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Search, cut, paste

March 30, 2009 By

Fur is flying over a Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ talk to the National Education Association.  Though reporters were not invited, Lynne Munson wrote on Common Core that P21′s “Paige Kuni explained that in the ‘search cut and paste environment’ students . . . only need to know ‘enough of the most crucial information’.”

She didn’t say who decides when enough is enough or what P21 considers crucial. Is it enough earth science to know that the earth is round? Enough literature to have heard of Shakespeare? Enough history to know that we once fought a civil war because the North and South disagreed about something?

. . .  In their remarks, none of the panelists mentioned science, geography, foreign languages, history, literature, art, civics — the list goes on and on.

Kuni responded in a Flypaper comment.

. . . I believe that students absolutely need to be taught content in combination with instruction that leads to 21st century skills like critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration. I believe that by creating schools that adopt the approaches P21 supports, students will be able to make connections of how a changing form makes butterflies more successful in the ecosystem. That they can think critically about how life cycles connect to evolution. And that they could extrapolate to other topics such as how product lifecycles in business are the same or different from butterfly lifecycles in making companies successful. When they are 25 if they cannot recall the name of one-step in the lifecycle, it isn’t important as long as they possess the learning skills that allow them to access that information when they need it (search- cut- paste).

Eduwonk sees common ground — if P21 adherents get a lot more specific about how students are going to learn the content that’s essential to thinking critically or creatively.

Robert Pondiscio, who’s back and blogging, muses about resistance to “content.” Personally, I prefer “knowledge.”

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First, educate the kids

March 29, 2009 By

It’s possible to create a good school for low-income students without parent involvement, argues Jay Mathews in the Washington Post. Parents will support the school when it proves itself, not before.

Low-income parents may often be distracted just trying to make a living, but they know what works. Once they see a school keeping its promises, they provide the kind of support found in suburban schools. But it’s important to remember that good schooling must come before parental support, not the other way around.

Poorly educated parents may not know how to support their children’s learning. It’s a role they need to learn from their kids’ teachers and school leaders.

Flypaper’s Andy Smarick agrees with Mathews and points to the Education Next article on paternalistic schools.

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D.C. students cash in

March 24, 2009 By

Giving cash for grades (and doing homework, behaving and wearing a clean school uniform) is motivating some D.C. middle-school students to work harder in school, reports the Washington Post. But the Capital Gains program may work best for the best students.

Interviews with parents, educators and youths reveal that most students compare their earnings as soon as they’re handed out, excited by the financial reward. A few, in a show of apathy or rebellion, destroy checks intended to help them. And some walk home disappointed, envelopes closed.

Does it destroy the intrinsic love of learning? There are follow-up studies underway.

Flypaper wants ethics lessons so students won’t steal their classmates’ checks or tear them up in envy.

Direct deposit, used at some schools, might be more effective.

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Obama backs merit pay, charter schools

March 10, 2009 By

In his first major education speech, President Obama came out for linking teachers’ pay to student performance and expanding effective charter schools, AP reports. He also supported lengthening the school day and year, improving early childhood education and raising erratic state standards in the speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He called for more spending and more reforms.

“The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens,” he said. “We have everything we need to be that nation … and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us.”

Jay Mathews called it the “largest assemblage of smart ideas” on schools he’s seen, but wonders if Obama can make it happen.

“Provocative,” says Flypaper.

Ken DeRosa calls it “long on lofty rhetoric,” but “short on anything that stands a good chance of working. He was counting on five ponies.

Everybody loved the speech — teachers unions and charter advocates, liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans included — reports Politics K-12.  The details will determine whether the teachers’ unions continue to cheer, says Teacher Beat.

Well, Gerald Bracey thought Obama blew it by listening to fearmongers. Here’s Part II of his HuffPo post.

In his obligatory section urging parents to shape up, Obama told this story:

When I was a child, living in Indonesia with my mother, she didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school so she supplemented my schooling with lessons from a correspondence course. I can still picture her, waking me up at 4:30 in the morning five days a week to go over some lessons before I left for school. And whenever I’d complain or find some excuse for getting more sleep, she’d patiently repeat her most powerful defense — “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

I love that story.  Raising your kid to be a functional adult — or president of the United States of America — is no picnic.

Update: The National Education Association unequivocally opposes merit pay, points out EIA Intercepts.

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More money, less reform

January 27, 2009 By

Flypaper’s Education Reform-0-Meter, which started with a “warm” welcome for Arne Duncan as education secretary, is getting colder.

Senate Democrats have stripped the reformist provisions from the education portion of the House stimulus bill.

The Teacher Incentive Fund (which supports merit pay programs): gone. Charter school facilities dollars: gone. Money for data infrastructure projects: gone. Language ensuring that charter schools have equitable access to the money: gone. The teachers unions firmly in control of the Democratic Party: back with a vengeance.

Where is Obama? We shall see how strongly he’ll back education reform.

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Unionizing charter schools

January 14, 2009 By

Teachers at two KIPP schools in New York City have voted to unionize, reports the New York Times. KIPP teachers earn more than district teachers but work longer hours. It’s common for teachers to burn out.

Several teachers at the two schools — KIPP Amp, a middle school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and KIPP Infinity, a middle school in Harlem — said the union organizing drive came about because they wanted a stronger voice on the job and because the demands on them were so rigorous. They also said that they wanted to insure a fair discipline and evaluation system.

A union contract will hurt the schools, said Jeanne Allen, executive director of the pro-charter Center for Education Reform.

“As long as you have nonessential rules that have more to do with job operations than with student achievement,” she said, “you are going to have a hard time with accomplishing your mission.”

Not necessarily a problem, writes Eduwonk. After all, Green Dot charters in Los Angeles are unionized (though not affiliated with the AFT or NEA).  KIPP Bronx, a district school conversion, is unionized.

What matters is what’s in the contract not unionization per se.

Allen responds:

What KIPP schools are experiencing is the equivalent of a takeover, even disguised as a restructuring, where management will no longer be able to set the tone or culture of their schools.

Flypaper’s Mike Petrilli also thinks this is a big deal.

Core Knowledge has lots o’ links.

Collective bargaining agreements are more flexible than reformers think, concludes the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which studied Washington, California, and Ohio.

Counting retirement and health benefits, teachers are well compensated, writes Rishawn Biddle in Golden Apples. But many teacher pension and health plans are abysmally managed and underfunded.

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