Archive for September, 2008

Life on the Inside

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 19, 2008 in Education Practice and Teaching. 4 Comments

If you want to know what’s really going on in the nation’s schools, hit the blogs.  U.S. News’ Eddy Ramirez posts this piece looking at blogs written by, for and about teachers.

Although generally dismissed by school administrators as ‘faculty bathroom graffiti,’ teacher blogs, including those that are written anonymously, are becoming essential reading for anyone who wants to look beyond standardized test score reports to see what’s really going on in schools.

Well said.  Ramirez cites Teaching in the 408 (although author Kilian Betlach is no longer teaching) and Bill Ferriter’s earnest and excellent The Tempered Radical as prime examples of the form.  I’d have added Catching Sparrows, NYC Educator, Learn Me Good and  dy/dan as well. 

Having tried to organize a few colleagues to blog when I was teaching, I can state with confidence that the conventional wisdom among most is that blogging is a great way to scuttle your career.  “Free speech protects teachers who want to blog about matters of public concern,” David Hudson, a First Amendment scholar, tells U.S. News. “But courts have ruled that schools can discipline teachers if their speech, including online postings, disrupts school operations. School officials in Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee have removed or suspended teachers for online postings on social networking sites like MySpace. Teacher unions have also warned members to use caution if they blog.”

(HT: Alexander Russo, who is also quoted in the piece.)

A Texas-Sized Waste of Money?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 19, 2008 in Research and Reports. 0 Comments

Texas has spent nearly $300 million since 2003 on expensive anti-psychotic medications for poor children, according to a new federal study.  The drugs cost more, have worse side effects in kids and are no more effective than older generics.

“The drugs, known as atypical anti-psychotics, are designed to treat schizophrenia but are also used for everything from autism to attention deficit disorder. Pharmaceutical firms have aggressively marketed the drugs to child psychiatrists and state health officials,” says the Dallas Morning News, which notes prescriptions for kids have increased fivefold in the last 15 years.

“States have spent a tremendous amount of money unnecessarily for drugs that are no safer than the older drugs that are a fraction of the cost,” said Allen Jones, a Pennsylvania whistleblower who investigates drug company influence tells the paper. “It appears, based on what the science is telling us, that an enormous amount of money was spent for no real benefit.”

A National Teachable Moment

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 19, 2008 in Curriculum. 0 Comments

It’s a newsroom cliche that some stories write themselves. Like this one: It’s been an historic week of stock market and economic turmoil driven by a massive debt and liquidity crisis. So the U.S. Treasury Department chooses this week to unveil…(wait for it!)…A program to teach schoolkids about the responsible use of credit! 

The theme of the campaign (I swear I’m not making this up) is “Don’t let your credit put you in a bad place.”  David Colker of the Los Angeles Times couldn’t resist waggishly leading his story on the program with, “See Sally. See Sally run from the bank. Run Sally run!” 

The quote of the week, if not for the ages, comes from Don Iannicola, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for financial education.  “The events unfolding in the last few months can be seen as a national teachable moment,” Iannicola tells the Times. 

Gee, ya think?

Just a suggestion, perhaps all government bailouts of Wall Street financial institutions ought to come with the requirement that the firms’ execs take — and pass — the course.

Winning Hearts and Minds

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 17, 2008 in Educational Policy and Parents. 1 Comment

If you’re over 40 years old and grew up in the U.S., you probably vividly remember a tsunami of roadside litter along American highways. It was fairly common as recently as 30 or 40 years ago for people to simply pitch trash from moving cars.  There was little societal pressure to do otherwise.  Then along came this guy: 

 

The “Crying Indian“ did as much as anyone to change Americans’ attitudes about littering, and their behavior.  Some have even credited this public service campaign from Keep America Beautiful, which debuted on Earth Day in 1971, with launching the modern environmental movement. 

I thought of the Crying Indian while reading this op-ed in the Washington Times.  Childrens’ book author Jennifer Bryan reminds us yet again of the benefit of reading to young children.  “In an era of high-stakes testing and education reforms and revolutions, research has repeatedly proved that one simple parenting technique is among the most effective,” she writes.  “Children who are read aloud to by parents get a head start in language and literacy skills and go to school better prepared.”

Right.  We know this.  But how many low-income Americans–the group least likely to read to their children–are going to hear about it in earnest op-eds?  If I’m Obama or McCain, I put a massive public service campaign touting the benefits of reading to young children at the top of my education “to do” list.   Done well, it might be the single most effective thing we can do right now, today, to close the achievement gap. 

Effective public service messages have a long history of changing behavior, and burning the ideas behind them into the public mind.  Buckle Up.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Just say no.  Give a hoot, don’t pollute.  Only you can prevent forest fires.  This is your brain on drugs.  Any questions?

 Aim it at parents, air it where they’re most likely to see it, and plaster it on inner city billboards.  Make it direct and hard-hitting, not warm and fuzzy.

“It’s ten o’clock.  Have you read to your child today?”

Tilting at Windmills

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 17, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

Apparently no one told Ed Secretary Margaret Spellings that No Child Left Behind is a damaged brand.  In a speech to the Aspen Institute, Spellings urged support for the law’s core principle: requiring states, school systems and schools to show that students can handle reading and math at grade level, the Washington Post reports. 

“We must resist pressure to weaken or water down accountability,” Spellings said. “To those who reject this goal, I ask, ‘What’s your answer?’ I have yet to meet a parent who doesn’t want their child on grade level right now, today, not 2014.”

If You Can Make It There

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 16, 2008 in Education Leadership. 0 Comments

Babe Ruth, Pedro Martinez and…Brett Peiser?  Top ballplayers aren’t the only ones defecting to rivals in New York City.  Boston “has quietly lost some of its top educators to the Big Apple,” writes James A. Peyser, a partner with NewSchools Venture Fund, in the Boston Globe.  After years as a hot spot of education reform, especially in the charter school movement, “Boston is losing some of its best players, raising fears that public education may suffer its own curse of the Bambino.”

A little over three years ago, the founders of three nationally recognized Boston charter schools – Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Academy of the Pacific Rim, and Boston Collegiate – helped to create an ambitious network of charter schools in New York and New Jersey. Last year, the head of City on a Hill Charter School, which has helped 100 percent of its graduates gain admission to college, moved to New York City to become Chancellor Joel Klein’s charter schools chief. And this fall, the founder of East Boston’s Excel Academy, which ranks among the state’s top five middle schools in eighth-grade math, is stepping down to explore new school reform opportunities in the New York metropolitan area.

“Massachusetts has distinguished itself as one of the nation’s leaders in school reform, and an important part of that success story has been its charter schools,” Peyser writes. “Nevertheless, as the charter movement has taken off in other states and cities, our leadership position has waned.”

Alive and Kicking?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 16, 2008 in Education News and Research and Reports. 0 Comments

The Center for Public Education reviewed several data sources to find out if recess is becoming a vestige of a bygone age, as accountability ratchets up the pressure on schools. “To borrow from Mark Twain,” CPE notes, “reports of recess’s death seem to have been grossly exaggerated.”

Even so, the pressure on schools to find more instructional time is real, and it seems to be leading many districts to shave minutes from the recess time they provide. In addition, children who attend high-poverty, high-minority, or urban schools are far more likely than their peers in other locations to get no recess at all—a definite “recess gap” that commands our attention.

Eighteen percent of elementary schools with a poverty rate over 75 percent do not provide first graders with recess, compared to 4 percent of schools with less than 35 percent poverty rate. These patterns “persist through sixth grade: 24 percent of sixth graders in high-minority schools, 28 percent in high-poverty schools, and 24 percent in urban schools do not get recess, compared to 13 percent of sixth graders overall,” the CPE reports.

Understood, we’re talking about recess here, but it’s curious to conclude as CPE and at least one major paper did, that the problem of eliminating recess in the name of greater accountability is “overblown.”  It’s unlikely that if 18% of patients taking a drug had adverse reactions that anyone would argue the danger of the drug was overstated.  Lawyers would be lining up around the block.

The Dark Side II

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 15, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Education Practice and Research and Reports. 0 Comments

Well over half of high school students admit to serious test cheating and plagiarism, leading one academic to pilot a program to promote “academic honesty.”  Jason Stephens, described as “a rising star in the field of academic dishonesty,” by the Hartford Courant, wants to let students and teachers “come up with a strategic plan to promote academic honesty in their school and encourage teachers to emphasize learning over simply acing tests and getting a good GPA,” the paper reports. 

An assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, Stephens has launched a pilot project to test his theory at six Connecticut high schools– two in a wealthy suburb, two in a middle-class neighborhood and two urban schools.  Half of the schools are working on Stephens’ anti-cheating program, half are control groups.  Stephens hopes his work leads to the development of a toolkit for high schools nationwide to combat the cheating epidemic among students.

Virtually all of them are cheating because the pressure of having good grades is extraordinary, more so now today than 20 to 30 years ago.  It’s not because these kids are morally bad. It’s because the stakes are higher and the time is less…It’s not enough to get a 4.0 grade point average. It’s also being involved in a varsity sport, volunteering in the community, maybe having a part-time job – along with the social lives these kids live.

Seen through this lens, cheating is something of a time management exercise.  “Most kids see that as wrong,” Stephens says.  “The sad thing is that most kids do it anyway.”

It all sounds noble and good, but color me skeptical that you can get a lot of traction for a program that downplays grades at competitive schools.

The Dark Side of High Achievement

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 15, 2008 in Education Leadership and Education Practice. 0 Comments

Is there room for average students at a high-achieving school?  An open letter on ednews.org from an anonymous parent calling himself John Dewey to the Principal of Langley High School, McLean, Virginia, takes exception to that principal’s assertion that the “middle child” – unexceptional academically or in extracurricular activities -may not be happy at his school.

Langley is widely considered one of the top public high schools in the country.  A new principal, Matthew Ragone, has just come on board and wrote a piece in the school’s newsletter.

One topic of discussion has been the concept of the ‘Middle Child’.  The ‘Middle Child” is the type of student who does not feel at home at Langley because, while they may be smart and academically focused, they are not academically superior like many of their peers.  Nor are they outstanding in extracurricular activities.  This student does not enjoy the prospect of coming to school to face the intense competition, which is ubiquitous in excellent schools, only to be disappointed.

There is no simple answer to this problem.  In my ideal world every student will walk through the front door on September 2 with an exuberant, positive attitude and feel comfortable and be happy throughout the entire year.  Of course that does not happen.  As we start the school year, the Instructional Council will open dialogue with the general faculty and I will talk with parents at PTSA meetings and parent coffees to solicit your input and ideas.  As the discussion continues with all the stakeholders, I am confident we will find a way to serve the ‘Middle Child’.”

Dewey’s advice to principal Rangone:  “Your message should be ‘There are no middle children here. Every child matters; every child is as important as the next.’ And you should mean it. You should provide a culture in which students who aren’t getting the material are identified and the school works with them after school or in special sessions to make sure they understand.”

Dewey, however, does not expect his plea to be heard.  “My experience tells me that Mr. Ragone is not going to be persuaded to change one thing about Langley except perhaps to make things even more competitive, reduce the number of top performers, and make the middle of the bell curve even larger,” he writes. “Isn’t that the name of the game in the ‘winner takes all’ environment that passes for high quality education these days?”

In fairness to Rangone, his missive sounds like he’s concerned (if inartfully so) about the middle child, not suggesting to parents that they go elsewhere. 

(Hat tip: Kitchen Table Math and Joanne Jacobs)

Scrapping the Sacrosanct Salary Schedule

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 13, 2008 in No category. 0 Comments

If you want to keep and retain talented new teachers, pay new teachers more and stop paying them to bulk up on credentials that don’t improve student outcomes.  That way teachers “will be rewarded for the strong improvement they make early in their career,” writes Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor in the fall
issue of Education Next.

The connection between credentials and teaching effectiveness is very weak at best, and the connection between additional years of experience and teaching effectiveness, while substantial in the first few years in the classroom, attenuates over time. Though exact results vary from one study to the next, there is little doubt that credentials and additional years of experience (beyond the first few years) matter far less to teacher effectiveness than they do to teacher compensation as it is currently designed.

Read Vigdor’s piece, but also read the reaction to it from Bill Ferriter, a 6th grade teacher who blogs at The Tempered Radical. He agrees with Vigdor, even though he benefits from the existing schedule.  “My master’s degree means little to me today, and yet I’ll be rewarded for it for the next fifteen years that I spend in a classroom,” he writes.  Still, Ferriter takes issue with some of the obvious flaws in Vigdor’s plans like basing all increases in compensation on increased scores on standardized tests. 

What we’ll never go for, though, are proposals that fail to take into account consequences for the curriculum when standardized testing is placed at the center of efforts to evaluate teachers—and it’s important to know that our opposition doesn’t stem from a fear of being held accountable for results. Instead, it stems an intimate understanding of what such systems will do to the children who sit in our classrooms. 

Smart stuff from a thoughtful teacher.