WSJ Op-Ed — We Don’t Need More Teachers

October 9, 2012

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I have a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal about how the solution to our education problems can’t be found by hiring more teachers.  We need quality over quantity, for which we will have to pay the teachers we do have more.  And more importantly, we need to substitute technology for labor in education like we have in almost every other industry to improve productivity.  But in public education we have been doing the reverse, hiring more, lower quality teachers and failing to develop and implement cost-effective technology.

I know all of this is well-worn territory, but given that both presidential candidates endorsed the idea of hiring more teachers the editors at the WSJ thought it was important to emphasize the point.

3 Comments | class size myth, teacher pay, teacher quality | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

The Best Group You’ve Never Heard Of — The Vulgar Boatmen

October 7, 2012

The late 1980s/early 1990s band, the Vulgar Boatmen, had a very small cult following — so small that I’ll bet you’ve never heard of them.  Why they never became better known and more successful is a mystery that is part of their attraction and was even the subject of a documentary film. But once you listen to the clips in this post, I challenge you to name a better band that no one else on this blog has ever heard of.

Here is the Vulgar Boatmen’s title song from their 1989 album of the same name — You and Your Sister

The story of the Vulgar Boatmen is as odd as their inexplicable lack of broader success.  The core of the band were Robert Ray, an English professor at the University of Florida, and his former graduate student at Indiana University, Dale Lawrence.  Ray “holds a PhD from Indiana University, an MBA from Harvard, a JD from the University of Virginia, and an AB from Princeton” and is the author of four books on film studies.  Lawrence was once a member of the punk band, Gizmos, and has since headed the touring wing of the Vulgar Boatmen.  Ray and Lawrence composed their songs in the 80s and 90s by mailing audio cassettes to each other between Indiana and Florida.  It all sounds crazy, but the results are beautiful, like this classic — Drive Somewhere

This is like most Vulgar Boatmen songs.  It’s about driving, girls or some other everyday activity.  It’s simple and repetitive, almost to the point of absurdity.  But the tiny variations, layered guitars, and occasional viola make the Vulgar Boatmen a worthy successor to the Dadaist composer, Erik Satie. One critic captured the group’s sound well, saying:

the nebulous group’s ability to grasp and shape simple elements into three-chord (often two-chord) songs of delicate grandeur is unmatched by any of the countless groups that have attempted the same feat. With Lawrence and Ray’s high, clear voices singing intimately unrevealing lyrics about people and places, always raising more questions than they answer, the Vulgar Boatmen are as American as an Andrew Wyeth painting and as evocative as a Robert Frost poem.

They’re also pretty awesome live.  Here are they are in a 1992 concert singing Wide Awake:

And here is a live performance of Katie.  All I know is that it curves and shakes.

But don’t despair.  The Vulgar Boatmen are still out there, at least with Dale Lawrence at the helm, with the very occasional performance.  Here they are in Chicago last year singing Wide Awake.  Notice that these lyrics are different from the earlier live version I clipped but the same as those on the studio album version.

Enjoy.

2 Comments | random pop culture | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

Progressives for School Choice

October 3, 2012

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

There was a time when Jack Jennings posed as a nonpartisan voice of apolitical wisdom. That was then! It was always a thin disguise, but the mask is really off now:

The Republicans’ talk about giving parents the right to choose is a politically expedient strategy … Just beneath the surface of the education rhetoric are political motivations to thwart integration, weaken the Democratic coalition, and cripple the teachers’ unions.

Over on RedefineED, Doug Tuthill responds with a really amazing history of progressive support for school choice. Go take a look! Even if you think you know this history, you’ll learn something.

Actually, Tuthill leaves two major figures off his list. Thomas Paine proposed school vouchers for England, justified as a way to advance the well being of the poor, in the appendix to the second edition of The Rights of Man. And J.S. Mill supported vouchers as a blow against socially conservative cultural dominance, writing that “A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another.”

(via Bill Evers)

1 Comment | politics, vouchers | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

Kevin Williamson on Homeschooling

October 3, 2012

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

If you subscribe to National Review, don’t miss Kevin Williamson’s fantastic piece in the new issue on home schooling. Here are three little tastes of a long article in which every paragraph is good:

In the public imagination, homeschooling has a distinctly conservative and Evangelical odor about it, but it was not always so. The modern homeschooling movement really has its roots in 1960s countercultural tendencies; along with A Love Supreme, it may represent the only worthwhile cultural product of that era. The movement’s urtext is Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, by A. S. Neill, which sold millions of copies in the 1960s and 1970s…

[Dana Goldstein, writing against home schooling in Slate] went on to argue that the children of high-achieving parents amount to public goods because of peer effects…She does not extend that analysis to its logical conclusion: that conscientious, educated liberals should enroll their children in the very worst public schools they can find in order to maximize the public good…

Teachers’ unions have money on the line, and ideologues do not want any young skull beyond their curricular reach. A political class that does not trust people with a Big Gulp is not going to trust them with the minds of children.

If you don’t subscribe – shame on you!

3 Comments | politics | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

Baumol’s Disease and Public Education

October 3, 2012

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

I have a series going on the Foundation for Excellence in Education Blog on Baumol’s Disease and American Public Education. Catch Part One and Part Deux here.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Conspiracy Theory Time!

October 2, 2012

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

Check out this delicious teacher-blogospheric reaction to Bill Moyers’ new ALEC story:

The education stuff starts at around the 14 minute mark, with the main example being the overthrow public education in Tennessee by a virtual school operator.

What I’ve been too lazy to determine on my own is this: is our new unelected state charter school authority based on an ALEC template? Or is that something that came out of Race to the Top? Or is there even a difference?

ALEC, President Obama’s Education Department – what’s the difference?

Not that there aren’t some real conspiracies. Thankfully, they tend to fail due to their internal contradictions and inability to control their own actors. But these people live in a world where literally everyone is out to get them and there are no other agendas besides teachers versus the world. Wonder how that mindset gets cultivated?

1 Comment | teacher union | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

What happens when we can’t give people choice?

October 1, 2012

(Guest Post by Mike McShane)

Over the weekend, Washington Post education writer Jay Matthews posed a great question on his Class Struggle blog.  He asks, in not so many words: why do education reformers fight so hard for test-based accountability systems that the charter schools they also support do not use?  If these systems are so great, the argument goes, why don’t charter schools use them?

The best way I can think to respond is to put it in terms of college football.

As a diehard Notre Dame fan I cheer for two teams every weekend, the Fighting Irish and whoever is playing Michigan.  I share the same view as an education reformer who most directly supports school choice as the means for reforming the system.  I like charters, vouchers, tuition tax credits and anything that works to dislodge the entrenched interests that prevent leaders from giving people choice.

As I have written elsewhere, the American education system has seen decades of middling performance at ever increasing cost because of the reform-resisting iron triangle formed between teachers unions, the state and local bureaucrats charged with their oversight, and the elected officials that are supposed to represent the interests of the community.  To meaningfully reform the system, we need to disrupt this power structure.

To borrow from Paul Manna’s insightful 2006 book School’s in: Federalism and the National Education Agenda, if you want to upset the power of an interest group, you can either decrease its license or its capacity.  A group’s license is its argument for action.   A group’s capacity is its ability to act.

Teachers have traditionally enjoyed substantial license.  In fact, in the recent Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup Poll, 71% of Americans had “trust and confidence in the men and women who are teaching children in the public schools”.

Why are teachers so popular?  There are many reasons, but it doesn’t hurt that when evaluated under current systems 99% of them are rated as satisfactory.  Informally, parents might have an understanding of whose classroom they would like their child in, but they lack any kind of systematic performance evidence to make their case.

When teachers are more accurately evaluated and parents are made aware that their children will be assigned to that school or classroom regardless of their wishes, it should encourage them, and the greater public, to demand more options for students.    To put a finer point on it, more accurate evaluation decreases the iron triangle’s license.  Does it decrease license as well as choice does?  Not at all.  Does the iron triangle have ample opportunity to water-down or co-opt it?  Absolutely.  But it is a step in the right direction.

Look, I’m no great fan of the one-size fits all accountability systems that many urban school reformers are implementing, but I’m not a fan of Ohio State either.  However, on that Saturday in November when the Buckeyes take on the Wolverines in the Horseshoe, you can believe that I’ll answer “–IO” to anyone that starts “OH-“, because cheering for the Buckeyes (like supporting evaluation systems) is better than the alternative.

4 Comments | charter schools, school accountability, vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

School Choice Equals Higher Accountability

October 1, 2012

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Patricia Levesque, veteran of the school reform wars in Florida, cautions edu-reactionaries in Louisiana against making the same mistakes that their compatriots in Florida made (and continue to make) in the Shreveport Times.

Florida lawmakers instituted K-12 reform in 1999, and efforts were rewarded with strident opposition from a vocal minority. Die-hard skeptics grew increasingly isolated, however, as Florida’s childhood illiteracy rate plunged, high-school graduation rates improved and the number of black and Hispanic students passing advanced placement exams tripled. There is still much more to do in Florida, but the progress is undeniable.

Louisiana reform skeptics should take care not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Rather than resisting reform, Louisianans of all backgrounds should be working together to maximize opportunities and achievement for students. Louisiana’s public school system will enjoy much brighter days once parents routinely match the needs of their child with the strengths of their schools.

As the debate over reform continues in Louisiana, remember that a century from now the vast majority of Louisiana students will still be attending public schools. Nothing has been done that will change that basic fact. Students can and should attend their public school by choice rather than simply by zip code.

 

Leave a Comment » | school accountability, vouchers | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Hot Off the Press — New Report on ESAs

September 27, 2012

Our very own Matt Ladner has a new report out with the Friedman Foundation on Education Savings Accounts (ESAs).  Here’s the summary:

Education savings accounts are the way of the future. Under such accounts—managed by parents with state supervision to ensure accountability—parents can use their children’s education funding to choose among public and private schools, online education programs, certified private tutors, community colleges, and even universities. Education savings accounts bring Milton Friedman’s original school voucher idea into the 21st century.

Arizona lawmakers were the first to create such a program, called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). Through that program, the state of Arizona deposits 90 percent of the funds for a participating child into an account, which can cover multiple educational services through use-restricted debit cards. Parents can choose to use all of their funds on a single method—like private school tuition—or they can employ a customized strategy using multiple methods (e.g., online programs and community college classes). Critically, parents can save some of the money for future higher education expenses through a 529 college savings program. That feature creates an incentive for parents to judge all K-12 service providers not only on quality but also on cost.

A fully realized system of ESAs would create powerful incentives for innovation in schooling practices seeking better outcomes for lower costs. Also, the broader use of funds may help to immunize choice programs against court challenges in some states. Policymakers must fashion their system of accounts to provide reasonable state oversight, fraud prevention, academic transparency, and equity.

If Milton Friedman were alive today, he likely would agree that education savings accounts represent a critical refinement of his school voucher concept. Existing voucher programs create healthy competition between public and private schools, but ESAs can create a much deeper level of systemic improvement. ESAs would allow parents to build a customized education to match the individual needs of every child, thus transforming education for the better.

1 Comment | Education Savings Accounts | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

Why E.D. Hirsch Should re-examine his position on parental choice

September 26, 2012

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

So a few years ago when Sol Stern decided to attack parental choice for reasons that are still largely only known to him, City Journal posted an online debate concerning Sol’s article, which included a full-throated endorsement of Sol’s position by E.D. Hirsch.

I had a hard time making much sense of the Hirsch critique. It seemed to read much more as an indictment of bad state standards than of the parental choice movement.  The parental choice movement’s original sin seemed to be in being a “structural reform” that ignored the vital importance of imposing Core Knowlege on everyone.

Or something to that effect, near as I could tell. I was and still am confused with exactly how this is supposed to happen, but I’m sure someone has a fail-safe plan this time.

My own contribution to the debate attempted to make the point that of course the political constraints facing parental choice programs keep them from being some sort of miracle-drug cure-all, but that was hardly a reason to oppose it. I haven’t seen any other miracle cures either. Moreover, there is no reason to imagine that the parental choice movement and the standards movement need to necessarily be at odds.

In any case, above is a picture of the district middle school in my neighborhood-Shea Middle School in the Paradise Valley School District. Shea is proudly announcing that Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Curriculum will begin in August 2013 in a 9000 point font banner you see above. At least one of the elementary schools that feed in to Shea Middle School has also  adopted Core Knowledge.

Shea’s adoption of Core Knowledge might have something to do with the fact that two of the highest performing charter schools in country opened campuses in the area this fall. Arizona homegrown outfits BASIS and Great Hearts both opened new schools within a few miles of Shea Middle School in the Fall of 2012.  Both BASIS and Great Hearts have an impressive record of academic achievement. Some of the Great Hearts schools have generated 1,000 student waiting lists, and both operators have attracted the interest of out-of-state philanthropists.*

Of course it could be the case that these new schools opening in the neighborhood had nothing to do with the decision to adopt Core Knowledge, or to hang a giant banner advertising the adoption for that matter. Other Paradise Valley schools have used the Core Knowledge curriculum for years. It is within the realm of the plausible that Shea Middle School would have been adopting Core Knowledge in 2013 whether facing competition from BASIS and Great Hearts or not. If I were to have the opportunity to ask PV officials about this, they might very well make such a claim with conviction.

And if I hadn’t seen an email from a Parent-Teacher group from one of the feeder elementary schools full of steely determination not to lose students to the new charter schools, I might have even believed them. The email expressed (rational) concern about losing students and listed a number of possible strategies including the adoption of IB, foreign language immersion and (yes) Core Knowledge as reform strategies….and now the banner.

Smoking gun? No. Enough to convince a reasonable person? Certainly.

Parental choice mechanisms have done a great deal to satisfy parental demand for Core Knowledge and CK type schools. If we had more of it, we would also have a higher use of CK and similar curriculum both in district and non-district schools. Hopefully it will prove useful for Shea Middle School. Alternatively, we could dream of a master plan that transforms millions of public school teachers into Allan Bloom in one great non-incremental stroke, but I think we all know how that story ends.

Oh well, back to the old super-genius drawing board…

Personally I am a fan of traditional curriculum and want it to be available to those who desire it. I’m also leery of imposing it on those who don’t. I view American schools as having serious curriculum problems, but plenty of other problems as well. Dirigisme got us into this mess, and some of us are naturally skeptical that a new and improved version is going to get us out of it all by itself.

* Disclosure: I serve on the board of a BASIS school (not the one discussed here) and two of my children very happily attend a Great Hearts Academy (but not the school alluded to here).

Edited for Typos

11 Comments | charter schools, instructional reform | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

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