In Case You Missed It: EWA's STEM Express, Webinar Replays Now Available

The push toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education programs is one of the hottest topics on the table right now, and EWA wants to help you keep up to date. Our new Thursday STEM Express (TSE) is an ongoing digest of the latest news and opinion on this critical issue. You can find it -- along with a wealth of other terrific content -- at EdMedia Commons. I've written recently about federal efforts to improve the STEM teacher workforce, and the ongoing struggle to increase girls' involvement.

Access to EMC is open to the public. To join the conversations and access all content, you need to be a member of EWA. To find out if you qualify (don't worry it's free!), click here.

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EWA's most recent webinar -- Giving Guidance: Counselors' Role in Student College & Career Readiness -- is now available online. Pat Martin, assistant vice president of the College Board National Office for School Counselor Advocacy, walks us through the second-annual survey of guidance counselors, who shared their views of their work and what needs to change for them to be more effective. We also heard from Peggy Hines, director of the Education Trust's National Center for Transforming School Counseling, who shared what's working in in some of the organization's partner campuses, and what needs to change at the local and state levels.

The quick takeaway? Most counselors believe they need more training specifically in how to help students get ready for the real-life challenges that await them in higher education and the workplace. Additionally, too many schools are burdening counselors with administrative duties such as test preparation or coordinating special events, instead of having them focus on direct student interactions. When counselors get the time and support they need to do their most critical work, student achievement is measurably improved, said Kathy Smallwood, a middle school guidance counselor in Mobile Ala.,who also participated in the webinar. You'll find the replay, along with all of the presenters' materials, here.

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If you're looking for story ideas, or just want to learn more about issues such as online learning or federal K-12 education reform, your first stop should be Story Starters, EWA's new online resource. You'll find the latest research, contact information for potential sources, and even suggestions of key questions to ask. From early childhood and preschool to higher education, Story Starters has you covered.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily. 

Which State Does the Best Job of Graduating Students from High School?

For the first time since the nation's governors agreed to use the same formula to calculate high school graduation rates, the U.S. Department of Education has published state-by-state figures that allow apples-to-apples comparisons of student achievement.

The data are for the 2010-11 academic year and show Iowa with the nation's highest graduation rate of 88 percent. Nevada finished last among the states at 62 percent. (The U.S. average graduation rate has not yet been released because several states still have to be reported.)

As Education Week's Politics K-12 blog points out, the new report shows considerably wide achievement gaps among minority and economically disadvantaged students when compared with their more affluent white peers. In Michigan, for example, the graduation rate for black students was 57 percent, compared with 80 percent for white students.

The new formula for calculating graduation rates is straightforward: States report the percentage of first-time ninth graders who earn a diploma within four years. Students who receive adjusted diplomas (typically an option for students with disabilities) or GEDs are not counted. The new graduation rate formula is the result of a nationwide initiative that dates back to 2005, when the governors of all 50 states signed a compact agreeing to adopt the new formula by this year. (The District of Columbia also agreed to participate.)

With the release of the 2010-11 data, the baseline for each state's graduation rate has been reset. It's important to remember that the newly reported graduation rates are not directly comparable to those previously calculated by states using alternate metrics. Under the new formula, slightly more than half of the states saw their graduation rates decline, while the remaining states either saw an increase or stayed the same, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

So, why does this matter? The formulas previously used by some states were considered highly inaccurate: Dropouts were often widely under-reported, while graduation rates were inflated. The new formula is a move toward more accountability, as well as consistency. Additionally, the wide disparity in states' formulas for calculating graduation rates made it difficult for researchers and policymakers to compare outcomes. That's a necessary element for identifying and addressing the underlying issues contributing to nearly 30 percent of the nation's ninth graders failing to earn a diploma in four years.

“By using this new measure, states will be more honest in holding schools accountable and ensuring that students succeed,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday. “Ultimately, these data will help states target support to ensure more students graduate on time, college and career ready.”

That's the hope of Jim Guthrie, Nevada's recently appointed superintendent of public instruction.

"You can't solve your problems if you don't know what they are," Guthrie told the Las Vegas Sun. "We need accurate information, and more of it."

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.

EWA Webinar: How Are Guidance Counselors Helping Develop College & Career-Ready Students?

When it comes to making sure students are college and career ready, middle and high school guidance counselors play a critical -- and often under-reported -- role.

On Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 12 noon (Eastern Time), EWA will host a webinar for journalists focusing on the  College Board Advocacy & Policy Center's second-annual survey of guidance counselors, in which respondents outline some of the challenges of helping students meet ever-increasing expectations, as well as identify shortfalls in their own training and professional development.

We'll also hear from experts in the field as to the implications of the survey's findings, as well as what's being done at the local, state and national level to improve guidance counseling. You'll come away with a deeper understanding of the issues, as well as ideas for localizing this important story for your own readers.


The presenters will be Pat Martin, assistant vice president, College Board National Office for School Counselor Advocacy; Peggy Hines, director of the Education Trust's National Center for Transforming School Counseling; and Kathleen Smallwood, middle school guidance counselor, Mobile (Ala.) County Public Schools.

To register for the webinar, click here.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.

Common Core State Standards: What's Ahead for English-Language Learners, Teachers and Tests?

Earlier this fall in Los Angeles, EWA -- along with the University of California-Berkeley, the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford University, Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), and the California Community Foundation -- held a seminar on how the new Common Core State Standards will impact English-language learners. We focused on lessons from California, with a conversation about Miami-Dade Public Schools (home to one of the nation's larger ELL populations).

You can read Latino Ed Beat blogger Katherine Leal Unmuth's piece on Miami-Dade here. Additionally, several journalists who attended the seminar are at work on stories and projects that grew out of their participation. Two have already published their first related stories: Claudia Melendez Salinas, of the Monterey County Herald, and Kathryn Baron of EdSource. I'll share more stories as they become available.

In the meantime, you can catch up with videos from the seminar over at EdMedia Commons. For more on these issues check out EWA's new Story Starters site, which offers the latest news, research and background on a variety of education topics, including Demographics & Diversity and Curriculum & Instruction.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.

Should Schools Set Sliding Scales For Student Achievement?

It would be tough to find a slope that’s potentially more slippery than this one: public schools setting different achievement expectations for students based on their race and ethnicity.

But that’s exactly what’s happening in dozens of states that have received waivers from the U.S. Department of Education, allowing them to replace the more onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind with more flexible accountability measures. NCLB’s core premise was that all students – regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic or special education status – would have to be proficient in reading, writing and math by the 2013-14 academic year. States were given leeway in setting their definitions of proficiency, and in deciding how best to move students toward the final goal.

But with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act more than seven years overdue (and a congressional stalemate unlikely to be solved anytime soon), U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan began authorizing waivers. In exchange, states agreed to adopt specific reform measures that were in line with President Obama’s education reform agenda, and to establish accountability measures for charting student progress.

So far 34 states and the District of Columbia have been granted NCLB waivers, and were permitted to reset the achievement bar for academic performance. And now it gets tricky: While all individual students are ostensibly still expected to reach proficiency in core subjects, some states have adjusted their "annual measurable objectives" for schools so that the percentage of students that must show progress on standardized tests varies by race and ethnic groups. In Florida, for example, 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of whites, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of blacks will be expected to demonstrate proficiency on the state’s reading assessments by 2018. A similar sliding scale has been set for mathematics.

Supporters of such measures contend this approach is the only realistic path to widescale school improvement. Critics argue that lower expectations for minority students will ultimately translate into lower outcomes.

Drawing particularly fierce opposition was Virginia’s initially proposed new policy, which would have required just 57 percent of black students to be proficient in math by 2017. An early critic was Andy Rotherham of Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that focuses on improving opportunities for low-income students. Writing in the Washington Post, Rotherham argued that the “debilitating message” the Dogwood State was sending to students, parents and educators was “together but unequal.” (The U.S. Department of Education has since ruled that Virginia’s policy went too far and worked with the state to renegotiate a more ambitious plan.)

Here’s what we do know: There is a stubborn achievement gap for Hispanic students and black students nationwide. In turn, that’s translated into an opportunity gap, as well. Minority students are not just scoring lower than their white peers on high-stakes tests, they are also getting less access to the most qualified teachers, the best schools, and the most expansive academic opportunities.

So, how did addressing those gaps translate into resetting the achievement bar by student ethnicity? When Congress was still actively debating the ESEA reauthorization back in 2010, the Education Trust, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., proposed a comprehensive set of recommendations. Those included a requirement that states cut in half the gap between where each group of students start and 100 percent proficiency within six years, and to aim to reduce their student achievement gaps by 50 percent. While the reauthorization stalled, the U.S. Department of Education decided to include “cut the gap in half” as one of the options states could choose to satisfy the accountability requirement of the waiver application process.

Some states are hewing closely to the Ed Trust’s original blueprint. Others have appropriated the name but are not operating within the initiative’s suggested framework. (More on that problem in a just a moment.)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaking at Ed Trust’s recent national conference in Washington, D.C., praised the organization for taking the lead in developing the “cut the gap in half” approach, calling it “very ambitious” but “also achievable.”

I spoke with Amy Wilkins, Ed Trust’s vice president for government affairs, who said she’s keenly aware that “when you put race and education in the same sentence and it gets volatile pretty quick -- but the fact is unless we set higher goals for kids of color, and demand quicker progress, we’re never going to close that gap. And that means we have to name it, we can’t pretend that all kids start and the same point and that everything is OK.”

The Ed Trust-endorsed blueprint calls for schools to set expectations that students of color show greater – and faster – progress than what’s expected of their white classmates. While the final goal remains eliminating the gap entirely, Ed Trust argues that it makes more sense to set a realistic course for schools to chart over the next six years.

“Students of color start further behind, and even if they make more progress they’re still going to be behind at the end of six years,” Wilkins said. “But by 2018, the gap could be half of what it is today. If school and states are doing what they need to do, they’ll be educating these kids better than they ever have before.”

Wilkins estimated that there are about 15 states that have set up parameters that align with Ed Trust’s recommendations. But on the flipside, there are probably an equal number of states that claim their policies are intended to “cut the gap in half,” but “that’s not what they’re doing at all,” Wilkins said. “We’re working with state-based education reform groups and state and local chapters of national civil rights groups to help them know what’s real and what’s faux.”

An example of a state that has set up appropriate goals for specific ethnic groups – at least in Ed Trust’s view – is Florida, Wilkins said. What remains to be determined is the state’s plan for boosting achievement of Latino, Black and low-income students, and what consequences those schools will face if they fall short.

With the exception of a tiny percentage of students with cognitive disabilities, “We believe all students can achieve at high levels,” Wilkins said. “What’s holding them back is they’re being poorly served by their schools. Students from low-income families and students of color get less of everything that matters.”

In the wake of the debate over the waivers, Wilkins said she’s “keenly aware” that there are misunderstandings about what “cut the gap in half” is seeking to accomplish. The revised goals, Wilkins said, are to “hold school and districts accountable for accelerating academic progress, not diminishing expectations for any individual students or groups of students.”

I put the question of states adjusting expectations based on a student’s ethnicity to Carla O’Connor, an associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. O’Connor, who specializes in African-American student achievement and urban education, said the new sliding bar for expectations is a huge step backward.

“No Child Left Behind presumed that all students would be able to learn and perform at similar levels – the current efforts suggest that not all kids have that ability, and we shouldn’t even try,” O’Connor said. “Once we shift to different standards, we’re institutionalizing the notion that’s not even feasible.”

O’Connor said there’s another problem to consider. The standards as they currently exist were already “pitching relatively low," O'Connor said. "The tests we’re using aren’t capturing higher-ordered thinking. These are basic-level skills and now we’re saying we don’t think certain populations of students can even meet those expectations.”

To be sure, states will have to tread carefully to ensure that equity isn’t a casualty of the reconfigured standards for student achievement. At the same time, the debate over how to define that achievement – and whether students in traditionally underserved populations might actually benefit from a sliding scale of expectations – is just getting started.

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

Word on the Beat No. 1: Sequestration

One of the best things about getting to write The Educated Reporter blog is that it helps me keep up to date on the latest issues and concerns for public education. At the same time, I’m continually amazed at how quickly the jargon and buzzwords seem to multiply on the education beat. Starting today, I’m going to do my part to help add some clarity to the conversation. On a regular basis, I’ll tackle an Education Buzzword You Need To Know. (I say this with the full realization that such designations are highly subjective. But let’s give it a shot, shall we?)

I’ve already put out the call for suggestions to education beat reporters working across the country in print, broadcast, and digital media. You can email your suggestions to me, or use the comments section of the blog. I look forward to your input.

So, what word gets the honor of being the first entry in the new Educated Reporter Word on the Beat glossary? Drumroll, please …

Word on the Beat: Sequestration.

What it means: Sequestration refers to federal monies that will be held back from federal agencies as a result of across-the-board budget cuts put in place by Congress as a result of negotiations that resulted in the raising of the debt ceiling in summer 2011. The majority of the cuts – representing about 8 percent of every federal agency’s budget – take effect Jan. 2. The cuts to most federal funding for schools will be delayed until the start of the 2013-14 academic year, giving local education agencies more time to prepare.

Why it matters: Sequestration is a critical element in the looming “fiscal cliff,” which some people  -- like senior editor Derek Thompson of The Atlantic -- argue is a misnomer of its own. At the same time, education officials at the local, state and national level are warning that the steep cuts could devastate public schools, particularly those with large populations of at-risk students.

Who’s talking about it? Just about everyone. If you need further evidence, Politico’s Tim Mak has it:

In the four weekdays before the election, sequestration was mentioned just 164 times in American television and radio reports, according to a POLITICO analysis of TVEyes media monitoring reports. From Nov. 6 to Nov. 9, the term was mentioned 735 times.

Print news outlets also got in on the action. There were only 453 mentions of sequestration in news outlets in the four weekdays before Election Day, compared with 601 after, according to Nexis.

Want to know more? Politics K-12 writer Alyson Klein offers a thoughtful backgrounder on the fiscal cliff. If you’re looking for the federal take, check out the report from the Office of Management & Budget. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, has an online database showing how deep the sequestration cuts will dig in each state. Cumulatively, the cuts will mean $1.2 billion fewer federal dollars for Title I – funding earmarked for students from low-income households. That will mean reduced services for 1.7 million students and eliminating an estimated 15 million education jobs, according to the NEA. There would also be $44 million less for School Improvement Grants, a central plank in the Obama administration’s education reform platform.

Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.

How Are States Tracking Teacher Training Programs?

With the election behind us, it’s time to focus on what’s ahead for education policy. One area of particular importance – and expected emphasis for the Obama administration’s second term – is teacher effectiveness. Teachers unions are closely monitoring (and taking part) in the conversation, particularly when it comes to new requirements being adopted by many states which require student test scores to be a factor in evaluating educator job performance.

A critical component to teacher effectiveness is the training individuals receive through their preparation programs before they are ever put in charge of a classroom of their own. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made it clear that overhauling and improving teacher training nationally is a priority for his department. To that end, the feds are offering sizable fiscal incentives to states to identify and shut down low-performing teacher training programs. (At an event in Washington, D.C. last year shortly after these new incentives were announced, Duncan called it “laughable” that in the prior 12 years more than half of the nation’s states had not rated even one teacher training program as inferior.)

To get a better understanding of where the federal law (Title II of the Higher Education Act) currently stands on states’ requirements to track and report elements of their teacher training programs, you might start with watching a session from EWA’s recent seminar. “Ready to Teach” was held in October in Minneapolis and was co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development. The lead-off session featured Allison Henderson of Westat, the research corporation which helps the U.S. Department of Education collect, analyze and report data on Title II.

The purpose of the web-based Title II data system is two-fold, Henderson says: It serves as an accountability measure that can be used to compile annual reports to Congress to ensure states are complying with the law, and it gives prospective students as way to compare the state-by-state requirements for becoming a teacher.

Those comparisons can be tricky, Henderson warns. There are currently 59 ways teachers can be trained and certified. And how those routes are categorized and reported also differs widely from state to state. That can make comparisons not only difficult but also potentially inaccurate.

However, there are plenty of interesting tidbits – and potential story ideas for reporters -- in the Title II data that are readily available. Here’s one example: The report from the education secretary includes a breakdown of the pass rate in each state for its teacher licensing exams. In the District of Columbia, the minimum passing score on the Praxis exam is 142. In neighboring Virginia, would-be teachers must earn at least a 172 on that same test. Does that mean the bar is being set too low—or too high—in some states? Are the expectations rigorous enough to demonstrate that teachers are ready for the classroom?

Another consideration: The report shows a number of states have pass rates of 100 percent. That’s something that “has Congress pretty wild,” Henderson says.

Interestingly, most teachers already score well above the minimum cut score, Henderson says. That suggests a conversation about raising the bar isn’t ill-timed, and that it wouldn’t mean a huge number of aspiring teachers would be cut off from the profession.

(For more on the push to overhaul teacher training programs, you can go here and here., EWA's Story Starters site is another useful database, particularly for journalists looking for the latest research and expert sources on issues related to teachers.)



Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org. Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.

Veterans Day: Trading the Battlefield for the Classroom

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan moving toward an end, tens of thousands of U.S. veterans will be making the transition back to civilian life. For many of them, that means taking advantage of government funding for higher education.

Writing for Inside Higher Ed, Wick Sloane released the results of his annual informal survey of elite colleges and universities to determine how many undergraduate veterans they have enrolled. Some schools didn't respond to his request or didn't know the answer, Sloane says. But based on those which did respond, the number of veterans attending elite schools has dropped to 157 from 232. Sloane notes that the campus where he works -- Bunker Hill Community College in Boston -- has nearly 500 veterans enrolled as undergraduates.

Sloane makes a strong argument that these numbers matter -- and that measuring how effectively the U.S. is meeting its obligations to veterans requires better tracking of the federal dollars used to fund their educations. On a related note, Jerome Kohlberg, chairman of the Initiative to Protect Student Veterans, has an opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette outlining some of the unscrupulous tactics some for-profit career colleges have used to entice veterans. Kohlberg also highlights a new online resource -- knowbeforeyouenroll.org -- which is intended to give veterans a better understanding of their options.

Kohlberg writes that:

Not all for-profit schools take advantage of veterans; there are some with good track records of success. But veterans need to know which ones do. By shining a light on this issue, information can be provided that veterans need to avoid becoming victims of fraud, and public officials need to pass laws that will stop the shameful practices too many for-profit colleges employ.

For more on how lawmakers are responding to calls for more consumer protections for student veterans, read Paul Fain's recent overview for Inside Higher Ed. The Atlantic's Andrew Cohen also has a powerful piece about how this Veterans Day is unlike any other. It's the first time there is no veteran of World War I alive to observe the holiday.

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

The Experts Chime In: What's Next For Federal Education Policy?

If you’re looking for insights into what's next for federal education policy, I recommend watching the replay of a lively and insightful panel discussion held Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

Here’s just a snippet from panelist Alyson Klein of Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog, explaining why President Obama is likely motivated to make higher education a priority in his second term: “If half of the youth voters had stayed home or voted for Mitt Romney, he’d be president right now.”

The other panelists were Katherine Haley from the office of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio); Rick Hess, the AEI’s resident scholar and director of education policy studies; Andy Rotherham, founding partner of Bellwether Education Partners; and Kristen Soltis Anderson, vice president of the Winston Group, a polling and consulting firm. Andrew Kelly, an AEI research fellow, served as moderator.

Rotherham, who writes the Eduwonk blog, looked at the impact of the 2012 election on education reform in his latest column for Time. Hess offered his take in his Straight Up blog for Education Week. For more from Klein, check out my Five Questions interview with her over at EdMedia Commons.

There was some consensus among the panel: Two key issues -- immigration and the looming fiscal cliff -- are going to take priority for  federal lawmakers in the coming months. The long-mothballed re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now nearly eight years overdue, isn't likely to get on the fast track. In the meantime, there could be significant pressure on the feds to make sure states don't use their No Child Left Behind Waivers to create accountability systems that shortchange minority students or unreasonably lower expectations.

When asked for a word to describes what lies ahead, Rotherham chose uncertainty.

“There are two powerful forces colliding right now, pro-reform and anti-reform … I’m not sure how that’s going to play out," Rotherham said. "It’s uncertain if our leaders are going to rise above that or if the next four years are going to be a repeat of the last four years.”


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

Election Results: Charter Schools Have Narrow Lead in Washington State, Missouri Says No To Tobacco Tax Hike for Education

There will be plenty of discussion in the coming days and weeks about what a second-term Obama administration will mean for education. But first I wanted to follow up on some statewide initiatives and ballot contests mentioned here earlier in the week:

• A ballot measure to allow charter schools in Washington State held a narrow lead in what the Seattle Times said was one of closest races on the ballot. Washington is one of nine states that currently does not allow charter schools, which receive public funding but operate largely independently.  
• In Missouri, it was a narrow defeat -- 51 percent to 49 percent -- for an initiative that would have raised the state's tobacco tax along with significant funding for public education.  Instead of jumping to 90 cents per pack, the tax will stay at 17 cents, the lowest in the nation. The additional revenue is earmarked for K-12 (50 percent) higher education, including expanding the University of Missouri's medical school (30 percent), and programs aimed at curbing tobacco use (20 percent). 
• California Gov. Jerry Brown's controversial tax initiative survived Tuesday, with voters approving both an increase to the state's sales tax and income taxes on the wealthy. If Proposition 30 had failed, education officials were bracing to cut upward of $500 million each from the state's public colleges and universities.  
• Alabama voters shot down Proposition 4, which would have removed antiquated language from the state's Constitution that allowed schools to be segregated. The state's teachers union had opposed the amendment on the grounds that it didn't go far enough, and that "any eventual rewrite should also eliminate phrasing that denies Alabamians' constitutional right to an education," the Alabama Live news site reported. 
• In Wake County, N.C., school board members Deborah Goldman and Andrew Malone had traded allegations of bizarre behavior, a possible affair, and accusations of theft amidst their campaigns for higher state office. Goldman lost her bid to be the state's controller, while Malone was elected to the state House.

There was also some important news out of Maryland, with voters approving a version of the Dream Act. Children of undocumented immigrants will now have the chance to qualify for in-state tuition rates at colleges and universities. For more election roundups, I recommend Education Week's Politics K-12 blog, and the Chronicle of Higher 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. 

Election Day: Busy Beat For Education Reporters

There’s plenty to keep education beat reporters busy today, from contentious school board elections with as much mud being slung as education buzzwords, to controversial proposals for tax increases to fund public schools.

In South San Antonio, which has a K-12 enrollment of about 10,000 students, the battle for four seats on the school board has grown into “one is one of the nastiest races ever we've seen,” says San Antonio Express-News reporter Francisco Vara-Orta. It’s even “prompted the use of Shakespeare to describe the feuding of two political dynasties vying to take control of the board with allegations of drug use, children born out of wedlock, and personal dirt thrown at all 10 candidates,” Vara-Orta told me in an email.

Indeed, as Vara-Orta describes in a recent story, the candidates each appear to have ties to one of two powerful political families, in what he characterized as “an ongoing street fight to control the board.” Just how ongoing? Vara-Orta tells me that a review of the newspaper's archives found evidence of school board power struggles going back 35 years.

As ugly as the sparring has gotten in South San Antonio,  it's almost outpaced by the drama in Wake County, N.C., where two school board members both seeking higher office are trading allegations of theft, an affair, and bizarre behavior.

Wake County school board member Deborah Goldman is the Republican nominee for state auditor. Fellow school board member Chris Malone, also a Republican, is running for state House. The News & Observer received portions of a two-year-old police report from an anonymous source, detailing that Goldman had named Malone as a potential suspect in the disappearance of $130,000 in cash – yes, cash – from her home. Police investigators were satisfied that Malone didn’t commit the burglary, the newspaper reported. But during the investigation there were conflicting statements from Goldman and Malone as to the nature of their relationship.

Situations like this are messy to read – and to report. (The he-said-she-said narrative escalated when Goldman shared with the newspaper with what she said was a tape-recorded conversation with Malone.) One commenter on the News & Observer’s web site professed to being “consistently amazed at how many distractions the Board of Education can find to prevent themselves from actually focusing on student achievement.”

There’s less interpersonal drama playing out in some local and statewide tax initiatives intended to fund public schools but that doesn't mean the stakes are any lower. In Miami-Dade, the nation’s fourth-largest school district, there’s a $1.2 billion bond referendum for consideration, intended to repair dilapidated facilities and upgrade school technology. The Miami Herald reports that the district sent fliers home with students with information about the proposed bond, prompting questions about whether that crossed the line prohibiting electioneering with public money.



It would be tough to find a state harder hit by the recession than California, and educators are warning of dire consequences for public schools – particularly the state’s colleges and universities -- if Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial tax initiative fails. (The Modesto Bee's Nan Austin has done some thoughtful analysis of the debate.)

In Baldwin County, Ala.,  a one-cent sales tax to benefit education is up for a vote. But the bigger controversy for Alabama voters is probably the proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution. Supporters of the Amendment 4 say it will remove antiquated language that once resulted in segregated schools. But opponents, including the state’s teachers union, argues the removal will also nullify the state’s obligation to education its children.

In Wisconsin, elementary school students in Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville held a mock election Friday, and the Obama-Biden ticket was the clear winner of both the electoral college and the popular vote. As Frank Schultz of the Janesville Gazette reported, the mock election is part of civics instruction at 12 public and five private schools in the area. While Romney was declared the winner at two of the four Catholic schools participating, Obama ultimately prevailed. The students accurately predicted the winner of the actual contest in 1988, the first year the inter-school mock election was held, as well as in 1992, 1996, and in 2008.

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

Washington State Considers Charter Schools, Missouri Voters Mull Tobacco Tax Hike for Education Funding

When it comes to education, there’s much at stake Tuesday beyond the race for president. Voters in several states are being asked to approve significant changes to how public schools operate and are funded.

There are two particularly interesting ballot measures in play – in Washington State, where voters will be asked to allow the formation of charter schools, and in Missouri, where a significant hike in the state’s tobacco tax could raise badly needed revenues for both K-12 and higher education. Both serve as important reminders that the policies that most directly affect students, educators, and communities are typically not federal directives. Rather, it's the initiatives enacted at the state and local level -- with voter support -- that often spur the most visible reform.

Let’s start in Washington, which is one of just nine states that currently prohibits charter schools – campuses that receive public dollars but are operated more or less independently. (The degree of independence depends on the restrictiveness of each state’s individual law.)

Washington voters have rejected proposed charter school legislation three times in the past 16 years. To give its readers a better understanding of the debate, the Tacoma Times Tribune smartly sent education reporter Debbie Cafazzo to visit three charter schools in neighboring Oregon.

“Everybody in Oregon thinks Washington is a hopeless backwater,” Rob Kremer, the Oregon’s Republican Party treasurer who helped pass the state’s charter school law, told the Times Tribune. The Beaver State has 124 charter schools, serving about 4 percent of the state’s K-12 public school students.

But education officials in Washington State contend a more cautious approach is merited. Approving charter schools simply because it’s been popular elsewhere “is a simplistic answer to a complex problem,” Tacoma School Board member Karen Vialle told the Times Tribune.

Nationally, performance among charter schools has been mixed -- not unlike their traditional public school counterparts. Much depends, as it always does, on the quality of the programs, staffing, and community support. There are pockets of excellence, with some charter schools scoring high in national rankings for student achievement. But there have also been some high-profile failures, including the recent messy shutdown of a network of charter campuses in St. Louis that had been managed by for-profit Imagine Schools Inc.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools points out that there’s plenty of enthusiasm for alternatives to traditional public education: charter school enrollment has doubled nationally since 2007 – to more than 2 million students – with another 600,000 estimated to be on waiting lists.

Nina Rees, president and chief executive of NAPCS, told me that Washington’s ballot measure is “a pretty modest attempt,” given that the legislation would limit the number of charter campuses to 40 over the next five years. In rating the aggressiveness of the proposed legislation, Rees compared it to “dipping a toe in the water,” rather than a deep plunge. With high-profile backers of this year’s ballot measure, including Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, there’s hope that “this year is the tipping point,” Rees said.

“There’s certainly a lot of momentum,” Rees told me in an interview. “But track records of referendums generally, not just for education issues, is dicey. People go to the polls typically to vote for individuals, and they often don’t pay much attention to particular questions.”

In Missouri, voters are being asked to back a significant hike in its tobacco tax, which at 17 cents per pack is the lowest in the nation. If voters say yes on Tuesday, the tax would jump to 90 cents. Half of the new revenue would be earmarked for K-12 schools, 30 percent for higher education, and the remaining 20 percent for programs to dissuade individuals from using tobacco.

As the Associated Press’ Alan Scher Zagier reported, this is Missouri’s third attempt in a decade to raise its tobacco tax. A proposed expansion of the University of Missouri’s medical school depends on new funding.

University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe said he’s confident that “ voters will support the measure, particularly with the stipulated benefits for funding education,” the AP reported.

"The (political) environment is much more ready for a positive vote on this than it was previously," Wolfe told the AP.

Currently 14 states earmark cigarette tax revenues for education-related spending. Another 11 states add the tobacco-tax money to their general funds, which could include education among other expenditures. (For more on this topic check out the American Lung Association’s comprehensive online database of State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues.)

Danny McGoldrick, director of research for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told me that Missouri’s ballot proposition is “win-win” for the state. The price increase will reduce smoking, “saving lives and health care dollars in the sate,” McGoldrick said. And, in addition to improving public education, “Missouri will be way ahead of most states, as very few spend tobacco tax revenue on tobacco prevention.”

Tomorrow: Think school board elections are dull? What's unfolding in Texas and North Carolina will  probably change your mind.

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

EWA Higher Ed Seminar: Background Reading on College Affordability

EWA will be in Indianapolis Friday and Saturday for our annual Higher Education Seminar for journalists, focusing on issues around college affordability. Degrees vs. Debt: Making College More Affordable, is hosted by the Indiana University School of Education and Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis.

If you can't make it to Indianapolis, don't worry. We'll have videos from the sessions available online, along with multimedia materials from the various presentations. But we've also put together a resources page so that you can also get up to speed on the topics -- and learn more about the presenters -- ahead of the seminar.

Speaking of resources, EWA's new Story Starters site is a great place to start if you're digging for details about a current education topic, looking for expert sources, or curious about the latest research and coverage. You can find out about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathemetics) education, classroom technology, and a wealth of other topics. We're adding new topics regularly, so be sure to bookmark the page.

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