To read the Globe story, please click here.

“Iaviator wrote: International comparisons of countries on test scores are as dumb as comparisons of school districts or states on test scores. They are indicators of affluence rather than indicators of quality of schooling. Furthermore, the sampling of students from different nations are biased– and the best example this year is China. Teacher quality matters and it’s a good goal, but it won’t offset the growing poverty rate in Iowa and the nation. In addition, current NCLB policies are driving our best teachers out of the profession.”

My response: Those comparisons aren’t dumb. Some high-performing countries, notably Canada and Finland, do a much better job than the U.S. does of narrowing the test score differences between affluent and poor students. They have much smaller equity gaps. That is a direct result of schooling, among other factors, such as good health care.

To read the editorial and other comments on it, please click here.

To read the 2009 PISA report, please click here.

To read the report, please click here.

Former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee today announced a new education reform movement she is leading, called StudentsFirst. A press release describes it as defending the “interests of children in public education.” I’ll bet this will be worth following.

To go to the StudentsFirst website, please click here.

s

To read earlier installments of the Opinion section’s world-class schools series,please click here.

This is the case, despite the importance of a great teacher in every classroom.

To read the report, please click here.

To read the Education Week story, please click here.

Waiting for the Iowa Core Curriculum to be fully implemented in the next few years is not the only answer. A stronger framework for learning won’t be enough if teachers, starting now, don’t have enough time to train and collaborate  on lessons and if struggling students don’t get the help they need to learn. Another step is teaching students strong writing, speaking and reasoning skills in every class, including gym.

Iowa can’t afford complacency. Demand elected officials, from the governor to your school board, do more for students who aren’t meeting academic expectations instead of somehow expecting the kids to figure this out on their own.

To read more about the National Assessment for Educational Progress, please click here.

To learn more about America’s Promise Alliance, please click here.

To read the report from the American Institutes for Research, please click here.

To read more about “Waiting for Superman,” click here.

But being an engaging teacher does not mean entertaining the students. It means presenting the lesson in an interesting way, so the kids want to get involved. This is one of the key things teacher training needs to focus upon. When I visited Finland and Alberta in 2008 — both high performing school systems — I saw students energetically involved in class discussions or small group activities in virtually every classroom. In U.S. classrooms, I see that sometimes, but far too often see students working on a work sheet in class or finishing homework that was supposed to be done.

Here’s the teacher’s e-mail, without her name:

“I am e-mailing you in regards to my opinion on an educational issue.  In your article called ‘Great teachers explain, encourage and engage’ one of the teachers you interviewed talked about students have to power down when they come into school because they are used to being engaged with all of their gadgets.  I am a firm believer in this idea but the more I think about it the more I begin to question if that is a good thing?  It is our job as educators to teach to the student’s learning style so they understand the material and make connections.  But is it our job as educators to entertain?  Are we in our classroom trying to put on a three-ring circus just so we can get their attention and maintain it long enough for them to learn?  I don’t this is preparing them for the real world or their future jobs they may hold.”

To read the Register Opinion section’s world-class schools series, please click here.
 

“Increasingly, school districts, states and teachers’ unions are advancing evaluation reform through legislation and by negotiating changes to collective bargaining agreements. This has compelled education leaders and policymakers to grapple with difficult issues that have received only lip service in the past: How can we help all teachers reach their full potential in the classroom? How can we ensure that teachers love their jobs, so that the best teachers want to keep teaching? How can we address consistently ineffective teaching fairly but decisively? 

“We cannot address any of these issues without better teacher evaluation systems.”

Who can argue with that?

To read the report. please click here.

E

The second year (2009) of the Register Opinion section’s world-class schools project focused on how to get a great teacher in every classroom. It also struck me that teacher education programs at colleges and universities here were not as well integrated with K-12 schools as they need to be.

To read the report, please click here.

“Left unsaid—and taken as a given—is that Republicans are already in the reform column. And that’s often true at the state and local level. …Alas, that’s not so in Washington.”

What worries me: Without strong national school reform, students in some states inevitably will not get as good an education as students in some other states. President Bush, a Republican, tried to go down that path with the No Child Left Behind law (which plenty of Democrats supported, too), but the effort was poorly put together. So this is not an easy policy issue to predict along party lines. Your thoughts?

To read the Education Week story, please click here.

To read the blog, please click here.

And there is a lot to be said for students feeling a strong sense of connection with each other and teachers.

Then along comes a New York Times story today about a huge high school that has had great success with turning things around academically. It should give everyone who thinks smaller is better pause.

To read the story in the Times, please click here.

To read the latest installment on East High, please click here.

U.S. Department of Education
Office of Communications & Outreach, Press Office    
400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010  
CONTACT:
Sandra Abrevaya, (202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov

Editor’s Note: Please note the corrected award amounts for the Louisiana Department of Education and the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCES $442 MILLION IN TEACHER INCENTIVE FUND GRANTS; 62 WINNERS FROM 27 STATES   

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the 62 winning applicants of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant competition. The winning applicants represent rural and urban school districts, as well nonprofit groups and state education organizations from 27 states across the country.
 
The five-year $1.2 billion TIF program seeks to strengthen the education profession by rewarding excellence, attracting teachers and principals to high-need and hard to staff areas, and providing all teachers and principals with the feedback and support they need to succeed. Today, the Department is providing the first two years of funding—a total of $442 million.
 
“Nothing is more important than great teaching. These grants will help schools build a culture that celebrates excellence in the classroom and helps all teachers improve their practice,” Duncan said.
 
This year’s winning applicants were selected by a group of 60 independent, expert peer reviewers. They were judged on their comprehensive plans to develop, reward and support effective teachers and principals in high-need schools, based on evaluations that include multiple measures, including student growth.
 
Applicants also were required to demonstrate a high level of local educator support and involvement, and a plan for financial sustainability after the five-year grant award period. Applicants received additional points for using value added measures, attracting effective teachers in hard to staff subject or specialty areas, and for being a first-time applicant.
 
One of the winners, the Louisiana Department of Education, will be awarded $36.5 million over five years to implement TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement in 70 high-need schools, impacting more than 2,800 educators and 33,500 students. The goals of TAP are to increase the percentage of effective educators in schools and increase student achievement.
 
Another winner, the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, will be awarded $32.7 million over five years to implement a program that will reward teachers both for student growth and their own leadership in spreading their teaching expertise. Peer and administrator observations will drive staffing decisions and professional development, particularly in the highest-need schools that will serve as pilot sites.
 
The TIF awards include the Main TIF competition and the TIF Evaluation competition. TIF Evaluation competition applicants will be required to meet additional criteria and will be eligible for at least an additional $1 million over the five-year grant period.
 
A list of TIF winners can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/teacherincentive/awards.html. Note that award amounts listed for each winner are over a five-year period. Today, only the first two years of funding will be awarded. Further funding is contingent on congressional action.

###

U.S. Department of Education
Office of Communications & Outreach, Press Office    
400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010  
CONTACT:
Sandra Abrevaya, (202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCES $442 MILLION IN TEACHER INCENTIVE FUND GRANTS; 62 WINNERS FROM 27 STATES   

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the 62 winning applicants of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant competition. The winning applicants represent rural and urban school districts, as well nonprofit groups and state education organizations from 27 states across the country.
 
The five-year $1.2 billion TIF program seeks to strengthen the education profession by rewarding excellence, attracting teachers and principals to high-need and hard to staff areas, and providing all teachers and principals with the feedback and support they need to succeed. Today, the Department is providing the first two years of funding—a total of $442 million.
 
“Nothing is more important than great teaching. These grants will help schools build a culture that celebrates excellence in the classroom and helps all teachers improve their practice,” said Duncan.
 
This year’s winning applicants were selected by a group of 60 independent, expert peer reviewers. They were judged on their comprehensive plans to develop, reward and support effective teachers and principals in high-need schools, based on evaluations that include multiple measures, including student growth.
 
Applicants also were required to demonstrate a high level of local educator support and involvement, and a plan for financial sustainability after the five-year grant award period. Applicants received additional points for using value added measures, attracting effective teachers in hard to staff subject or specialty areas, and for being a first-time applicant.
 
One of the winners, the Louisiana Department of Education, will be awarded $49 million over five years to implement TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement in 70 high-need schools, impacting more than 2,800 educators and 33,500 students. The goals of TAP are to increase the percentage of effective educators in schools and increase student achievement.
 
Another winner, the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, will be awarded $22.6 million over five years to implement a program that will reward teachers both for student growth and their own leadership in spreading their teaching expertise. Peer and administrator observations will drive staffing decisions and professional development, particularly in the highest-need schools that will serve as pilot sites.
 
The TIF awards include the Main TIF competition and the TIF Evaluation competition. TIF Evaluation competition applicants will be required to meet additional criteria and will be eligible for at least an additional $1 million over the five-year grant period.
 
A list of TIF winners can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/teacherincentive/awards.html. Note that award amounts listed for each winner are over a five-year period. Today, only the first two years of funding will be awarded. Further funding is contingent on congressional action.

###

To read more about the survey, please click here.

Here’s an excerpt: “It should raise questions when an enormous, complicated realm of life takes on the characteristics of a stock drama. In the current school-reform story, there is a reliable villain, in the form of the teachers’ unions, and a familiar set of heroes, including Geoffrey Canada, of Harlem Children’s Zone; Wendy Kopp, of Teach for America, the Knowledge Is Power Program; and Michele Rhee, the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. And there is a clear answer to the problem—charter schools. The details of this story are accurate, but they are fitted together too neatly and are made to imply too much.”

To read the essay, please click here.

And please check out the Register’s Facebook opinion page by clicking here.

To read the blog, please click here.

Yet now, her position as chancellor is threatened because her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty,was defeated in the Sept. 14 primary. 

Sometimes I worry that far too many people think schools can’t really change to boost achievement. But they can. The public, however, has to have the political will to insist on it.

To read the story, please click here.

To read the Los Angeles Times’ update on teacher protest, please click here.

To read the first installment of the East High project, please click here.

To read the press release on the winners, please click here.

Andrew Rasmussen, a civics teacher at Callanan Middle School in Des Moines, sent over a report this morning on the folly of using test scores to evaluate teachers. I think they should be a factor in evaluations because research shows some teachers regularly make significant progress with students year after year, while others do not. But I hear from some teachers that using test scores in evaluations would be nonetheless unfair. My question is to whom? I think the kids who end up ineffective teachers are the ones getting the raw deal.

Here’s what Mr. Rasmussen had to say:

I’m forwarding this important report on using student test scores to evaluate teachers to you. It is authored by many well respected researchers in the field of education and deserves to be read and heard by the larger public as we seem to hurtle blindly towards these kinds of value-added, merit pay systems with no proof that they work. A quote from the executive summary of the report…

“If new laws or policies specifically require that teachers be fired if their students’ test scores do not rise by a certain amount, then more teachers might well be terminated than is now the case. But there is not strong evidence to indicate either that the departing teachers would actually be the weakest teachers, or that the departing teachers would be replaced by more effective ones. There is also little or no evidence for the claim that teachers will be more motivated to improve student learning if teachers are evaluated or monetarily rewarded for student test score gains.”

I hope you take the time to read the summary at the least and let it inform your reporting and editorializing.

Andrew Rasmussen
Callanan Middle School
DMEA Building Support for Public Education Committee

To read the report, please click here.

To read the report, please click here.

To read the Education Week blog, please click here.

To read the Register story on the finalists, please click here.

Let’s hope the money comes through. Dismantling our education system by laying off teachers — and increasing class sizes and decreasing course options — is not good for kids or the economy.

To read an Education Week story on the impact of on teachers, please click here. (It’s possible this is paid content only, but I had no trouble accessing it.)

 Below is Gov. Chet Culver’s press release outlining his vision for 21st century schools. I’d like to hear what you think. My first reaction was this: There are some good ideas here — such as continuing to expand preschool —  but not much bold thinking. Where’s the focus, for example, on making sure we put a great teacher in every classroom? That would help close the achievement gap, which is also on the governor’s list.

For Immediate Release

August 4, 2010 

Contact: Ali Glisson/Sara Sedlacek

O: 515-883-2010

Ali@chetculver.com/Sara@chetculver.com

GOVERNOR CULVER OUTLINES HIS VISION FOR 21ST  CENTURY SCHOOLS

OUTLINES POLICY GOALS WHEN ACCEPTING ISEA ENDORSEMENT

DES MOINES – Governor Culver formally accepted the endorsement of the Iowa State Education Association today in Storm Lake at their Summer Leadership Conference. Governor Culver outlined his vision for education, rethinking the challenges and the goals facing Iowa’s students. 

Governor Culver released the following statement on the endorsement: 

“Lt. Governor Judge and I are very pleased by the Iowa State Education Association’s recommendation today. Our Administration has always fought to keep our commitment to educators.  

“The ISEA has been a steadfast partner in pushing our education agenda forward. We’ve raised teacher pay to the national average. We have created the statewide voluntary preschool program which has helped thousands of Iowa children go to preschool each year.

“I went to Storm Lake tonight to share my vision for how we can move education in Iowa forward even further in the 21st Century. 

Below is the policy agenda released by the Culver/Judge Campaign outlined in the speech given by Governor Chet Culver to members of the Iowa State Education Association tonight. 

PARTNERING WITH TEACHERS AND FAMILIES FOR 21ST CENTURY SCHOOLS

Now is the time to challenge our state to rethink education.  We must work with teachers, parents, administrators, school boards and community leaders to build upon our successes and meet our challenges with creativity and determination. During my next term, I propose the following: 

1. The vast majority of brain development happens before the age of 6. Any family who wants to send their 4 year old to preschool should be able to attend a publicly funded preschool in their school district.  

2. We must build upon Iowa’s tradition of an educated workforce and increase Iowa’s ability to attract quality, good-paying jobs to our state. We know we must work to close the ”achievement gap,” the disparity in academic performance between groups of students, often minorities or children in poverty, by continuing to work with educators to improve professional development opportunities for school staff.  And in the next four years we will show measurable improvement on test scores each year as Iowa begins to close that gap once and for all. Increasing the graduation rate for students of color from 73 percent in 2008 to 95 percent in 2014 and increasing the graduation rate for students in poverty from 78 percent to 95 percent. While these are specific goals, we also will work to close the “achievement gap” for all students.  

3. In order to be personally and professionally successful, students must have the skills to manage money and make informed decisions regarding their financial future.  Financial literacy should continue to be included in the Iowa Core and integrated into the classroom lesson plans. 

4. Iowa has a tradition of investing in our education but we must do more to keep our commitment to students and educators. If the economy continues to improve on it’s current trajectory towards recovery, the school funding commitment should be set at 4% of allowable growth.  

5. Iowa will continue to encourage high school students to prepare for college. Iowa will pay for Advanced Placement fees.  Students who score high enough on AP exams should not be required to take those same classes in college.  In Iowa, approximately 7000 students took almost 11, 000 AP exams in 2007.  

For more information and to join Teachers for Culver, visit ChetCulver.com.

EXCERPTS OF GOVERNOR CHET CULVER’S REMARKS TO ISEA SUMMER LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

AUGUST 4, 2010

“This is a very exciting and gratifying day for our re-election campaign.  I am very proud and pleased to accept the endorsement of the Iowa State Education Association for another term as your Governor.”

“I am, first, an educator.  That was my chosen profession.  Most of you know that I was a teacher at Roosevelt and Hoover High Schools in Des Moines before being elected Secretary of State and then Governor. I have a very deep and abiding love for learning and the encouragement of our students in the classroom.”

“Just because I serve in elected office does not mean I have lost any of the focus, drive or passion for education that made me want to be in a classroom every day in the first place. What is most gratifying about this endorsement is that it will allow us, as educators, to continue to move forward together on behalf of the students who attend Iowa schools.   We share the goal of ensuring Iowa continues to have the very best schools in the nation.”

“Your support is a big reason we have had so much success in education policy at the statehouse over the past four years. Because you stood with me, I was able to keep the promises I made to Iowans during my 2006 campaign for Governor.”

“I promised Iowa’s families a statewide preschool program and delivered on that promise by developing, funding and expanding Iowa’s first statewide voluntary preschool program. In the fall of 2010, more than 23,000 Iowa preschoolers in 326 school districts will benefit from the Iowa preschool program. ”

“As you can see, we have made truly inspiring progress together.  And I know, with your continued support we can move education in Iowa forward even further into the 21st Century.”

“Iowa is in a great place relative to other states when it comes to economic climate, job creation and fiscal strength. We are the #6 state for business, the #1 lowest cost of doing business, the #2 lowest debt among states, the 8th lowest unemployment rate, the 2nd lowest risk of “fiscal peril” among states…Our economic turnaround from the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression means our state revenues are improving.  In fact we beat projections by more than $400 million last month.  That means the picture is brightening for next budget year and we will have more revenue for schools.  As the economy continues to improve, I believe the school funding commitment should be set at 4% of allowable growth.”

“I can’t do it alone.  So, I ask for your continued partnership as we improve upon our already world-class education system. I want to see Iowa at the top of every list of states that are doing things right in education. Stand with me and we will lead the way in education for America well into this coming decade!”

###

Paid for by the Chet Culver Committee.

Remove your email address from this list 

Surely Branstad knows that.

To read more about former Governor Branstad’s comments, please click here.

To read the Tribune editorial, please click here.

he main point: Better teachers make a huge difference.

It helps make the argument for evaluating teachers based on growth in student achievement — something the Obama administration is pushing — which rarely happens now.

For information on the upcoming Race to the Top announcement later today, please click here.

I haven’t finished reading the Common Core Standards, but some of what I have seen strikes me as a step up for Iowa. Still, maybe Iowa should look more closely at what Massachusetts has done. That state, after all, is No. 1 in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

To read the AP story carried by the Boston Herald, please click here.

To link to the Iowa State Education Association’s website, please click here.

“The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.”

To read the BBC story, please click here.

To read the Register’s world-class schools series, please click here.

To

Iowa has had a mentoring program in place for beginning teachers for a number of years. How well does it work? How could it be improved? Some new teachers have told me it’s been a huge help and others have said it was just OK.

To read the Education Week story, which may be paid content, please click here.

To read a New York Times story on new teacher evaluation reforms, please click here.

I haven’t had a chance to read these papers yet, as they just arrived in my inbox, but they look interesting.

To read the papers, please click here.

To read the Register story on what the Des Moines school board is considering, please click here.

To read the blog, please click here.

To read about the common core standards, please click here.