Forty-eight percent of public schools failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress, according to the Center on Education Policy.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who predicted 82 percent of schools would miss AYP, also failed to reach his target.
Class time isn’t shorter in U.S.
December 15, 2011 By
U.S. schoolchildren spend as much time in school as kids in high-scoring countries, concludes a report by the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants a longer school day and year, notes the Washington Times.
“Right now, children in India … they’re going to school 30, 35 days more than our students,” he said at an education forum in September, explaining one reason he thinks the American education system is falling behind those of global competitors.
“Anybody who thinks we need less time, not more, is part of the problem,” Mr. Duncan said.
Students in India spend more days in school, but fewer hours in class, totaling 800 “instructional hours” at the elementary level. Forty-two states require more class hours, the report found. Texas requres 1,260 hours a year for elementary students.
High-scoring South Korea requires 703 hours for elementary students, though many parents pay for after-school lessons. Hungarian students score at nearly the U.S. level despite requiring only 601 hours.
U.S. high school students average 1,000 hours in class each year.
In Poland, high school students need 595 hours in the classroom, the lowest of all the countries in the study, yet they top U.S. students on the math and science portions of the PISA exams, the most widely used measuring sticks for international comparisons.
Finland, Norway, Australia and other nations also show higher levels of student achievement while requiring less instruction.
Of course, it’s not just the time spent at school, but how it’s used.
Federal aid fuels exploding college costs
December 9, 2011 By
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is dead wrong on how to control college costs, argues Cato‘s Neal McCluskey.
To a system blackout-drunk on taxpayer money, the Obama administration would deliver even more booze while only whispering about tough love.
A libertarian, McCluskey is the author of How Much Ivory Does This Tower Need? I love the title.
Can college costs be controlled?
December 1, 2011 By
Rising college costs are on the agenda: Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for college leaders to “think more creatively and with much greater urgency” about controlling costs. A House committee hearing focused on controlling college costs. But how?
“Non-traditional” students should “occupy” colleges that ignore their needs, writes a professor.
A good school leaves a few behind
November 1, 2011 By
Despite years of high scores without really trying, Oyster River Middle School is trying test prep to meet No Child Left Behind targets, writes Michael Winerip in the New York Times. The school in a prosperous New Hampshire town “needs improvement” because some special ed students aren’t proficient on the state exam, he writes.
In September the school announced a new motto, “Fill the Box.” Students have been told that their best chance for a high score on the state English test is to use all the blank space allotted for the essay. “You have to write as much as you can,” says Jay Richard, the principal. “People have studied these things.”
Actually, writing well works too.
The school also makes sure students get a good night’s sleep and eat “brain food” before the state tests.
In hopes of raising reading scores, Principal Richard, a former special education teacher, has decided to pull special ed students from mainstream classes at times for individual instruction.
Will this be better or just different?
“I believe we can do better,” Mr. Richard said. “We have to. This is the law.”
OK, the principal thinks it’s better. Surely, that’s a good thing.
Under Arne Duncan’s waivers, schools wouldn’t need to focus as much on low-achieving subgroups, Winerip writes. Isn’t that a bad thing? Apparently not.
Winerip’s story shows why No Child Left Behind was necessary, responds Eduwonk. It’s easy to ignore special ed students (the school’s low-income students may be lagging too), if nobody’s looking. “What about the poor students or special education students there? Don’t they matter?”
Harkin-Enzi advances
October 21, 2011 By
The bipartisan Harkin-Enzi bill to rewrite No Child Left Behind (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) made it out of committee with all the Democrats and three Republicans on board.
Credit Arne Duncan’s waivers for motivating the senators to take action, writes Mike Petrilli on Flypaper. The Dems seem willing to vote for anything, he writes. The Republicans, notably Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former U.S. Education secretary, will have lots of clout.
“Civil rights groups and lefty reformers are getting rolled,” he concludes. Federally enforced accountability has lost political support.
Petrilli thinks Harkin-Enzi is better than NCLB. Like Alexander Russo, I’m not so sure the states will hold schools accountable for educating all students. Duncan said the bill should include accountability, but didn’t fight for it — at least not in public — notes Russo.
. . . are they just hoping that this all falls apart on the Senate floor and in the House so that they can do the waiver thing?
Meanwhile, President Obama’s plan to fund teachers’ (and public safety officers’) jobs died in the Senate when two Democrats and Independent Joe Lieberman sided with Republicans.
Harkin-Enzi: Threat or menace?
October 18, 2011 By
No bill at all is better than the revised version of the Harkin-Enzi bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind), writes Kevin Carey on The Quick and the Ed. The draft version would have required states to “implement some kind of legitimate multiple-measure process for evaluating teacher effectiveness” and ensure that low-income and minority students aren’t “disproportionately taught by ineffective teachers, as identified by the evaluation system.” That’s gone now, in response to demands by school boards, principals and teachers, notes Anne Hyslop.
The Harkin-Enzi bill to is a “hodgepodge of half-baked ideas” that should be rejected by progressives and conservatives, writes Mike Petrilli on Flypaper. But he likes the revised version better than the original, calling the equitable distribution of teachers rule “a Fairyland provision.”
(Republicans should) scrap the bill and start over — with Senator Alexander’s proposal as the jumping-off point. It’s a much stronger bill, closer in many ways to the Administration’s own Blueprint, and much more serious about re-calibrating the federal role in education.
While Rick Hess also prefers Sen. Lamar Alexander’s ESEA bills, he sees Harkin-Enzi as a workable bipartisan proposal that limits burdensome federal regulations. Here’s his opinion on the revisions.
Alexander has endorsed the revised version of Harkin-Enzi, notes Politics K-12. The National Education Association likes it. But Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to require teacher evaluation.
It’s not all bad, writes RiShawn Biddle on Dropout Nation. But it’s mostly bad. Harkin-Enzi, Alexander and Duncan’s waivers all give up on education reform, he argues.
There’s little enthusiasm for Harkin-Enzi in National Journal’s debate. It weakens accountability too much for the reformers and not enough for the No Child haters.
I predict stalemate.
What to do with a longer school day
October 3, 2011 By
It’s n0t enough to add time to the school day, advises a new National Center on Time & Learning report. Effective extended-learning schools use eight “powerful practices” concludes “Time Well Spent,” which profiles successful schools serving low-income students.
- Making every minute count or maximizing added time;
- Prioritizing increased hours that are tailored to the school and their students;
- Individualizing the added time for each student based on diverse needs;
- Building a positive school culture of high expectations and mutual accountability;
- Providing new experiences for students that make their education more well-rounded;
- Preparing students for the future by encouraging college readiness and career goals;
- Strengthening instruction by providing increased time for teacher professional development; and
- Evaluating how well goals are met by assessing and analyzing data.
Massachusetts is the only state to fund longer school days: 19 schools now get the extra funding. However, NCTL estimates there are 1,000 expanded-learning-time schools nationwide. Not all have seen significant achievement gains.
Schools applying for No Child Left Behind waivers should use extended learning time as a reform strategy, NCTL urges. At a Center for American Progress forum on the report, Education Secretary Arne Duncan endorsed a longer school day and year.
“Right now, children in India, children in China and other places, they’re going to school, 30, 35 days more than our students. If you’re on a sports team and you’re practicing three days a week and the other team is practicing five days a week, who is going to win more? Anybody who thinks we need less time, not more, is part of the problem,” he said.
Top-performing students don’t need more time in school, forum participants said. For disadvantaged students, schools can be both places to learn and safe havens from dangerous neighborhoods.
#AskArne on Twitter
August 22, 2011 By
Education Secretary Arne Duncan will participate in the first-ever #AskArne Twitter Town Hall on August 24 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Education journalist John Merrow will moderate. The discussion will be broadcast live on ED’s ustream channel.
Twitter users can submit questions now using the #AskArne hashtag.
Duncan: Non-core states can get waivers
August 22, 2011 By
States don’t need to adopt Common Core Standards to get a No Child Left Behind waiver, says Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Common Core hold-outs — Texas, Alaska, Virginia, Nebraska and Montana — can qualify by proving they have high standards that prepare students for state colleges and universities.
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