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Showing posts from January, 2010

Jumping to Conclusions

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In a recent post on Education Week 's Inside School Research blog, Debra Viadero offers a caution about President Obama's support for community colleges. Pointing to her recent article on community college research that indicated how much more we need to know about how best to improve completion rates in that sector, she questions whether the president would be wiser to place his bets on career colleges. She says that a recent study by the Educational Policy Institute (EPI) and an ongoing program of research by James Rosenbaum and colleagues support her contention that community colleges ought to take cues from career colleges. In my opinion, this talented reporter is jumping to conclusions. Yes, the graduation rates at two-year for-profit colleges exceed those at two-year public colleges. No one disputes that. That does not necessarily mean, however, that career colleges are outperforming community colleges, or that community colleges should take steps to become more like

State Teacher Policies Suck!

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I'm sure glad that Kate Walsh and company weren't my professors in college. Damn! They are tough graders! With the exception of eight southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas) that received a 'C' and three northern states (Maine, Montana, Vermont) that received a 'F', every U.S. state received some version of a 'D' in the latest edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's State Teacher Policy Yearbook . In grading the states, the authors look at five broad teacher quality areas (and numerous metrics within them): teacher preparation, expanding the pool of teachers, identifying effective teachers, retaining effective teachers, and exiting ineffective teachers. While it is easy to poke holes at some of the National Council on Teacher Quality's seemingly ideologically-driven work (such as, I believe, its excessive focus on teacher pensions), much of its state policy analysis has a st

Making SAFRA Count

The end of last year was a busy time for me as I waited out the birth of my daughter who decided to spend an extra 10 days lounging in utero before emerging into the Wisconsin winter. I was so focused on strategies to promote her exit (sidenote: talk about an area in need of better research-give gobs of data on live births for hundreds of years, docs still refuse to hazard a prediction of labor occurring on any given night!), I virtually shut out the world of higher education policy. Imagine! Thankfully, others were hard at work around and over the holidays, thinking about ways to make sure that the substantial, timely, and hard-won investment which will (fingers crossed) soon come to higher education via the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) are most effective. Evidence of that work is contained in a December Lumina Foundation memorandum to the U.S. Department of Education, awkwardly (but accurately) titled "Structuring the Distribution of New Federal Higher Educ

Goren Named New Director of Chicago Consortium

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The Consortium for Chicago School Research just named a new Executive Director to replace John Easton who left to become director of the Institute for Education Sciences. CCSR made a wise choice in selecting Paul Goren , until now a senior VP at the Spencer Foundation. I've done a lot of work with CCSR over the last few years, and been enormously impressed with their staff. I've also had the chance to interact with Paul, and believe he'll fit right in. He's firmly committed to improving urban education, and is willing to ask the hard, insightful questions required to make that happen. Bravo, CCSR!

When Pigs Fly

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It's not often I agree with the Wall Street Journal editorial page, but I guess pigs are flying today. The WSJ 's take, in today's editorial (" Race To The Middle? "), on how the Race to the Top selection process should occur is on the mark: To qualify, Mr. Duncan said states had to, among other things, lift caps on charter schools and remove barriers to using student records to identify good teachers and reward them. He's also said that "there will be a lot more losers than winners." That's a good sign, but Mr. Duncan will be tempted to give more states less money in order to minimize political blow back and in the name of getting all states to make at least some, minimal progress. This is the Lake Wobegon school of education reform, where every state is above average.... But Race to the Top shouldn't be about rewarding a state for its grant-writing. It should use federal leverage to help remove barriers that stand in the way of state and l

D-Day

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Today is the deadline for state applications in the first round of the Race to the Top grant competition. The easy prognostication to make is that the vast majority of the 39 states (and DC) that apply will have their initial applications rejected and all will reapply in round two, due in June. Most will fail then, too. Despite the publicly released application scoring rubric , it is difficult to know exactly how the application scoring will play out, based upon who the reviewers are, whether Gates Foundation consultant funding helped certain states frame more compelling applications, stated or implicit pressures to fund only a certain number of applications (especially in round one), the importance lent to district and union buy-in from an implementation and sustainability perspective, and the strength of big-state applications versus small-state applications. To the latter point, there's ONLY $4 billion to be spread around, and the largest states could suck up as much as $700 mi

Excuses, Excuses...

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Sara and I were talking in the car yesterday on the way to a very good children's museum in Rockford, Ilinois and bemoaning the fact that our blog doesn't have much thoughtful or updated content. Now, we have a ready excuse for that: Annie . All I've been able to muster lately are some cursory Race to the Top updates . Nonetheless, our recent inclusion among the "Best Education Blogs for 2010" by the Washington Post 's Jay Mathews and Valerie Strauss puts us in the mindset of wanting to live up to our billing. Give us some time - and we'll deliver. -Liam

Updates on the Race: 01-15-2010

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Round-one applications are due on January 19, 2010... CALIFORNIA Bay Area schools are Racing to the Top ( Contra Costa Times ) ILLINOIS 70 percent of districts on board ( Peoria Journal Star ) IOWA RttT bills on the Legislature's agenda today ( Des Moines Register Iowa Politics blog) Seven largest school districts oppose Governor's plans ( Des Moines Register ) KENTUCKY Governor signs low-performing schools bill ( Louisville Courier-Journal ) MASSACHUSETTS Sweeping education bill passes legislature ( Boston Globe ) NEW YORK Unions opposing charter cap lift ( New York Post ) RHODE ISLAND No agreement between state, teachers' unions ( Providence Journal ) TENNESSEE Bill advances in House, headed for Senate vote ( The Tennessean ) TEXAS Editorial: Governor Perry is all 'rhetoric' ( Houston Chronicle ) Op-ed: Perry's 'smokescreen' ( The Dallas Morning News blog) UTAH Three fourths of school districts on board ( The Salt Lake Tribune ) WASHINGTO

Updates on the Race: 01-14-2010

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COLORADO RttT bill is fast-tracked ( Denver Post ) CONNECTICUT 75 school districts on board ( New Haven Register ) ILLINOIS Legislation revamps teacher evaluations; governor's signature expected ( The State Journal-Register ) INDIANA 93% of school districts join Race (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ) IOWA Senate approves RttT bill ( Des Moines Register ) KENTUCKY Governor signs low-performing schools bill ( Louisville Courier-Journal ) MASSACHUSETTS School bill ready for final vote ( Boston Globe ) MICHIGAN State teacher's union won't sign onto application ( The Detroit News ) MINNESOTA Over 250 districts, charter schools on board ( Star News ) NEBRASKA Governor: State's $122 million application includes 'Virtual High School' ( Omaha World-Herald ) OREGON 112 school districts on board ( Statesman Journal ) PENNSYLVANIA Requiring local school board and union sign-off ( Education Week Teacher Beat) Editorial: Flexibility should accompany call for innovati

Updates on the Race: 01-13-2010

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NATIONAL AFT chief vows to revise teacher-dismissal process ( Education Week ) Strong applications versus stakeholder support? (Flypaper) RttT fire drills ignore the fact that 52% 0f state application is based on PAST reform and achievement (Eduflack) ALABAMA Governor Riley links charters, Race chances ( Dothan Eagle ) FLORIDA 53 of 67 school districts on board; only 5 with union backing ( Orlando Sentinel School Zone blog) GEORGIA Governor Purdue pitches performance pay ( Atlanta Journal Constitution blog) ILLINOIS Bill to strengthen educator evaluations passes state House ( The State Journal-Register ) IOWA Legislation needed to boost state's competitiveness ( Des Moines Register ) Governor Culver presses for RttT legislation in State of the State ( Des Moines Register blog) Bill passes first legislative hurdle ( Des Moines Register blog) KENTUCKY House passes low-performing schools bill ( Louisville Courier-Journal ) LOUISIANA State board endorses application ( T

Updates on the Race: 01-11-2010

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Playing catch up following the holidays and the birth of our second child ... here are the major Race to the Top updates a week before round 1 applications are due on January 19th... NATIONAL 39 States and DC to apply in round one (U.S. Department of Education) 'Race To Top' Viewed as Template for a New ESEA ( Education Week ) 'Race To Top' Driving Policy Action Across States ( Education Week ) Two State Unions Balking at 'Race To Top' Plans ( Education Week ) CALIFORNIA Assembly passes reform bill ( Sacramento Bee ) Governor signs bill to improve state eligibility in Race; opposed by teachers' unions ( Los Angeles Times ) Governor seeks to ease teacher firings ( Los Angeles Times ) COLORADO Summary of state plan ( INDenver Times ) FLORIDA Unions: State RttT plan is 'fatally flawed' ( Orlando Sentinel ) Editorial: Unions must not walk ( Miami Herald ) Editorial: Racing to the top ( Orlando Sentinel ) ILLINOIS Editorial: State legislature t
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The Newest Optimist

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Happy New Year! Liam and I are taking a bit of a break from blogging to spend time with the newest Education Optimist-- Annie Lucille Rae Goldrick! Annie joined our family on January 2, 2010, and is already a vigorous contender for the title of newest blogger in the family. She is a strong girl (weighing in at nearly 8 1/2 pounds) and has plenty to say on nearly every topic. Expect us to return in a week or two...in the meantime, enjoy life! We sure are. Sara