A Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis
from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Volume 7, Number 2. January 11, 2007
Current
Issue On the Web
Past Issues
On the Web
This week on The Education
Gadfly Show: Hug it out
————————————————————————————————————————
Short Reviews of New Reports and Books
————————————————————————————————————————
From Liam's Desk
Quality
doubts
Some parents in Michigan were none too pleased by the conclusions
reached in Education Week's Quality
Counts 2007: From Cradle to Career, especially
by the report's ''Chance-for-Success Index,'' which measures
how likely are students to succeed in school by calculating the socioeconomic
standing of adults. According to an article in
the Detroit Free
Press, some
parents said, ''the study... seems too defeatist. They said success
for students cannot be measured so easily by looking at the accomplishments
of parents.'' Demography is not destiny (see here).
They're right, of course. One wonders how the publishers, editors, and researchers who contributed to From Cradle to Career could be so wrong.
It's a radical about face for Quality Counts, which Education Week launched in 1997 following a call from the nation's governors for an ''external, independent, nongovernmental effort'' to measure if individual states were actually improving their schools and their students' academic achievement.
For the past decade, Quality Counts has examined the nation's focus on standards-based reform. Among other things it graded states on their standards and assessments (whether standards were clear and grounded in content, whether tests were aligned to those standards, etc.); on accountability (whether the state provided report cards for its schools, whether it rewarded good schools and sanctioned bad ones, whether student promotion hinged on exit exams, etc.); and on teacher quality. It looked at achievement trends in reading and math, as well as trends in state graduation rates, and then assigned grades based on an average of those indicators.
To be sure, Quality Counts hasn't been perfect (as our own Checker Finn made clear following the initial report). Still, it covered a lot of ground. Recent editions looked at more than 100 policy indicators and produced detailed, individual, and useful state reports. A legislator, for example, could use it to identify those policy areas in which her state was deficient, and then push to have those areas strengthened. And for those not enamored with the ''conventional wisdom'' as captured by Quality Counts, the report spawned imitators (including our own) that measured policies and indicators they felt important.
But with Quality Counts 2007, Education Week has abandoned standards-based reform and upended the series focus in the worst way. The editors have concluded, suddenly, that ''children's chances for success don't just rest on what happens from kindergarten through high school,'' but that success is determined by who they are, where they live, what languages their parents do or don't speak, and how much money their parents make. Thus, readers are presented the ''Chance-for-Success Index,'' by far the report's most publicized portion.
Here's how the editors describe it: ''The Chance-for-Success Index...provides a state-focused perspective on the importance of education throughout a person's lifetime.'' They write that, ''Since all states start at zero, the index can capture the cumulative effect of education experienced by residents of a state from birth to adulthood and pinpoint the chances of success at each stage.''
Here's how I would describe it: ''The Chance-for-Success Index divides states into those that are wealthy and white and those that are poor and minority. Students from wealthy, white states are determined to have a good chance to succeed; students from poor and minority states are not.''
Let's start with the index's childhood indicators, which rightly acknowledge that education begins before students enter kindergarten classrooms. But most of the indicators for childhood success (such as ''percent of children whose parents are fluent English-speakers'') focus not on the quality of pre-K programs but on the economic and educational attainment of 3-year-olds' parents.
Children of richer or better-educated parents will probably arrive in kindergarten with more skills than their less-fortunate peers. But we already know that--the important question is how well a state's policies encourage the spread of early childhood advantages to more youngsters.
Defeatism permeates the Chance-for-Success Index because it evaluates demographic indicators that are beyond the purview of schools or policymakers. It should be named the Chance-for-Failure Index. According to their formulas, Quality Counts editors implicitly tell us that students born into poor or non-English speaking households are more likely to fail.
And maybe they are. But that has nothing to do with individual states or their educational policies. Shouldn't the Index have at least tried to evaluate states on things they can control?
At the other end of the spectrum, the adulthood indicators are unfortunate not only for their defeatism but also for their ridiculousness. They, too, are based on economic data--percent of adults with an income above the national median, percent of adults with a 2- or 4-year postsecondary degree, etc. The Quality Counts editors apparently hoped these economic statistics would yield information about education's ''effects'' within the states.
But they ignored the obvious: that many adults were not educated in the state where they now live; well over 30 percent of college-educated Americans received their K-12 educations in more than one state (see here). A 47-year-old New Jersey parent with a Ph.D. may have gone to high school in Georgia, received a B.A. in California, and done graduate work in Wisconsin. Her educational attainment reflects absolutely nothing about the Garden State--she may not even work there!
In the end, the results are typical. Virginia, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maryland, and Massachusetts are at the top; Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and New Mexico are at the bottom.
So what are state policymakers whose citizens are determined to have low chances of success supposed to learn? Is an Arizona legislator to conclude that his state's thriving charter schools are a waste, and that he should throw in the towel because children of non-English speakers and poor immigrants are largely doomed by birth?
The Chance-for-Success Index is defeatist, flawed, and largely ridiculous. It tells us nothing about the states it purportedly evaluates (Florida and California are ranked below Alaska--are we really supposed to buy that?). And states aren't the right unit of measure for this demographic information anyway; are we supposed to believe that folks who live in inner-city Baltimore or Newark are likelier to succeed than those in the Nashville or Houston suburbs?
The Chance-for Success Index is a mess. Evaluating states not by the education policies they implement or the student learning gains they achieve, but by coarse, demographic data only gives comfort to an education establishment desperate to blame ''poverty'' for its failings. It's the antithesis of standards-based reform. Let's hope the focus of Quality Counts 2007 is merely part of an off-year, not the start of a repudiation of today's most promising reform strategy.
by Liam Julian
Comment
Back to top
———————————————————————————————————————
Fenty
not feigning takeover
When Adrian Fenty paid a visit to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
late in 2006, he received some candid advice on taking control of K-12 city
schools.
Bloomberg urged the then want-to-be mayor to act quickly, and unilaterally. ''You
don't run things by committee,'' he told him. ''You don't
try to come to consensus when it's our children's future.''
Gotham's top dog made an impression. Within hours of taking the oath of office as D.C.'s mayor, Fenty had a bill introduced to the District of Columbia Council to take control of the district's notoriously fractured school leadership and its underperforming schools. For the moment it appears that Fenty is going to get what he's asking for.
''We have a crisis on our hands,'' Fenty said in a news conference outlining his bid for control. ''I am asking today for that responsibility to be placed squarely on my shoulders.''
But just how much of that responsibility Fenty will be allowed to place on his fit shoulders remains to be seen. This much is sure--the more that lands there, the greater chance that he will be able to implement policies that generate improvements. (Of course, mayoral control doesn't guarantee success--just look at Detroit and Cleveland. But on the whole it appears to help galvanize reform.)
Fenty proposes organizing the District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) system under three leaders, each of whom answers to him directly: the chancellor (responsible for the day-to-day operation of schools), the head of facilities (responsible for all buildings and their use), and the deputy mayor (responsible for the newly created department of education, which will serve as a ''state board of education,'' and all charter schools).
So far, so good. But there are a couple of kinks in the line of authority.
The most obvious is that the city council--on which sit the budget hardball-playing Linda Cropp (whom Fenty soundly defeated in the Democratic mayoral primary) and the notorious Marion Barry--will have line-item-veto authority over DCPS budgets. Said David Nakamura of the Washington Post in a recent online Q&A with readers, ''the council will deal itself a significant hand in the new school governance structure,'' which could ''slow Fenty down significantly.'' This could create precisely the ''decision-by-committee'' problem that Bloomberg warned against.
Another aspect of the bill that could prove troublesome to Fenty’s plans is the district’s dysfunctional special education department, whose budget (about 25 percent of the DCPS’s total outlay) will create major drag on reform efforts unless significant changes are made. The mayor has given us lots of details on how to fix the rest of the education system, but been too quiet to this point about how he will rein in the department that currently is bankrupting DCPS. The costs are due to the district’s large percentage of special ed students receiving services (17.9 percent), but also to the significant number of those students placed in private educational settings at DCPS expense (roughly one-fifth of all special ed students).
The Parthenon Group, which Fenty hired last year to analyze the district's schools, named special ed as one of six ''pain points'' that would have to be addressed if mayoral control is to succeed in D.C. And yet, the bill requires only that ''within 60 days of enactment ... the Department of Education shall report to the mayor and the Council on the status of ... the Special Education Reform Plan.''
That Fenty has offered no specific explanations to date for how to grab the special ed tiger by the tail and handle it without being eaten alive doesn't bode well for bringing this department under control.
Difficult though these challenges are, they're hardly insurmountable. Fenty's bill, if passed, will deliver a ''substantial jolt'' to DCPS, Stanford University professor Michael Kirst told Gadfly in an interview. This, he argues, is necessary if the district's schools are to ever change. ''Incremental change'' simply will not root out all the systemic dysfunctions.
Moreover, he adds, the plan's design is ''thoughtful,'' and is clear in ''locating authority in the mayor's office.'' As for the problem of both the potential role city council may play, and the problem with special ed, Kirst concedes that the latter will prove especially difficult. But of the former, he says the council's ''veto authority is already being rethought.''
If that's so, then we're seeing signs that Fenty isn't just going to stop at gaining control--he's going to tweak, and hopefully muscle, everything to his advantage.
As Bloomberg counseled from the outset--to be successful, Fenty would have to be ruthless and aggressive. So far, he's been both. Let's hope the mayor/triathlete has the stamina for the long haul, however. Otherwise, he may well lose yet another battle for D.C.'s children's futures. And many of them don't have a lot of fight left.
by Martin A. Davis, Jr.
Comment
Back to top
———————————————————————————————————————
Recommended Reading
Top
o' the pack
No Child Left Behind's reauthorization process has barely begun, yet
the surfeit of coverage and commentary is enough to make Gadfly think about
flying south for winter's remainder. Still, one article rose above the
din: Greg Toppo's look at how the law has changed life on the ground
in actual schools and communities. He finds that NCLB has given reform-minded
superintendents cover to push for bold changes. Philadelphia's Paul Vallas,
for example, commenting on his recent dismissal of 750 unqualified teachers,
said, ''we would have never been able to do that without the federal (Sword
of) Damocles hanging over our head.'' Of course, one person's Sword
of Damocles is another's ''Hounds of Hell,'' as a recently
retired Virginia teacher described the pressure the law placed on her school.
Toppo's smartest observation is disquieting: ''Here's a pretty safe
rule of thumb: Start in the classroom and travel up the educational food chain.
The further you travel, the more you'll find that people like the law...the
assessment gets rosier as their suit gets more expensive.'' Did you hear
that, Zegna-clad Congress?
''How
Bush education law has changed our schools,'' by Greg Toppo,
USA Today, January 8, 2007
Comment
Back to top
Texas
lead 'em
They say everything's bigger
in Texas. And now, that adage is starting
to apply to education expectations, too. Dallas's Superintendent Michael
Hinojosa has redefined the role of the principal to involve less paper pushing,
more academic oversight, and creative problem-solving. Principals will be required
to spend at least two days a week observing classes in their schools, and to
put in 10 extra working days to learn the district's curriculum and analyze
school test scores. Importantly, the district is also revamping how it hires
school leaders. Deputy Superintendent Steve Flores said, ''A standard
résumé really no longer gets your foot in the door.'' Candidates
must ''audition'' to show they can attack complex challenges effectively
and creatively--after being given a school's academic and budget data
before job interviews, they must diagnose the problems and outline a plan for
fixing them. And for principals whose schools meet academic targets, performance
bonuses of up to $10,000 are in the cards. In an age when success seems to
derive less from administration than innovation, Dallas is right to ask its
school leaders to rise to the occasion.
''DISD
principals ordered to change their ways,'' by Kent Fischer,
Dallas Morning News, January 7, 2007
Comment
Back to top
Close-minded
Detroit Public Schools has lost more than 50,000 students over the
past eight years, almost a third of its population, to charter schools, private
schools, and the suburbs. Still, it has closed only 35 of 267 schools,
about 7 percent. With education funding in Michigan tied to attendance,
something had to give. Last week, the district announced a plan to close
52 of its remaining 232 school buildings, a move that will save about
$19 million per year. Opposition to the proposal has been fierce, of
course. But Detroit is losing students by the bucketful--12,600 left
after a 16-day teacher strike this fall--so shuttering schools is less
a choice than an imperative. After all, when grown-up organizations lose
customers, they cut back on capacity--or they quickly innovate and improve
to regain their clientele. In the meantime, Michigan lawmakers should
act fast to ensure that these empty buildings aren't just mothballed;
Ohio's approach is exemplary. School districts in the state may
now claim charter schools' test scores as their own if they offer
to lease those charter schools their facilities (see here). A similar
push in the Wolverine State would help Detroit Public Schools get back
on its feet while adding some much-needed burnish to its academic performance.
''Detroit
may shut up to 52 schools,'' by Christine MacDonald and
Darren Nichols, Detroit News, January 6, 2007
Comment
Back to top
Class divisions
There's been plenty
written about the overloaded high school kid who
maintains a 4.0 GPA in a full line of A.P. courses, has swim practice before
school and cello practice after, and is president of the class Sudoku Society
and the Young Francophiles Club. But now we learn that after such students
are admitted to Ivy League schools, many experience a letdown--the work just
isn't as challenging as it was in high school. Jeff Zhou, who attended
Andover and is now a freshman at M.I.T., took only four pages of notes in his
first two weeks of college. And he has lots more time: ''I've started
watching The Office and Family Guy,'' he said. Such stories are especially
jarring when compared with reports showing that 40 percent of college students
take remedial courses, and that only 27 percent of ACT test-takers met the
college readiness benchmark in biology. Of course, that's the real problem
we need to keep our eyes on. As for Jeff Zhou and his peers, top-flight colleges
might want to find better ways to engage them, lest they follow Bill Gates' lead
and head off for greener pastures before graduation day.
''The
Incredibles,'' by Laura Pappano, New York Times, January 7,
2007
Comment
Back to top
———————————————————————————————————————
This week, Mike and Rick talk about why Quality Counts thinks
U.S. education is the world's best, kids at Brown have so much time to throw
naked parties,
and Texas is a progressive place. We've got an interview with Alexander
Russo (who says Andrew Rotherham is in way over his head with this education
stuff), and News of the Weird is ''wax on, wax off.'' Click here to
listen on your computer (no iPod required--this link will play through any
music software on your computer, including Windows Media Player or RealPlayer).
To subscribe to this podcast, or to get more information about how podcasts
work, click here.
Comment
———————————————————————————————————————
Short Reviews of New Reports and Books
Freedom
Writers
Paramount Pictures
January 2007
Freedom Writers is based on the true story of teacher Erica Gruwell (played
by Hillary Swank). And though it's more about racial conflict than education,
the film still provides some choice fodder for the movie-loving Gadfly's
rumination. The film follows a familiar narrative: a tough-minded, idealistic
teacher/coach/mentor overcomes great obstacles to lift a class of ''untouchables'' out
of violent, dead-end lives in the inner city (think Jaime Escalante in Stand
and Deliver, Coach Carter in Coach Carter, and Joe Clark in Lean
on Me). The
education angle dramatizes the challenges Gruwell faces in a bureaucratic,
union-dominated urban public school. She makes $27,000 a year, teaches 150
students divided among only four classes, and every day confronts the dreadful
fallout of forced integration in racially divided, gang-laden Long Beach, California.
When she eyes new copies of Romeo and Juliet reserved for honors classes
and asks to teach it to her students, her department coordinator laughs at
her
naïveté but gives her tattered copies of an abridged version. Gruwell,
of course, finally wins the hearts of her sophomore English students, only
to see their hopes for learning the following year shattered when union seniority
rules forbids Gruwell from teaching juniors (she is deemed too ''green'' to
teach upper-grade classes). Her cynical colleagues offer nothing but derision.
What makes Gruwell's story movie-worthy, of course, is that her powers
of perseverance far exceed those of the average teacher. She takes on extra
jobs, sacrifices her marriage, stands up to the administration, and, most important,
refuses to give up. She also has an exceptional capacity for empathy, which
proves crucial to earning her students' trust. As such, the movie offers
few practical lessons for fixing inner-city schools. Every teacher is not like
Gruwell, who, in real life, started the Freedom
Writers Foundation to promote
her brand of instruction. (Though programs like Teach for America certainly
help to bring more Gruwells into the classroom.) But tackling the inertia,
cynicism, and institutional constraints of inner city bureaucracies is a long
term (and decidedly un-Hollywood) project. All that said, most ed wonks and
policymakers could benefit from the exposure to urban schools that this credible,
not-too-cheesy film provides. Three out of four apples.
by Coby Loup
Comment
The
English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know
Diane Ravitch and Michael Ravitch
Oxford University Press
2006
While the thought that students
should bother with the poetry of the Romantics, the prose of Darwin, the
philosophy of Mill, or the speeches of Churchill is
anathema to many, even the greatest critics of Western culture must concede
that the English language that still unites us (though not as strongly as it
should) has never been used more effectively than by those in the land of its
birth--England. "The language has been shaped by those who have used it
best," write the Ravitches in their introduction to this exquisite anthology. "Everyone
who writes in English inherits this legacy, from Chinua Achebe to Saul Bellow,
Salman Rushdie to Toni Morrison, Derek Wolcott to Seamus Heaney. These great
contemporary writers transform the literary tradition in their own distinct
ways, but their guideposts are the monumental achievements of English literature." We
may choose to deny our students the history of Western civilization, and still
survive. But deny our students English literature, and we excise the very font
from which the versatility and beauty of the language we speak flows. Diane
and Michael have given us the best argument for why English literature should
never "go gentle into that good night"--the words of the language's
masters themselves. This anthology is a worth follow-up to Diane Ravitch's The
American Reader. Check out The English Reader here.
by Martin
A. Davis, Jr.
Comment
———————————————————————————————————————
New
opportunity for new leaders
New Leaders for New
Schools is recruiting some 110 new leaders to
become outstanding urban principals. To nominate exceptional educators and
leaders who share the
New Leaders core beliefs and goals, have a record of successfully leading adults,
and have had K-12 teaching success and knowledge, click here or contact Margot
Lowenstein at (646) 792-1054 or [email protected].
Back to top
Words
from Hess
Rick Hess--director of education policy at the American Enterprise
Institute, and Education Gadfly Show co-host--has some words of wisdom
for us. Read about principal preparation here and
the tensions between NCLB and competitiveness
here.
Back to top
———————————————————————————————————————
The Education Gadfly is published weekly (ordinarily on Thursdays, with occasional breaks) by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Contributors include: Martin A. Davis, Jr., Chester E. Finn, Jr., Liam Julian, Coby Loup, Eric Osberg, and Michael J. Petrilli. For Ohio news, check out the Ohio Education Gadfly, published bi-weekly (ordinarily on Wednesdays). Have something to say? Email us at [email protected]. Would you like to be spared from the Gadfly? Email [email protected] with "unsubscribe gadfly" in the text of your message. You are welcome to forward Gadfly to others, and from our website you can even email individual articles. If you have been forwarded a copy of Gadfly and would like to subscribe, you may either email [email protected] with "subscribe gadfly" in the text of the message or sign up through our website, http://www.edexcellence.net. To read archived issues or obtain other reviews of reports and books, go to http://www.edexcellence.net and click on the Education Gadfly link.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation 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. The Foundation is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.