Middle school is “where academic achievement in America falters and begins its accelerating decline,” writes Education Gadfly, citing an LA Times editorial that praises KIPP middle schools. Gadfly goes on:

(Middle schools) are usually places where academic rigor and achievement take a back seat to “personal development,” social consciousness, and the inculcation of egalitarian principles. Middle schoolism is about curing the middle school student of his or her supposed dysfunction — which doesn’t leave much time for learning (which the most radical proponents of middle schoolism believe is beyond the ability of early adolescents anyway).

Many kids who’ve done reasonably well in elementary school disengage in middle school and never get back on track.

Who moved their cheese?

Forget about learning for its own sake. A Boston-area high school will pay students $25 per quarter for perfect attendance. They’ll get the money if they graduate. This is a trend, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

(Chelsea High School) joins a number of districts throughout the country turning to incentives to boost test scores, GPAs, and student turnout.

Some schools, like Chelsea High, are focused solely on attendance. Officials there maintain that they can’t carry out their mission if a student is not in class absorbing the material. Others are doling out gift certificates, coupons, and checks if students earn straight A’s or land on the honor roll.

I had perfect attendance in fourth grade. Mr. Parker, my favorite all-time teacher, gave me a gold-painted plastic cup he’d won in a dance contest at the Hotel Fontainebleu in Miami Beach. I displayed it with pride on my dresser. I wonder what happened to it. But it was an after-the-fact award. You have to wonder what message it sends students when a school tells them the only thing of value they can get in school is cash. And $25 a quarter isn’t much of a bribe.

Mr. AB of From the TFA Trenches complains that Unprofessional Development treats teachers like children.

We want to learn like we are in law school or grad school. That means no gimmicks, no games, no group work, and no, absolutely no, teacher-voice. If you could end that sentence with “Boys and girls,” don’t say it. Do not play chimes or a recorder to get my attention, do not make me sing, and do not make me sit on the floor. I teach elementary school, that does not mean I am in it!

Via Eduwonk.

Many teachers regard staff development as a waste of time, says an Education Week story about attempts to make teacher training more effective.

Experts know, for instance, that programs focused on the academic content that teachers must cover and on how students think about that content are more effective than those that impart more generic teaching techniques.

They know that longer-lasting professional development tends to produce better results. They also know that such programs work best when they link to teachers’ daily classroom experiences—the tasks their students will have to do, for example, or the texts they will use.

To a lesser degree, researchers also have a hunch that it’s important for teachers to engage in learning sessions collectively—maybe with other teachers from the same department or grade—so that they can meet later to reflect on what they learned.

No area of education is so prone to fads as professional development, but Education Week says some research is now underway to determine which training models leads to better student performance.

Rita, a University of Chicago student interning in Washington, D.C., sermonizes about the dangers of sermonizing professors on her delightful blog, Nobody Sasses a Girl in Glasses, which I discovered through University Diaries. It’s refreshing to encounter an undergrad who writes this well. Check out the post on the ho-bag roommate and sexiling as well.

Passed on by reader Ben Cunningham: Literally a niche blog.

At free Operation Purple summer camps organized by the National Military Family Association, the children of deployed military personnel can relax, have fun and share their anxieties with other children in the same situation. Sears funds one-week campus in 18 states, Guam and at three U.S. bases overseas.

Teacher Quality Bulletin’s merit pay round-up includes a story on a privately funded plan at an elementary school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Each teacher got a bonus based on the percentage increase in her students’ test scores.

For each pupil who made up to a 4 percent gain on the May test when compared with the pre-test last August, the teacher was entitled to $100. For each pupil who made a gain of between 5 percent and 9 percent, the bonus was $200. If the pupil’s gain was between 10 percent and 14 percent, the bonus was $300 and if the gain exceeded 15 percent, the bonus was $400.

Bonuses ranged from $1,800 to $8,600, and cost $65,000. The entire cost was $145,000 including testing costs and bonuses — based on the overall 17 percent gain of students schoolwide — to 25 other employees, including math and literacy coaches, the media specialist and maintenance and cafeteria workers.

In Florida, some districts give merit pay to many teachers; others have plans that make it impossible to qualify. The union wants it that way.

The Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association was bitterly opposed to performance pay and helped set the eligibility bar so high that union chief Jade Moore said it would “make it nearly impossible” for any teachers to earn them.

Hillsborough is more flexible and leaves much of the bonus-granting power in the hands of principals.

Meanwhile Florida is having trouble with teacher certification scams (pdf). One 24-year-old claimed to have earned a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate within three months.

Jenny D is hosting the Carnival of Education, which features Moebius Stripper on what high school students should learn about math before they show up in her college classroom and Math and Text on the fatal phrase, “My kids won’t get this.”

In addition, Education Policyist analyzes the evidence on a claim by Martin Gross in a Washington Times editorial that, “Our educators, from teachers through superintendents of schools, are academically and intellectually so inferior that the fourth grade is apparently the outer limit of their teaching abilities.” Gross cites below-average SAT scores of high school seniors who say they want to be teachers, though the weakest students aren’t likely to finish college.

Those who pass the PRAXIS teacher test required of high school teachers “score above the average for college-bound high schoolers (although admittedly below the average for all college graduates),” writes EP.

Gross goes on to say that “the GRE, the Graduate Record Exam, taken by those seeking a master’s in eight professions, teachers score the lowest, with engineers at the top. The engineers even beat the teachers in the verbal test by 29 points.”

EP points out that “high school teachers outscore those going into psychology, sociology, business administration and management, communications, public administration, social work, and even health and medical sciences.”

An analysis of data from the National Adult Literacy Survey found that teachers score much higher than all adults and slightly higher than college educated adults in prose and document literacy, and tying with other college-educated adults at quantitative literacy. Teachers scored at the same level as lawyers (in two categories), engineers (in one category), accountants and auditors (in two categories), marketing/pr professionals, financial managers, counselors, and physicians.

Elementary teachers, who are likely to major in education, tend to have lower SAT scores than high school teachers.

Update: I think Education Policyist is wrong about GRE scores (pdf). Would-be educators who take the GREs score lower than GRE takers in all the broad categories (humanities and arts, engineering, business, life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences), outscoring only master’s candidates in home economics, social work and public administration, who are grouped under “other fields.” This Education News column points out that would-be school administrators have particularly dismal GRE scores.

“Ethics Camp” for science teachers at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics is featured in the New York Times. Teachers learn how to incorporate ethical debates into their curriculum.

Camp founder Steve Johnson also has developed a literature curriculum based on ethical questions. For example, the “responsibility requires action’ unit asks students to analyze Cassius’ and Brutus’ actions in “Julius Caesar.”