At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, students are assigned to a “house” — Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw — which will serve as a smaller community within the larger school. Robert J. O’Hara, who’s promoting the benefits of residential colleges on Collegiate Way, is researching middle and high schools that use a house system such as Chaminade Preparatory School in St. Louis and Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati. If you know about other U.S. middle or high schools with houses, e-mail him at rjohara at post dot harvard dot edu.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire wants to boost education spending by 25 percent, using much of a $1.9 billion surplus. What happens when the money’s gone? In a Spokane Spokesman-Review column, Richard Davis argues for smarter spending of education dollars. He cites the “Frozen Assets” report by Marguerite Roza, a University of Washington and Education Sector researcher.

In her recently released report, Roza looked at eight common provisions of teacher contracts that “obligate schools to spend large amounts of money on programs that lack a clear link to student achievement.” Among them: basing pay raises on years of experience and educational credentials, professional development days, paid sick and personal days, class-size limitations, use of teacher aides, and above-average health and pension benefits. Nationally, these provisions tie up about $77 billion in “frozen assets,” 19 percent of school budgets.

Seniority pay, “a bedrock principle” of industrial unionism, ties up the most money, about 10 percent of school spending, more than half the 19 percent she’d like “repurposed.” Roza says there’s no direct relationship with seniority and classroom effectiveness. Pay may be more productively tied to performance. Similarly, increased compensation for additional education can’t be justified across the board. Master’s degrees in math and science may yield direct benefits, but she finds scant evidence that graduate training in other fields makes much difference.

. . . Thawing these “frozen assets” would allow leaders to redirect the money to programs more likely to improve student achievement. For example, she says schools could boost minimum salaries for teachers, provide bonuses for teaching in low-performing schools or specializing in tough subjects like math and science, invest in new technology, extend the school day or offer Saturday classes.

I think it’s inevitable that soon teachers will be paid more for taking tougher assignments and teaching high-demand subjects. Pay for performance may come too, but it’s much harder to implement well.

Married to a middle-school teacher, Leaning Towards the Dark Side has come up with an alternative for unmotivated students who waste the time of teachers and classmates. They’d get to start early on career training.

This special classroom would be equipped with a cash register, a cooking surface, a deep fryer, a soda fountain, and a system that offers orders for the students to fill correctly. The kids would be graded on their ability to operate the equipment, and tests would include simulated customer orders. Additional equipment would include mops and brooms, which they would use to clean up the room at the end of the class. Extra credit could be offered for asking “would you like fries with that, ma’am?” or “Biggie size, sir?”

If you want kids to be scared smart (or smarter) make them train to be telemarketers.

In On the Clock, Education Sector’s Elena Silva analyzes the push to increase the school day and year, finding that “improving the quality of instructional time is at least as important as increasing the quantity of time in school.” Not surprisingly, increasing “high-quality teaching time” is a significant help to “low-income students and others who have little opportunity for learning outside of school.”

Schools that succeed with disadvantaged students typically have a longer school day and often a longer year so kids who start behind have more time to catch up. But an unsuccessful school doesn’t get good by boring kids for another hour.

Lengthening the school day is under consideration in a number of cities and states. It’s the small schools of 2007.

Here’s a preview of the president’s education agenda.

Alliance for School Choice likes the school choice emphasis, writes Ryan Boots on Edspresso. The president will propose: competitive grants to help school districts or nonprofits create private school choice programs. In addition:

As we have been urging, he will propose private school options for kids in schools that have been failing for five or more years. In an interesting twist, such “restructuring” schools also would be freed from the obligations of their union contracts, much like private firms that are in bankruptcy.

For the 20 percent of Title I funds that are supposed to be used for supplemental services, a “use it or lose it” requirement to encourage the provision of services will be suggested.

Don’t count on Bush’s ability to push any education proposals that lack Democratic support. NCLB still has powerful Democratic patrons; school choice does not.

The AFT’s NCLBlog questions the claim that NCLB deserves credit for rising test scores.

Update: The president wasn’t forceful or specific enough, writes Eduwonk.