The GreatSchools Blog

Education in the News This Week

Kelsey Parker — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:35:23 -0800

Ratings Have Little to Do With Teaching
In Monday's Washington Post, education writer Jay Mathews quipped that with teacher ratings in most DC school districts "as discerning as peewee soccer award night, with everyone getting a trophy, why bother?" A recent New Teacher Project report stated that the teacher evaluation system "not only keeps schools from dismissing consistently poor performers, but also prevents them from recognizing excellence among top performers or supporting growth among the broad plurality of hard working teachers who operate in the middle of the performance spectrum." In Massachusetts, educators are asking similar questions about how to best hire, evaluate, pay, and assign teachers:

We base hiring decisions on certification credentials that don’t seem to correlate highly with teacher quality. Most teachers receive only cursory performance evaluations, with virtually every teacher graded highly. We use a one-size-for-all salary structure, in which the only factors used in raises are a teacher’s higher education credentials and number of years in the system, neither of which is strongly linked to teacher effectiveness. And we often let seniority, rather than merit, drive decisions about where a teacher is placed.

In an attempt to answer some of these questions, Texas has toughened up its standards for teacher certification.

$20 for 20 Test Points?
In a ploy to raise funds this year, a middle school in North Carolina tried peddling better test scores. Though Wayne County school administrators shut the fundraiser down on Wednesday after news of the campaign raised concerns among local parents. "Tight state and local budgets have put extra pressure on schools to raise their own money," reports the News & Observer. "But [Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction,] said exchanging grades for money teaches children the wrong lessons. She also said it is bad testing practice and is unfair to students whose parents can't pay."

Map Your State's Education Innovation
The Center for American Progress took the findings from their Leaders & Laggards report and created an interactive map to visualize not "how states are performing today, but at what they are doing to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Texas is in the lead for teacher hiring and evaluation! But how does your state fare on the issues?

Building Consensus Behind ESEA Reauthorization

Bill Jackson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:37:20 -0800

Originally posted at the National Journal's Education Experts blog, in response to the provocation: How can the Obama administration and Congress put together a winning majority for reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act? What should change, what should remain more or less the same, and why?

At the risk of over-simplification, here is how I see the landscape now:

Who likes NCLB:

Business and education entrepreneurs like it because it puts the focus on results.
Civil rights groups like it because it focuses attention on disparities in educational results (the achievement gap).
Some parents like it because they associate it with greater performance transparency – they can see how their children’s schools are doing.

Who dislikes NCLB:

Many parents are concerned because they are told by their teachers and principals that it reduces schools to test prep.
Many affluent parents especially dislike it because they believe there is nothing in it for their children.
Some conservatives dislike it because it represents an inappropriate Federal intrusion into matters that the Constitution reserved for the states.
Some liberals (and liberal-minded) people dislike it because it seems to reduce public education to a focus on a relatively narrow set of basic skills.

(There are of course many more reasons that people like or dislike NCLB, I’m focusing on the big ones that might provide a clue as to how to build a new coalition.)

Based on these observations, here is my formula for renewing NCLB:

Focus on making major leaps in the quality of standards and assessments. These new standards and assessments must be very carefully crafted to measure the skills that are the most important to the success of young people. This is primarily a technical challenge.
Simultaneously focus on the potential of innovation in education and re-position NCLB as partly an ongoing “Innovation Fund” for LEAs and others who are prepared to demonstrate results. (And, as Sandy Kress suggested, focus more on secondary schools than the original NCLB did.)
Then explain to parents and the public why these standards (and assessments) are valid measure of their children’s progress and their school’s quality. Explain why we need innovation to accelerate progress. It needs to be very clear how these news standards and assessments are strong measures of the skills that their children will need to succeed. This is primarily a communications challenge.
Then, build the winning coalition from the bottom up by getting parents and the public to demand that their children get an education that provides them with these skills. Parents and others on the fence will also be attracted to the focus on innovation.

Finally, I agree with Tom Vander Ark that it may be wise to wait a little while to give time for Race to the Top and the Innovation Fund to begin to have impact and make the ground more fertile for this approach.

Education in the News This Week

Kelsey Parker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:26:18 -0800

Lowering Standards to Skirt Sanctions
According to a new federal study published this week, 15 states lowered their academic proficiency guidelines to stay ahead of the penalties under No Child Left Behind. "Under the No Child law, signed in 2002, all schools must bring 100 percent of students to the proficient level on states’ reading and math tests by 2014, and schools that fall short of rising annual targets face sanctions," writes New York Times reporter Sam Dillon. "Facing this challenge, the study found that some states had been redefining proficiency down, allowing a lower score on a state test to qualify as proficient." 48 states are now working cooperatively to establish a common core of academic standards, though it may be a long time before we can reach nationwide agreement on what curriculum constitutes proficiency.

Reforming Schools With Involved Parents
Under a new plan unveiled by the superintendent on Tuesday, Los Angeles Unified School District could face major reforms triggered by the parents of children attending any of their low-performing schools. "Ben Austin, [executive director of the Parent Revolution], has lobbied for the widest possible version of parent participation because, he said, improving a school can consume several years," reports Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times. "The parent of a young child should have the right to set in motion changes to that child's future middle school."

Charter School Success Stories
From an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal:

Opponents of school choice are running out of excuses as evidence continues to roll in about the positive impact of charter schools. Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby recently found that poor urban children who attend a charter school from kindergarten through 8th grade can close the learning gap with affluent suburban kids by 86% in reading and 66% in math. And now Marcus Winters, who follows education for the Manhattan Institute, has released a paper showing that even students who don't attend a charter school benefit academically when their public school is exposed to charter competition.

Are you considering your local charter school? You may want to keep these facts and figures in mind when researching your child's educational options.

Obama Uses Malia’s Test Scores as a Teachable Moment

Kelsey Parker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:31:04 -0800

Campaigning for the renovation of the "No Child Left Behind Law" yesterday, President Obama shared a rare, candid story about how he's raising his daughters to love learning and achieve their best:

These aren't my prepared remarks but I think it's important to note... Malia and Sasha are just wonderful kids and Michelle is a wonderful mother but in our own household, with all the privileges and opportunities that we have, there are times when kids slack off. There are times when they'd rather be watching tv or playing a computer game than hitting the books. And part of our job as parents, Michelle's and my job, is not to just tell our kids what to do but to start instilling in them a sense that they want to do it for themselves.

So... Malia came home, the other day, she had gotten a 73% on her science test. Now, she's a sixth-grader. Now, there was a time a couple years ago when she came home with an 80-something and she said, "I did pretty well." And I said, "No, no, no... Our goal is 90% and up." [applause]

Here's the interesting thing! She started internalizing that, so she came [home] — she was depressed. Got a 73%. And I said, "Well, what happened?"

"Well, you know, the teacher... The study guide didn't match up with what was on the test and..."

"So, so what's your idea here?"

"Well, you know, I'm going to start... I've got to read the whole chapter. I'm going to change how I study, how I approach it."

So she came home yesterday... She was... Got a 95! So she was high-fiving. [applause]

But here's the point! She said, "I just like having knowledge." That's what she said! And what was happening was she had started wanting it more than us. Now, once you get to that point — our kids are on our way.

But the only way they get to that point is if we're helping them get to that point. So it's going to take that kind of effort from parents to set a high bar in the household. Don't just expect teachers to set a high bar. You've got to set a high bar in the household — all across America.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves, Mr. President! But what about you? Have you taken the pledge to support your child's education this year?

Photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

Education in the News This Week

Kelsey Parker — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:43:46 -0700

Make Schools, Not War
In a New York Times op-ed, Nicholas Kristof argues that "for roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education." And over in a Forbes Magazine commentary, Mark Rice makes a similar case for budgeting education:

Imagine the possibilities if the U.S. spent even 1% more on education. With an annual federal budget of close to $3 trillion, a 1% increase would amount to $30 billion. An annual infusion of $30 billion directly into public K-12 education could go a long way toward rebuilding or rehabilitating crumbling school buildings, guaranteeing an adequate supply of up-to-date textbooks, supplying districts with computers and computer upgrades, installing smart boards for classrooms, stocking quality science labs and revitalizing programs in music, art and drama.

America's Dropout Crisis
"Every single school day, more than 7,200 kids, on average, drop out of high school — 1.3 million each year," reports The Daily Beast. "Just 15 percent of American high schools — known in the education world as 'dropout factories' — produce more than half of American dropouts, and three-quarters of black and Latino dropouts." Surveying school districts nationwide, TDB also compiled a list of the 10 Worst Dropout Cities, including Bakersfield, Calif.; McAllen, Texas; and Augusta, Ga.

Fixing Our Education System
The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray asked a panel of education experts, "What will it take to get the American system up to the level of some of the other developed countries in terms of math and science education?" With answers ranging from better teacher recruitment and retention to fundamentally changing the competition between schools and school districts, the entire discussion is worth a read.

College Bound: How it Works

Bill Jackson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:27:27 -0700

Note: this entry is part of a series called “The Making of College Bound”. Click here to read the series-to-date.

Last month, we introduced you to College Bound and the Four Key Roles of Parents, the framework around which College Bound is designed. Today, we’ll explain how College Bound actually works.

College Bound inspires and guides parents — regardless of their own educational backgrounds — to do what it takes to raise a college-ready high school graduate. It is an innovative web-based program that uses short video and animation to show parents, step-by-step, in an engaging, easy-to-understand manner, how to support their children’s success.

How it works:

Parents take free online courses and learn simple ways to help their children do well in school.
Parents put the lessons to work and try out the new tips they learned with their children.
Parents benefit from other parents’ experiences and share their stories with other parents online.

The lessons consist of short, simple videos that require only a few minutes a week to watch.

For example, the Kindergarten lessons fall into six topic areas:

The ABCs of Kindergarten learning
Nurture a love of learning
Learning self-control
Partnering with your child’s teacher
The road to reading
Math every day

Designed for busy parents, College Bound lessons include bite-sized, practical advice that parents can immediately incorporate into their everyday lives. Watch a sample tip here:

Parents are invited into College Bound in groups and experience the program together. For example, a classroom of kindergarten parents may be enrolled together or parents affiliated with a nonprofit organization, labor union or company may enroll as a group. Dedicated coaches guide and motivate each group through the program. Parents share comments and post questions about the lessons with one another and receive encouragement from their coaches. Weekly emails and printable activities engage parents to stay on track throughout the 12-week course.

We are currently testing a beta version of College Bound for parents of Kindergarten students. Soon College Bound will expand to serve parents of children across many more grade levels.

Stay tuned! College Bound Spanish BETA is coming in early 2010.

Meet GreatSchools: Jennifer Fleming

Kelsey Parker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:44 -0700

We love our senior user-interface designer, Jen Fleming. With an impressive 14 years of experience designing for the Web, for such clients as Ask.com, Ofoto/Kodak Gallery, and Silicon Graphics], Jen brings her expertise to refining both GreatSchools and our newest program, College Bound. But it's her fresh humor and humility at the office that truly brighten our days.

What inspires you about the GreatSchools mission?
Jen: I'm driven by our dream to get parents more involved in their children's lives. As a mother it's very motivating to know that I can help my daughter be her best just by being a loving and involved parent. Reading to her daily, teaching her the names of flowers, or keeping art supplies readily available will each positively impact her success in life, and make the process of parenting very rewarding.

Who in your childhood most inspired your love of learning?
Jen: My grandmother inspired the greatest love of learning for me. Though we lived on opposite coasts, she was persistent in educating me to respect wildlife and our environment, and to make things for myself. As a master seamstress, crafter, musician, and outdoorsy woman, she strove to share her love of life with me in every way that she could. I feel much of her influence in my life every day.

What's the best parenting advice you've heard?
Jen: Don't forget to take care of yourself! Remembering to eat healthily, get enough sleep, and exercise should be a priority for parents as much as their kids. It's too easy to overlook these basics in the demands of school and work schedules.

Thanks, Jen! It's true... a run-down, frazzled parent will have a tougher time making the best parenting decisions.
Jen: So we should all remember to be healthy for ourselves, and especially for our kids.

Education in the News This Week

Kelsey Parker — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:31:38 -0700

This week two major themes emerged: teachers and parenting. The topic of teachers was split into various arguments, but on the whole covered the notion of quality and retention. It starts with an Op-Ed by Michelle Obama:

As the president has frequently said, in a 21st-century global economy where jobs can be shipped to any place with an Internet connection and children here in America will be competing with children around the world for the same jobs, a good education is no longer just one road to opportunity—it is the only road. And good teachers aren't just critical for the success of our students. They are the key to the success of our economy.

Then Teaching for a Living, a Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates study, concluded that "forty percent of K-12 teachers are 'disheartened and disappointed' about their jobs," writes education blogger Joanne Jacobs. "Most of the disheartened teach in low-income schools. They’re frustrated with unsupportive administrators, disorder in the classroom and testing." But without testing, asks the National Journal's Education Experts blog, how should teacher effectiveness be assessed?

As for parenting, a public school teacher wrote a thought-provoking op-ed of his experiences with low-income students:

My students knew intuitively that the reason they were lagging academically had nothing to do with race, which is the too-handy explanation for the achievement gap in Alexandria. And it wasn't because the school system had failed them. They knew that excuses about a lack of resources and access just didn't wash at the new, state-of-the-art, $100 million T.C. Williams [High School], where every student is given a laptop and where there is open enrollment in Advanced Placement and honors courses. Rather, it was because their parents just weren't there for them — at least not in the same way that parents of kids who were doing well tended to be.

Enter Miami-Dade County's Parent Academy, which TIME Magazine profiled yesterday on its efforts "to engage parents who are otherwise uninvolved in their child's education." As Karen Mapp, the director of the Education Policy and Management Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains it: "There's 40 years of research that indicates a pretty positive relationship between families being engaged in their children's education and positive effects on students in terms of their academic achievement."

What’s It About: Race or Parents?

Bill Jackson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:02:09 -0700

In last Sunday’s Washington Post, English teacher Patrick Welsch argues that we’re missing the mark in the way we talk about the 'achievement gap.' Yes, he says, schools need to better serve low-income children and students of color — but parents need to step up, too.

As he describes it, one day his virtually all-black class of 12th-graders at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, performed terribly on yet another test. So he asked them, “Why don't you guys study like the kids from Africa?"

One of the students replied, "It's because they have fathers who kick their butts and make them study."

Challenging Welsh, another student shouted, "You ask the class, just ask how many of us have our fathers living with us." So he did, and not one hand was raised.

The article is a great read if you're interested in how parents and culture impact education — and what the response is like among educators. Don’t miss it.

The takeaway for me is not that we should let schools off-the-hook to better serve poor kids. Rather, it's that we need to open up a new front in our national campaign to improve student achievement. We need to inspire, demand, and support parents to be there for their kids. We need to be specific about what makes a good school and a great teacher, and we need to encourage parents to challenge their schools and teachers, and step up to strengthen their roles.

It’s not just about the schools. It’s also about the parents.

Education in the News This Week

Kelsey Parker — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:34:13 -0700

The Uneducated American
In a recent New York Times op-ed, columnist Paul Krugman writes, "These days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that's slightly below the average across all advanced economies." He recommends that the federal government approve "another big round of aid to state governments," but education reform bloggers now ask whether more money can effectively be the sole solution.

NAEP Math Scores Released
As the Wall Street Journal reports that "fewer than four of 10 fourth- and eighth-graders are proficient in mathematics, [...and] while some educators cautioned against reading too much into a single round of NAEP testing, others said the latest results indicate a need for more drastic changes than those prompted by the federal No Child Left Behind Law and various state initiatives." The NYTimes' Room for Debate asks, "Do the poor results suggest that testing requirements under 'No Child Left Behind' have been ineffective and should be abandoned? What’s lacking in math education that makes progress so hard to achieve?"

Columbus Day Falls Out of Fashion
"Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years," reveals the Associated Press. "Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations." And the Wall Street Journal asks, "Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?"