Judging by some of the grumbling I hear from my parents lately, there’s a big hubbub in Washington, D.C., about people in government borrowing bazillions of dollars and not paying it back — or something like that. Which reminds me… You really ought to watch this 2-minute video put together by my friends at the Independence Institute:

Even though it stars yucky girls, it won seventh place in some big national competition. Guess I should be happy for all of them — so sue me, all right?

But anyway, this is an education blog, and I did have a reason for bringing up D.C. and politicians. (Only so often, you know, don’t want to make it more than I can take.) Allison Sherry of our own Denver Post has an interesting write-up for Education Next on the education policies and platforms of leading Republican presidential contenders. While you should read through the whole thing, I picked out one section to highlight: Continue Reading »

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Update, 7/28: Writing at redefinED, Doug Tuthill and Adam Emerson highlight the rich irony behind the “Save Our Schools” phenomenon.

So apparently there’s some big national march called “Save Our Schools” or something like that. I told you about it a month ago. While the good people at the National Council on Teacher Quality took a conciliatory approach to pointing out the flaws in the “SOS” program. But the award goes to Sara Mead, writing at Eduwonk, for this effective takedown:

…This is not an agenda for accomplishing anything. It’s just a wish list. Half of it is a wishlist of things the organizers don’t want (performance-based pay, school closures). Half of it is a wishlist for things someone might want, without any clear theory of how to operationalize them or what that might actually look like in practice in the real world. (I, too, would like to see “Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential”–but in the absence of clear prescriptions and mechanisms about how to make that a reality, well, you might as well wish for a pony, too.)…

I can’t help but think that a lot of people marching on the nation’s capital for this cause — as pure as their motives may be — are tangling with some vague, outsized imaginary enemy. Then again, as Anthony Krisky has pointed out, it’s not exactly a grassroots movement. Given the pro-union sympathies of so many of its outspoken leaders, one might have to ask them what they think about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s reforms enabling local school districts to save teacher jobs? Is that “anti-teacher”?

Guess what, Colorado has its own “SOS,” too. I wholeheartedly defend their right to speak up. I just don’t get much of where they’re coming from with a largely illogical, fanciful and ambiguous agenda. Maybe we should just start referring to it as SOS?… as in: Huh?

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Update, 7/7: Guest-writing over at Eduwonk, the insightful Paul Hill gives valuable perspective to the scandal, noting that Atlanta had taken a very inside-the-box approach to achieve its touted phony scores and suggesting the use of online adaptive tests as a policy solution that curbs cheating while preserving test-based accountability.

The big, hard-to-ignore education news of the week comes from Atlanta, Georgia, in the sunny South. The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrick Jonsson reports:

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

Let me tell you: If I got caught cheating, I couldn’t even imagine the consequences my parents would bring down on me. No trips to the beach all summer? No dessert for a month? Grounded from playing with Legos AND video games? (Oh, it’s too hard to even think about…) Have my blogging privileges revoked? Some of you would like that, I’m sure. But just imagine the devastation for a little kid like me.

Anyway, a cheating scandal of Atlanta’s magnitude, combined with other smaller instances around the country, sets off the alarm bells. For some, it means responses like this one from a certain well-known figure with an agenda of undermining test-based accountability for schools: Continue Reading »

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Still trying to recover from the big fireworks last night, I couldn’t decide between two blogging ideas this morning. So instead I’m giving you a little bit of both. First, you just have to read today’s Wall Street Journal editorial proclaiming what I told you last week — that 2011 is indeed The Year of School Choice:

No fewer than 13 states have enacted school choice legislation in 2011, and 28 states have legislation pending. Last month alone, Louisiana enhanced its state income tax break for private school tuition; Ohio tripled the number of students eligible for school vouchers; and North Carolina passed a law letting parents of students with special needs claim a tax credit for expenses related to private school tuition and other educational services.

The Douglas County Choice Scholarship program gets a mention later on in the piece, making Colorado one of the 13 states. Isn’t that number ironic, coming right after the July 4th holiday, remembering the number of colonies that declared independence from the British crown? It could have been 14, if Pennsylvania hadn’t fumbled the ball, as the Journal points out. So make that Year of School Choice almost perfect. Continue Reading »

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Believe it or not, July is here and the Independence Day weekend is practically upon us. You know what that means. Lots of red, white and blue; cookouts; parades; and, of course, fireworks. But probably not the kind of fireworks you’re thinking of.

One thing about fireworks is how they can provide a moment of brilliant light that illuminates the sky and sometimes the ground below, providing a candid glimpse of things otherwise concealed by a blanket of darkness. In that sense this frank declaration of union priorities delivered at the 2009 National Education Association Representative Assembly certainly would qualify as fireworks:

Will there be similar fireworks — or maybe fireworks of another kind — at this year’s NEA event, which is now getting underway in Chicago? The big attention for 2011 is focused on NEA’s new teacher evaluation policy proposal, but the agenda also includes a proposed dues hike and a formal endorsement of President Obama for re-election.

The best coverage of the NEA Representative Assembly (hands-down) can be found at two blogs: Mike Antonucci’s Intercepts and Stephen Sawchuk’s Education Week Teacher Beat. Light a sparkler or two for me while you’re at it.

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If you think American K-12 education policy is a complex and tangled web of laws, bureaucracies, incentives, politics and emotions — and you would be quite normal to do so — then treading into the narrower world of special education services might make your head completely spin. It’s the day after a long and fun Memorial Day weekend, in which most of my time was spent with playgrounds or Legos.

So rather than make any grand interpretations or pronouncements, I want to bring your attention to the new Fordham Institute report by Janie Scull and Amber Winkler, titled Shifting Trends in Special Education. Nationwide, the number and share of special education students peaked in 2004-05 and has been on the decline ever since. The report explains: Continue Reading »

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If you gave me a big box of crayons and asked me to write a manifesto, it’s probably not what I would have come up with. But I am glad to give it a big thumbs up, and hope that lots of big people sign on. What am I talking about? Closing the Door on Innovation: Why One National Curriculum is Bad for America:

We, the undersigned, representing viewpoints from across the political and educational spectrum, oppose the call for a nationalized curriculum in the Albert Shanker Institute Manifesto “A Call for Common Content.” We also oppose the ongoing effort by the U.S. Department of Education to have two federally funded testing consortia develop national curriculum guidelines, national curriculum models, national instructional materials, and national assessments using Common Core’s national standards as a basis for these efforts.

We agree that our expectations should be high and similar for all children whether they live in Mississippi or Massachusetts, Tennessee or Texas. We also think that curricula should be designed before assessments are developed, not the other way around.

But we do not agree that a one-size-fits-all, centrally controlled curriculum for every K-12 subject makes sense for this country or for any other sizable country….

Continue Reading »

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So I hear the federal government came really close to shutting down this past weekend. Bigger people than me can tell you whether the last-minute deal to avert a shutdown was in total a good deal or not. But I do know one aspect of the deal that is definitely praiseworthy: namely, that the SOAR Act reauthorizing and expanding the D.C. school voucher program was adopted.

How happy do you think I am? Bet you can only imagine. But giving myself an opportunity to restrain my childish exuberance, here is a roundup of encouraging, uplifting, and insightful reactions:

• The Eduwonk unpacks some of the politics and says to pay attention to how the program’s infrastructure is reassembled to serve student’s needs during the implementation process…
• Paul Peterson, writing at Education Next, reminds us that the political victory was made possible by the high-quality research in Patrick Wolf’s official evaluation of the D.C. voucher program — causing me to nod in approval…
• Lindsey Burke from the Heritage Foundation makes me smile, saying the adoption of the SOAR Act represents “a monumental win”…
• When Flypaper’s Chris Tessone calls it “a big win for school choice and all kids in DC,” I squirm with excitement and hold back a giddy laugh…
• Over at Jay Greene’s blog, Matthew Ladner describes the vote as part of a “voucher steamroller,” while Greg Forster ends up gleefully yelling, like I would do if I weren’t so self-controlled, but…

Uh-oh — that makes me want to holler REALLY loud: YIPPPEEEEEEE! (I tried to hold it in, I really did….)

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Baseball season’s Opening Day means it’s not only time to start rooting for my Colorado Rockies. It’s also a great opportunity to introduce you to a relatively new baseball-themed website created by the Center for Education Reform, The Media Bullpen:

The Media Bullpen is a dynamic, virtual newsroom that covers the news and the news of education. It’s a sophisticated and unique technological environment that allows everyone to get in the game on the greatest discussions of our day. To understand those discussions, we need great information and reporting on all the issues relating to education—all the time.

Each day nearly 500 stories—and sometimes many more—are produced in the media about education, but they often lack the context for the public to get engaged. The Bullpen will empower the public to put in context what they see and hear. The problem is not that education is under-reported; the larger issue is that all too often, it is misreported. Balance, context, sound data, and an institutional knowledge of the many issues are often missing.

What I like about the site is how they rate the stories — anywhere from a strikeout to a home run based on “objectivity, proper context” and “exploration of data and search for accuracy.” Right now there’s a team of umpires — er, editors — doing the ratings, but it looks like the goal is to engage the readers in the rating and comment process soon.

I suspect The Media Bullpen soon will be rating stories about a couple major developments that look to have made yesterday, March 30, 2011, a landmark day for parental choice in education. Continue Reading »

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Tomorrow is a big day in Washington, D.C. I’m not talking about any big speeches by the President regarding overseas kinetic military actions or about Republicans and Democrats fighting it out over federal spending cuts.

On Wednesday the U.S. House of Representatives is slated to vote on the SOAR Act, which would restore and expand the popular and successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP). The Obama administration and many members of Congress began shutting down private school choice in the nation’s capital in 2009. But it’s never too late to keep hoping. (Update, 3/30: Flypaper’s Mike Petrilli highlights the disingenuous nature of the Administration’s opposition to reauthorizing the D.C. voucher program, while redefinED points to a new Washington Post editorial in support of the effort to bring back private school choice to the nation’s capital.) Continue Reading »

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