Press
May 24, 2010
Arne Duncan's Reforms: Rep. Judy Chu Wants Them Left Behind
(From Politics Daily, May 22, 2010)
By DANNY YADRON
Teachers unions have long had a friend in Democrats, and they've got a new one in Rep. Judy Chu of California.
Chu called Thursday for lawmakers to ditch a model -- championed by another Democrat, Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- for fixing the country's worst performing schools, a combination of multimillion-dollar grants and federally prescribed reform models that call for school closures and staff firings.
Flanked by leaders from the two national teachers unions, Chu said individual districts should decide for themselves how to fix failing schools. That's been a demand of teachers for years, who say they've become scapegoats for under-performing students.
"You cannot have schools without teachers and principals," Chu said. "If we want to save schools, this must change."
Continue reading "Arne Duncan's Reforms: Rep. Judy Chu Wants Them Left Behind"....
May 22, 2010
States factor in teachers' performance
(From The Columbus Dispatch, May 22, 2010)
By Jamie Davies O'Leary
School districts across the country long have been experimenting with innovative teacher-personnel policies, including merit-pay plans and contracts that allow for factoring student-performance data into teachers' evaluations. But bold reforms no longer are happening only at the local level. Several states are making significant overhauls in this realm, too.
What's impressive is that such reforms are accumulating bipartisan support. People on both sides of the aisle realize that it's common sense to rethink antiquated systems that protect teachers' seniority above classroom effectiveness and that tie hiring, professional development, compensation and dismissal of teachers to factors unrelated to student achievement. With hundreds and possibly thousands of teacher layoffs sweeping the state, Ohio simply can't afford to sit on the sidelines for this one.
Consider these examples of what's possible.
Continue reading "States factor in teachers' performance"....
May 20, 2010
Ravitch on Obama's scary ed reform agenda
(From The Washington Post, May 19, 2010)
By VALERIE STRAUSS
The following was written by education historian Diane Ravitch on her Bridging Differences blog that she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website.
On the blog, Ravitch and Meier write letters to each other about what matters most in education. In this piece, Ravitch gives us a valuable lesson on what "school reform" means to the Obama administration, and how important privatization of public schools is to the agenda.
Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," in which she talks about how evidence compelled her to drop her support of No Child Left Behind.
This piece is a bit longer than many that I post, but you'll learn a lot if you take the time to read it.
Diane Ravitch's latest letter to Deborah Meier:
You and I are old enough to remember heated debates about what democracy in education means. Some argued that it had to do with the governance of education, with the ability of the public to participate in decisions affecting their children. Some maintained that it had to do with the provision of a high-quality education in every school, so that the education available to those with the least resources was as good as the education available to those with the most resources. There were many other definitions, but this much is clear: The argument did not center on whether to have good public schools, but how to make them better for all.
Continue reading "Ravitch on Obama's scary ed reform agenda"....
May 18, 2010
'Race to the Top' funding: Battle over airwaves pits UFT vs. pro-school charter forces
(From The Daily News, May 18, 2010)
By DAVID SALTONSTALL
The stakes couldn't be higher or the deadline clearer: $700 million in federal cash is on the line for New York schoolkids and Albany must finalize a plan within two weeks.
The frantic fight for President Obama's "Race to the Top" funding has sparked a noisy debate - principally over city charter schools - and an equally supersized ad war.
"Stop listening to the teachers union!" exclaims one pro-charter TV ad.
"For-profit charter school management companies are playing politics in Albany!" fires back a United Federation of Teachers radio ad.
The increasingly bitter slapdown has made it feel like November in May, with campaign-style ads filling the airwaves with predictions of certain doom.
"The clock is ticking," said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter group. "Time is running out if we want to do this right."
Tension is rising because "Race to the Top" is first and foremost a contest - states compete for a limited pool of money that will only go to 15 or 20 states, the White House has said.
Push to Renew ESEA Faces Steep Policy, Political Hurdles
(From Education Week, May 17, 2010)
By ALYSON KLEIN
This was supposed to be the year that Congress finally completed the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a task which has been lingering since 2007.
But the wait may go on.
Although the legislative machinery seems to be clanking along, with an Obama administration blueprint for renewal on the table and House and Senate education panels holding hearings on a variety of issues related to the law, the political prospects for the renewal are much more dicey.
Numerous hurdles--including a crowded legislative calendar, the tensions of an election year, and a lack of agreement about where to take what is likely to be a very complicated bill--have many observers doubting that Congress will complete work this year to reauthorize what is now known as the No Child Left Behind Act, signed in 2002.
"It's getting harder and harder to see how they get there from here," said Charles Barone, the director of federal legislation for Democrats for Education Reform, a New York City-based political action committee that finances Democratic candidates who support charter school expansion, among other policies. "It takes a while to move a bill through committee, and on to the floor, all that 'School House Rock' stuff."
Continue Reading "Push to Renew ESEA Faces Steep Policy, Political Hurdles"...
The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand
(From The New York Times Magazine, May 17, 2010)
By STEVEN BRILL
MICHAEL MULGREW is an affable former Brooklyn vocational-high-school teacher who took over last year as head of New York City's United Federation of Teachers when his predecessor, Randi Weingarten, moved to Washington to run the national American Federation of Teachers. Over breakfast in March, we talked about a movement spreading across the country to hold public-school teachers accountable by compensating, promoting or even removing them according to the results they produce in class, as measured in part by student test scores. Mulgrew's 165-page union contract takes the opposite approach. It not only specifies everything that teachers will do and will not do during a six-hour-57 ½-minute workday but also requires that teachers be paid based on how long they have been on the job. Once they've been teaching for three years and judged satisfactory in a process that invariably judges all but a few of them satisfactory, they are ensured lifetime tenure.
Next to Mulgrew was his press aide, Richard Riley. "Suppose you decide that Riley is lazy or incompetent," I asked Mulgrew. "Should you be able to fire him?"
"He's not a teacher," Mulgrew responded. "And I need to be able to pick my own person for a job like that." Then he grinned, adding: "I know where you're going, but you don't understand. Teachers are just different."
That is the kind of story that makes Jon Schnur smile. Schnur, who runs a Manhattan-based school-reform group called New Leaders for New Schools, sits informally at the center of a network of self-styled reformers dedicated to overhauling public education in the United States. They have been building in strength and numbers over the last two decades and now seem to be planted everywhere that counts. They are working in key positions in school districts and charter-school networks, legislating in state capitals, staffing city halls and statehouses for reform-minded mayors and governors, writing papers for policy groups and dispensing grants from billion-dollar philanthropies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates, along with Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Teach for America's founder, Wendy Kopp; and the New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein could be considered the patron saints of the network.
Continue reading "The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand"....
May 11, 2010
Union ties bind kids to inferior schools
(From The Indianapolis Star, May 11, 2010)
By REID LITWACK
Is it possible the Indiana Democratic 
Poverty rates and high school dropout rates are closely aligned.
Fifteen years ago, there was no clear path for education reform. Inner-city education seemed like a puzzle that couldn't be solved. That was then.
Now there are tens of thousands of inner-city students experiencing a college preparatory education in many charter schools and district magnet schools nationwide.
We've seen what can be accomplished by changing both the governance and the culture of school systems. When you combine them, as New Orleans has, you open the door to dramatic results.
Continue reading "Union ties bind kids to inferior schools"....
