| August & September 2010 News Articles |
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The following news articles contain information on educational issues.The views in these articles are not
necessarily those of the Commonwealth Education Organization, but are posted for your information.
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| *Newly posted articles. |
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*September 30, 2010
IBM HIGH: BIG BLUE TO SPONSOR SCHOOL, MOLD FUTURE EMPLOYEES
“IBM's school, unlike Microsoft and Facebook's, will effectively be a corporate training program. Students won't be forced to work at IBM after graduation, of course, but the company will have the opportunity to mold them in its image. Is being beholden to a giant corporation the price that inner city students now have to pay for a quality education?”
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*September 30, 2010
ED SCHOOL ATTITUDES ABOUT THE TEACHING PROFESSION
“It's been widely observed that what teacher candidates learn in education schools bears little connection to what actual teachers need to be effective in the classroom.”
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*September 30, 2010
“SUPERMAN’ AND SILVER BULLETS
“There may be no such thing as a silver bullet in public policy, but universal parental choice is the closest thing we have to one — assuming our politicians summon the courage to run with it.”
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*September 30, 2010
WHEN PEDAGOGIC FADS TRUMP PRIORITIES
“The consistent delivery of lessons that include multiple checks for understanding may be the most powerful, cost-effective action we can take to ensure learning. Good lessons start with a clear, curriculum-based objective and assessment, followed by multiple cycles of instruction, guided practice, checks for understanding (the soul of a good lesson), and ongoing adjustments to instruction.”
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September 30, 2010
FAILING OUR NATION’S CHILDREN
“Government schools are a monopoly that disproportionately hurt the poor, the very group Democrats claim to defend. That the left does not demand equal opportunity for poor children and their parents is more than outrageous. It is hypocrisy.”
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September 30, 2010
HIGH SCHOOLS, CIVICS, AND CITIZENSHIP:WHAT SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS THINK AND DO
“This study revolves around an essential question: what are teachers trying to teach our youth about citizenship and what it means to be an American?”
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2010
RISING ABOVE THE GATHERING STORM, REVISITED
This is a summary of the updated study on K-12 education by the National Academy of Sciences. “Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5” is the second and most recent update to the National Academy’s original study of 2005. The report points to the continuing failure of public education in providing quality science and math programs.
>>read the summary>> |
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September 28, 2010
4,100 STUDENTS PROVE ‘SMALL IS BETTER’ RULE WRONG
“The committee’s first big step was to go back to basics, and deem that reading, writing, speaking and reasoning were the most important skills to teach. They set out to recruit every educator in the building — not just English, but math, science, even guidance counselors — to teach those skills to students.”
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September 27, 2010
GET RID OF CALCULATORS
"My prescription for improving mathematics education would include eliminating the use of calculators, ensuring that elementary math teachers are truly proficient in mathematics through Algebra II, requiring students to demonstrate proficiency in the core mathematics disciplines before moving into non-core topics like statistics, and returning to proof-based geometry.”
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September 27, 2010
DEFICIENCIES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“The location of and enrollment at some of the flourishing after-school programs in mathematics that have sprung up in the past two decades suggest they are a response to the deficiencies mathematically literate parents perceive in their public school's mathematics coursework and pedagogy.”
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September 26, 2010
'MODEL' EDUCATOR
“Leigh A. Bortins earned an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Michigan and worked in that field before her education's shortcomings led her and her husband to pursue classical education --- grammar, logic, rhetoric -- for their four sons' home schooling.”
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September 23,2010
U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY VOWS TO MAKE AMERICAN CHILDREN ‘GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZENS’
"U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan vowed on Tuesday that his department would work to make American children into "good environmental citizens" through federally subsidized school programs beginning as early as kindergarten that teach children about climate change and prepare them "to contribute to the workforce through green jobs."
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September 22, 2010
FOUNDATION LAUNCHES
“How much does education cost the average Pennsylvania taxpayer? What percentage of students passes basic achievement tests? How much is per pupil spending in a given district? What are the annual salaries of teachers and administrators in my school district? Has student achievement test performance increased or decreased in the last decade? The answers to these questions and more can be found at openPAgov.org, a new online portal launched today by the Commonwealth Foundation.”
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September 22, 2010
EATING CROW & CROWING OVER PERFORMANCE
“The Tennessee results aren’t all rosy for the teachers’ unions, however. For one thing, the burden of proof is always on the performance pay side. The control group didn’t outperform the bonus group, so the report isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the traditional salary schedule. Second, if your goal is to raise student math scores, and a $15,000 bonus to math teachers didn’t do it, why would giving all teachers more money have any effect?”
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September 21, 2010
MERIT PAY FOUND TO HAVE LITTLE EFFECT ON ACHIEVEMENT
“The most rigorous study of performance-based teacher compensation ever conducted in the United States shows that a nationally watched bonus-pay system had no overall impact on student achievement—results released today that are certain to set off a firestorm of debate.”
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September 20, 2010
MISSING THE POINT: MERIT PAY STUDY WILL TELL US...NOTHING
“...I've long championed the radical proposition that good educators deserve to be paid more than bad educators....results, positive or negative, will move my stance on this not a whit. This expensive and meticulous project, for all the exertions of the talented investigators, was essentially an effort full of sound and fury signifying nothing--because the study didn't address the questions that matter.”
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September 20, 2010
SCHOOLS: DIMINISHING EXPECTATIONS, RETURNS
"The cost of educating a student tripled between 1960 and 2000 (in inflation adjusted dollars). Then education spending grew by 32 percent between 1999 and 2009. Yet, we continue to slip farther and farther behind other nations in achievement. What our students are cheated of by our education system is initiative — initiative stolen by adults who see themselves as curers of social ills, rather than as people who have specific job descriptions."
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September 20, 2010
SCHOOLS NEED TO GET SMART ABOUT SPENDING
“…rather than seizing on these fiscal realities to streamline and improve schools, far too many states and districts are proceeding as if it's business as usual, kicking the can down the road until they're forced to make clumsy, last-minute, disruptive cuts.”
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September 17, 2010
COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A BAD IDEA
“Children will never be adequately educated under a system run by bureaucrats handing out money and the teachers unions (the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers) spending the money in the classroom. The NEA and the AFT also have extraordinary millions of dollars extracted from their members to lobby for policies they want to have enacted by Congress, state legislatures and school boards and also to elect their favored political candidates.”
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September 17, 2010
HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS WHITEWASH ISLAM, CRITICIZE CHRISTIANITY IN TEXAS
“(T)he Dubai royal family recently purchased a 49 percent share of the textbook publishing giant Education Media Publishing Group (EMPG). He said this may be influencing the editorial direction of the books.”
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*September 16, 2010
CURRICULUM SHOULD PRECEDE ASSESSMENTS
“Why the rush to make new tests? Isn’t there a great danger—even likelihood—that the tests will define and even impede the curriculum?”
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September 16, 2010
PENNSYLVANIA SAT SCORES POINT TO FUTILITY OF HIGHER SPENDING
In short, a near 50 percent jump in spending over the last decade or so has produced essentially no improvement in the academic achievement of Pennsylvania’s public school graduates.
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September 16, 2010
30 GOVERNORS APPLIED FOR ABSTINENCE-EDUCATION FUNDING
“The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) just released its report on which states applied for Title V abstinence-education funding. An encouraging three out of every five governors elected to apply for Title V abstinence education by the Aug. 30 deadline.”
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September 16, 2010
ARE TEXAS’S SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS REALLY SO BAD?
“The final Texas standards are for the most part conventional and inclusive. A few items betray a ‘conservative’ viewpoint. They do not warrant the attention and defamation they have received nor the hysteria they have generated. Texas is not re-writing textbooks. Little has changed. The new standards on the whole conform to what’s already in textbooks, and the impact on history textbooks nationwide will be very limited.”
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September 16, 2010
PA HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION EXAM POLICY NEARS APPROVAL
“Ultimately, the state will develop 10 Keystone Exams in various disciplines and require students to meet the standards in six disciplines. The current regulation calls for school districts to set graduation exam requirements one of two ways:
• They can use successful course completion in which a Keystone Exam is the final exam and counts for at least one-third of the course mark.
• They can use locally developed, independently validated local assessments that are at least as rigorous as the Keystones, aligned with state standards and given to all students.”
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September 16, 2010
CALIFORNIA BOARD OF EDUCATION ADDRESSES TEACHER EVALUATION ISSUE
“The state Board of Education took up the controversial issue of teacher evaluations Wednesday, unanimously voting to create an online database to share information about local, state and national efforts to measure educators' effectiveness.”
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September 15, 2010
TEACHERS UNION DICTATES ‘NO FUNDS’ FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS
“Ben DeGrow, education policy analyst for the Independence Institute, said that charter schools should not be discriminated against by public schools.”
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September 15, 2010
PSSA SCORES IMPROVING AS WHOLE; SOME TARGETS NOT MADE
“More than half of the 37 school districts in Northeast Pennsylvania failed to meet at least one target on a grade-level state test, according to data released Tuesday. But as a whole, scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests are improving as the 100 percent proficiency goal of No Child Left Behind is approaching.”
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September 15, 2010
PARENTAL OUTRAGE CAN PROTECT OUR KIDS FROM ‘PROGRESSIVE’ SEX-ED
“... for our nation's largely leftist teaching establishment — the folks who train teachers and develop this kind of curriculum — "competency" is actually defined as a progressive belief system about sex and sexuality, so exploiting childhood innocence is worth the result.”
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September 15, 2010
ARE WE READY FOR TESTING UNDER CCSS?
“There's a bumpy road ahead on the way to a successful Common Core State Standards (CCSS) movement. Already states and districts are examining the match between current standards, what they currently teach at various grade levels, and the CCSS. Of particular significance is that online tests will become the norm in the years ahead for many states.”
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September 15, 2010
MONEY IS NOT WHAT SCHOOLS NEED
John Stossel says, “It's time we threw out the "experts" and exposed the schools to real competition by people with common sense.”
>>read more>>
Related articles:September 11, 2010
WHAT MONEY CAN'T BUY
"Shocking facts underscoring the need for school reform are on display in two education documentaries."
>>read more>>
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September 13, 2010
MERIT PAY: A START TOWARD MAKING SURE TEACHERS FOLLOW THEIR JOB
“(T)eachers are among the very few professions who feel that they can write their own job descriptions and evaluations.”
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September 13, 2010
COULD VALUE-ADDED SAVE TEACHERS’ JOBS?
“(I)s there a reason to think that the data could help other teachers make the case that they are effective? The experience of some union affiliates with value-added suggests that is a possibility.”
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September 13, 2010
TEST SCORES NOT INCREASED SOLELY BY SPENDING
“Spending more on education has not improved students' test scores in Pennsylvania, says a group that studied three years' worth of achievement test scores.”
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September 12, 2010
TESTING, THE CHINESE WAY
“ ‘Research has long shown that more frequent testing is beneficial to kids, but educators have resisted this finding,’ said Gregory J. Cizek, a professor of educational measurement and evaluation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”
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September 11, 2010
FAILING GRADE
“Cities can close a failing school, convert it to a charter school, or transform it from within. A complete transformation is rare and a charter school conversion demands drastic change, leading some experts to say we should scrap failing schools and start over.”
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*September 10, 2010
CLOSING THE ‘DIGITAL DIVIDE’ WIDENS ACHIEVEMENT GAP
“The data revealed that students who obtained a computer and/or Internet access in the home between 5th and 8th grade showed a statistically significant decline in standardized math and reading test scores that persisted throughout the four-year study. Furthermore, black students and those receiving free or reduced-price lunches experienced a greater decline in test scores than did their peers with equivalent computer and Internet access. In other words, said the researchers, ‘access is in practice more detrimental for some students than others.’ “
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September 10, 2010
POLITICS AND THE SCORING OF RACE TO THE TOP APPLICATIONS
“For the most part, the RTT rubric fails to provide objective methods for measuring the extent to which states meet criteria, leaving significant discretion in the evaluation.”
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September 9, 2010
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
“September 9 was the date that Checker Finn and the Fordham Institute began to turn against the national standards movement they so enthusiastically championed.”
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September 9, 2010
THE STATE OF THE ART OF MATH EDUCATION: LET’S MOVE ON
Author discusses a book and a discussion in class that are “emblematic of the educational doctrine that pervades schools of education. This doctrine holds that mastery of facts and attaining procedural fluency in subjects like mathematics amounts to mind-numbing “drill and kill” exercises which ultimately stifle creativity and critical thinking. It also embodies the belief that critical thinking skills can be taught.”
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September 9, 2010
SHAKY NEW STANDARDS FOR COLLEGE READINESS
“It is not too early to ask what will happen when high school sophomores or juniors pass these high stakes tests and are declared to be "college-ready." Will two or four year public colleges be required to place them in credit-bearing freshman courses if these students want to avoid meeting high school graduation requirements? Probably. It is also likely that college instructors will find themselves compelled, for the sake of survival, to adopt texts at the middle and high school level of difficulty in order to ensure that these "college-ready" students can read what is assigned, do the mathematics in them, and pass their college freshman courses.”
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September 8, 2010
SPECIALIZING IN EDUCATIONAL FADS
“Schools should spend less time using students as guinea pigs for the latest unproven theory and more time looking at ways to raise academic standards.”
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September 8, 2010
CLASSICAL APPROACH TO TEACHING
"More and more parents are taking advantage of...options to customize an approach that suits their children's needs and gifts....There's no limit to creative solutions when we encourage and empower parents to pursue them."
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September 8, 2010
FRESHMEN COMP, THEN AND NOW
"How the standard freshman writing course went from boot camp to a waste of time."
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Fall 2010
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
“For the last two decades, education researchers and developmental psychologists have been documenting changes in attitudes and motivation as children enter adolescence, changes that some hypothesize are exacerbated by middle-school curricula and practices.”
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*September 7, 2010
ASSESSING A TEACHER’S VALUE
“Rather than focusing on producers — in other words, teachers — policy makers should ask what they can do for consumers — parents and their children.”
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September 6, 2010
JOURNAL: ‘SCHOOL VOUCHER BREAKOUT’
“The Wall Street Journal on Monday declared back-to-school week as ‘an encouraging season for education reform.’ The editors pointed to an unlikely “bipartisan political breakout on vouchers” in Pennsylvania.”
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September 6, 2010
FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT GOOD STUDY HABITS
“None of which is to suggest that these techniques — alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions, self-testing or all the above — will turn a grade-A slacker into a grade-A student. Motivation matters. So do impressing friends, making the hockey team and finding the nerve to text the cute student in social studies.”
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September 6, 2010
DISTRICTS CONSIDERING LONGER SCHOOL DAY AND YEAR
“The push for more time in school has won supporters as prominent as President Barack Obama, who last year said the typical American school day puts the nation at a competitive disadvantage over countries where students spend more time in school.”
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September 5, 2010
NEVER ENOUGH HOURS IN THE CLASS DAY
“Dr. Schmoker (an Arizona-based education consultant, author and former English teacher ) believes as much as 40 percent of class time is wasted because of ineffective or inappropriate lessons, citing his own daughter's glitter-and-glue project in advanced placement English.
If class time were used effectively, he said, "We wouldn't be talking about adding time to the school year or the school day. "It wouldn't be needed because existing time would be so potent it would work in any setting."
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*September 4, 2010
SET UP TO SUCCEED WITH PHONICS, AND ONLY PHONICS, FIRST
“Phonics, the process of decoding the English language, is of vital importance to our whole society. Education consumers should demand no less from our schools.”
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September 4, 2010
JUDGE CITES HOMESCHOOLERS FOR VIOLATING U.N. MANDATE
“HSDLA previously has warned that the U.N. effort, which has not been adopted by the U.S. but has been embraced by most other nations, ‘opens the door for judges to make sweeping determinations about how children are educated.’ “
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September 2, 2010
OPINION: FINALLY, SOME STRAIGHT TALK ON THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
“(T)his August might one day be famous for marking the start of a fresh round of honest conversation about the achievement gap—and the relationship between race, poverty and our schools.”
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September 2, 2010
U.S. ASKS EDUCATORS TO REINVENT STUDENT TESTS & HOW THEY ARE GIVEN
“They will be computer-based, Mr. Duncan said, and will measure higher-order skills ignored by the multiple-choice exams used in nearly every state, including students’ ability to read complex texts, synthesize information and do research projects.”
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September 2010
THE DEBATE OVER COMMON CORE STANDARDS FOR K-12 IS HEATING UP
“Although the idea of common standards at the state level has long been talked about by educators and policymakers, the movement received its most significant support last year. That was when the Common Core States Standards Initiative was announced, promoting the same set of standards for use in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. The initiative won the backing of the National Governors Association as well as the Council of Chief State School Officers. Governors and chief state school officers from 48 states promised state-led efforts to develop core standards that will be based on research.”
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September 1, 2010
SINGLE-GENDER CLASSES CHALLENGED
“Last September the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Vermilion Parish School Board, claiming the single-gender classes at the Rene A. Rost Middle School in Kaplan were discriminatory and violated students' rights to an equal education. A federal district judge ruled in April that the all-boys and all-girls classes could continue under court-mandated conditions. Officials say the board has complied with guidelines -- but with the ACLU appealing, the case is not over.”
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September 1, 2010
A MATH METHOD FOR UTAH SCHOOLS
“... Singapore math -- a program honed in the schools of Singapore over the last three decades that is beginning to influence American education.”
>>read more>>
Related article:
August 27, 2010
UTAH FACES A TOUGH MATH PROBLEM
“The claims of Darling-Hammond to measure "authentic learning" and "higher order thinking" remind me of the way Investigations Math pushed higher order thinking at the expense of basic skills that are prerequisite to careful, logical thinking and abstract reasoning.”
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September 1, 2010
WHEN DOES HOLDING TEACHERS ACCOUNTABLE GO TO FAR?
“If schools instead try to measure the work of teachers, some will inevitably be misjudged. ‘On whose behalf do you want to make the mistake — the kids or the teachers?’ asks Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust. ‘We’ve always erred on behalf of the adults before.’ ”
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August 31, 2010
FORMULA TO GRADE TEACHERS’ SKILL GAINS ACCEPTANCE, AND CRITICS
“Use of value-added modeling is exploding nationwide. Hundreds of school systems, including those in Chicago, New York and Washington, are already using it to measure the performance of schools or teachers. Many more are expected to join them, partly because the Obama administration has prodded states and districts to develop more effective teacher-evaluation systems than traditional classroom observation by administrators.”
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August 30, 2010
CHARTER SCHOOLS: A WELCOME CHOICE FOR PARENTS
“A study published by the Department of Education (DOE) in June, “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts,” highlights the many benefits of charter schools. The results show unambiguously that parents are substantially more satisfied with charter schools and the academic and social development of their children who attend compared to public school parents.”
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August 30, 2010
WHY SO MANY NON-TEACHING EMPLOYEES IN PITTSBURGH SCHOOLS?
“The board and the superintendent of the District should give taxpayers an adequate explanation for the massive increase in non-teaching personnel, the costs associated with the increase, and in particular define the benefits derived from all additional employees in terms of educational performance.”
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August 29, 2010
BOYS MAY BENEFIT FROM AGGRESSIVE
Some educators and child psychologists believe aggressive behavior in play may actually help boys to learn impulse control.
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*August 28, 2010
NO GOLD STARS FOR SUCCESSFUL L.A. TEACHERS
“Experts have long known that highly effective teachers can overcome the challenges students face both inside and outside of school. But why they are so successful — and whether their skills can be passed along to others — remains largely a mystery.”
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August 27, 2010
RACE TO THE TOP: GATES BACKS A BUNCH OF WINNERS
“Several of the states that won grants in the federal Race to the Top competition received financial help from a well-known source: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
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*August 26, 2010
CLASS SIZES ARE INCREASING, BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
“(W)hile smaller classes are popular among parents who factor them into decisions about where to send their children to school, decades of research have found that the relationship between class size and student outcomes is murky. ‘The research doesn’t show that you get significantly different student outcomes when you go from a class of 25 to a class of 30’…”
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August 26, 2010
PLEASE MR. PRESIDENT, DON’T SPEAK ON SCHOOL TIME
“Every study I have seen of how to raise achievement for students, particularly in low-performing urban and rural schools, indicates that two factors are essential---better teachers and more time for them to teach. It is difficult for regular public schools to follow the most effective charter schools in adding two or three hours to the school day, but they could at least use the six and a half hours they have each day as effectively as possible. The president's choice of speaking time suggests he doesn't think such efforts are very important.”
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August 25, 2010
U.S. SCHOOLS CHIEF TO PUSH DISCLOSURE OF EDUCATION DATA
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will call for all states and school districts to make public whether their instructors are doing enough to raise students' test scores and to share other school-level information with parents...”
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Aug 25, 20120
FEWER AMERICANS BACK OBAMA’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS
“Support for President Barack Obama’s education agenda is slipping among Americans, according to a poll released last week detailing the public’s attitude toward public schooling.”
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August 25, 2010
THE NATIONAL STANDARDS COME WITH NO GUARANTEE
“These standards and the upcoming assessments are a huge and long-shot gamble. That may be okay for a state and localities to do, when they are picking up 90 percent of the tab for K-12 education. It's another thing when the feds pay a mere 10 percent of the cost of educating our kids and then insist that we be their guinea pig.”
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August 25, 2010
LET THEM PLAY
“Has our early childhood curriculum become so narrow that we now focus only on what is being tested and ignore all the other areas in a young child’s development?”
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August 24, 2010
CURRICULUM PRODUCERS WORK TO REFLECT NEW STANDARDS
“While the work progresses, the question of how to evaluate producers’ claims of alignment remains unresolved. Some advocates argue that the best products will naturally rise to the top in a lively marketplace.”
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August 24, 2010
RACE TO THE TOP ROUND-TWO WINNERS OFFER MIXED BAG OF REFORMS
“(Lindsay) Burke (w/The Heritage Foundation) says the cost of adopting the Common Core standards will likely exceed the most generous Race to the Top grant. ‘All of the winners are states that have agreed to adopt national standards and tests, and the money they’ll receive from this competition will certainly not cover the costs of throwing-out their existing state standards and tests – which were developed at great taxpayer expense – and will not begin to cover the costs of implementing this new, behemoth national standards regime,’ she said.”
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August 24, 2010
HHS YIELDS TO PUBLIC PRESSURE, RELEASES ABSTINENCE STUDY
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reluctantly bowed to public pressure on Monday and released a pivotal abstinence study with results that fly in the face of the Obama administration’s policy of “zeroing out” all abstinence-education funding.”
>>read more>>
Related document:
This is the study that actually was produced in February 2009, but was just released after pressure from the public:
*February 2009
National Survey of Adolescents and Their Parents: Attitudes and Opinions about Sex and Abstinence
>>read document>>
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August 24, 2010
(New York) HS TEST ‘SLAMS’ CHRISTIANITY, LAUDS ISLAM
“Teachers complain that the reading selections from the Regents exam in global history and geography given last week featured glowing passages pertaining to Muslim society but much more critical essay excerpts on the subject of Christianity.”
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August 23, 2010
THE TRIUMPH OF SCHOOL CHOICE IN NEW ORLEANS
“Over the past five years, New Orleans has turned tragedy into triumph. It has quickly become the most market based school district in the country. The state of Louisiana took over most of the schools in the district and turned them into successful charter schools. “
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August 23, 2010
THE MARCH OF THE LILLIPUTIANS
“We could not face up to the hard work of addressing the high end problem (we have too few students who are "advanced" in their academic work) and the low end problem (the achievement gaps). So we fell asleep.”
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August 22, 2010
LOS ANGELES TIMES RATES TEACHERS USING VALUE-ADDED SYSTEM: YOUR NUMBERS UP
“Make no mistake, this study published in the Los Angeles Times holds all the ingredients to create a paradigm shift in the way that teachers may be evaluated in the future as it yields an “objective” number based on student test results. I would recommend teachers outside of Los Angeles get their eyes on this work because there really isn't any reason every district in the land wont' be considering it as long as there is the data for it to justified.”
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AUGUST 21, 2010
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: WHERE TEACHER REPORT CARDS FALL SHORT
“The new type of teacher evaluations make use of the standardized tests that have become an annual rite for American public-school students. The tests mainly have been used to measure the progress of students and schools, but with some statistical finesse they can be transformed into a lens for identifying which teachers are producing the best test results.”
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August 19, 2010
WHY REMEDIATION IN COLLEGE DOESN’T WORK
“(T)he emphasis of American society is on access to college, not on preparation for college. An unintended consequence of making access to college an entitlement readily available to all high school graduates is that serious study in the lower grades has become optional even for those intending to apply for college admission. Without an incentive to study diligently, many students are disengaged in high school and, as a result, underprepared for higher education.”
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August 18, 2010
ADMINISTRATION BLOCKS RELEASE OF PIVOTAL HHS ABSTINENCE STUDY
“A taxpayer-funded study that indicates parental and adolescent support of abstinence education is not being released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as it does not support the administration’s objective – or that of vocal “safe sex” activists – of eliminating all abstinence-education funding.”
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Fall 2010
TEACHERS UNIONS IN FIVE STATES SPENT MORE THAN $100 PER TEACHER ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
“ A first-ever national analysis of state spending per teacher on political advocacy by the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) ... found that the national teachers unions and their state affiliates spent more than $100 per teacher in five states, with Oregon at the top of the list at $360 per teacher during the 2007-08 election cycle.”
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Fall 2010
THE LONG REACH OF TEACHER’S UNIONS
“The largest political campaign spender in America is not a megacorporation, such as Wal-Mart, Microsoft, or ExxonMobil. It isn’t an industry association, like the American Bankers Association or the National Association of Realtors. It’s not even a labor federation, like the AFL-CIO. If you combine the campaign spending of all those entities it does not match the amount spent by the National Education Association, the public-sector labor union that represents some 2.3 million K–12 public school teachers and nearly a million education support workers (bus drivers, custodians, food service employees), retirees, and college student members.”
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August 18, 2010
SCHOOLS CLAIM LUCIFER AS MODEL AND GUARDIAN
“ ‘As a matter of fact, quoting from (The Waldorf Teachers Survival Guide)... 'most of what contributes to our work as teachers -- preparation work, artistic work, even meditative work -- is under the guardianship of Lucifer. We can become great teachers under his supervision....' And it continues in that vein.’”
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August 18, 2010
EDUCATIONAL EQUITY HITS 2 MILLION CHILDREN MARK AS REFORMERS DEMAND RENEWED ACTION
“Studies from reputable scholars and researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that...equity can indeed be achieved by passing strong charter school and school choice programs. Research indicates that school choice has raised standards in public schools, increased student graduation rates, stimulated performance pay for teachers, and increased parental demands to close failing schools.”
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August 18, 2010
EXTRA TIME SPENT ON READING BOOSTS LITERACY
“Struggling elementary and middle school students who are given extra time for reading can make sizable gains in literacy, according to a report released today by the Public Policy Institute of California.”
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August 17, 2010
RHEE OPEN TO RELEASING VALUE-ADDED SCORES
“Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee says she would consider making public data that show how effective individual teachers are at raising their students' test scores -- their so-called ‘value added.’ “
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August 16, 2010
U.S. SCHOOLS CHIEF ENDORSES RELEASE OF TEACHER DATA
“U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday that parents have a right to know if their children's teachers are effective, endorsing the public release of information about how well individual teachers fare at raising their students' test scores. ‘What's there to hide?’ Duncan said in an interview one day after The Times published an analysis of teacher effectiveness in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest school system. ‘In education, we've been scared to talk about success.’ “
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August 14, 2010
WHO’S TEACHING L.A.’S KIDS?
“In Los Angeles and across the country, education officials have long known of the often huge disparities among teachers. They've seen the indelible effects, for good and ill, on children. But rather than analyze and address these disparities, they have opted mostly to ignore them.”
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August 13, 2010
EARLY-COLLEGE PROGRAMS RETHINK HIGH EXPECTATIONS
“(W)ith high expectations come stumbling blocks. One important lesson that early-college programs have learned is that some students who are short on basic skills or maturity simply aren’t ready for college courses.”
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Summer 2010
AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER IN EVERY CLASS
“An incentive approach must be the centerpiece of improving teacher quality in urban schools and in the most disadvantaged schools. It is necessary to reward success rather than try to regulate it. Unfortunately, we have little experience with how to structure incentives. Attempts to devise universal incentives from Washington or from state capitols are likely to be quite inefficient if not harmful.”
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August 13, 2010
WHY AMERICA NEEDS A SMITHSONIAN OF BASIC SKILLS
“I propose that a wealthy foundation or consortium of foundations support with great fanfare a National Center for the Study and Teaching of Basic Skills. Such a center would have a long-term effect on education, social justice, and economic prosperity.”
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August 12, 2010
THE BENEFITS OF A CLASSICAL EDUCATION
“No school system, no matter how good, educates all of its students to their potential. Parents whose children attend classical schools are often amazed by how their children thrive: kindergartners who know what atoms and molecules are; first-graders comparing spilled milk to the Nile River during breakfast conversation; fourth-graders figuring out an unknown word by recognizing its Latin roots; eighth-graders conducting mock trials with real local cases and a real judge.”
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August 12, 2010
WHAT CAN PARENTS EXPECT TO SEE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOMS AFTER COMMON CORE’S STANDARDS BEGIN TO BE IMPLEMENTED?
“A Worst Case Scenario—But Probably Not Far from Reality Common Core’s ELA standards assume that if English teachers are compelled to assign a lot of informational texts, students will learn how to read them. They won’t if these teachers don’t teach close, analytical reading.”
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August 11, 2010
NEW RESEARCH: PARENTS, REGARDLESS OF INCOME, KNOW WHETHER THEIR SCHOOLS ARE GOOD OR NOT
“Parents of all socioeconomic, educational and ethnic backgrounds are accurately judging school quality based on student achievement, contradicting the contention that poor parents aren’t that aware of the academic quality of their local schools.”
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August 10, 2010
THE QUIET REVOLUTION DESERVES LOUD OPPOSITION
“This "quiet revolution" isn't about better educational options for American children. It's about control, pure and simple.”
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August 10, 2010
STUDENTS UNDERSTANDING OF EQUAL SIGN NOT EQUAL
“Taken very literally, not all students are created equal—especially in their math learning skills, say Texas A&M University researchers who have found that not fully understanding the “equal sign” in a math problem could be a key to why U.S. students under perform their peers from other countries in math.”
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August 10, 2010
UN-AMERICAN AMERICAN HISTORY COURSES
“Parents should check out how American history is taught, and NOT taught, in their children's schools. Is Islamic or Mexican propaganda masquerading as ‘American history’?”
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August 10, 2010
CONGRESSIONAL SCHOOLS BAILOUT TO SEND $10 BILLION TO STATES TO SOLVE MANUFACTURED EDUCATION JOBS “CRISIS”
“Referring to the bailout as a response to a “manufactured crisis,” CER President Jeanne Allen today called on lawmakers to recognize that excessive hiring and over-spending by school districts when funds were plentiful—despite declining student enrollment in more than half of US states—has created the illusion that classroom teachers are in danger of losing their jobs.”
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August 9, 2010
INEXPERIENCED COMPANIES CHASE U.S.SCHOOL FUNDS
“With the Obama administration pouring billions into its nationwide campaign to overhaul failing schools, dozens of companies with little or no experience are portraying themselves as school-turnaround experts as they compete for the money.”
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August 9, 2010
SEN. DeMINT OFFERS BILL TO STOP U.N. FROM TAKING RIGHTS AWAY FROM U.S. PARENTS
“U.S. senators are under pressure to ratify a U.N. treaty that could give government the last word on parenting decisions. At issue is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a measure that purports to protect children’s freedom of religion and privacy.”
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August 9, 2010
SCORES: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR NY SCHOOLS
“It turns out that what New York had long called proficient was actually too low a bar. Students who had been "meeting standards" often still needed to take remedial courses before they could start college. While we were all feeling good about increasingly high test scores, in fact, we were not preparing many of our students for college -- much less the global competition they would face afterward.”
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August 8, 2010
HOW ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ IS REWRITING U.S. EDUCATION
“The program springs from a single sentence inserted in the stimulus law. Though it suggests that Duncan account for things such as teacher quality, data use, new standardized tests and school turnaround, it also allows for ‘criteria as the secretary deems appropriate.’
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August 6, 2010
PUTTING OUR BRAINS ON HOLD
“The world leadership qualities of the United States, once so prevalent, are fading faster than the polar ice caps. We once set the standard for industrial might, for the advanced state of our physical infrastructure, and for the quality of our citizens’ lives. All are experiencing significant decline.”
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August 6, 2010
BILL GATES: IN FIVE YEARS THE BEST EDUCATION WILL COME FROM THE WEB
“Gates said that technology is the only way to bring education back under control and expand it.”
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August 5, 2010
THE ASCENT OF AMERICA’S CHOICE & THE CONTINUING DESCENT OF AMERICA’S HIGH SCHOOLS
“With an additional $30,000,000 to come to Marc Tucker’s NCEE from the USED’s “competition” for assessment consortia grants, his hare-brained scheme for enticing high school sophomores or juniors deemed “college-ready” by the results of the Cambridge University-adapted “Board” exams that he plans to pilot in 10 states (including Massachusetts now) comes closer to reality.”
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August 4, 2010
THE TESTING MESS
“The fastest way to “improve” students’ performance: Lower your standards.”
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August 4, 2010
ACQUISITION NEWS IN THE WORLD OF STANDARDS, TESTS
“Some players in the common-standards-and-assessments arena have announced a business deal.”
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Related article:
May 10, 2010
DO YOU BELIEVE US NOW?
“Pearson will not only provide the curriculum and test materials but will also provide teacher training and community support. I cannot even imagine how much the entire Pearson package will cost a local school district, but it will undoubtedly be a small fortune.”
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August 4, 2010
STUDENT PREVAILS IN RESTORING PLEDGE IN MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL
“After three years, high school student Sean Harrington received good news Tuesday night from the Arlington, Mass., Public School Committee – his proposal to restore the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Arlington County was unanimously granted.”
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August 3, 2010
DOING THE “MATH!”
“For the last 10 years or so, parents and some educators across the country have raised doubts about “constructivist” math, sometimes generating enough protest to have the program thrown out of their school district.”
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August 3, 2010
THE NEA’S LATEST SHENANIGANS
Who & what does the nation’s largest teacher’s union officially support?
“When will parents wake up to whom is running the public schools?”
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August 3, 2010
SCHOOL CLINICS AWAIT FUNDS FROM HEALTH-CARE REFORM
“The legislation provides for $200 million over four years to help centers pay for capital improvements… In addition to dealing with students who get sick at school, medical personnel at the centers dispense and in some cases prescribe medication; help students manage chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and asthma; in some cases, provide medical care for students’ infant children; and offer reproductive-health-related services such as gynecological exams and screening for sexually transmitted infections.”
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August 3, 2010
CALIFORNIA SIGNS ON TO EDUCATION STANDARDS
“The goal of the new education framework is to provide consistent instruction nationwide. But not everyone approves of the plan.”
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August 2, 2010
VENTURE PHILANTHROPY GIVES $5.5 MILLION FOR EXPANSION OF KIPP DC CHARTER SCHOOLS
“The grant by Venture Philanthropy Partners, a nonprofit organization using
the principles of venture-capital investment to help children from
low-income families in the Washington region, will fund Knowledge Is Power
Program (KIPP) schools.”
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August 2, 2010
GAY CURRICULUM AIMED AT MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
“Under the pretext of developing “safe school” curriculum, a textbook publishing company is releasing middle school curriculum to address the needs of gay-, lesbian-, and transgender-identified students.”
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July 2010
EDUCATORS TAMPER WITH TESTS
“Standardized test scores are up in several states, but so are suspicions of teacher and administrator test tampering. At least six states have announced investigations into cheating this year, and more may be on the way.”
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July 30, 2010
PROFESSOR JAMES MILGRAM’S REVIEW OF COMMON CORE MATH STANDARDS
Professor Milgram's Full Review with Detailed Grade Level Comments
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July 29, 2010
STOTSKY ON THE COMMON CORE VOTE IN MASSACHUSETTS
“There needs to be more public attention to the quality of Common Core’s ELA (and mathematics) standards. There also needs to be public attention to the methodology of the reports of several national organizations all claiming to show that Common Core’s ELA standards are among the best in this country, all being used to sway the vote of our state boards of education.”
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July 29, 2010
‘HARD TRUTH’ ON EDUCATION NEW, HIGHER STANDARDS FOR PROFICIENCY ALTER VIEW OF YEARS OF PERCEIVED GAINS
“Erasing years of academic progress, state education officials on Wednesday acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of children had been misled into believing they were proficient in English and math, when in fact they were not.”
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July 29, 2010
PENNSYLVANIA IS #1… IN TEACHER’S STRIKES
“What an unfortunate claim to fame for the state. But despite the fact that Pennsylvania is in a small group that even permits such strikes and it has deemed it illegal for certain types of employees to strike (police, fire, prison guards, and employees needed to operate the courts) outlawing teacher strikes rarely moves beyond the trial balloon stage.”
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July 28, 2010
KIDS DESERVE BETTER: STOPPING THE OBAMA EDUCATION AGENDA
“Restore State Authority in Education: Instead of adopting one-size-fits-all national standards and tests, state standards and tests should be strengthened and schools should increase transparency about results to parents and other taxpayers.”
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July 27, 2010
PA AMONG FINALISTS IN SECOND ROUND OF FEDERAL RACE TO THE TOP FUNDING COMPETITION
“Pennsylvania is one of 19 finalists in the second round of the highly competitive federal Race to the Top grant competition, Governor Rendell said today.”
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July 27, 2010
THE CASE FOR $320,000 KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS
“Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.”
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*July 26, 2010
NEW ALLENTOWN SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT PUTS OWN JOB ON THE LINE
“Gerald Zahorchak says he should be fired if low-performing schools like Central Elementary do not turn around in three years.”
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July 26, 2010
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOLS ARE GIVING FIRST GRADE CHILDREN CONDOMS, WHY EXACTLY?
“The recent Provincetown decision to pander to pedophiles by eroticizing even First Grade students with Kiddie condoms is reportedly already school policy in over two dozen Massachusetts school districts.”
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July 26, 2010
THE FIGHT FOR SCHOOL CHOICE IN PENNSYLVANIA
“The Opportunity Scholarship Act would give students the freedom to opt out of their chronically failing school. The best solution to improving educational quality in Pennsylvania is to reduce cost and increase academic satisfaction by giving low-income students the opportunity to attend a better school that meets their personal needs.”
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