The Education Gadfly
A Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
December 4, 2008, Volume 8, Number 46
This week on The Education Gadfly Show Podcast: How do you know she's a witch?
Contents
Guest Editorial
Recommended Reading
Flypaper's Finest (The best from Flypaper, Fordham's blog)
The Education Gadfly Show Podcast
Short Reviews
- Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools
- Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?
From Our Readers
Announcements
- Clash of the former deputy secretaries!
- AEI mimics CATO
- Pioneering job opening
- A Rhee-ly sweet internship
Guest Editorial
?21st century skills? shenanigans in the Bay State
Last spring, Paul Reville, who was then chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and is now the Commonwealth's Secretary of Education, created the 21st Century Skills Task Force. Its charge seemed reasonable at first glance--to review state curriculum frameworks and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), the high-stakes tests students are required to pass to earn a high school diploma, and update them to include additional skills needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world. According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these futuristic skills include creativity, media savvy, cultural competence, problem solving, and improved teamwork.
But now that the task force has released its recommendations, it's clear that its real goal is to compromise the Bay State's nationally lauded standards and tests. That would be an enormous mistake.
Accolades for Massachusetts's current standards-and-testing program have come from all directions. Its curriculum frameworks have been praised by both the American Federation of Teachers and the Fordham Foundation; Fordham and the U.S. Department of Education have recognized its proficiency standards as being among the nation's most rigorous. Washington, D.C. recently adopted MCAS and the Commonwealth's curriculum frameworks as models.
Noted educator E.D. Hirsch lauded the Massachusetts model earlier this year in a Washington Post op-ed. "Consider the eighth grade NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] results from Massachusetts, which are a stunning exception to the nationwide pattern of stagnation and decline," he wrote. "That is because Massachusetts decided...students (and teachers) should learn explicit, substantive things about history, science and literature, and that students should be tested on such knowledge."
Unfortunately, the 21st Century Skills Task Force's recommendations would move Massachusetts away from the sensible reforms Hirsch touted. While Hirsch celebrates clearly articulated goals and objective assessments to promote excellence and accountability, the task force, for example, wants to use the U.S. History test to try out project-based assessments that require students to demonstrate skills like "global awareness." This would crowd out more central topics like the founding documents or causes of the Civil War.
The track record of these so-called complementary assessments is poor, because they are costly and cumbersome, and their grading is inherently subjective. Introducing such subjectivity would have a corrosive effect on the Commonwealth's efforts to ensure that all students, regardless of where they live, have access to academic content that is the foundation for economic success and exercising the rights of citizenship.
Subjectivity is also expensive. A 2003 General Accounting Office study found that it cost 60 cents per test to score North Carolina's multiple-choice assessment, while scoring multi-faceted college work and readiness assessments would run about $40 each.
Scoring MCAS cost $7 per test, suggesting that Massachusetts has achieved an appropriate balance that includes written answers that measure reading, writing, and problem solving. The correlation between MCAS scores and college performance is further proof of the assessments' quality.
But the task force report disagrees. It claims that, "Massachusetts can learn from the experience of West Virginia" when it comes to integrating 21st century skills into the curriculum. In 2005, Massachusetts became the only state to place first in every category on the NAEP test, known as the nation's report card. The next time the test was administered, the Commonwealth's students did it again. West Virginia's NAEP scores are all below the national average.
The report also calls on MassPartners--a group made up of the teachers unions, school committees, and superintendents that have fought education reform for 15 years--to define how to integrate 21st century skills in our schools. The task force report declares, "Doing this right will require a shift in our curricular priorities." They're right. It would require a shift--from raising student achievement to a focus on soft skills that are difficult to measure.
We've been down this road before. Immediately following the 1993 enactment of the landmark state education reform bill that created MCAS, progress on implementation was slow. In 1995, initial drafts of the state's English language arts curriculum frameworks included Ebonics and derogatory language about "so-called standard English."
By 1996, such silliness led a Republican governor and Democratic legislature to clean house, removing state board of education members who valued unending process and political correctness over student achievement. It was only then that the Commonwealth started on its path to becoming a national model.
We are again at a crossroads in the Bay State. We can't ask students to exhibit hard-to-measure 21st century skills if they haven't mastered the English, math, science, and history upon which the skills are based. We hope policymakers will make the right choice and resist the temptation to substitute vague, short-term skills for enduring academic content. Choosing the other path would effectively close the book on education reform in Massachusetts.
Charles Chieppo is a senior fellow at, and Jamie Gass directs, the Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts public policy think tank.
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Recommended Reading
A piece of the pie
Seems wishful thinking is Miami-Dade schools' chief Alberto Carvalho's forte. His latest? Bailout the public school system. With myriad companies going hat-in-hand to the feds, Carvalho thinks schools should be given a slice of the bailout pie, too. Florida is facing a potential $1.4 billion tax shortfall, which Carvalho believes could translate into a $65 million cut for the Miami-Dade school system. The district has already trimmed $289 million from its $5.5 billion budget. Times are certainly arduous; both public and private institutions--including those in the Sunshine State--are feeling the pinch. Unfortunately, it's Carvalho who needs to be pinched--to wake him out of this quixotic (and incorrect) grasp of economics. We'll let University of Miami economics professor Michael Connelly clarify: public schools have "already been bailed out because they are public. They don't need...another bailout. They aren't private." Well put, Mr. Connelly. But he's not stopping there. "If the Florida school system goes down the drain, it will make no difference to the U.S. economy," Connelly explains. "If we have AIG or Citicorp fail, they we have a systemic failure in our financial system." Yikes. We're not sure we'd go that far, but Carvalho: Take note. These cockamamie schemes are just not cutting it.
"Miami-Dade schools chief Alberto Carvalho: Schools deserve bailout, too," by Kathleen McGrory, Miami Dade Herald, November 25, 2008
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Honestly disturbing
Disturbing news from our nation's classrooms: cheating is running rampant. A recent study from the Josephson Institute found that in the past year a whopping 64 percent of high school students have cheated on a test--and 38 percent had done it more than once. The news gets worse. Thirty-six percent admitted to using the internet to plagiarize an assignment while 30 percent had stolen from a store. A renaissance of the Artful Dodger? But while the adults may be squirming, students themselves are losing no sleep over their perfidious ways. Ninety-three percent reported they were "satisfied with their personal ethics and character" and 77 percent claimed they were "better than most people [they knew]" at doing "what is right." Sounds like we need to solve this dishonesty, and fast. Institute president Michael Josephson weighs in: "What we need to learn from these survey results is that our moral infrastructure is unsound and in serious need of repair. This is not a time to lament and whine but to take thoughtful, positive actions." Perhaps a hefty dose of the paternalism David Whitman found in six "No Excuses" schools is the cure for this malady.
"Survey Finds Growing Deceit Among Teens," by David Crary, Associated Press, December 1, 2008
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Sink or swim
The party's over for members of New York City's teacher reserve pool. Chancellor Joel Klein and UFT President Randi Weingarten have reached a rather sensible accord that sounds likely to provide some long awaited answers to this question: Why are so many teachers in the reserve pool unable to land classroom jobs? Klein and Co. believe it's usually because nobody wants ‘em and most likely for good reason. Weingarten disagrees; nobody wants them, she insists, because the city now charges school budgets for teachers' salaries, and thus principals have incentives to skip over more experienced, expensive instructors for their younger, less expensive peers. It became apparent last spring, however, that teachers in the pool--who receive full pay and benefits--could remain in this cushy fully paid limbo indefinitely and the city was spending big bucks as a result. The solution gives some to both sides. Klein will encourage schools to hire reserve teachers via district policy and, more importantly, financial incentives. Score for the union. But Klein has also smartly maintained principal hiring autonomy; principals will not be forced to hire reserve teachers and those hired after November 1 will be on probation for the remainder of the year. An inferior performance can land them back in the pool come June. One thing's for sure: teachers who are still swimming in limbo come next year really do deserve the pink slip.
"A plan to hire the best teachers," Editorial, New York Times, November 27, 2008
"Finding Jobs for Teachers Already on City's Payroll," by Jennifer Medina, New York Times, November 18, 2008
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Pilloried pilgrims
Thanksgiving meals don't often deteriorate into altercations requiring police intervention--unless you're the parent of a kindergartner in Claremont, CA, that is. For four decades, tots from two schools in this typically peaceful town have taken turns dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans (OK, we'll say it: Indians) and hosting a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast. But not this year. Out: handmade paper pilgrim hats, bonnets, fringed vests, and Native American headdresses. In: protests outside Condit Elementary School, where parents objected to the political incorrectness and apparent unsuitability of said dress-up festivities. "It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja wrote to her daughter's teacher upon learning of the not-entirely-historically-accurate apparel requirements. Raheja, whose mother is Seneca, elaborates: "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history." Yowzers. Police separated the arguing parents while kindergartners--some of whom were dressed up anyway--played in the grass. "The kids were oblivious," said Lt. Dennis Smith of the Claremont police department, "as they should be." And thank goodness for that.
"Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes," by Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2008
"Claremont school Thanksgiving costumes create a commotion," by Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2008
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Flypaper's Finest (The best from Flypaper, Fordham's blog)
Some mates are seeing red
Amy Fagan
Teachers in Australia are being told to avoid using red pens to mark their students' work, because the color can be seen as aggressive. Huh? I had to re-read that one, just to make sure I understood. Apparently the advice--given out to about 29 schools as part of a Queensland Health kit--has caused quite the brouhaha. Opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle called it a "kooky, loony, loopy, Left policy." And Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations President Margaret Black made an impassioned plea to scrap it. "We're calling for our children to grow up normally, including their work being marked with a red pen," she said...Read it here.
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Rhee?s moment in TIME
Mike Petrilli
It's hard not to root for Michelle Rhee, the butt-kicking, straight-talking, no-nonsense Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. (Consider this piece of straight talk, from a related article on the incoming Administration, regarding her reluctance to vote for Obama: "It was a very hard decision. I'm somewhat terrified of what the Democrats are going to do on education.") So I can't help but say hooray for her making the cover of TIME this week...Read it here.
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The Education Gadfly Show Podcast
How do you know she?s a witch?
This week, we welcome guest co-host (and Fordham Insider) Dave DeSchryver to the show. He and Mike discuss the state of the Obama domestic policy transition, Michelle Rhee's appearance in Time, and Lou Gerstner's reform proposals. Then, Amber tells us about what it takes to recognize an effective teacher and Rate That Reform talks economy. Click here to listen through our website and peruse past editions. To download the show as an mp3 to your computer, click here (no iPod required--this link will play through any music software on your computer, including Windows Media Player or RealPlayer).
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Short Reviews
Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools
Center on Reinventing Public Education, School Finance Redesign Project
Paul T. Hill, Marguerite Roza, and James Harvey
December 2008
This handy little report represents the culmination of a six-year, $6 million effort--the School Finance Redesign Project--designed to address one simple, but crucial, question: "How can states and localities spend money more effectively to promote high achievement for all students?" That question spawned 30 studies from more than 40 scholars, the sum of whose work is summarized in this report, and which identifies a handful of pressing problems and suggests four recommendations. On the problem front, the offenders are well known. For example, despite huge increases in funding in recent decades, student achievement has improved only marginally (if at all). And there are tremendous inequities on various levels--between states, district, schools, and even classrooms. For instance, one study found that the actual per pupil spending of a typical "core" class (e.g. math or English) was 20 percent less than a "non-core," or elective, class--due to differences in class size, teacher salaries, and teacher workloads. In another study, Roza, Davis, and Guinn found that spending patterns of principals were determined at least in part by level of autonomy. With greater control, principals "would often make different choices," such as hiring more teachers but at lower salaries. And of course multiple studies showed the funding inequities across states and between low and high poverty schools--gaps that are (at the state level) unfortunately correlated with achievement. The four recommended solutions are sensible: fund schools based on student counts; link data on funding and results; encourage innovation; and hold schools and districts accountable for student learning. In fact, these are consistent with the principles of a weighted student funding system advocated by Fordham in Fund the Child; they would do much to right the many wrongs caused by today's antiquated, inequitable, and overly complex funding systems. Of course, actually implementing such changes is far from simple, but reformers interested in a quick outline of the problems and of the way forward should check out this work.
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Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?
Jonah Rockoff, Brian Jacob, Thomas Kane, and Douglas Staiger
National Bureau of Economic Research
November 2008
Wouldn't it be swell if during the hiring process districts had better tools with which to identify the most promising teacher candidates? This technical study by a quartet of research heavy-hitters gets us one step closer to that administrator's dream. It examines whether various lesser studied teacher characteristics (versus the traditional ones like graduate education and certification) predict teacher effectiveness. Specifically, it examines content knowledge, cognitive ability, personality traits (like conscientiousness and agreeableness), feelings of self-efficacy, and scores on a teacher pre-screening evaluation, which measured level of organization and planning, among other areas. The study included a survey sample, which included roughly 400 new (in 2006-07) elementary and middle school math teachers in New York City, and a student achievement sample, which included most of the survey sample plus all students and teachers in grades 4-8 in New York City (approximately 13,000 classrooms in 988 schools). Besides survey and achievement data, researchers also collected administrative data like retention and teacher absences. Out of this, a handful of variables were found to have statistically significant relationships with student and teacher outcomes (for instance, teachers' math content knowledge was strongly related to students' math achievement--no surprise there). The bigger story, however, is that when all of these variables were combined into just two batches--cognitive skills (like SAT scores and math knowledge) and non-cognitive skills (like personal efficacy and extravert tendencies)--an increase in either of them was associated with statistically significant (though modest) increases in math achievement. Also, in a pleasant surprise, teachers with stronger cognitive skills were found to be more likely to return to teaching in New York City the next year. The takeaway here? Thanks to this sort of research, school districts can start to make smarter hiring decisions based on more nuanced predictors of teacher effectiveness. You can find the study (and its well-reasoned limitations) for a small fee here.
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From Our Readers
Recommended reading from CGCS
To the Editor:
Eric Osberg rightly noted in his excellent Education Gadfly editorial ("A byte at the apple," November 20, 2008) that--
Just as companies use "balanced scorecards" and customer satisfaction surveys to track their organizational performance beyond the bottom line, schools must look far beyond achievement data. This will allow them to evaluate such basic necessities as lighted classrooms, efficient bus routes, safe hallways and classrooms, and teacher hiring practices. In other words, schools need "measurement for performance" as well as "measurement of performance," in order to be well-run enterprises that enable rather than hinder effective teachers and dynamic classrooms.
I thought you might be interested in a very exciting effort by the Council of the Great City Schools and its members to develop exactly the kinds of indicators you were advocating. The Council has produced an extensive array of "key performance indicators" in such areas as transportation, food services, maintenance and operations, procurement, safety and security, finances, information technology, and human resources.
The project has come up with over 100 indicators so far; collected comparable data from the nation's largest urban school systems on these critical functions; and tracked them over the last three years. You can find data from big city schools, for instance, on such items as budget variations, audit findings, security incidents, highly qualified teachers, custodial workloads, per pupil transportation rates, and technology costs. I don't know of any comparable project in either education or municipal government that has gotten as far as this one. Moreover, we are automating the system so urban school districts can see how differing practices affect their standing compared with other cities; developing "standards" for each district to shoot for; and are writing case studies on why some districts seem to show consistently positive indicators. The work hasn't gotten much press attention, but the project is "on fire" in the urban districts as everyone is trying to squeeze out every efficiency in our operations.
You can read more about this effort in a fascinating 260-page report, "Managing for Results," here.
Michael Casserly
Executive Director
Council of the Great City Schools
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NCLB?s graduation rate regulations are flexible
Editor's Note: The following letter is in response to the Recommended Reading,"Measures of success," and podcast segment from the November 13, 2008 edition of the Education Gadfly.
To the Editor:
We want to make sure that Education Gadfly readers (and Gadfly Show podcast listeners) understand that the new NCLB regulations that Secretary Spellings issued on October 28, 2008, recognize that some students need more than four years to graduate. The new regulations permit states to calculate an extended-year rate or rates (for example, a five-year or six-year rate) in addition to a four-year rate for reporting and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) determinations. If a state chooses to use an extended-year rate or rates in AYP determinations, it must be reported separately from the four-year rate. In this way, schools are given credit for graduating students with a regular high school diploma, even if it takes more than four years.
We believe that establishing a uniform and more accurate measure of calculating a graduation rate that is comparable across states is a critical and essential step forward in improving high school accountability. The final regulations reflect a consensus of governors from all 50 states, who in 2005 agreed to adopt a uniform, more accurate graduation rate. Educators, parents, and policy makers will be able to compare how students of every race, background, and income level are performing. While better and more data alone will not increase graduation rates, these data will provide states, districts, and schools with critical information that is necessary for understanding the reasons for low graduation rates and for designing better programs and services to help students graduate.
We appreciate the interest of your readers and listeners in the graduation rate regulation, and want to call their attention to a summary of the new graduation rate provisions, which can be found here.
Additional information on the entire regulation package, including fact sheets, summaries, and the final regulatory language, is available here.
Andy Smarick
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development
U.S. Department of Education
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Announcements
Clash of the former deputy secretaries!
It's almost here--the second installment in our Great Debate series. This encounter will take place on Thursday, December 11 and treat the topic: "Resolved: America Needs a ‘Broader, Bolder' Education Reform Strategy." Featured speakers include Peter Edelman, (assistant secretary of HHS under Clinton), Mike Smith (deputy secretary of education under Clinton), Doug Besharov (Social Welfare Studies Scholar, AEI), and Gene Hickok (deputy secretary of education under George W. Bush). The fun begins at 4:30 pm and RVSPs can be sent to Christina Hentges at rsvp@edexcellence.net.
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AEI mimics CATO
Our favorite all-purpose think tank will host "The Next Frontier in School Choice: Tuition Tax Credits?" on December 15 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. This discussion will feature Kevin Welner (University of Colorado at Boulder), Kevin Chavous (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP), Adam Schaeffer (Cato), and Sheila Simmons (NEA). The one and only Rick Hess will moderate. You can find more information and RSVP here.
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Pioneering job opening
Education Pioneers seeks a dynamic Program Director to lead the implementation of the DC Metro Area Fellows Program. The Program Director serves as the primary agent to implement a powerful and transformational summer experience for the local cohort of Fellows, to support Partner organizations in meeting their talent needs, and to provide support and programming for locally based Alumni throughout the year. Education Pioneers is committed to building a team of dynamic professionals passionate about developing high caliber leaders for the Education sector. You can find more information about the position and apply online here. Information about Education Pioneers and other full-time opportunities can be found on their website.
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A Rhee-ly sweet internship
Having made a splash in DC education, Michelle Rhee is now seeking talented interns for summer 2009 to help fulfill her and DCPS' challenging mission. Unlike a run-of-the-mill internship, the Urban Education Leadership Internship Program with DCPS allows students to immerse themselves in the vital activities of the district's Central Office. Students are assigned to one of the various operational teams in the office, and get a chance not only to spend several months in the company of other gifted and likeminded individuals, but also to gain unique experience in education reform. You can find more information here or check out the UELIP blog here.
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About Us
The Education Gadfly is published weekly (ordinarily on Thursdays), with occasional breaks, by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Regular contributors include Jack Byers, Amy Fagan, Daniela Fairchild, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Mickey Muldoon, Jamie Davies O'Leary, Eric Osberg, Stafford Palmieri, Emmy Partin, Michael J. Petrilli, Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Terry Ryan, Janie Scull, and Amber Winkler. Have something to say? Email us at thegadfly@edexcellence.net. If you would like to subscribe, you may either email thegadfly@edexcellence.net with "subscribe gadfly" in the text of the message or sign up online here.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a nonprofit organization that conducts research, issues publications, and directs action projects in elementary/secondary education reform at the national level and in Ohio, with a special emphasis on our hometown of Dayton. (For Ohio news, check out our Ohio Education Gadfly, published bi-weekly, ordinarily on Wednesdays.) The Institute is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.