Proposed end to corporal punishment in Texas

January 1, 2007

Last August I noted in this column the Dallas Morning News story about Everman, Texas, where the local school district not only allows paddling — corporal punishment — but appears to endorse it as a key part of education.

Now comes a new legislature, and Texas State Rep. Alma Allen has filed a bill to ban corporal punishment, H. B. 379. To assuage those who argue that corporal punishment is necessary to maintain classroom discipline, the bill authorizes teachers and other school employees to use physical restraint to protect students from injury, and to get contraband.

Of course, this is the similar to the bill Dr. Allen introduced in the last session. It went nowhere, and without a dramatic change in tone in the state, this bill is likely to die in committee, too. But watch that space anyway.

Allen is a life-long educator representing District 131 in Houston. She holds an M.Ed from Texas Southern, and a D.Ed. from Houston. She retired as an administrator in the Houston Independent School District.

The full text of the bill is below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

23 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Corporal punishment, Education, Education reform, Paddling or spanking, School discipline | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

NCLB renewal faces tough sledding

December 28, 2006

The No Child Left Behind Act is scheduled for renewal by 2008, but observers are saying it will not come so soon because of the national elections. The Act will face significant phalanx of people and organizations demanding changes, too.

Media General’s Gil Klein produced a general piece of reporting on the politics and issues for NCLB renewal, which started appearing in U.S. newspapers on December 22.

It has shaken every teacher in every classroom, and when the No Child Left Behind law comes up for renewal next year, it faces a political battle that could last until after the 2008 election.

“We did a survey of Washington insiders and it is almost unanimous that it won’t happen until 2009, regardless of what all the politicians are saying,” said Michael Petrilli, an education analyst with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, who worked in the Education Department when the law passed.

[There is a lot of good reporting out of Washington by regional news agencies and smaller services, like Media General, Knight-Ridder (used to be a bigger player than today), and other groups. Bloggers would do well to bring some of these reports to the attention of the world, instead of relying on the New YorkTimes, Washington Post, and major broadcast outlets. This is a case of a smaller agency simply providing a solid story ahead of the curve.] Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education reform, Education spending, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education, Teaching, TEKS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“Revolutionary call for education reform”

December 18, 2006

Reaction to the report of the Skills Commission is most interesting.  Is it just because it’s the end of the year, and politicians think few people are watching?  Reaction is completely on the positive side. One bellwether:  U.S. News and World Report, usually the more conservative of the three big news magazines, calls it a “revolutionary call for education reform” in the headline of a mostly positive piece.

Potential for controversy remains, though.  That article highlights what is probably the most vociferous complaint about the report so far.

The revolutionary calls from a decidedly establishment group. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce includes two former education secretaries, two former labor secretaries, and education officials from Massachusetts, New York City, and California. Nevertheless, opposition surfaced as soon as the report was issued.The American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the National School Boards Association rushed out statements lambasting key ideas–like, for instance, the way the report “basically blows up the governance structure,” explains Antonia Cortese, AFT’s executive vice president.

Leave a Comment » | Curricula, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Public education, School vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Perhaps trivial, but history education is dead in England

December 17, 2006

History education is dead in England. British kids don’t know enough history, so the makers of the board game, Trivial Pursuit, have modified the history questions, dumbing them down to meet the lowered expectations of failed history teaching.

The Sunday Telegraph’s on-line edition has the story.

Where once there were puzzles to stretch most players’ general knowledge across a range of subjects, now they appear to have come straight out of the pages of Heat or Hello! magazines.

Questions such as, “Who heckled Madonna at an awards ceremony for miming in her concerts?” and “What is Prince Charles’s nickname for Camilla?” are no longer confined to the entertainment category, but now count as history. (The answers are “Elton John” and “Gladys” respectively.)

Questions that tested the knowledge of players in science and history, especially, have been downgraded.

The Sunday Telegraph analysis of a random 100 question cards from the latest box of Trivial Pursuit revealed that one in 10 of the science and nature category were celebrity or popular culture-based, compared to one in a whole box of question cards from 1992.

In the history category, 62 questions in the latest version of the board game related to events in the past 10 years, compared to only 30 questions in the earlier edition.

In times gone by, in the U.S. people would work to gain the sort of knowledge that would allow them to answer the tougher questions in the old “College Bowl” quiz program. Now we lower the bar, and make the questions more trivial.

Would that explain why the U.S. and Britain both have such difficulty applying the lessons of Vietnam, or Korea, or even Gulf War I?  People simply don’t know the lessons.  And so it is that our education systems condemn us to repeat the mistakes of Vietnam, Korea, and Gulf War I.

 

 

 

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bogus history, Current History, Education, Education reform, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Finn of Fordham: Read the commission report

December 16, 2006

I’m a bit surprised.  Chester Finn, president of the Fordham Foundation, recommends we read and take seriously the recommendations of the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce.  I had thought he’d be a lot more skeptical a lot earlier.

Which means a couple of things:  One, we ought to read and take seriously the report, as Finn urges; two, Finn continues to think originally about problems of education, and can’t be pigeon-holed into positions that he personally finds difficult to defend on the evidence, or into positions that others “think” he ought to have.

Leave a Comment » | Books, Curricula, Education, Education blogs, Education reform, Education spending, History, Teacher Pay, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

School reform over: Try something new

December 15, 2006

If we continue to get education wrong, a new report argues, America’s decline will follow.  So, the report urges radical changes in U.S. education.

The report of the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce departs from other recent reports in a number of interesting ways, including advocating a national system of teachers, with higher pay.  It urges abandoning requirements for four years of high school, moving instead to a more European model where students may leave after 10 years for junior college.  It is titled Tough Choices or Tough Times, published by Jossey-Bass for $19.95.

An earlier commission in 1990 issued a report titled  High Skills or Low Wages.  The new report continues in that vein, warning that international competition and automation threaten all low skill jobs in the U.S.

This commission was assembled with funding from the Gates Foundation and other sources.

Some details are available in The New York Times.   A longer, much different view in in the Chicago Tribune.  From the Tribune’s summary of how testing would allow 10th graders to get out of high school early:

How the testing would work

PASS

In 10th grade, students would take a rigorous test.

With a passing grade, the student and parents would choose between two options:

OPTION 1: Stay in high school for junior and senior years to prepare for elite 4-year university or to enter state university with college credit.

OPTION 2: Enroll at community college with possibility of moving on to 4-year university.

FAIL

If the student fails, he or she would stay in high school to take remedial courses and retake test until he/she passes it.

The executive summary is available here in 28 pages.  The report is the cover story for the December 18 edition of Time magazine.  You’ll probably see it in your local newspaper today.

More to come, surely.

3 Comments | Curricula, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Teacher Pay, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Reversing Brown v. Topeka Board of Education

December 10, 2006

Is the Supreme Court getting ready to reverse the most significant civil rights case in the past 200 years?  Interesting, thought provoking stuff from a blog, Marisacat.

Here is a more cool-headed view of the case (though, perhaps not different).  And here’s more.  Here’s a longer discussion.

The two cases are:  Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, and Meredith vs. Jefferson County Board of Education.

1 Comment | Civil Rights, Current History, Desegregation, Education reform | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quick road to better teachers: Raise the pay

December 9, 2006

It’s just good economics to think that raising the pay of teachers will improve the overall ability of the teaching corps, knowing that higher pay attracts higher-qualified workers in other situations.

Now comes a study from Australia making the same point. Two researchers at the Australian National University’s Center for Economic Policy Research looked at changes in the quality of education over time, and concluded one change for the worse was pay for teachers and a resulting decline in quality of teachers. Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan write:

For an individual with the potential to earn a wage at the 90th percentile of the distribution, a non-teaching occupation looked much more attractive in the 2000s than it did in the 1980s. We believe that both the fall in average teacher pay, and the rise in pay differentials in non-teaching occupations are responsible for the decline in the academic aptitude of new teachers over the past two decades.

Is that a surprise? U.S. Education Sec. Bill Bennett used to tout his “$50,000 solution” to improve schools — get a good principal. That action generally would improve the support for teachers and improve things across the school. Today, the amounts are higher, and the need is greater after more than three decades of economic starvation of public schools.

Raising teacher pay is a good market solution to improve the achievement of students.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Andrew Leigh’s blog.

8 Comments | Economics, Education reform, Education spending, Public education, Teacher Pay, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Education reform still high priority in California

December 1, 2006

The California Majority Report cites a bipartison poll that shows California voters regard education issues as very important. By large majorities, voters say dropouts and overall education quality are key problems, and voters support more spending to work on the problems.

The poll, by Democratic pollster Evans/McDonough and Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, finds that California voters “are looking for comprehensive changes to the public education system and they support a reform approach combining more funding with tighter financial accountability, including more accessible information.”

Among the poll’s findings:
• By a 60-37 percent margin, voters agree that “additional state funding would lead to better educated students in California”;
• 85 percent believe there are too many students in California leaving school without enough education to make it in today’s economy;
• Nearly 80 percent want either a “complete dismantling and redesign of our public education system” (27%) or “comprehensive reforms that make significant changes to the system” (52%); and
• 84 percent believe “every public school should have the materials and teachers needed to implement standards-based education even if it means increasing education funding”.

1 Comment | Education reform, Education spending, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Funding still the key to education reform

November 19, 2006

Everyone is for it, no one wants to pay for it. Education reform still hits the wall when we ask “who pays?”

The Seattle Times said funding is the key to reform, in an editorial November 19:

THE education panel Washington Learns proposes a bold approach to injecting every level of education with rigor and accountability.

The elephant in the room, however, is education funding. Sidestepping this massive beast threatens the very underpinning of reform efforts. Gov. Christine Gregoire promised a new way of looking at education and investing in it. The smart, holistic proposals from her committee give us the former. Now, where’s the latter?

This is a critical question that won’t wait. The piecemeal approach to education spending — funding a program here, a program there — hasn’t served schools well and would crack under the weighty intentions of Washington Learns.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Kozol was at the University of Alaska in Anchorage a week earlier, and he pulled no punches:

“They say a good teacher can do OK with 40 kids, but they (those teachers) could work wonders with 18 kids,” he said.

Kozol said that today students are viewed with price tags on their heads and that equality in education is not a current reality.

“In the eyes of God, I’m sure all children are equal – but not in the eyes of America,” he said.

Now, there is an interesting indicator to measure whether God is in the schools: Money.

Both articles, in full, below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Classroom size, Education, Education reform, Education spending, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Pre-election Carnival of Education

November 5, 2006

Just in time for the November 2006 local, state and national elections, we get the Carnival of Education #91, over at Median Sib.

One indication that this is not a normal election year is this fact: Education is not the chief issue in any state, nor in most local races. With the release of the Fordham Foundation study last week that showed education reform is foundering and floundering, with the great difficulty in Texas in getting court-ordered education reform through the legislature, with record college tuition costs, etc., etc., etc., education still is not the top concern of most Americans.

I wonder: Were education the top issue, would Republicans be in better shape, or worse shape?

Textbooks are in the news — with a solid legal and ethical question about whether accepting equipment to deliver material to students amounts to bribery, as California alleges (in a post at California LiveWire). It’s an incredibly salient question. The U.S. Department of Education used to leverage its limited budget for automation by requiring groups that provided computer services for which the department contracted to provide the department with computers to monitor the products. When I discovered the practice I thought it a very innovative way to get compliance with the law; unless the California officials were using the equipment for their own gain, I wonder how any state official can justify removing from the classroom machines that are used to deliver quality education. Where is the Gubernator when he’s needed?

Next week’s Carnival of Education will hit the day after the elections; will it reflect changes wrought on Tuesday night, if any? The 92nd Carnival of Education will be hosted by NYC Educator. Submissions are due Tuesday night — of course, you’re excused if you’re out at the election party, celebrating. (Notice how cleverly that applies regardless your politics — or mine.)

Leave a Comment » | Current History, Education, Education reform, Politics, Public education, State school boards | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

NOW they tell us: Education reform not working

November 2, 2006

Yesterday I wondered about the effect of next Tuesday’s elections on education and education reform.

Last night I discovered the Fordham Foundation published a new study showing that “half of states miss the bus on education reform.”

Say what? One week before the election?

Fordham Foundation’s President Chester E. Finn, Jr., was a high-ranking official in a Republican administration, true, but that was after working closely with Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan for years. I doubt the study was published with any intent to affect the election at all.

It’s well worth the reading, though.

A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science.

The study also finds that most states making significant achievement gains-including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas-are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

“Many state officials have claimed credit for gains in student achievement,” said Chester E. Finn, Jr., the Foundation’s president. “But this study casts doubt on many such claims. In reality, no state has made the kind of progress that’s required to close America’s vexing achievement gaps and help all children prepare for life in the 21st Century. Nor are most states making the bold reforms most likely to change this reality. Real leaders will study these data, then focus on what needs doing, not what’s been done.”

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state’s track record in implementing bold education reforms. (Click here for more information on the indicators and methodology http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/TFR06Methodology.pdf.) A table listing states’ performance in all three categories is at http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/global/page.cfm?id=388#TFR06fullstategrades.

And, one week before this year’s election, it is not too early at all to start thinking about the next elections, and how to use the results of this report.

3 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education reform, Leadership, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education, School vouchers, Testing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Elections’ effects on education

November 1, 2006

Tuesday’s elections may have little effect in some places, like Massachusetts, but other places may see significant changes due to the changes in legislative personnel (see Texas, where the chairman of the Senate education committee has already been defeated, in the primaries), or due to bond issues or other education-related referenda.

I’ve been out educating, and I’m almost completely out of touch on just what is at stake, where. If you have an education issue pending in your state in one way or another, how about dropping a comment and letting us know?

Leave a Comment » | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education reform, Education spending, State school boards | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Nobels as a measure of education systems

October 14, 2006

Not so good a measure, most argue.

They’re right, of course. One need only look at the awards of Nobels in the past to people from nations where the education systems were not up to snuff to understand how wildly inaccurate such predictions can be.

Seed Magazine’s on-line version actually has an article discussing the issue: “Precious Medals.” The article concludes most rationally that the U.S.’s success at winning science Nobel Prizes does not in any way, shape or form indicate that we do NOT have a crisis in science education in the nation right now.  That’s good to remember.
By the way: Was Theodore Roosevelt the only man ever to win both the Congressional Medal of Honor, and a Nobel Prize? (He won the Congressional Medal for the “charge up San Juan Hill” in the Spanish-American War of 1898; he won the Nobel Prize for Peace for working out the treaty that ended the war between Japan and Russia, during his presidency (1901-1909)).

1 Comment | Education, Education reform, Theodore Roosevelt | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Education reform clips, and “new math” for vouchers

October 7, 2006

Interesting bunch of clips on education reform.

At Homeland Stupidity, a poster named Dana Hanley wonders if Bush is really proposing that we model our schools after China’s and India’s schools.

Hanley is direct:

There has been a 52% increase in spending on the key provision and an unprecedented amount of federal control taken over education. And all we have to show for it is trends that were evident before the act took effect? It isn’t worth the cost and it certainly isn’t worth the loss of our state’s rights in education.

Hanley writes strongly on the “qualified teacher” provisions of the “No Child Left Behind” Act, too. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Economics, Education reform, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education, School vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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