A Permanent Revolution

No Child Left Behind Is A Civil Rights Issue

2005-05-31T08:26:00.000-04:00

Last month, I cited an editorial by Brent Staples chastising the civil rights establishment for losing "its independence, becoming so allied with the Democratic Party that it is disinclined to embrace even beneficial policies that happen to have Republican face, such as Pres Bush's No Child Left Behind law"

In School Law Spurs Efforts to End the Minority Gap, Sam Dillon clearly makes the point:

BOSTON - Spurred by President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, educators across the nation are putting extraordinary effort into improving the achievement of minority students, who lag so sharply that by 12th grade, the average black or Hispanic student can read and do arithmetic only as well as the average eighth-grade white student.

Here in Boston, low-achieving students, most of them blacks and Hispanics, are seeing tutors during lunch hours for help with math. In a Sacramento junior high, low-achieving students are barred from orchestra and chorus to free up time for remedial English and math. And in Minnesota, where American Indian students, on average, score lower than whites on standardized tests, educators rearranged schedules so that Chippewa teenagers who once sewed beads onto native costumes during school now work on grammar and algebra.

"People all over the country are suddenly scrambling around trying to find ways to close this gap," said Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard professor who for more than a decade has been researching school practices that could help improve minority achievement. He said he recently has received many requests for advice. "Superintendents are calling and saying, 'Can you help us?' "

No Child Left Behind requires schools to bring all students to grade level over the next decade. The law has aroused a backlash from teachers' unions and state lawmakers, who call some of its provisions unreasonable, like one that punishes schools where test scores of disabled students remain lower than other students'. But even critics acknowledge that the requirement that schools release scores categorized by students' race and ethnic group has obliged educators to work harder to narrow the achievement gap.

Again, all sides have issues with certain provisions of this legislation, but how can people who claim to care about poor kids and urban education not only deny the positive effects of NCLB, but work to undermine it rather than improve upon it?

I know the answer. I'd just like to hear the other side say it--or rationalize their position.

It's Raining Good News For Charter Schools...

2005-05-31T08:14:00.000-04:00

Esmonde writes in, Charters paying off for city kids:

The recent numbers are in, and they are good for Enterprise and the city's charter schools. The seven charters with at least a two-year track record had, on average, 51 percent of their kids reading at grade level. Traditional public schools had a school-by-school average of 37 percent - 14 points less than the charters.

In its second year, Enterprise - with one of the toughest populations in the city - doubled its number of kids at reading level. With another year of the Enterprise way, Stillman thinks more than half of his kids will jump the bar - even though one of every four is in special ed, and nine of every 10 are from poor families.
These kids are up against the wall before they walk through the school door. Some live in neighborhoods most of us wouldn't drive through. They carry the baggage of broken homes and bad streets, where role models are rarer than summer snowflakes. They need help, and they need it fast.
The battle isn't best fought by the district's bureaucratic standing army, where seniority rules, schools rarely stay open after hours, tenure protects poor teachers and rigid rules handcuff good ones.
The battle for these kids' futures is better fought with the guerrilla tactics charter schools bring. They are quick on their feet, have a variety of weapons and can change tactics without trudging through a bureaucratic sludge.
"If something isn't working, we can turn on a dime," said Stillman. "The only bureaucracy is ourselves."

And I suspect more good news from the testing front is about to break. So why is the BTF and my colleagues on the Board who Phil Rumore supports against charter schools again?

Bloomberg's Numbers...

2005-05-31T07:50:00.000-04:00

For the past week I've been thinking about the numbers Mayor Bloomberg threw down last week. And while I'm an educator and not a political pundit, I suspect that we're about to see more politicians buck organized labor's attempts to undermine charter schools and embrace the school choice and charter school movements.

The number of New York City's fourth-graders scoring at grade level on the state's English Language Arts exam this year rose 9.9 percentage points, while the percentage of the city's eighth-graders meeting state standards dropped 2.8 percentage points. Bloomberg astutely, and I think correctly, spun the 8th grade scores as victims of a bad early education.

Not only is this great news for Bloomberg, it puts die-hard opponents of charter schools in a seemingly untenable position. Very few people get elected betting on bad news (just ask John Kerry) especially when the good news coming in is that we've figured out a way to increase student achievement.

NYC: Charter students tops in test scores

2005-05-31T07:35:00.000-04:00

Charter schools are beating the averages. And I suspect that's going to have significant political implications, specifically, The Cap.

"There's 10,000 kids on wait lists," said Bill Phillips, of the New York State Charter School Association. "Enough of the excuses. Lift the cap."

The state is expected to reach the 100-school cap by the end of the year. The teachers union opposes the push to remove the cap, something Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Bloomberg support.

Useful National Charter School Roundup

2005-05-11T10:02:00.000-04:00

A PDF from the Charter School Leadership Council. It's a State of The Union for Charter Schools.

Instead Of Throwing Buffalo Charter Schools Under The Bus...

2005-05-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

we should be asking why in Buffalo we can't reproduce the success of charter schools in New York and throughout the country. The Post writes:

A study last year by Harvard education economist Caroline Hoxby, who gathered data on 99 percent of kids in charter schools nationally, found that charter-school kids were 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading than their counterparts at the closest public school of a similar racial composition — and they were 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math.

Here in New York, a report on charters' first five years (mandated under the charter law) concluded that the schools "have proven themselves to be educational havens, particularly in urban areas across the state, offering new educational opportunities to children and families who could not afford to opt out of their local public schools."

The article mentions the obstuctive efforts of teacher's unions and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's having to beg the Legislature to let him open up more successful schools in New York City. The 100-charter cap the state imposed on NYC may be reached by the end of the year as there are already 80.

This is going to be interesting.

One of My Biggest Regrets

2005-05-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

...last week was not having the time to respond to Rod Watson's indictment of charter schools .

But someone else took up the challenge--and did a very fine job. A taste:

He says, "we shouldn't let educational gamblers play with any more of the house's money - or its kids - until we find out what works." Gamblers? No, they're reformers looking beyond the status quo. Gambling would be perpetuating the same failed public school system that has plagued Buffalo and like cities for too long.

Nickel City Journal, the blog of a Buffalonian in spirit if not location is the most recent entry in Buffalo's blogosphere as well as the most recent entry on my "Favorite Bookmarks" bar.

An Object Lesson In The Importance of Contract Provisions

2005-05-06T08:29:00.000-04:00

Too often, we think union contracts are just about wages and benefits. What isn't widely understood is how important other provisions are and how they impact student achievement by restricting the efforts of teachers and administrators who really want to make a difference.

Put simply, certain union contract provisions make it difficult for kids to learn.

This article in the Amsterdam News illustrates the point.

But in New York—unlike some other school districts—Weston doesn’t ultimately have complete autonomy over his school. He, like other New York City administrators, is restricted by a stringent union contract that enables tenured teachers who have been in the system for years to fill a vacancy in a school even if the principal has another candidate in mind.

“It pisses me off that I can’t pick my team,” said Weston, who has hired a crop of young teachers over the past few years who are idealistic but have little teaching experience working in challenging urban settings.

“I can’t say, ‘Let me go out. Let me hire. Let me recruit,’” he said.
School reform advocates have long argued that at schools like Robeson, which has had a long history of underperformance, students could benefit from having more seasoned educators in the classroom...But under the current union contract negotiated by the United Federation of Teachers, once a teacher reaches tenure, he or she has the option of transferring to a high-performing school, leaving many underperforming schools in largely poor, Black and Latino communities—staffed with a batch of first- and second-year teachers.

Another provision of the union contract—a massive document that most city parents don’t know exists nor can fully comprehend—does not require that teachers monitor students in the hallway as they pass to and from classes or that they supervise students on the recess playground.

“You think the union is protecting the interest of the students, but in reality, they are protecting the interests of teachers,” said Courtney Harris, a Harlem resident who recently took her daughter out of public schools and enrolled her in a charter school.

Harris isn’t alone. Each year, dozens of parents crowd into city schools urging principals to provide services for their students that the union contract explicitly prohibits teachers from performing. One teacher at a Manhattan school said that she did not volunteer for certain jobs (such as staying after school to sponsor an art and drama club) because it was frowned upon by other teachers active in the union.
“I feel torn,” said the teacher, who asked that her name not be identified. “When we signed up to be teachers, we pledged to give it our all. But some of my colleagues are in this thing for a paycheck."

Seniority v. Merit

2005-05-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

Currently under arbitration in NYC is a very interesting case that pits seniority against merit. It's a dispute about summer school hiring. The Klein Administration wants to hire based on merit. The teacher's union wants summer school hiring done on seniority.

The fact that there's a dispute is a disgrace as program quality is demonstrably better under a merit-based arrangement. But if Klein loses the case, the district will incur HUGE costs from back pay.

From the NY Daily News, this is a story worth following.

Where Does All The Money Go?

2005-05-05T08:22:00.000-04:00

Landing a superintendent and other board issues have kept me from blogging as regularly as I'd like, but this letter I received late last night has made me find the time for an entry.

Here's the letter:

I just got finished watching the evening news and was enraged to see the headline "Buffalo School System short 16 Million $$"

They received more money from the state than they where expecting and the population is allegedly in decline. So with more money and less kids why is the cost going up by millions every year?

Our teachers are paid on average or better than there peers. The system spends a comparable amount of money per student. Yet here we are again at the bottom of the barrel with the same lame excuses. If I see another one of those "board members" on TV talking about Buffalo's schools "unique" problems I think I'm going to break the TV. The only thing "unique" about our school system is how much of a money hole it has become. My child is no dumber than a child in orchard park nor is any of my nieghbors. Board members portraying residents as some type of under class is not only insulting it is self defeating. Do you think by them making those comments you will get more people to enroll in our school system? Im sure those comments where good for another 50 parents to start looking for a charter to put there kids in. Wake these people up.

Its time for tough questions and hard answers and an end to business as usual. Stop the excuse we are all tired of them.

Let me begin by saying I share the writers' frustration. Our district needs to begin demonstrating more value for the money we spend on education. I sincerely believe that a solid first step will be hiring a progressive Superintendent with a track record of improving schools and school districts and who has the highest regard for student achievement and teacer accountability.

Now about the money. I too wondered how we can be spending more money when fewer kids are enrolled in schools. Here's what I found. I offer them not as excuses, but as bare economic facts that explain the financial position we find ourselves in.

Buffalo is one of two districts in Western New York with the highest number of senior teachers. That doesn't mean that we have lots of effective teachers. It means we have a lot of older teachers making, comparatively, a lot of money. Entry level teachers start with an average salary of $35K. Veteran teacers base pay ranges from $65K to $85K.

Largely because of those senior teachers and the BTF's refusal to subscribe to a single-carrier health coverage, health insurance costs for the district have increased nearly 10% in three years (or $14.8M).

While I support school choice and charter schools, they cost money. In three years, there has been more than a 22% increase in the amount of money we spend on charters or $24.3M.

In other words, while enrollment has declined, so have the number of the district's full time employees (from 6,308 in 2001-02 to 5,340 in 2005-06). But the cost of those employees, the single largest line item oin our budget constituting 59% ($313.8M) has increased. And while some of our enrollment has shifted to charter schools, we still fund those students' education.

But there's good news. Though we have little room to move, we've decreased the projected deficit for next year. While there is still a projected increase in our major costs moving forward, we've trimmed that increase from FY 05 to FY 06 by $12.1M, possibly more if BTF will agree to single-carrier health insurance.

I hope this helps explain the budget landscape. And again, I am committed to doing much more with what we have--to start to show value and be more accountable. But it's complicated and the Board can't do it alone. All players sitting at the table need to deliberate and negotiate with our children's interests as our top priority.

Teacher Union's Obstruction Backfires in Boston

2005-05-01T08:20:00.000-04:00

A portent? Is this the beginning of the backlash--another Boston revolt? From The Boston Globe:

The Boston Teachers Union, through its obstruction, may just succeed in doing something the charter schools haven't done with their successes: Make a charter supporter of Mayor Thomas Menino.

Despite their impressive record, Menino has opposed charters, preferring to nudge the existing system toward reform rather than to let dozens of experimental academies bloom. But last week, efforts to resolve an impasse over pilot schools -- the Boston public school system's answer to charters -- broke down because of the teachers union's refusal to honor a previous deal giving pilots the flexibility to decide for themselves on overtime pay.

''It is outrageous," Menino said of the union stand. ''We have put in place a pilot school system that works, that the teachers union agreed to in negotiations with us in 1994."

That flexibility didn't come free. ''We paid for it with the teachers contract," Menino noted. As the mayor sees it, the only real change since then is that, with 14 Boston charters slated for the fall, charters are bumping up against the cap in state law, thus removing the threat that more can open in Boston. But if the union doesn't change its stance, Menino said he may support lifting the charter cap.

''If they want to go to extremes, I will have to go to extremes," he said in an interview.

Charter Schools Make Strange Bedfellows: School Choice In Milwaukee

2005-05-01T07:45:00.000-04:00

I thought this piece in the Post was quite interesting...and heartening. It mentions the seemingly odd partnership forged between conservative Gov. Tommy Thompson and liberal Democrat Rep. Polly Williams for the cause of school choice in Milwaukee. It affirms what I've held for some time: When it comes to public education, there is no right or left.

There's no room for political ideology. The polarities are not left and right, conservative and liberal. The polarities are simply, progress and the status quo. They understand that in Miluakee. And I think we are, slowly but surely, beginning to understand that here.

Downtown Schools: The New Urban Frontier

2005-04-28T13:46:00.000-04:00

This isn't about Buffalo, but it should be. Here's an excerpt, but I highly reccomend reading the whole thing.

In recent years, downtown districts have been experiencing a comeback hardly imagined a generation ago. Cities of various sizes are scrapping downtown agendas dating from the days when the only attainable goals were adding parking decks, resuscitating ailing department stores and constructing corporate office towers. A bevy of diverse functions are being implemented—specialty shops and galleries, farmers’ markets, civic buildings, streetscape enhancements, even mass transit and housing, are coming to life again.

One such function is the downtown public school, once
a casualty of the wrecking ball in the days of urban renewal. This new generation of public schools is dubbed by a host of enthusiastic observers as a “new-building type”, characterized by an integrated, even global mix of students, creative and discerning architectural forms, updated curricula, and partnerships with community institutions and services. What follows are capsule descriptions of three successful ventures: San Francisco, Minneapolis and Raleigh, North Carolina. Each school project demonstrates how creativity, vision and long-term commitment can overcome the status quo.

No Child Left Behind: The Times Weighs In...And How!

2005-04-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

For NYT, last week started with an editorial by Brent Staples chastising the civil rights establishment for losing "its independence, becoming so allied with the Democratic Party that it is disinclined to embrace even beneficial policies that happen to have Republican face, such as Pres Bush's No Child Left Behind law".

Then they capped the week with this one:

Right now, when the law is under attack from all sides, it's important to divide the critics who want to make it work better from those who simply want to see it go away. It can't be a coincidence that the states most actively opposed to No Child Left Behind have poor records when it comes to the very issues the federal law is supposed to address.

The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, made headlines this week when it engineered a lawsuit asserting that No Child Left Behind illegally requires states to spend their own money on enforcing new federal requirements. The N.E.A. has misrepresented the law to the public from the start, and the primary aim of its suit is to throw out the baby with the bath water. The union doesn't want a better No Child Left Behind Act; it wants to make the law disappear entirely.

Brilliant. Bravo.

If we can't stand up for kids, maybe it's time the kids had a chance...

2005-04-26T11:09:00.000-04:00

I read this article about fifth graders grilling state Indiana lawmakers about why state lawmakers did not evenly distribute money to Indiana's public schools…and it got me thinking:

We’re running up crushing deficits that will fall on the shoulders of our children. Would deficits be so high if those children were allowed to vote?

I know the arguments against lowering the voting age. One is that kids need special protection against coercion and mistreatment by adults and those vulnerabilities make them unable to vote independently. However, that argument was the same one used to prevent blacks and women from voting.

Another argument is that 18 is the common age of graduation and military conscription. However, children as young as 12 who have committed crimes can be tried as adults. So if kids are mature enough to face full sentencing as full citizens, shouldn’t they be allowed to vote? Certainly there’s a difference between committing a crime and voting. One can be pretty stupid and commit a crime, but adults don’t have to prove a level of reasoning or cognitive ability to vote.

Here’s what got me on this line of thought. Kids are required to attend under-funded schools but can't vote to improve them. As evidenced by this article, all kids can do is voice complaint to public officials when and if the public official thinks it will make a good press op.

Poverty among young people exceeds all other age groups, yet the government spends 10 times more on each poor senior than each poor child.

Kids who work pay into Social Security without any say as to how the fund is managed. One way or another, Social Security will get fixed because elected officials need to keep adults happy. However, they can rob our kids’ futures without losing a single vote.

Caring about education won't help every child...

2005-04-25T13:03:00.000-04:00

From Bill Raspberry's brilliant editorial in WaPo:

What is hard for us to get our minds around is that school improvement is fairly easy to accomplish for children whose parents were successful in school and are enjoying some success in their lives.

But for parents who have not enjoyed success or seriously envisioned success for their children, it takes more than reorganization and parent coordinators and the like. It takes a consistent, nonjudgmental effort to reach and teach parents how to prepare their children for learning.

More Kindergarteners Lack Basic Skills...And It's Parents Who Are Largely At Fault

2005-04-25T12:18:00.000-04:00

I’ve been speaking about this to any group in our district who will listen. Educating kids is a group task and parents have a role to play, a role that they are increasingly abandoning.

From The Chicago Tribune

Despite a national trend that shows more children are attending preschool, it appears that fewer children are starting kindergarten with the basic skills needed to get them off to a good start.

Kindergarten teacher Susan Ginsburg laments the fact that a growing number of pupils entering her class don't know how to write their own names.

Here’s the money quote:

"We get kids with a huge range [of abilities], but in general, it has gotten worse," said Smith, a 10-year veteran. "I think everyone's lives have gotten busier and maybe they don't have as much time to work with their kids."

The Adventures of Teacher of the Year

2005-04-25T11:50:00.001-04:00

Betsy Rogers, a 20-year teaching veteran from Alabama, was named National Teacher of the Year in 2003. She spent her year as National Teacher traveling the country and talking with educators about her belief that the best way to close the equity gap is to put the strongest teachers in the weakest schools.
After finishing her tour, Ms. Rogers decided to practice what she preached, choosing to work at Brighton Elementary School, the “neediest school” in Jefferson County, Alabama. In this, Teacher Magazine’s inaugural blog, Ms. Rogers reflects on her year at Brighton, and how her experience there meshed with her expectations. (Views reflected herein are strictly those of Ms. Betsy Rogers.)

I hope some teachers in our district will follow her example. I think it benefits all involved in public education to read about the challenges, thoughts and successes of teachers on he front lines.

I found it particularly interesting to read Ms. Rogers' comments about merit pay and incentives for teacher's working in the neediest and most challenged schools.

In my own state, Mobile County transformed five schools last year completely changing out the faculty and staff. Teachers and administrators were offered monetary incentives to go to these five schools. The incentives are given in part at the beginning and the rest at the end if goals are met. Incentives tied to performance is a concept many of us will have to grow accustomed to, I am not sure how I feel about this yet.

Williams' History of Success: A REAL look at the data

2005-04-20T11:44:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already, take a look at Simon's editorial in today's News, "Debating whether the past is prologue for Williams".

Simon's "analysis" centers around this principal claim:

When ninth-grade achievement tests were launched in Ohio in 1995-96, Dayton's scores ranked near the bottom in relation to the state's comparable urban districts.

And when Williams' contract was bought out three years later, ninth-grade achievement continued to be below the levels in other Ohio cities.

People will read what they want into the data, as obviously Simon already has. But consider this:

If you look at the 9th grade assessments that are used in Ohio, Dayton made progress in every one of the five areas tested during Dr. Williams’ tenure there. In fact the trend even continued for a couple of years after he left, which indicates that there was a system in place that resulted in continuous improvement.

I would have to say that improvement in every area, year after year, would have to be viewed as a positive indicator. If that were the case in Buffalo, we would be pretty pleased with that.

I am disappointed that some people are trying to portray this data as negative. According to the state education officials cited in the news report, Dayton is most similar to Youngstown in terms of demographics. If you compare the data between those two districts, Dayton outperformed its closed peer on every measure.

My "Criticism of William's Foes Blasted". Really? Or Does This Just Make My Point?

2005-04-17T12:04:00.000-04:00

In today's Buffalo News, a letter I distributed in support of James A. Williams leads the first six paragraphs of Peter Simon's article. I'm glad the News ran most of my letter as the readership of the paper is a lot larger than my Rolodex and I'm glad folks have a chance to read why I support this candidate.

In a letter to community opinion-makers, Johnson praised Williams' reform efforts in Dayton, Ohio, and called him "a turnaround specialist" who will "build a new culture based on performance, achievement and accountability" in Buffalo.

"He hired outside contractors for non-education related work," Johnson said. "He pushed for merit pay. He's created magnet schools. He weathered a union strike by hiring teachers from outside the district and forced the union back to the table. This kind of reform upsets the status quo, but it's exactly the kind of change we need."

Johnson said the school district is "in a crisis mode," characterized by low test scores and loss of students to charter schools.

"Anyone who cares about student achievement and teacher effectiveness and real change in the district needs to stand behind Dr. Williams," Johnson wrote. "His only opponents are people who have a vested interest in things staying the same."

The rest of the article really is an amusing study in irony. I wrote that the only people who would oppose Williams' candidacy were people with a vested interest in things staying the same. And, low and behold, the only people upset by my letter were Phil Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teacher's Federation, and Anthony Palano, president of the union that represents Buffalo principals, both of whom I should thank for making my point.

Educational Regionalism: The News Comments On Our Report

2005-04-14T11:54:00.000-04:00

Okay, after this, I'm really leaving for San Diego.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I serve on the steering committee of The Erie County Association of School Boards Project on Regional Collaboration and Shared Service. The group's report came out at the top of the month and today, Rod Watson comments. He doesn't think the report went far enough but considers it a good first step and a solid road map.

Watson writes that the report notes:

...the benefits of schools that are "locally owned." That means we'll leave in place 29 school districts and 29 bureaucracies - and 29 different funding levels.

But despite that nod to political reality in Erie County, the report does call for districts to "partner" with those that are demographically different. It notes that such efforts might "lay the groundwork for regional magnet schools."

That's a lot further than the city-county consolidation panel went in its report, which conveniently ignored education.

Watson also quotes Jim Anderson who served on the projects advisory committee.

Anderson was encouraged by the group's discussions of race and wealth and the need to educate all students, not just those in affluent districts. He recalled Sweet Home's school superintendent putting things on the right track by emphasizing that "all means all."

National School Boards Association 65th Annual Conference

2005-04-14T08:36:00.000-04:00

I'm off to San Diego for NSBA's Annual Conference. I won't be blogging much but you can attend virtually. Take a look at the Annual Conference Weblog. There will be online discussions and, I expect, coverage from sessions such as:

The Capital Gang (Mark Shields, Robert Novak, and Al Hunt) takes on Educational Policy

The Role of the Board of Education in Building Professional Learning Communities

Coming Clean About Board and Superintendent Relations Data-Driven School Improvement

Ed. Reform Rockstar: Rudy Crew Picks Up In Miami Where He Left Off In NY

2005-04-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

A great column by Freedman in NYT about what Rudy Crew is up to.

BY agreeing to the new system - an extra hour of class or professional development every working day in exchange for 20 percent more pay, meaning about $10,000 annually on the average - Mr. Richard (president of the Miami-area union) put a disgraced union firmly on the side of reform...

Under a new program devised with the teachers' union, Dr. Crew was offering 20 percent more pay for 20 percent more hours for all teachers willing to work in the 39 most-troubled schools in the county, the ones he had designated as the "School Improvement Zone." He liked to describe the plan as "an internal Peace Corps."

BACKGROUND:

A great interview with Crew from a PBS Frontline program on school choice. Here's a taste:

I agree with charter schools. I agree with them to the extent that schools are given the opportunity to be and remain public schools. In New York City, I tried to get this point across when the governor was talking about having them work under some other aegis. I don't happen to agree with that aspect of it, but I do believe that charter schools offer an opportunity to build competitive new models. It gives us an opportunity to figure out new and different ways to allocate resources, and ways by which to strengthen and support the creation of new schools within the public school sector.

BUFFALO NEWS: Endorses Board's Choice for Superintendent

2005-04-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

The Buffalo News Editorial:

"Basically, James likes kids to learn how to read and write, and he likes them to do that at a high level," Weast said. And Williams riles against those who keep that from happening.

School Superintendent Jerry Weast of Montgomery County, Md., said he did an extensive investigation of Williams' departure from Dayton before hiring him, and is glad he made the hire. Among Williams' accomplishments in Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and the 17th largest district in the country, were crafting a more collaborative relationship with unions and helping increase overall teacher retention while simultaneously increasing the departure rate of incompetent teachers. Student performance - 70 percent of the district's students are minorities - benefited, Weast said.

The SchoolTool Project:

2005-04-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

...a project to develop a global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence. This is a possible example of real transformative technology for public education. Check it out.

SchoolTool will provide a robust and reliable means of managing their school or classroom, saving time on routine tasks like managing class rosters, tracking student attendance, assessment and demographic information, helping teachers coordinate their schedules and reserve resources like projectors and computer labs. The system will be accessible through a web interface or specialized desktop applications. SchoolTool's interface will be easily translated for use around the world and accessible to people with disabilites...

Our goal is that schools will be able to install and use SchoolTool with a minimal architecture, as little as a single pc, and without a professional system administrator. For schools that have a more complex infrastructure and staff to manage it, SchoolTool will provide an unprecedented level of interoperability with other applications throughout the school, via a comprehensive web services API.

WAPO: When All the Fourth-Grade Teachers Quit

2005-04-13T08:05:00.000-04:00

Two sides of the same sad story. What's really intersting, though--and distressingly rare --is the parent's perspective. We read so much about analysis and policy and strategy but shockingly little from the parent's point-of-view.

Joyner lives with her husband, an active duty Air Force technical sergeant, and their two children at Andrews Air Force Base, and Foulois is one of several schools that draw students from the base. When she put her daughter and her son in Foulois three years ago, she thought she had found the right school. She liked the school uniforms. The hallways seemed orderly. The teachers she encountered were good.

She is one of those attentive parents who visit their kids' schools often. As time went on, she began to see things she did not like. More children were violating the uniform code. Classes often seemed out of order, with teachers yelling so loudly they could be heard as Joyner walked down the hallways. When she discovered the entire fourth grade has disintegrating and the interim principal seemed powerless, she tried to sound the alarm.

Kids in CT. Charter Schools Make Faster Gains Than Other Public School Students

2005-04-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

Gary Miron at Western Michigan University has a new study out on charter schools in Connecticut. Here's a link to the article. I'll post a link to the actual study when it becomes available.

Children in Connecticut's charter schools generally are making faster gains on state tests than other public school students from the same cities and towns, according to a study being released today.

Although there were considerable differences in performance, including some schools where students lost ground, the overall average scores showed encouraging improvement at most of the experimental schools, a study by Western Michigan University showed.

Romer's Plans for Troubled L.A. Schools

2005-04-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

Today, Supt. Roy Romer unveils plans to revamp the LA Unified School District's worst campuses with moves that are already ruffling union feathers, including reassigning staff, hiring outside consultants and rearranging large schools into smaller, more personal educational programs.

What I'm most interested in is whether the school board will determine Romer's proposals progressive enough.

A GREAT IDEA: 'The 65 Percent Solution'

2005-04-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Want to provide a new desktop computer for every student in America without costing taxpayers an extra cent? Or provide 300,000 new $40,000-a-year teachers without any increase in taxes?

Patrick Byrne has a way. It's called the 65 percent solution.And it's about to face it's first referendum in Arizona.

Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. Washington, D.C., spends less than 50 percent.

Under the 65 percent rule, Arizona, which spends 56.8 percent in classrooms, could use its $451 million transfer to classrooms to buy 1.5 million computers or to hire 11,275 teachers. California (61.7 percent) could use its $1.5 billion transfer to buy 5 million computers or to hire 37,500 teachers.

Comic Book Science in the Classroom

2005-04-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

From this morning's Morning Edition. Have a listen...and have a great weekend.

A new experiment in Maryland has students and teachers using comic books as learning tools. The program illustrates an ongoing debate: do teachers give students a challenge, or offer less difficult material that is more likely to spark their interest?

Data-Driven School Districts: Four Different Approaches

2005-04-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the article and then I urge you to visit SchoolMatters, the tool I mentioned in an earlier post--a public source for information and analysis about our nation's public schools.

“Right or wrong, external accountability is coming to everyone,” says Katherine Gemberling, an educational consultant and former deputy superintendent in Montgomery County, Md. “You can’t simply mandate educational quality and order up tests to make sure it happens. But the fact is, external accountability models exist because educators did not step up themselves and establish definable measurements of quality. … Educators feel compelled—they are compelled—to look at anything that will help them show they’re getting good results.”

In other words, like good businesspeople and well run companies, educators and school districts are being asked, if not expected, to prove their bottom line with hard, solid data. With passage of No Child Left Behind, school districts large and small have taken up the banner of data-driven decision making.

Carlos Garcia: Challenges of a Superintendent

2005-04-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

I thought this might be particularly relevant as we've just entered into contract negotiations with our choice for superintendent, James A. Williams.

Carlos Garcia is the superintendent of the Clark County School District, the nation's fastest growing school district. Here, he talks about the challenges of building 12 schools, hiring 2,000 teachers, and accommodating 12,000 new students a year.

A great interview. Listen to it at your computer or on your iPod. It comes from the Edutopia Radio Show Archive. Edutopia is a weekly Internet radio talk show from The George Lucas Educational Foundation. The one-hour talk show features key educators and students, as well as business, government, and community leaders, discussing educational innovation.

Check it out.

Pupils Make More Progress in 3Rs 'Without Aid of Computers'

2005-04-07T19:40:00.000-04:00

Clearly, I'm a big fan of technology and think it should serve a role in the education of our children. However, the study this article references makes one step back and think about how to best deploy technology in the educational theater.

Mr Brown said: "The teaching and educational revolution is no longer blackboards and chalk, it is computers and electronic whiteboards."

However, the study, published by the Royal Economic Society, said: "Despite numerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the contrary, the evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does not seem to contribute substantially to students' learning of basic skills such as maths or reading."

Reporters need to look inside the classroom

2005-04-07T06:47:00.000-04:00

"Forget the ‘reformers’ and statistics that clutter today’s education beat. Reporters need to look inside the classroom."

That's the call from LynNell Hancock in the latest issue of The Columbia Journalism Review. She begins with the story of the scam behind the "Texas Miracle" and holds The Houston Chronicle's toes to the fire for missing it. More importantly, she writes in depth about why they missed the story--what's wrong with how reporters cover the education beat.

The tricks and truths were buried by the numbers, and all but ignored for years by The Houston Chronicle. The city’s only remaining daily paper should have owned the story, and years earlier, but its coverage habits were cemented in a model that kept reporters out of classrooms. Education reporters were conditioned to cover “schools” instead of “education,” to come at the beat from the top down by reporting on district policies without comparing them to real-life results or assessing their classroom relevance. So the Chronicle’s initial dropout stories simply repeated the district’s 1.5 percent rate, and gave critics the token, brush-off-for-balance treatment at a story’s end.

Why Are Textbooks So Bad?

2005-04-07T06:46:00.000-04:00

Confessions of a textbook editor. Great, great article.

Every time a friend with kids in school tells me textbooks are too generic, I think back to that moment. "Who writes these things?" people ask me. I have to tell them, without a hint of irony, "No one." It's symptomatic of the whole muddled mess that is the $4.3 billion textbook business.

Textbooks are a core part of the curriculum, as crucial to the teacher as a blueprint is to a carpenter, so one might assume they are conceived, researched, written, and published as unique contributions to advancing knowledge. In fact, most of these books fall far short of their important role in the educational scheme of things. They are processed into existence using the pulp of what already exists, rising like swamp things from the compost of the past. The mulch is turned and tended by many layers of editors who scrub it of anything possibly objectionable before it is fed into a government-run "adoption" system that provides mediocre material to students of all ages.

Welcome to the Machine

Names, Expectations and the Black-White Test Score Gap

2005-04-07T06:45:00.000-04:00

From The National Bureau of Economic Research: This is the most facinating study I've read in a while. It's findings are shocking and their implications are broad.

---- Abstract -----

This paper investigates the question of whether teachers treat children differentially on the basis of factors other than observed ability, and whether this differential treatment in turn translates into differences in student outcomes. I suggest that teachers may use a child's name as a signal of unobserved parental contributions to that child's education, and expect less from children with names that "sound" like they were given by uneducated parents...

These names, empirically, are given most frequently by Blacks, but they are also given by White and Hispanic parents as well. I utilize a detailed dataset from a large Florida school district to directly test the hypothesis that teachers and school administrators expect less on average of children with names associated with low socio-economic status, and these diminished expectations in turn lead to reduced student cognitive performance. Comparing pairs of siblings, I find that teachers tend to treat children differently depending on their names, and that these same patterns apparently translate into large differences in test scores.

I haven't had a chance to read the design and methadology of the study. Once I do, I'll post my findings here in an update.

GREATEST ONLINE RESOURCE EVER: SchoolMatters

2005-04-06T14:26:00.000-04:00

SchoolMatters is an online tool that provides rich information and powerful search and comparison tools to help uncover the stories behind the numbers, and further the discussion about how to improve student performance.

As is not always the case with press releases, do believe the hype:

SchoolMatters.com is a revolutionary service that elevates the way student achievement and financial data can be used in guiding education policy work at the state and local levels, through providing a framework of sophisticated analysis and multiple indicators. Perhaps even more significantly, this project provides easy access to data and analyses to help guide informed decisions on behalf of our school systems and children.

PS 105: A Study in Dilligence, Commitment and Steady Improvement

2005-04-06T13:27:00.000-04:00

Situated among tenements and vacant lots in a neighborhood that parents and faculty describe as dangerous after dark, PS 105 has worked hard to become an orderly oasis where kids can learn.

Principal Laurie Shapiro has been at the helm of the school since 1997, when 90 percent of its students were unable to perform at grade-level in English and math. By spring, 2004, however, more than 60 percent of the school's 4th graders were meeting standards on math tests. PS 105 still has much ground to gain in reading and writing -- only 30 percent of the children meet literacy standards on state exams -- but is striving to do just that.

"Parents thought I wouldn't last," said Shapiro, who says she has missed five days of work -- three at the insistence of her doctor -- since she became principal. In her first year, Shapiro re-interviewed the faculty and replaced several teachers. She also set out to establish order and a new "tone and climate" in the school. Today, children walk quietly and calmly through hallways and raise hands before speaking in class.

PS 105's steady progress has come largely from a uniformity of teaching styles in all grades. All blackboards display current lessons and objectives. All walls burst with student art and creative writing. The push towards literacy is apparent even in the gym, where a "word wall" lists vocabulary like "catch," "leap," and "kick."

Read the story in NYT.

A Reminder of the Severity of the Crisis

2005-04-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers did not major in those subjects (Frederick Hess, Common Sense School Reform).

Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

"The International Adult Literacy Survey ... found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

Our workers lack so many basic skills, that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

"The European Union leads the U.S. in ... the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81).

One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005), not just because of price, but because corporations can often get better-skilled and more productive people (Friedman in yesterday's NYT).

HBO's "The Wire" To Take On Public Education

2005-04-06T07:54:00.000-04:00

The most popular hour of tv in my household, and in my opinion one of the best urban drama's ever produced, has been renewed for another season. And the new season's theme is urban public education.

After three months in limbo, HBO's urban drama The Wire was renewed yesterday for a fourth season - one that promises a hard-hitting look inside Baltimore's troubled school system.

"This is basically going to be the beginning of a new arc," executive producer David Simon said yesterday. "The thing that we tried to convince HBO was that there was more to be said about the American city. It's gratifying to have the opportunity to continue to explore this urban universe that we created."

Considering how well Simon dealt previously with the themes the drug war, unionized labor and local politics, I can't wait to see his take on urban public education. The fourth season begins production late this year and is set to air in 2006.

Until then, there are always the first and second seasons on DVD.

NEW STUDY: Half of High School Dropouts Can Be Identified as Early as Sixth Grade

2005-04-05T13:42:00.000-04:00

This Dropout Prevention Study by Philadelphia Education Fund and Johns Hopkins University could hold the key to increasing Graduation Rates.

Conducted by the Philadelphia Education Fund in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, the research and subsequent recommendations could hold the key to keeping students on track for graduation. The findings show that in the School District of Philadelphia, almost half of the students that will ultimately drop out of high school can be identified as early as the sixth grade.

Four variables predict early on in a child’s academic career whether the student will graduate on-time or at all: low attendance; poor behavior; failing math and failing English grades. Students displaying any one of these risk factors have only a 10% chance of graduating from high school on time.

Here's the Powerpoint presentation of the study's findings.

Spring Break!

2005-03-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

Rye bread, butter lambs, easter eggs and Peeps. I'm taking some time off from blogging to enjoy easter with my family.

Best,
Florence

Choosing The New Superintendent: You Do Have a Say

2005-03-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

Peter Simon in The Buffalo News begins his article, Superintendent Search Criticized: Public Will Have No Input on Who the Board Selects, with this:

The national search for a new Buffalo school superintendent has narrowed to two finalists, but the community won't be told who they are.

And that secrecy - as well as excluding public input - is drawing criticism, even from some School Board members.

Simon definitely has an agenda and I wrote a response to call him on it.

Fact is, the public does have a say. Input was solicited from the Mayor, Board of Education Division Heads, various Hispanic Leaders, Rev. Pointer (president of the District Parent Coordinating Council), the Special Education Parent's Advisory Committee, union leadership, the Control Board, Chancellor Bennett, Regent Gardner, and Jerry Goldberg along with the rest of The Buffalo News Editorial Board. Further, the Board appointed a Community Search Advisory Committee, a committee composed of eighteen community representatives, two chosen by each elected Board member, that was involved throughout the search process.

In addition to Simon's agenda, what I find interesting is that the only Board members who claim to have a problem with the selection process (a process they agreed and adhered to throughout) are members supported by the teacher's union. What possible motivation would they have to cast aspersions on the selection of a hopefully progressive superintendent who will bring real change to Buffalo Public Schools?

In case The Buffalo News doesn't print my response, here it is:

Peter Simon, News Staff Reporter
The Buffalo News
1 News Plaza
Buffalo, NY 14240

Dear Mr. Simon:

I’m writing to respond to your article, “Superintendent search criticized: Public will have no input on who the board selects”—a response I’m sending along to Gerald Goldberg who, I understand, is in the process of writing an editorial on the subject.

Let me begin with the claim made in the article’s subtitle—“Public Will Have No Input on Who the Board Selects”—a claim contradicted by facts presented in the article itself.

Defenders of the search process say a public hearing was held in January; suggestions were solicited from the advisory committee; the firm aiding in the search conducted a series of preliminary meetings with community focus groups; and the board publicly released and was guided by a list of qualities it is seeking in a new superintendent.

It’s not just that we “say” these things happened. Thorough reporting would have revealed that these steps were indeed taken. To assert that points made in the previous quotation are merely claims that “defenders of the search process say” as opposed to facts in the public record betrays a bias I would expect in an editorial, but not from a staff reporter.

To begin with, the very process, the undertaking itself characterized as “top-down” in your article, simply abides by the tenants of representative democracy: voters chose us as representatives to act in their interests with enough authority to exercise initiative in the face of changing circumstances. We were duly elected to, among other things, select a new superintendent and employ the best process to do so.

Regarding that process: We in the public sector are often criticized for not conducting business with the same efficiency and regard for best-practices that, at their best, our private sector colleagues do. Those best-practice principles and business-savvy considerations, however, are exactly what we modeled our superintendent search around. In order to find a person of high caliber, we have, with Heidrick & Struggles, adopted the same confidential process used in many other top-tier city school systems … because it just makes sense.

Consider a hypothetical CEO of a Fortune 500 interested in an offer elsewhere. He or she knows that if found out by their current employer, his or her loyalty and resolve will be questioned and, if they are not hired for the position they are being considered for, they will, quite possibly, lose the job they have.

In fact, it has come to my attention that one potential candidate read yesterday’s article. He became very concerned that confidentiality would be breached and his current position might be jeopardized—a breech that could, because of the confidentiality agreements Heidrick & Struggles signed on our behalf, open the board up to litigation.

In order to attract qualified candidates, there has to be a guarantee of confidentiality. Period.

That given, as a publicly elected board we understand that there needs to be community involvement in the process of hiring, in effect, the CEO of one of the largest employers and service organizations in the County. The steps that you dismiss as mere “claims” made in the defense of our process are good faith and sincere attempts to involve the public, gather opinions and concerns and fold them into our selection.

In order to hear from the community what was important in a new superintendent and to explain the search process, last October Heidrick & Struggles—the search firm—and board representatives met with the Mayor, Board of Education Division Heads, various Hispanic Leaders, Rev. Pointer (president of the District Parent Coordinating Council), the Special Education Parent's Advisory Committee, union leadership, the Control Board, Chancellor Bennett, Regent Gardner, and Jerry Goldberg along with the rest of your editorial board.

Most importantly, Heidrick & Struggles met with the Community Search Advisory Committee, a committee composed of eighteen community representatives, two chosen by each elected Board member. The role of this committee in the search process is as follows:

Represent a broad cross-section of the school system’s various constituencies and stakeholders, including but not limited to teachers, parents, students, government, business, unions, districts, faith community, and higher education.

Review draft “position specification” and search process. Make recommendations to the School Board.

Make recommendations to the search consultant regarding sources of potential candidates.

Work with the Search Consultant to decide on methods of achieving input from other constituent groups and those who we need input from. Ensures that the best possible input is gathered.

I certainly understand the desire to see what’s going on behind a closed door—especially when what’s going on behind the door is as important as choosing the next superintendent of such a challenged district. However, we have, within the confines of a process that has worked successfully in several top-tier cities, made significant attempts to solicit input from all parts of the community. I wish, in your article, you had made the same level of effort to give justice to the steps taken to gather community input and make it an integral part of our process.

Sincerely,

Florence Johnson
President, Buffalo Board of Education

Rochester Charter Schools: Object Lessons In Success and Failure

2005-03-24T11:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a fine article in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. It documents defeats and triumphs of some charter schools in the district. The risk factors for failure seem much more tangible than the elusive presentiments of success.

To be sure, many charter schools are succeeding. In Rochester, the Genesee Community Charter School consistently outperforms the City School District, and the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School does at least as well. Both have had their charters renewed by the state.

Since the charter school movement began in the 1990s, about 9 percent of schools nationwide — or more than 300 schools — have closed, according to the Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C. But New York is one of the few states that cracks down on charter schools for poor academic performance. Including the three this year, the state now has ordered four of approximately 60 charter schools statewide to close.

Mixed Progress Report on “No Child”: Year 3

2005-03-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

This week, the Center on Educational Policy (an independent Washington-based research group) releases a report that recognizes progress and raises some big flags--concerns about impending problems from a lack of school choice options to inadequate staffing--that could undermine the law.

Although the group is pleased with the gains in student achievement, there are some warning signs to heed, according to the center’s director, Patricia F. Sullivan.

4 “Year 3 of the No Child Left Behind Act"

Merit Pay at Center of Texas Education Reform Legislation

2005-03-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

A pending initiative in California and now a bill passed in the Texas House of Representatives: lawmakers are wrestling with seemingly intractable forces to introduce accountability and performance incentives to the public education theater.

Last week the Texas House passed House Bill 2 that requires school districts to set aside 1 per cent of their school budgets for incentive pay raises for the highest performing teachers.

From The Houston Chronicle:

It adds new yardsticks to measure schools — such as on bilingual student improvement — and allows the education commissioner to more swiftly close troubled schools.

"It (contains) a lot of things that a lot of us have wanted to see done for years. It's a huge step forward," said House Speaker Tom Craddick.

"I applaud the Texas House of Representatives for demonstrating a strong commitment to meaningful education reform and passing HB 2," said Gov. Rick Perry.

The bill would allow individual schools to design their own incentive plans, but student performance would be a key element in deciding which teachers receive a pay increase.

The bill also includes a provision that would allow low performing schools to be taken over by private industries.

Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recently told a group of Texas Federation of Teachers members, "With all due respect to our friends and colleagues in the House, it's a good start," Dewhurst said. "There are some good items in both and we will incorporate those, but we plan on taking their product and making it better."

The issue now passes to the Senate, which will spend April focusing on education reform and putting its own bill on the floor by the beginning of May.

Uniforms v. Dress Codes: Let's Not Waste Too Much Time on Either

2005-03-22T17:45:00.000-05:00

This weekend, Peter Simon in The Buffalo News wrote about dress codes and Will Keresztes’ campaign for them at Highgate Heights Elementary.

The article confuses dress codes with uniforms when, in fact, they are two entirely different things. Simply put: no halter tops, no miniskirts, no tank tops, no jeans hanging below one’s posterior or anterior nether regions: that’s a dress code. Skirts below the knee for girls and dress pants for boys, blazers and dress shirts for all: that’s a uniform. Dress codes, as long as they’re not too restrictive, are no-brainers—for students and teachers.

Uniforms--what someone must wear in order to attend a public school--that’s a problem. Not because I say so, but because the Supreme Court said so in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Student’s “do not shed their rights at the school house door.”

As long as it’s not too restrictive, you can tell kids what they can’t wear to school. But you can’t specifically mandate what they have to wear in order to attend.

But more importantly, discussions of uniforms distract parents and school officials from much more pressing concerns. Considering the problems faced by public education generally and our district specifically, a discussion much less a debate about school uniforms seems like taking time to change ties while the house is on fire.

UPDATE: While it has been claimed by many school administrators that public school uniform policies make kids behave better, fight less and focus on their schoolwork more, those claims are anecdotal and supported by shallow qualitative study. The fact of the matter is that the research, the comprehensive quantitative research, does not support their claim.

I've posted a copy of a January Education Week article that offers a fine summary of the research done on school uniforms to date.

REVOLUTION RADIO: Common Sense School Reform

2005-03-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

Few will agree with everything Frederick Hess, author of Common Sense School Reform, has to say. He’s pretty hard on what he calls “status quo reformers” but definitively shifts the burden of proof to those who would disagree with his main points: that widespread improvement in U.S. schools will remain a pipedream without significant and painful adjustments and that public schools will succeed only by embracing accountability, incentives, flexibility and competition.

Here are mp3s of his speech last year at the Pioneer Institute—a leading Massachusetts’ think tank that challenges the “conventional wisdom” on public policy issues.

4Pt. 1: A Measure of the Need for Reform [10m : 00s]
4Pt. 2: What is Common Sense School Reform? [09m : 25s]

Mark Roosevelt, Managing Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, responds. As House Chairman of the Massachusetts Legislature's Committee on Education, he co-authored and steered to passage the landmark Education Reform Act of 1993, which restructured the way Massachusetts funds and manages its public schools.

4Mark Roosevelt's Response: [08m : 25s]

Listen on your computer. Listen on your iPod. Pass them on to friends.

This really needs to be heard.

Yet Another Plea: Phil, Please Let the Kids Have Their $27M+

2005-03-21T18:04:00.000-05:00

My public appeal in The Buffalo News to try and rally support around switching to a single health carrier. I think we may be at the tipping point, but at $1M/month, we can't afford to wait. If the unions won't volunteer to do the right thing, perhaps it's time to explore other alternatives.

Another voice / Buffalo Public Schools
A single health carrier would save millions
By FLORENCE JOHNSON

To participate in urban public education is to try to dance in an ever-shrinking circle. Pushing at the edges of the dance floor are diminishing resources, competing political interests, stifling bureaucracy and wavering support.

All that matters, though, is that those of us who have committed to this effort keep trying, because education is the silver bullet - our kids' last hope.

At the risk of pushing the metaphor, those of us involved in public education know that not everyone dances the same line or waltz or slide. Our kids, however, have a chance. We have a chance, as long as we're all trying, each in our own way.

I'm writing because not everyone on the floor is trying. I'm writing because complacency and inaction threaten to rob our kids of the hope and the chance they so desperately need and deserve.

The Buffalo Public Schools face a $30 million deficit next year and a continually shrinking enrollment. We've watched our district suffer through severe fiscal challenges - multimillion-dollar budget gaps that, in order to bridge them, have forced us to close schools, cut programs and lay off hundreds of staff.

We now have a chance, though, completely within our power, to begin to dramatically turn things around. We can save more than $27 million over two years and prevent as many as 250 layoffs simply by converting our district health insurance coverage to a single carrier. Without negative consequences or compromise for any of our employees, we can bring substantial resources back into our classrooms instead of having to take those resources away.

In order to capitalize on this rare opportunity, our unions need to join us by agreeing to a measure that takes no money or benefits away from members. Covered employees and retirees would continue to receive the same top-of-the-line benefits and go to the same doctors with no additional cost.

Some union leaders, though, are attempting to use this chance at something approaching solvency as a chit to get the control board to lift its wage freeze. That just isn't going to happen, and in the meantime, our kids - as well as low seniority staff members - will suffer.

To succeed in urban public education is to try to dance in an ever-shrinking circle. And $27 million buys a lot of space on the dance floor.

The Buffalo Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution to let a single health insurance carrier serve all of its employees just like the City of Buffalo, Erie County, and most recently, the City of Lackawanna. I commend the Buffalo Educational Support Team for having the foresight and vision to see the mutual benefit of the resolution. I am writing to plead with other union leadership to follow BEST's lead to help us make this savings real for our kids.

Every day that we don't convert to a single carrier is a day of lost opportunity for our children. Every month we don't convert $1 million is lost. Our children simply cannot afford to wait any longer.

Florence Johnson is president of the Buffalo Board of Education.

Letter to The Editor: Teachers Union Strains Taxpayers

2005-03-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

For this post, I offer no commentary. I just pass it along: a pretty pointed criticism of teacher's unions from a retired teacher and long-time union member in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

I am a retired NYSUT member (New York State United Teachers) of 33 years who knows that money and benefits always top the list of NYSUT concerns.
All those years we were told that the union was the greatest blessing for teachers, as they paid high annual dues and were told (and still are) how to vote.

Now, seven years into retirement, I struggle to pay school taxes, which have grown so large because of benefits that even management in large companies no longer has.

Wake up, taxpayers. Nurses do not have to be cut, nor schools closed nor school programs cut. Those who educate say they care about the children. If so, they should prove it by sacrifice, just as you do.

Get copies of your school contracts at the administration office — your right under the Freedom of Information Act. You can determine huge hidden benefits and other packages that make school budgets so high. You must be aware and speak out against these injustices.

If our union continues to drain us, no one will be able to pay for anything and we will all lose.

JOAN M. SCHOPINSKY
MACEDON, WAYNE COUNTY

Report Cards for Local Schools

2005-03-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

Two general findings were presented when the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, released report cards for schools statewide last week.

More of New York State's high school students are taking and passing the Regents exams now required for graduation.

Although 81 percent of white students who started high school in the fall of 2000 graduated in June, as scheduled, only 45.4 percent of black students and 42 percent of Hispanic students did.

What was particularly interesting were report cards for individual schools. See how the schools in your area are doing. On the whole, we have work to do.

4Bennett High School
4Bilingual Center
4Bilingual Early Childhood Center
4Buffalo Academy For The Visual & Performing Arts
4Buffalo Elementary School Of Technology
4Buffalo Traditional School
4Build Academy
4Burgard Vocational High School
4Campus West School
4City Honors School At Fosdick Masten Park
4Community School #53
4Discovery School
4Dr Antonia Pantoja Community School Of Academic Excellence
4Dr Lydia T Wright Sch Of Excellence
4Dr. George Blackman Ecc
4Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Multicultural Institute
4D'Youville-Porter Campus
4Emerson Vocational High School
4Follow-Through Urban Learning Laboratory
4Frank A. Sedita Community School
4Frederick Olmstead #56
4Frederick Olmstead #64
4Grabiarz School Of Excellence
4Grover Cleveland High School
4Harriet Tubman Early Childhood Center
4Herman Badillo Community School
4Highgate Heights
4Hutchinson Central Technical High School
4International School
4Lafayette High School
4Leonardo Da Vinci High School
4Lorraine Elementary School
4Mckinley Vocational High School
4Montessori School
4Native American Magnet
4P.S. 11 Poplar Street Academy
4P.S. 17
4P.S. 27 Hillery Park Academy
4P.S. 28 Triangle Academy
4P.S. 37 Futures Academy
4P.S. 40
4P.S. 42 Occupational Training Center
4P.S. 43
4P.S. 44 Lincoln Academy
4P.S. 59 Dr. Charles Drew Science Magnet
4P.S. 61
4P.S. 63 Campus North
4P.S. 65 Roosevelt Academy
4P.S. 66 North Park Academy
4P.S. 68 - Westminister Community School
4P.S. 69 Houghton Academy
4P.S. 74 Hamlin Park Elementary School
4P.S. 77
4P.S. 78
4P.S. 81
4P.S. 82
4P.S. 84
4P.S. 86 Saint Lawrence Academy
4Riverside Institute Of Technology
4Seneca Vocational High School
4South Park High School
4Southside Elementary School
4Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center
4Stanton Academy
4Waterfront School
4Web Ecc
4Web Middle School
4West Hertel Elementary School

School Superintendent and Friends Loot District of $11.2M

2005-03-21T00:30:00.000-05:00

The state comptroller, Alan Hevesi called it a "breathtaking" abuse of public trust as he outlined in sickening detail how the district's superintendent, its former business manager, and others turned the school system into their personal trough which they plundered to the tune of $11.2M.

casino trips
luxury-car and mortgage payments
seemingly limitless A.T.M.

So it happened in Roslyn, not Buffalo. But it could have. It could be any school district without adequate fiscal oversight, training and safeguards.

An Op-Ed published in The New York Times:

Whatever good emerges from the debacle in Roslyn...could be felt statewide. Mr. Hevesi has given seminars to school officials around New York to help them spot fraud, and is seeking $5.8 million from the state to hire 89 new auditors to resume regular school audits that were abandoned years ago. Gov. George E. Pataki has included only half that amount in his current budget, with the annoying condition that it be controlled by his budget division, not the comptroller's office. This is no time for games - Mr. Pataki should give Mr. Hevesi the money he wants and the wherewithal to spend it as he sees fit.

A bipartisan array of lawmakers, meanwhile, including Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli and Senator Michael A. L. Balboni, is backing legislation to impose new safeguards on school districts' finances, including training for board members and new audit committees.

Educational Regionalism: Regional Collaboration and Shared Services

2005-03-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

Joel Giambra has turned regionalism into something akin to a four-letter word. And the term as envisioned by Giambra may very well be a curse.

I serve on the steering committee of The Erie County Association of School Boards Project on Regional Collaboration and Shared Services--an effort to reclaim the term and restore credibility to some of the compelling ideas behind it.

OUR MISSION:

Faced with diminishing resources, a declining tax base, and the loss of employment, our community must find creative ways to deliver quality education to all our children. The Erie County Association of School Boards Project on Regional Collaboration and Shared Services represents an effort to explore alternative solutions to this problem through school districts working together for a stronger Western New York.

The analysis, conducted by a team from Cornell University, School of Industrial & Labor Relations, is made possible through the partnership and generous financial support of the John R. Oishei and Margaret L. Wendt Foundations, along with the County of Erie and other contributors.

OUR REPORT:

An analysis of K-12 public education will discover more efficient, effective & equitable ways to provide education services. The analysis and its recommended actions will build upon the leadership that Erie County public school districts and their boards of education have taken in regional collaboration.

The Association has been busy finishing the report and I'll note our progress as information is made available.

Grassroots Educational Reform: Part of The New Harlem Renaissance

2005-03-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

The story is about Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone. He wants to prove that poor children, and especially poor black children, can succeed -- that is, achieve good reading scores, good grades and good graduation rates -- and not just the smartest or the most motivated or the ones with the most attentive parents, but all of them, in big numbers.

This article in The New York Times is more than just interesting. It's inspirational. It's about how one person has made a difference and about a holistic approach to changing the lives of urban kids. I wanted to bring it to your attention in case you didn't have a chance to see it when it first ran last June. I've also posted a PDF of the printer-friendly version of the article in case the original article gets archived.

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Esmonde Calls Phil Rumore on the Carpet

2005-03-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

The teachers union - which is under the state financial control board's wage freeze - says that it will streamline health insurance to free up the $27 million only as part of an overall contract negotiation. It gets worse: Even if the $27 million someday shakes loose, the union doesn't want it used on school nurses. "The money saved from any health care (concessions) should go for things like cutbacks in class sizes, not for an extra expense (of nurses)," Rumore told me. "It shouldn't replace money the county pulled back."

But that's what happened in Rochester. The district paid for school nurses when the county backed out.
"We felt it was important," said Rochester school district spokeswoman Barbara Jarzyniecki, "for our families to have health services in the schools."

Two weeks ago, Rumore told county lawmakers that the nurses are the only medical safety net for some of these kids. The net is gone, and Rumore can - but won't - put it back.

There's really nothing more I can add other than a link to the rest of Esmonde's column as well as to what I posted previously.

It's pretty simple. Phil Rumore is happy spending our children's future on his tenured membership.

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The Plantation Responds

2005-03-17T19:57:00.000-05:00

The more I thought about Byron McIntyre's editorial in last week's The Challenger, the more it irked me. I couldn't let it pass. So I penned this response.

For the record, I love spirited discourse. I welcome debate and expect for Board decisions to be challenged. It's the race-baiting and the ignorance I just can't brook.

The following response appears in this week's The Challenger.

Open Letter to the Editor (PDF: 116KB)

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Small Cities Suing for School Funds

2005-03-16T17:14:00.000-05:00

Erika Rosenberg and Marshand Boone report that small city school districts plan to sue New York State for more money.

A group of 15 small city school districts say they can make the same case that won New York City a landmark court ruling: that inadequate state funding prevents them from providing the "sound, basic education" students are entitled to under the state constitution.

"They've already asked their taxpayers to shoulder a burden which is far above what the state tax burden is, and they're still not able to fund schools adequately," said Bob Biggerstaff, director of the Small City School Districts Association.

While it doesn't apply to Buffalo Public Schools, I thought this was interesting because of the State Constitutional claim and that our neighbors in Niagara Falls are involved in the suit.

Rosenberg and Boone go on to write:

The group says it's seeking a fair education-funding system that will help more than just the districts it represents. A study it commissioned said the state should spend $7 billion more, phased in over six years, across New York to provide adequate funding to districts. The state now spends about $15.4 billion.

I believe, in the words of Aaron Sorkin, that education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We dont need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense.

However, while embracing accountability and eschewing blame, parents, teachers, administrators, elected public officials and business leaders need to reconcile the fact that New York State ranks third in the nation in per-pupil education spending . Yet, our return on that investment is, based on four-year graduation rates, not commensurate.

New Regents Standards: The New Math Is the Old Math...Again

2005-03-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

Of all the students who took the Regents Math A exam in 2003, two-thirds failed. Students, teachers, and parents complained. The test was a high school graduation requirement so State education officials rescored the test and appointed a committee to do a post-mortem.

The committee did a national assessment and submitted for public review a proposal in November. Parents, math professionals, and members of the business community reviewed the proposal. Their input was folded into a revision the committee submitted to State officials in December.

Broadly, as described in the New York Times, the new standards are as follows:

The new standards would reverse an approach adopted in the 1980's…(a)nd they put New York back in step with the way most other states teach high school math: freshmen study algebra, sophomores learn geometry, and juniors study algebra II and trigonometry.

The board will also consider adding a third Regents math exam to the two that are already given, officials said. But according to draft documents about the changes, students would still need to pass only one of the exams to graduate.

…schools would be encouraged to teach pre-calculus to seniors, but they could opt to teach some other form of math.

Dr. Alfred S. Posamentier, a member of the committee who is a professor of mathematics at City College, and the dean of the college's School of Education said of the new standards, "The college-bound kid is going to get the proper step toward college, and the noncollege-bound kid is going to get vastly more mathematics than his counterpart of 50 years ago," he said. "And in all grades, there will be a new emphasis on problem-solving."

Future Leaders Institute in NYC Approved as Charter School

2005-03-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

Future Leaders Institute (FLI) is a Harlem-based public school providing exceptional educational opportunities for some 250 students in this under-resourced New York City community.

Today, Regents approved a request by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to open five charter schools in New York City. The Future Leaders Institute was one of them.

This kindergarten-8th grade school offers an innovative, academically rigorous curriculum, a mandatory extended school day and year and a broad array of enrichment opportunities. FLI also serves as a model site and, ultimately, will become a professional development lab for other teachers and schools.

For 2004, FLI had the 3rd highest math test score increase in all of NYC.

85% of FLI's first graduating class matriculated to selective high schools.

A very compelling model.

Making Sense of Poor High School Graduation Rates

2005-03-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University and the author of "Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform" offers some provocative and insightful thinking in her Op-Ed in the New York Times.

Only a minority of students - whether in 4th, 8th or 12th grade - reach proficiency as measured by the Education Department's National Assessment of Educational Progress. On a scale that has three levels - basic, proficient and advanced - most students score at the basic level or even below basic in every subject. It is true that American student performance is appalling.

That's nothing new to those of us concerned about public education. What is new are the observations and recommendations Ravitch goes on to make. For instance she suggests:

...reformist governors...want to require all students to take a college-preparatory curriculum and to meet more rigorous standards for graduation. These steps will very likely increase the dropout rate, not reduce it.
To understand why, you have to consider what the high schools are dealing with. When American students arrive as freshmen, nearly 70 percent are reading below grade level. Equally large numbers are ill prepared in mathematics, science and history.

It is hardly fair to blame high schools for the poor skills of their entering students.

Toward explaining poor high school graduation rates and laying the foundation for her recommendations, Ravitch explains the importance of the first year of high school:

...many students who eventually drop out do so after becoming discouraged when they can't earn the credits to advance beyond ninth grade. Ninth grade is often referred to by educators as a "parking lot." This is because social promotion - the endemic practice of moving students up to the next grade whether they have earned it or not - comes to a crashing halt in high school.

Ravitch then goes on to cite recommendations made by Sandra Stotsky, a former associate commissioner of education for Massachusetts, in a report released last month by the National Association of Scholars. I hope they become part of the discourse for high school education reform. They're worthy of consideration and debate:

Recommendation One:
...students entering ninth grade (should) be given a choice between a subject-centered curriculum or a technical, career-oriented course of study. The former would look like a traditional college-preparatory curriculum, with an emphasis on humanities, sciences or arts. The latter would include a number of technologically rigorous programs and apprenticeships. All students, regardless of their concentration, would be required to complete a core curriculum of four years of English and at least three years of mathematics, science and history. Students graduating from either program would be well educated and prepared for higher education.

Recommendation Two:
...teachers of core subjects (should) have a solid background - at least an undergraduate major - in the main subject they teach, that teachers of technical subjects have either solid academic training or work experience in their fields, and that American schools have a longer school day and school year.

Recommendation Three:
...schools should have a minimum of 500 students. Larger schools provide better staff depth and stability - imagine how disruptive it is to a tiny high school if just a couple of teachers leave over the summer - and have a broader range of music, art, drama, debate and sports offerings. And research by Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that small high schools are more likely than large ones to have out-of-field teachers - that is, teachers who have neither a major nor a minor in their subject.

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Schwarzenegger Takes On Merit Pay For Teachers

2005-03-13T23:47:00.000-05:00

Progressive initiatives often start in California so it's wise to stay abreast of what's happening there politically. And what's happening is Gov. Schwarzenegger is campaigning to bring teacher merit pay to California schools. This isn't his first forray into educational reform.

He toiled away quietly at the edges of Californian politics prior to running for governor and, among other things, pioneered a referendum on school size. His proposal passed by a healthy margin. I'm not sure whether his most recent effort will meet with the same success, but the argument is being framed in California and it's a clear, populist message. Whatever happens in California, the terms of the discussion which will soon sweep the country are being framed by Schwarzenegger right now.
Saturday, Schwarzenegger said the current system for schooling more than six million students rewards teachers only for seniority, not individual performance.

"Other professions reward employees for good results. In the profession as important as teaching, we must do the same," Schwarzenegger said during the two and a half minute address.

The governor said schools in low-income neighborhoods suffer because more affluent communities can offer higher salaries to attract hard-working teachers.

Schwarzenegger is pushing a ballot initiative to bring a private-sector approach to teachers' salaries and make it easier to fire teachers now protected by tenure rules. It's one of four statewide reforms proposed by the governor for a special election expected later this year.

Black Graduation Figures Going Down the Drain

2005-03-10T18:11:00.000-05:00

In The Buffalo News, burried at the bottom of an article titled, "Struggling schools aren't confined to the city" is the following:

Of whites who entered high school in 2000, 81 percent graduated by last June, or within the traditional four-year cycle.

Just 45 percent of black students graduated in four years, along with 42 percent of the Hispanic students.
...

The dropout rate was 21 percent for Hispanic students, 19 percent for blacks and 7 percent for whites.
...

(Education Commissioner Richard P.) Mills said the figures lend credence to the Regents' recent efforts to beef up funding for large urban districts, where minority students are concentrated, and to lobby for more state education aid.

81 percent of white students finish high school in 4 years.
45 percent of black students finish high school in 4 years.
And 42 percent of Hispanic students finish high school in 4 years.

So why isn't this the story's lead as opposed to its footnote?

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Afraid to Leave the Plantation?

2005-03-09T15:07:00.000-05:00

Byron McIntyre saw fit in this week's Challenger to write an editorial chastising Janique Curry and me for our vote to close PS 44. Which is fine. I welcome debate, challenging discourse, informed dissent--all of what was missing in McIntyre's editorial.

Instead, McIntyre engages in the type of tired race-baiting that diminshes legitimate claims of racism and reduces African-Americans as a people. When white folks disagree with those like McIntyre, they're defacto racists. When those that disagree with McIntyre are black, they're labeled as Uncle Tom's and Stepin Fetchit's and "afraid to leave the plantation". This type of thinking is directly correlated to the destructive belief in the parts of the African-American community that to speak properly or to succeed academically is to aspire to be white, to sell-out.

Unfortunately, The Challenger's archive is not up to date and I would rather boil my own head than type all of McIntyre's screed. However, here are some choice kernels from the rest of his steaming pile.

Once again, Curry and Johnson has (sic) sold out our community.

...
It is sad that everyone knows who to go to if they want to screw the community. No one is surprised by Florence Johnson's vote...

...
Curry, by her vote, and Johnson, by her non-action sold out those board members obviously working for our community.

...
...stand up and acknowledge it, don't "step and fetch!"...To the African American School Board members I say, if you're afraid to leave the plantation, don't sabotage our children's chance to break the mental chains, and become free, proud and productive people!

As much as I'd like to let this go, it deserves a thorough reply. Perhaps later. Stay tuned.

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Phil Rumore is OK wasting $27M+ of our kid's money

2005-02-24T11:29:00.000-05:00

Buffalo Public Schools have an opportunity to save $27M+ and prevent as many as 250 layoffs simply by converting our district health coverage to a single carrier. Without compromise for any of our employees, we can keep substantial resources in our classrooms instead of taking them away.

However, instead of agreeing to a measure that takes no money or benefits away from members (covered employees and retirees would continue to receive the same top-of-the-line benefits and go to the same doctors with no additional cost), Buffalo Teachers Federation and Buffalo Council of Supervisors & Administrators have decided to use this chance at something approaching solvency as a chit to get the control board to lift its wage freeze.

In my years as an educator and in public service, I am hard pressed to think of a more cynical maneuver: holding hope for our children over our heads as a contract negotiation tactic. As a matter of fact, the only thing that comes to mind as possibly being more cynical is Mr. Rumore's contention that we ought to pin our hopes instead to a pending lawsuit against the State of New York. Rather than win a painless $27M+, Mr. Rumore suggests we sit and hope to hit the number like some down-on-their-luck tenant praying to hit Lotto to pay this month's rent.

Last night, The Board of Education did their part. To save $27.3M over the next two years, the Board unanimously passed a resolution to let a single health insurance carrier serve all of its employees just as the city and county do.

Let Phil Rumore know, that for the sake of our children, he needs to get on the same page.

Philip Rumore, President
Buffalo Teacher's Federation
271 Porter Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14201
716.881.5400 (office) | 716.881.6678 (fax)

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Academy of Visual & Performing Arts: A bridge between the 2 Buffalos?

2005-02-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

David Torke over at fix buffalo today for tomorrow (a great local blog by the way) has an informative and hopeful post about the $28M renovation of the new home of Buffalo Academy of Visual & Performing Arts. He sees a synergy emerging between The Apollo Theater, The African American Cultural Center, the Erie County Library, the developing Artspace and programs at Canisus College. Torke writes:

The transformative quality of the decision to locate BAVPA here in this little corner of Masten should not be underestimated. It is the long awaited bridge between the two Buffalos. This nascent arts and educational community is the connection between Buffalo's East side and the already well developed arts, educational and retail neighborhoods of the West side. The Ferry Street corridor is the link. Intelligent urban planning is the reason.

WNY Leaders Set Course For Region's Destruction

2005-02-09T09:58:00.000-05:00

While the focus of this blog is education, it's difficult to discuss the state of public education in Buffalo without an appreciation of its context.

If there's any good to come from the ongoing collapse of Erie County Executive Joel Giambra's fiscal house of cards, it's that harsh light will finally shine on the rodentia infesting the halls of government and quasi-public boardrooms of Western New York.

David Staba gets it. In his article published in The Niagara Falls Reporter, he takes no prisoners, takes a lot of names, and strips the paint off the pig that is the political/financial crisis we find ourselves in.

Bravo, Mr. Staba.