Common Core State Standards and ELLs: Challenges Ahead

I'm off to Los Angeles for a discussion of Common Core State Standards and how the new expectations will impact English-language learners. We're going to focus on lessons from California, with a conversation about Miami-Dade Public Schools (home to one of the nation's larger ELL populations) as well.

I'm looking forward to reporting back after Friday's event, which is co-sponsored by EWA, University of California-Berkeley, the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford University, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), and the California Community Foundation.

In the meantime, for an excellent primer on this topic, check out Lesli Maxwell's thoughtful reporting for Education Week. There was also discussion of the Common Core State Standards at this week's NBC Education Nation, and you can watch the video here.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily. 

Ready To Teach: EWA Seminar For Education Journalists

How well is America teaching its teachers? As accountability pressures on the nation's teaching force mount, scrutiny of colleges of education is intensifying as well. 

On Saturday, Oct. 27 at the University of Minnesota, the Education Writers Association will hold a one-day seminar for journalists that will tackle some of these challenging issues.  We'll look at the groundswell for teacher preparation programs to overhaul how aspiring educators are trained, and how those programs are being held newly accountable for how well their graduates perform on the job.

There are limited scholarships available to help cover your travel costs -- including airfare and hotel -- so be sure to apply early. 

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Duncan's Road Show Ends with Rally, The Atlantic Tackles the 'Writing Revolution,' and Education Nation Starts Monday

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will wrap up his 12-state bus tour with a rally today in Washington, D.C., featuring music and dance performances by local youth and an appearances by LaVar Arrington, former Washington Redskin; and Destiny Michelle Welch, America’s Miss Teen 2012. The "Education Drives America" rally will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the plaza outside the Education Department's headquarters on Maryland Avenue, and Duncan will speak at 7:30 p.m.

The tour began Sept. 12 in Redwood City, Calif. Along the way, Duncan met with students, teachers, and staff, as well as community stakeholders and policymakers. He also found the time to do a little dancing, as Education Week's Politics K-12 blog reported. (You don't want to skip the video. Trust me.)

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The Atlantic's October issue has a fascinating story by the talented Peg Tyre, looking at what can happen to student achievement when schools put a steady, near-daily focus on the mechanics of analytic writing. The Writing Revolution asks some tough questions about whether the popularity of using memoir and first-person narratives as techniques for teaching writing, focusing more on personal experiences than on the mechanics, might actually be holding back traditionally underserved student populations.

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I'm headed to NBC's third annual Education Nation next week, and I look forward to sharing details of the many panels, debates and special events -- including a screening of "Won't Back Down," which appears eager to become this year's "Waiting for Superman". You can watch live streaming video, and NBC News will broadcast select portions. You can also look to EWA's EdMedia Commons for more resources on some of the key education topics you'll be hearing about at the summit. And don't follow me on Twitter @EWAEmily.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Who Really Won in the Chicago Teachers' Strike?

Both the Chicago Teachers' Union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are claiming some victories in the end of the strike that shut down the Windy City's schools for seven days. The teachers' strike -- the city's first in 25 years --ended late Tuesday after the union's delegates voted to return to work.

According to the Chicago Tribune, there wasn't a clear winner in this fight. Both sides made notable concessions. The teachers will see their salary scale increase by double digits over the next three years, although it's not the 30 percent increase in base pay the union initially demanded. As for Emanuel's priorities, principals will continue to control staffing at schools, and Chicago will adopt an evaluation system that uses student test scores as a factor in evaluating teachers' job performance.

(For more coverage of the strike, check out the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as Catalyst Chicago. )

There was plenty of debate that a prolonged strike would hurt President Obama's re-election chances, as his administration’s education reform measures spurred some of the key issues Chicago teachers were fighting against. Whether seven days was long enough to do real damage remains to be seen.

It will also be interesting to see if the Chicago strike is an anomaly, or if it has opened a door to more aggressive contract negotiations in other large urban districts. To be sure, Chicago teachers aren’t the only ones frustrated by the many new demands being placed on educators to boost student achievement. The strike might also end up being a warning to policymakers that there is, indeed, a limit to how hard reform can be pushed – and how fast.

What's next for the Windy City? I predict stories about the need to mend fences between staff and administration, and probably some details about how the strike will be explained to students. Additionally, you can expect reporting that schools are struggling to make up the lost instructional time. The strike might have stopped classes but the clock -- measuring what students will be expected to know by the end of the academic year -- keeps on ticking.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Degrees vs. Debt: Register Now For EWA's Higher Education Seminar

How much is a college degree worth? Does the risk of incurring enormous debt outweigh the potential value of a post-secondary education? What steps are policymakers and institutions taking to make college more affordable?

We'll tackle those questions, and hear from leading experts in the field, at EWA's 2012 Higher Education Seminar Nov. 2-3 in Indianapolis. This journalists-only event is hosted by the Indiana University School of Education and Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis.

There are limited scholarships available to help with travel costs, so make sure to apply early.

Have questions, comments or concerns for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

U.S. News College Rankings Examine `Best Values' and Student Debt

U.S. News & World Report's annual Best Colleges roundup is out, and the usual familiar names top the lists.

However, there's also an interesting breakdown of which colleges are producing graduates with the highest amount of student loan debt. That's a particularly sore spot right now in higher education circles, as policymakers and students are pushing colleges and universities to improve affordability -- without sacrificing quality.

Along those lines, U.S. News also has a list of "best value" colleges, which factors in both the school's quality (as measured by the rankings) against the net cost of attendance. Interestingly, the top five are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and M.I.T., which all can afford to offer generous need-based grants, thus improving their "value" factor.

It's important to remember that U.S. News' lists are just one perspective, and there have been plenty of questions raised about the merits of the publication's formula and the accuracy of the information submitted by colleges and universities. For another take on ranking colleges, check out Washington Monthly's College Guide.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Chicago Teachers' Union Strike: Win the Battle But Lose the War?

As numerous news organizations have noted, including the Washington Post,  the Christian Science Monitor, and the Wall St. Journal, the Chicago teachers' strike is being posited by some as a referendum on President Obama’s education initiatives.

Indeed, the U.S. Department of Education has dangled some sizeable carrots to motivate states and districts to adopt significant reforms. Among them is Race To The Top, a competitive program in which states and districts apply for a share of more than $4 billion in federal grants to turn around underperforming schools. But to qualify for RTTT, states had to agree to implement a number of administration-approved reform measures, including the controversial requirement that student test scores be used as a factor in teacher evaluations.

Additionally, the Education Department has granted 33 states and the District of Columbia waivers exempting them from some of the more onerous requirements of No Child Left Behind. But in order to qualify, states had to agree to alternate means of accountability, and to develop a blueprint for extending learning time for students. Some researchers (as well as educators) say there's been too little information as to how those extra minutes will be used.

That many Chicago teachers – as well as their counterparts in other states -- are frustrated by some of these imposed changes isn’t new information. To some observers, the Chicago strike represents long-simmering tensions reaching a boiling point.

As the Washington Post's Bill Turque and Lyndsey Layton succinctly sum up in their reporting:

“The labor dispute lays bare a Democratic Party with significant tensions over the direction of school reform. Major figures such as former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein have pressed for tougher teacher evaluations and an end to “last in, first out” hiring practices that are part of many union contracts. On the other side are labor leaders and other interests convinced that the reforms are union-busting by another name.”

University of Michigan Prof. Jeffrey Mirel, who focuses on the history of politics of urban schools and education reform, said the pushback from some critics who argue that teachers’ unions are standing in the way of improving the nation’s public schools doesn’t have a lot of factual support. Mirel said he wasn’t aware of any evidence that getting rid of unions or collective bargaining rights improved the quality of education.

He noted that Finland -- widely considered one of the world’s model school systems thanks in part to its superior performance on international exams – has a highly unionized teacher workforce. That’s also true in Singapore and Japan, which also scores well in international comparisons, Mirel said.

As for whether or not the strike represents as showdown between the “old” and the “new” when it comes to expectations for public school teachers, Mirel said he’s not convinced that’s really at the heart of the matter. But either way the strike is bad news for students who lose much-needed seat time. Amy Wilkins, vice president fo the Education Trust, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to closing opportunity and achievement gaps, called the strike "deeply upsetting" and "especially tragic for the low-income students who don’t have a moment of academic time to waste."

Such labor actions can possibly end up hurting the teachers, as well -- even if the contract talks are resolved in their favor.

Generally, teachers and parents have been allies, working toward a common goal of making sure students learn. But strikes, particularly prolonged ones, can do long-term damage to those relationships, Mirel said.

“There can be a loss of that sense of shared allegiance and obligation,” Mirel told me. “Teachers can win the battle (of the strike), but they sacrifice the support of a lot of parents and students along the way.”

And that, Mirel says, can mean losing the war.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Stanford Appoints First Vice Provost For Online Learning

The Atlantic's Jordan Weissmann has an interesting interview with John Mitchell, a computer science professor at Stanford and the university's newly named, first-ever vice provost of online learning. You can read the piece here.

In the conversation, Mitchell suggests that technology that gives students more flexibility in developing their own route to completing their degree is a key goal. At the same time, he envisions the "self-learning" of MOOCS (massive online open courses) will be a supplement, rather than a replacement, for traditional higher education programs, Mitchell said.

"I don't think that prepared, canned video is itself the one major answer to the future of education," Mitchell tells The Atlantic.

This is a huge topic in higher education circles, as colleges and universities look for ways to expand their reach without sacrificing quality or the effectiveness of instruction. That's a tough balance to strike.
(For more on MOOCs click here.)

I had an interesting conversation of my own a few weeks ago talking about online learning opportunities for younger students. Lisa Guernsey, director of the New America Foundation's early education initiative, shared some interesting way technology once reserved for entertainment purposes is making the transition to teaching tool. (Click here to find the Q&A on EdMedia Commons.)

With the new school year underway, I'm interested in hearing about your experiences with new classroom technology, both at the K-12 and higher education level. Has your local middle school incorporated iPads into math classes? Are you taking a MOOC? Do you think these sorts of changes will help -- or hinder -- efforts to improve public education?

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily. 

Democratic National Convention: Obama Outlines Education Goals

President Obama highlighted a number of his education policy initiatives in his speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, although the official titles and acronyms were nowhere to be found.

Obama briefly referenced the Common Core State Standards that are being ramped up in nearly all of the nation's states, a successful push to freeze college loan interest rates for millions of students, and even the controversial "deferred action" program, which offers a limited number of undocumented youth and young adults the opportunity to avoid deportation and secure work permits, provided they stay in school and out of trouble.

However, there was no direct mention of his two most costly, and aggressive, initiatives: Race To The Top, the $4 billion competitive grant program in which states (and now districts) are eligible to compete for a share of federal funds in exchange for adopting specific reforms, and the School Improvement Grant program, which has poured more than $4.6 billion in underachieving public schools.

Race To The Top has not been without controversy or critics. And it's still early days for quantitative research on the effectiveness of the SIG program, although state education officials have said the federal infusion helped them maintain programs and services during the height of the recession. There is also some encouraging early data that student achievement benefited as a result of the SIG funds.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed the convention Wednesday, and as Education Week's Politics K-12 blog noted, he also left out some hot-button topics in his remarks. Ed Week's ace blogging team has a breakdown of the speech here, which includes an update with Duncan's response to criticism that he had avoided "touchy issues."

As for the president, he also used his speech to emphasize his administration's intent to improve and expand the nation's teacher workforce, and a plan to push colleges and universities to keep higher education affordable. But ultimately, Obama said, improving the nation's public education system has to be a shared responsibility.

"A government has a role in this," Obama said. "But teachers must inspire, principals must lead, parents must instill a thirst for learning, and students, you’ve gotta do the work."

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily. 

More Thoughts About Why Students Skip School

I wanted to follow up on a new survey I wrote about recently that asked students why they skipped school. I heard from a few readers (including some at The Atlantic.com) who raised good questions about the parameters of the survey, as well as the usefulness of the findings.

For “Skipping to Nowhere," the Get Schooled Foundation, a national nonprofit aimed at improving graduation rates and college success rates, sent interviewers to malls in 25 cities nationwide. The time frame was June 14-29, when most schools were already out for the summer break. According to Geoff Garin, president of Hart Research which conducted the survey, the interviews typically took place at lunchtime and were spread out over the days of the week, although a few locations opted not to hold Sunday sessions.

The 516 student respondents were in grades 8-12, and reported that they skipped school at least once per month. The survey concluded that the respondents came from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and that most of them didn’t believe their teachers or parents noticed their absences.

The students also didn’t believe their truancy would hurt their chances of school success until they missed class at least two times per week. That notion runs counter to a growing body of research that connects even a handful of missed days with lower academic achievement, and those consequences can grow exponentially with increased absences.

Several readers raised concerns about a question in which students were asked if their parents had graduated from college. Why didn’t the interviewer distinguish between two-year and four-year degrees? In retrospect, “that might have been a good idea,” Garin told me in an email Tuesday.

What the survey did determine is that a third of the respondents had at least one parent who dropped out of high school before graduating. And 34 percent said they had at least one parent who graduated from college.

If that question was intended to figure out how much value the respondents’ parents place on education – as evidenced by their own attainment level -- it might not be essential to know if they had two-year or four-year degrees.

Kevin Corcoran, program director for the Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the nation’s higher education outcomes, said he wasn’t aware of evidence that there was a significant difference in community college graduate parents’ beliefs about the importance of higher education when compared with parents with four-year degrees. In fact, Corcoran said, community college parents might actually be the louder proponents of the value of the more advanced degree.

When it comes to weighing the usefulness of these types of education-related surveys, I’d argue it's better to consider them field notes rather than Litmus tests. We get an interesting picture – albeit one taken with a relatively narrow lens – but it’s also one we don’t often get to see. We hear plenty about the school attendance statistics but how frequently do we hear from the students themselves?

Research scientist Robert Balfanz, co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, agrees. The Get Schooled survey “is not trying to be a random sampling of all students who miss school,” Balfanz said. “What it really captures are those students who in essence are absent for discretionary reasons.”

Those discretionary reasons include simply preferring other activities to attending class: 32 percent of the respondents said a “very big reason” they skipped was that school was boring, and 23 percent preferred spending time with friends off-campus. Those discretionary “skippers” are “an important group of students to understand,” Balfanz said.

What Get Schooled’s mall sample doesn’t capture are students who quit school entirely to help care for family members or to support themselves. Balfanz said it’s likely there are also many students who are skipping school as an avoidance maneuver: perhaps they don’t feel safe on campus in general or are being bullied in particular. Those students are probably less likely to be hanging out at the mall in the interim.

So here’s my idea: Why not ask students about skipping school using an established research tool that already has access to a representative sampling of the nation’s middle and high school students?

Every two years, states participate in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is administered by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students are asked a wide range of questions including about their sexual behavior, alcohol and drug use, personal safety (such as whether they wear car seat belts), nutritional habits, physical activity, and wellness. The results are compiled into a profile of the nation’s youth.

Because the surveys are anonymous and self-reported, the results offer an unusually candid glimpse of students’ experiences. The findings are also validated by other measures.

Researchers are already exploring the associated health risks of chronic absenteeism. After reading the Get Schooled report, I wondered why data about school attendance wasn't part of the CDC's  findings on youth behavior nationally.

I checked with the CDC, and it turns out states have the option to ask students how often they've  absent from school without permission in the prior 30 days. In 2011, the most recent year in which the YRBS was administered, only Alaska and New Mexico included the truancy question. In my view, that's a question every state should be asking. 

That’s also an idea Balfanz said he would support, and he added that the Everyone Graduates Center has been advocating for similar questions to be included in the annual school survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education.

The answers to the nation’s school attendance problem won’t be found in one survey. As a means of furthering that conversation, it might help to spend more time talking to individual students about their experiences, and what they believe would help them improve their daily attendance – and their attention when they do show up.

*This post has been updated to reflect new information about the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Back To School: Education Story Ideas To Steal

For many school districts across the country, today is the first day of a new year. For education reporters, finding fresh angles on familiar turf can be a challenge.

EWA recently offered a webinar for reporters on the education beat -- both K-12 and higher ed -- and you can catch the replay here. We asked Ann Doss Helms of the Charlotte Observer to over her view on what the big stories are likely to be on the K-12 beat, while Dave Breitenstein of the News-Press in Fort Meyers, Fla. tackled higher education. Phyllis Fletcher of KUOW Public Radio in Seattle shared ideas for broadcast and multimedia storytelling.

Whether you're a veteran journalist or new to covering the business of schools, EWA offers a number of ways to get familiar with some important issues. Our new Story Starters website is a smart place to start for resources, the latest research, and tips on covering key topics such as classroom technology, school choice, and community colleges.

If you're looking for help tackling numbers -- whether they're test scores, graduation rates, or the district's operating budget -- we've got a webinar just for you. Jack Gillum, an investigative reporter with the Associated Press, showed us how to start "Diving Into Data," and explained some of the techniques that he used to contribute to an award-winning USA Today series on suspicious test score improvement in Washington, D.C.'s public schools.

What do you think are the most pressing issues ahead on the education beat? What stories do you want to see get more attention?

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.

Enjoy Your Labor Day Holiday

As summer comes to its unofficial end, it looks like a busy fall season lies ahead on the education beat. I'll have news later this week about some upcoming Education Writers Association seminars and training opportunities for education journalists and writers, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm wondering how I might qualify to curate next year's film festival for this particular museum exhibit. 

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. She also tweets @EWAEmily.