Writers: ED's Civil Rights Efforts Harming Gifted Students

In a Washington Post (12/16) op-ed, Michael J. Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute criticize President Obama and ED for risking "opportunities for our highest-achieving students," noting, "last year the Education Department's civil rights division announced that it would investigate local school policies that have a 'disparate impact' on poor or minority students - signaling a willingness to go to court if department officials think that school systems have too few of such children in gifted programs or Advanced Placement courses. This bit of social engineering ignores the unseemly reality that advantaged children are statistically more likely to be ready to succeed in tough classes than are low-income children raised in households with fewer books and more television." The writers concede ED's good intentions in seeking to narrow the achievement gap, but lament that its NCLB waiver requirements will do even more to "dilute high-level courses."

CEP: 48% Of Schools Failing Under NCLB Despite Duncan's Higher Estimate

Coverage of the Center on Education Policy report on the number of US schools which failed to make AYP in 2011 mushroomed today, with much of the content-most of which was negative in tone-drawing attention to the disparity between the 48% failure rate found in the study and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's predictions earlier this year that that figure could have been as high as 82%.

Bloomberg News (12/16, Hechinger) reports that the report indicated that "almost half" of US schools "are labeled failing under" NCLB, "compared with the 80 percent estimate President Barack Obama's administration cited as a rationale for changing its mandates." The article notes that Obama and Duncan "cited the 80 percent figure this year in justifying a plan to offer waivers to the law for states that agree to abide by the administration's education agenda, including tying teacher evaluations to student performance." However, "the lower estimate still shows the need for change, said Jack Jennings, the center's president. 'Whether it's 50 percent or 80 percent, the law is too crude a measure of what is considered failing,' Jennings said in a phone interview. 'The law is defective, and Duncan is right to want to change it.'"

 

Politico (12/16, Lee) adds, "Forty-eight percent of public schools nationwide didn't make adequate progress under the standards – up from the 39 percent in 2010 and the highest failure rate since No Child Left Behind took effect in 2002, the Center on Education Policy report said." 35 states saw a 6-year high in their failure rates, Politico reports, while some 24 states and DC saw over half of their schools fail to make AYP. Meanwhile, "in five states – Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Massachusetts and South Carolina and D.C. - more than 75 percent of schools failed to achieve an adequate level of annual progress."

 

In its coverage, the Washington Times (12/16, Wolfgang) reports that schools in DC "ranked near the bottom, with 87 percent failing to clear the bar, the report says. Only Missouri was worse, with 88 percent of its schools falling short. Wisconsin schools performed the best, with 11 percent missing the mark. In Maryland and Virginia, 45 percent and 62 percent, respectively, didn't make adequate yearly progress."

Boston Teacher Residency Participants Outperform Peers After Several Years

Education Week (12/16, Sawchuk) reports that according to a new study, "Math teachers trained through the Boston Teacher Residency program are, on average, initially less effective at raising student scores in that subject than other novice teachers. But within five years, their instruction in that subject improves rapidly enough to surpass the effectiveness of their colleagues." The study showed that the program also drew "a more ethnically diverse group of teachers to the profession than is typical; its candidates were more likely to teach the hard-to-fill subjects of math and science, and they were also much more likely than other new teachers to stay in the classroom for at least five years." The piece notes that the NEA has called such residency programs "promising models" for teacher training.

Bush Pushing "Quiet," Bipartisan Education Reform Efforts

In a piece for Time (12/16), Andrew J. Rotherham writes that "George W. Bush is writing a sequel to his big education act," noting that he is "quietly pushing new education-reform initiatives aimed at improving and empowering school principals, who too often lack the training or authority to effectively run their schools. And once again, he's approaching this massive education problem by blurring political lines." He writes that a recent New York City meeting of "advisers he had assembled to guide the George W. Bush Institute's education work" was mostly made up of Democrats, adding that Bush "has already recruited officials from his administration as well as liberal stalwarts like Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust and Democratic education leaders like former North Carolina Governor James Hunt."

Lower Child Count Trend Became Obvious In 2011

In another year-in-review article, Education Daily (12/15, Sherman) reports that when Congress reauthorized IDEA in 2004, one of its priorities was to reduce "the number of children unnecessarily classified as students with disabilities," and it therefore "said districts could use RTI as a way of identifying children with learning disabilities. At its core, RTI suggests that schools should improve the quality of their instruction before making any assumptions about a child's abilities. Likewise, Congress said districts could spend up to 15 percent of their IDEA funds on Coordinated Early Intervening Services." Education Daily credits these actions with five straight years of declining numbers of IDEA Part B students.

Virginia District Defends Cutting Classroom Time Due To Budget Constraints

The Washington Post (12/15, Brown) reports that the school district in Fairfax County, Virginia, cut extra classroom time last year to balance its budget, noting that "some schools had tacked hours onto the day, and others added weeks to the year - methods used nationwide to lift student achievement. After the extra time disappeared, scores on state tests slipped at several of the schools." However the district's Graham Road Elementary maintained its high scores despite having "one of the highest poverty rates in Northern Virginia," a statistic which district officials say proves "that extra time was a popular but now unaffordable luxury."

Los Angeles Superintendent Sues State To Preserve Busing Funding

Coverage continues today of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy's having announced plans to take legal action to prevent state budget cuts which would end an integration-related busing program. Education Week (12/15, Jones) reports that Deasy is "acting on behalf of 38,000 magnet and special-education students," and filed suit Wednesday "challenging the state's trigger cuts that would wipe out the $38 million busing program for the rest of the school year." The school board approved the action "as Gov. Jerry Brown was announcing that a shortfall in new revenue would trigger massive cuts in public education statewide." The complaint argues "that the loss of the home-to-school transportation money will mean the end of voluntary busing to scores of magnet schools that are the backbone of its court-ordered desegregation program."

Study: Policy Changes Often Based On Misinterpretation Of Student Test Scores

The Huffington Post (12/15, Resmovits) reports that according to a new report from statistical research group Mathematica, test scores are "regularly misinterpreted" by policymakers implementing changes in education policy. The analysis indicates that "the comparisons sometimes used to judge school performance are more indicative of demographic change than actual learning. For example: Last week's release of National Assessment of Educational Progress scores led to much finger-pointing about what's working and what isn't in education reform. But according to Mathematica, policy assessments based on raw test data is extremely misleading -- especially because year-to-year comparisons measure different groups of students."

DC Special Education Transportation Call Centers Draw Scrutiny

The Washington Examiner (12/14, Gartner) reports that the Washington, DC, public school system's special education call center "handles 330 calls a day -- about one for every 11 students who the city buses to school because their neighborhood school can't provide the special-education services the student requires. Depending on whom you ask, the call center is a place where inspirational messages are passed out and volunteers take care of parents' concerns. Or it's a place where annoyed employees tell you the bus broke down, but don't know where the bus is." The piece notes that at a recent DC council hearing on special-education transportation, officials discussed the center.

NEA Endorses PAR, Performance Assessments

Education Daily (12/14, Njuguna) reports that the NEA has announced "its support for peer assistance and review, higher standards for new teachers entering the profession, and expanded teacher leadership roles. 'We must take responsibility for our own profession; we know what has to get done,' NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said announcing action the union is taking to carry out recommendations from an independent, 21-member NEA Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching." The piece notes that "Van Roekel acknowledged in his speech that NEA has in the past been 'schizophrenic' about whether PAR is a good idea, but now recognizes there are examples where the evaluation model has worked."

Report Finds 33% Spike In Homelessness Among Children

ABC World News (12/13, story 10, 2:00, Sawyer, 8.2M) reported, "A new study showing a 33% increase in the number of homeless children in just four years."

 

USA Today (12/13, Bello) adds that according to the report, released by the National Center on Family Homelessness, "one in 45 children in the USA - 1.6 million children - were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year," representing "a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children." Noting that the study analyzed four years of ED data, USA Today adds that it "finds the worst states for homeless children are Southern states where poverty is high, including Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, and states decimated by foreclosures and job losses, such as Arizona, California and Nevada."

ELL Groups Criticize New Mexico's NCLB Waiver Application

Lesli Maxwell writes at the Education Week (12/14) "Learning the Language" blog about the implications for ELL students to be gleaned from the applications that have been sent in by 11 states for NCLB waivers, noting that many of them "would move away from focusing on English learners as a stand-alone subgroup, (along with the other traditional subgroups) by folding them into a 'super' subgroup, or lowest performing 25 percent, for example." She notes that despite its heavy ELL population, New Mexico's application had "only a few references" to this group, noting that an "observer suggests it's connected to the state's outreach efforts as it crafted the waiver application, which really irked groups that advocate for ELLs-so much so that several of them sent a letter to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urging him to reject the state's proposal because it did not meet the department's requirement for engaging in meaningful consultation with stakeholder groups."

Tech Startup Seeks To Use Teacher Input To Develop Classroom Technology

The Boston Business Journal (12/14, Alspach, Subscription Publication) reports in its "Startups" blog that though teachers are "the users of classroom products," other officials "actually choose which products to buy, such as textbooks and technology. It's a dysfunctional market, according to ClassroomWindow -- a brand-new web startup in Needham that wants to upend the market with a Yelp-style, crowdsourced approach." The piece notes that the site will include user reviews, along with "publicly-available research and student test scores to enable the best possible buying decisions in schools." The piece notes that a "special assistant for innovation at the US Department of Education" has signed on to participate in the program's beta.

Teacher Group Makes Recommendations On Longer Chicago School Day

The Chicago Tribune (12/14, Ahmed-Ullah) reports that teacher advocacy group the VIVA Project has released a set of recommendations with "49 suggestions on how time can be used more efficiently to Chicago schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard on Monday. On Tuesday, they planned to present their recommendations to Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis." Noting that Brizard is calling for a 90-minute extension to Chicago's school day, the Tribune adds that the report's suggestions "include everything from requiring students to attend school on lesser-known holidays like Lincoln's Birthday and Pulaski Day to a staggered schedule that would allow for two shifts for teachers so students needing remedial help could ultimately be in school longer, until 5 p.m."

Report: Increased Classroom Time No Guarantee Of Academic Success

The Washington Times (12/14, Wolfgang, 77K) reports that according to a new study released by the National School Boards Association, increased classroom time does not guarantee higher test scores, and "many nations that outpace the US on standardized reading and math assessments keep their children in school for much less time." The Times reports that he study refutes "a popular theme in education debates, one espoused by federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan. 'Right now, children in India ... they're going to school 30, 35 days more than our students,' he said at an education forum in September, explaining one reason he thinks the American education system is falling behind those of global competitors. ... While Mr. Duncan is technically correct that Indian students have a longer school year when measured in days, they spend fewer hours in class than almost all their American counterparts."