Caught in the Tangled Web

I've been doing some background reading for a policy paper about minority college graduation rates this morning, and I ran across a interesting paper written by George Kuh and his colleagues at the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) at Indiana University about the effect of student engagement on students' grades and likelihood of staying in school. I notice that it references a paper I wrote on the subject four years ago. I, in turn, am planning on referencing Kuh's paper in my new report. George and I have had drinks together on several occasions, and were both members of a panel that testified to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education last year. The new director of NSSE recently asked me to participate in a panel discussion on college rankings. In 1998 and 1999, I worked for the state senator from Bloomington, Indiana, where Indiana University is located.

Clearly, I am inextricably caught up in a web of undisclosed relationships and inherent conflicts of interest that must be fully disclosed in exhaustive, graphically-aided detail in my upcoming report. Either that or Education Sector will be morally obligated to change its logo and destroy any stationary containing the word "independent." Alas, if only someone had made me aware of this before.

Hearts and Unicorns

January’s Phi Delta Kappan featured three different authors commenting on the state of democracy in public education today. The last article entitled, “Democracy and Education: Empowering Students to Make Sense of Their World” linked education and democracy with a cogent premise—learning theory. William Garrison views instructional practice or the way students are taught to learn, as the conduit to prepare young people for democratic citizenship. Garrison asserts that the core connection between democracy and education is formulated by testing understanding through experience.

“Learning is the process of constructing meaning or structuring reality…Formal education, as a system by which society transfers its knowledge and customs from generation to generation, generally does a poor job of teaching students how to learn, specifically a poor job of helping students to develop as self-directed learners, which is so critical in a rapidly changing world.”

So, where is this “self-directed” learning taking place in today’s public school system? I would point to Napa Valley’s New Technology High School as one such place. NTHS genesis began in Napa but has now spread across nine different states and has a total of 35 schools. NTHS uses “project-based learning” as their model. Students present tech-based projects, work in teams, and create products on the subject at hand. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning. I’ll concede “project-based” learning can at times become synonymous with new-age educational centers that award hearts instead of A's and Unicorns in place of an F. But, I would also argue that NTHS is imparting advanced levels of learning and communication skills that need to be applied to real-world problems. The learning environment at New Tech stimulates a workplace environment, helping students achieve greater analytical skills through autonomy and experience. Find more on NTHS here.
Posted by: Claire Williams

The Wages of Wynn

In a race that received a significant amount of national attention and an influx of outside money, Donna Edwards defeated eight-term incumbent Albert Wynn for the Democractic nomination to represent Maryland's overwhelmingly big-D Democratic 4th Congressional district. Edwards was heavily backed by progressive labor interests, including the SEIU, who saw Wynn as too pro-business. Not all labor groups took the same tack, however. A month ago, Wynn was endorsed by the Maryland teachers unions:

Congressman Wynn has shown political courage in raising major concerns about the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Law," Clara Floyd, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association, said in a statement. "If we want to make sure that every child has access to great public schools, then Congress must provide the flexibility and resources needed to make that happen."

Which just goes to show that there's no so such thing as a free lunch in politics. If you're going to throw your weight around Congress pursuing this or that legislative agenda--in this case, opposing parts of the proposed NCLB reauthorization legislation that was considered late last year--then you have no choice but to step up and support the candidates you're leaning on when they're politically vulnerable; if you don't, the premises of your pressure tactics fall apart. This wasn't just an education phenonomena, some other AFL / CIO affiliated unions endorsed Wynn as well. The problem with taking the short-term benefit of influencing someone to your cause is that in the long term the quo always comes back to the quid and you end up crosswise with people who should be your allies while alienating the new person who kicks your guy out of office.

The Suspense is Killing Me

I'm going to be at Grinnell College in Iowa next week speaking at an event focused on accountability, NCLB, etc. The commissioner of the Nebraska Department of Education will also be there, giving a presentation titled No Child Left Behind: A Vision for the Future...A Roadmap to Disaster? Hmmm, I wonder what the opening betting line would be on his answer to that question?

That Seems Like a Good Idea

I went to the Phillips Collection over the weekend to see their new exhibit of acquisitions from the last ten years. I didn't quite realize the extent to which "acquired" is museum-ese for "convinced a rich art collector to donate this in theoretical increments over a multi-year period so as to maximize their tax deductions," as opposed to "bought." I imagine running a successful museum must involve spending an awful lot of time drinking weak coffee in senior citizens' living rooms while pretending to like their small yappy dogs.

More to the point, instead of handing out audioguides to walk around with or hang on a lanyard around your neck, the exhibit just had a cell phone number where you would call and then hit a certain number plus # to hear the recording corresponding to a given painting. This seems like a remarkably obvious and good idea in the age of ubiquitous cell phone ownership. There must be some kind of edu-application, albeit one that will be subsumed by ubiquitious broadband-connected miniature computer ownership in a few years.

More Time Movement

The After-School Corporation (TASC) is partnering with the NYC Department of Education and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development on a 3-year demonstration program for Expanded Learning Time. They, like the Massachusetts model, want to increase student learning time by at least 30%. And like Mass2020, TASC is going to serve as the intermediary for the 10-15 pilot programs.

An RFP with details here.

Meanwhile, on the national front, we're still kicking around the Expanded Learning Time Demonstration Act (H.R. 3642) that was introduced by Representative Payne (D-NJ) last year and showed up in the Miller/McKeon draft NCLB legislation. The grants would provide funds for expanded learning time through longer school days, additional school days, or a combination of longer school days and additional school days.

Population Projections Per Pew's Passel (& Cohn)

The Pew Hispanic Center has a new report by Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn projecting national immigration trends to 2050. Since most know that immigrants make up an increasingly big slice of the American pie, it may not be surprising to learn that nearly one in five Americans will be an immigrant in 2050 (vs. one in eight in 2005). But here are a few other things you should know:

First, if you thought the last major immigration wave was big, get ready for bigger. This 21st century wave of foreign born will hit 18% of the population by 2050 (compared to 14% at the turn of the 20th century).

Second, the Latino share of the population will rise to 29% (from 14% in 2005). The Asian population will nearly double from 5% to 9%*, the Black population will grow slightly and the white population will decline from 67 to 47%.

But, it’s not the kids that will make up most of that growth. The child population will grow slowly compared to the elderly one. Check out Fig. 22 (couldn't upload it, sorry) where you'll see a fast-growing elderly population compared to a slow-growing child population. Still more working-age adults projected, but the dependency ratio that Passel and Cohn lay out will get worse over time (59 dependents for every 100 workers in '05 versus 72/100 in 2050).

Overall, for schools, this means we need to be prepared to serve not only a more ethnically and linguistically diverse population of kids—many of whom will be English-language learners and many more of whom will be 3rd and upward generations--but we also need to be prepared to do a better job communicating with their parents and grandparents. We’re getting away with not paying attention to this right now but, as this report reminds us, need to get better quicker.

*correction: apologies for earlier error on asian pop growth- the asian pop will triple in number, double in % of total U.S. population.

The Wire, Season Five, Episode 6

Last week, we noted that Omar is apparently Superman. This week, Marlo clarifies: Omar is Spider-Man, albeit more of the rage-filled alien black suit variety.

Summary: The New Day is done, as Marlo takes control of the B'more drug trade with Omar hobbled but bent on revenge. Nancy Grace does a hilarious cameo suggesting she has either less self-awareness or more of a sense of humour than I'd have thought. Scottie, who for the first few episodes was shaping up to be the biggest tool since Black and Decker, manages to get some real reporting done before reverting back to his lying ways. Executive editor Whiting III bust out his all-that's-wrong-with-newspapers-today Dickensian thing again. Nick heckles the groundbreaking of the yuppy development at the freight elevator (or something) that was supposed to save the union. Carcetti reminds us--and perhaps himself--how he got elected in the first place. Daniels shows his chops in front of the press, while Prop Joe's mole in the D.A.'s office comes to light. There are like 600 characters on this show but I actually have no idea who it could be. Bunk comes this close to getting Chris for the murder of Michael's stepfather, but is stymied by McNulty's fake serial killer investigation, which becomes a victim of its own success, depriving McNulty of dead homeless guys and thus leading him to--naturally--steal a live one instead. Randy appears and has about three lines, each of which is enough to break your heart.

Three more past-season alums come off the no-show list:

Randy
Nick
Judge Phelan

This lends further credence to my Poot-as-Keyser-Soze theory. Simple process of elimination, really.

After spending the first half of the season establishing characters, themes and plot lines, Episode Six gave the season some much-needed momentum. And hey, what do you know, maybe it's not going to be quite as simple-minded as the critics fear. What if there's truth waiting underneath all the lies and cynicism? What does it mean when politicians do the right thing for the wrong reason, and when police do the wrong thing for the right reason? Hopefully, we'll find out.