Toward smarter education philanthropy

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 2, 2002

The New York Times is gaga once again over America's "new philanthropists" and the giant "wealth transfer" that is said to be transforming American philanthropy. Says a recently retired investor named Michael Zaleski, "Wealth has been spread across a much greater percentage of society, so there are a lot more people, like me and my family, who can afford to be generous." Boston College philanthropy analyst Paul G. Schervish estimates that close to $7 trillion new dollars may be directed into charitable giving over the next sixteen years. He avers that today's philanthropists are more demanding-and far more involved in their giving-than yesterday's individual donors and foundations. The phrase "venture philanthropy" gets tossed around almost as often as "venture capitalism."

What does this mean for education reform? The implications could be far-reaching. We've already seen some stellar examples, people like Teddy Forstmann, John Walton, Eli Broad, Don and Doris Fisher and John Doerr, whose astute and courageous giving is helping transform the education landscape and reform debates. We also see new foundations, such as the massive Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, seeking (with mixed success) to chart promising courses in education.

Yet not all the news is good. New givers can be as misguided as old. Good money can be thrown after bad. Silly fads and passing fancies can bedazzle and seduce inexperienced donors (and their earnest but often na??ve staffers). Computers, field trips and after-school programs can absorb billions of well-meaning

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Toward smarter education philanthropy

How other countries use choice to benefit learning disabled students

May 2, 2002

Voucher opponents argue that allowing some children to exit public schools for private schools will burden the public system with the most difficult to educate children, who are presumed to be left behind by school choice. However, the experience of other countries that have adopted school choice as part of their national education policy reveals that, far from creating ghettos of costly and tough children, well-designed parental choice policies can actually produce better outcomes for learning disabled children (at least when it comes to their inclusion in mainstream education settings), according to an article by Lewis Andrews in the current issue of Policy Review. In Denmark, which has a long history of having resources follow special needs children to schools approved by their parents, only a tiny percentage of learning disabled students are schooled in specialized institutions. In the Netherlands, where children who require additional services for serious learning disabilities are awarded a personal budget that their parents can spend at either a special or a mainstream school, inclusion of learning disabled children is high and the policy is widely supported. Getting the details of a choice policy right is crucial, however. In Sweden, where parental choice exists for all but disabled youngsters, who are subject to a centrally managed system, special-needs students are primarily educated in separate institutions and the percentage of children classified as needing special ed services is high. In the United Kingdom, where parental choice is

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How other countries use choice to benefit learning disabled students

States and feds move to implement new testing requirements

May 2, 2002

As federal officials gear up to implement the No Child Left Behind Act, state policymakers are all over the map in their plans for addressing the requirements of that complex new law. In Vermont, Governor Howard Dean said he will ask state officials to consider rejecting federal education funds to avoid having to meet the new federal testing requirements. Dean, who is considering a run for the presidency in 2004, says that it will be extremely expensive for the state to rebuild its testing system, but analysts say that Dean's assessments of the cost of new tests and of the amount of federal Title I aid that Vermont would lose if it spurned federal funds are shaky. Maryland officials announced that they would abandon the MSPAP, the state's performance-based testing program, which has long been a favorite of testing experts despite serious questions about its reliability and usefulness. The state's test does not meet the requirements of the new federal law because it does not yield results for individual students nor are its results available by the beginning of the next school year. In Indiana, the state superintendent unveiled a new online exam featuring essays and open-ended questions scored by a computer. In New Jersey, the governor has endorsed a plan to create a new system of standardized tests and more flexible student evaluations. Will the U.S. Department of Education be able to herd these cats? A long article in

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States and feds move to implement new testing requirements

Choice with Equity

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 2, 2002

Another new Koret Task Force volume from Hoover, this one is edited by Paul Hill, runs 222 pages and, in seven chapters, closely examines the issue of children alleged to be "left behind" by school-choice programs. The authors suggest a number of policies and design principles to mitigate social-equity harm from choice programs, while showing that such programs confer the greatest benefit on the neediest youngsters and families-and arguing that they (the choice programs) should be judged in relation to the real world alternatives available to such children, not against idealized standards. After Hill's introduction come a chapter on how to assess choice programs (by Hill and Kacey Guin); one setting forth the evidence from experimental studies in New York, Washington and Dayton (by Paul Peterson, David Campbell and Martin West); one offering a "supply-side view of student selectivity" (John Chubb); one on the "quality of peers" left in traditional public schools (the tireless Eric Hanushek); a detailed review of the evidence of the effects of choice on students in conventional public schools (the prolific Caroline Hoxby); and a concluding essay on "the structure of school choice" by Terry Moe. The ISBN is 0817938923. This volume, too, can be obtained for $15 plus $4 shipping fee by calling 800-935-2882 or visiting http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/homepage/books/choice.html.

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Choice with Equity

MegaSkills

Katherine Somerville / May 2, 2002

And now for something completely different, not a book or report but a website. Surf to the MegaSkills website to learn about this education training program, developed in 1972 by Dorothy Rich, a champion of parental involvement in education and founder and president of the Home and School Institute. Focusing on primary and secondary education, MegaSkills stresses what Rich terms the "inner engines of learning." She has identified eleven of these, including initiative, effort, caring and teamwork. Although the website's main purpose is to promote the MegaSkills program, it's not a hard sell. You'll find a thorough explanation of the program, testimonials from parents, teachers and employers, and some school-level evaluations of the program's success. Prospective buyers can even access sample materials and tips for use and implementation. The website is a good resource for educators and parents seeking to supplement traditional reading, math, and science lessons with habits and traits that are valuable for young and old alike. Learn more at www.megaskillshsi.org.

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MegaSkills

School Accountability

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 2, 2002

edited by Williamson Evers and Herbert Walberg
2002

Edited by Williamson Evers and Herbert Walberg, this new Hoover Institution book is a product of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. In 198 pages and 6 chapters (plus an editors' introduction) it furnishes a basic guide to results-based education accountability. Diane Ravitch offers important historical context for today's testing and accountability reforms. I try to delineate the several different forms of accountability in people's minds today and suggest a resolution among them. Caroline Hoxby explores the (modest) price tag of test-based accountability and judges it a bargain. Eric Hanushek and Margaret Raymond offer a general state-policy framework and examine some key issues that lawmakers must resolve. Lance Izumi and Bill Evers offer case studies of Florida, Texas and California. And Herb Walberg suggests a dozen "design principles" for effective accountability systems. The ISBN is 0817938826. To learn more, order your very own copy (for $15 plus $4 shipping fee) by dialing 800-935-2882 or surfing to http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/homepage/books/accountability.html.

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School Accountability

School Choice or Best Systems: What Improves Education?

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 2, 2002

edited by Margaret C. Wang and Herbert J. Walberg
2002

The endlessly productive Herbert J. Walberg and the late Margaret C. Wang edited this 400-page volume, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Arising from a Wingspread conference, it offers four chapters on school choice programs (by Walberg and Joseph Bast, Bruno Manno, Terry Moe and Paul Peterson) and six on systemic reform (which the editors prefer to term "best systems"), these being by Kenneth Wong, Margaret Wang and JoAnn Manning, Diana Lam, Education Secretary (then Houston superintendent) Rod Paige and Susan Sclafani, John Bishop and Ferran Mane, and James Guthrie. The editors do their level best (in an epilogue) to distill commonalities and shared lessons from both reform strategies, but their more useful contribution is to explain how and why the two approaches are "reconcilable and, in fact, being reconciled in policy and practice," a proposition I also advanced in last week's Education Gadfly (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=60#864). The ISBN is 0805834877 and you can buy a paperback copy for $32.50 (or a hard cover for a lot more) from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 10 Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, NJ 07439. Surf to www.erlbaum.com/Books/searchintro/BookDetailscvr.cfm?ISBN=0-8058-3487-7. Or phone (800) 926-6579 or e-mail orders@erlbaum.com.

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School Choice or Best Systems: What Improves Education?

The Great Curriculum Debate: How Should We Teach Reading and Math?

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / May 2, 2002

edited by Tom Loveless
2002

Tom Loveless edited this fine new Brookings collection of 14 chapters addressing the "reading and math wars." Based on a 1999 Harvard conference, it does an exemplary job both of adumbrating the views of major contenders in each of those "wars" and of suggesting how and why the conflicts arose and what might bring an end to them. They're not identical disputes, however, as Loveless points out in a helpful introduction. The math wars are mainly about content, the reading fights about pedagogy. He notes that, by and large during the 1990's, the "progressive" approach prevailed in math while the "traditionalists" were dominant in reading. And he makes this astute observation: "[T]he side in political ascendancy [in either field] is prone to declare that a balanced approach has been achieved. Thus critics of NCTM and the advocates of whole language were less likely to be enthralled with the balanced approaches touted by policymakers at the end of the decade." Anybody wondering "what the heck is going on in reading and math" will come away from this 360-page volume considerably enlightened if not necessarily heartened. The ISBN is 0815753098. You can learn more, and order a copy, by surfing to http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/press/books/curriculum_debate.htm.

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The Great Curriculum Debate: How Should We Teach Reading and Math?

What's Public About Charter Schools? Lessons Learned about Choice and Accountability

May 2, 2002

Gary Miron and Christopher Nelson
2002

Every criticism that has ever been leveled against charter schools can be found in this book. There would be nothing shocking about this if it weren't that Messrs. Miron and Nelson are researchers at the Western Michigan University's Evaluation Center, which is viewed by many as an impartial judge of charter schools and often signed on to evaluate them, in Michigan and beyond. What's Public About Charter Schools claims to "provide an in-depth examination of the charter concept as it has been operationalized in one of the nation's most populous states." Indeed it provides some useful analysis of how charter schools have worked in Michigan since 1993, but within each chapter the reader will also discover a subtle attack on charter schools. Some of these criticisms are fair, while others seem based more on bias or preference than an objective reading of the facts. For example, the authors appear upset that individual charter schools do not serve the needs of every type of young person a community might produce. They seem to equate public education with the concept of the large "comprehensive school" that could theoretically meet the needs of every kid in town-from those wanting honors courses to those content with taking vocational courses. No doubt such schools provide an economy of scale, yet it's common knowledge today that large-scale learning factories ill-serve far too many young people who slip through the cracks. In working

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What's Public About Charter Schools? Lessons Learned about Choice and Accountability