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).

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.

• RT @lioncaller @Principal_EL: I have been in sit. where kids were not coming to school. Went to their homes! As teacher/principal! #BlackEd #
• RT @CharterInsights: What do 1,000 bad teachers have in common with mealy bugs, fleas, bed bugs? … http://bit.ly/ayYrWP #TeacherQuality #
• RT @tvanderark: Consumer learning will be big, free, massively multiplayer, and disruptive http://bit.ly/92rf1Y #edtech #edreform #
• RT @charteralliance: Fight for #charterSchools ends in AL: http://bit.ly/944AzG, however could change if #RttT isnt awarded to the state. #
• RT @Andrew_Coulson: The Paucity of Poor Kids in Many Public Schools. http://bit.ly/bhmYUm #edreform #edgap #edpolicy #education #
• At Dropout Nation: Watch: Everybody Wake Up Department: http://dropoutnation.net/x9v #edreform #communityrenewal #HaroldMelvin #edgap #
• RT @charteralliance: DenverPost editorial on support for bipartisan #edreform plans like HR 4330: http://bit.ly/b2zhVM #charterschools #
• RT @MBAENews: @educationgadfly says MA one of 6 states w/over 1/2 PRIVATE public schools – less than 5% poor students http://is.gd/8ID1B #
• Dropout Nation: Building School Data Systems: The California Way Not to Do It http://dropoutnation.net/lxd #edreform #dataquality #edpolicy #
• RT @NancyEH: #Maine #DoE briefing on new 10th-grade graduation initiative: http://tinyurl.com/yhab4h9 #meschools #mepolitics #edreform #
• RT @EdEquality @educationweek Groups Sign L.A. Schools #edreform compact. http://bit.ly/a4vgDR #edpolicy #LAUnified #edgap #
• Important for #edreform activists to consider. RT @urbanophile:A Critical Examination of City-County Consolidation – http://j.mp/c1Lqu3 #
• In Indianapolis, latest #charterschools report out. Charters outperform district schools, but a couple are lagging http://bit.ly/aWw4lS #
• @SaraMead wonders why more #SchoolChoice supporters won't support universal Pre-K: http://bit.ly/9pOZ5w #earlyed #edreform #
• Mead wonders if some school choicers cynically oppose pre-k because they want to lower taxes/smaller gov. I'd say it has more to do with… #
• the position of many conservative school choicers that government role in K-12 is a reality that won't be shifted (the goverment won't give #
• back $528 billion). So you work with the reality in the best possible way by offering more choices, especially for poor children who have… #
• none. But Pre-K isn't yet heavily subsidized by government outside of #Head Start. The cost of the government intervention beats the value #
• that could come from a more-expanded government role in terms of higher standards/more options for poor children. While Mead many not agree #
• with this point (and I'm more pro-government Pre-K than against), I can succinctly understand (and sympathise with) those arguments. Who #
• hasn't wished the government would have stayed out of some areas? Think drug war/gay marriage as two of them. So why not want gov out of ed. #
• Given low graduation rates, this is understandable. Short-sighted? Definitely. But understandable. #

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You seen the bird. Do what he says.

Keep up with up-to-the-minute happenings by subscribing to Dropout Nation’s Twtter feed. Here are some of yesterday’s tweets:

• RT @Principal_EL: The second most important: loving children. There are far 2 many people wrkng with children who don’t love them! #BlackEd #
• To give perspective on the role of teachers in student achievement, a piece by Kevin Carey/EdTrust: http://bit.ly/9exBfX #blacked #edreform #
• Martin Haberman offers his thoughts on how ed schools poorly prepare teachers for urban classrooms/children: http://bit.ly/bU9ik4 #blacked #
• One solution: Hire older teachers who can work through urban bureaucracies. Here is Haberman’s example: http://bit.ly/ckOxUO #blacked #
• Another solution: Parent power. The reality is the old paradigm of public education — that you can drop a kid off at any school… #blacked #
• they will learn — was always a myth. We didn’t know this 150 years ago because of the lack of data. But we know now. #blacked #
• Parents, with help of grassroots, must take roles in education beyond field trips/homework. And must be willing to cut through… #blacked #
• Urban bureaucracies/uncaring teachers to make the change. Or take them out of one school and place them into another #blacked #
• @BmoreSchools That’s sad. If teachers are just doing time ’til they get to Maple Drive, then they should get out of the classroom #blacked in reply to BmoreSchools #
• @BmoreSchools They are not only doing a disservice to our children. They are doing a disservice to all kids, no matter their color #blacked in reply to BmoreSchools #
• By the way: There was no golden age of education, either for black children or anyone else. American public education was #blacked #
• Originally formed to foster in students a vision of what an American should be (and because of anti-Catholic hysteria). Learning… #blacked #
• was always an afterthought. Unfortunately in many classrooms, it remains that way. #blacked #
• In Houston, school district approves #teacherquality policies: http://bit.ly/947sP1 The next question: What will #AFT national do? #edreform #
• @srdill No solution will ever be perfect. But to start off, I’d address what public education should do. This is important because… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill the current system is based not so much on education, but on fostering good American citizens based on the model Horace Mann… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill and others believed. Good citizenship can be fostered in so many ways outside of schools and in ways that are much more concrete… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill for children to understand. The goal of public education should be to provide the tools children need in order to achieve that… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill Which they want, economically, socially or otherwise. This means a focus on reading from day one, math and sciences, with history… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill and culture a part. But for me, the public education system would be essentially a system of financing the education each child and in reply to srdill #
• @srdill their family wants. It could be a charter, a private, parochial or homeschool. This would allow for both choice and accountability in reply to srdill #
• @srdill by focusing the role of education agencies on funding education and holding schools accountable as the contractors hired by parents in reply to srdill #
• @srdill to handle the day-to-day academic education of their children. This would also force parents to play a much more active role in… in reply to srdill #
• @srdill how schools educate their children, because one-size-fits-all learning isn’t enough. Now, note, there are aspects of this I’m in reply to srdill #
• @srdill still thinking through. And there are more-learned people than I who have their own answers. But this is where I would start. in reply to srdill #

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Just to let you know, check out my latest American Spectator column, this on battles over fixing umderfunded pensions and reforming how teachers are compensated for their work. As you have read here, battles in N.J., Pennslyvania, Vermont and even Utah are harbingers of battles (and possible teachers union reverses) to come. Also, listen to the Dropout Nation Podcast on the taxpayer motivations for revamping teachers compensation. Enjoy and keep warm.

What’s happening today in the dropout nation:

1. When the National Education Association took control of the Indiana State Teachers Association last year, Association after the collapse of its insurance trust fund, it was more than just a colossal embarrassment of alleged financial mismanagement – and a loss of coverage for its 50,000 rank-and-file members. After decades of winning expensive compensation packages that have made teaching one of the best-paid professions in the public sector, the collapse of ISTA — along with $600 billion in pension deficits and underfunded retirement liabilities — exposes teachers unions to increased scrutiny — especially as taxpayers may end up on the hook for the unions’ failings. Read more about the collapse — and how it could help spur teacher compensation and quality reforms — in my latest Labor Watch report.
2. Tom Vander Ark sums up the problem with the Obama Administration’s decision to essentially gut the No Child Left Behind Act by eliminating its Adequate Yearly Progress provisions: Doing so will abandon the promise of assuring that every child no matter their race or economic status, can attend a great school staffed by high-performing teachers. Of course, as I hinted last week in The American Spectator, the administration may be doing this (along with boosting education spending for FY 2011) in order to placate the NEA and AFT, whose help they will need in order to keep control of Congress.
3. The folks behind The Lottery are rallying folks around an “Education Constitution” demanding teacher quality reforms, expansion of school choice and other reforms. Check it out and sign it.
4. The U.S. Department of Education releases a timely report on an important — if rarely-considered — use of school data: Improving teaching, staffing, student diagnostics and other matters at the district, school and even classroom levels. As I wrote last year in A Byte at the Apple, school data will only be the most useful once the information is delivered and made accessible in ways teachers, administrators and parents find appealing and useful. Right now, however, this is still a problem.
5. Speaking of useful data, the Consortium on Chicago School Research has a series of papers examining the on-time graduation progress of the Windy City’s high school students. Each of Chicago’s high schools are examined in depth. Read them. I am.
6. EducationNews is re-running another one of teaching guru Martin Haberman’s fine essays, this on whether the right people are entering teaching. Given the efforts to reform ed schools and weed out laggards before they even apprentice, the piece is as timely as ever.
7. And, with Gary Orfield’s study of charter school segregation gaining attention from newspapers and school reformers alike, Sonya Sharp of Mother Jones points out the one thing everyone forgets: Traditional school districts are just as segregated (and often, even more segregated) no matter where we go. Joanne Jacobs also offers a compendium of the arguments (including those by your friendly neighborhood editor). And, by the way, here is a piece I wrote a few years ago about diversity and public schools.
8. Intramural Sparring Watch: Big Edreform Andy #1 (also known as Andrew Rotherham) calls out This Week in Education‘s Alexander Russo (and his employer, Scholastic) for for allegedly running “hearsay” claims against Massachusetts’ education secretary, Paul Reveille, for his supposed intervention in the authorizing of a local charter school. Russo, by the way, has taken potshots against Rotherham and his folks at the Education Sector (which Rotherham, by the way, is leaving by the end of March) for years. Most recently, he accused EdSector of allegedly mucking around with a report authored by EdSector’s now-departed cofounder. Yeah, I’m exhausted from just writing about this.

Meanwhile, check out this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast on the reauthorization of No Child, along with my pieces this week on charter schools and segregation. The next podcast, on civil rights activists and education reform, will be available on Sunday before the Super Bowl. And since you are all stuck inside, get your debate on.