Article in the Atlantic Monthly Worth a Read

The story, Your Child Left Behind, by Amanda Ripley is about a recent study authored by Stanford economist Eric Hanushek and two of his colleagues. The report tests what the Hanushek calls the “diversity excuse” or the phenomenon of parents believing that although their public schools are in poor shape their kids are doing just fine. Here is an excerpt from the article:

These days, the theory Hanushek hears most often is what we might call the diversity excuse. When he runs into his neighbors at Palo Alto coffee shops, they lament the condition of public schools overall, but are quick to exempt the schools their own kids attend. “In the litany of excuses, one explanation is always, ‘We’re a very heterogeneous society—all these immigrants are dragging us down. But our kids are doing fine,’” Hanushek says. This latest study was designed, in part, to test the diversity excuse.

To do this, Hanushek, along with Paul Peterson at Harvard and Ludger Woessmann at the University of Munich, looked at the American kids performing at the top of the charts on an international math test. (Math tests are easier to normalize across countries, regardless of language barriers; and math skills tend to better predict future earnings than other skills taught in high school.)

Morning Announcements: October 18, 2010

Last Thursday, Baltimore teachers rejected a contract that would have provided six-figure salaries for an elite corps but would have tied the pay of all educators to how they perform in the classroom. Of the rejected proposal, the Washington Post editorial board writes, “it's farfetched to hold the proposal out as a groundbreaking model for the nation… The real model for national reform is the Washington, D.C., teachers contract negotiated by Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. It took her three years and scads of money, but she got union leaders to agree to rules that prevent the last hired from being the first fired, empower principals and reward teachers most capable of lifting student achievement.”

Middle and high school classes will get tougher as part of an effort Houston ISD officials announced Friday to help persuade thousands of families to keep their children in the state's largest district, according to the Houston Chronicle. 

Report Round-Up: Friday, October 15, 2010

Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First Year Student Attrition in America’s Four Year Colleges and Universities from the American Institutes for Research. Nationally, only about 60 percent of students graduate from four-year colleges and universities within six years. This analysis AIR vice president Mark Schneider finds that more than $9 billion was spent by state and federal governments to support students at four-year colleges and universities who left school before their sophomore year during a five-year period. 

White Paper: Next Generation Learning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This white paper outlines how technology can help students and educators dramatically improve student outcomes, both in high schools and in postsecondary education.

Cutting to the Bone: How the Economic Crisis Affects Schools from the Center for Public Education.  According to this report, although the recession technically ended last year, budgets for LEAs nationwide will likely not reach pre-recession levels until late in the decade.

Morning Announcements: October 8, 2010

The Minnesota Post reports that underperforming MPS schools try longer days but experts say success will depend on how the extra time is spent.

The Las Vegas Sun reports on the life of homeless students in Clark County School District.

In the Wall Street Journal chairman and CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch explains how American Idol has tougher standards than the American school system.

The Washington Post editorial board reflects on the Education Jobs Fund writing, “So urgent was the supposed need for Congress to forestall a catastrophic loss of teacher jobs that the House was called back from its summer recess and money looted from the food stamp program. That money is now flowing to the states, but since, for many, the crisis was less dramatic than had been described, local school districts are now looking for creative ways to use the money. Let's hope that they are smarter than those who engineered this boondoggle and that they do not waste taxpayer dollars on programs that can't be sustained or policies that don't work.”

Morning Announcements: August 3, 2010

Yesterday California and Colorado adopted the common core state standards, just in time before the Race to the Top deadline to adopt standards passed (see page 7 of the scoring rubric).

In Ohio, parents look to e-schools for an alternative education for their children. To learn more about the benefits of online learning, read the Alliance’s paper, The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education.

As required under NCLB, states are releasing their federally mandated performance ratings for public schools. Read how Oregon, Alabama, Idaho, and New Mexico are faring. In Louisiana, families are using this information to decide whether their children should stay at public schools or sign-up instead for taxpayer-paid private tutoring.

As Education Week reported a few weeks back, the weak economy is forcing many states to scale back on their scholarship programs. Looks like Georgia is one of the many states feeling the heat.

Education officials in Massachusetts consider the correlation between schools with weak academic performance and those with large influxes and exoduses of students, according to the Boston Globe.

The Union Leader reports that New Hampshire will receive $10 in School Improvement Grants to turn around the worst improving schools, including  five high schools.