“If the American Dream includes sending your kids to college, what is America saying to these parents?”
— James T. Meeks, Baptist Minister, and voucher advocate

“Preaching Choice in Obama’s Hometown,” Wall Street Journal

3
Number of tenured teachers in New York City, out of 55,000, that the Department of Education has been able to fire for incompetence over the past 2 years.

“Progress Slow in City Goal to Fire Bad Teachers,” New York Times

One of the US Department of Education’s unsung heroes is its Policy and Program Studies Service, which produces all sorts of interesting and unbiased evaluations and reports. Too few people know about the office’s publications (I hope Secretary Duncan’s team is working on increasing PPSS’s public profile), which are often very valuable.

One recent report, Use of Education Data at the Local Level, deserves attention. Looking past states’ improved collection and dissemination of data in the NCLB era, the report investigates how districts and schools are using different types of information to improve student learning. Fascinating findings include that districts often have a number of different data systems that aren’t yet integrated, that teachers are still often unable to use data to improve classroom instruction, that the timing of assessment administration can improve teacher collaboration, and that timely interim assessment results will increase teacher data use.

To see how one big urban district is thinking about these issues, check out this article on Chicago. The central office, led by the new schools CEO Ron Huberman, is wrestling with the very issues raised by the report.  (More info on Huberman’s work on this front here.)

I’ve always been somewhat luke-warm on the long-term prospects of this type of data use. I’ve been of the mind that most big urban school districts are somewhere between an F and a D+ and that even the best data use would improve a system a letter grade at the most. The only way to get meaningful, sustainable change, I’ve argued, is to fundamentally alter the district structure and overhaul human capital initiatives.

But these data efforts have me more encouraged than I’ve been. I still believe those systemic changes are indispensable, but while we’re working on those, improving how we collect, analyze, and operationalize student performance information on the ground–particularly if you are a classroom teacher or professional development manager–is an important piece of the puzzle today.

–Andy Smarick

When a Chicago study came out last year, reporting that students who were displaced by Ren10 school closures didn’t learn more if they were reassigned to similarly low performing schools, there was mega hand-wringing and lots of “I-told-you-sos” from opponents of closures. Forget that the study showed that displaced students did learn more when reassigned to higher performing schools or that a Denver analysis showed that closures there were improving student learning, closure opponents thought they had won the battle.

Enter some thoughtful administration. Rather than throwing away the closure option, Chicago schools CEO Ron Huberman learned from previous efforts and adjusted the strategy. Now, all kids displaced by closures will have access to higher performing options.

Not brain surgery for sure, but certainly a positive response to evidence and a laudable commitment to figuring out how to make the portfolio strategy work.

Quotable:

“Chicago is nowhere near the head of the pack in urban school improvement, even though Duncan often cites the successes of his tenure as he crusades to fix public education.”
-Nick Anderson, Washington Post Staff Writer

“Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s legacy as Chicago schools chief questioned,” Washington Post

Notable:

$297 million:
Dollars Indiana is cutting out of their education budget, effective immediately.

“Indiana Slashes $297 Million From K-12 Schools,” The Evening News and the Tribune (IN) (subscription required)

Quotable:

“[Special Ed parents] are not a group that needs the district to wake up one day and decide that the time is right for inclusion, with experts guiding the process down a path of destruction of the one place we have found where our kids are receiving what they need.”
-Barry Minerof, Chicago parent

“Parents slam plan to close special ed school,” Chicago Sun Times

Notable:

63:
Percentage of states, according to a Government Accountability Office survey of a representative sample, who plan to use 50% of their school stimulus money to save jobs.

“Study: Schools face shortfalls after stimulus ends,” Associated Press

Quotable:

“The class teaches values that America doesn’t really hold that much anymore.  I’ve learned to think about cowboy values when tough things come my way.”
- Trevor Unruh, student at Cherry Creek High School, which offers courses based on “Cowboy Ethics”

The Denver Post: Old West lessons change students’ lives

Notable:

25%:
Percentage of ninth-grade students diagnosed with emotional disturbances who graduate from Chicago Public Schools five years later.  Overall, 70 percent of students without identified disabilities and 50 percent of special-needs students graduate from CPS five years later.

Chicago Tribune: Disabled students: Report links high absences to poor academic performance in Chicago public high schools

Quotable:

“There’s a history of violence associated with moving kids from one area to another.  You have a trail of blood and tears ever since they launched (Renaissance 2010).” – Tio Hardiman, director of CeaseFire Illinois

“School closings may be root of Chicago teen deaths“

Notable:

$60 Million:
Cost of a new Chicago program targeting 10,000 algorithmically selected Chicago students deemed to be most at risk to be involved (as victim or perpetrator) with violence.  The program will offer various forms of extra support.  A previous proposal cost $30 million and targeted 1200 students.

“Focus in Chicago: Students at Risk of Violence“

Quotable

“It was one area [where] we didn’t do enough and failed our children. I give myself an ‘F’ on that one. As a city, as a state, as a country, we need to protect our children and have them be safe.” –Arne Duncan, on the violence in Chicago’s public schools.

Chi. Sun Times: Duncan gives us all an ‘F’ on protecting kids

Notable

2/3 : The proportion of Americans that cannot name the three branches of government, according to recently retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. He is speaking up about what he considers the lackluster civic education in America.

Ed. Week: The School Law Blog: Souter: Civics Education Must Be Improved

Quotable

“We used to buy art supplies…now we buy the art teacher.” –Bill Williams, executive director of the Washington state PTA, on how budget cuts have made parent contributions fill in budget shortfalls.

AP: Parents Pass the Hat to Make Up for School Cuts

Notable

3 : The number of Chicago International Charter School campuses, out of 12, that have been unionized in the last month.

NYT: As Charter Schools Unionize, Many Debate Effect

With the news that President Obama has nominated Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana to be the Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, we have reached a milestone of sorts. All of the major k-12 education positions have been filled. And on the whole, it’s a talented lot, generally reform-oriented, and diverse.

But there’s one box that Obama and his talent scouts failed to check: There isn’t a single state superintendent among the bunch. As far as I know (and tell me if I’m wrong), there’s nobody on his team who has even ever worked for a state department of education.

That’s pretty remarkable, significant, and, I think, foolhardy. To be clear, I share no particular love for state education agencies. These classic bureaucracies are easy to hate. But there’s no getting around the fact that if you work for the federal government and want to influence local school districts, there’s no getting around the states.

Well, almost no getting around them. It’s true that the feds sometimes make grants directly to local school districts, and no doubt Arne & Company will do so through its slush fund innovation fund. But for the big bucks, including Title I, special education, the bulk of the stimulus dollars, and more, the states are indispensable. They apply for the grants (or not! ), they shuffle the money to the districts, they provide technical assistance, they monitor what’s happening on the ground. And if they are not on board with Uncle Sam’s policies, they can pretty well thwart the whole thing.

Consider how surprised Team Obama seems to be that only 13 states have applied for stimulus funds so far. Maybe if they had an state education agency (SEA) person on their team they’d know that the state agencies are hemorrhaging staff right now, thanks to state budget cuts, which makes even relatively simple tasks like this one more difficult.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Arne wouldn’t hire a state supe for a top job. As Chicago’s superintendent, he probably hated the Illinois Department of Education , just like most urban leaders hate dealing with meddlesome (and sometimes incompetent) state leaders. Call this the local superintendents’ revenge. But eventually, I suspect, he’ll discover that he needs the SEA perspective nonetheless. And “chief state school officers,” he’ll come calling for one of you.

Photo credit: steve0_f from Flickr