WELCOME TO MY BLOG

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I sometimes don’t have time to post here everything that I send to my school reform email list, so if you want to receive my regular (approximately every other day) email updates, please email me at WTilson at tilsonfunds.com.

For more about me and links to my favorite articles, posts and videos on education reform, see my School Reform Resource Page at www.arightdenied.org, in particular my Powerpoint presentation entitled A Right Denied: The Critical Need for Genuine School Reform, which is posted at www.arightdenied.org/presentation-slides. 

The idea for this came to me after watching An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary about global warming.  After seeing it, I thought to myself, "That's exactly what school reformers need as well!"  My presentation is meant to be a collection of data and arguments that forcefully advocates for an urgent school reform agenda.  It was made into a documentary in 2010 that you can watch at: https://vimeo.com/45331195 (this is the full-length 83-minute version; a shorter 55-minute version is posted at: https://vimeo.com/44132868; also, the two-minute trailer is at www.arightdenied.org). I did an interview about it with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1507057055&play=1. 

Charity Wager on the Presidential Race

I sent this offer this morning to the 2,000+ people on my investing email list and have $11,000 of commitments to give to charity (either to KIPP from my friends who think Romney’s going to win, or from me to their favorite charities), so let me know if you want to participate as well:

With everyone focused on the election tomorrow, let’s have some fun and raise money for charity. I am willing to match up to $25,000 worth of bets on the outcome of the presidential race. My proposal is simple: if Obama wins (my bet), you donate what you bet to my favorite charity, KIPP charter schools in NYC (www.kippnyc.org; I’ve been on the board for more than a decade), and if Romney wins (your bet), I’ll make a donation of the same amount to your favorite charity.

If you’re on my email list, I’ll take your word: just email me by midnight tonight the amount you want to wager (between $500 and $5,000 please) and your charity, I’ll email you back to confirm. First come, first serve!

Full disclosure: the majority of national and swing state polls as well as every betting site shows that Obama is favored anywhere from 2:1 (www.intrade.com) to 6:1 (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com), and I’m only offering a straight-up bet. Thus, statistically speaking, I think I’m making a high-probability, high-expected-value wager (I far prefer that on Wednesday you will make a donation to my favorite charity than vice versa!). But as John Mauldin points out in his latest essay (http://advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/millennium_110512.php), in every market there are plenty of people who are willing to make seemingly low-expected-value bets, perhaps because they think they have better information or have analyzed it better or historical patterns no longer apply – or are simply letting emotion substitute for logic.

If you think Romney is likely to win, here’s an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If you’re right, your favorite charity will benefit, and if you’re not, you’ll be making a donation to another great charity.

Check Out the KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching

Speaking of KIPP, it has developed the KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching, which I highly recommend you check out at: www.kipp.org/framework. Here’s a summary:

About the KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching

This model contains four main elements; all centered on our goal of student growth and achievement and the beliefs and character that all our teachers share.

AT THE CENTER OF OUR WORK IS:

Student Growth and Achievement
Excellent teaching means students learn, grow, and achieve transformative life outcomes.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF EXCELLENT TEACHING ARE LINKED THROUGH OUR:

Beliefs and Character
An excellent KIPP teacher is committed to KIPP’s mission. She constantly pursues becoming a better person, just as she supports students in this pursuit. She understands that her beliefs and character affect who she is, her impact on and relationships with others, her classroom environment, how she teaches, and what she knows. Learn more about character at KIPP.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF EXCELLENT TEACHING ARE:

Self and Others 
Excellent teaching requires understanding of oneself, one’s connection to others, and a growth mindset that allows the teacher to take ownership for the success of all KIPPsters.

Classroom Culture 
In an excellent classroom culture, the teacher focuses on countless tangible and intangible details in the space to create an environment where students are joyfully engaged, meaningfully on-task, and feel ownership for their individual and collective successes in college and in life.

The Teaching Cycle 
Excellent teaching means planning and executing rigorous, engaging lessons that fit into a logical scope and sequence, as well as using student data to assess mastery of objectives and movement toward big goals for student achievement and growth. Excellent teaching requires a 1/12 mindset, recognizing that even the tiniest details can dramatically impact student mastery.

Knowledge 
Teaching is an art and science. As the artists and scientists, we are responsible for building our understanding of child development, pedagogy, and content. We are responsible for knowing what we are teaching, how it fits in a PreK-16 continuum, and who we are teaching it to.

$2.5 Million Donation Expands KIPP, Penn Partnership

Great news about a partnership between KIPP and Penn (Mike Feinberg’s alma mater):

After a $2.5 million donation and partnership with Penn, knowledge is even more powerful for Knowledge is Power Program graduates starting next fall.

Yesterday, the Penn celebrated its partnership with KIPP, a public charter schools system, at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies near 34th and Walnut streets.

The event centered around honoring philanthropists Bruce and Martha Karsh, who are donating 2.5 million dollars to help send 12 to 15 KIPP students per year to study at Penn.

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KIPP Students on the Subway (PHOTO)

A friend sent me this picture of KIPP students on the subway recently – gotta love it!

More About Harlem Lacrosse Players (PHOTO)

Speaking of great pics, here’s one about the Harlem lacrosse players with a note from a friend:

This past weekend, 35 students from Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem spent the weekend in Concord, MA for the third annual exchange program. The bus was met Friday night by host families who took in two players each. Saturday's activities compromised a lacrosse skills clinic in the morning, a visit of the Old Manse and Old North Bridge in the afternoon, leaf raking after the tour, and a barbecue at night. The next day, the Harlem and Concord lacrosse players were joined by 200 other players from 12 towns throughout the state of MA to participate in a lacrosse tournament. Highlight of the day was an inspirational talk given by Frederick Douglas Opie. All proceeds from the tournament benefited HLL. Overall, a great weekend! I can state from first-hand experience that the host families got more from the weekend than the players from Harlem.

Mike Antonucci on NEA Membership Declines, Los Angeles Charters

Two interesting tidbits from Mike Antonucci’s Education Intelligence Agency:

1)  NEA Membership Declines in All Categories. The National Education Association will spend the next 24 hours deeply immersed in the Presidential campaign, as well as hundreds of Congressional, statehouse and ballot initiative races across the country. But no one is predicting a wholesale change in the political balance of power, which is what it will take for the union to reverse the largest and most precipitous membership losses in its history.

I have reported NEA membership numbers many times over the past 15 years, but this is the first time to my knowledge that the union has experienced losses in all categories: active professional, education support, higher education, students and retirees. Here's a reminder of how NEA has fared during the Obama years:

2008-09 = 2,905,741 active members (3,234,639 total members)

2009-10 = 2,866,063 active (3,204,185 total)

2010-11 = 2,807,332 active (3,166,761 total)

2011-12 = 2,726,045 active (3,085,999 total)

The latest figures show active members (meaning members currently working in the public school system) at about 2,711,000. Total membership, which includes students and retirees, comes in at around 3,067,000. If current trends continue, NEA will fall below 3 million members in less than a year.

NEA has already budgeted for a loss of more than 140,000 members this year. Nevertheless, the union is warning its activists that additional cuts may become necessary.

The union is making plans to address its recruiting problems, but which ones will be implemented and how will depend a great deal on tomorrow's election results. The big campaign issue in education isn't Race to the Top or Common Core. Just as with the broader economy, it's jobs. NEA needs those members back. It's looking to raise revenues, and for politicians committed to using those revenues to hire education employees. All other issues are secondary.

And:

4)  Quote of the Week. "A few moments ago, I spoke about how the district has lost about 21 percent of its K-12 enrollment in the last eight years and about how that, as much as budget shortfalls, is driving the annual RIF process. As you may have guessed, the largest portion of that enrollment loss has been into non-unionized charter schools. As a former UTLA vice president memorably stated: 'Unorganized labor anywhere is a threat to organized labor everywhere.' Moving our jobs out of LAUSD and into non-union charters is the educational equivalent of shipping factory jobs overseas.

"Charter teachers are not our enemies. They are simply exploited workers: credentialed professionals who can be fired on the spot if they don't follow orders. They are teachers. They want to be able to advocate for their students without fearing retribution from the boss. Most of them know that they would be better off with union representation.

"We've already organized a lot of them. UTLA currently represents about 1,000 teachers in independent charter schools. We already represent more charter teachers than any other union in the country. Charter school teachers are not our enemy. Non-unionized charter schools are. And the sooner we unionize those workplaces, the sooner we will eliminate the economic incentive to ship our jobs out of the district." - United Teachers Los Angeles president Warren Fletcher. (September 22 speech)

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Reaction to Michael Johnston's 'Best Ed Speech Ever'

From a friend who was at Michael Johnston’s “best ed speech ever”:

Michael gave the speech at the CT TFA dinner a week or so ago and I was in the audience. Prior to that a Cory Booker speech at Fairfield University and a Condoleezza Rice talk at Hopkins a few weeks ago were the best speeches made completely without notes I had ever experienced. Then came Michael Johnson. It's one thing to see it on video ... something completely different to be there where you could have heard a pin drop and where there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Thanks for the link to the video .... I was hoping they had captured it. 

Mike Johnston (Mississippi Delta '97) - State Senator, Colorado from Teach For America Events on Vimeo.

Gloria Romero Urges Californians to Vote YES on Prop 32

Gloria Romero urges Californians to vote yes on Prop. 32:

Californians understand that Sacramento is broken and that special interests – whether from the left or the right – have crowded us out.

We also understand that corruption is rampant in a state that is fueled by money and lobbyists who wine and dine legislators and stuff their campaign coffers with checks. We know that they have forgotten that they are supposed to speak for us and our children. We understand that money speaks louder than our families.

Having served in the Legislature, I understand how that robbing of the people's voice has occurred. I witnessed the "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" transactions made out of public sight. These transactions have resulted in a public education system that has failed parents and children, year after year, yet have enriched the largest teachers' association which is able to literally intimidate legislators into not even voting for the most sensible of bills: like adopting sound procedures for firing teachers who have sexually abused innocent children.

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Not Just Lacrosse - Squash Program in NYC Schools

One of my friends saw the article about lacrosse in Harlem and forwarded a NYT article about a program to teach kids squash (what’s next, crew??? ;-) (NBC News did a story as well):

With his tie gone long before he had arrived, Joshua Gary needed only a few minutes to change out of his public high school’s mandatory black sweater and slacks and into his squash gear: white shoes, shorts, clear protective glasses. Screeches of excitement and sneakers echoed across the eight courts as he joined Jamel Key, 17, and Jennifer Moses, 18.

The three college-bound seniors from Thurgood Marshall Academy, friends since junior high, dodged and glided their way to and from the red “T” at the center, the ball hugging the right wall with each shot.

Less than two weeks remained before they would graduate from StreetSquash, an intensive program that combines athletics and academics, and they seemed to be getting in all the shots they could. Each of the students would be heading to college, but none where they could play squash for their school.

“Squash is the vehicle,” said George Polsky, the executive director of StreetSquash, which after nearly 10 years of borrowing courts around Manhattan will graduate its first class from a spacious new home in Harlem this week. “It means more to me to help them figure out a math problem than how to hit a serve.”

While StreetSquash has no entrance requirements, each potential student is evaluated during a monthlong trial where attendance is paramount. Miss more than a couple of sessions without an excuse, Mr. Polsky said, and students may find that StreetSquash is not for them. The four-day-a-week commitment is substantial: two days of homework and squash, one day of SAT prep (for high school students) or literacy education (for sixth to eighth graders), and Saturday, which is reserved for squash.

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George Lucas to Donate $4 Billion to Education

Kudos to George Lucas!

George Lucas is ensuring that the force may be with young Jedis everywhere.

The "Star Wars" director will donate the $4.05 billion he will receive from the sale of Lucasfilm Ltd. to Disney to a foundation focused on education, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

…The director has yet to disclose which charity will be the beneficiary of the huge chunk of money. But Lucas currently serves as the chairman of Edutopia, a foundation that empowers innovative coursework in schools. The organization is a likely choice, eonline.com speculates.

Lucas has made other generous donations to show his commitment to education in the past. In a Giving Pledge letter from 2010, he wrote:

“I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future –- and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt – as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.” 

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Multiplying

Here’s an interesting article about “The Year of the MOOC”:

…edX, the nonprofit start-up from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has 370,000 students this fall in its first official courses. That’s nothing. Coursera, founded just last January, has reached more than 1.7 million — growing “faster than Facebook,” boasts Andrew Ng, on leave from Stanford to run his for-profit MOOC provider.

“This has caught all of us by surprise,” says David Stavens, who formed a company called Udacity with Sebastian Thrun and Michael Sokolsky after more than 150,000 signed up for Dr. Thrun’s “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” last fall, starting the revolution that has higher education gasping. A year ago, he marvels, “we were three guys in Sebastian’s living room and now we have 40 employees full time.”

“I like to call this the year of disruption,” says Anant Agarwal, president of edX, “and the year is not over yet.”

MOOCs have been around for a few years as collaborative techie learning events, but this is the year everyone wants in. Elite universities are partnering with Coursera at a furious pace. It now offers courses from 33 of the biggest names in postsecondary education, including Princeton, Brown, Columbia and Duke. In September, Google unleashed a MOOC-building online tool, and Stanford unveiled Class2Go with two courses.

…WHAT IS A MOOC ANYWAY?

Traditional online courses charge tuition, carry credit and limit enrollment to a few dozen to ensure interaction with instructors. The MOOC, on the other hand, is usually free, credit-less and, well, massive.

Because anyone with an Internet connection can enroll, faculty can’t possibly respond to students individually. So the course design — how material is presented and the interactivity — counts for a lot. As do fellow students. Classmates may lean on one another in study groups organized in their towns, in online forums or, the prickly part, for grading work.

The evolving form knits together education, entertainment (think gaming) and social networking. Unlike its antecedent, open courseware — usually written materials or videotapes of lectures that make you feel as if you’re spying on a class from the back of the room — the MOOC is a full course made with you in mind.

The medium is still the lecture. Thanks to Khan Academy’s free archive of snappy instructional videos, MOOC makers have gotten the memo on the benefit of brevity: 8 to 12 minutes is typical. Then — this is key — videos pause perhaps twice for a quiz to make sure you understand the material or, in computer programming, to let you write code. Feedback is electronic. Teaching assistants may monitor discussion boards. There may be homework and a final exam.

The MOOC certainly presents challenges. Can learning be scaled up this much? Grading is imperfect, especially for nontechnical subjects. Cheating is a reality. “We found groups of 20 people in a course submitting identical homework,” says David Patterson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who teaches software engineering, in a tone of disbelief at such blatant copying; Udacity and edX now offer proctored exams.

Some students are also ill prepared for the university-level work. And few stick with it.

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Use of Computers as Tutors is Growing

An interesting article about using computers as tutors from the NY Times Magazine last Sept:

Affluent American parents have since come to see the disparity Bloom identified as a golden opportunity, and tutoring has ballooned into a $5 billion industry. Among middle- and high-school students enrolled in New York City’s elite schools, tutoring is a common practice, and the most sought-after tutors can charge as much as $400 an hour.

But what of the pupils who could most benefit from tutoring — poor, urban, minority? Bloom had hoped that traditional teaching could eventually be made as effective as tutoring. But Heffernan was doubtful. He knew firsthand what it was like to grapple with the challenges of the classroom. After graduating from Amherst College, he joined Teach for America and was placed in an inner-city middle school in Baltimore. Some of his classes had as many as 40 students, all of them performing well below grade level. Discipline was a constant problem. Heffernan claims he set a school record for the number of students sent to the principal’s office. “I could barely control the class, let alone help each student,” Heffernan told me. “I wasn’t ever going to make a dent in this country’s educational problems by teaching just a few classes of students at a time.”

Heffernan left teaching, hoping that some marriage of education and technology might help “level the playing field in American education.” He decided that the only way to close the persistent “achievement gap” between white and minority, high- and low-income students was to offer universal tutoring — to give each student access to his or her own Cristina Lindquist. While hiring a human tutor for every child would be prohibitively expensive, the right computer program could make this possible.

So Heffernan forged ahead, cataloging more than two dozen “moves” Lindquist made to help her students learn (“remind the student of steps they have already completed,” “encourage the student to generalize,” “challenge a correct answer if the tutor suspects guessing”). He incorporated many of these tactics into a computerized tutor — called “Ms. Lindquist” — which became the basis of his doctoral dissertation. When he was hired as an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, Heffernan continued to work on the program, joined in his efforts by Lindquist, now his wife, who also works at W.P.I. Together they improved the tutor, which they renamed ASSISTments (it assists students while generating an assessment of their progress). Seventeen years after Heffernan first set up his video camera, the computerized tutor he designed has been used by more than 100,000 students, in schools all over the country. “I look at this as just a start,” he told me. But, he added confidently, “we are closing the gap with human tutors.” 

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Is Technology Changing the Way Kids Learn?

I think teachers are right to be VERY worried about this, if only from my observations of my three daughters (and remembering what a video game junkie I was as a teenager – I could play Pac Man for hours on a single quarter; what I would give to have those hours back!):

There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans and ability to persevere in the face of challenging tasks, according to two surveys of teachers being released on Thursday.

The researchers note that their findings represent the subjective views of teachers and should not be seen as definitive proof that widespread use of computers, phones and video games affects students’ capability to focus.

Even so, the researchers who performed the studies, as well as scholars who study technology’s impact on behavior and the brain, say the studies are significant because of the vantage points of teachers, who spend hours a day observing students.

The timing of the studies, from two well-regarded research organizations, appears to be coincidental. 

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Innovative Technology High School Replaces Failing School in NYC

An article about a very innovative high school, replacing a failing one in NYC:

Flakes of green paint are peeling from the third-floor windowsills. Some desks are patched with tape, others etched with graffiti. The view across the street is of a row of boarded-up brownstones.

The building and its surroundings in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, may look run-down, but inside 150 Albany Avenue may sit the future of the country’s vocational education: The first 230 pupils of a new style of school that weaves high school and college curriculums into a six-year program tailored for a job in the technology industry.

By 2017, the first wave of students of P-Tech — Pathways in Technology Early College High School — is expected to emerge with associate’s degrees in applied science in computer information systems or electromechanical engineering technology, following a course of studies developed in consultation with I.B.M.

“I mean, in 10th grade, doing college work?” said Monesia McKnight, 15, as she sat in an introduction to computer systems course taught by a college professor. “How great is that?”

Many with four-year degrees are facing a transforming economy where jobs require less generalized types of education and more of the skills that many college graduates lack, in science, technology, engineering or math.

Into this breach, school systems around the country have been aiming to start new high schools like P-Tech. Officials in Chicago were so taken by New York’s school that they opened five similar schools this year with corporate partners in telecommunications and technology. Besides New York and Illinois, education officials in Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee have committed to creating such schools, and the Obama administration has recommended that Congress provide more money for vocational education — the preferred name is career and technical education, or C.T.E. — to promote this approach.

A year from now, New York City plans to open two more schools just like P-Tech, focusing on other growing industries in the city, possibly including health care. A fourth one is planned to open in September 2014. The State Board of Regents is also trying to develop assessment exams for this type of school, perhaps one that could be substituted for one of the usual Regents tests.

“When we view high-quality C.T.E. programs, we see how engaged those students are and what clear aspirations they have for their future,” said John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner. “Unfortunately, that’s not always present in some of our struggling schools.”

P-Tech, which began last year with a ninth grade and now has a 10th grade, is inside Paul Robeson High School, which is being phased out because of poor performance.

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Michael Johnston: The Best Speech About Education Ever

A Forbes columnist thinks this speech by ed warrior, TFA alum, and Colorado State Senator Michael Johnston is the best speech about education ever -- and it is indeed very powerful!



Mike Johnston (Mississippi Delta '97) - State Senator, Colorado from Teach For America Events on Vimeo.

Success Academy Charter Schools Beats the Odds (Video)

Speaking of great videos, here’s a 3:33 one on Success Academy charter schools, which operates 14 schools in NYC with 5,000 students (growing to 21 schools next year). I especially love the little boy (at 2:38) who says, “My dreams are to be in the NBA hopefully, but if not, well my backup plan is I might want to become a lawyer, or an entrepreneur, or the CEO of a big company. But I also want to be a pilot for commercial airlines or a pilot for the President…or if I want to be the President!”

Yes We Did + Yes We Will Obama Video

A final great video: since this is likely my last email before the election, for those of you who support Obama or are undecided, I wanted to share the best Obama video I’ve seen yet, which was just posted on YouTube (3:01). Yes…We…Will!

Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Mentions Race to the Top

Mayor Bloomberg just joined Gov. Christie in endorsing Obama (though Christie wasn’t quite as explicit about it! ;-), with a nice mention of Race to the Top:

Nevertheless, the president has achieved some important victories on issues that will help define our future. His Race to the Top education program -- much of which was opposed by the teachers’ unions, a traditional Democratic Party constituency -- has helped drive badly needed reform across the country, giving local districts leverage to strengthen accountability in the classroom and expand charter schools. His health-care law -- for all its flaws -- will provide insurance coverage to people who need it most and save lives.

When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there. The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America.

One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.

One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history.

One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics. 

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Queen Creek Football Players Rally for Bullied Girl

What a great story!

How about a little good news?

In the scrub-brush desert town of Queen Creek, Ariz., high school bullies were throwing trash at sophomore Chy Johnson. Calling her "stupid." Pushing her in the halls.

Chy's brain works at only a third-grade level because of a genetic birth defect, but she knew enough to feel hate.

"She'd come home every night at the start of the school year crying and upset," says her mom, Liz Johnson. "That permanent smile she had, that gleam in her eye, that was all gone."

Her mom says she tried to talk to teachers and administrators and got nowhere. So she tried a whole new path -- the starting quarterback of the undefeated football team. After all, senior Carson Jones had once escorted Chy to the Special Olympics.

"Just keep your ear to the ground," Liz wrote to Carson on his Facebook page. "Maybe get me some names?"

But Carson Jones did something better than that. Instead of ratting other kids out, he decided to take one in -- Chy.

He started asking her to eat at the cool kids' lunch table with him and his teammates. "I just thought that if they saw her with us every day, maybe they'd start treating her better," Carson says. "Telling on kids would've just caused more problems."

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Using Student Surveys to Evaluate Teachers

Three VERY interesting and important stories in this month’s The Atlantic on education. The first is by Amanda Ripley on the spread of using student surveys to evaluate teachers – because it turns out that, collectively, they’re A LOT better than tests AND principals:

A decade ago, an economist at Harvard, Ronald Ferguson, wondered what would happen if teachers were evaluated by the people who see them every day—their students. The idea—as simple as it sounds, and as familiar as it is on college campuses—was revolutionary. And the results seemed to be, too: remarkable consistency from grade to grade, and across racial divides. Even among kindergarten students. A growing number of school systems are administering the surveys—and might be able to overcome teacher resistance in order to link results to salaries and promotions.

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Attention to the 'Writing Revolution' in The Atlantic

There’s been lots of attention paid to the importance of READING, but not nearly as much on WRITING – and how to teach it (Peg Tyre, The Atlantic):

For years, nothing seemed capable of turning around New Dorp High School’s dismal performance—not firing bad teachers, not flashy education technology, not after-school programs. So, faced with closure, the school’s principal went all-in on a very specific curriculum reform, placing an overwhelming focus on teaching the basics of analytic writing, every day, in virtually every class. What followed was an extraordinary blossoming of student potential, across nearly every subject—one that has made New Dorp a model for educational reform.

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Profile of David Coleman, New Head of College Board

A nice profile of David Coleman, the new head of the College Board and the primary guy behind the Common Core Standards (by Dana Goldstein in The Atlantic):

David Coleman is an idealistic, poetry-loving, controversy-stoking Rhodes Scholar and a former McKinsey consultant who has determined, more than almost anyone else, what kids learn in American schools. His national curriculum standards and pending overhaul of the SAT have reignited a thorny national debate over how much we should expect from students and schools, and how much is out of their control.

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Profile of DFER WA's Lisa Macfarlane, Charters

Another nice profile of DFER-WA Executive Director Lisa Macfarlane:

Sixteen years ago, in another chilly October, parent and school-levy volunteer Lisa Macfarlane managed a phone bank for the anti-charter-school campaign.

Back then, Macfarlane believed charters — the privately run, publicly funded schools that were cropping up in many states — would weaken the public school system she was working hard to strengthen.

Every night for about a month, she rounded up a roomful of volunteers to call voters to persuade them to keep charter schools out of Washington.

Charters, she said, "felt like an attack on public schools."

Yet this October, as the state's fourth charter-school campaign heats up, Macfarlane, in a complete reversal, is working hard to bring charters here. President Obama's support of charters made her re-examine her own views a few years ago, she said, and she's decided her stance on charters was all wrong.

Now she sees them as a way to bolster the public school system, by providing better options for struggling students.

"We've got to do better by a group of kids that aren't faring well in our traditional public schools," she said.

The big question for charter supporters this November is whether enough other Washington voters will also change their minds this time around and approve Initiative 1240, after having decisively rejected charter ballot measures in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

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Prescription Pills for Kids Struggling in School

Sort of scary what some doctors and parents turn to, to try to help kids failing in (or being failed by) schools:

Dr. Anderson is one of the more outspoken proponents of an idea that is gaining interest among some physicians. They are prescribing stimulants to struggling students in schools starved of extra money — not to treat A.D.H.D., necessarily, but to boost their academic performance.

It is not yet clear whether Dr. Anderson is representative of a widening trend. But some experts note that as wealthy students abuse stimulants to raise already-good grades in colleges and high schools, the medications are being used on low-income elementary school children with faltering grades and parents eager to see them succeed.

“We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very effective nonpharmaceutical interventions for these children and their families,” said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in prescription drug use among low-income children. “We are effectively forcing local community psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is psychotropic medications.”

Dr. Nancy Rappaport, a child psychiatrist in Cambridge, Mass., who works primarily with lower-income children and their schools, added: “We are seeing this more and more. We are using a chemical straitjacket instead of doing things that are just as important to also do, sometimes more.”

Dr. Anderson’s instinct, he said, is that of a “social justice thinker” who is “evening the scales a little bit.” He said that the children he sees with academic problems are essentially “mismatched with their environment” — square pegs chafing the round holes of public education. Because their families can rarely afford behavior-based therapies like tutoring and family counseling, he said, medication becomes the most reliable and pragmatic way to redirect the student toward success. 

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Lacrosse in Harlem Leads to Scholarships

Lacrosse is on the rise in Harlem!

Harlem's youth lacrosse scene was virtually nonexistent just a few years ago. Now some local stars are securing scholarships to tony boarding schools, where the sport is a major force.

Daniel and David Mark had never held lacrosse sticks until two years ago. But the rookies became fixated after they received equipment at Frederick Douglass Academy, a public school near West 148th Street.

The lacrosse stick became "an extension of their arm," their mother, Marcia Mark, said. "They walked down the street with it. They turned the TV off with it."

Devotion to a new sport led to full scholarships at private boarding schools: Daniel, now 14 years old, is at the George School in Pennsylvania, and his 12-year-old brother David is at the Eaglebrook School in Massachusetts.

For Marlik Toure, 17, lacrosse dramatically changed his life. After his mother died seven years ago, he was arrested for stealing a bike and missed enough time at middle school to become ineligible for sports.

"I don't know where I'd be without it," said Mr. Toure, now a scholarship student at New Jersey's Peddie School. "It wouldn't be here."

The three youths are among more than 100 students who have been introduced to the sport over the past five years with the help of Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership. The nonprofit organization created a second boys team at P.S. 149 on West 117th Street last year, and a girls team will be added to the roster at Frederick Douglass.

So far, 11 young lacrosse players trained through the program have received scholarships to boarding schools, according to the group. Other students from Harlem have flourished at a sport that is typically a prep-school province, traveling to and winning at top tournaments.

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Philadelphia School Partnership Debuts School Comparison Website

From Mike Wang of the Philadelphia School Partnership:

We are thrilled to announce the launch of GreatPhillySchools.org, a unique new resource for Philadelphia families to learn about and compare over 400 K-12 schools in the city. GreatPhillySchools.org includes detailed ratings and information about all types of schools in the city, including District, charter, Catholic and private schools.  It is completely free and available online at www.greatphillyschools.org.  Prior to GreatPhillySchools.org, parents seeking information on schools had to search multiple websites and sift through complex spreadsheets to find data about academic results. There was no easy way to get information comparing private and Catholic schools to public schools or to obtain information about safety and attendance.

Visit GreatPhillySchools.org to find ratings and information to help parents, grandparents and students to search and compare over 400 public and private schools.  Each school is assigned 1-to-10 ratings in up to five categories and in overall quality. A rating of 10 means a school ranks among the top-performing schools for that category in comparison to other schools in Philadelphia. These ratings are designed to make it easier to find, sort and compare schools, but they are not intended to be the sole factor in judging whether a school is the right fit for a student. The site will help parents, guardians and students ask the right questions during their school research, as they visit schools and as they work to improve their own schools. For a more detailed explanation of the ratings, see our methodology at GreatPhillySchools.org.

In addition to the ability to search by neighborhood, overall quality and school type or grade level, the site includes a robust series of brief tutorials and articles developed to help parents and caregivers navigate the process of choosing a school.  Over a dozen articles touch on differences among the private and public school systems, the enrollment process at different types of schools, a checklist for parents planning to visit a school, and more.  The site also includes descriptive information for each school, including mission, accreditation, admissions policy, and special programs, such as music, arts, sports and language offerings.

Here is some of the news coverage:

NBC Philadelphia: New Tool to Help Philly Parents Find the Best School
Inquirer: Website Offers Range of Information About Philly Schools
Daily News: New Website to Help Parents Find 'Great Philly Schools'

Miami-Dade County Wins 2012 Broad Prize

Kudos to Miami-Dade!

The winner of the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education is five-time finalist Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

As the winner of the award that recognizes the large urban school district making the greatest progress
in the country in raising student achievement, Miami-Dade will receive $550,000 in college scholarships for its high school seniors. Three finalist districts-----the Corona-Norco Unified School District in Southern California, Houston Independent School District and The School District of Palm Beach County in Florida-----will each receive $150,000 in scholarships.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined philanthropist Eli Broad and retired Adm. Michael G. Mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, at The Museum of Modern Art on Oct. 23  

to announce the winner, which was selected by a bipartisan jury of 11 prominent leaders from government, business and public service, including two former U.S. secretaries of education.

The $1 million Broad Prize is an annual award that honors the four large urban school districts that demonstrate the strongest student achievement and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among low-income and minority students. The 75 largest urban school districts in America are automatically eligible for the award each year.

As the nation's fourth-largest school district, Miami- Dade has nearly 350,000 students-----90 percent of whom are black or Hispanic and 74 percent of whom are low-income. The jury voted unanimously to select Miami-Dade as the winner. They noted that the district has outperformed peer districts in academic achievement, minority students reached advanced academic levels, the district improved college-readiness levels of its students and raised graduation rates for minority students.

Miami-Dade's win comes the fifth time the district was named a finalist for The Broad Prize, bringing the district's total prize winnings to $1.2 million in college scholarships for its students since 2006. The district was previous a finalist in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011. This marks the first time Corona-Norco and Palm Beach County were finalists and a return for Houston, which won the inaugural Broad Prize  

in 2002.

Click here to learn more about what makes this year's Broad Prize winner and finalist districts stand out among their peers.   

Matt Miller on Hurricane Sandy and Plight of Poor Children

Matt Miller with a powerful, thoughtful column on the similarities between Hurricane Sandy and the plight of poor children – yet the very different responses by oursociety:

There’s something powerful yet perplexing in our response to the havoc wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

The universal impulse is empathy for those who’ve been hurt through no fault of their own and a determination to mobilize collectively via government to ease the pain and fix the damage. Yes, of course, there are utility contractors, religious groups and nonprofits like the Red Cross doing essential work – every hand is needed on deck — but we rightly expect government to lead when it comes to coping with calamity.

The perplexing thing is this: Why is our moral instinct so different when it comes to natural disasters like Sandy as opposed to slow-motion man-made disasters, such as the fate of millions of poor children languishing in failing schools? Why do some bad things that are outside people’s control elicit empathy and a thirst for urgent response – and other bad things outside people’s control persist for decades in the face of de facto indifference?

We can pretend otherwise, but indifference is ultimately what we’ve shown poor children in the United States. These kids come into the world with disadvantages beyond their control. As a society we then make matters worse by leaving them poorly fed and largely untutored before they reach school age and then by assigning most of them to the least qualified teachers and shabbiest school facilities in the country.

The impact on their lives – not to mention the loss to the economy, when so much human potential is left untapped – vastly exceeds any damage Sandy will do. Our indifference helps explain why upward mobility is now greater in most of Europe than in the United States.

Yet we don’t see wall-to-wall coverage. We don’t see Ali Velshi reporting for hours from urban classrooms whose kids are knee-deep in despair just as surely as if they were treading water in Atlantic City. We don’t see Erin Burnett tracking the tide of neglect that’s lapping at these students’ feet just as Sandy swelled the waters Burnett patrolled in lower Manhattan.

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When a hurricane hits the eastern seaboard, Florida, or New Orleans, or when tornados hit Alabama, or when an earthquake hits California, or when levees overflow in Missouri, or a terrible draught hits the Midwest, we’re all in this together. But when millions of people lose their homes to foreclosure, they were greedy speculators; when millions of people lose their jobs through no fault of their own and go on food stamps and receive unemployment benefits, they’re worthless leaches on society. What are we coming to??? It’s always been the core of the greatness of America that we all feel like we’re our brother’s keeper for our fellow citizens, even if our brother has different color skin, prays to a different god, was born in a different country, loves someone of the same gender, or (heaven forbid!) votes for someone of a different party. So sad…

Gloria Romero on Schools Named After Civil Rights Leaders

Gloria Romero echoes Matt Miller’s points about millions of students, year after year, languishing in failing schools, many ironically named after civil rights leaders:

... we have a habit of naming schools after civil rights legends. But should a school that bears such a name also be among our state's chronically lowest-performing schools?

Last May, the Navy launched a new cargo ship, the USNS Cesar Chavez. What reaction would there be if that ship had sunk on its maiden voyage? Would we tolerate the drowning of its crewmembers? Surely, there would be an immediate call for a commission to "get to the roots" of this tragedy.

Yet, we allow schools named after heroic leaders to sink, year after year. Our students "drown" in chronically underperforming schools. Where are the inquiries?

This question is particularly relevant as we await release of California's Department of Education's List of 1,000 chronically underperforming schools. This compilation is based on a law I wrote that mandated giving parents access to these "watch lists," which previously were compiled by bureaucrats and then just left on a shelf in Sacramento. The idea behind the law was to spotlight underperforming schools, to begin their transformation with parental knowledge and participation.

There are some 35 California schools named after Cesar Chavez. Almost all are identified as "Program Improvement" (PI) schools – which is a bureaucratic label meaning "failing." Tens of thousands of students are "drowning" in these chronically underperforming schools. No whistles are blown. We just step back and watch them sink; and we also seem to blame the students for the educational equivalent of not knowing how to swim.

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Fordham Institute on States with Most Powerful Teachers Unions

A VERY interesting new study – with a handful of surprises – by the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now (which is affiliated with DFER) on which states have the most powerful teachers unions. Interestingly, in Hawaii, ranked #1 (shouldn’t it be #50?), there’s quite a bit of reform going on – see the slides I sent around after visiting there in August, posted at: www.tilsonfunds.com/Hawaiiedreform.pdf:

Here’s a summary:

This timely study represents the most comprehensive analysis of American teacher unions’ strength ever conducted, ranking all fifty states and the District of Columbia according to the power and influence of their state-level unions. To assess union strength, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now examined thirty-seven different variables across five realms:

The strength of teacher unions in the U.S.

1) Resources and Membership

2) Involvement in Politics

3) Scope of Bargaining

4) State Policies

5) Perceived Influence

The study analyzed factors ranging from union membership and revenue to state bargaining laws to campaign contributions, and included such measures such as the alignment between specific state policies and traditional union interests and a unique stakeholder survey. The report sorts the fifty-one jurisdictions into five tiers, ranking their teacher unions from strongest to weakest and providing in-depth profiles of each. 

Download and read the full study here.