employing to create a culture of high expectations (New Orleans school system re-educated):

"After breakfast and roll call, reading teacher Anne Felter walks through the aisles and distributes 26 large, laminated "YET" signs to selected students — those deemed "not there yet." The students wear the signs around their necks for three days, can't talk to other students and must eat lunch alone."

I'm not as opposed to this as some are, but I can appreciate how tough it is to contemplate.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Critic Explains Internal Union Dynamics

Many may have missed the EIA Communique's analysis of the internal politics surrounding NCLB reauthorization, which came out late last week (EIA Communique). Others may have better explanations (EIA is a union critic), but this one describes some of the history behind the TEACH Act, suggesting that Miller should have known that it would be a problem, reminds us that Miller and the NEA went at it "hammer and tongs" in the runup to NCLB 1.0, and reminds us that the CTA and NEA aren't always on the same page. Most important, it reminds us of the internal dynamics going on within the union (any union) that require rallying the troops on broad issues but holding a smaller set of issues as key "gets."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How Teachers Think

I wish there was an education version of Jerome Groopman's new book, How Doctors Think, to help us understand how teachers make decisions about students' learning difficulties. The Groopman book examines the thought processes of various doctors, focusing especially on how -- and why -- even the best of them tend to get things wrong when diagnosing patients. As Groopman shows, the errors (up to 24 percent in some studies) have common causes: doctors aren't listening carefully, they're thinking of their previous patients, or they rely on experience rather than using statistical guidelines. Are teachers any better or worse at making tough decisions with little time and lots of uncertainty? More important, what are the error patterns in their decisionmaking?

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Erase, Rewrite, & Reauthorize NCLB, Says CTA

Teachers to Pelosi: Say no to 'No Child Left Behind SF Examiner
Leaders of the CTA brought a giant postcard signed by nearly 1,000 teachers to San Francisco today to urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to withdraw her support of a proposed reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Click on the picture to see the giant postcard that was used at yesterday's press event. Click the link to find out more on the CTA campaign to "erase, rewrite, and reauthorize" NCLB.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Maybe It Wasn't Shanker After All

One of the most interesting of the 20-something mostly irate comments on my Huffington Post article claims that Shanker doesn't deserve credit for unionizing the teachers because David Selden was the true visionary and was replaced by Shanker in a power struggle along the lines of Stalin and Trotsky. Hmm. Guess I skipped that chapter in Kahlenberg's book.

Speaking of which, Kahlenberg says I got it wrong. He writes: "I don't agree that "few" of Shanker's ideas were adopted. Standards and charters were two big ideas he was very involved in pushing -- though I'd concede that neither worked out as he envisioned. The NBPTS is a pretty big idea that he promoted. Peer review exists in 30 districts -- not enough places, but enough to keep some pressure on. Entry level teacher tests are tougher than when he started. So I think it's a mixed and evolving legacy on ed reform...I think Al Shanker would have found a way to bridge the divide between the standards groups and teachers, which would have forced NEA to modify its positions."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

California Teachers Go After Pelosi On NCLB

After last Monday's success, The CTA is continuing its effort to make sure that the Miller NCLB draft is slowed down and/or modified substantially with an event in Northern California today (see details below). As before, I'm not sure just how coordinated this is with the national -- as happened with the Katrina vouchers, I'm told. Or perhaps they're playing good cop, bad cop. On strategy, I've noted before that Miller may have overplayed his hand by including TEACH. But it occurs to me also that the unions may have done the same by pushing to expand local assessments and multiple measures, which Miller included in his bill. There's some priority-setting here that I'm not sure makes sense.

Continue reading "California Teachers Go After Pelosi On NCLB" »

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How Al Shanker Blew Up NCLB

When the prospects for renewal of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) blew up during a marathon Congressional hearing a week ago, there was no shortage of ready explanations. But the real, underlying cause is simple: It was Al Shanker's fault.

Click below to continue...or go here to read the full-length version from The Huffington Post.

Continue reading "How Al Shanker Blew Up NCLB" »

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miller & The Teachers

Former Miller staffer Charlie Barone weighed in a few days ago with an optimistic-sounding post on the DFER blog about how -- despite the flaws in Spellings' implementation of NCLB and Miller's draft proposal -- the two might rise above the fray (or just plow through it) in order to get some good things done as they had in the past (Special guest blogger).

I hope he's right. But, based on current events and my own small understanding of what it's like to work with the teachers, I'm not feeling so hopeful right now. First off, there's a long history of teachers (esp the NEA) fighting with Miller despite his deep support for their work -- on EdFlex, on class size reduction during the Clinton administration, and on NCLB's infamous HQT provisions, and now on the TEACH Act. When it gets down to it, even the AFTies are pretty hard core (AFT Michele the other day wrote "what's good for teachers is good for children"). Meantime, the teachers in LA are threatening to block the transformation of Locke high school into small union charter schools, despite strong support within the Locke faculty and a vote of the elected school board approving the change earlier this month.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Current State Of "Alt" Cert

Nearly everywhere you go in New York you run into new teachers who joined the NYC Teaching Fellows program -- the city's version of TFA, I guess -- teaching for the first time and taking grad school courses at night. And nearly everywhere you go you'll find that they complain mightily -- about the lame courses they have to take, and about the schools where they're placed lacking support. Now there's a book and a new report out on the topic. The book, Great Expectations, is reviewed in today's New York Sun. The new report, from Fordham, has the usual witty cover and the usual disputed findings (see story here).

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How The NEA Ended Up So Opposed To Miller/McKeon

I wrote on Monday that the CTA was coming out stronger against the Miller/McKeon draft than the NEA, which had -- until then -seemed tolerably pleased. And well they should have been. However, Andy (Eduwonk) Rotherham (pictured) wondered how I could ever have thought that the NEA was supportive of the Miller/McKeon draft. And you know he's always right. Well, a look back at the week behind shows that it wasn't at all clear to me (or anyone else) how things would turn out on Monday -- though perhaps it should have been. Read below to see how it all unfolded.

Continue reading "How The NEA Ended Up So Opposed To Miller/McKeon" »

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

California Teachers Union Defies NEA "Suits"

A couple of sharp-eyed folks have noted this afternoon that, while the NEA seems to have gotten what it wants (or thinks it can get) from the Miller draft, the California Teachers -- powerful forces for Miller, McKeon, and Pelosi -- are taking a much harder anti-NCLB line. See NCLB II post here (Ca. Teachers Oppose "Miller/Pelosi" Bill), and Schools Matter here (which contrasts the NEA and CTA positions): "We must thank the CTA for taking the position that the Suits for the NEA will not."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teachers With Richer Kids Earn More Under Performance Pay

"Teachers at predominantly white and affluent schools were twice as likely to get a bonus as teachers from schools that are predominantly black and poor," based on this Orlando Sentinel story (Merit pay for teachers reveals sway of affluence). "It wasn't supposed to work that way." Via a friend.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Short Boys Underestimated By Teachers

No wonder some parents are holding their kids back a year before they start school, if this report from EdWeek is right: Teachers Underestimate Short Boys' Intelligence.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:28 PM | Permalink

NCLB, Like Shanker, Stronger On Standards Than Teacher Quality

I'm still dipping around in Rick Kahlenberg's new bio of Al Shanker (pictured), but this commentary about Shanker and NCLB (What Would Al Say?) reminds me of one clear Kahlenberg theme: Shanker was much more effective in pushing for standards and accountability than he was on teacher quality issues. In that sense, NCLB is very much an Al Shanker type of law: stronger on standards and accountability than on teacher quality. Alas, the teacher quality issue may be as or more important than anything else. But there's precious little discussion about TQ in NCLB 2.0. What's with that?

Posted by Alexander Russo at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rounding Up The Education Titles

Former US News education editor Ben Wildavsky reviews the latest group of education books so you don't have to. He finds some things to like about Linda Perlstein's Tested, though he questions whether the school she profiles is representative. "Could it be that the problem is not the tests but the inappropriate, even absurd, ways in which schools are responding to them?" About Jonathan Kozol's Letters To A Young Teacher, Wildavsky doesn't have much good to say. Also reviewed: Dan Brown's story of a first-year teacher in New York, as well as Alex Klein's profile of kids at Stuyvesant High School.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teachers & Teaching: Labor Day Roundup

Film Chronicles Teacher's Fight for Respect NPR
The Education of Ms. Groves, a four-part documentary, follows a sixth-grade schoolteacher as she struggles to gain respect from her new students in Atlanta's public school system.

Teachers: Be subversive Salon.com
Salon spoke to Kozol from his home in Byfield, Mass., about the fun of first graders, the trouble with "utilitarian" teaching, and why No Child Left Behind is "the worst education legislation" in 40 years.

Teachers in Trouble, Parents Ignored -- Part I Washington Post (Jay Mathews)
Today, and in the next two columns, I will describe four cases at more length, and follow with a column of reader reactions, and one on how experts in parental issues think these cases should have been handled. PLUS: Teachers in Part II, Part III.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Tough Liberal" --Friday Reading For Steve Barr & Others

After seven years of hard work, Richard Kahlenberg's long-awaited biography of AFT founder Al Shanker is finally coming out, and -- according to small schools guru Mike Klonsky -- it's got things for both Shanker admirers and detractors to like. As Klonsky writes, Shanker foreshadows things like the Green Dot charters that are now on everyone's minds -- and reminds us how progressive ideas (small schools, charters) can get hijacked by even the most well-intended. Officially out in September, you can order it here.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unions & Teachers & School Improvement

Over at Schools for Tomorrow, Ed Rooney sees some unfortunate similarities between the teachers union in Mexico and the ones here. The union there is tremendously powerful, according to the article, spending on education is at 27 percent of the federal budget, but student achievement is low. Pictured is the head of the teachers union in Mexico, apparently known simply as "la meastra."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Report Praises Chicago Transfer Policy, Slams Evaluation

Hoping to influence the legislature or the contract negotiations or both, there's a new Joyce-funded report from The New Teacher Project out today on teacher ratings, hiring, and all the rest.

The big news? Chicago's longstanding elimination of "bumping" is a notable exception to how other cities handle transfers, and just 12 percent of applicants are hired (up from 18 percent four years ago) -- but its evaluation system is a mess. See Tribune story here.

The report also calls for an evaluation and pay system that's independent of the labor contract, which I don't exactly know would fly.

Cross-posted from District299.com.

Continue reading "Report Praises Chicago Transfer Policy, Slams Evaluation" »

Posted by Alexander Russo at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AACTE Coming From Behind

Stuck in third place early last week, AACTE's Jade Floyd is currently in first place with over 2500 votes over at FishBowlDC -- thanks to your efforts, and, I'm guessing, lots and lots of popularity-obsessed ed school profs and administrators weighing in on her behalf. You know how those guys love rankings.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bootylicious Teachers & Their Flip-Flops

Twenty-something teachers are pissing off the medium-to-older set (of teachers) by wearing flip-flops and giving kids extra credit for spelling words like "bootylicious," according to this post from AFT John based on a Teacher Magazine posting (here). It's an all-out generational war, I tell you.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Now Cool: Librarians

A lot of people seem to be enjoying this NYT Magazine article about new-era librarians (A Hipper Crowd Of Shushers): "With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.” There are an increasing number of librarians who are notable not just for their pink-streaked hair but also for their passion for pop culture, activism and technology."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spying On The NEA Convention

The EIA takes one for the team and covers the NEA convention in Philly this week -- now featuring video highlights:

Check out his moment-by-moment coverage here. It's sure to be entertaining -- even if you're already there.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Help Wanted - Chinese Teachers Need to Meet New Craze"

The Biz Of Knowledge comes up with an Onion-like headline to fit the current scramble for Mandarin teachers: Help Wanted - Chinese Teachers Need to Meet New Craze. Apparently the number of non-Chinese people studying the language is projected to increase from 30 million to 100 million within the next four years, and there is already a bit of frenzy going on in American schools that want to offer the language and need qualified teachers.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TAP For TIF: More On Merit Pay Models

Last week I asked whether the TAP model was ready for prime time, and got a few interesting responses. Still trying to get up to speed, I asked the usual suspects about which merit pay models seemed to work the best and/or dominate the "market" and got some information that might be useful, or not:

For example, there's a December 2006 Center On American Progress report on incentive pay models. There's a Linda Darling-Hammond report that scans the various models (Odden, TAP, etc.) called Recognizing and Enhancing Teacher Effectiveness. And there's a compensation handbook also from earlier this year (Odden). In addition, several folks also noted that TAP has been evaluated, albeit sponsored by them, and found to have positive results -- and that a new more independent study is coming out from Mathematica at some point in the near future. Also, many districts are using TAP for TIF because it includes PD, has career ladders, gives money to nearly everyone, and has essentially been approved by the AFT.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

America's Most Wanted: Teachers

It's high season for recruiters, according to this article, especially those from growing districts. Watch out everyone. You think those military recruiters are bad.

"Rice said Clark County has been mining dwindling districts for teachers for at least 16 years. She said the head of personnel for Chicago public schools used to tease her that they had her picture up in the airport."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Merit Pay Model Not Ready For Prime Time?

A reader wrote in today on my old blog -- perhaps in response to Sam Dillon's NYT article on the slow but steady rise of merit pay initiatives -- to share a deeply negative experience with one of the merit pay models that's being used in several places, the Teacher Advancement Program (now called NIET): "The TAP program was the worst thing to ever happen to my school," writes Smithie. "After 2 years, almost all experienced teachers left, including half of the TAP Leadership team...Additionally, the cost of the program is exorbitant. Off the charts."

Specific complaints aside, is it the TAP model that most districts are adopting with their TIF money, or are there other, better ones -- from Odden, or wherever? Have the different models been compared in terms of how they work? Or is there as yet no single model that seems to work "everywhere"?

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Cheating, Charters, And More Cheating

The Dallas Morning News has just put out a big series on -- yes, again -- cheating on the Texas state exams, called TAKS. Here's the rundown, according to reporter Josh Benton: "Day 1 is the main story, detailing what we did and what we found (Analysis shows TAKS cheating rampant). Day 2 is all about charter schools, where cheating is far more common than in traditional schools (Cheating's off the charts at charter schools). Day 3 is about how Texas could stop 90%+ of the cheating tomorrow if officials felt like it (Efforts to stop cheating often fall short)." Of course, it's all NCLB's fault. That's a no-brainer.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Breakaway LA Teachers Want To Go Charter

In most cases, charter schools are new starts promoted by a charter group, or occasionally conversions (as in Chicago and San Diego). But rarely that I know of have teachers decided that they wanted to go charter, and signed petitions to do so. That's what's going on at Locke high school in LA, where teachers are trying to break away from LAUSD and form a cluster of charter schools operated by Green Dot, whose teachers have abbreviated collective bargaining rights. And regardless of what happens there it creates a fascinating new grassroots way for teachers to get in the charter game, if they want to. Two other LA schools have already expressed interest, and I've gotten emails from teachers in Chicago wondering if they can do the same.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teacher Firings: Still A Myth Until One Percent Go

Over at the AFT Blog, they're still mulling over whether NCLB-caused teacher firings are a myth (as I contend) or not. Most recently, they've found someone who was fired and declared that, therefore, teacher firings are real (here). But that doesn't change things, really. Sure, handfuls of teachers have been fired through NCLB closings and conversions in San Diego and Chicago, among other places. But there are 3 million teachers out there. Teacher firings due to NCLB are still a myth, to me at least, until one percent get pink slipped. And we're nowhere near that.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does More Reading Make For Better Social Studies?

EdWeek's recent NAEP test results story (Test Gains Reigniting Old Debate) does a good job exposing the ritualized response that follows the release of NAEP scores as various folks try and make sense of the results (and, often, bolster their cause).

How big were the gains, and were they attributable to -- or in spite of -- the focus on reading and math that has come with NCLB and Reading First? Not surprisingly, the Administration takes the view that all good things stem from NCLB, while others -- social studies advocates, for example -- aren't so sure that federal programs have helped with any but the most basic results. Meanwhile, time for social studies has declined a half hour per day since 1998, and time for reading has increased by an hour.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The "Lost Teacher Jobs" Myth

The AFT blog links to a song that's apparently going around via email these days (Not on the Test) and then pretty much simultaneously debunks and scaremongers about the idea that teachers' jobs might depend on student test scores: "Thankfully, for the most part, and for now, this is not really true. Teachers are not yet losing their jobs because of students’ poor test performance. But it is a frightening concept. A teacher’s career and livelihood could depend upon the performance of a bunch of eight-year olds. Think about any eight year-old that you know. Even the best kid is probably a spaz."

Funny, yes, but it's easy to read this and end up thinking that teachers are losing their jobs over kids' test scores. They're not.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Dangerous Book For Boys

Book for Boys Soars to Dizzying Heights Wall Street Journal (free)
"The Dangerous Book for Boys" purports to aim itself at a particularly inscrutable and un-book-friendly audience: boys around the age of 10.

So here are instructions on how to skip stones, fold a paper hat, make a battery, and hunt and cook a rabbit. It includes a description of the Battle of Thermopylae, but also how to play Texas Hold 'Em poker, and use the phrases "Carpe diem" and "Curriculum vitae."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How Educators View The Media

I'm not sure I agree with everything in this piece about how educators view the media (Elephants in the Room), but it's an important perspective:

"City teachers brace themselves when a school-related story makes the front page. The news usually isn't good. When mainstream media report on urban schools, the real story is often what goes unsaid."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube...For Teachers

The folks over at Edutopia's Spiral Notebook link to TeacherTube.com, which, as you might have guessed, is a collection of online videos for teachers.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do Teachers Hate SES Tutoring As Much As The AFT?

Predictably, the AFT Blog jumps on the anti-SES bandwagon (Red Frown Face for Tennessee's SES Providers). Claiming that NCLB "purports to be all about accountability, but gives a pass to SES providers," the AFTies cite a Tennessee study that finds few if any effects for the state's SES providers, and calls for reducing or eliminating SES in the next NCLB.

I've seen good and bad SES, but it seems pretty clear that there's a near-impossibility of determining SES impacts on annual state test scores from 30-50 hours of tutoring per year. Imagine if we tried to measure classroom teachers (or schools) based on less than two weeks of teaching? Not to mention that many of the tutors are classroom teachers mooonlighting for what can be very generous wages.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Drunken Pirate Sues Over Denial Of Education Degree

'Drunken Pirate' sues school that nixed degree MSNBC A woman denied a teaching degree on the eve of graduation because of a MySpace photo has sued the university. Here's the photo. The Smoking Gun has the affadavit.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Teachers In NYC "Rubber Rooms"

Mike Antonucci links to a great if horrifying article in the Village Voice about 662 New York City teachers who are in administrative limbo and go each day to one of 13 "administrative reassignment centers (aka "rubber rooms") pending the disposition of their cases -- and suggests that their forced inactivity could be the making of a great reality show (Rubber Rooms Could Be a Gold Mine). From what I read, the Voice piece (Class Dismissed) sounds more like a nightmarish episode of Big Brother than American Idol. Not that I ever watch those shows.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Teaching Roundup

Thanks to contributor Regina Matthews for digging up these interesting articles about teachers and teaching:

Teachers: The Next Generation PEN NewsBlast
Generation Y, the 40 million people born between 1977 and 1986, is dramatically changing the composition of today's teaching staffs.

Union Influence on NCLB EdWeek
A Q&A with Joel Packer, chief NCLB lobbyist for the NEA and Antonia Cortese, EVP for the AFT, with moderator Kevin Bushweller

Teacher Contracts: Restoring the Balance PEN NewsBlast
Teacher contracts reflect an earlier era in America: the age of the rise of industrial unions, according to The Education Partnership.

Degree Drought Indianapolis Business Journal
Why can’t two-year public institutions turn out more students?

Obit: Marie Clay, Proponent of Early Reading Help, Dies at 81 Canton Repository
Clay's methods eventually became known as “Reading Recovery” and spread to other countries.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Beantown Babies Not Getting Their Just Desserts

Joanne Jacobs points to an interesting Boston Globe article about inadequate preschool programs in Beantown (Boston preschools fail kids), including "mediocre instruction, unsanitary classrooms, and dangerous schoolyards.”

Posted by Alexander Russo at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who Is Doug Carnine?

My morning Reading First reading turned up the name Doug Carnine -- a name that's new to me and seems wonderfully carnivorous. According to this post (Lawmaking- turned- moneymaking), Carnine is a former student of of Ed Kame’enui and then U.S. Commissioner of Special Education who followed Bush to Washington and developed Reading First. No subpoena for Carnine, however.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"The Education Of Ms. Groves" Wins Peabody Award

There are at least two education-related pieces I hadn't seen among this year's recently-announced Peabody Awards (here), including Left Behind: The Failure of East St. Louis Schools (which appears to have nothing to do with NCLB and was produced by KMOV-TV, St. Louis, MO) and The Education of Ms. Groves ("Inspiring but not schmaltzy, this program tracks the learning curve of a wide-eyed, first-year middle-school teacher in Atlanta who discovers her job demands skills and resources as well as idealism." Produced by Dateline NBC).

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wanted: Better Reasons To Leave Transfer Rules Intact

This recent EdWeek article (Administration Wants Districts Free to Transfer Teachers) repeats what seem to me like some widespread fallacies surrounding the ability of teachers unions and Congressional Democrats to ward off efforts to restructure failing schools including overriding teacher assignment rules, the legality of such measures, and the appropriateness of telling teachers where to work.

Three months in, we already know that the Democratic majority is slim and in some ways weak (think "surge"). The unions are largely focused on Wal-Mart, health care reform, and getting back the White House. The legality of conditioning billions in federal education funds on changes in collective bargaining doesn't seem nearly as settled as some seem to make it. And employees of all kinds get told where to work all the time.

I'm not saying that the proposal is the best (or worst) idea in the world. I'm just saying that its opponents need to come up with better reasons and strategies to block it, and that reporters and editors need to be current and balanced in describing and headlining the situation. (In its last paragraphs, the EdWeek article describes how things might not turn out the same way they did in 2001. But who makes it to the end of an article, anyway?)

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Harsh Grades For Teachers Hit A Nerve

Based on the results of an NIH study published in Science magazine, this article from USA Today (Study gives teachers barely passing grade in classroom) contains some harsh observations about classroom teaching -- calling most classrooms "dull, bleak places" for learning. Apparently, the piece has hit a nerve -- there are 95 comments and counting.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Standardized Childhood? Rifts In Universal Pre-K

The universal pre-K juggernaut is facing a few rifts, according to this EdWeek story (Scholars Split on Pre-K Teachers With B.A.s and Richard Colvin's post in Early Stories calling Bruce Fuller the bete noir of universal pre-K. Fuller is just putting out a book called Standardized Childhood. As both pieces point out, the seeming unanimity surrounding the idea of universal pre-K leaves out key programmatic and -- even more important -- ideological issues.

Previous Post: The Coming Pre K Quality Crunch

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Extended Learning Reality Check / Roundup

Extended learning is all the rage these days, but as these posts and articles collected by contributor Regina Matthews illustrate, folks in the field aren't necessarily buying it: School districts discuss longer years (Year-Round Schooling Recommended Salt Lake Tribune) and days (Longer Day For Young Pupils? Pittsburgh Leader Times). But kids don’t like it (Students Decry Extended School Year Maine Morning Sentinel), and some adults aren't sure it's effective (Summer Academics Not Always a Good Idea, Professor Says Newswise). Among bloggers, American Thinker thinks those plans are just punishment ( A Longer School Day? ).

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The $8.5 Billion Master's Degree

Over at The Quick And The Ed, Kevin Carey says that salary increases for Master's degrees make up roughly $8.5 billion per year in costs to school districts that most seem to agree doesn't help kids learn more (A Question for Teachers Unions). Via Eduwonk.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exit Exam Database, 1977-2007

Check it out -- Sherman Dorn has found the State High School Exit Examination database -- looks very useful. From a quick look at the map of who has and doesn't have them, it seems like midwestern and plains states have resisted the exams, which are common south, west, and to some extent in the NE.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Educators Can Learn From "American Idol"

According to a recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education , there's lots educators can learn about students and evaluating student achievement from watching American Idol -- of all things -- including "a veritable hunger for realistic evaluation," "a respect for expertise," and (this won't surprise anyone) that students are often poor judges of their own ability. Check out the story here (Schooled by 'American Idol'), and Joanne Jacobs' postings on this meme going back more than a year here.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

American Educator Spring 2007

Lots of good stuff in the Spring issue of the AFT's American Educator, including:

Get Real: Children from low-income homes are academically behind when they enter kindergarten. To reach the same achievement level as their better-off peers, they will need to learn much more—and they will need to learn it faster. Here's how we can help meet that challenge.

In the Zone: In Miami, the union and the district have partnered to create a "School Improvement Zone" that gives the district's lowest-scoring schools the increased attention they need.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Denigrating Teachers...Or Just Disagreeing?

There's a post called The Deciders over at Teacher In A Strange Land that takes me to task for a variety of things, including belittling the experiences and advice of teachers when it comes to NCLB: "When did it get to be OK, even kind of hip, to denigrate the professional work, judgment and thinking of educators?"

True, I am not always respectful of teachers' views on NCLB, but that's not any more denigrating in my mind than it would be to say that doctors shouldn't be the sole arbitors of Medicare policies (which they shouldn't). The experiences and perspectives of practitioners and clinicians (teachers, doctors) are by their nature vivid, detailed, and limited. But saying so doesn't, in my mind at least, denigrate them.

The post to which this is a response is here.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Focused Discomfort Of Learning

There's a long NYT article on developing child athletes from this weekend that describes the dull, uncomfortable process of learning that is familiar to many teachers and parents -- but maybe not so obvious to others who think of learning as "natural" or merely a function of time, or who have forgotten how hard, how frustrating it is to learn something new.

The story opens with the writer's description of her daughter's first frustrating (and unsuccessful) efforts to hit a baseball -- "Toss after toss, she missed. Five tosses. Then 10." -- followed a day later by sudden and unexpected improvement. What happened, she finds, is the power of deliberate, concentrated time spent working on a specific technique with critical feedback from a teacher or coach. It's not the amount of time, but rather the focus of it -- what one researcher calls the "uncomfortable place" that, along with repetition, leads to mastery.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"PBS Teachers" Expanded Site Launches

There is a lot of really godawful content and cluttered webdesign out there online for teachers, who as a result are rightly suspicious about what they're usually being offered. But maybe the new PBS Teachers site will be the exception. Just launched today, the site has a nice, clean look -- with video and blogs up top where they shold be -- along with free lesson plans, local and national educator resources, teacher professional development, all that stuff. Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remembering Shanker

Joe Williams reminds us that Al Shanker passed a decade ago today and says some very nice words about him (The Chalkboard: The 10-Year Void).

I only met him a couple of times, but I remember them vividly.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paige Blames It All On Teachers Unions

Who knew that former EdSec Rod Paige was writing a book? Not I. Who knew it was going to blame pretty much everything on the teachers unions? Again, not I. But apparently that's what he's done.

Called The War Against Hope:How Teacher Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers And Endanger Public Education, "offers the inside story of how teacher unions like the National Education Association (NEA) are selfishly shackling our students to a failing education system, while exposing the bullying techniques that are used to obstruct meaningful reform."

I guess that whole calling the NEA a terrorist organization wasn't a freakish outburst after all.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When Performance Pay Goes Public

These days, you can find out what parents think about your teacher, what campaigns your teacher gives to, whether or not he or she's "highly qualified" under NCLB, and -- for the places that have performance pay programs in place -- who's getting a performance bonus.

That's according to this interesting piece in the St. Pete Times. "Thanks to a new bonus plan, we'll know which teachers get the rewards. But what will parents do with that knowledge?" (Via EdNews.org) The day after the teacher info came out in Houston, according to the article, the site got 400,000 hits. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Please, Ma'am -- Step Away From The Blog

"After long days of grading papers and disciplining rowdy children, a growing number of tech-savvy teachers are creating online journals to vent about the stresses of the profession, according to this Houston Chronicle article (Teachers venting on blogs often go underground ). "Educators who have already embraced the technology — called blogs (short for web logs) — find themselves walking a fine, virtual line of conduct. They strive to entertain and inform, but can't violate their school districts' ethics policies or federal laws designed to protect students' confidentiality. Most teachers who blog have opted to do so underground — refusing to cite their names, workplaces or other identifying details — to avoid potential professional pitfalls."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Friday Funnies

Inner-City Teacher Inspires Students To Stab Him
"Before Mr. Fitzsimmons came along, nobody had been dedicated and hardworking enough to show us that we had the power to make a difference," said student and stabbing participant Gabriel Salazar. (From The Onion)

UPDATE: School bans talking at lunch after choking incidents CNN
A Roman Catholic elementary school adopted new lunchroom rules this week requiring students to remain silent while eating. The move comes after three recent choking incidents in the cafeteria.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are Management Companies Better For Charters?

Speaking of the education industry, last week Erik Robelen wrote a fascinating piece for EdWeek that among other things described the foundation trend towards funding the growth and spread of EMOs -- education management organizations -- to run groups of charter schools instead of invididual operations (Venture Fund Fueling Push For New Schools).

This week, charter insider Marc Dean Millot writes that EMOs are "a poor business model" whose economies of scale are mostly illusory (What Happened to the Charter Idea?: (I) Why “Bottom-Up” Became “Top-Down”). (subscription required).

But Millot, who formerly ran a national charter organization and now puts out a newsletter covering the school improvement industry, doesn't romanticize the good old days of mom-and-pop charter schools, either. "Establishing charter schools is an entrepreneurial triathlon - combining the challenges of political campaigns, business starts and pedagogical creation," he writes. "Schools resulting from the herculean efforts of the under-qualified missionaries who stepped forward were often too small to be financially stable, vulnerable to political opposition, and perhaps prone to mediocrity."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ravitch Moves Left On Teachers Unions

Proving once again that she's nothing if not iconoclastic, Diane Ravitch seems to be moving much farther left than most would expect. Or maybe I just assumed she was a critic.

It's not just the joint appearances with small schools queen Debbie Meier -- soon to be turned into a new EdWeek venture, I'm told. She's also featured in the latest issue of the American Educator in strong support of teachers unions (Cultivating Solutions) of all things:

"Protecting teachers from ill-conceived instructional mandates, intolerable conditions, and poor compensation—these are all reasons why teacher unions were important 100 years ago, and remain so today, says this noted education historian."

No wonder they put her on the cover. For an online interview of her from last year, check out On The HotSeat: Uber-Contrarian Diane Ravitch.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.)

October 31, 2007

In The Classroom

Follow The Bouncing Ball

October 26, 2007

From Happy Welcome To Jail Mug Shot

October 25, 2007

Higher Ed's Role In Creating An Oversupply Of Under-Qualified Teachers

October 24, 2007

Teacher Suspended For Graphic Book Recommendation

October 22, 2007

Teachers Behaving Badly, States Ignoring The Problem

October 19, 2007

Hidden Teacher Violations...In Illinois & Nationwide

October 17, 2007

Making Teaching A Career, Not A Drive-By Charity Stop

October 16, 2007

Pay For Performance... In The Blogosphere

October 15, 2007

A Gay Union Leader For New York City Teachers

October 12, 2007

The School Is Flat

The Lives Of Former Students

October 4, 2007

Measure TFA By What It Does (Meh), Or What Its Alums Do (More)?

Giving Shanker Credit For What He Wanted To Do

October 1, 2007

Performance Pay Not "Mandatory" In MIller Proposal, Group Says

September 27, 2007

Charter Schools For Rich Kids

A Teacher's Thoughts In The New York Times

Bringing Back Dunce Caps In New Orleans

September 24, 2007

Critic Explains Internal Union Dynamics

September 21, 2007

How Teachers Think

Erase, Rewrite, & Reauthorize NCLB, Says CTA

September 20, 2007

Maybe It Wasn't Shanker After All

California Teachers Go After Pelosi On NCLB

September 19, 2007

How Al Shanker Blew Up NCLB

September 18, 2007

Miller & The Teachers

The Current State Of "Alt" Cert

September 13, 2007

How The NEA Ended Up So Opposed To Miller/McKeon

September 10, 2007

California Teachers Union Defies NEA "Suits"

Teachers With Richer Kids Earn More Under Performance Pay

Short Boys Underestimated By Teachers

September 5, 2007

NCLB, Like Shanker, Stronger On Standards Than Teacher Quality

Rounding Up The Education Titles

September 3, 2007

Teachers & Teaching: Labor Day Roundup

August 3, 2007

"Tough Liberal" --Friday Reading For Steve Barr & Others

August 2, 2007

Unions & Teachers & School Improvement

July 30, 2007

Report Praises Chicago Transfer Policy, Slams Evaluation

AACTE Coming From Behind

July 20, 2007

Bootylicious Teachers & Their Flip-Flops

July 9, 2007

Now Cool: Librarians

July 3, 2007

Spying On The NEA Convention

June 27, 2007

"Help Wanted - Chinese Teachers Need to Meet New Craze"

June 26, 2007

TAP For TIF: More On Merit Pay Models

June 25, 2007

America's Most Wanted: Teachers

June 21, 2007

Merit Pay Model Not Ready For Prime Time?

June 7, 2007

Alexander Russo
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