Private vs. Public

An email from a Maine school superintendent: "John, can you in a few sentences tell me how a private charter school is funded and governed differently that a public charter school?" I think so...depends on what is meant by a "few sentences" and by "private charter school."

A private school is a private school: parents pay tuition, the school selects which kids are accepted and which are not. Hyde School, North Yarmouth Academy, The Center for Teaching and Learning. A public school is, in theory at least, open to any child who lives in the area which that public school serves - and that applies to public charter schools as well. No examples in Maine, 4,936 examples in 40 other states.

Public charter schools are, according to National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:

"independent public schools that are allowed the freedom to be more innovative, while being held accountable for improved student achievement.

• tuition-free and open to every student who wishes to enroll

• non-sectarian, and do not discriminate on any basis

• publicly funded by local, state and federal tax dollars based on enrollment, like other public schools

• held accountable to state and federal academic standards"

While that should be straightforward, it is not.

Some states allow schools that have previously operated as private schools

Read more »

Questions about Rural Charters

Nancy from New Sweden, Maine writes with some wonderfully thoughtful questions. Click here to find out where New Sweden is, and it'll give you some idea of the challenges rural schools face.

Here's what I could cobble together for context: New Sweden is part of the four town School Administrative Unit 122 that consists of two K-8 schools; Woodland's serves 132 kids and and New Sweden's serves 82, both including pre-K. The schools are 8 miles apart.

Though it's not clear from the website, I'm assuming students in grades 9-12 attend either Caribou High School or the K-12 Limestone Community School, both roughly 10 miles away and part of Eastern Aroostook RSU, a recently consolidated district that also includes two primary schools, one serving pre-K through 2nd grade and another serving grades 3-5, a middle school and a high school. The schools "serve over 1600 students and employ 250 professionals," or one adult for every 6.5 kids.

An interesting side note is that Limestone shares it's facility with the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, an application-only magnet school serving 130 students grades 10-12 from across Maine. MSSM is publicly financed, but is independent from any individual school district.

On to Nancy's questions:

How would it be determined if the schools produce "quality opportunities and results"? How long would they be given to show those results? And compared to what (if only as they're relevant to kids and families in town, then why are we looking at state/national results now?)

Read more »

Rural Charter Schools work!

This story from Oregon gives lots of hope for those in small communities in Maine that may, or in some cases already have, seen their schools close.

"With dwindling enrollment and a state funding crisis, Hughes told community members the 130-student K-12 school -- split between two buildings -- would likely have to close its doors within two to three years. Now, nearly three years later, Elkton has new computers, new curriculum and materials and nearly 80 new students.

What changed? Elkton became a charter school."

Read more »

Charter schools suddenly 'relevant'

The charter school meeting hosted by the Maine Association of Charter Schools did indeed make clear that charters are relevant and that they are likely to happen. The 50 or so folks gathered on Thursday represented a very broad spectrum - legislators, school superintendents and potential charter school operators.

What was most exciting about the meeting is the degree to which folks who might not be seen as allies on most issues were able to find genuine common ground on the need to innovate. I spoke with a newly elected Republican legislator and a long-time liberal activist who were agreeing word for word with each other on how a well-structured charter law could help meet the needs of the young people in their very similar towns.

What continues to be discouraging is the lack of sophistication of some of the public debate surrounding charters, which came through quite loudly in the Portland Press Herald's article. My problem here is not with Mr. Stone's reporting - he has to report what is being said, and did a much better job of highlighting some of the many variables, rather than just perpetuating the myths.

Read more »

Charter Forum in Augusta this Thursday

On Thursday, the Maine Association of Charter Schools is sponsoring a forum at the Augusta Civic Center to "1) share the key components of MACS' Charter School Bill as it is currently proposed; 2) solicit feedback from participants before the final language is drafted; and 3) provide a networking opportunity with people from across Maine and beyond interested in supporting a high-quality public charter school sector in Maine." Lots of statewide stakeholders will be there, as well as Todd Ziebarth of the National Association of Public Charter Schools, which created the national model charter law which I've referred to here several times.

Judith Jones and Roger Brainerd of MACS have flown the charter school flag in Maine for over 15 years now, coming quite close to passage several times. Joined recently by Dorothy Havey in the run-up to the election, MACS has written and re-written the proposed legislation many times. MACS has also built a coalition of legislators, parent advocates, and educators - all of whom see some promise in a law that enables PUBLIC school choice in Maine.

As with any coalition, folks come from a wide variety of perspectives and experiences - in my case, teaching in three Maine high schools (Noble, Freeport, and Poland); playing a variety of roles in several major school reinvention initiatives in Maine (CSRD, Great Schools Project); being part of the founding of two start-up public schools in Maine - Casco Bay High School in Portland and Poland Regional High School. My advocacy for PUBLIC charters is also informed by first-hand experience with charter schools in several states (Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York quite deeply, others less so). In addition, as a parent I've had my kids in three public schools systems (Brunswick, AOS 93, and Portland) one private school (the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb) and one public/private academy (Lincoln).

My overall critique, then, is meant in that context - NOT as a theoretical or ideological stance, but as a deeply practical one. Maine CAN educate more kids well with a combination of charters and traditional public schools. But, as we've seen in other states, a charter law can UNINTENTIONALLY create schools that, rather than serving the students MOST in need of options, do the opposite. Good intentions are rarely enough in the world of school reform. So here are my specific concerns, which I've shared with the folks at MACS and I have confidence we'll be able to work out as the bill makes it way into law.

Read more »

Response to MidCoast mom

First, thanks to Midcoast mom for writing - she articulates many of the questions many PARENTS have about charter schools and choice in general. Second, apologies for the more than week-long delay in responding - some irony in the fact that the work that has kept me from the blog for the past week is putting together a proposal for the very district in which she lives. So here goes - her writing in italics.

Hello – I’m a Mom in the Mid-coast area. I’ve been following this blog. I do feel that it would be nice for parents of children with special needs to have an option for their children in your school. I purchased my home in Woolwich specifically because we had high school choice, which we have since lost. We are now part of RSU 1.

Loss of school choice was one of the many deeply felt losses in the consolidation process - in fact, many communities essentially refused to combine unless the state approved a continuation of choice. AOS 93 and SVRSU 12, just up the coast from Woolwich, are two such districts.

For my children, I want a traditional education (grammar taught as a “subject”, traditional letter grades, standard math algorithms, traditional 45-50 minute high school classes, etc). My administration disagrees with me and tells me that “traditional education” doesn’t work in the 21st century. I don’t agree.

The beauty of true PUBLIC school choice is that families can, from among available options, send their kids to the school that works best for them. (That can also be a danger - more about that later.)

Read more »

Equity and fairness Maine's publicly chartered schools

The "chartered" with a "d" is deliberate for two reasons: for the first, see my earlier post, Charter as Verb: Innovation and Autonomy. The second reason is that it enables us to examine our existing system of schools as "publicly chartered" as well, and to ask the question: is the "charter" that our current schools negotiated with the towns they serve (in the case of our public/private academies 150 or more years ago) adequate? If not, might we consider a process of chartering new schools that might match up better with today's realities? Those realities are the ones our legislature will need to wrestle with, as this last group of Rep. Steve Lovejoy's questions makes clear.

Should we require that charter schools take a truly representative population that gives it the same demographics as the public schools they draw from? Should it include special education If not, aren't we creating an unequal field in terms of comparisons of the results of the schools?

Yes, we ABSOLUTELY should require that publicly chartered schools serve a truly representative population, including students with special needs. A less than carefully constructed charter law would exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, the class divisions in American K-12 schooling - where the gulf between what those of means and privilege have access to, is from birth on, ever-widening. A carefully constructed charter law can give public school students access to the types of approaches once thought to be the province only of private schools.

Each of the 6 or so Gates Foundation-linked start-ups I had some working experience with, including Casco Bay HS, built into its agreement with the host district or charter authorizer some version of the phrase, "replicates the demographics of the sending area."

Read more »

If we can't teach them, then neither can you.

Yesterday's post explored a potential chartered school bill in the context of Maine's recent consolidation initiative - and made the case that start-up small PUBLIC schools need to be a vital part of any next round. In addition to taking a another swipe or two at the black vs. white/public vs. charter argument, I also tried to shift the focus to the situation school districts find themselves in. Understanding that can help us rethink whether the schools we have are the schools we need. For instance, one of the situations that now presents something of a challenge but that could present an opportunity is the thriving but highly idiosyncratic landscape of school choice in Maine.

But before we delve into school choice, we should make clear the role played by some other choices we make, or don't. Not only is the real cost per student in most Maine systems SUBSTANTIALLY higher than in other states, but when you factor in the many dollars that are disbursed for the benefit of children through the social services and health care systems, every child who becomes WELL-educated at a publicly chartered school is a long-term bargain (or investment) for the state of Maine.

Read more »

Response to Rep. Steve Lovejoy

Apologies to Steve Lovejoy, State Representative for District 115 in Portland, for taking more than a week to respond. He wrote in response to the first of three entries I posted last week about what a LePage administration might mean for school reform.

His questions are the VERY questions the legislature is going to have to wrestle with. They required some time (and as you’ll see, some length) to address, time that disappeared during what became a very busy and exciting week for Maine Enterprise Schools. In each case, I've tried to link the theoretical to an actual Maine example. Rep. Lovejoy's word in italics.

While I appreciate your email, and still like the idea of charter schools, I have a real problem with how we can make it work. I'll look forward to the next three pieces. In terms of how to make that work, I would like to see you address several issues that concern me.

With ever shrinking enrollments in many areas of Maine, especially Northern Maine, will charter schools make the public schools even smaller and less financially feasible. Will it drive further school closures and consolidation? Will the shifting of funds make this inevitable?

Given that the current promoters say give it five year and if it doesn't work the charters will close, what schools will the students go back to if we have had to close more schools?

Should we require that charter schools take a truly representative population that gives it the same demographics as the public schools they draw from? Should it include special education? If not, aren't we creating an unequal field in terms of comparisons of the results of the schools?

The first question itself, "with ever shrinking enrollments in many areas of Maine, especially Northern Maine, will charter schools make the public schools even smaller and less financially feasible?" highlights a myth/misunderstanding that is at the core of Maine's inability to innovate. While the consolidation initiative in Maine largely accepted this as gospel, and while lots of folks, like the Maine Education Association, repeat this over and over, "making the public schools smaller" and "less financially feasible” are NOT cause and effect links.

Read more »

Harold Shaw

A response to Mr. Shaw's questions/comments: (Mr. Shaw in italics) 1. What tools do you propose to use for measurement? Do they more accurately measure the educational achievement that we all want to see, better than the present use of questionable assessments, that are being used today for that purpose. Or do you recommend the status quo on this important issue. We propose some very specific, "best-practice" standards-based assessment models. These neither accept the status quo nor reinvent the wheel. As to the "questionable assessments" (and from where I sit, every assessment is "questionable" - questioning is a good thing, right?) the various methods are all valuable - but more in how they inform instruction than in any translation to alphanumeric grading systems. Maine Enterprise Schools students will move from middle level to early high school to pre-college upon meeting standards, not age or seat-time, in three significant ways: standardized tests, online portfolio, and performance.

Read more »

Response to Comments

The article in Portland Press Herald this Saturday drew my attention to my work with Maine Enterprise Schools...just now getting a chance to reply to comments on last weeks. 3-part "What will Paul LePage's win mean for school reform in Maine?"

Will try to tackle Nancy's comment today (in italics below), the comments of Mr. Shaw tomorrow, and some superb questions from Portland legislator Steve Lovejoy on Thursday.

Not being part of any organization now, but formerly employed by MEA, I would strongly urge a different model than a single face-to-face summit. Maine is a large state (by eastern standards) and too many people who care about issues are left out of discussions because of travel concerns (weather, time, etc). A virtual summit that could be kept active and moderated for a relatively long period of time would be either a valuable (1) alternative or (2) addition.

Read more »

Time to Address Child Poverty and High Dropout Rates in Maine

From Brunswick Times Record, and superbly made case for looking not at educational and social costs differently - and for letting the brain science of the 21st century, rather than that of the 19th, inform our social and educational policies:

I have often wondered why, as a society, we find it so difficult to address crucial problems like child poverty, child neglect, high dropout rates and student underachievement. Instead, we grind and rattle our way down the road until the wheels fall off the cart. We are now at the breakdown point with regard to our at-risk kids, and the costs of doing business as usual are bankrupting us. Consider the following:

• On average 21 students in Maine drop out of school each day, with the class of 2009 estimated to have lost 3,800 kids.

• The societal cost for each high-school dropout is approximately $292,000, due to reduced wages and taxes, welfare and high health-care costs, and--as is all to often the case--the costs of incarceration.

• Dropouts are 3 1/2 times more likely to wind up in jail than non-dropouts.

Read more »

From words to action

As promised, a proposal for a process that can create healthy, effective, and swift progress creating an innovation infrastructure for Maine's schools. I'm sure I'll miss a few things - this is meant to be specific enough to be a real plan, but drafty enough to be adaptable and flexible (for instance, I learned yesterday that the Maine Association for Charter Schools plans to convene folks around charter schools, likely on Dec. 16....an event like that could easily fit into or be combined with the plan below.)

1) The Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education should convene an education summit – and should do so before the end of this year. The MCEE has cross-sector representation and includes most key constituencies. More importantly, we can start with the work already underway - Prepare Maine.

2) The purpose of the Summit would NOT be to further argue over what needs to be done – but to gain consensus – now that the political landscape has changed in way that makes new approaches possible – on how those new approaches can do the most good and the least damage.

3) The Process: MCEE should agree to delegate to three different - but overlapping sub-groups - the tasks of drafting three pieces of legislation.

Read more »

Three lists - criteria for education innovation

Yesterday’s post promised three lists that I think can function as the design parameters for Maine’s opportunity to re-invent our schools systems in ways that better serve our communities and students. I use the word re-invent deliberately but cautiously, knowing that we’ll hear lots of “we don’t need to re-invent the wheel.” That metaphor is too limiting. It might be better to ask – “is wheeled transportation the only mode at our disposal?”

25 years, 5 presidents, and over a billion dollars of foundation-funded school reform initiatives, and the federal No Child Left Behind initiatives have not produced uniformly better schools for all students. Some even argue that we're worse off than where we were when we began, though I don't agree.

What we need is innovation, and innovation that is explicitly designed for Maine’s culture, demographics and economy. The reason Maine has fallen behind in educational outcomes and innovation are many, but a very simple one is that we’ve not had a set of structures, policies and funding mechanisms to do so. That is the opportunity we have now.

Read more »

What will Paul LePage's election mean for Maine education?

I've made no bones about the fact that neither of the two major party candidates were my choice for governor. Eliot Cutler, who I endorsed and voted for, had what I considered a plan and a talented team to carry it out, and Shawn Moody had the strongest understanding of what many of Maine's young people and micro-businesses needed.

But the days since the election have been fascinating…a conversation with a close friend livid at both Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler for not joining forces to beat LePage. A respected colleague in Wisconsin (who may have helped vote a principled politician I revere and once worked for, Russ Feingold, out of office) asking, “How’s it feel to wake up in a red state?” A conversation with my “throw the bums out” father, who finds lots to admire in LePage, daring me to find something positive in this outcome.

Read more »

Independence and Innovation for Governor

Those who know me know the depth and breadth of my commitment to public schools. The economic health of many Maine communities - and the quality of life of countless individual students and their families - depends on the degree to which our public educational system works. And while we can agree that right now it works well for some kids, we should be able to admit that it's not working for many others.

Like Dick Barnes, whose well reasoned letter I'm forwarding, I've been advising Eliot Cutler's education policy. As some of you know, I've also been writing extensively about the kinds of policies that will help Maine regain the mantle of innovation and leadership we had under former Governor Angus King and Commissioner Duke Albanese.

The policies Eliot proposes are not political - they are based on best practices and adapted for Maine's particular assets and challenges. Unfortunately, the positions of the two major party candidates simply do not address what is working (a great deal) and is not working (also a great deal) in Maine. Instead, these positions reflect the interests of those who seek to get their candidates elected by distorting and confusing voters.

Former Governor King, in his endoresement of Eliot yesterday, wrote:

"The partisanship that has taken hold of our political system has put us in deadlock, and now more than ever, we need to coalesce around common goals and shared purpose.

While Eliot Cutler has been the focus of an unprecedented campaign of negativity and slander, he has not responded in kind. Instead he has focused on solutions to the pressing issues facing Maine. This speaks volumes about Eliot's character and the kind of Governor he will be."

One of the solutions Governor King refers to is Eliot's "no excuses" education policy. Yes, the PUBLIC charter schools Eliot supports will require some of the money currently going to public schools to be spent differently. To say that it will "take money from public schools," though, is the kind of sound -bite distortion that has made so many of us so sick of politics. The real challenge is make the money we ARE spending produce the results we seek - and to give EVERY child in Maine a fair chance in the bargain. Our money is not doing that now.

As the Expeditionary Learning Schools "school designer" who led the Casco Bay High School project in Portland, I spent a year countering arguments from both the right (it will cost more) and the left (it will take money from existing schools). Over time, the argument we started with - better results for the same money - won the day.

And it's a good thing, too. If you talk to the parents whose children have been "saved" by Casco Bay High School, you'd want such a choice - fully public, open to any student in your community - for your child. Right now, a very small percentage of Mainers do have such choice - limited by a quirky set of grandfathered local funding and governance structures. Is this really the best we can do?

Tomorrow, you have a choice. Do you want a governor who sticks with the party line - Republican, Democratic, or Tea? Or might some independence be better for Maine?

Hi,

As most of you know, I have been working as a volunteer educational policy advisor to Eliot Cutler for the past nine months. We are now down to the wire on the race for Governor. It is clear that Paul LePage will be the next Governor if the advocates for a strong public education system in Maine, from pre-school to graduate school, continue to split their votes between Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler. The leadership of the Maine Education Assn has gone out of its way to distort the policy positions of Eliot since day one of his candidacy, portraying him as pro-”merit pay,” for “vouchers to private schools,” for teacher accountability and evaluation systems that are based primarily on test scores, and that his cost reductions would force layoffs for “6000-7000 teachers.”

Eliot has positions on each of these topics. And although they are not in line with the positions of the MEA leadership and Libby Mitchell, they are thoughtful positions that hold some promise for creating breakthroughs that can lead to making progress in student achievement throughout the entire public education system. Maine has been devoid of any forward-thinking leadership for the last five or more years. At the state level we’ve lost our way. Teachers, school leaders, community college and university personnel are ready for real leadership.

I am attaching a 3 minute video clip by Eliot and a one-page statement outlining his educational positions. Please take three minutes to view it. And if you have not yet voted, please vote for Eliot Cutler! He is the only candidate with a realistic chance of beating Paul LePage on November 3rd!

Thank you,
Dick

http://www.cutler2010.com/teachers/

Sir Kenneth Robinson's Changing Paradigms in Education

If you can find 11 minutes in the next day or two, I urge you to find time to listen to/watch Ken Robinson's animated dissection of the degree to which our current system of education is profoundly unsuited for our times and our children.

http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg

Many of you have heard me or others say many of the same things - that batch processing kids deadens their motivation, that natural curiosity gets labeled ADHD, and that we make a false and damaging distinction between academic learning and hands-on learning. My favorite part, if were not so sad, would be when he shares the study that demonstrates the degree to which, over time, our schools greatly reduce the natural capacity for divergent thinking that almost every child is a "genius" at.

I'll be showing this video everywhere I can from here on out - Sir Kenneth elucidates the intellectual underpinnings of what we're trying to do with Maine Enterprise Schools better than I ever could - and it makes me that much more eager to be part of the creation of a new system, were the beauty of an education driven by deep, lived experience with the arts, ecosystems, and the real work of humans (and their machines) is available to every single child, regardless of place or parentage.

Charter as Verb: Innovation and Autonomy

Yesterday I was asked by a candidate for Maine's legislature exactly what I would propose to spur the kind of innovation that Maine's schools need. A while back I drafted such a list, bulleted below.

But I also heard from a colleague in the charter school community who suggested that the debate in Maine would be healthier if focused on the verb form of "charter." "moving the word charter from describing a type of school to a crucial part of the process for establishing autonomous and innovative schools. For example: start using charter as a verb in any conversation about ‘innovative schools’, i.e. ‘by what process can someone obtain a charter to start an innovative, autonomous school?"

The public debate on "charter schools" often focuses on the "what'- often in opposition to some other "what," such as "charter schools take money from public schools." "Charter" is, in fact, the "how." In the states where charter schools make the greatest difference for the most students, it is the strength of that chartering process that enables that difference to be made - for PUBLIC school students.

The "what" list below is my answer to the legislators question: what needs to be different to produce better results for more kids? Chartering new, innovative, autonomous public schools is HOW we can get there. If chartering new schools is an action or a process they oppose, what action or process do they propose instead?

Innovations and Autonomies for Maine's K-12 Schools

*Funding mechanisms that enable cost-effective small schools to flourish, such as allowing two or more existing districts to share effective small schools.

*Regulatory structures that enable and encourage community partnerships with non-profits and social service agencies, so that Maine's many assets can flourish with integrated approaches rather than compete to maintain disintegrated, less than effective approaches.

*Assessment systems that increase accountability and produce better outcomes for students - without crushing the morale of students, teachers, and administrators. Models of streamlined, web-based systems exist and can be easily adapted to Maine's Learning Results.

*"Best practice" teaching contracts (in collaboration with the MEA) that enable the most talented people to not only enter teaching, but to thrive and stay in teaching. Such contracts enable both more flexibility and more accountability, enabling teachers to work in innovative small schools without losing seniority or benefits and ensuring that teams of teachers both can and MUST collaborate on best practices that actually produce measurable results for their students. Innovative, autonomous small schools also can give parents a choice other than private schools, creating MORE, not fewer, jobs for teachers.

* Longer school days and year round programming that ensure that students are engaged beyond 2:15 each day and throughout the summer - if that is what is best for them.

What autonomies are needed (and not needed) ensure broad support and effective implementation?

*Principals (and students) need waivers of certain restrictive rules and practices in order the best teams possible. Teacher training, certification, and contracts were all designed for and/or responded to a set of assumptions that no longer are true. Excellent examples of schools, contracts, and innovative teaching exist, but often do not fit well, or at all, with the restrictive, arbitrary, cumbersome, and, it must be said, only partially effective systems we have for ensuring teacher quality.

*Funding decisions need to be made at the school level, so that each school can allocate resources according to the needs of their students. While a formula such as EPS can be helpful in deciding a school's overall budget and ensure that small schools are funded at the same level as larger schools, the formula should specify only a RATIO of overall certificated staff proportional to traditional schools, not a list of specific job titles.

*These schools must be FULLY public schools. Existing public or non-profit schools need to be able to transform themselves to "innovative, autonomous schools," enabling them to have the same status as Maine's academies in creating agreements with districts for tuitioning students. But in order to do so, they MUST agree to standards and a process for "replicating the demographics of the sending area." In other words, such schools cannot attain public school status, unless, no matter how small, they agree to serve special education students, gifted students, and everyone else, using lottery systems or other means of ensuring equity.

MEA members, Goldwater Republicans voting for Cutler?

An anonymous comment came in over the weekend on my post about the Maine Compact for Higher Ed's governor's debate.

"I listened to the MPBS, Jennifer Rooks and the candidates Thursday afternoon driving from Bangor to Farmington and had almost the exact same reaction as you. As arrogant as Cutler comes across I am getting closer to giving him my vote much against my usual party line affiliation. As an educator and as a mom whose son returned to Maine and has a small business I know first hand that many of Maine's schools do not support Maine students with the kind of learning experiences that help students to maximize their potentials and help all students become productive and healthy citizen of the world. I am very much in favor of Maine having public Charter schools and can no longer support the MEA."

I read that comment after getting off the phone with a friend who retired from a successful international business he founded and ran from Maine. He'd called at his wife's suggestion with this question: did I think that, despite the perceptions of Mr. Cutler's arrogance on the campaign trail, he'd make a good governor?

Read more »

'Waiting for Superman’ and the Education Debate

One of the most frustrating things about the education debate in the US is the role the media plays. There seem to be two approaches: boiling down complexities into easily opposable, simplistic sets of statistics that steamroll all nuance, or the opposite: taking an often heart-wrenching anecdote or example and investing it with a truth far greater than it actually represents.

Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for Superman" does the latter, and Green Dot Charter Schools founder Steve Barr is right to be unnerved by the debate that has emerged. Once again, the conversation about what works and does not work for kids for gets trampled under the divisive, emotional half-truth of "charter vs. union."

Read more »

Maine Governor Candidates debate Higher Ed

The Maine Compact for Higher Education held their annual symposium yesterday, and the news was grim in several ways. I'll get to the gubernatorial grimness in a moment.

Anthony Carnevale of the Center on Education and the Workforce led off with a study projecting much greater growth in jobs and sectors that require more effective (and quite different) workers than Maine is currently producing. While I can quibble that the focus on post-secondary education as the gateway to earning power rests on some tenets that I think are worth challenging - the data, both current and projected, make clear that Mainers are going to struggle to find jobs that support families unless a dramatically different set of trends prevail.

Read more »

Prepare Maine

Kudos to The Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education for the launch of Prepare Maine (and also for their "Education Roundup," a weekly overview of Maine education news and opinion - which we'll link to instead of trying to maintain the same thing ourselves).

The stated goal of Prepare Maine is "remodeling education for a stronger economy, better jobs and a brighter future." It is not only a big initiative for the Coalition, which is comprised of leaders from the business, non-profit, and education sectors, but a potentially important starting point for a real shift in how we view the link between education and economic development. I urge you to go their website, which does the best job of any I've seen of framing the issues with data and relevant research.

I also appreciate that they attempt to suggest solutions, and I hope that the seven recommendations on the solutions page lead in that direction. But here's where the challenge of building and leading a bi-partisan, cross-sector coalition comes in.

Read more »

Maine Enterprise Schools featured at EdReformer

Adam Burk, Maine Enterprise Schools' volunteer Networking Director, was recently interviewed by EdReformer, from which our recent post on Rocketship Schools came. He blogs at Pushing Upward and CoöperativeCatalyst, and is an example of the kind of teacher we think can transform educational experiences for many young people - IF we are able to create the kinds of schools that not only draw extraordinarily committed folks like Adam in, but create the kinds of working conditions that keep them.

Much is made of the fact that study after study shows that the factor most associated with student learning is the "quality" of the teacher. What such research does not factor in is the degree to which many of the highest quality teachers leave within 1-5 years of beginning their career - not because they are not good at it, but because they are VERY good at it - and feel they can no longer compromise between what they know can do and what they are allowed to do.

Read more »

Rocketships's Blended Learning Model

Thanks to Betts Gorsky, who sent along this fascinating video, linked to below. Rocketship has several things in common with Maine Enterprise Schools...sort of where we'd like to be several years from now. They are not only a replication model (meant to be sustainable by having multiple autonomous public school or public charter sites) but one that rethinks some of the orthodoxies of how teachers and other staff are deployed. There are differences too: Rocketship focuses on the elementary years and assumes classroom-based instruction; we focus on middle and high school years with a largely individualized model. Both models, though, enable adults to work more effectively with students not by spending more money, but by spending what money there is differently.

From edreformer.com: "Here is a video of John Danner, founder of Rocketship Education, describing the hybrid learning model. This is also known as the blended learning model, or a teaching and school management methodology that can save 20% of staffing costs, or up to $550,000 a year, in Danner’s case.

Danner says: “You roll this…into a few things that make your school better. I like to say it’s like someone writing you a check for $500,000 every year and saying ‘Do things that improve your school.’”

Revolutionary idea triumphs over skeptics

Let's say, hypothetically, that you were someone with a potentially revolutionary idea. Let's also say that there are more than a few skeptics out there, and that you work in a field where...umm...the skeptics win more battles than the revolutionaries. If all that were true, then the headline above would draw you in, as it did me.

Nemitz' column rightly celebrates former Governor King's vision. Though that word can be sorely overused, at a simple level it means imagining the world as it going to be, not only as it is now. I was at the table as a Maine teacher during some of those early conversations, and heard many of the "give kids a chain saw" type comments, as well as all sorts of other dire predictions and accusations.

Read more »

Eliot Cutler on Merit Pay

I asked independent candidate for Governor Eliot Cutler to respond to my earlier post about merit pay, which made the point, among others, that the candidates needed to go beyond easily misunderstood terms like "merit pay" and help voters understand what that would mean for Maine's students, parents and teachers. His response, below, addresses several of the issues that entry raised. While there is still time for other candidates to develop education platforms as practical, clear and thoughtful, as of now, Mr. Cutler is the only candidate who has done so.

I believe that educators and teams of educators who demonstrate their ability to improve student achievement ought to be rewarded for their efforts. Recognition for growth in student success should not look only to student test scores nor should rewards be limited to pay. My plan will reward successful collaboration and support opportunities for school leadership and targeted professional development.

Read more »

Fact and spirit

Response from friend, colleague, and former boss Scott Hartl, CEO of Expeditionary Learning: Italics his words, everything else mine.

In large measure I agree with your writing in both large point and specific, and I appreciate that you have obviously been on our new website (I have, and it is remarkably good...http://elschools.org/). In one paragraph, however, I do feel that you are incorrect in both fact and spirit, pasted in below for reference. "Expeditionary Learning Schools is a replication model that can start effective schools of 240 students or more, like Casco Bay HS...but they can't, if they're honest, produce the same rates of sustainable success when they try to do what Mike McCarthy did at King - take an existing, demoralized staff and a broad array of learning challenges and transform that into opportunity and, as we saw yesterday, results." EL's best data is often from schools like King that were in existence long before their engagement with EL. We are about to release a study of our Rochester schools that will be the best data and most rigorous study done on EL to date that supports this point.

Read more »

Arne Duncan at King Middle School

If you have time, take a look at this video from Portland's WCSH-6. The 3 minutes of video provide a fascinating text of things said, implied, and ignored in the effort jump on the King bandwagon - a bandwagon that I'm on by the way. Some points:

First, Expeditionary Learning is not "so-called,"as the reporter described it, nor is the term interchangeable with "experiential learning," a wonderful term but far more generic in the sense that Maine Public Radio used it. Expeditionary Learning Schools has, over 17 years, "grown from a small adventurous group of ten schools into a network the size of a substantial urban school district." It is what in school innovation circles is described as a "replication model:" a (usually) non-profit organization that works with existing public schools and/or starts new public schools - often charter schools and often as part of the Gates Foundation's high school reform work. Why is this significant?

Read more »

Strange bedfellows

When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visits King Middle School tomorrow, he can claim credit to being part of the team that got some of the fiercest fiscal conservatives in Maine to defend President Obama. How did he do this? Am I about to write what I think I am - that the Maine Heritage Policy Center is right about something?

In the wake of Maine's dismal Race to the Top performance, Mr. Duncan is, among other things, cheering teachers up and trying to convince them that the Obama administration does not have it in for them. If he has it in for anyone, it is for those in positions of power and influence who continually seek to protect their institutional interest at the expense of our public school students.

Read more »

If it's Tuesday, it must be...merit pay

I met this morning with two veteran teachers who work in a local middle school in a district considered one of Maine's best. They had heard about the possibility of Maine Enterprise School in their community and wanted to learn more about our approach. One of the teachers was talking about the math curriculum - how she's been ordered to abandon her successful, project-based, integrated math lessons in favor of an approach designed to raise test scores by scripting each lesson each day for the entire school year. Consistency, this is called. I'll admit that I was surprised, in a district that has such a history of "best practice" and test scores that are generally thought of as high, to see exactly what she meant - but literally, that is what it was. If you are in sixth grade in this school, the only variable is when the first snow day will come and throw the whole shebang off.

Read more »

Closing Gap?

The gist of this article is that after years of measuring NYC's efforts to close the achievement gap showed consistent success, the gains made by black and Hispanic students relative to white and Asian students largely disappear when a widely accepted national measure is used instead of the state tests that had provided the earlier data. This is the kind of data that will be trumpeted about and said to mean many things, but I need to quote my statistics professor once more: "figures lie, and liars figure."

Read more »

Don't Go it Alone

This article from Monday's New York Times describes a strategy - replacing a quarter of a failing schools' teachers with a squad of talented, experienced educators - that at once is among the most promising and the most challenging of effort to transform schools.

The promise lies in some of what we know about organizational culture and the change process. Change that relies on a single, charismatic leader, despite stories that often highlight such leadership, is not widely replicable or sustainable. Not only are there simply not enough of those people, but each school is a culture, one that carries forward not just teachers, but families and communities, sports teams and

Read more »

21st Century Community Learning

The subheading of this article reads, "Coordinators of 33 Maine programs fear a shift in how 21st Century Community Learning money is given out." The article goes on to list some of the programs that will be cut - a wide variety, but what these programs have in common is that they keep kids engaged in adult-led activities after school. In Maine, lots of middle and high-schoolers get out pretty close to 2:00 and, unless they have an extracurricular activity or parent who can pick them up, they're on their own. For now, let's assume all 107 programs receiving the funds are making a real difference in the lives of the kids they work with.

The question would then be, why redirect this money? Some context will help.

Read more »

Following Maine's lead again...

The idea of eliminating the "D" is not new...Poland Regional High School in Maine opened with a version of this policy 10 years ago. The article captures part of the idea - disincentivizing work that isn't quite good enough to be called mediocre - but misses the larger idea that the elimination of the "D" at Poland and in other schools affiliated with the Coalition of Essential Schools was linked to: standards-based grading and assessment. What Mt. Olive has done may go part of the way - we'd need to know more about what it took to get a 63 vs. a 70.

We know from experience that raising standards works.

Read more »

What are charter schools?

In response to reading our blog for the first time, a Maine school superintendent wrote with the very kinds of questions I think need to be part of the larger debate.

"I am very intrigued by the discussion of charter schools and would like to learn more about the 'real deal,' when it comes to these schools. Are they producing a better product, do they siphon off moneys that could bolster public schools, are they designed for tailor made audiences, how is tuition handled (do the charter schools take the same amount of per pupil money as allocated to public schools), do they accommodate special needs, what are the two major disadvantages/worries, and the two real advantages?"

I'm going to attempt to answer those questions one at a time over the next couple days...the 'real deal' is that done well, charter schools are fully public schools that, rather than drain resources from public schools, ARE public schools that help communities serve more kids well...but, as you'll see, that's easier said than done.

Read more »

Initiatives await next governor

That Maine's Race to the Top application failed is no surprise to anyone who knew anything about the process or the Obama administration's goals. Maine's application was not seen as a credible attempt to implement the actual reform strategies as much as a somewhat half-hearted attempt to get the money that might go with such an award. I've written previously about the three "sheep in sheep's clothing" bills passed to make it seem like the Education Dept. might lead the charge for reform - money or no money, they were unlikely to enable any serious rethinking of how our schools function.

Read more »

New data cause confusion about Maine high school graduation rates

So the news is that depending on how you count, Maine's graduating either 80 or 83% of students. While I admire the attempt to create a meaningful and consistent method of tracking, the larger point to me is that one out of five...or is it one out of six...young people are not graduating high school. That need not be.

Read more »

Innovating can help Maine schools lead nation

I wrote this back in January when Maine Department of Education introduced three bills that they hoped would qualify Maine for Race to the Top funds. All three bills passed, including one that purported to allow "innovative schools," but most folks agree that the restrictions placed on that bill, mostly at the urging of the MEA, enable no more innovation that school districts are already

Read more »

Asking the right questions...

During the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee debate around the innovation bill that was passed in May to facilitate Maine's Race to the Top application, much of the testimony - including that around enabling charter schools as an innovation strategy - repeated some fairly old arguments based on some assumptions that may longer be true. What is a public school? What kinds of public schools can serve Maine's young people, parents, and communities? How can innovation thrive without dismantling the parts of our current system that are working? If we ask the right questions, we might get closer to agreement on what kinds of policies and practices will work for Maine.

Read more »