Dropout Nation on Twitter for 2010-02-10

Subscribe to the Dropout Nation Twitter feed and catch up with all the news in education:

• Michael Shaughnessy interviews Learning Point’s Paul Kimmelman: http://bit.ly/cqIMsW #edreform #edpolicy #NoChild #
• In Pa, Inquirer reports proposed law would allow dropout factories/failure mills convert into charters: http://bit.ly/bg9L8e #edreform #
• Michael Rebell argues #education budget cuts are unconstitutional, fails to consider size of ed budgets: http://bit.ly/bQp0Cd #headshaker #
• If the largest portion of state and local budgets go to education, then education can’t avoid being cut as well… #
• Given that the nation spends $528 billion on ed every year — and does it inefficiently (and given low graduation rates, attrociously)… #
• It is critical to consider how ed budgets should be spent — including reforming teachers compensation — in order to improve ed quality. #
• RT @huffingtonpost: The New Jim Crow: More African Americans in prison than were enslaved before Civil War http://bit.ly/doHIHG #edreform #
• A few thoughts for today: No matter their race, color or economic class, children just aren’t “theirs” or “ours”… #
• To paraphrase Wilt Chamberlain, they are all our children and we should do the best possible for them… #
• The easiest way to stave off an eye for an eye is to follow the Golden Rule. #
• One Malachi Walker and one Phillip Jackson is equal to 100 Beltway #edreform wonks. Policy w/o grassroots is worthless. And vice versa. #
• Education isn’t about fostering creativity. It is about giving each child the tools they need in order to improve their lives. #
• RT @tfanews: A key value for charter schools: No empty promises made to kids. http://bit.ly/cYBVFG #edreform #education #
• RT @CohenD: Why are teachers skeptical? @KennethLibby FL #RttT app. includes >$400M in contracts for “consultants”: http://j.mp/dAyMU2 #
• @EnglandinVa: Creativity, in and of itself, can exist without an education (at least the formal kind). But, bringing it back to the… in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa classroom, the problem with combining creativity and academic learning is that, more often than not, one the former ends up… in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa crowding out the other to the detriment of a student being able to actually master a subject. If a kid can’t master the basics in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa he won’t have the skills needed to be creative in ways that are actually productive for sustaining his life. This is especially in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa true for poor children, who are coming from bkgds with little academic preparation. As seen in the battle over the use of… in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa Discovery math (and in the converse, the basics-focused Singapore math), “creativity” at expense of “learning” can = trouble. in reply to EnglandinVa #
• @EnglandinVa That said, it’s ultimately, the choice of parents (and children) which road to pick. But policymakers should focus on learning. in reply to EnglandinVa #
• In NYC, #JoelKlein would be lauded for opening schools during ‘blizzard’. In, DC, #MichelleRhee is pilloried for just thinking about it. #
• RT @janarausch @EdEquality: #MichelleRhee with piece on ending poverty via #education http://bit.ly/9fVmwX (Tx @HSequity) #edreform #edgap #
• New Jersey Left Behind offers some advice to the Garden State’s #NEA affiliate on #teacherpensions http://bit.ly/bCCTw0 #edreform #
• Dropout Nation Podcast: Now available on Zune marketplace: http://bit.ly/aLFmEz This week’: civil rights/#edreform: http://bit.ly/9dwkhS #

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Read: Reauthorization Edition

Young black males need the teaching so they can learn and succeed.

What’s happening in the dropout nation these days:

1. National Journal is hosting the latest of their weekly questions about education. This week, it is all about whether the No Child Left Behind Act will be reauthorized this year. I have offered my thoughts in this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast.
2. The president’s budget “freeze” doesn’t include education (of course). Education research also fairs well (according to EdWeek), alongside plans to fund charter schools that follow the Harlem Children’s Zone model (notes Tom Marshall). The Department of Education offers up its series of justifications for its spending priorities.
3. What role does school choice play in housing prices. Eric Bruner and his colleagues say that choice-based enrollment policies across all school districts (inter-district) and within them can bring home price and income stability to surrounding neighborhoods. Which may prove the value of school choice of all kinds public and private.
4. Meanwhile in D.C., schools boss Michelle Rhee isn’t exactly polling well, at least according to Bill Turque and Jon Cohen at the Washington Post. Some of it, of course, has to do with Rhee’s PR gaffes and general demeanor. But let’s get real: It is also about some more-unmentionable matters and also about the fact that Rhee is ending D.C. Public Schools’ role as the District’s jobs program and patronage system. This isn’t going to make the adults happy (even if it helps improve the educational opportunities of the kids who actually have to sit in the district’s classrooms).
5. Jay Mathews, of course, makes no secret of his opinion of Rhee. Whether he thinks she’ll last beyond her current term? He’s not so sure. My opinion: It will depend on whether Adrian Fenty — just as unpopular as Rhee for reasons of his own creation — doesn’t draw strong primary and general election opposition. If he doesn’t, Rhee stays. But if he does…
6. In Southern California, L.A. Unified’s school choice reform is mired in squabbling, with accusations of  favoritism being tossed around by the district’s AFT local, according to the L.A. Daily News. Meanwhile the L.A. Times editorial board is disappointed by all the other problems emerging from the districts handling of the bidding process for the 30 schools offered for the first round of reform.
7. John Fensterwald notes a recent report on school district finances within the Golden State. Federal stimulus funds may have staved off fiscal belt-tightening for now, according to Fensterwald, but those funds are running out — which means more thoughtful approaches to operations.
8. In New York City, the local NAACP sues the city’s Department of Education over its shutdown of failing schools, according to Gothamist. As usual, NAACP attempts to strike a blow over the wrong issue — and failing black children in the process.
9. EducationNews re-runs one of Martin Haberman’s fine pieces on how to train teachers for urban school settings. Enjoy.
10. In Education Leadership, Eric Sparks, Janet L. Johnson and Patrick Ackos discuss using data in determining which students are at risk for dropping out. They look at 9th-grade performance. But they fail to mention Robert Balfanz’s innovative work in the early dropout indicators arena.
11. What is dropout nation: Tiny Schuylkill County, Pa., which has high levels of high school dropouts, according to a study cited in the Standard Speaker. The source of the data, Census sampling, may be unreliable for actually measuring the number of dropouts and graduates. But it gives some sense of the problems within Pennsylvania’s coal country.
12. Kevin Carey takes shots at EdWeek for a report on a for-profit college industry study. Certainly, Carey is no fan of University of Phoenix’s of the world for reasons both good and specious. You go figure out where you stand.

And you can check out this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, this on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Enjoy.