Like Imus, Edison Schools Is Coming Back
There are apparently two million minutes of instruction during high school, and -- no surprise -- we're not using ours very wisely. Here's the trailer for a new, as yet unreleased documentary about the problem:
Conceived and exec produced by venture capitalist Bob Compton, and directed by two TFA alums, the doc follows six students in three countries. Check it out.
Chinese foreign language classes are all the rage in some districts -- Chicago, Palo alto to name a couple. But, according to this video, the Chinese are learning English faster and in greater numbers than we could ever match up.
I'm all for rigorous courses, and loved taking Chinese in college, but should setting up Chinese language programs really be a priority?
UPDATE: It's also worth noting, I'm told, that Pearson has proposed to buy Harcourt's Assessment and International divisions.
Today's Washington Post has an interesting piece about the use of high-priced management consultants -- Deloitte, KPMG, McKinsey, Alvarez & Associates (of St. Louis and NOLA fame) -- in urban school districts, a good reminder that it's not just the policy wonks and think tanks that drive real live schoolpeople crazy. "Two dozen high-priced consultants have set up shop on three floors of the D.C. public schools' headquarters, wearing pinstripe suits, toting binders and BlackBerrys and using such corporate jargon as "resource mapping" and "identifying metrics," begins the piece (Big-Name Consultants Greeted With Wariness). "They come from big-name restructuring firms, and the city is paying $4 million for their services this summer." It's not just DC, of course. Chicago has used Boston Consulting Group on several projects, some of which haven't turned out particularly well. St. Louis and New Orleans have both used Alvarez, to mixed reviews. And, as the article points out, few of the consultants offer project management services or stay on to implement the plans that they make. Binders and powerpoints are all well and good, but making the plans work and building buy-in and capacity are the real keys.
UPDATE: The usually-insightful Kevin Carey mystifyingly defends the management consultant crowd by blaming incompetent management for DC schools' problems. A post written, perhaps, on a Blackberry.
If you think it's just the free, government-paid tutoring that is sometimes problematic, check out this Law.com article (Law.com - Sylvan Center Told to Refund Tutoring Costs) about how a New York City mom says she borrowed $11k to get both her kids tutoring, but didn't see as much improvement as promised in Sylvan marketing materials. So she sued. And the preliminary findings went in her favor. Of course, most states promise kids an education, and not all of them get that, either.
You might find it hard to imagine sympathizing with military recruiters and boot camp drill instructors -- perhaps until you read The Army We Have in the upcoming Atlantic magazine ($), which details just how much "restructuring" military trainers are having to undergo in order to deal with the challenges they're facing in finding ways to motivate and shape a skill-lacking, individualistic, video-game generation of kids. Support the war or not, it's a story about difficult changes and reforms for a large, tradition-bound bureaucracy that has been long doing it it's own way. Sound familiar?
I rarely look at individual school- or district-level achievement data, and when I do I never know where to go. State and district report cards are often hard to find -- and not exactly user-friendly when you get there. The two sites I know about have strengths and weaknesses. There's the GreatSchools.net, which was funded in part by New School Venture Fund and is focused on parents, then there's SchoolMatters.com, created by Standard and Poor's with help from Gates and Broad. Then there's Just4Kids.
Which is better? Well, GreatSchools has the 2006 data for Chicago, while SchoolMatters has easy to find AYP information (for 2005). Just4Kids has 2005 information only, and an "opportunity gap" ratings system.
Someone told me GreatSchools gets 30 million pageviews a month. Wow.
This NPR segment (NPR : New Ohio Governor Targets School Vouchers) reminds us that while 12 states plus Utah now have voucher programs, new Ohio governor Ted Strickland is trying to roll back one of the original voucher initiatives to its previous form. For the past year, Ohio's new statewide voucher program has been running, serving roughly 3,000 kids. Arguing that the program costs too much ($13 million) and serves the few rather than the many, Strickland wants to roll the program back to its original Cleveland-only size. He is opposed by, among other things, crying parents and kids who don't want to go back where they came from. Meanwhile, other states -- Utah, say -- watch and see which direction this voucher thing is going.
My take, for what it's worth, is that voucher programs will continue to spread, regardless of what happens in Ohio and Utah in the short term.
The new FairTest Examiner is out, and full of the usual news and commentary (and the announcement of a new co-director named, of all things, Earle M. Test). I kid you not.
Better late than never, the Education Industry Association, which represents the tutoring companies in Washington, has finally put out a press release in response to Senator Clinton's "Halliburton all over again" charge from last weekend (see below) saying that they are surprised by the remarks and have worked with Clinton on tutoring legislation last year. The statement (below) doesn't acknowledge the mishaps and questionable practices that have popped up, or the difficulties districts and states have had weeding out bad apples, but says SES participation and satisfaction rates are up, and that 500K children are participating now.
Continue reading "Tutoring Industry Denies Terrorism Halliburton Charges" »
First there was private-sector tutoring, whose evil effects we all know well. Then there was outsourced tutoring (from India, etc.), which was clearly anti-American from top to bottom. Now, according to this EdWeek story, there's an even more pernicious tutoring variation: "machine-based" tutoring (New Breed of Digital Tutors Yielding Learning Gains). What's next? A computerized tutoring system run by Halliburton and outsourced to India. I can see it now.
EdWeek's Technology Counts, just out yesterday, shows that computerized testing like that Oregon was using before its troubles with Vantage Learning has been relatively slow to spread (Tracking U.S. Trends): "The number of states that offer computerized statewide assessments is relatively small, with 14 states making that opportunity available on a limited basis, such as within certain districts, or for students retaking pencil-and-paper tests. And only nine states offer computer-based testing to all students."
Make that thirteen.
How to get more good research out to the public and to educators in the field is an important and vexing issue. Over at Paul Baker's Education PR blog, Baker (Communicating research) mentions what I hope will be a useful and engaging session at AERA that the Tribune's Stephanie Banchero and I (among others) are going to be at. I'm also doing a session later in the week about how policymakers (don't) use education research. [Apologies to Baker for getting his name wrong the first time out.]
There was a guy on last night's PBS News Hour (President Urges Ethanol Cars) making the case that, when it comes down to it, ethanol is a mighty weak strategy for energy conservation -- -- a highly subsidized, but ultimately too weak a solution for the underlying problem.
This made me wonder, what's education's version of ethanol -- propped up by government or private subsidies but ultimately too small or weak to get the real job done? I'm guessing lots of ideas and programs come to mind.
Though the title of this NYT story (Milken Wants to Sell Stake in His Education Company) makes it sound like Michael Milken is getting out of education, actually he's just bringing more people in -- to the tune of $1B in new investments, half of which is already in hand according to the article. Knowledge Universe, the private -sector education group Milken runs, owns KinderCare and has a big stake in Nobel Learning Communities.
Those of you interested in the business side of education may want to check out Marc Dean Millot's new blog, Edbizbuzz. He's taking a business look at NCLB reauthorization proposals, and has interesting and controversial things to say, like Big Grant to KIPP Houston Dooms Charters to the Margins.
Today, Oregon state supe Ed Dennis (or someone with his authentic-seeming email) wrote me with a letter (below) about what's going on with Vantage learning and OR's testing woes -- basically apologizing for the massive inconvenience and blaming it all on Vantage Learning, the test vendor whose online offerings apparently fell short, and then way short.
As you'll see, Dennis accuses Vantage of some shady-sounding negotiating tactics (fake invoices, essentially), and raises the possibility of losing NCLB funding if online testing fell through with Vantage, which I think would have been unlikely. 
Makes me wonder what Vantage has to say for itself (an entirely different story, I'm sure), whether the fact that the situation involves online testing makes a difference (my sense is no), and whether ED would have fined a state for a vendor failure (they didn't fine Illinois for not getting test results back in a timely manner).
For the whole letter and some news and blog background, click below.
Continue reading "State Supe Says Testing Co. Threatened State & Raises Loss Of NCLB Funding" »
I'm not sure I get exactly what all the hullaballoo is about The Princeton Review's selling off one of its subsidiaries, as chronicled in this Insider Higher Ed story from last week (MyRichUncle's Under-the-Radar Buy), but I love knowing where education companies' SEC filings are, and what they look like (they're linked in the story). I'd actually never seen one before. Not that I can make heads or tails of this one -- an 8-K it's called -- but still. Anyone know if these filings are posted or kept anywhere central, or if they ever have interesting information in them?
UPDATE: A kind and very well-placed insider says that you can find SEC filings here.
I find it hard to keep track of when things are happening in the education world -- hearings, conferences, report releases, etc. -- and have yet to find the perfect solution (ie, a calendar that not only includes just the big events I'm interested in, but is customizable and updates automatically into Outlook or Google calendars).
I'm told that the EdWeek calendar is pretty good, and that seems to be true but there's almost too much there (and no mention of Congress or USDE schedules, for this week at least, or of ASCD starting this weekend in Anaheim). As recently noted, AACTE claims to have a good list going for hearings and the like, which I appreciate. Though, again, no mention of the Secty's speech on higher ed tomorrow and no events past this week. Someone recently told me about the Peter Li calendar (see here), which has an interesting set of events including ASCD this weekend but nothing in DC.
I guess there's nothing perfect -- or is there? If you know of a better way to keep tabs on what's happening and what's coming up, let us know.
This weekend's NYT story about the questionable quality of the University of Phoenix (Nation's Largest Private University Faces Economic, Institutional Woes via Huffington Post) might seem on the surface to be good news for traditional colleges and foes of for-profit education.
The graduation rate from the school is miserably low, especially among traditional-age students. Some of the recruitment practices are questionable.
But at least some of the concerns aired in the piece cut both ways. How could things have gotten so bad at the University of Phoenix if the current postsecondary system of regional accreditation and self-governance was effective?
"When Senator John Kerry said last fall that students who didn’t do well in school were more likely to “get stuck in Iraq,” he was immediately attacked for insulting the intelligence of U.S. troops," according to this Harper's Magazine article (Kerry Was Right). "Of course, Kerry’s comment was entirely accurate—not because American soldiers in Iraq are dumb, but because the Pentagon, in seeking to overcome serious recruiting shortfalls, has enlisted growing numbers of high school dropouts."
Felons, too, according to CNN's Paris Hilton Anderson Cooper -- but of course that's someone else's problem.
The February issue of Baird & Co's Class Notes is out (PDF here), and as usual it's full of fascinating news from the business side of education that I would otherwise not likely know.
Apparently K12 education stocks are beginning to rally, especially Leapfrog Enterprises (+13%), Scientific Learning (+11%), and Educate (+10%). However, the publishing index increased a modest 1% due to small declines of shares of John Wiley, McGraw-Hill, and Scholastic.
What else? Apollo Group (owners of Phoenix, right?) bought the online high school company Insight Schools, and Educate announced it has "entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a group of investors."
There's been a ton of instant analysis about the politics of the proposed NCLB reauthorization, and its substantive impact on schools (if any). But what I haven't seen much of any of is an analysis of how it would affect the education industry -- publishers, testing companies, tutoring and test prep folks, school management folks. And so, here's my quick take:
Testing: As long as voluntary national testing doesn't happen, the testing folks have to be happy with NCLB since it brings in so much business -- annual tests, lots of subjects, so much analysis to be done. (Of course, as in the case of Harcourt in IL, they're having trouble delivering.)
Publishing: I don't see much obvious impact, except that restructured schools often have to change curricula and materials so that creates new opps.
Tutoring: These folks have to be happy since the proposed law would put tutoring ahead of choice nationwide (it's currently a pilot) and beef up the requirements for providing services a little.
School Management: The big winners here, school management folks would have all sorts of new opportunities if schools in years 5 and 6 had to convert to charter or come under new management. There'd be an almost instant increase in charters -- oh, and that charter cap busting provision, too.
EdWeek has recently beefed up its coverage of the education industry -- I use the term in the most neutral sense -- and this week there are a bunch of articles about three of the main things that the education industry does for schools: tutoring, testing, and textbooks.
Companies Want Changes in NCLB Tutoring Policies
Disappointing numbers fuel call for steps aimed at boosting student participation.
Tougher Oversight Promised for Private Tutors in Georgia
Earlier this month, state officials barred the Get Smart Inc. service from working with public school tutoring for three years after investigators found some Clayton County, Ga., middle school students were being paid $5 to forge parent signatures for lessons that never took place.
‘What Works’ Review Finds Leading Math Texts Wanting
Only one elementary school math program has received even a qualified nod from evaluators for its research record.
States Adopt New Tests for English-Learners
The new changes aim to meet federal requirements, though some officials protest.
Longtime readers of this site know that education is a business, with billions in transactions that involve vendors, management companies, consultants, and universities. Pretending that it's not -- that "public education" is entirely public and that there's a bright line between it and the private sector except for vouchers or charters -- doesn't do anyone any good in the long run. It just means you don't know what's really going on, for better or worse.
This concludes the sermon. Click below if you want to read about a tiny online publisher buying a giant old-school publisher, about tech deals gone sour in Detroit, and about how they got 50 percent of the parents participating in SES in Indianapolis.
UJPDATE: Chalkboard's Joe Williams gives context on the privatization uproar reported in today's NYT here.
If you subscribed to Marc Dean Millot's New Education Economy, you'd already know about a new report from Eduventures on SES that describes how providers "hang on the whims of parents." You'd know that the Florida teachers union (an NEA affiliate) gave Rod Paige's new outfit, the Chartwell Group, start-up funding via its pension fund investments. And you'd know which states made requests to modify their SY 2006 AYP calculations.And if you got his K12 Leads report, too, you'd have RFPs and other info coming out of your ears.
