Joe Williams' Blog
September 2, 2007
How Destructive Are Democrats Being on NCLB?
So destructive that even the New York Times noticed. Still waiting for the Phoebe Cates quote on the widespread suburban self-gratification that the proposed changes would promote, but Ed Trust's Amy Wilkins comes through with the crucial big picture summary:
"The heart of the law has been hollowed out."
Meanwhile, Reg Weaver explains just how important it is to the NEA that NCLB be neutered.
Posted by Joe Williams on September 2, 2007 9:31 AM
August 31, 2007
Fear Not, NYC Education Cartel: The Heat Is Off (For Now)
Back in July we blogged about the uppity parents in Brooklyn's Park Slope who had the chutzpah to insist that their kids deserved better than crappy/mediocre public schools for their kids. While most of the charter schools in New York to-date have been designed for low-income kids (the "have nots"), the community-driven proposal for the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School had a much more middle-class angst feel to it.
If middle class parents (the "have a little, want more's" in Alinsky-speak) decided to empower themselves through the chartering process, I reckoned, public education could start to see some dramatic changes. Rather than just talking about smaller class sizes, better quality instruction, strengthened curriculum, etc. they could actually just design real live public schools around those core ideals.
But alas, it was all just wishful thinking. The establishment has stopped the school's application in its tracks, according to the NY Sun.
The cartel survives. It always does.
Posted by Joe Williams on August 31, 2007 10:50 AM
Dean Wormer's NCLB? Or Phoebe Cates' Suburban Relief Act of '07
I've been meaning to note this for a while, but Education Week's David Hoff is showing us how valuable it can be to unleash journalists to blog about the stuff they cover. There's always more in the reporter's notebook than you can squeeze into a published story, and Hoff has been treating us to lots of extra goodies and insight on the reauthorization of NCLB. And he even found a way to make it sound interesting!
His latest "cheat sheet" for the recently unveiled discussion draft on NCLB reauthorization had me wondering: After you differentiate between interventions between "priority schools" and "high priority schools," whether it might be possible to negotiate something along the lines of a third set of "double secret priority schools," where we intervene in ways that students/teachers/parents can't even tell there are interventions actually in play. We could make NCLB so kind and gentle that it looks like the old days where Washington pumped loads of cash to schools and everyone was happy, whether kids could actually read or not.
That kind of seems to be the whole point of reauthorization right now - to make sure as much of the pain is hidden from anyone who actually has to feel it.
Continue reading "Dean Wormer's NCLB? Or Phoebe Cates' Suburban Relief Act of '07"....
Posted by Joe Williams on August 31, 2007 9:17 AM
August 30, 2007
Democratic Prez Hopeful Ed Stance Chart Of The Week
Kudos to Eduction Week for nailing this one.
Posted by Joe Williams on August 30, 2007 8:50 AM
How Important Is Politics In Reform?
The revolution currently underway at L.A.'s Locke High School would just be a bunch of noise without the incredibly difficult work of getting a new school board elected last spring. Congrats to Mayor Villaraigosa for keeping things interesting. (In all sorts of ways.)
Posted by Joe Williams on August 30, 2007 8:46 AM
August 26, 2007
Gone Paddling
Not the corporal punishment kind, but the canoe kind. I'm joing my wife and kids in a last-ditched effort to squeeze a little more summer out of the mountain air. I'll be out of the pocket for a few days, canoeing through the St. Regis Canoe Area, one of my favorite spots on the planet.
I'll be back in a couple of days, but in the mean time, check out:
-- UFT President Randi Weingarten's long post on Eduwonk about unions and charter schools. I think the general topic is even more interesting than either Weingarten or the strongly anti-union charter supporters make it sound. For example, what if you have charter schools that do prize teacher voice/involvement and which make concerted efforts to pay well and provide good benefits, a fair workplace environment, etc. Is an old-style, industrial union still necessary? Conversely, since the charter school movement generally sucks when it comes to playing politics, is there anything to be gained, politically, by some sort of grand bargain with organized labor? Would charter school leaders ever recognize ANY role that unions can play in charterdom? Would teachers unions ever support (politically) teachers who want something different than the unions presently offer, or is the union more imporant than the teacher? Great debates to be had on this topic, methinks, especially if we get more people into the mix.
-- Leo Casey's post on EdWize about right-wing knocks on Hillary Clinton because she - gasp - studied Saul Alinsky as an undergrad. I dig Alinsky, and happen to agree with Leo that the argument is absurd. Was just thinking that if more conservatives had studied Alinsky, they might have actually accomplished a few things the last couple of decades.
-- Cristo Ray as a charter school? Paul Vallas gives it a mention in a recent Q+A about the opening of school in New Orleans. Makes you wonder: can religious schools where the missionary zeal to teach kids to read, write, etc. outweighs the zeal for actual religious instruction end up serving an important public purpose? Why do I have a feeling this is going to become an important intellectual, legal, and policy issue? Disclosure: I was briefly kidnapped by beer-guzzling Jesuits when I was an undergrad.
And, hey... let's be careful out there.
Posted by Joe Williams on August 26, 2007 1:20 PM
August 23, 2007
Welcome Visitors!
We've had a lot of new visitors on the site the last few days. Thanks for stopping by. Please be sure to see our online petition supporting Democrats for Education Reform's Statement of Principles. Please give it a read and sign on if what we're talking about floats your boat.
Posted by Joe Williams on August 23, 2007 2:37 PM
