Blogboard

Bellringer’s Carol Richtsmeier, a high school newspaper advisor in Texas, is less than pleased with the Department of Education’s expansion of the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA). In her eyes, the policy was already being misused to stifle student publications, the expansions could make it worse.

My buddies at the Student Press Law Center tell me that the DOE … apparently has gone beyond bat-crack crazy and enacted some additional changes to FERPA that are slated to take effect Jan. 8.

These new rules broaden what the DOE considers to be confidential education records to include basic stuff like statistical data about school safety, discipline and academic performance if school officials think that the person requesting the information or even kiddos on campus can figure out who the information might be about.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I thought I was having a rough week. But NYC teacher J's of Mildly Melancholy makes mine look like a picnic.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Middle school teacher Cindi Rigsbee tries to help a former student, now in high school, cope with the death of a friend.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ariel Sacks reflects on the multitude of factors, from lack of resources to chronic student absenteeism, that can "cloud" teachers' effectiveness in low-income urban schools. It's something that needs to be considered, she suggests, when it comes to evaluating teacher performance.

Teachers at schools like mine get used the multitude of x factors. In fact, we stop expecting everything to be "just so" and start going out of our way to plan for all of the unexpected things that might happen. Does this make us less effective? Maybe it does, in a way. It is harder to address problems quickly and effectively, when new problems present themselves simultaneously. But is it fair to call us less effective? Is it actually fair to measure my effectiveness in the same way my former colleague's teaching is now measured [at a well-managed and -resourced KIPP school], when the playing field is not level? Is the job of teaching in these very disparate environments even the same?

Of course, the $10 million underlying question is, how can we level playing field? Perhaps more specifically: What lessons can be gleaned from the KIPP school her colleague transferred to?

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan will serve as the next Secretary of Education. His appointment has been well received by members of congress and union leaders alike. Unsurprisingly, the blogging world has started weighing in as well. More Humbly Did I Teach is pleased with Obama’s pick.

I couldn't be happier. I've had my eye on this guy for years, particularly because the Chicago Public Schools has really done some innovative things, particularly his use of The International Baccalaureate as a way to increase student achievement in urban schools.

If I were ever to leave Baltimore City Public Schools, it's Chicago Public Schools where I would probably look first, for the things I've heard this guy implementing in that system. From the outside, it's not Michelle Rhee-style union-busting and scare tactics, but a real commitment to teacher and learning quality.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Alexander Russo of This Week in Education thinks the early reaction to Arne Duncan's selection as education secretary has been too uncritical:

Most of the folks who are gushing about him don't really know him (or Chicago) that well, or hope to work for him in the near future, or are approving of him because they think that they can beat him in DC. Many of the folks writing stories last night were starting nearly from scratch.

Hopefully the day two stories will dig a little deeper into Duncan's retro union contract (short day, short year, etc.), the district's excruciatingly slow progress on increasing achievement (see NAEP), the school closing fiasco (and I like school closings), and the closed and capped "charter" system Chicago still has.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bill Ferriter agrees heartily with Bill Gates that teacher qualilty should be based on actual effectiveness rather than academic credentials:

Our commitment as a profession to master's degrees as a form of identifying--and then differentiating pay for--accomplished teachers has simply outlived its usefulness. While there may have been a time when elevating the academic accomplishments of classroom teachers served to elevate the profession in the eyes of critics and to elevate the qualifications of those who'd chosen to spend their careers in the classrooms, differentiating pay for master's degrees at this point is an inefficient and under-informed practice.

At same time, though, he hopes the software-billionaire-turned-education-activist understands that teachers' effectiveness cannot be adquately judged by their impact on standardized tests: "Dozens of other factors influence a student's performance in any given year."

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Incoming presidents usually stay at Blair House in the five days preceding inauguration, according to The Caucus. President-elect Obama and Mrs. Obama asked to arrive a few days early, so that Malia and Sasha could start their new school on time. But Blair House, it appears, is already booked.

It remained unclear who on Bushes [sic] guest list outranked the incoming President.

"It's not a public schedule," said Sally McDonough, spokeswoman for First Lady Laura Bush, in refusing to disclose who was staying at Blair House. "It's not a question of outranking the Obamas. Blair House will be available to them on January 15."

A few hours later The Caucus updated with a clarification from a White House official:

"receptions and gatherings" by members of the outgoing Bush administration..."don't make it it suitable for full-time occupancy by the Obamas yet."

A transition official explained that the Obamas are exploring their options.

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Brownsville Independent School District, this year's recipient of the $1 million Broad Foundation prize for helping close the achievement gap, might just have the answer to school reform, thinks Barnett Berry.

So why do the policy pundits continue to trumpet the need for short-cut alternative pathways to teaching, when the award-winning school district points to its partnership with the University of Texas at Brownsville as the major source of effective teachers? . . . Brownsville teachers are not recruited from high-brow East coast universities, nor do they carry their own chart-busting test scores into their classrooms. Brownsville teachers are from the community.

Maybe cultural competence, not just one’s SAT score, needs to be a primary teacher recruitment criterion.

Posted by Liana Heitin at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Time’s latest issue features a cover story on Washington, D.C. Chancellor of Education Michelle Rhee, an aggressive—and publicly admired—reformist who has gained a reputation for antagonism towards teachers and unions. A number of teacher-bloggers are weighing in (sometimes harshly), saying the article is overly flattering of Rhee and uniformed about educational realities. Here are some excerpts:

More Humbly Did I Teach

I agree with the sentiment that bad teachers exist and it's important to get rid of them. But who is the judge of bad teachers? I've not yet heard a satisfying answer.

And to Time Magazine, if you are going to have a reporter write an editorial, call it an editorial, because when you allow reporters to write statements [defining great teachers] without citing any research at all, you undermine your magazine's credibility.

Boarderland

It’s worth pointing out that Amanda Ripley admits on her blog that she really is a know-nothing writer: “I knew our schools were troubled,” she says, “but I hadn’t realized the compounded effects of all that mediocrity.”

The same should be said for uncritical reporters who wander into political hotbeds they don’t understand and merely repeat what they’re told.

Schools Matter

It is not teacher rights that are eating away DC Schools nearly so much as it is a long-standing malignant neglect and a continuing history of unaddressed poverty. If teacher job security and unions were the culprit, it seems that the suburban schools would be suffering the same as the urban schools.

Amanda Ripley, the article’s author, also weighs in on Michelle Rhee on her blog.

Rhee herself could be a little frightening, depending on her mood…As I told a friend of mine after finishing up a day with Rhee: I wouldn’t want to work for Michelle Rhee. But I’d like her to be my kid’s superintendent.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Hobo Teacher's English class is interrupted when two students come by selling candy to raise money for an after-school club. He's had it:

Seriously, why not put my class in a washateria? It would be less distracting. ... Better yet, how about you give me one of those kiosks in the middle of the mall. That way kids can get on with their daily commerce, and I can hustle some education the best I can. It’s not like I haven’t taken a backseat already.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On the political site Talking Points Memo, economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich asks why we're bailing out Wall Street investment banks but not public schools:

It's absurd. We¹re bailing out every major bank to get financial capital flowing again. But we¹re squeezing the main sources of our nation's human capital. ... Don't get me wrong: I¹m not saying funding is everything when it comes to education. Obviously, accountability is critical. But without adequate funding we can¹t attract talented people into teaching, or keep class sizes small enough to give kids a real chance to learn, or provide them with a well-rounded curriculum, and ensure that every qualified young person can go to college.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Doug Johnson questions the purpose of rankings and awards in the edublogosphere. Of all people, he says, educators should know that extrinsic-reward systems can be counterproductive:

As Alfie Kohn’s classic book Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’S, Praise, and Other Bribes (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) demonstrates, rewards can punish those who do not receive them; rewards can rupture relationships between students and between students and teachers; rewards ignore the reasons for a desired behavior; and rewards can discourage risk-taking. But the single most devastating conclusion he draws from his research is that rewards can actually discourage desired behaviors.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As North Carolina's Teacher of the Year, Cindi Rigsbee has logged 8,000 miles on her state-provided Toyota Prius. And she's gotten at least one complaint to the "How am I driving?" 800 number on the back of the car.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ms. H. of Molding Young Minds welcomes her students back from Thanksgiving break with some serious tough love.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)