Worth A Read

From Friday’s inbox…

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• A people’s education platform
• My View: Myths on American schooling
• ‘Double Segregation’: The Deepening Racial Divide in Schools
• Noguera: The Origins of My Views on Education
• Beware the Trigger
• I Don’t Believe in Research
• School segregation sharply increasing, studies show
• ‘The Difficult Thirty Percent’ Redux: The Equity Gap 2012
• Charter schools suspend, expel students at widely varying rates
• Study: Outside of school factors play a larger role in test scores than teachers

A people’s education platformPosted: 25 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Nancy Flanagan and Don Bartalo discuss the question: “What if education policy guidelines and political platforms were shaped by rank-and-file citizens?” Flanagan and Bartalo suggest that ED return to its original purpose. “ED was not established to make teachers accountable to the public, but to make the federal government accountable to the people.”

My View: Myths on American schoolingPosted: 24 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT William H. Schmidt, distinguished professor at Michigan State University and co-director of the Education Policy Center, writes about three myths that “have distorted how we view education and comprised our efforts to improve it.” Myths include: Everyone has an equal chance to succeed in school; It’s only a problem for poor and minority students; There’s nothing we can do about it. Schmidt says that the Common Core State Standards are a step toward equalizing opportunities to learn.

‘Double Segregation’: The Deepening Racial Divide in SchoolsPosted: 24 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Tim Walker writes about a recent study published by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “The Civil Rights Project is calling on the Obama Administration, state and local officials, and organizations around the country to take proactive measures to ensure that all students, regardless of race and wealth, have equal access to a successful education.”

Noguera: The Origins of My Views on EducationPosted: 24 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Pedro Noguera joins Bridging Differences, replacing Diane Ravitch, who is now focusing on her own blog. Noguera will continue the conversation with Deborah Meier. He is director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education in New York.

Beware the TriggerPosted: 24 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Wayne Au writes about the ‘parent trigger,’ and Walden Media’s propaganda based Hollywood film, “Won’t Back Down.” Au provides links to resources about ‘parent trigger.’

I Don’t Believe in ResearchPosted: 23 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT John Spencer writes about his distrust for what research ‘says’ as opposed to ‘believing’ in research. Spencer says that when someone says: “Research says…” his reaction is to ask the following questions: “1) Was it peer-reviewed? 2) Was there a viable commercial interest guiding the formation and analysis of the research? 3) What were the variables, control group, and how was the research constructed? 4) How large was the scope of the research, the sample size, any actual research conducted? 5) What does the raw data look like, how was it analyzed, what external factors were considered?” Critical voices missing in the education reform debate?

School segregation sharply increasing, studies showPosted: 21 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Valerie Strauss writes about three recently released reports and two regional studies by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. These reports analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics.   Strauss reports that: “The research shows that segregation is substantially increasing for Latino students across the country but most significantly in the West, and that for black students, segregation also remains very high and is most severely growing in the South.”

‘The Difficult Thirty Percent’ Redux: The Equity Gap 2012Posted: 20 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Paul Thomas addresses The Urgency of Now, a 2012 report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education, on dropout rates for Black male and Latino male ninth-graders in high school. Thomas utilizes Ralph Ellison speech from 1963 as a comparison of current and historical reference.   “Ralph Ellison, celebrated author of Invisible Man, spoke in September 1963 at a teachers’ conference “…to discuss ‘these children,’ the difficult thirty percent. We know this very well; it has been hammered out again and again.” Ellison was addressing the educational failures of African American children in U.S. public schools, including drop outs.”   The report from the Schott foundation, Thomas’ piece, and Ellison’s work are all Worth a Read.   Thomas also suggests other work by Ralph Ellison, Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin in a separate piece: Essential Reading/Viewing for “No Excuses” Reformers

Charter schools suspend, expel students at widely varying ratesPosted: 20 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Emma Brown tackles D.C. charter schools, who suspended and expelled students at widely varying rates in 2011-12, according to data released by the D.C. Public Charter School Board.   “While the majority of charters did not expel any students, others kicked out dozens. And while some schools suspended only a handful of kids, others suspended more than 100 — more than half the student body, in a couple cases.”

Study: Outside of school factors play a larger role in test scores than teachersPosted: 20 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Dave Murray writes about a new study released by the National Education Policy Center with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. William Mathis (author of the brief) writes: “Care must be taken in selecting or designing a balanced evaluation system,” he wrote. “Given the extensive range of activities, skills, and knowledge involved in teachers’ daily work, the system’s goals must be clear, explicit and reflect practitioner involvement. Effective teacher evaluation also requires an investment in sufficient numbers of qualified evaluators. Otherwise, the system will likely be irregular, uneven and ineffective.”