As black leaders figure out their mission in a Barack Obama America, former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige offers direction on what they should really concentrate on: Addressing the achievement gaps that have condemned far too many young black men and women to crime and poverty. Estimating that just a five-percent decline in the number of dropouts would result in $8 billion in additional economic productivity, Paige (now back in Houston) argues that the conventional focus of civil rights activists on institutional racism and disputes over flags are meaningless given that so few blacks can actually reap the gains.

Paige, whose book The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time is now in print, offers some thoughts in the following short video, taped yesterday during his presentation at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in D.C. Watch and consider (mobile viewers can also download the video).

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I explain why school reformers need to reach out to grassroots activists. Inside-the-Beltway policymaking, important as it is, will mean nothing for improving the educational destinies of children if school reformers don’t reach out to urban groups such as the Black Star Project and activists working in suburban and rural communities.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod or MP3 player. Also, subscribe to get the podcasts every week. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley, the Education Podcast Network and Zune Marketplace.

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You seen the bird. Do what he says.

Check out up-to-the-minute news on the Dropout Nation Twitter feed. Here’s the best of today:

• More #charterschool segregation/integration sparring, courtesy of Colo.’s EPIC: http://bit.ly/dxZI3g #
• Sample EPIC quote: “In a highly splintered and divided nation… policies that increase segregation should be remedied, not encouraged.” #
• Based on EPIC/Civil Rights Project reports, expect more battles over the role of #CharterSchools in federal #edpolicy this year. #
• RT @SailorX: “We’ll never fix poverty in America until we fix education.” – #JoelKlein this morning on #MorningJoe #edreform #
• More #teachertenure #teacherquality reform recommendations from @Amprog: http://bit.ly/9ixVwJ Districts dismiss just 1.4 % of tenured staff #
• In #LAUSD preliminary votes on #edreform effort is in: http://bit.ly/aISONj Given chronicled shenanigans, one wonders if revote is likely. #
• @jaketapper: @JimDeMint won’t endorse @SenJohnMcCain in re-election against @JDHayworth (voted for #NoChild http://bit.ly/aWp6Sc #edreform in reply to jaketapper #
• For #edreform activists, Hayworth may be no worse choice than McCain. Both supported #NoChild and may likely support reauth in present form. #
• RT @jerridkruse: #edreform What the teacher does matters: http://ow.ly/15RkF #
• @jerridkruse‘s answer to teachers and #edreform It should be about the students. Not the teachers. #applauseoftheweek #
• RT @jerridkruse: Teachers need to be thinking about students’ thinking about thinking: http://ow.ly/15RmL #edreform #learning #
• RT @samchaltain: Potential implications of Duncan’s latest remarks (“Don’t teach to the test!”): http://bit.ly/dncLco #edreform #RttT #
• Honestly, what is wrong w/teaching to the test? If tests represents the standards we want children to learn, then tests should be the guide. #
• This doesn’t mean literally teach to a test, but to actually use the standards/tests to shape lessons. Then innovate in how it is taught. #
• By the way: “Portfolio assessments” useless largely because their analysis by teachers is largely subjective. Objective data always better. #
• @bigswifty Exactly. Subjective=no standards=no accountability. Of course, Obama is backing off from accountability because of election 2010 in reply to bigswifty #
• @bigswifty Reform is meaningless w/o re-election. But Ds will lose seats anyway because of other issues. #edreform isn’t one of them. in reply to bigswifty #
• @Eduflack Anyone who thinks RIF will lose funding is delusional. And RIF needn’t worry anyway. It’ll be back in the line item in 4, 3, 2… in reply to Eduflack #
• @Eduflack Being against giving children books, especially in light of #edreform efforts, would be perceived as contradictory by the public. in reply to Eduflack #
• @Trace_Urdan I’m not commenting on whether RIF should be funded. I am saying is that every earmark has a constituency… in reply to Trace_Urdan #
• @Trace_Urdan And RIF not only has a powerful group of backers, but also has a powerful message in terms of its role in improving literacy. in reply to Trace_Urdan #
• @Trace_Urdan And in politics (and in the nonprofit realm), constituency+powerful message+institutional support= survival. The usual stuff. #
• RT @MICHIGANDFER @EduExaminer: 26.8% of Detroit students graduate from H.S. http://tinyurl.com/yd3t6ar #edreform #dropoutfactories #edgap #
• Off-ed: RT @jtLOL: Gibbs had something else written on his hand: “Update resume.” #perilsofbeingpoliticalspokesman #dontmesswithpalinarggh #
• Note: Anti-intellectualism resides on all sides of political/social/educational aisles. We would be best off ridding it all from our midst #
• Another thought: It is important to hold first principles. But not to embrace dogma. Because all dogma dies in the bright light of day. #
• You should be willing to open your mind to data and realize sometimes your theories aren’t exactly so. #
• Actually, make that most of the time. #
• Off-ed: RT @jayrosen_nyu: BBC tells its news staff to get on board with social media. Not an option http://bit.ly/9CcT7F Seriously. #
• RT @MEDixon215: In Ala.: Dr. Morton on passage of charter school legislation: “We will keep working. It needs to happen…” #edreform #RttT #
• Rick Perry reverses himself? TX may offer #RttT for second round, according to Chron: http://bit.ly/9KbRBh No shocker. All hat, no cattle. #
• For your snow day: Dropout Nation Podcast: Why #CivilRights Activists Should Embrace #edreform http://bit.ly/9dwkhS #NAACP #GaryOrfield #
• NJLeftBehind notes 7.9 percent increase in Garden State per-pupil spending. http://bit.ly/9zqqrg #edpolicy #edpspending #ARRA #
• RT @bigswifty: In negotiating lang. for teacher evals in NCLB 01 (I was in room) both NEA and AFT opposed word “objective.” #

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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.

On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, I analyze President Barack Obama’s efforts to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act and argue why neither he — nor school reformers — should bother with reauthorization this year. Pursuing reauthorization may allow for Obama to put his finishing touches on the law, but not without exposing it — and himself — to battles between reformers and defenders of traditional public education that he isn’t likely to overcome.

You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod or MP3 player. Also, subscribe to get the podcasts every week. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Podcast Alley and the Education Podcast Network.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Being Randi Weingarten’s successor as head of the American Federation of Teachers’ New York City local isn’t easy. But Michael Mulgrew has definitely earned the ire of charter school supporters, school reformers and others for his strident opposition to lifting New York State’s restrictions on charter school growth. The role he and his counterpart at the state AFT affliate played in torpedoing the Empire State’s Race to the Top plans, in particular, came up during yesterday’s Alliance for Excellent Education pow-wow on New York City’s school reform efforts courtesy of a New York Post reporter; predictably, Mulgrew denied he had anything to do with it. Mulgrew also spent time dodging questions and comments about D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s efforts, which he politely pointed out, had nothing to do with him or New York City.

Certainly, much of what Mulgrew is doing is mere posturing. The reality is that New York City taxpayers, long-tired of woeful public schools, are satisfied that schools chieftain Joel Klein and his boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are on the right track. The growing pension burdens, along with the federal push for increasing charters and reforming the teaching profession, means that Mulgrew will eventually give in. If Klein can throw in another 43 percent increase in teachers salaries over time (as he did in the past decade), Mulgrew will cave in even more quickly.

At least one can say Mulgrew is thoughtful about the role of technology in education. In this clip, he says that testing and technology is as important in improving how teachers instruct their students as it is for holding schools (and teachers — though he won’t say this) accountable. He also briefly notes that middle schools must be as much a focus of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act as high school reform.