Wherever your talents may lie, just do your part.
What’s happening in the Dropout Nation:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
