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.
Monday, August 30
Wednesday, August 25
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.
Monday, August 16
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."
Monday, August 9
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
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
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.
The question would then be, why redirect this money? Some context will help.
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.
We know from experience that raising standards works.
Wednesday, August 4
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.
"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.
Sunday, August 1
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.
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