(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Good stuff from MJS veteran Alan Borsuk. Remember, you read it here first.
Borsuk: Democrats on Both Sides of K-12 Wars
September 15, 2009
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Posted by matthewladner
Enlow: Go for the Whole Package
September 14, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Robert Enlow brings it in today’s Indianapolis Star. Money quote:
Bush argued for a comprehensive package of reforms, all of which were critical to Florida’s success. In his remarks to the Education Roundtable, clear accountability (grading schools), good incentives (merit pay) and real consequences (school choice) were inextricably linked. Without each component working together, success would not have been possible, a fact evidenced by a recent study showing that improvement among failing public schools went from double digits to zero after the Florida Supreme Court removed the school voucher option.
Moreover, it was critical to assign each school a letter grade. Without that clear and easy-to-understand letter grade, there simply would not have been the same level of academic improvement among schools.
As someone who fought alongside Gov. Bush in 1999 as he passed his reform package, I can state with confidence that both letter grades and parental school choice were essential to eventual success of the Florida accountability plan. The Star should consider supporting the whole package of common-sense reforms, not just some of the pieces.
4 Comments | vouchers | Tagged: Friedman Foundation, Robert Enlow | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Private Schools and the Public Interest
September 9, 2009
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Just not in my neighborhood. While you are at it, drop by and beg for permission to run for office.
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Regular JPGB readers will recall the survey that the Goldwater Institute sponsored showing an appalling lack of civic knowledge among Arizona high school students, both public and private. Sneak preview: a special Oklahoma remix is on the way.
Well, guess what, we also asked a series of questions about political tolerance, volunteerism and satisfaction in the same survey.
Yesterday the Goldwater Institute released two studies: Tough Crowd: Arizona High School Students Evaluate Their Schools and Better Citizens, Lower Cost: Comparing Scholarship Tax Credit Students to Public School Students.
Let’s start with the latter study, which focuses on political tolerance and volunteerism. I could fish up absurd quotes from people about how only public schools can teach proper civic values, and how scary private schools under a choice system are certain to indoctrinate children into all sorts of dangerous anti-democratic ideologies. You being a discriminating consumer of education blogs, however, makes the task unnecessary.
So what happens when you ask a standard set of political tolerance questions to samples of public and private school students in Arizona? Try this:
Mmkay, maybe public schools aren’t doing much better at teaching tolerance than they are in teaching reading. Next we asked:
So a high percentage of kids, especially in public schools, like the idea of a personalized language police. Disturbing. Next:
Hello ideological segregation! Next:
Mmm-hmm, we’ll just have all the candidates drop by your house and ask for permission to run. Be sure to wear your ring so that the candidates can kiss it.
Ah well, tolerance isn’t the only civic virtue- volunteerism counts as well. Next we asked:
and while we were at it:
There were no meaningful differences between private school students attending with the assistance of a tax credit scholarship, and those who did not receive a scholarship. A minimum of 41% of tax credit scholarships are given out by groups that employ a means-test, so it is not the case that the private school kids are all wealthy and attending Dead Poet Society Schools, which are few and far between here in Arizona in any case.
Of course not all, and perhaps even none of the observed differences can be attributed to the actions of the schools. This however seems very unlikely. This was a survey of high-school students. I know I didn’t have a clue about my family income when I was in high-school, and thus wouldn’t believe the numbers we might get from asking about it, so we didn’t ask.
These results however strongly debunk the notion that private schools function as intolerance boot camps. In fact, it is much easier to build that sort of a case against public schools with the available data, though more research ought to be done.
Arizona’s $2,000 tax credit scholarships are looking like quite the bargain compared to $9,700 Arizona public schools. If you care about tolerance and volunteerism, that is.
More soon on how Arizona high school students view their schools.
4 Comments | civic values | Tagged: Arizona tax credit scholarships, civic values, Goldwater Institute, political tolerance, private schools | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Bud Light Makes an Ad about Ladner
September 9, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
2 Comments | tributes | Tagged: Bud Light Real Men of Genius, Texas Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Pass the Popcorn: Basterds = Glorious Fun
September 4, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
It has been a long time since I walked out of a movie almost speechless other than an occassional “WOW…I mean………WOW!!!!”
Inglorious Basterds, a Quentin Tarrantino film a decade in the making, did the trick.
This flick will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Par for the course for QT, there is grisly violence. Described as a Spagetti Western set in Nazi occupied France, the film struck me as being longer than it ought to have been. Having said that, Inglorious Basterds is a great example of post modern film and a roller coaster of fun.
The film has dual subplots. In the first, Brad Pitt plays a charismatic Tennessee redneck army officer who recruits a team of Jewish soldiers to infiltrate occupied France to terrorize the Nazis. Pitt is out to terrorize the Nazis, and emulating the Apaches, demands 100 Nazi scalps from each of his troops. Pitt was magnificent in this role, and I found myself wanting to get back to his psycho-cartoon while the other plot developed.
The second plot features a young covertly Jewish woman in Paris who owns a movie theatre, and develops a plot to kill the Nazi high command, including Hitler himself, at a film screening. Here’s the trailer:
The name of this movie could just have easily been Nazis Need Killin’!!!! or I want my scalps!!!!!!
Christopher Waltz’s chillingly evil but elegant portrayal of an SS officer earned him a well deserved best actor nomination at Cannes.
As alternative universe World War II spagetti-western psycho Nazi killing revenge fantasies go, this one is aces. It builds to an amazing cresendo, and left me wanting to turn around and see it again.
1 Comment | Pass the Popcorn | Tagged: Brad Pitt, Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarrantino | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Steven Brill on the Rubber Rooms
August 31, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Steven Brill brings the pain in a fantastic new article on NYC rubber rooms. Money quote:
“Randi Weingarten would protect a dead body in the classroom. That is her job.”
OUCH!
Leave a Comment » | teacher union | Tagged: AFT, Randi Weingarten, rubber rooms, Steven Brill | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Here it Comes….
August 27, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
The headline in the New York Times says it all “Study Finds that Online Learning Beats the Classroom.”
Money quote:
“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.
Echoes of Clayton Christensen, anyone?
I haven’t had a chance to read the study yet, but it looks like a meta analysis and finds:
Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.
Nine national percentile points is a very large difference in my book. To put that in perspective, the highest scoring state in the country (MA) outscores the lowest (MS) by about 13.4% on the 4th grade reading NAEP.
I’ll write more after examining the study.
4 Comments | instructional reform | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Villaraigosa’s Big Lift in L.A.
August 26, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Big news out of Los Angeles- the school board has decided to emulate Philadelphia/New Orleans and outsource the management of 250 schools to charter operators, including several new multimillion dollar facilities. The LA Times reports:
“We’re here today to stand up for our children,” Villaraigosa told a cheering crowd while standing with about 25 students called up to appear with him. He stood under a banner proclaiming a “Parent Revolution,” which is the name of a parent-organizing campaign supported by leading charter school companies.
Outside the meeting room, waiting to get in, were both supporters and opponents of the resolution, written by Flores Aguilar. Labor unions, especially United Teachers Los Angeles, have opposed the measure, which Villaraigosa addressed in remarks that lasted about seven minutes.
“I am pro-union but I am pro-parent as well,” the mayor said. “If workers have rights, then parents ought to have rights too.” He added: “This school board understands that parents are going to have a voice.”
The Jurassic union thugs hate the proposal, but they got rolled. If you want to recall why, Drew Carey will give you a refresher:
My favorite part is when the union thug describes Steve Barr as “feeding at the public school trough” and “a vampire.” Paging Dr. Freud…we have a code red case of projection.
In any case, this is a BIG experiment in the nation’s second largest district. It will take skill and resolve to see it through. The reactionaries will be fighting it every step of the way. But for now, hats off to Mayor Villaraigosa, a former teacher union official, for showing the moral courage to take on the blob.
2 Comments | charter schools | Tagged: Los Angeles Unified School District charter school, Mayor Villaraigosa charter school plan | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Let’s Get Ready to Rummmmmble!
August 24, 2009
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
I had a chance to watch the Fordham Foundation’s with ice cream ascendant is there a future for chocolate fudge event on charters and vouchers online. John Kirtley scored an early knockout when he noted that in Jacksonville Florida recently there all of 6 charter schools but 90 private schools serving low-income students through the Step Up for Students Tax Credit program. Kirtley then noted that not all 6 charter schools primarily serve low-income children. He likely could have added that not all six are high quality schools, but that would have been running up the score. Kirtley asked his debate opponents how much longer single mothers with children in the schools should have to wait for high quality school options.
DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!
Kirtley’s opponents, Kevin Carey and Susan Zelman, raised the predictable totem of “accountability.” This of course is a real issue and a superficially powerful totem, but when you look behind the curtain, the Great and Powerful Oz is just an old man.
I live in a state where 44% of 4th graders scored below basic in 4th grade reading in 2007 and even a little worse in 2005. Who, pray tell, was held “accountable” for that sorry performance? Was a single administrator or teacher fired? Not that I am aware of. Did the public elect a new Superintendent of Public Instruction? Nope- the incumbent was reelected in 2006.
Who was held accountable? Try “not a single human being at all.” Public school “accountability” in short, is a cruel joke with kids as the victims.
Those who want to pretend that giving an all too often dummied down state test tied to a set of often sorry state academic standards constitutes “accountability” have confused their means with their ends. It isn’t the end all be all of accountability, nor is it necessarily really accountability at all.
Done well, I believe standards and testing can be a productive education reform. Choice programs however should be an opt-out of that system into one that is different, but which still contains a vitally necessary level of transparency. Something like the Stanford 10 will work nicely.
Kirtley’s point was the key: if we are really interested in helping disadvantaged children, all options must be on the table. Otherwise, pro-charter but anti-private choice folks do indeed come across like the gradualist white liberal wimps who urged the leaders of the civil rights movement to be “patient.”
Patience can be a virtue, but not when your hair is on fire.
7 Comments | charter schools, vouchers | Tagged: charter schools vs. vouchers, Fordham Foundation, John Kirtley, Kevin Carey, Susan Zelman | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Marines vs. Schools and Culture
August 19, 2009(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Today is the 26th anniversary of the publication of the report A Military at Risk which decried the racial combat effectiveness gap in the armed forces. You will of course recall the stark rhetoric of the report: “We face a rising tide of mediocrity in our armed services” and “Despite military spending that would stagger the imaginations of generals from previous decades, our armed forces today are do better at fighting than forces in 1970.” And who can forget: “If a foreign power had imposed this military system on us, we would view it as an act of war. As it is, we have done this to ourselves.”
Oh, you don’t remember that report, do you? That’s because it was never written. The United States military of today chew up the United States military of 1970 and ask for a real challenge, despite the fact that we had far more men in uniform in the past.
It’s called “progress.” It would be great if we had more of it in K-12.
Furthermore, the reason you’ve never heard of a racial/ethnic combat effectiveness gap is because it doesn’t exist. The integration of the military went much more smoothly than that of schools and universities, and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds have served their country with distinction.
In my view, “race” is a cultural phenomenon, and one that does not handicap organizations with strong cultures. Diversity is not a problem in the United States Marine Corps because everyone signing up becomes a United States Marine.
The Marine Corps, of course, is not everyone’s cup of tea, precisely why the concept of parental choice is so crucial in schooling. Although there are many high quality traditional public schools, the task of maintaining a strong academic culture is complicated by consumers who may have little more in common than a zip code. Keeping a strong focus is difficult in any organization.
Like the Marines, KIPP charter schools are not for everyone. Parents must sign contracts requiring a high level of commitment. Half days on Saturdays will be viewed as a burden by some, an opportunity by others. KIPP isn’t for everyone, but it seems to serve the willing quite well indeed.
Inner city Catholic schools serve as another example, with profound and well documented benefits for students.
In the big picture, while we and others love fighting over the gory details (charters vs. vouchers, vouchers vs. tax credits, online vs. Jurassic, etc.) the truth is that a bipartisan consensus over the importance of choice in education has developed. Greatschools.net is a much better resource than real estate agent for judging schools.
The days of the vast majority of students being taught in zip code based schools by teachers who graduated from the bottom third of their university class are numbered. It’s almost certainly a big number, but it’s not going to last forever.
The sooner the better.
3 Comments | charter schools, tax-credit scholarships, vouchers | Tagged: A Nation at Risk, Full Metal Jacket, Marine Corps | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner
Jay P. Greene's Blog 