Stats That Stick: October 12, 2011

Numbers of pages in new No Child Left Behind Act bill: 865
Senior Senate Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa released a draft of a sprawling revision of the No Child Left Behind education law on Tuesday that would dismantle the provisions of the law that used standardized test scores in reading and math to label tens of thousands of public schools as failing. The 865-page bill, filed by Senator Harkin, who heads the Senate education committee, became the first comprehensive piece of legislation overhauling the law to reach either Congressional chamber since President George W. Bush signed it in 2002. Mr. Harkin made his draft bill public 18 days after President Obama announced that he would use executive authority to waive the most onerous provisions of the law, because he had all but given up hope that Congress could fix the law’s flaws any time soon. Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: October 12, 2011

The New York Times and every other national news outlet reported on senior Senate Democrat Tom Harkin’s released draft of a sprawling revision of the No Child Left Behind education law on Tuesday that would dismantle the provisions of the law that used standardized test scores in reading and math to label tens of thousands of public schools as failing. The 865-page bill, filed by the Iowa Democrat who heads the Senate education committee, became the first comprehensive piece of legislation overhauling the law to reach either Congressional chamber since President George W. Bush signed it in 2002.

The Washington Post reported that Harkin’s plan to revamp the main federal education law immediately drew fire from civil rights groups that argued it would ease pressure on schools to provide quality education to all children, regardless of race or income. Further, Education Week   reported the accountability system at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act would be completely reinvented under the draft reauthorization proposal.

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Afternoon Announcements: October 11, 2011

An early draft of a Senate committee's sweeping rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act rolls back major accountability provisions of the law's current form, known as No Child Left Behind. The bill would require states to develop their own standards for student performance with little federal oversight, according to language obtained by The Huffington Post.

Education Week reports Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., a former Denver schools chief, arrived in Congress hoping to bring his on-the-ground expertise working in a large school district to ESEA reauthorization. This week, he'll have the chance when Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduces his ESEA reauthorization plan.

According to Education Week, Race to the Top, the competitive grant program first created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, would become an authorized part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, under a draft of Senate education leaders' reauthorization proposal circulating around Washington. So far, states have split a total of $4 billion in Race to the Top grants, which further some of the Obama administration's top school reform priorities The draft language would allow grants to go to high-need districts in addition to states, and also to groups of states, or groups of high-need districts.

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Morning Announcements: October 7, 2011

According to the Chicago News Cooperative, the gap between the number of minority teachers in Chicago’s public schools and minority student enrollment has widened over the last decade, but one school is working to change that by preparing the next generation of teachers. Wells Community Academy High School, where the racial breakdown of students is almost evenly split between African-Americans and Hispanics, more than 60 students are participating in a teacher training program that gets them to the front of the classroom years before most aspiring teachers.

The Huffington Post and Education Week both wrote about how Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc. who died Wednesday after a battle with cancer at age 56, help revolutionized technology in the classroom. In a time of educational debate and shuffling nationwide, a college dropout, businessman and paragon of technological innovation emerged as an inadvertent, but forceful, momentum for an educational revolution around the world.

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October 4 Issue of Straight A's Is Available

The October 4, 2011 issue of Straight A's, the Alliance's biweekly newsletter, is now available. This week's issue focuses on NCLB waivers, federal education funding, an Alliance report on teacher induction, and more.

Individual articles from this week's issue are listed below, or you can download a .pdf of the entire newsletter here.

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Afternoon Announcements: October 4, 2011

Education Week reports Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is the latest state leader to come forward with his own ambitious plan to change education policy, one that would make dramatic changes to how teachers advance in the field and are compensated for their work. The Republican governor, who returned to office last year after previously serving in the post from 1983 to 1999, unveiled a detailed proposal for a system to pay teachers on four tiers, and offer a bump in pay for beginning educators. The Des Moines Register reports that democrats seem to be on board with his plan.

Despite new momentum lately, it doesn't look like Congress will get around to renewing the No Child Left Behind Act by the end of this year, according to Education Week. But it's (almost) a sure bet that lawmakers will be looking to reshape the programs in the U.S. Department of Education, either by eliminating some, or by consolidating smaller programs into broader funding streams.

The Huffington Post reports that when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the Obama administration's reforms to teacher training programs before the D.C.-based think tank Education Sector last Friday, he was joined by an unlikely partner: Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association. The National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the country, has warred with the Obama administration in the past, going as far as adopting a resolution this summer that took on the title, "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan."

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Morning Announcements: September 30, 2011

According to the Huffington Post, House Republicans on Thursday unveiled plans to cut federal money for job training, heating subsidies and grants to better-performing schools. The draft measure for labor, health and education programs also seeks to block implementation of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, cut off federal funds for National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood, and reduce eligibility for grants for low-income college students.

After months of negotiations, it's finally happening: The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has set a date to take up a bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act., according to Education Week. The markup is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 2:30 p.m. No details yet on the actual legislation, but it's the product of 10 months of negotiations between U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the committee chairman, and Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming, the top Republican. Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: September 29, 2011

Education Week reports that the Republicans running for president may be working to stand out from the pack on some issues, but it already appears that most of the nine current candidates are largely united when it comes to K-12 policy: They want to dramatically shrink the federal role. Some candidates, including Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Ron Paul of Texas, are outspoken in saying they want to see the U.S. Department of Education scrapped.

On Friday, Education Sector is hosting the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at 9am at the Capital Hilton in DC, where he’ll announce a new plan for teacher education reform.

According to Education Week, several high-profile teacher-training and -professional-development groups that recently lost federal set-asides—from Teach For America to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards—will have an opportunity to recapture some of that funding under the terms of a newly unveiled $25 million federal competition.

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Moneyball or Moneylearning?

I admit, after nearly 15 years in the field I have grown a bit tired of all the metaphors we try to apply to education. I can’t help but roll my eyes when I hear someone say the No Child Left Behind act forces all kids to jump over a high bar in track, or something like that. For the record, asking all kids to be prepared for college and career is NOT the same as asking random athletic feats of them. Or some advocates claim that education should be more like medicine, that doctors train for years in clinical settings,  have a general level of shared content knowledge, and are in touch with the latest research. Yes, doctors study longer, and yes, doctors engage in long, work-based learning that would be a great model for teachers. But news flash: the quality of care you get varies greatly by which doctor you go to. For example, in the pediatric field, some doctors are on board with delayed vaccinations schedules, some are in tune with the latest developments in detecting autism, and some are not. If you get cancer, are you going to just go to your local hospital or are you going to check out all your options, and if you can afford it, get checked out at Sloan Kettering or Mayo Clinic? And yup, low-income families are disadvantaged in health care, too.

That being said, when I saw the new movie Moneyball this weekend I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the film and education. The movie is based on the true story of Billy Beane, a Major League Baseball general manager played by Brad Pitt who built a winning team on a tiny budget by using statistical data to find the best and cheapest players.

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Morning Announcements: September 27, 2011

According to the New York Times, a report that is set to be released on Tuesday shows the percentage of students making it to the finish line at college is barely budging despite ever-increasing enrollment in college. The group, Complete College America, is a nonprofit founded two years ago with financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation and others. Its report, which had the cooperation of 33 governors, showed how many of the students in states completed their degrees, broken down into different categories, including whether enrollment is full- or part-time, or at a two- or four-year institution.

Over objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill, President Obama is making it clear he will proceed with his blueprint education reform and an overhaul of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. And this time, Mr. Obama will have some bipartisan cover, as many Republican governors are backing his approach, according to the Washington Times.

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