Ed Week: Tests of Tech Literacy Not Widespread Despite NCLB Goals

Only four states have adopted statewide testing for students on technology. A number of companies have services available to provide such tests, but the market is still small. This seems relevant as I believe there is (was?) a proposed NAEP pilot test sometime in the next few years.

Students with Disabilities Said to Benefit from NCLB

According to a report released by the National Council on Disability, NCLB seems to have led to academic gains for students with disabilities, though it is too soon to definitively link the two.

In the 10 states that were examined closely, students with disabilities appear to be performing better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress when they are in elementary school, but those gains seem to dissipate by the time the students reach middle school.

This seems to make intuitive sense, as one of the only things even the most ardent critics of the law (e.g. Jon Kozol) and its supporters can agree on is that NCLB raised the issue of not letting marginalized groups fall by the wayside.

Study finds merit in teacher performance pay

Paying teachers based on their performance in the classroom has resulted in better student test scores, a recent study has found.

The study, released Jan. 22 by researchers at the University of Arkansas, examined a merit pay program called the Achievement Challenge Pilot Project that was implemented in five schools in Little Rock. Under the ACPP, teachers could earn as much as an $11,000 bonus based on how much their students' test scores improved.

"Our two years of analysis of test data in ACPP schools in Little Rock reveal consistent findings: Students of teachers who are eligible for performance bonuses enjoy academic benefits. Further, many of the criticisms of merit pay programs simply have not proven true in Little Rock," said Gary W. Ritter, lead researcher and professor of education at the University of Arkansas.

The schools participating in ACPP are composed predominantly of black students from low-income homes.

The study comes as lawmakers are crafting a bill to renew the No Child Left Behind Act, and Republicans and Democrats are considering including performance pay systems for teachers...

Rhee: DC last on NAEP

Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee writes in Forbes that DC is last by far on NAEP, with only MS anywhere close.

Update: This is a part of a larger Forbes series asking people to weigh in on education. Worth checking out: http://www.forbes.com/home/opinions/2008/01/23/solutions-education-teaching-oped-cx_hpm_0123solutionsland.html

USA Today: Employers want ways to judge grads beyond tests, grades

A survey of business leaders finds that most would prefer finding ways to assess "a student's ability to apply college learning to real-world settings." Most don't seem to be interested in the kinds of recommendations Sec. Spellings made in 2006.

"Too many policymakers and educational leaders are focused on the tests rather than on what is really important: whether students are learning what they need to know," says Roberts Jones, president of Education & Workforce Policy, a consulting firm based in Alexandria, Va.

Weekly Clips 1.18.08

The relatively light amount of coverage this week included continued discussion of the Quality Counts report, a long article in City Journal by prominent school-choice advocate Sol Stern, and an article discussing the possible mandating of summer school in Albuquerque, with low NAEP scores being used as justification.

While most of the coverage of the Quality Counts report immediately followed the release, several articles were published this week. The Messenger-Inquirer (KY) and the Daily Comet (LA) published news stories of the report, while the Honolulu Star Bulletin used NAEP data in an article comparing the roughly equal achievement in private and public schools. The Orlando Sentinel and the Opelkia-Auburn News (AL) published editorials, the first arguing that Florida needs to adopt excellent science standards as it has done for reading and math, while the second exhorts Alabamans not to accept the low grade their states received on the Quality Counts report.

The Manhattan Institute scholar Sol Stern published a long article in City Journal that repudiates his past beliefs of school choice as a panacea for educational problems in the US. While maintaining his faith in the importance of school choice, Stern writes that he has seen the importance of excellent curriculum and strong standards; the “education miracle” of Massachusetts’ growth on NAEP illustrates this for him. Stern also highlights two TUDA districts:

This may explain why, on the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests—widely regarded as a gold standard for educational assessment—Gotham students showed no improvement in fourth- and eighth-grade reading from 2003 to 2007, while the city of Atlanta, which hasn’t staked everything on market incentives, has shown significant reading improvement.

Stern’s article generated commentary among the blogs, as well as a great deal of criticism from the Cato Institute bloggers.

The acting superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools wants to introduce mandatory summer school for underperforming second and third graders, reports the Albuquerque Journal. New Mexico’s low scores on NAEP are cited as evidence of the state’s overall educational problems, and implicitly included as evidence for her proposal.

There were approximately 7.7 million media impressions this week, bringing the total for the year to just under 53 million. There were 29 stories this week, bringing the yearly total to 107.

Spellings Statement in Oregon

See bolded comments on Hispanic performance. Nationally, the statement isn't really true for Hispanic 8th graders. I tried to find out if it is true for OR, but trends for r/e by state are not easily accessible on the release website , nor in the report (which I think is a big shortcoming. Unless I missed it... anyone else want to take a look?).

Also, check out the link to the Mapping Oregon's Educational Progress -- it puts the % Proficient on state test in a table next to %Basic and Proficient on NAEP.


U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Discusses No Child Left Behind with Oregon State Board of Education, Visits Auburn Elementary School and Hosts Roundtable With Hispanic Leaders
Highlights six years of improvement and calls for continued support from states



FOR RELEASE:
January 17, 2008 Contact: Elaine Quesinberry
Casey Ruberg
(202) 401-1576


U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today met with the Oregon State Board of Education and Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo in Salem, Ore. to discuss No Child Left Behind and the gains made by students in Oregon and across the country. Secretary Spellings and Superintendent Castillo also visited Auburn Elementary School, where they toured classrooms and addressed an all-school assembly. In the afternoon, Secretary Spellings and Superintendent Castillo hosted a roundtable discussion with local Hispanic leaders at the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber in Portland, Ore.

"Six years after No Child Left Behind changed the education game in this nation, we can be proud of where it has brought us," said Secretary Spellings. "Oregon is an innovator and leader in developing assessments that help teachers get immediate results and tailor instruction. Now all 50 states and the District of Columbia have assessment systems, report disaggregated data and target federal resources to serve their neediest students. It's time to build on the momentum that No Child Left Behind helped to generate."

During her visit to Auburn Elementary School, Secretary Spellings commended students and teachers for their achievement gains. Like many schools across the country, Auburn Elementary is an excellent example of a school making strong progress under No Child Left Behind. Some 75 percent of Auburn's students are now proficient in math, up from 65 percent in 2003, and 81 percent of students are proficient in reading, up from 65 percent in 2003. Eighty percent of schools in the Auburn School District made Adequate Yearly Progress last year-up from 60 percent in 2005.

In the afternoon, Secretary Spellings and Superintendent Castillo met with leaders of Portland's growing Hispanic community during a roundtable at the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber in Portland, Ore. Secretary Spellings and more than a dozen Hispanic representatives from Portland's education, government and business communities discussed No Child Left Behind and how to help close the achievement gap, increase access to higher education and improve workforce preparation for Hispanics.

The 2007 Nation's Report Card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that Hispanic students posted all-time highs in a number of categories. Hispanic fourth- and eighth-graders achieved their highest mathematics and reading scores in the history of the test.

To view Mapping Oregon's Educational Progress 2008, please visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/or.html.

For Mapping America's Educational Progress 2008, visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/nation.html.

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Sol Stern: School Choice Isn't Enough

Manhattan Institute scholar Sol Stern, a longtime school choice advocate, writes a long article in City Journal saying that school choice isn't the cure-all he once hoped, thinking now that strong pedagogy, curricula, and standards are more vital.

But the new reliance on markets hasn’t prevented special interests from hijacking the curriculum. One such interest is the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project—led by Lucy Calkins, the doyenne of the whole-language reading approach, which postulates that all children can learn to read and write naturally, with just some guidance from teachers, and that direct phonics instruction is a form of child abuse. Calkins’s enterprise has more than $10 million in Department of Education contracts to guide reading and writing instruction in most of the city’s elementary schools, even though no solid evidence supports her methodology. This may explain why, on the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests—widely regarded as a gold standard for educational assessment—Gotham students showed no improvement in fourth- and eighth-grade reading from 2003 to 2007, while the city of Atlanta, which hasn’t staked everything on market incentives, has shown significant reading improvement.

Editorial: Reforming Education

Congressional Democrats may put an extension of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on their legislative agenda for this year, but it seems more likely that nothing will happen before 2009 in order to keep options open for the incoming president. But even without an NCLB extension, President Bush's achievements in education are striking. Student scores on some standardized tests have started rising with the administration's back-to-basics focus, and Republican candidates no longer face an insurmountable credibility deficit on the education issue.

In 2008, Democrats will undoubtedly promise parents with school-age children that another round of new programs and much more federal spending will produce better local schools. Thanks to Mr. Bush, Republicans need not say "me too," as most voters can now see from NCLB's early success that more federal funding was not, and is not, the answer...

Round up of comments from Spellings' speech

UPI story

Eduwonk


The Quick and The Ed

This Week in Education

Spellings says No Child law is 'getting results'

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings yesterday said America has reached a "tipping point" on education and must decide whether to keep the No Child Left Behind law's accountability for public schools, which she said has forced "an honest look at our schools."

Her comments come as administration leaders are trying to improve and solidify the much-debated 2002 law this year before President Bush's term ends.

As Mr. Bush did earlier this week, Mrs. Spellings defended the law and urged Congress to renew it soon, with some changes. But, she said if Congress fails to act, "I will move forward" and try to improve it through pilot programs and other administrative tools at her disposal. She noted the new president probably won't focus immediately on NCLB.

"Agree or disagree with this law, without NCLB, we wouldn't even be talking about how to get every student on grade level," she said. "After decades of doling out federal dollars and hoping for the best we're now expecting and getting results."

WS: Informed Reader

Informed Reader
January 10, 2008; Page B6
EDUCATION
What Ails Schools? No National Standard

• THE ATLANTIC -- JAN./FEB.


Local control of schools is crippling education in America, says Matt Miller.

U.S. students for years have lagged far behind their international peers in reading, math and science; dropout rates are alarmingly high. The best way to fix these problems is to nationalize achievement targets, says Mr. Miller. A frequent voice on policy matters, he served in the Clinton administration and is a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

Local control has roots in the Colonial era, when people developed a deep distrust of distant, centralized authority. That ethos has served the country politically, but it is failing the schools, says Mr. Miller. For one, widely varying standards make it difficult to know how well students are doing. President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program has failed to address disparities, since states can establish their own definitions of proficiency.

The fragmented nature of the education system impedes innovation. School districts typically can't afford to invest in new approaches on their own, yet they remain suspicious of federal efforts. Mr. Miller also faults what he says is widespread incompetence on school boards. Recalcitrant teachers' unions, meanwhile, block changes.

In an ideal world, school boards would be jettisoned. Since that isn't likely, Mr. Miller advocates limiting the boards' role, starting by sharply increasing the federal government's share of education spending.

Schools need national expectations, says Mr. Miller. Start by establishing national objectives, he says, while allowing schools discretion in how they meet the objectives.

Bush to veto any softer No Child law

President Bush yesterday said schools are improving under his much-debated No Child Left Behind Act, which turns six years old today, and he urged Congress to renew it, pledging to veto any bill that weakens the law's accountability for schools.

"I believe this country needs to build upon the successes," Mr. Bush told an assembly at the Horace Greeley Elementary School in Chicago, which he touted as a school that embraced the law's accountability and raised its test scores over the past several years.

"Now is the time for Congress to reauthorize it," he said of the 2002 law, adding, however: "If Congress passes a bill that weakens the accountability system in the No Child Left Behind Act, I will strongly oppose it and veto it."