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January 2, 2009 How Mr. Obama should emulate Nixon Writing in The New York Times, Matt Miller, a journalist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, takes on what he calls the "deeply ingrained" practice of local control and funding of schools that he says "is sinking us morally and economically." He urges President-elect Obama to take a cue from President Richard Nixon's commission on school funding, which issued a report recommending that states equalize financing disparities, and led Nixon's domestic policy staff to consider a national tax that distributed monies that reduced state and local property taxes while closing the financing gaps among school districts. Miller proposes a similar revenue-sharing plan that he says would increase federal contributions to local education by $80 to $100 billion a year. Miller also doubts that Mr. Obama's current plans to stimulate the economy by rebuilding rundown schools will fix the problems created by the very structure of American education financing. "The grim equation by which accident of birth determines educational quality in the United States is straightforward," he writes. "The poorer the district and the state, the lower the local tax base, with less money for students. No other advanced nation tolerates such inequities." Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28miller.html Chicago schools may give insight to Duncan's upcoming tenure at ED A look at Arne Duncan's record as head of the Chicago Public Schools may indicate the direction of federal school reform as Duncan heads to Washington to serve as Secretary of Education, writes The Washington Post. Many educators in Chicago say Duncan has successfully upended a counterproductive school culture in the high-poverty district, the third largest in the nation, and done so with little organized opposition beyond minor confrontations with the teacher union. Central to his reconfiguration of the Chicago schools have been his support for charter schools, an emphasis on teacher mentoring, performance-pay pilots in struggling schools, and his willingness to close and re-staff schools that have failed entirely. What sets Duncan apart, education experts said, is his willingness to embrace a range of reforms and his ability to work with people who hold diverging, often conflicting views on how to fix schools. This will be essential as the Obama administration and Congress grapple with high expectations and the imperative to overhaul an education system widely viewed as failing and in disarray. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122902672.html?hpid=topnews Groups call for education overhaul based on international benchmarks Three organizations representing governors and state educators have issued a report that outlines ways that states can contribute to the rebuilding of the U.S. education system, reports the U.S. News & World Report. The National Governors Association (NGA), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and Achieve Inc. have released "Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education," which recommends that states adopt common academic expectations linked to the best international teaching practices imported from high-performing countries, and use these same practices to improve textbooks, recruit better teachers, and increase school accountability. By way of example, the report cites the fact that the curriculum for a typical American eighth grader studies is two full years behind the curriculum for students in top-performing countries. The report also criticizes American textbooks, which it describes as tending to be "laundry-lists" of topics, imparting curricula that are "a mile wide and an inch deep." Read more: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/12/19/influential-groups-lay-out-road-map-for-improving-us-education.html See the report: http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0812BENCHMARKING.PDF Colorado district will eliminate grade levels A struggling Colorado school district has decided to eliminate grade levels, The Denver Post reports, and instead group students based on what they know. The standards-based model, which allows students to advance when they have proved proficiency, is currently in use in some districts in Alaska but has yet to be tested in the lower 48 and in a district of this size and with this profile. The Adams 50 district has 10,000 students and 21 schools, serving a working-class suburb north of Denver. Seventy-two percent of its students qualify for federal meal benefits, two-thirds are Latino, and 38 percent are learning English. Two years ago the district was put on academic watch because of achievement troubles, and fewer than 60 percent of its students graduate on time. Superintendent Roberta Selleck, who was hired in 2006 to reform the district, says that current practice isn't working, but "in a standards-based system, time becomes the variable and learning is the constant. Learning becomes much more 24-7." The district has spent the year defining the standards for each level, training teachers, and working with state officials to create assessments, and students will take the Colorado Student Assessment Program annually to monitor individual and school-wide progress. Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11280071 BRIEFLY NOTED Many Iraqi refugee children are still out of school By some estimates, writes Mary Ann Zehr on her Education Week blog, four out of five of the Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and Syria are still not attending school. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2008/12/many_iraqi_refugee_children_ar.html L.A. can use race as factor in magnet schools The L.A. Unified School District can continue to seek racial balance in assigning tens of thousands of students to specialized magnet schools despite California's 1996 voter-approved ban on race preferences in government programs. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/22/BA1814RGSM.DTL Child neglect cases multiply as economic woes spread As the economic downturn takes its toll on struggling families, child welfare workers are seeing a marked rise in child abuse and neglect cases, with increases of more than 20 percent in some jurisdictions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801726.html QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I read with interest the president-elect's appointment of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Mr. Duncan may in fact be the right man for the job, but if the president-elect and his new secretary really wish to fix public education, they need only push through one change: It is hereby illegal for any member of Congress to send his or her children to any nonpublic elementary, junior or senior high school. What do you think? My guess is the whole system would be fixed over the weekend.” -John. M. Ogle, "When the Sauce is Only for the Goose". Letter to The Wall Street Journal. (12/19/2008) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122973328780723203.html The PEN Weekly NewsBlast, published by Public Education Network, is a free electronic newsletter featuring resources and information about public school reform, school finance, and related issues. The NewsBlast is the property of Public Education Network, a national association of 79 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities throughout the nation. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast may change or expire after their initial publication here, and some links may require local website registration. People wishing to add a NewsBlast subscription can go to PEN's website (http://www.publiceducation.org) and follow the instructions in the lower left-hand section of the homepage. Current subscribers can unsubscribe by clicking the appropriate link near the bottom of the NewsBlast mailing. If you use spam filters to protect your inbox, you may wish to take a moment right now to add PEN@publiceducation.org to your e-mail address book, spam-software whitelist, or mail-system whitelist. Adding the address will help ensure that you receive the NewsBlast and that your e-mail software displays HTML and images properly. Public Education Network |
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