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Why Private Schools? The sequel
If private schools don’t, on average, do a better job of educating kids than public schools, why should we channel public dollars away from public schools to private ones? On the other hand, if the Federal government is willing to come up with new money to produce better school choices for kids in bad schools, why not? Those are among the central questions of the voucher debate.
What's so great about private schools?
New research from the Department of Education indicates that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. You’d think this would be big news, since it challenges conventional wisdom. Public Agenda research has shown that the public’s view of the quality of public schools compared to private schools has seen some improvement, but pluralities continue to perceive private schools as having higher academic standards.
RE: Winerip's 3 suggestions and the love of learning
Human beings being what they are, I think it's also good to remember that most of us need a little push to learn some of the things we really need to know, and tests can provide the nudge. ... But the truth still is that I didn't really sit down and focus on some of the important grammar points until I needed to study for the test. In all honesty, and throughout my own schooling, I believe I learned things I wouldn't have mastered otherwise because of testing.
Winerip's 3 suggestions
The New York Times' Michael Winerip has written his last column. I'm curious to know why he has ended his education column. It will be missed. In the column, he makes "three departing suggestions."
NEA Taking on NCLB
Public Agenda's surveys of teachers show large majorities say they feel they are being made "scapegoats" for all the problems facing education, so it's not surprising that the NEA is stepping up its efforts to protect its members from NCLB's impact. But it would be a shame if this effort became ... an effort to advocate primarily for the best interests of teachers over the learning environment as a whole.
Is ‘Weighted-Funding’ the Answer?
When it comes down to the reality of choosing to pay more in taxes for education, Americans often choose not to. So, it seems that much of the discussion on funding currently seems to be around how can we do more with the pot of money we have? One answer being put forward is "weighted-funding formulas."...
‘Boy Crisis’ Busted
I guess a major take-away from the Mathews piece/Education Sector research is that we have to be careful about the assumptions we draw when we look at subgroup performance. Just because girls are doing better in some regards doesn’t mean boys are doing worse by comparison. Nuance in reporting is essential.
What Now?
So if the push for higher standards and testing is leveling off or reaching maturity, how do we go about addressing these other issues that core constituencies say are so important? What else deserves major attention? And if we turn our attention elsewhere, do we risk undermining the progress on standards that we've made so far? Is there a danger that we check "standards and testing" off the list too soon?
Should Schools Ban Cell Phones?
How should schools handle the cell phone dilemma? And what does it say about the state of education debate these days that arguments over cell phones seem to inspire more interest and heat than discussions on how to find really good math teachers for local schools and how to attract and keep the best and most gifted teachers in the schools that need them most?
Independence: Strategy or Reward?
You have to wonder, is central control over schools’ hiring, teacher training, curriculum and budgets likely to produce improvements in the remaining low-performing schools? And if they did, would freedom from those regulations provided as a reward then produce even higher performance. I think I just don’t get the logic.
Bodily Functions for Extra Credit
Awarding extra credit for unused bathroom break allotments sounds absurd, but if a quantifiable study comparing various methods of reducing classroom disruptions showed that this tact to be effective without compromising academic standards, why not encourage it? Likewise, if the age-old hall-pass system were proven to be highly correlated with anti-social behaviors like loitering and decreased academic performance, why not consider more creative methods of encouraging kids to manage their bathroom time.
Have We Changed So Much?
To me, the much more important question is how we are going to help youngsters -- right here and now -- who are in schools that simply aren't providing them with a respectful, civil, purposeful atmosphere to learn in. In fact, I wonder whether we ought to start investing more research into what really helps schools and students turn around and less into slicing and dicing the socio-economic factors.
Reader Blames Minority Parents
A Brooklyn resident ... wrote to me an email saying: "The article makes it sound like the schools create the unsafe environment when in reality it is the students who do, which is why good teachers avoid rough schools - they don't want to be hurt. The schools aren't encouraging kids to hurt everyone, carry guns/knives/whatever. The kids do that because THEIR culture encourages it. Lets stop blaming the system or society and start looking at the families who raise these kids and their values. Being poor doesn't make you a criminal nor does being rich make you a saint. And putting all our attention on kids who behave badly only encourages them and leaves out the kids who do the right thing."
Isn't It Time to Do Something?
With all the leadership focus on closing the achievement gap, with so much attention to upgrading the curriculum, obtaining better data, developing more useful tests, improving teacher certification and so on, why is there seemingly so little discussion about the climate schools provide for teaching and learning.... But the problem surfaces repeatedly in our surveys of both students and teachers. Given the student and teacher views, I think it's hard to dismiss the importance of this issue.
Welcome to Reality CheckED
This new "RealityCheckED" blog aims to bring the same level of dialogue we’ve contributed to national policy debates to the blogosphere. We plan to introduce key facts and discussion points as daily events occur in education news and ask readers to contribute their own knowledge. Our hope is that this blog can be a resource for those who want to learn about education issues as well as a place for those who care about those issues to state their cases.
It's probably natural for leaders of organizations to be upbeat about their institutions, and the nation's school children might not be well-served by superintendents and principals who see public schools as places of disappointment, failure and ineptitude. Even so, the positive, almost buoyant outlook of school leaders nationwide captured in this fourth installment of Reality Check 2006 may come as something of a surprise to reformers and critics, including regulators enforcing No Child Left Behind. In many respects, local school leaders seem to operate on a very different wavelength from many of those aiming to reform public schools. The two groups have different assumptions about how much change today's public schools really need. Even when they see the same problems, they often seem to strive for different solutions.
To most public school superintendents - and principals to a lesser extent - local schools are already in pretty good shape. In fact, more than half of the nation's superintendents consider local schools to be "excellent." Most superintendents (77 percent) and principals (79 percent) say low academic standards are not a serious problem where they work. Superintendents are substantially less likely than classroom teachers to believe that too many students get passed through the system without learning. While 62 percent of teachers say this is a "very" or "somewhat serious" problem in local schools, just 27 percent of superintendents say the same.
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As might be expected, school leaders in poorer, mainly minority districts tend to have a different perspective from those in more affluent, mainly white schools. Superintendents (67 percent) and principals (78 percent) in mainly-minority schools are more likely to say their dropout problem is serious compared to superintendents and principals in mainly-white districts (36 percent of both). Superintendents and principals in mainly minority and low-income schools are also more likely to worry about the state of math and science education locally.
Yet despite their generally positive outlook, it would be misleading to paint local school leaders as smugly satisfied with the status quo. The vast majority believe schools need more money, but money is not the only item on their "this would help" list. As a group, they have an ambitious list of proposals, but many of their goals seem to be on the policymaking backburner.
Finding One: A Buoyant, Upbeat Outlook
Most local school leaders believe public schools are doing a good job in the most important areas, with half of superintendents saying schools in their district are "excellent." Despite forceful calls from business leaders and policymakers to upgrade math and science education, most superintendents (59 percent) and principals (66 percent) say this is not a serious problem in their local schools. Superintendents are fairly confident about the level of student learning in local schools, more so than teachers. They are less likely than teachers to believe that kids can slip through local schools without learning - only 27 percent of superintendents say this is a problem locally compared to 62 percent of teachers. Superintendents are also more confident that local middle school students are ready for high school (76 percent versus 54 percent) and that a local high school diploma means a student has mastered basics (78 percent versus 63 percent).
Finding Two: Applause for the Teaching Corps
Although federal officials enforcing No Child Left Behind recently reported that not a single state had met a major Department of Education benchmark for improving teacher quality, superintendents and principals nationwide voice broad confidence about the quality of their current teaching staffs. Large majorities of both groups say "all" or "almost all" of their teachers have high academic expectations for all the students they teach, give students extra help when they fall behind, know a lot about the subjects they teach and have a knack for inspiring students and motivating them to do their best. Principals especially are positive about the teachers in their schools. The majority of superintendents say the quality of new teachers is actually improving, although principals are divided on this question. Compared to when they were asked in 2003, principals are now more optimistic that their schools will be able to meet No Child Left Behind standards designed to raise teacher quality.
Finding Three: The Haves and the Have Nots
Although school leaders nationwide give local schools good marks, those in districts with mainly-minority and low-income students - especially the principals - tell a different story. A majority of principals in mainly-minority schools say their schools have serious problems with too many kids dropping out, acting disrespectfully and slipping though the system without learning. Overall, principals in mainly minority schools are less satisfied with their teaching staffs than principals in mainly-white schools. They are also less likely to say that they have enough authority to do their jobs. Reality Check surveys of teachers tend to confirm this picture. Teachers in low-income and/or mainly-minority schools are more likely to report serious problems with kids slipping through the system without learning. They are also less likely to think their students learn to speak and write English well or will have learned the expected material by the end of the school year.
Finding Four: What Would Improve Teaching?
For school leaders, one idea for improving the quality of teaching tops the rest. More than 7 in 10 superintendents and principals say that making it easier for them to fire bad teachers, even those with tenure, would be "very effective." Beyond that, the most popular strategies include more professional development and mentoring for new teachers. Most superintendents and principals are critical of the current system for training and certifying new teachers. Most - 86 percent of superintendents and 81 percent of principals - say traditional certification guarantees only "minimal skills" or "very little;" most (62 percent of superintendents and 58 percent of principals) also say traditional teacher education is out of touch with the realities of the classroom. Even so, relatively few leap to support newer approaches such as merit pay (paying teacher based on student improvement or other performance measures) or alternative certification. Twenty percent of superintendents and 17 percent of principals say merit pay could be very effective in improving teaching. Just 4 percent of both groups think more reliance on alternative certification would be "very effective" at improving teacher quality. Surprisingly perhaps, interest in these two strategies has not changed much since 2000 despite broader discussion and more experimentation with them. Eliminating teacher tenure draws more support among superintendents than principals, but still does not attract majority support among either group.
Finding Five: School Leaders Want Better Data and Fewer Mandates
It would be hard to deny that school leaders face enormous challenges. They are charged with raising academic standards, closing achievement gaps between minority and white students, improving teaching, and making sure American students are prepared for a rapidly changing world. Asked what would help them, 7 in 10 superintendents and principals want to get student testing data in more useful and timely ways, and over two-thirds say they want fewer mandates and the bureaucracy and red tape associated with them. Relatively few (11 percent of superintendents and 16 percent of principals) say greater use of business practices would be "very effective" at improving school leadership. Most superintendents (61 percent) and principals (66 percent) also say their own training is out-of-date. Interestingly, principals are more likely to think they should be held accountable for increasing student achievement than they were several years ago. In 2001, only a third of principals (34 percent) considered this a good idea. Today, over half (55 percent) do. However, significant numbers of principals (44 percent) say they either don't have enough authority to do a good job (6 percent) or don't have enough to be fully effective (38 percent).
