Here and Now 2, Change We Can Measure: The Need for Performing Schools in Chicago's Neighborhoods

July 29, 2009

IFF
April 2009

"Change we can measure" is an unmistakable reference to "Change we can believe in," the slogan of a candidate who is now our nation's president. This president has appointed Arne Duncan as his Secretary of Education, and the schools whose change is measured in this report are the ones that Arne Duncan left for 400 Maryland Avenue-the Chicago Public Schools (including charters).

IFF, formerly the Illinois Facilities Fund, describes the schools as a mixed bag, with elementary schools performing better than most high schools and an overall lack of "performing" schools across grade levels. But IFF also points out that the schools have made encouraging improvements since the last report in 2004.

While IFF's purpose is simple - to find out if every child in Chicago has access to a "performing" school - the methodology is slightly more complicated. The city is broken up into 77 different neighborhoods. The public schools in each neighborhood are assessed on the basis of performance (62.5 percent of students at a school must meet the state standard on the Illinois Standard Achievement Test in order to qualify as "performing") and capacity (how many students they can enroll). These public schools are ‘attendance area' schools, meaning they draw their enrollments from their surrounding area or neighborhoods. Then IFF categorizes the 25 worst neighborhoods in Chicago as those with the highest levels of students without access to a performing school.

The report found that 57.6 percent of

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Here and Now 2, Change We Can Measure: The Need for Performing Schools in Chicago's Neighborhoods

The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2008

July 29, 2009

Institute for Education Sciences
June 2009

The National Center for Education Statistics just released the Nation's Arts Report Card, previously covered by Fordham's D.C. team here and here. The report details the state of the nation's art education after testing 8,000 eighth-grade students in visual arts and music. The findings, as noted by Fordham, were overwhelmingly average with student scores ranging from 105 and 194, out of a possible 300 for the visual arts section. Other significant findings included achievement gaps between white/Asian students and black/Hispanic students and between male and female. The report indicates students have not shown much improvement in the arts, which may be caused by the increased emphasis on reading and math skills.

It is unclear what these results mean for discussions of national standards and assessments. Arts education and students' knowledge of visual art and music appear to be on shaky footing. Regardless, the Arts Report Card is a timely reminder that we cannot put content standards in danger by focusing too much on so-called 21^st century skills (see Fordham President Chester E. Finn, Jr. on the subject here). Finn and Diane Ravitch co-edited a book, Beyond the Basics: Achieving a Liberal Education for All Children, that describes why education should be a liberal education, and in a chapter on the arts, Dana Gioia, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, stated, "The real purpose of arts education is to awaken

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The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2008

Stimulating Excellence: Unleashing the Power of Innovation in Education

July 29, 2009

Center for American Progress, American Enterprise Institute, New Profit Inc., and Public Impact
May 2009

This policy brief illuminates how we can encourage innovation in education reform. The authors surveyed a group of prominent education-reform entrepreneurs - e.g., Wireless Generation, The New Teacher Project, and New Schools Venture Fund - to glean their insights on the challenges and possibilities of entrepreneurship in education. They combined the survey results with their own good sense and found themselves agreeing -sadly - that inflexible bureaucracies, inaccessibility of capital, and a limited supply of talent typically work in tandem to stifle innovation. It seems that Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland shares the authors' sentiments on this issue. In last summer's "Conversation on Education," he says the reformed education system needs to be "enhanced by creativity" and "innovation." However, despite the good intentions of government, Ohio is faced with a huge budget problem. Consequently, the governor's proposed Center for Creativity and Innovation at the state education department was made optional in the final budget bill.

The brief argues that school systems can encourage innovation and creativity by using data to create a performance-oriented school culture, opening public education to multiple providers, encouraging service providers to compete for business, and using public dollars as incentives. Ohio can certainly take some advice from the recommendations. The state needs to develop better systems to track student and teacher data to identify what works and what needs to be fixed. The funding

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Stimulating Excellence: Unleashing the Power of Innovation in Education

Tackling the STEM Crisis: Five Steps Your State Can Take to Improve the Quality and Quantity of its K-12 Math and Science Teachers

July 29, 2009

National Council on Teacher Quality and National Math and Science Initiative
June 2009

Qualified science and math teachers are in short supply and this report explains how state laws and regulations can encourage individuals to teach in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math.

The report, released by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) and the National Math and Science Initiative, comes as Ohio is slashing funding for STEM initiatives.

The report tackles the problem of maintaining sufficient STEM teachers by addressing weaknesses in state standards for teacher preparation. Methods for getting the right people into STEM classrooms are listed in a report full of what states should do.

The report argues that laws and regulations should make it more challenging to teach in STEM fields, while also creating incentives/making it more appealing. For example, across the country, passing grades for entry teacher tests are as low as 40 percent. The Council recommends raising the minimum passing grade to 60 percent. In addition, elementary teachers need more math and science coursework. Elementary teacher candidates should be required to take math classes "specific to [their] needs" and they should know how to teach math. The report also recommends strengthening elementary licensing tests. Loopholes in middle-school licensure need to be closed and future middle-school teachers should pass licensure requirements for grades 7-12.

Since traditional education-school models are not working to attract enough STEM teachers, the report also says states should consider alternative ways to

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Tackling the STEM Crisis: Five Steps Your State Can Take to Improve the Quality and Quantity of its K-12 Math and Science Teachers

Is the Emphasis on Proficiency Shortchanging Higher- and Lower-Achieving Students?

July 29, 2009

Center on Education Policy
June 2009

The newest report from the Center on Education Policy (CEP) addresses the belief that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) causes teachers to neglect students who are either high- or low-achieving. This debate centers on educators having motivations incentives under NCLB to focus on the middle-of-the-road children, so called "bubble kids," as these are the ones most likely to fall below or reach the proficient level.

Mining data from all 50 states, the report finds that basic and advanced students did not suffer and have better achievement levels across all grades. The center did note, however, that the proficient- and above-level students saw the most gains. The study also found that the lowest gains were made in high schools -- possibly because teenagers may be less likely to obey authority, there may be fewer teachers who teach to the achievement tests and/or fewer Title I funding dollars go to high schools.

Hampering the analysis is the non-uniform nature of individual state data. As the study points out, each state has its own tests and it is often difficult to define basic, proficient, and advanced students. Ohio, for example, has five levels of placement - limited/below basic, basic, proficient, accelerated, and advanced. Notably, this system will change as the new biennial budget reduces the placement ratings to three by disposing of the basic and accelerated levels. Data assessment is crucial to figuring out what works and state data must

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Is the Emphasis on Proficiency Shortchanging Higher- and Lower-Achieving Students?

Moving Beyond AYP: High School Performance Indicators

July 29, 2009

Alliance for Excellent Education, with author Lyndsay M. Pinkus
June 2009

The concept of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ought to be scrapped in high schools in favor of other measures, argues this policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education. AYP leads to states tailoring their tests and schools simply for basic achievement rather than college-and-career readiness. Author Lyndsay M. Pinkus believes that AYP should be replaced with several different variables linked to achievement, including attendance, course success, and promotion rates. SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement (AP) test scores are offered as indicators of high-school students' potential beyond graduation. The report discusses states, such as Kentucky, which have managed to tackle the strenuous task of following high-school students to college or a post-graduation career. Pinkus does acknowledge, however, that tracking students has its difficulties, especially when graduates leave the state. The policy brief determines that the most appropriate course to begin the journey away from AYP is to research the ways attendance and other indicators can be implemented in a productive fashion.

Ohio's new biennial budget includes a revision of the state's standards and assessments, which is a vital component of measuring student achievement. The Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) will be replaced with a combination of the ACT or other college entrance test, end-of-course exams, and a senior thesis. These alterations, especially the transition from the OGT to ACT or other college entrance exam, are good ideas, but the details of these

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Moving Beyond AYP: High School Performance Indicators

Building a High-Quality Education Workforce: A Governor's Guide to Human Capital Development

July 29, 2009

National Governor's Association, Center for Best Practices
May 2009

Teacher quality has been a major topic in Ohio politics of late. One of the latest installments of Gov. Ted Strickland's Conversations on Education video series features Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut speaking about teacher quality provisions within the governor's proposed education plan.

An interesting companion to the Ohio discussion of teacher quality is a National Governors Association report on what it takes to recruit, train, and retain the best teachers. It begins by acknowledging that the effectiveness of teachers has the greatest impact on student learning, and then delves into how to build that workforce.

The report first focuses on the issue of attracting teachers and recommends that states attract the best and brightest to the profession. Fordham President Chester E. Finn, Jr. and visiting Fordham fellow Andy Smarick both have thoughts about the feasibility of attracting these types of ‘superstar' teachers (here and here). The governor's plan for education addresses this concern with the creation of a four-year residency program to better prepare all who enter the teaching profession.

The NGA report recommends improving training for both teachers and principals and licensure revision. Gov. Strickland's plan also addresses this recommendation through improvements to the state's alternative licensure program designed to attract individuals with strong content knowledge but no prior classroom experience in teaching. The education plan also creates a career ladder for teachers with four levels of licensure, providing opportunities

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Building a High-Quality Education Workforce: A Governor's Guide to Human Capital Development

Fixing Tenure: A Proposal for Assuring Teacher Effectiveness and Due Process

July 29, 2009

Center for American Progress, with author Joan Baratz-Snowden from the Education Study Center
June 2009

This Center for American Progress report provides a nationwide assessment of teacher tenure and ultimately concludes that most tenure models need to be fixed. The report reviews research and surveys that show teachers and the general public favor changes to the common tenure scheme. Educators, however, believe that there should still be a system of security for them, although they admit that the current model does not block enough sub-par teachers. It should not be underestimated how difficult any transformation of tenure will be, but the report is cautiously hopeful that changes can occur.

Author Joan Baratz-Snowden proposes substituting the phrase "teacher tenure," which she regards as hostile, with "continuing employment status" and "due process." Standards also play a role in evaluating teachers. After all, if there is no uniform way to track student achievement in a school district, state, or nation, the report suggests it will be impossible to put this information into the teacher-tenure equation.

Toledo, Ohio, is praised in the report for being an example of a first-class teacher tenure system (although, this contrasts somewhat with the findings of The Widget Effect, see here, reviewed below). Toledo's system connects new teachers with mentors who oversee their growth and then make a determination as to whether the educator makes tenure. The Buckeye State's new budget includes a model peer assistance and review program (see here).

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Fixing Tenure: A Proposal for Assuring Teacher Effectiveness and Due Process

The Schools Teachers Leave: Teacher Mobility in Chicago Public Schools

July 29, 2009

Consortium on Chicago School Research
June 2009

Chicago is the third largest city in the country and the hometown of our nation's president and as such, has naturally been playing a much larger role in the political realm. The educational research world must have noticed because Chicago and the Chicago Public School System have also had a large presence in several recent reports.

One of these recent reports, by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, discusses teachers and why they leave the district.. The report states that while CPS's district-wide turnover is normal compared to other districts, a closer look reveals that in Chicago, half of the teachers leave their school buildings every five years. It can be easily conceded that such turnover would impair effectiveness for any school and leads to the obvious question: why?

According to the study, younger, new teachers are more likely to leave than older teachers, with the exception of the oldest teachers leaving for retirement. Low-achieving, low-income, predominantly African-American schools have more turnover. Larger percentages of teachers stay in schools where they feel a "climate of collective responsibility and innovation." It is important to note that the report's authors acknowledge several flaws in the study. There is no data for charter schools and since they are only assessing CPS, they cannot tell where a person goes if he/she leaves a CPS school and does not transfer to another CPS school.

Thus, while turnover in CPS looks average when

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The Schools Teachers Leave: Teacher Mobility in Chicago Public Schools

The Widget Effect

July 29, 2009

The New Teachers Project, with authors Daniel Weisber, Susan Sexton, Jennifer Mulhern, and David Keeling
June 2009

This revelatory study, with as much detail, rigor, and thoroughness as one could want, proves what we've long suspected: the formal process of teacher evaluation as it exists today is soft. Evaluations have made teachers into "widgets" because they are all treated the same. Three school districts in Ohio-Akron, Cincinnati, and Toledo-are among the study's group of 12 districts in four states. The data, which comes from new surveys and compilations of teacher evaluation records, plus 130 interviews with district leaders, reveals a system of perfunctory and meaningless back-patting. Even different evaluation methods do not make results more meaningful. Toledo uses a binary rating system (satisfactory/unsatisfactory), and gave only three teachers an unsatisfactory rating over five years. In Akron, which uses a system with five ratings, teachers identified 5 percent of their colleagues as "poor performers," but not one teacher actually received an unsatisfactory rating in an evaluation. Not only does the system fail to identify poor teachers, it also leaves no room to recognize truly exceptional teachers. Cincinnati did the best job identifying "distinguished" teachers by giving only 54 percent of teachers their highest rating. The authors briefly describe some of the legal and organizational hurdles that block useful evaluation, and suggest that the process be reformed in a way that treats evaluation more like a routine check-up and less like, say, a

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The Widget Effect