Read: All the Handwringing Edition

Wherever your talents may lie, just do your part.

What’s happening in the Dropout Nation:

1. There has been plenty of handwringing about the business of covering education — and covering school reformers — from the Brookings Institution, Jay Mathews, Alan Gottlieb of EdNews Colorado and even Big Edreform Andy #1 (as in Rotherham). I’ve already written enough about the matter earlier this year and a few others (Alexander Russo among them) offer something more comprehensive the matter than I care to give justice.
2. Meanwhile Steve Peha took time on Eduwonk offering his fellow teachers a few reasons why they should stop working through unions and actually play a part in school reform. But in the process, he took aim at other reformers — notably those of us on the polemic side of things — by arguing that “blogging never taught a kid to read” and that one can’t be “a champion for kids” without “actually work toward making sure they get educated.” As someone who has actively worked on the message side of school reform (including consulting for school reform groups and speechwriting) I can tell you that there is more to improving the lives of children than just teaching. There is also grassroots activism such as that of Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project, education research such as that of Michael Holzman (the subject of the inaugural “Three Questions” this week) and Robert Balfanz that sheds light on the dropout crisis, and even the work within policy circles and starting schools. Ultimately it is about using one’s talents to improve the lives of children any way possible that is important, not whether one is in the classroom.
3. Sadly, Mr. Peha’s arrogance is typical within traditional education circles. The tendency to overvalue subjective experience (which can offer little in actual usable information) over objective data (which is often more counter-intuitive than confirming). The best example is exemplified on Wednesday at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Get Schooled blog, where Maureen Downey’s report on a recent study on Florida’s class size caused readers to pillory the study (often without so much as reading it). The anti-intellectualism within a sector that is supposed to value knowledge and inquiry can be quite laughable — until you see the consequences of it in the NAEP reading data for big city districts released yesterday.
4. Speaking of data: Dan Goldhaber (whose studies on teacher quality are must-reads) offers some thoughts on performance pay plans and how they may actually stimulate high performance. Meanwhile the Education Action Group (which is far less dispassionate about teacher issues) offers a report on the high cost of teacher compensation and collective bargaining agreements for Ohio’s school districts.
5. And speaking of experience — this time, the power of parents — Eric Waters writets about his mother and her role in shaping not only his life, but that of his father (and her husband).

Read: What is NAEP? Edition

The senseless deaths of youth must stop. It's just that simple.

What is happening today in the dropout nation — or what has been happening while your editor has been on the road:

1. Amid last week’s woeful responses to the reading test results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Education Sector’s Chad Alderman offers a different perspective. He notes that if you break down the results — and realize that the underlying sampling now includes more blacks and Latinos (in order to better represent the nation), one will see some real progress. Black 4th-graders, for example, scored 23 points higher than fellow students in the same grade four years ago. This is all good. But a more-longitudinal assessment — showing progress among students between being in 4th and 8th grade — would certainly offer more perspective on the nation’s academic progress.
2. Meanwhile the Bluegrass Institute’s Richard Innes notes that Kentucky’s NAEP performance may seem better than that of California, but appearances are deceiving. Especially when Kentucky’s education officials suppresses 46 percent of its English Language Learners and special ed students. Declares Innes: “only two other states in the entire country played the exclusion game harder.”
3. Those two states, according to Dropout Nation‘s analysis: Maryland and Tennessee , which respectively excluded 57 percent and 55 percent of their ELL and Special Ed students. Which may explain why Maryland, in particular, is among the most-stubborn in resisting school reform efforts (and always seem to be the best-performing state in the union). New Jersey, which excludes 42 percent of ELL and Special Ed students, is no better, and neither is Delaware (it excludes 42 percent of ELL and Special Ed students); North Dakota excluded 44 percent of students while Ohio excluded 40 percent of its ELL and Special Ed students from NAEP. Certainly this dishonor role deserves much in the way of scorn; it also offers more ammunition to opponents of Common Core State Standards and other attempts at putting the nation under one national curricula standard.
4. Speaking of scorn, two more deserving of it are the American Federation of Teachers’ New York City local and the Big Apple branch of the NAACP. They succeeded in convincing one judge to halt the shutdown of 19 of the city’s worst-performing schools and their replacement with higher-quality options. As Chancellor Joel Klein rightly notes: ““My view is that you don’t send students to failing schools, schools that can’t provide them what they need. The sad thing is that the union would bring a lawsuit to resign kids to failing schools in order to save jobs. And ultimately, that is what this is about.” Exactly. Shame on the two groups and those who support their position.
5. Tom Vander Ark offers some thoughts on how to develop high-quality urban schools through a portfolio approach.
6. Meanwhile in Chicago, the Black Star Project is looking for 1,000 men to help mentor the city’s children and keep them out of violence. Given that 143 Chicago Public School students have been shot during the 2009-2010 school year (and 20 slain), the need for adults to take to the schools and take action is greater than ever. Do your part.

Check out this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, this time a part two of my focus steps needed to improve teacher quality. More will be coming down the pipe later this week.

And finally, to start off your Monday, here’s a little Tower of Power. Enjoy.