Education News: May 1, 2009

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending May 1, 2009.

Charter Schools and Unionized Schools Both Have Their Pros and Cons
(New York Times, April 20, 2009)  As the number of charter schools continue to grow, relations with unions range from tentative partnerships to hostile combat.  Currently, KIPP AMP, a charter middle school in Crown Heights, is deciding whether or not to unionize.  Teachers caught in the middle have to weigh the freedom for innovation associated with charter schools against the clarity of expectations and consequences that comes with unionizing.  Charter schools often fear that unions will impede their growth, while unions claim they just want to help teachers obtain fair pay and establish clear guidelines.  Union supporters often worry that charter schools take advantage of young teachers’ seemingly endless energy, only to burn them out after several years.

Uncertain Stimulus Bill Funding Leads to Layoff Limbo for Many Teachers
(Christian Science Monitor, April 21, 2009)  While educators are thrilled as the $100 billion begins to flow into schools, it has put many of them in an awkward position.  With exact funding figures still unknown to districts, many teachers wait in anticipation to see if they will retain their positions.  Even while pink slips are being handed out, administrators hope to receive funds in order to save the positions in time for the next school year.  School districts are caught in a tension between saving positions, funding reform efforts and yet avoiding becoming too dependent on a funding stream due to dry up in two years.  Absent the stimulus, an estimated 574,000 K-12 jobs would have been lost by 2011, which would have been 9% of the field.  It will be a while until anyone can estimate how many jobs the stimulus truly saves.

Economic Impact of Poor Schooling is Far Worse Than That of Current Recession
(New York Times, April 22, 2009)  A recently released report found that the negative economic impact of the lagging performance of American school children, particularly among poor and minority students, has been far greater than the impact of the current recession.  The study, conducted by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, concluded that if the nations various achievement gaps could be closed, the yearly gross domestic product of the United States would be trillions of dollars higher.  The firm claimed that the report was not commissioned by any government, business or other institution.  NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington.  He pointed to some of the schools that were high achieving, despite being high needs, to vindicate the idea that sub par teachers and administrators, as opposed to location or funding, are the root of the problem.  The study showed that the gap in test performance between white and Hispanic students increases by 41% from Grade 4 through 12, and by 22% between white and black students.  The federal secretary of education Arne Duncan stated that the results demonstrated the needs for robust data systems to track student and teacher performance, alignment of American standards with those in other countries, and incentives to keep good teachers and principals.

California’s Exit Exam Shows “Stereotype Threat” Amongst Other Failings
(San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 2009)  Supporters of the high-stakes California exit exam expected that it would boost student performance.  Opponents feared it would cause a sharp rise in the dropout rate.  After a decade, it turns out that neither was correct.  Instead, the results showed that girls and students of color performed markedly worse on the exams, despite performing just as well on other statewide tests.  This seems to demonstrate the well documented phenomenon of a “stereotype threat” in which students are more susceptible to negative stereotypes due to external factors such as stress.  The test did push graduation rates down as an estimated 20,000 of California's 475,000 seniors did not graduate each year because of the exit exam., but dropout rates prior to finishing twelfth grade remained constant.

National Graduation Rates Remain Dismally Low Despite Gains in Most Big Cities
(USA Today, April 23, 2009)  A recent national study showed that while the graduation rate has improved in the majority of America’s big cities, the rate remains dreadfully low as one in four students drop out before receiving a diploma.  Major gains were made in Philadelphia, PA., Tucson, AZ., and Kansas City, Mo. over the past decade, as graduation rates rose by 20 percentage points or more.  That being said, only half the kids graduate in the nation’s fifty biggest cities on average.  19 cities lost ground, such as Las Vegas, which saw its graduation rate drop twenty-three percentage points to 44.5%. The study was released by America's Promise Alliance and measured progress from 1995 to 2005, the most recent year for which comprehensive data was available from the Education Department.

Support for New Teachers Key To Successful Careers
(Washington Post, April 27, 2009)  Over the past two decades, support initiatives have expanded at schools in an effort to address the cycle of attrition that fills some of the neediest schools with some of the least-prepared teachers.  Mentoring is an unheralded but pervasive reform that has increased in popularity over the past twenty years to stop the exodus of teachers leaving the profession or moving to lower-needs schools.  In several districts around Washington, DC, full-time mentors are dispatched from a central office to observe a new teacher's lessons and to offer tips.  Good induction and mentoring programs have well-documented success, but many are under-funded and current budget woes leave many of these programs vulnerable.

Cleveland Doctors and Lawyers Join Forces to Fight for Special Needs Students
(Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 27, 2009)  In Cleveland, pediatricians at MetroHealth Medical Center are referring families to nearby Legal Aid lawyers if they believe a patient has a learning disability.  The lawyers in turn pressure the school to provide often costly services for the student.  The collaboration began in 2002 and is known as the Community Advocacy Program.  The program took on thirty-seven special education cases in 2006 and jumped up to 117 cases last year.  Following Cleveland’s example, such cooperation now exists in eighty U.S. cities.  While special education is its number one concern, the program helps poor people of all ages to lead healthy, productive lives. 

Federal Test Shows Achievement Gap Remains as Wide as Ever
(New York Times, April 28, 2009)  A recent federal test showed that the achievement gap between white and minority students hasn’t narrowed since the test was last administered in 2004.  The test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is considered to be the nation’s best measure of long-term trends in math and reading proficiency.  This news comes as a blow to supporters of No Child Left Behind, which was designed specifically to narrow the achievement gap.  While scores of minority students did improve, they merely kept pace with scores from white students, which also improved.  The results are likely to spark debate regarding how President Obama’s administration should handle the law when it comes up for reauthorization later this year.  Margaret Spellings, the nation’s secretary of education under George W. Bush, claims the results demonstrate the success of the law.  She pointed to the improvement in scores for nine- and thirteen-year-old students, which she said is NCLB’s target age group.  
Additional Article on the Improved Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2009)

Number of Students Discharged Before Graduation Continues to Climb
(New York Times, April 29, 2009)  Six years ago, a lawsuit forced New York City to keep better track of students who leave public schools without graduating.  The public advocate’s office recently released a report which raises questions about why 17.5% of students were discharged in 2000, compared to over 20% in 2007.  Discharged is the term for students who leave the school system without graduating.  Much of the increase has come from ninth graders, whose discharge rate rose from 3.8% in 2000 to 7.5% in 2007.  While there are many benign reasons for a discharge, such as moving out of the city or transferring to a private school, the Education Department has been sued several times for pushing out struggling students.  This can be done to help raise a school’s test-score averages and graduation rates.  David Cantor, a spokesman for the City Education Department, said that the report was note-worthy, but that the increases merely reflected that the student population often moves in and out of the city.  He also pointed out that the city’s graduation rates and discharges have been audited annually by Ernst & Young.  The report was written by Jennifer L. Jennings, a doctoral student at Columbia University, and Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters.

Budget Constraints Cause Field Trip Cancellations Nationwide
(USA Today, April 29, 2009)  In the face of budget shortfalls across the country, many schools are doing away with educationally beneficial but expendable programs like fieldtrips.  Eliminating excursions outside of the classroom can help save on gas prices, insurance liability and admission fees.  While the situation is not ideal, most agree that it is better than layoffs for teachers and staff.  Some schools have cancelled all school trips for the remainder of this year and others have begun to cancel next year’s trips as well.

300 Schools Nationwide Close Due to Fears of Swine Flu
(Washington Post, April 30, 2009)  Recent fears regarding swine flu caused 300 schools across the nation to close on Thursday.  Education and health officials are working in tandem to calm worried parents and to figure out the best course of action.  The bulk of closures were in Texas, where the 147-school Fort Worth system closed after the confirmation of one case of swine flu at one campus, and probable cases at three others.  Schools in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties with probable flu cases both decided to remain open under advice from health officials, but many parents decided to keep their children home anyway.  The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given guidance but says that the decision should be made on a case by case basis after consulting with local health officials.

Californians Against Raising Taxes for Education Despite Concerns About Quality
(San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 2009)  A new statewide survey revealed that Californians are feeling less generous than in the past about giving schools more money.  They do remain deeply concerned about public education and most want school funding to be protected in the budget.  Instead of raising taxes, however, they would like schools to work to do a better job with the funds they have.  The survey was done by the Public Policy Institute of California and included responses from over 2,500 adults.  Those who want schools to use money more wisely jumped from 37% in 2007 to 49% in 2009.  Additionally, the percentage of people willing to raise their own taxes to pay more for education has dropped from 67% to 48%.