This Week In Education
Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education was an opinion blog that covered education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge. (For archives prior to January 2007, please click here. For posts after November 2007, please click here.) This blog is no longer being updated.
Federal
Opinion
Leaving Special Ed Kids Behind: What Happens When You Start Mixing Measures
This post from edspresso about a school that fails to make AYP -- but gets rated highly by Newsweek -- gives us a good preview of just how confusing things can get when there's more than one way of measuring school success (edspresso.com: Exposing an Ugly Paradox). The school misses AYP due to special ed kids, but Newsweek is only looking at AP and IP scores. The district of course likes Newsweek's rating better. Who wouldn't? Of course, nothing quite this simplistic is likely to get into NCLB, but it's a good reminder that we already have competing -- and confusing --ratings systems, and most (all?) of them are less rigorous than NCLB's.
Education
Opinion
Spellings Off To UNESCO
"The President intends to nominate Margaret Spellings, of Texas, to be a Representative of the United States to the 34th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, for the duration of the conference." (Personnel Announcement)
Education
Opinion
Big Stories Of The Day
For Schools, What Does Progress Mean? Las Vegas Sun via DA Daily
Federal
Opinion
Multiple Measures: Foxes Guarding The Henhouse?
Over at The Quick And The Ed, Kevin Carey points out that one of the main concerns about multiple measures isn't just that it would take the focus off of core subjects like reading and math but also that it would put accountability back in the hands of schools and teachers whose performance is being measured (and who, previous to NCLB, often declined to publish achievement gaps or rate schools rigorously). Carey also asks "What's the law going to look like if there's one version for each of the nation's 14,000 school districts, or 90,000 schools? A lot like having no accountability at all."
Federal
Opinion
How Student Achievement Is Like Global Warming 10 Years Ago
Ten years ago there was lots of debate about whether global warming was real or not, and it often seems like that's where we are these days when it comes to research on overall student achievement in the US. This week, a new Bruce Fuller study came out that suggests a falloff in testing gains since NCLB was implemented (Education Week). But a few weeks ago another study from the Center on Education Policy said differently. So where's the consensus? There isn't one. And until there is -- which may never happen -- it's going to be mighty hard for anyone to push for, much less take, bold action towards improving schools.
Federal
Opinion
Testing Expert Questions Multiple Measures
Reactions to the Miller speech continue to trickle in, including a story in yesterday's Ed Daily (subscription required) that reiterates Miller's intent to prevent multiple measures from turning into an "escape hatch" (as if there aren't already enough of those) and tensions with ranking member Buck McKeon, who has threatened to block the bill if necessary.
School & District Management
Opinion
Encouraging News For Charter Schools From New Orleans
According to this article at EdWeek ( New Orleans Charters Fare Well in Testing), the first wave of tests results look good for some schools. Charter school students did relatively better than students in the state-run Recovery School District that Paul Vallas recently took over. In response, Vallas says he's implementing longer class days and better PD for teachers. There could be as many as 40 charters in New Orleans within the very near future, according to the article.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Unions & Teachers & School Improvement
Over at Schools for Tomorrow, Ed Rooney sees some unfortunate similarities between the teachers union in Mexico and the ones here. The union there is tremendously powerful, according to the article, spending on education is at 27 percent of the federal budget, but student achievement is low. Pictured is the head of the teachers union in Mexico, apparently known simply as "la meastra."
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
A Replacement For Secretary Spellings
Forget who's going to be the next President. The real question is who's going to be the next Secretary of Education. And some folks are already putting together their lists. "Who needs another policy wonk or former governor?," asks Mike Antonucci over at The Intelligencer (Winnie Cooper for Secretary of Education). "How about someone who can combine fashion with fractions? And provides homework help on her web site?"
Federal
Opinion
Putting Freshmen In The Spotlight, Putting NCLB Under
Right on schedule, CQ Today has a piece about how the Dems are focused on helping the freshmen keep their seats (Democrats Put Freshmen in Spotlight). Doing so makes obvious sense for the Dems, but not so much for NCLB supporters given the newbies' understandably skeptical views of NCLB. It's not entirely wishful thinking to say (as some do) that the freshmen ran against Iraq and -- to a much lesser degree -- NCLB.
Federal
Opinion
The Price Of A Democratic Majority: Making "Mush" Out Of NCLB
Not everyone's holding their tongues and waiting to see what the Miller reauthorization bill looks like. This commentary from Scripps News Service is an example: Diluting the No Child law. "As attractive as these indicators might sound, they would dilute the purpose of the law to where ultimately the standards become the usual educational mush."