The Assembly chamber isn't the only thing empty when it comes to school reform. Photo courtesy of the New York Times.

What’s happening in the dropout nation after the AFC and NFC title games:

1. Opponents of standardized testing tend to think that there is little value to subjecting students (and teachers and school districts) to exams. But, as reported at Miller-McCune, testing is valuable in improving student learning (as well as proving valuable in tracking their academic progress).
2. It wasn’t unsurprising last week when New York State’s Democratic-led legislature failed to the pass legislation eliminating restrictions on growth of charter schools. What may be more surprising, as the Daily News reports, is that 49 percent of legislators received part of their education in private schools. Essentially, a good number of Empire State politicians denied to poor children the access to high-quality education they themselves received. Hypocritical. But, as we’ve seen inside the Beltway with the shuttering of the D.C. voucher program, not shocking.
3. When it comes to education reform, India and the United States aren’t far apart, according to Tom Vander Ark.
4. The Gates Foundation hands off $10 million to Denver’s traditional school district, according to the Denver Post. Whether this is a smart move or an Annenberg-like miscue? A different story.
5. Collin Hitt of the Illinois Policy Institute gives some perspective on what may be a fascinating attempt at education reform by Rod Blajocevich’s successor, Pat Quinn.
6. Even more going on in Memphis, another potential hotspot for school reform. The traditional school district there is offering more-rigorous math classes in elementary school (albeit, unfortunately, at just a few of its schools) and preparing to offer International Baccalaureate classes, notes the Commercial Appeal‘s Jane Roberts. Now if the district can make this widespread. Meanwhile Richard Locker analyzes how Tennessee’s latest round of teacher evaluation reforms came to fore.
7. Fordham (or to be more-specific, Smooth Mike) wants to know if you think Race to the Top is a “rip-off”. Let them know through their poll. I have my thoughts — and you already know what they are.
8. And at Indianapolis blog, IPS B.S., teachers are debating whether the state’s proposed grade retention law is worthy of discussion. Many seem to think kids should be held back even earlier than the state suggests.
9. Finally, off-education: Get a good start this Monday. Listen to “Rip the Universe”, a song from one of my favorite bands, a Canadian group called Reverie Sound Revue. For something a little less modern, you can also go with The O’Jays‘ “Love Train”.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, which focuses on the high cost of teacher compensation and tenure for America’s taxpayers — and how it will drive the efforts to revamp how teachers are paid and evaluated. Also read last week’s Dropout Nation articles, including Saturday’s This is Dropout Nation report on one of the nation’s worst school systems.

Not the way to treat a Ranger. Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

While your editor makes a rare indulgence into his  fascination with all things hockey (and joins others in wishing a legendary rink rat a speedy recovery), read what’s going on in the dropout nation:

1. While Race to the Top has captured the headlines everywhere, it is especially becoming a point of discussion in the city of Blue Suede Shoes, where at least eight schools will likely be seized from the control of Memphis Public Schools and put into turnaround. Tennessee State Sen. Reginald Tates provides some insight on how the city’s school district (and its children) will benefit from this effort in the Tri-State Defender.
2. Meanwhile there is more going on in Memphis, from battles over school funding to questions as to whether the school district will be allowed to form its own police force. All this, along with the Gates-funded teacher quality effort under way, may make Memphis an interesting place to watch among school reformers.
3. At Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s black studies blog, Professor Howard Ramsby writes about the need to mold young black men into strong, learned role models. Ta-Nehisi Coates notes that parents have to often find themselves disliking their parents (in that selfish-child-way) as part of the process of becoming a moral adult who can stand on his own two feet.
4. The headshaker of the week appeared earlier this month, but it’s still a headshaker: Some Harvard ed school grads wrote an “open letter” to its administrators. They are demanding that the ed school speak out “against the unprecedented attack on public education.” What, dare say, is this attack? Start with “the over-testing of students” to their contention that performance pay plans “deny and undermine the essentially collaborative nature of teaching.” As if teachers spend all that much time teaching joint classes with their colleagues. Sure, I understand what they mean by this. But honestly, the current system of rewarding all teachers, regardless of the quality of their work, with tenure and raises based on little more than seniority and number of degrees awarded does little to improve the quality of education for the children in their care. Dear letter-writers: The grade for this letter is an “incomplete.” Try again.
5. Another headshaker: This time, it’s a Web site: Stop Homework. No comment.
6. In his Centraljersey.com piece, Hank Kalet makes clear that he is apparently afraid that new New Jersey education chief Brett Schundler will make his advocacy for school vouchers a centerpiece of his reform. Given the low quality of so many of the Garden State’s urban and suburban districts, are vouchers and charters still such an anathema?
7. Yes, according to a recent poll by Quinnipac University’s pollsters. Given that New Jersey is that rare instance of a mostly-suburban state with powerful unions and parents loyal to traditional public school districts, this isn’t so surprising.
8. In South Carolina, a state where arguments over the state’s abysmal graduation rate is just beginning to reach the levels seen in Indiana four years ago, a school choice supporter is entering the race for the education superintendent’s post, according to WACH-TV. Meanwhile Palmetto State school districts are still struggling to make Adequate Yearly Progress, reports the Sun News.
9. In Maryland, the state schools superintendent wants to actually subject teachers to performance management, according to WBAL-TV. By using student test scores no less. And, by the way, wants to make probationary teachers wait four years before gaining tenure. Sure, not all that radical compared to what Jason Kamras and Michelle Rhee are trying to do in D.C. But this is Maryland, not exactly friendly territory for school reform.
10. Speaking of Kamras: Yesterday’s video report has garnered some strong responses. Feel free to read and join in.
11. Meanwhile, in New York, the state education department has named 34 New York City schools that should either be overhauled, shut down or doe-see-doed, according to Gotham Schools. Joel Klein and company already has most of that handled. Of course.
12. When she was Indiana’s state schools superintendent, Suellen Reed was, well, underwhelming. Or as I put it back in 2004, she needed to hand in her walking papers. So Reed must be a tad saddened that her successor, Tony Bennett, seems to have gotten more done in less than one year in office that she did in 16.

These seats shouldn't be empty. Let's make sure all the children are here.

What’s happening in the Dropout Nation:

1. The past couple of days has been filled with news about the various Race to the Top applications. You can check out the applications submitted by Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, Ohio, and California. Alexander Russo offers a more-comprehensive list; Andy Smarick offers some thoughts; and Neal McCluskey wishes it would all fade away (with the help of newly-elected U.S. Senator Scott Brown).
2. The Wall Street Journal editorial board offers some advice to Arne Duncan on spending the Race to the Top money. Pick the best and most-innovative plans, they say, and forget a “Race to the Middle”.
3. At EducationNews, Linda Schrock Taylor offers a few suggestions on how schools should teach reading. Start with by not bothering to teach it at all. She’s just kidding (I think).
4. John Fensterwald looks at the latest NAEP data and sees bad news for the Golden State. Not exactly surprising.
5. In the Detroit Free Press, the state-appointed finance czar (and school district overlord-in-waiting) Robert Bobb proposes that he and others should be “righting the great wrongs” of educational neglect that happens daily within the district. Well, it is a start.
6. Charter Insights responds to AFT New York City honcho Michael Mulgrew’s latest paean against lifting New York State’s charter school cap.
7. The SacBee offers a database on average teacher salaries in its region. It notes that the average teacher saw a 1.8 percent increase in pay.

More coming later this afternoon. Until then, enjoy this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast and commentary on the need to bring diversity of thought and coverage to education reporting. A video featuring D.C. Public Schools’ teacher quality czar will come in the next hour.

Education reporting is more than just what happens in the classroom or inside the U.S. Department of Education

As the editor of this work in progress, I have a distinct set of goals for it: Chronicling the battles between school reformers and defenders of the traditional ways of running public schools; spotlighting how policy meets reality in school districts and classrooms around the country; looking at how the nation’s high school dropout crisis impacts communities and intersects with other social ills in urban and suburban communities; even offering a post or two to grassroots activists whose voices are rarely heard in the local paper.

So  I was certainly intrigued by Jay Mathews’ declaration on Monday that the Brookings Institution’s report on media coverage of education overstated the importance of national news coverage. Not because I fully agree with either side, but because I think they are both overlooking some realities.

Mathews is certainly right that there is plenty of admirable work being done by ed reporters at the national level. He’s also right that the traditional coverage can often be of little use to the average reader. The problem is that is there isn’t nearly enough of it. Or enough variety. It would be great to see Politico‘s Ben Smith or Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent tackle the intersection between education and campaign politics. It doesn’t happen.

The reality is that the quality of national education reporting outside of a few national newspapers and Education Week is lacking. The major political affairs daily, including Politico offers little coverage of how NEA and AFT campaign spending influences state and congressional campaign, nor provides much of a commentary forum for writers on the subject. Save for National Journal and some of the political monthlies out there (The American Spectator to name one), education coverage of any kind gets short shrift.

Some of this, of course, can be blamed on the horse-race nature of political coverage; compared to healthcare reform, covering the battle over reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act or the discussions over common core standards seems rather dull.The fact that most of the reporters and editors working in these publications are, naturally, more interested in the dull sheen of politics than in the deep questions of education also plays a part. Then there is the fact that schools are one of the few institutions in which everyone has participated; if you excelled in school or could care less about it when you were attending, you’re not going to care about it as an adult in any meaningful way.

But this doesn’t let national education reporters off the hook. As much of the problem lies with how education is covered. Few think about education as it intersects with other aspects of life. In my time, I’ve written about the role of education in trade policy, political campaigns, criminal justice systems, public pensions, even immigration policy. Focusing on just Race to the Top alone (and yes, I’m guilty of this too) or No Child reauthorization will do little to convince a Roll Call editor (or even a national editor at the N.Y. Times) to devote more than just a few column inches to education coverage.

Local education coverage, on the other hand, is plentiful in comparison. Brookings does fail to realize the full importance of local coverage.  But local ed reporting is often just as shallow as that at the national level. The tendency is to focus on either the school board battle or the classroom The problem of focusing only on classrooms is that what seems like good teaching may not actually be so. More often than not, local reporters think the classroom is the beginning and end; they fail to crunch numbers, analyze data or consider what can often be a dissonance between what appears to be working and what actually is. Classrooms are nice and so are teachers and kids, but it doesn’t offer nearly enough in terms of hard evidence.

So much of what shapes how teachers teach happens outside of the classroom. So do the consequences of that teaching on the children in their care — and the taxpayers who fund the schools in the first place. An inmate at Folsom State is as much a product of slovenly instruction and labeling by administrators as he is a result of desultory and abusive parenting. Property taxes in many cities are being driven up because of the cost of funding teacher retirements. The unwillingness of laggard veterans to leave the classroom is driven largely by the retirement benefits they have gained over the course of their careers.

Based on all this, local and national reporters need to look beyond classrooms and budget documents. They should go where they usually don’t: Local jails, state prisons, welfare offices, GED centers, even workforce training campuses and community colleges. More often than not, these are the places where the long-term effects of academic failure can be seen. This is because the average high school dropout isn’t simply a troublemaker; the average dropout is just as often the average kid who, despite his need for remediation, is often passed up the line from one teacher to the next. Until he reaches high school, when the proverbial rubber meets road and he must earn credits in order to graduate.

Education reporters also need to shed their fear of numbers-crunching and analysis. As proven by a number of reporters, including my former Indianapolis Star colleague Andy Gammill,  many of the best stories can be found in data that otherwise seems a jumble. It isn’t all hard work. Likely graduation rates for a school district, for example, can be figured out simply by dividing the number graduates from the population of 8th-graders likely heading into high school five years earlier. There is also plenty of information on teacher salaries within a school; if analyzed properly, you can get a sense of how districts finagle their numbers and how it actually plays out for students from wealthier and poor backgrounds.

What ‘s also needed are more Gotham Schools, more This Week in Educations, even more Dropout Nations. There should be a Catalyst in every city and a Hechinger Institute in every region. This would not only add to the diversity of coverage, it would also help convince editors and writers off the education beat to think more about the importance of education on the subjects their outlets cover.

If only if this was the Redskins instead of the Jets. Photo courtesy of ESPN.

What’s happening in the dropout nation that doesn’t involve pigskin:

1. In New York, Randi Weingarten’s successor as head of the American Federation of Teachers’ New York City local is using the language of Gary Orfield and Richard Kahlenberg in his opposition to the lifting of New York State’s charter school cap. In the Daily News , United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew declares that “charter schools are actually becoming a separate and unequal branch of public education”, citing the low levels of ELL students in some charters. Could it be that the parents of these students, mostly immigrants themselves, don’t have the sophistication or access to information about charters to make a different choice than send their kids to traditional public schools? Or could it be that, like parents of special ed students, ELL parents tend to think that traditional public schools can handle those children better than charters, even though the evidence of this is sparse (and often, would lean against that conclusion)? Mulgrew doesn’t ponder either of these matters. But certainly he wouldn’t. Mulgrew isn’t thinking about equality or integration. Or even about the kids under the care of his rank-and-file.  He’s thinking about the best interests of his union.
2. Meanwhile in Albany, the notoriously dysfunctional state legislature is looking to strip the State University of New York of its power to authorize charters, according to Cara Matthews. This is the price Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (and his ally, the AFT’s New York State affiliate, which opposes charters altogether) hope to extract in exchange for lifting the cap on charters. As you would expect, Gov. David Paterson and charter school advocates oppose this exercise in school reform futility. This isn’t exactly New York’s Race to the Top.
3. Even worse, as the New York Times reports, the New York City Department of Education, one of the most-aggressive charter authorizers, would also lose the authorizing role under the plan. Apparently, Silver and the AFT’s New York State local wants to make sure that either New York State is out of Race to the Top or that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools chief, Joel Klein, lose as much as possible under the plan. Although I am generally against allowing school districts to have authorizing power (mostly because they tend to never use it and keep out charters), New York City has been the exception and should keep the authorizing ability. As usual, this is typical teachers union/Sheldon Silver politics. Neither are worthy of respect.
4. Meanwhile Paterson proposes to give SUNY and the City University of New York freedom from state budgeting, reports the Press & Sun-Bulletin. This includes allowing the universities to raise tuition without legislative approval. As I’ve noted in a 2008 Hechinger Institute report, such freedom tends to not work out well for college affordability or for expanding access to higher ed among poor students.
5. As for higher ed, InsideHigherEd reports that public funding for state universities is on a “historic” decline. Now this depends on what you mean by decline. As their chart notes, higher ed funding has still increased by more than 19 percent (and a 29 percent increase, if you add federal stimulus funds into the equation). Cry me a river.
6. San Diego Union-Tribune writer Dean Calbreath looks at the recent Alliance for Excellent Education, EdWeek and Bureau of Labor Statistics data and concludes that dropping out equals fewer job opportunities.
7. The L.A. Times opines about the Matthew Kim teacher termination saga and concludes that the entire system of teacher hiring and compensation needs an overhaul.
8. Speaking of teacher compensation: Battles over teachers pensions and retirement benefits are starting to heat up. Vermont is the battleground this time around. The NEA’s Vermont affiliate is already on the warpath.
9. John Fensterwald reports on the growing opposition to Common Core Standards, especially among mathematicians. This battling over the value of a national curriculum — some would say it already exists — is going to be an undercurrent in the battle over the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.
10. Entrepreneur Sramana Mitra takes a look at how technology can be deployed to improve education.
11. EducationNews‘ Michael Shaughnessy interviews Anthony Rao, who looks at how schools teach boys and girls and how it may contribute to the former’s achievement gap issues.
12. Jay Mathews thinks the Brookings Institution’s recent study on education news coverage overstates the problem of mainstream reporting on ed news.
13. Don’t forget to check out this week’s Dropout Nation podcast. The commentary focuses on the need to improve leadership throughout school districts. Sure, teachers unions are part of the problem. But leadership at the district and school levels are also the reasons why so many school districts are in academic and bureaucratic freefall.
14. And given this is Martin Luther King day (and courtesy of Eduflack), don’t forget to listen to the famed ” Have a Dream” speech today. And remember, when it comes to education, we are far away from fulfilling either the dream and even further from the Promised Land. But we will get there soon.

The dropout nation is brimming with news:

1. Matt Yglesias argues that some conservatives are moving past charters because they “don’t do anything to entrench the privileges of the wealthy.” As usual, Yglesias weakens his arguments with class warfare material instead of making a strong case for his position. For one, plenty of conservatives are supportive of charters; it’s usually hard-core libertarians — who, on principle, are opposed to any state intervention in education — and moderate Republicans representing suburban school districts (which oppose vouchers and charters altogether) who have issues with charters. Two, as seen in the case of D.C.‘s soon-to-be-shuttered voucher program and the pioneering program in Milwaukee (along with programs run by private foundations), all the kids attending private schools on vouchers are poor. If Yglesias is going to play the class warfare game, he should at least get it right.
2. In any case, charters and vouchers can both foster educational equity, especially for the poorest children, who couldn’t otherwise afford even the highest-quality Catholic schools. As I’ve reported in The Catholic World Report, Catholic archdioceses across the country struggle to maintain their position as the private schools of choice for poor immigrant, urban and rural families largely because of the costs. Allowing for both charters and vouchers, along with improving the quality of public education overall, helps to bring equity to all.
3. Speaking of charters: Diane Ravitch is at it again. At least she admits charter schools do work (even if it is a tad backhanded).
4. And the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools releases its rating of states today. The Washington Post has its take.
5. The Orlando Sentinel notes that only 14 Sunshine State districts have so far signed onto the state’s Race to the Top reform plan. Meanwhile the head of Florida’s PTA has taken a stand for Race to the Top participation.
6. Speaking of Race to the Top, Tom Carroll speculates on whether the state’s dysfunctional legislature will get the job done. Of course, the AFT’s New York State affiliate is key in this discussion — as as noted yesterday, aren’t exactly playing nice.
7. Speaking of the AFT, here is the video of union president Randi Weingarten’s announcement that it will begin supporting the use of student test score data in teacher evaluations. How much of this is proverbial rope-a-dope? As Andy Rotherham notes, Weingarten declares the union is turning over a new leaf every year with little in the way of follow-through. Weingarten’s letter in Monday’s Wall Street Journal (along with her classic “Bush II” comment last year) justifies the skepticism. But, as I’ve noted, the location of the AFT’s locals in hotbeds of reform, along with its history and demographics, makes it more likely that the union will actually walk the walk. Besides, as pointed out by the Education Equality Project, it’s a sweet way to stick it to the rival National Education Association (which has historically lagged behind the AFT in everything).
8. Meanwhile the guy causing all these dust-ups, Arne Duncan, gets a bashing from one outlet for lacking teaching experience. As if the most successful education reformers this past decade (or for that matter, this past century) have been teachers. By the way, my take on Duncan and the problems in reforming school districts is officially up today.
9. EducationNews’ Michael Shaughnessy interviews The Month of Zephram Mondays author Leslie A. Susskind. Short and interesting.
10. Chad Ratliff observes the appointment of a charter school-friendly state education chieftain in his home state of Virginia — a notoriously difficult state in which to start them — and is excited by the possibilities.
11. Joanne Jacobs comments on the latest round of charter school activity in L.A. and notes that charters are doing well by their students even if they have to admit all children– unlike magnet schools, which Richard Kahlenberg fails to point out in a screed dedicated to yours truly. As an aside: It is interesting that those arguing for equity support a form of public education that is inherently unequal and anti-family choice.
12. And for those interested in the role of broadband in education, here’s a PowerPoint presentation on distance learning and broadband given yesterday at the Broadband Breakfast by the Federal Communications Commission’s education director. Enjoy.