Would a Republican Congress Be Good for School Reform?

That's the question asked in this Education Next piece, which correctly points out that the new pledge from the Congressional Republicans doesn't have the word "education" anywhere in it. Or "school". Or "teacher".

Put that piece side-by-side with this one, which ponders if education reform has jumped the shark. It seems like a dumb question given the zeitgeist--how many times did you hear about Waiting for Superman this week?--but at the same time you have Michelle Rhee getting thrown out on her ear in Washington D.C.

My own personal clock had education becoming a big issue leading into the midterm elections, so that the politicos could go home and campaign on it, but maybe in 2011. Or 2012. Or, maybe, never.

Read more here, if any.

National Board Certification: Are We Seeing a Backlash, a Trend, or Just Noise?

A few weeks back I wrote about how Florida is backing off of its support for teachers going after their National Board Certification. The most recent hit comes from Michelle Rhee in Washington DC:

But budget uncertainties, labor tensions and the timetable for the program's rollout have sparked questions from teachers' advocates about its effectiveness. At the same time, Rhee has dropped the school system's direct support for instructors seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a rigorous one- to three-year teacher development program, citing a lack of evidence that the training improves student achievement.

If it was just Florida you could shrug it off, but with DC following behind in such short order it sort of starts to look like a trend. When the budget rubber meets the road districts are saying pretty clearly that paying additional money for Board certification isn't worth it, and getting to the bottom of why they feel that way is a pretty important thing to do.

For more on Rhee dropping the NBPTS check out Eduwonkette and the DC Examiner.

Read more here, if any.

Eduwonkette on the DC Merit Pay Proposal

Probably the most important post you can read today is this piece from Eduwonkette on the merit pay proposal that Michelle Rhee is working on in Washington D.C. It really gets to both sides of the argument, particularly if you read the entire comments section, and it matters on the micro- level for what could be in the works here in Washington State.

I've got a post percolating on what the administrator's contract in my district says regarding "merit pay"; I'll try and share that soon.

Read more here, if any.

Carnival of Email #6: Summer Vacation Edition

Dear daughter had another test with the audiologist this morning which began with a screaming, crying fit. She's had a thing about anyone in the medical profession since her trip to the pediatric opthamologist last January to get her eyes checked for CMV; the pupil dilation and light shining in her eyes didn't go over well at all. I'm hoping she gets over things before too awful long, because she's got a loooong road ahead of her when it comes to doctors.

On with the carnival!

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The Omaha World-Herald highlights an outdoor garden that an area school put together with a grant from Lowe's. There's a bare patch at my school that I think would be perfect for a giant greenhouse, complete with outdoor classroom; if I ever need another big project in life, I might go for it.

Science Daily with some important new research on nutrition:

Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests, regardless of the number of years they attended school, according to a new article.

This probably speaks to the importance of school breakfast and lunch programs for children from low-SES families.

In Tennessee they've picked up on Marguerite Roza's research and are up in arms over the fact that more experienced teachers tend to go gravitate towards better schools. They're looking at ideas like "combat pay" to solve the perceived problem; it could be an interesting process to watch.

If you show your ass during your high school graduation, I don't have a lot of pity for you. The "Hey, look at me!" mentality is one that I've never really been able to understand.

The San Francisco Chronicle talks about the importance of expanding the school day for kids who are struggling in the classroom. I think we're not far away from a reckoning when it comes to the structure of the school day and school year; the systemic flaws become more and more pronounced every day.

Teaching the Bible as an elective is OK in Texas after action by their state Board of Education. It's about time; the separation of church and state aside, knowledge of the Bible is a Rosetta Stone for understanding thousands of works of literature, film, TV, etcetera.

In the District, Michelle Rhee is looking at creating more preschool-through-8th grade schools, pointing to a research base that shows pre-8 buildings work better for middle school aged kids. There's competing evidence from Philadelphia, though, that the model Rhee's relying on is flawed. It could be an interesting one to watch.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has started a new blog, VP Watch, where they'll be talking about the search for a good vice-president to go along with Obama and McCain. I'm sad that Jim Webb has recently taken himself out of the running.

Colleges are having a Mexican standoff with Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education. She says do this or else; they say that the end is near and make raspberry sounds in her general direction. The thing about lame ducks is that their quacking often goes unnoticed. More here.

Finally, ESchool News has introduced some new sidebar widgets that people can use to spiffy up their blogs. I'm considering adding one over to my sidebar, just for the sake of trying something new.

Thanks for reading!

Read more here, if any.

An Idea: Have the Governor Appoint the Superintendent of Public Instruction?

On a mailing list I’m on someone recently shared a conversation that they had with a state senator. He echoed what I’ve heard other legislators say during my lobbying trips—Terry Bergeson is ineffective and something needs to change over at OSPI—but then went a step further and said he was considering legislation for this next session that would change the SPI position from an elected one to an appointed one.

That’s an interesting idea. I don’t know that it’s a good idea, but it’s one that merits some conversation.

Washington is actually in the minority by having an elected state schools chief. Education Week (here) says that of the 51 people nationwide who are equivalent to our SPI position, only 14 of them are elected, a finding that's further explored by the Council of Chief State School Officers here. An interesting study would be to compare the NAEP scores for states and see if there’s any correlation with how their school chiefs are put into the position, but that’s a topic for another day.

Let’s look at both sides of the idea, starting with the pro:

• If the Governor appointed the Superintendent, then it stands to reason that the Superintendent would be more accountable to the Governor. Ideally, then, SPI would be a sort of cabinet-level position, given the authority they need to do the job as long as it falls within the parameters the Governor sets.
  
  
• Given the above, then, you would hope to see the sort of synergy between the Governor and the SPI that you do when a mayor takes over control of the school system. It could be comparable to what Mike Bloomberg and Joel Klein have established in New York, or Michelle Rhee in Washington D.C.
  
  (Before my DC and NY readers rip me a new one, settle down. I haven’t done the negatives yet)
  
  
• You would also avoid the problem of multiple agendas. Consider if Dino Rossi won the Governor’s mansion this November and lifelong Democrat Terry Bergeson was returned to the Old Capital Building for another run as SPI; can their goals possibly be the same?
  
  
• I think the idea of mandate is important, too. The OSPI election has never been high profile outside of those circles that care most about education; even your average teacher doesn’t get invested in the process the way that they should. Consider President Bush after he won in 2004 and made his speech about political capital; he had a mandate to keep his policies in place, and he used it. Winning the OSPI election doesn’t have that same authority; maybe having to go through a legislative appointment would be a change for the better.
  
  
• If you make it a non-elected position you also take away the incumbent’s advantage. SPI should not be a sinecure, a lifetime appointment. Similarly, an SPI who isn’t running for office might have different interactions with the legislators and the public writ large than one who has to keep their eyes on the next election.

Oh, but there are negatives as well:

• It takes the choice away from the voters, and that’s maybe the most important consideration of all. We like our voting here in the Evergreen State, we like our sunshine and our open books, and making SPI appointed hurts all three of those ideals.
  
  
• What would the vetting process be? What would the Governor’s charge to their search committee be? How much influence would special interest groups (the WEA, the PSE, the EFF, Where’s the Math, Mothers Against WASL, League of Education Voters, AWSP, WSSDA, WASA, WASBO, etc., etc.) have in the selection, even if that influence is exercised through back channels?
  
  
• Along those same lines, then, making the SPI an appointed position could make it an even more political one. Those groups I listed above may not always have luck getting their message out to the public, but they all do a crackerjack job of lobbying and communicating with legislators. The hearings could be a hoot.
  
  
• Change isn’t always good. Say what you will about Terry she does have an institutional memory of what’s gone on in Washington schools that stretches back 30+ years, and that’s a perspective that very few others can claim to have. Would education reform start over again and again and again every time a new face took the office?
  
  
• Consider, too, Mr. Klein and Ms. Rhee from above. Both have their strident critics, and both have made some bad decisions. Sure, they're city superintendents and we're talking state level, but Klein especially shows that a mandate can be a bad thing.

This could well just be legislative bravado—even in the short time that I’ve been making trips to Olympia, I’ve seen plenty of it—but should a bill be introduced it’ll be something well worth watching.

Read more here, if any.

In Praise of Michelle Rhee

She’s getting put through the ringer now because of a proposal to close down some schools in Washington, D.C., but how right she is about the need to reform the district can be seen quite capably in this quote from Education Week:

“How giving the chancellor the power to fire a secretary or someone who works in the mailroom improves student achievement is beyond me,” said Rick Powell, the political and legislative director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, which includes several unions with members in the school district’s office.

“Is that grounds to lose your job?” he said of employees’ reported confusion about their duties. “If somebody doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do, then you train them.”

Or, alternatively, if someone can’t tell you why they’re employed by the district, you wish them well and send them on their way. Truly—your boss asks you what you do, and you don’t have an answer?

Read more here, if any.

Great Article on Teacher Unionism

The Washington City Paper has a neat read on the appointment of Michelle Rhee as superintendent of the DC Public Schools, and looks at the kind of relationship she can expect to have with George Parker, president of the teacher’s union there. There’s some minor quibbles (the Unintended Consequences report which Rhee helped co-write, for example, isn’t nearly as profound as they make it out to be), but overall it’s a thoughtful article that should appeal to anyone with an interest in how unions interact with education.

Read more here, if any.