If you want your money for the kids, Virginia*, you better listen up.
Have you been following the drama between these two? Today's Post explains Ed's most recent threat to withhold more than $17 million from Fairfax County schools if the system continues to defy a federal mandate to give reading tests to thousands of English language learner children.
Naturally, both Ed and Virginia are arguing for what's best for the kids. Ed says the ELL kids won't get the attention and resources they deserve if they're not tested the same way as other kids. Virginia says it's not fair to test these kids on content when they don't yet understand the language. Ed argues that if we don't assess their content knowledge, we won't know how to serve them. Virginia counters that the tests won't give us good information anyway. Virginia wants to develop an alternative test in time for next year's assessments. Ed says no- it's gotta happen before the Cherry Blossoms (those beautiful warm and sunny days set aside for testing). Ed's holding the purse strings. Virginia's with the kids all day. Who's to decide?
That's the gist, although there's much more to it than this. Education Week's Mary Ann Zehr has been covering this story and other big debates over English language learners. Check out her new blog, which is sure to stay on top of the Virginia/Ed chronicles.
It's an important story to follow b/c it's not just about Virginia. Ed's got kids all over this country.
*Education Sector co-founder Andrew Rotherham is a member of the VA Board of Ed.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Dubious Education Trend Signifiers, Continued
Earlier this week, we discussed how the words "small but growing" indicate the likely presence of a dubious education trend story, in this case about parents uprooting their entire lives to put their kids in private schools. (Alexander Russo follows up here.) Sure enough, the meme has been spreading like wildfire, at least according to this anecdote and an unconfirmed email a friend sent me last night.
The New York Times offers another example this morning, in a story about how parents in an affluent suburb have gone kinda overboard in organizing their local PTO. While there are no assertions of a "small but growing" trend, the piece uses three other words to accomplish roughly the same thing: "across the country." As in:
"Small but growing" and "across the country" (variants: "across the nation," "across America," etc.) are both used for a similar transformational purpose: to turn the specific into the general, anecdote into trend, story into news. "Pay attention," they're saying, "this kind of thing is happening everywhere. It could happen to you." Which is fine, as long as by "everywhere" they mean "possibly in a few more of the small number of wealthy suburban communities located near the handful of large coastal cities / media centers where, not coincidentally, this reporter's editor happens to live."
It's certainly not a coincidence that both of these stories focus on the anxieties of privileged parents. And it's surely only a matter of time before we wake up to find this story on the front page of a major news daily:
DARIEN, C.T. -- Elizabeth Winterhouse just wants what's best for her little boy.
The New York Times offers another example this morning, in a story about how parents in an affluent suburb have gone kinda overboard in organizing their local PTO. While there are no assertions of a "small but growing" trend, the piece uses three other words to accomplish roughly the same thing: "across the country." As in:
The transformation of Livingston’s pizza lunch reflects how parent groups across the country, especially in affluent suburbs, are undergoing a kind of corporate makeover, combining members’ business savvy, technological prowess and negotiating skills to professionalize operations.
"Small but growing" and "across the country" (variants: "across the nation," "across America," etc.) are both used for a similar transformational purpose: to turn the specific into the general, anecdote into trend, story into news. "Pay attention," they're saying, "this kind of thing is happening everywhere. It could happen to you." Which is fine, as long as by "everywhere" they mean "possibly in a few more of the small number of wealthy suburban communities located near the handful of large coastal cities / media centers where, not coincidentally, this reporter's editor happens to live."
It's certainly not a coincidence that both of these stories focus on the anxieties of privileged parents. And it's surely only a matter of time before we wake up to find this story on the front page of a major news daily:
DARIEN, C.T. -- Elizabeth Winterhouse just wants what's best for her little boy.
A slender, slightly nervous woman of 37 dressed in tasteful but expensive jewelry and the latest Talbots fashion, Mrs. Winterhouse keeps a watchful eye over her six-year old son Miles as we sit in the airy, light-filled living room of her suburban Connecticut home.
While her husband Jim works 18-hour days managing a hedge fund in nearby Greenwich, Mrs. Winterhouse has a lot of time to think about Miles' future. And what she sees has her worried. The warning signs came early--amniocentisis results put Miles' prenatal verbal skills in only the 97th percentile. Despite being three months younger, Miles' playmate, neighbor, and best friend Parker has already memorized Pi to 30 digits. Twice-weekly tutoring hasn't helped Miles overcome his difficulties in conjugating French verbs. Meanwhile, admission to Yale University in nearby New Haven is getting tougher every year.
So Mrs. Winterhouse did what she believes any responsble parent in her situation would do. She had an advanced microprocessor surgically implanted in Miles' brain.
And she's not alone. Across the country, a small but growing number of parents are taking advantage of new cyber-enhancement technologies to give their children a leg up in the ever-tougher rat race for admissions to the Ivy League. Other examples include Cynthia Fairhaven, who lives 200 yards away from the Winterhouses on the same Darien street, and Allesandra Stassinopoulis, the wife of a Greek shipping magnate living in Beverly Hills.
Leading national experts confirm this rapidly growing trend. A spokesman for Cyberdyne Systems, manufacturer of Miles' implant, said that "More and more parents are giving their children the educational tools they need, for only $22,995, six months same as cash." Jack Jennings, Director of the non-partisan Center for Education Policy confirmed that "What you said is true, no doubt because of the pressures caused by No Child Left Behind." And as University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato recently noted, "Stranger things have happened."
Thursday, February 22, 2007
I Was Right
Okay, I promise I'll only use that post title like, once a year (or less, if I turn out not to be right about things). But in this case, I am forced to succumb to the temptations of self-aggrandizement. On Tuesday, I wrote this post about a middle-income California couple who quit their jobs and moved from Los Angeles to Boston just to put their teenage daughters in a super-expensive private school they couldn't afford. Rather than simply note the utter craziness of this (see Matt Yglesias here), the Wall Street Journal spun it as evidence of some kind of alleged larger trend, so they could characterize the story as "news." The problem with doing that, I wrote, is that:
Sure enough, there was a press conference this morning announcing the latest 12th grade NAEP scores. They're not good, prompting former Michigan governor and current National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler to note that just the other day, he read about how more and more parents are moving across the country to put their kids in private school, and how this is just further evidence that our public schools are basically going to hell in a handbasket. That's not a direct quote, but you get the gist.
As a public service, the Quick and the Ed will henceforth be tracking the spread and use of this little nugget of conventional non-wisdom. Feel free to email examples to kcarey at educationsector.org.
people believe what they read in the newspaper. If the Wall Street Journal says it's a trend, it's a trend, and soon enough this meme will be become part of the larger narrative about education, influencing what people believe and thus what decisions they make. And it will be wrong, but nobody will know that.
Sure enough, there was a press conference this morning announcing the latest 12th grade NAEP scores. They're not good, prompting former Michigan governor and current National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler to note that just the other day, he read about how more and more parents are moving across the country to put their kids in private school, and how this is just further evidence that our public schools are basically going to hell in a handbasket. That's not a direct quote, but you get the gist.
As a public service, the Quick and the Ed will henceforth be tracking the spread and use of this little nugget of conventional non-wisdom. Feel free to email examples to kcarey at educationsector.org.
Second rate nation?
12th grade NAEP results were released this morning (see here and here) at a press conference filled with gloom and doom. The results aren't good--despite high school students taking more classes, harder classes and getting better grades, NAEP performance overall is down slightly and the achievement gaps aren't closing.
Panelists John Engler (former governor of Michigan), David Driscoll (Massachusetts Commissioner of Education), and David Gordon (Superintendent of Sacramento County Office of Education) all lamented the low standards that exist in some states, argued that courses must increase rigor and alignment with standards, and successful schools should be replicated. Driscoll in particular argued that states are taking positive actions and that there will be a lag before scores start to show the results. All the panelists used pretty strong language in talking about the results, with Driscoll asserting that we are "sleeping through a crisis."
After the presentation of the education morass came press questions, which were thankfully far more lively. My favorites:
1) From NBC: Has 12th grade performance peaked, and are we at risk if becoming a second rate nation?
2) From unidentified reporter: Why are Asian students outperforming others? Are they just smarter?
Other interesting nugget: Although advanced course-taking is strongly associated with higher NAEP performance (students taking more advanced math/science have higher NAEP scores), even among students in the same courses, performance varied by subgroup. White students had higher math scores than Black and Hispanic students taking the same math course. For example, Black students taking Algebra II scored an average of 127, while white students taking geometry (a lower level class), scored an average of 133. These results suggest that some courses are simply not as rigorous as they are labeled and/or some students may be receiving inferior instruction in their courses. See an interesting example of this in data from Illinois that Kevin analyzed recently. Look for more research to come on this "rigor gap."
Without actually advocating national standards, these scores do provide some ammunition to those who argue that many states have set standards too low. Then again, all NAEP results (and other education data) are used to show support for whatever position/reform/idea a group or individual advocates.
A few important caveats:
Panelists John Engler (former governor of Michigan), David Driscoll (Massachusetts Commissioner of Education), and David Gordon (Superintendent of Sacramento County Office of Education) all lamented the low standards that exist in some states, argued that courses must increase rigor and alignment with standards, and successful schools should be replicated. Driscoll in particular argued that states are taking positive actions and that there will be a lag before scores start to show the results. All the panelists used pretty strong language in talking about the results, with Driscoll asserting that we are "sleeping through a crisis."
After the presentation of the education morass came press questions, which were thankfully far more lively. My favorites:
1) From NBC: Has 12th grade performance peaked, and are we at risk if becoming a second rate nation?
2) From unidentified reporter: Why are Asian students outperforming others? Are they just smarter?
Other interesting nugget: Although advanced course-taking is strongly associated with higher NAEP performance (students taking more advanced math/science have higher NAEP scores), even among students in the same courses, performance varied by subgroup. White students had higher math scores than Black and Hispanic students taking the same math course. For example, Black students taking Algebra II scored an average of 127, while white students taking geometry (a lower level class), scored an average of 133. These results suggest that some courses are simply not as rigorous as they are labeled and/or some students may be receiving inferior instruction in their courses. See an interesting example of this in data from Illinois that Kevin analyzed recently. Look for more research to come on this "rigor gap."
Without actually advocating national standards, these scores do provide some ammunition to those who argue that many states have set standards too low. Then again, all NAEP results (and other education data) are used to show support for whatever position/reform/idea a group or individual advocates.
A few important caveats:
- These results are from a test administered 2 years ago (January-March 2005)
- The 2005 NAEP Math test is on a new scale and scores cannot be compared to previous years. The average score of 150 was set by design this year.
- NAEP is not actually the ultimate test of everything in education. While the results are bad and merit serious attention, a panel composed entirely of current and former members of the NAEP oversight Board cannot be expected to provide any critiques of NAEP or its standards. Others can and do.
Hot for Mayors
Edspresso, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the Chalkboard all have the vapor's over Newark Mayor Cory Booker's hopes to take over that city's troubled schools and expand school choice (specifically, vouchers and recruiting a KIPP school) there. Booker is indeed dreamy, but he does seem to face a daunting uphill battle on this stuff, not to mention myriad other problems in the city he runs.
Meanwhile, D.C.'s own Mayor McDreamy, Adrian Fenty, has elaborated what he will do to fix the District's royally messed up special education programs if--looking increasingly less iffy--he gets control of the schools. This is important because failure to serve special education students effectively, and the enormous cost of private special education placements this leads to, may be the single biggest discrete problem facing DCPS. James Forman, writing at Edspresso, has some more advice for Fenty about engaging the community to improve the schools.
Meanwhile, D.C.'s own Mayor McDreamy, Adrian Fenty, has elaborated what he will do to fix the District's royally messed up special education programs if--looking increasingly less iffy--he gets control of the schools. This is important because failure to serve special education students effectively, and the enormous cost of private special education placements this leads to, may be the single biggest discrete problem facing DCPS. James Forman, writing at Edspresso, has some more advice for Fenty about engaging the community to improve the schools.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Illiteracy Kills
A slightly more important issue than rich kids moving from LA to Boston, this article highlights the health consequences of low literacy skills. It's another depressing reminder of the high social costs of failing schools.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Bogus Education Trend Stories, Part MCMXLVII
One of the basic tensions in journalism comes between what's news and what's a good story. The best journalism combines the two, using the power of narrative to communicate vital, relevant information about the state of the world. Sometimes, however, journalists find good stories that aren't really news. Unfortunately, they frequently try to make news out of them anyway, by pretending that interesting but isolated incidents represent broader trends.
This happens a lot in education journalism, and there's an easy way to spot these bogus trend stories. Three or four grafs in, after the lead anecdote, you will read three words that should say, loud and clear, "there is less here than meets the eye."
Those words are "small but growing."
As in this article($) in today's Wall Street Journal, which tells the story of a husband and wife who found the perfect private school for their high schools daughters, a tony prep school near Boston. Unfortunately, they lived in Los Angeles. So, naturally, the husband quit his job, they sold their house, and they moved to small apartment in Boston. It took him three months to find a new job, so they had to run through most of their savings and the money they made on the home sale in order to live and pay the $56,000 school tuition. Their furniture is still in L.A., because they can't afford to move it, and the wife, who used to stay home, is now looking for work. But it was all worth it, because their daughters are learning Greek.
Sensibly, this should be a feature story highlighting the fact that this decision looks, in retrospect, to be pretty insane, maybe with some added comment about how some people take devotion to their children's education to almost fetishistic extremes. But it's not. Instead, it's framed as a trend story. The headline is "Anxiety High: Moving For Schools," which is fair enough. But the subhead is "A growing number of parents are choosing where to buy a home based on its proximity to the private school where they want to send their children." And upon coming to the fifth graf, we find this:
The problem is that people believe what they read in the newspaper. If the Wall Street Journal says it's a trend, it's a trend, and soon enough this meme will be become part of the larger narrative about education, influencing what people believe and thus what decisions they make. And it will be wrong, but nobody will know that.
All for the sake of a good story.
This happens a lot in education journalism, and there's an easy way to spot these bogus trend stories. Three or four grafs in, after the lead anecdote, you will read three words that should say, loud and clear, "there is less here than meets the eye."
Those words are "small but growing."
As in this article($) in today's Wall Street Journal, which tells the story of a husband and wife who found the perfect private school for their high schools daughters, a tony prep school near Boston. Unfortunately, they lived in Los Angeles. So, naturally, the husband quit his job, they sold their house, and they moved to small apartment in Boston. It took him three months to find a new job, so they had to run through most of their savings and the money they made on the home sale in order to live and pay the $56,000 school tuition. Their furniture is still in L.A., because they can't afford to move it, and the wife, who used to stay home, is now looking for work. But it was all worth it, because their daughters are learning Greek.
Sensibly, this should be a feature story highlighting the fact that this decision looks, in retrospect, to be pretty insane, maybe with some added comment about how some people take devotion to their children's education to almost fetishistic extremes. But it's not. Instead, it's framed as a trend story. The headline is "Anxiety High: Moving For Schools," which is fair enough. But the subhead is "A growing number of parents are choosing where to buy a home based on its proximity to the private school where they want to send their children." And upon coming to the fifth graf, we find this:
Across the country, a small but growing number of parents like the O'Gormans are dramatically altering their families' lives to pursue the perfect private school for their children. While past generations of parents might have shifted addresses within a town to be near a particular school, or shipped junior off to boarding school, these parents are choosing school first, location second. "I hear about it all the time," says Patrick Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools, or NAIS, in Washington, D.C.In other words, what should be a standard man-bites-dog human interest story is instead alleged to be evidence of some kind of trend. A small trend, of course, backed up in this case by exactly two more anecdotes and a few quotes from private school folks and a psychologist. But a growing trend. How do we know it's growing? Because some person the reporter called on the phone said so! The guy from the private school association, he hears about it all the time. How much more data do you need?
The problem is that people believe what they read in the newspaper. If the Wall Street Journal says it's a trend, it's a trend, and soon enough this meme will be become part of the larger narrative about education, influencing what people believe and thus what decisions they make. And it will be wrong, but nobody will know that.
All for the sake of a good story.
Special Education for Teachers
The Washington Post magazine has a very interesting article this week written by a special education teacher in DC.* Samantha Cleaver's story is not unusual--it's really hard being a first year teacher, probably harder still if you're alternatively certified, and even harder yet to teach special education.
What makes her story powerful is the painstaking detail of the challenges she faces as a new teacher serving students with significant disabilities. The lack of resources are a big problem, but almost a backdrop to the enormously challenging learning and behavioral challenges that her students face. The showdown with 5 year-old "Spidey" exemplifies exactly how difficult each day can be.
I think overall the story raises several important policy lessons.
One is that I think we need to consider carefully the type of training alternatively certified teachers who are placed in special education settings receive. There is extensive research on teaching students with various types of disabilities and that is a lot to master in a summer. I know there is a teacher shortage in special education and we need to fill those slots, but sending hastily prepared people to help kids with the greatest needs seems unfair to all involved. At the very least, school level mentors with special education experience seem essential.
Two is that classroom management is critically important, not just for special education teachers. I think policymakers often fail to recognize how essential this is and teacher training programs (both traditional and alternative) similarly fail to emphasize it. Yes, it is not student achievement focused, but go into a classroom with poor management and you are hard pressed to find much if any learning. The best lesson in the world goes untaught if no one is listening.
Three, I'm not sure many of the education policy proposals on the table right now will address the situation raised in the article. Not that any individual situation necessitates a policy intervention, but this one is far too common to be ignored. New teacher + challenging school situation + inadequate support = teacher attrition. From the article, it seems that the most effective intervention was support from the school guidance counselor who was able to both provide advice and model effective techniques in the classroom--ideally the role of a mentor.
To me, an important and overlooked area is how to help teachers become better teachers. I fully support requiring teachers to be highly effective as opposed to highly qualified, but the reality is that clearly everyone is not. Pushing out the worst and most apathetic teachers makes sense, but considering the size of the teaching force, helping mediocre, new, and struggling teachers improve is a lot cheaper, politically feasible, and more sensible than trying to radically overhaul the teaching force.
Professional development has a well deserved bad reputation and is totally not en vogue, but if done well, it can improve teachers' feelings of preparedness, including how to work with special populations. If teachers don't know how to raise achievement they need support, whether professional development, mentoring, or something else--carrots and sticks are not going to make them magically improve.
*Disclosure: The Post article author is a DC Teaching Fellow, an alternative certification program for which I interview applicants.
What makes her story powerful is the painstaking detail of the challenges she faces as a new teacher serving students with significant disabilities. The lack of resources are a big problem, but almost a backdrop to the enormously challenging learning and behavioral challenges that her students face. The showdown with 5 year-old "Spidey" exemplifies exactly how difficult each day can be.
I think overall the story raises several important policy lessons.
One is that I think we need to consider carefully the type of training alternatively certified teachers who are placed in special education settings receive. There is extensive research on teaching students with various types of disabilities and that is a lot to master in a summer. I know there is a teacher shortage in special education and we need to fill those slots, but sending hastily prepared people to help kids with the greatest needs seems unfair to all involved. At the very least, school level mentors with special education experience seem essential.
Two is that classroom management is critically important, not just for special education teachers. I think policymakers often fail to recognize how essential this is and teacher training programs (both traditional and alternative) similarly fail to emphasize it. Yes, it is not student achievement focused, but go into a classroom with poor management and you are hard pressed to find much if any learning. The best lesson in the world goes untaught if no one is listening.
Three, I'm not sure many of the education policy proposals on the table right now will address the situation raised in the article. Not that any individual situation necessitates a policy intervention, but this one is far too common to be ignored. New teacher + challenging school situation + inadequate support = teacher attrition. From the article, it seems that the most effective intervention was support from the school guidance counselor who was able to both provide advice and model effective techniques in the classroom--ideally the role of a mentor.
To me, an important and overlooked area is how to help teachers become better teachers. I fully support requiring teachers to be highly effective as opposed to highly qualified, but the reality is that clearly everyone is not. Pushing out the worst and most apathetic teachers makes sense, but considering the size of the teaching force, helping mediocre, new, and struggling teachers improve is a lot cheaper, politically feasible, and more sensible than trying to radically overhaul the teaching force.
Professional development has a well deserved bad reputation and is totally not en vogue, but if done well, it can improve teachers' feelings of preparedness, including how to work with special populations. If teachers don't know how to raise achievement they need support, whether professional development, mentoring, or something else--carrots and sticks are not going to make them magically improve.
*Disclosure: The Post article author is a DC Teaching Fellow, an alternative certification program for which I interview applicants.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Presidential Ideas
If you're a kid, February is a great month. It's short and sweet and snowy enough to get days (and days) off school, and then comes the wonderful combined birthdays of George and Abe for a three-day weekend.
With our nation's Presidents in mind, Education Sector is soon to release its Eight for 2008: Education Ideas for the Next President. It's got solutions to some of our nation's most pressing education problems. And it's all there for you to see Tuesday morning when you get back to work. Check it out.
With our nation's Presidents in mind, Education Sector is soon to release its Eight for 2008: Education Ideas for the Next President. It's got solutions to some of our nation's most pressing education problems. And it's all there for you to see Tuesday morning when you get back to work. Check it out.
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