Cory in the House!

January 13, 2010

This Examiner article from Jan. 5 has just been brought to my attention:

Another concern is that private schools work against segregation and decrease tolerance. On the contrary, in a study by Cory Forster of The Friedman Foundation who compared segregated levels in private voucher schools and public schools, less segregation was found in the private schools.

In my time I have been cited in newspapers as Greg Forester, Greg Foster, and other spellings. But I have never had the honor and privilege of being a Cory.

I’ll try not to let it go to my head.

2 Comments | blogging, random pop culture | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

Ed Schools and Biz Schools

January 12, 2010

My colleagues, Bob Maranto and Gary Ritter, along with former Teachers College president, Arthur Levine, have a piece in Education Week arguing that education schools could improve their quality as business schools did several decades ago.  I suggest you read the article to judge their case for yourself.

What I wanted to do with this post is to anticipate the inevitable argument that business schools are somehow responsible for the recent economic meltdown or that ed schools are no more responsible for the quality of K-12 education than business schools are for the economic collapse.  I’ve heard this line from a bunch of education officials, so it must be in the talking points.

Here’s why this type of argument is hogwash.  Business schools are not responsible for the economic collapse because (among other reasons), biz schools do not work with business unions to get the government to require attendance at business schools and government certification before one can open (most) businesses.  Some business people have attended business schools but most have not.

Ed schools, on the other hand, work with teacher unions to get the government to require that (most) educators receive training from ed schools and certification from the state before they can teach.  The vast majority of educators, including the vast majority of teachers, principals, and superintendents have been trained and certified by ed schools.

I’m happy to let ed schools off the hook for K-12 performance if they actively lobby for ending their cartel on the production of new educators.

5 Comments | economics, teacher quality, teacher union | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

I’ll Have Some More of What Florida’s Having

January 11, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The Education Trust has released a new analysis of ethnic and income based achievement gaps using NAEP data. They take a fairly comprehensive view, noting that some gap narrowing (with overall improvement) is much better than others (with the gaps narrowing due to stagnation or declines among advantaged students). Overall performance matters as well, etc.

Overall, they have a winner’s circle of states: Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas and Vermont. Also a “bottom states” category: Arizona, California, Michigan, Mississippi and Rhode Island.

I wonder what the flat-earthers few remaining opponents of Florida’s reforms will have to say about this study. I’ll check in at the Gradebook Florida ed policy blog to find out, as the comments section is a haunt for this very interesting group of people. I wonder if they have heard the story about the Japanese soldier who hid in a swamp and defended a Pacific Island from Allied invasion until the early 1970s… 

Having looked at Florida’s NAEP scores from the 1990s, which were both very low and flat, it seems likely to me that had this analysis been done in 1998, Florida would have been either in or near the loser’s circle.

Speaking as an Arizonan, well, let’s just say we have a lot of work to do out here in the desert.

3 Comments | school accountability | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Why Not Just Nationalize?

January 11, 2010

OK, so let me get this straight.  When banks lose a ton of private money because their employees made a ton of bad investments, the government bails them out with taxpayer dollars.  And when those banks start to make profits again, they start to pay their employees huge bonuses like they did before those (mostly) same employees made their horrible money-losing bets.  The public gets outraged and wants to do something to capture more of the bank profits or otherwise limit banker bonuses.  Just today, the WSJ tells us, the “Obama administration is considering levying a fee on banks to recoup more of the taxpayer funds spent to rescue the financial system.”

So, if the government provides taxpayer money when banks lose money and takes extra money when those banks are profitable, how is that different from the government owning the banks?  Why don’t we just cut out the middleman and make them public entities?  Or here is a better idea — how about if we don’t give taxpayer money to people who make bad investments and let them prosper or fail with their own money?

1 Comment | economics | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

Government Manipulation of Education Research

January 7, 2010

We all remember how Arne Duncan and the Obama administration manipulated the official evaluation of the DC voucher program by burying the release of positive results on a Friday after Congress failed to reauthorize the program.

If you thought that government manipulation of education research was limited to school choice because of the union’s special hatred of vouchers, you’d be wrong.  The Tricky Dicks in Washington are at it again, this time by manipulating the release of a Head Start evaluation.

According to Dan Lips of the Heritage Foundation in a commentary on the Fox News web site, an evaluation of the long-term effects of Head Start was supposed to be released in March 2009.  Data collection for the evaluation was completed in the spring of 2006. Yet the study remains unreleased.

The delay may have something to do with the fact that the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats are huge supporters of expanding government-subsidized or provided pre-school.  And according to Dan Lips’ sources in the Department of Health and Human Services, which is overseeing the Head Start evaluation, the results of the government study show no lasting benefits to Head Start, which is the largest government pre-school program.  Government officials seem to be burying or at least delaying the release of those results so as not to spoil plans for the expansion of government pre-school programs.

Let this be a lesson.  As the federal government’s role in evaluating education programs grows, so does the potential for political mischief with that research.

(edited for clarity)

7 Comments | politics, vouchers | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

What Makes a Rock Star Teacher?

January 6, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Regular JBGB readers may recall the series of posts about Rock Star Pay for Rock Star Teachers based the Goldwater Institute report New Millenium Schools: Delivering Six-Figure Teacher Salaries in Return for Outstanding Student Learning Gains.

You may also remember Super Chart! from the Brookings Institution:

 

Super Chart! basically shows that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between traditionally certified, alternatively certified and uncertified teachers. The logical conclusion: shut down the education schools, let the schools hire who they think best, and allow them to reward success and remove failures.

Of course, this would be even better if we had an effective screen to help keep ineffective teachers out of the profession in the first place. In researching the $100k study, it became apparent to me that some of the high-quality foreign systems seemed to have figured this out, but I had never learned the secret. Statistical efforts to predict effective teaching in America have generally proven unsatisfying. 

The Atlantic weighs in with an important article revealing the results of 20 years of Teach for America data answering the question: what makes an effective teacher? Read it now and watch the videos.

Really, go read it now. I’ll be here when you get back.

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Okay, so now tell me what you think in the comments section. It’s really not so complicated after all, and it screams out against our entire system of K-12 human resource development, doesn’t it?

10 Comments | teacher quality | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Carrying Coals to Newcastle

January 6, 2010

Stuart Buck and I have a piece on National Review Online this morning about how money to address unemployment is being devoted to education.  The curious thing is that education (and health care) are the only major sectors of the economy that have added jobs over the last two years while every other sector has lost more than 7 million jobs. 

Fixing unemployment by spending an additional $23 billion on teacher salaries is like carrying coals to Newcastle.  I’d much rather that Congress carry Newcastle beer.  Hmmmmm.  Beer.  Then at least we wouldn’t mind so much their blowing our money to address a problem in the only sector where it doesn’t exist.

Leave a Comment » | economics, politics, teacher pay | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

Public Schools: Cornerstones of Democracy!

January 5, 2010

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

During the mad real estate rush a couple years ago, five school districts here in Wisconsin (including the biggest district here in my county) borrowed $200 million and sunk it into some extremely unwise investments hoping to get rich quick.

Because that’s exactly why we gave the public school system the right to tax us – so it could play the market with our money.

The investments all went south and are now worthless.

But don’t panic! Fortunately, they structured the deal so that in the event they lost all their money, they could totally shaft their creditors. The investments were made by a trust they set up rather than by the districts themselves, so the districts aren’t liable for the losses. Their creditors have to eat it all.

One bank, which lent the districts $165 million, has asked the districts to try to pay at least some of it back, on grounds that they have a “moral obligation” to make the losses good even if they don’t have a legal obligation to do so.

Here, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is the districts’ response:

The districts’ officials have argued they are protected from paying back the $165 million because the loans were undertaken by trusts rather than the districts themselves and because a moral obligation is not the same as a legal obligation.

But remember, public schools are the cornerstone of democracy because they and only they are capable of inculcating children with strong civic values like responsibility and respect for the rights of others.

5 Comments | civic values, economics | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

Get Lost: Final Approach

January 5, 2010

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

As Lost makes its final approach, ABC has offered a delightful tidbit to tide you over during the extra-long wait.

Notice:

  • The table is an airplane wing and the seats are airplane seats.
  • Locke appears to have a first-class seat while everyone else is sitting coach.
  • The cups and bowls are coconuts.
  • Claire is still in the cast.
  • Richard and the Brazillian assassin both seem to have been promoted to full cast.
  • There are skulls on the ground, partially concealed among the debris and plants.
  • Sayid is Judas.

(HT Christian D’Andrea)

Leave a Comment » | Lost | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Greg Forster

The Argument Clinic

January 5, 2010

Stuart Buck and I have a post over on the Education Next Blog addressing a letter that Sara Mead of the New America Foundation wrote in response to our article on special education vouchers.

Here’s a taste of our response:

Sara Mead’s letter almost feels like the Monty Python sketch about the “argument clinic.” She’s just contradicting us, not providing an actual argument with contrary evidence.

Of course, she could just say that she isn’t.

Leave a Comment » | special ed, vouchers | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

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