Union bites

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / September 1, 2005

What does the National Education Association eat? Every serious school reformer wants to know. And so, as official Washington took its usual late-August snooze, we recruited some friends and investigated. (Sorry, Mike Antonucci, we did not wear trench coats.)

Yes, the NEA Caf?? is open to all, though whether to bulk up the revenue stream or to comply with some heretofore unknown government regulation barring exclusive restaurants isn't known. Union members receive a discount, but anyone can stroll into the hulking headquarters building at 16th and M for breakfast or lunch (Monday through Thursday only during summer months). Prices are reasonable for downtown D.C.

The ambiance in the spacious, well-lit atrium at the center of the building is clean and bright, the tables are well-spaced, the chairs are comfortable enough, and the ficus trees sport cute little light bulbs. A large mobile with an education theme complements the environment; unfortunately, it shares space with a massive "TEAM NEA" poster that looms over the atrium and is less conducive to good eating. So are atrium-facing office windows dotted with anti-Arnold and other political placards.

The restaurant is, at heart, a cafeteria catering to diverse tastes, with the virtues and vices of that genre. On the one hand, there are lots of choices. (If the NEA ran its restaurant by its education policy precepts, everyone would be served the same food - and told where to sit.) On the other hand, much of what's

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Union bites

The Dems go back to school

Michael J. Petrilli / September 1, 2005

The stated purpose of the "National Task Force on Public Education," appointed by President Clinton's former chief-of-staff John Podesta, was to "address the challenges facing our education system in an increasingly complex and interconnected world." Its true purpose was to carve out an education agenda for the Democratic Party. That's no easy task. Five years after George W. Bush scrambled education politics by embracing the "new Dems'" platform of stronger federal power, top-down accountability, and increased spending (and in doing so narrowed the "Who do you trust on education?" gap between the two parties from 27 percent during the Clinton-Dole race in 1996 to just 9 percent in 2000), Democrats are still struggling to regain their footing. Should they reach to the reactionary right like Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who last week sued the federal government on grounds that NCLB is an unfunded mandate and an invasion of states' rights, putting him in the unfavorable position of defending his state's yawning achievement gap? Should they lurch to the loopy left and embrace the arguments of Richard Rothstein, the unions, and others who declare education improvement impossible until poverty is eradicated? Or should they cling to the syncretistic center, with its grand bargain of reform in return for resources?

Thankfully, the task force of policy makers, scholars, and business leaders chose the latter. The objectives expressed in its report, "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer: A Progressive Education Agenda for a Stronger

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The Dems go back to school

Waiver city

September 1, 2005

Upon taking office in February, Secretary Spellings explained her views on NCLB flexibility to Education Week: "There is room to maneuver through the administrative process without waivers. But this 'waive everything' - no. That's a slippery slope." Well, either she has changed her mind or she's discovered she likes slopes or she doesn't consider the law's parental options provisions central to its working. Last week she issued to the Commonwealth of Virginia her first waiver, which allows four districts there to provide underachieving students supplemental services before affording them public school choice. Wednesday, she granted the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) authority to provide tutoring (i.e. "supplemental educational services") directly even though the district has been deemed "in need of improvement." The Virginia decision makes sense; it's hard to find anyone who thinks that low-income children should have to suffer through three years of school failure before they have a shot at free tutoring. But the Chicago call is a disaster; CPS already failed these kids during the school day. Why give the district a chance to fail them again after the bell rings? One of the seminal mistakes in NCLB was Congress's decision to allow districts both to provide "supplemental services" directly and to serve as gate-keeper for other providers. To its credit, the Education Department mitigated that folly by ruling earlier that districts "in need of improvement" lose the option of being direct providers. This Chicago waiver undoes that

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Waiver city

Wishful thinking

September 1, 2005

Don't be fooled, says Hoover Institution senior fellow Terry Moe, by recent headlines; despite popular belief, unions are not in decline.  While private sector unions, which have seen their memberships plummet from 35 percent of the private work force in the 1950s to a mere 8 percent today, may be experiencing problems, public sector unions are thriving.  "School teachers, for example," Moe writes, "are 80 percent unionized."  And, of course, these public sector unions don't always have the public's best interests at heart; in a recent Education Week piece, our own Michael J. Petrilli recounts how the National Education Association successfully drained NCLB's "highly qualified teachers" provision of its usefulness and transformed it from a promising possibility into divisive issue. Reformers can hope for public sectors to implode like their private sector counterparts, but it appears they'll be waiting a long time.

"Packing a Punch," by Terry M. Moe, Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2005 (Subscription required)

"Improving Teacher Quality: Better Luck Next Time," by Michael J. Petrilli, Education Week, August 31, 2005

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Wishful thinking

Working their way to the top

September 1, 2005

Cristo Rey schools are placing low-income students on the corporate ladder. Students who enroll in one of the network's eleven Catholic college-preparatory schools, which combine high academic standards with real-world work experience in corporate America, take on entry-level positions one day each week with a sponsoring company. In return, the school, not the student, receives a paycheck. Those funds are put toward the school's general operating expenses which, in turn, enable it to keep tuition low. At Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, for example, students pay just $2,200 a year in tuition, instead of the $5,000 to $9,000 that most Boston-area Catholic high schools charge. Because Cristo Rey schools accept only children from low-income families, some worry that these students will be tempted to stay in entry-level positions. But, according to the Cristo Rey Network, students from its original (Chicago) school aren't idling on low rungs. The class of 2004 saw 100 percent of its students accepted to at least one college, while overall 82 percent of the school's grads have pursued post-secondary study. Those results are reflected in positive attitudes throughout the Cristo Rey community. One student from Notre Dame High School says: "This school makes you think, 'I can have a future if I just prepare.'"

"When high schools put teens to work," by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science Monitor, August 25, 2005

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Working their way to the top

(Multiple) intelligent design

September 1, 2005

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has great influence on teacher practice. After all, shouldn't teachers be conscious of whether Johnny is spatially, musically, or linguistically intelligent and tailor their instruction accordingly? Well, not quite, according to Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Virginia. "Cognitive science has taught us that children do differ in their abilities with different modalities," such as spatial or linguistic, he writes, "but teaching the child in his best modality doesn't affect the educational achievement." (Italics in original.) The reason, he explains, is that our minds store information in terms of its meaning, for the most part, not as a visual or auditory representation. And because it is meaning that teachers generally aim to impart, teachers need to focus on the modality that best conveys the meaning of a lesson, rather than attempt to tailor their teaching to each student's learning strength. For example, the shape and grandeur of pyramids can best be explained visually, while one might read a sonnet to convey its rhythm, or lift a Civil War pack to understand its weight. But it's pointless for teachers to tailor a single lesson so that Billy learns about these visually, Janet musically, and Tammy kinesthetically. One hopes that teachers are among those who take in the lesson, best learned in this case by reading this short article. (Setting it to music loses something in the translation.)

"Ask

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(Multiple) intelligent design

The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

September 1, 2005

New York Times columnist Michael Winerip seldom gets kudos here but last week he turned in a great profile of an outstanding lifelong teacher. Jean Louise Stellfox was a Shakespeare-quoting, grammar-loving English teacher in the coal-mining town of Shamokin, Pennsylvania, who set high, exacting goals and held all her students to them. Students stayed in touch with her long after leaving school, often to thank Miss Stellfox for the skills and lessons she imparted. To ensure that her legacy and love of teaching lived on, she willed her estate - a surprising $1.5 million - to Dickinson College. It will be used to bring writers to her alma mater, where the Great Poet, Robert Frost, once spoke and unwittingly inspired the young Stellfox to become an English teacher. Winerip writes, "If you're lucky, once in a lifetime you have a teacher like Jean Louise Stellfox." It's the only sad line in this otherwise uplifting piece, because luck has everything to do with whether students are assigned to a Miss Stellfox, or someone far less qualified.

"Careful Plan Keeps an English Teacher's Devotion Alive," by Michael Winerip, New York Times, August 24, 2005, (subscription required)

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The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

Providing Quality Choice Options in Education

September 1, 2005

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Center for School Change August 2005

The states' slow progress in meeting No Child Left Behind demands has most governors looking for ways to increase how quickly and effectively school districts change. How's this for a spark? Providing Quality Choice Options in Education, authored by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Joe Nathan's Center for School Change, offers up school choice as a solution. The policy prescriptions that the NGA presents aren't novel but they're sound - and good to see in an NGA report. Details aren't spelled out, and the report favors leaving specific policies for individual states to decide. But it does construct a school choice framework, including: disbursing per-pupil funding equally and offering start-up resources for school providers; funding transportation for choice schools; and encouraging and strengthening charter laws. The report also wisely notes that schools of choice must be held to account for their results.  Find it at http://preview.nga.org/Files/pdf/EDUCATIONCHOICE.PDF.

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Providing Quality Choice Options in Education

States Try Harder, But Gaps Persist: High School Exit Exams 2005

September 1, 2005

Center on Education Policy
August 2005

University professors and myriad employers across the nation have repeatedly voiced the same complaint - the majority of U.S. high school graduates lack the skills necessary to succeed in either the collegiate or professional world. High school exit examinations, instituted in large part to address this problem, are now a requirement in 26 states. In 19 of them, students must register a passing score to receive a diploma. In its fourth annual report dissecting exit examination trends in all but one of these states, the Center on Education Policy finds mostly depressing results. The percentage of students passing exit exams on their first try has stagnated, and large gaps persist between minority students, special education students, and English-language learners, and the rest of their classmates. To get greater traction, states are starting to invest both time and money to develop more support for students preparing for the exams. In some states, more dollars have been funneled to remediation programs for struggling students, and in others, curricula have been redefined so higher-level material is introduced in earlier grades. Unfortunately, not all reforms reflect this sound approach, and some seem regressive. Arizona, for example, has instituted the self-defeating practice of using a student's good grades to make up for his or her low exit exam scores. (If grades represented meaningful standards, we wouldn't need statewide exams.) Other states have simply downgraded their exit exam passing requirements altogether.

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States Try Harder, But Gaps Persist: High School Exit Exams 2005