Ed Daily:

Interesting-sounding AFT report finds that standards are often not that great. Only Virginia has strong standards in all subjects assessed. Side note about Virginia - look at NAEP scores broken down by race and you'll see some great Simpson's Paradox.

AFT report finds vague, repetitive content standards across states

Union: Federal government should underwrite consortia on standards, curriculum, assessment

By Stephen Sawchuk

With evidence in hand that states' academic content standards lack specificity and depth, the American Federation of Teachers is renewing its call on the federal government to fund efforts by state consortia to develop model standards, curricula and assessments.

Such funding, AFT officials say, would not only improve instruction in low-income schools but also rejuvenate the standards-based reform movement by putting better curricula in the hands of teachers. The funding would also improve test quality, therefore decreasing the pressure on teachers to resort to "drill and kill" multiple-choice test preparation.

"A federal funding stream would be a very helpful way of avoiding the political controversy over national standards," AFT Executive Vice President Antonia Cortese said. "For our poorer students in urban areas, we believe strongly that good state standards would help them get the same kind of education that a suburban child would get."

AFT's position reflects that of several national groups, notably The Education Trust, which has lobbied Congress to put $750 million annually into curricula -- suggesting that the issue could receive more attention when Congress resumes NCLB reauthorization.

Findings

AFT's Sizing Up State Standards 2008 examines whether states have strong standards in place in elementary school through high school in the core subjects of English, math, science and social studies. Strong standards, the report says, are grade- and course-specific and define content and skills so that the standards can be used to underpin a common curriculum. Standards that failed to meet AFT's criteria were repeated from grade to grade, articulated for grade spans rather than for each grade, or were vague and missing content.

States lack tools to meet federal reporting mandate

Since 2002, states have been required under NCLB to ensure that all students become technologically literate by eighth grade. However, this is the first year the Education Department is requiring states to report students' proficiencies -- a task most states are not yet equipped to execute, experts say.

In fact, most states do not have a formal assessment in place, experts say, adding that the resource is costly and complicated to construct. Further, education stakeholders question how much weight the new provision will have, given that technology literacy is not a component of schools' adequate yearly progress requirements.

USA Today: SAT writing portion good predictor of grades

The controversial new writing portion of the SAT is actually a better predictor of grades for freshmen college students than the older, more-established, critical reading and mathematics portions, according to preliminary results of two new studies.

If I recall correctly, the "older" SAT was never a great predictor of college GPA (and that it over-predicted the GPA of white males and under-predicted that of everybody else).

Ed Week: Spellings Proposes New Rules For Graduation Rates

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings issued proposed federal regulations today that touch on core aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act, requiring states to provide more and better information about high school graduation rates, student test performance, and the availability and quality of tutoring under the federal law.

In a speech before the Detroit Economic Club, Ms. Spellings described the new policy tools as “bulldozers” designed to “tear down barriers to reform.”

She said that many of the proposed actions “have gained broad support” in conversations about how to strengthen the federal law, whose reauthorization is stalled on Capitol Hill.

Bob Herbert: Clueless in America

No NAEP mention (boo!), but lots of ed-stuff and a mention of the Common Core report.

We don’t hear a great deal about education in the presidential campaign. It’s much too serious a topic to compete with such fun stuff as Hillary tossing back a shot of whiskey, or Barack rolling a gutter ball.

The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.

An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.

AP - "No Child Left Behind faces changes"

No Child Left Behind faces changes
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON - Unable to push education fixes through Congress, the Bush administration is taking its own pen to the No Child Left Behind law.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she plans to make a host of changes to the education law through regulations being unveiled Tuesday.

Among the biggest changes will be a requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states must calculate their high school graduation rates in a uniform way.

States currently use all kinds of methods to determine their graduation rates, many of which are based on unreliable information about school dropouts, leading to overestimates.

States will be told to count graduates, in most cases, as students who leave on time and with a regular degree. Research indicates students who take extra time or get alternatives to diplomas, such as a GED, generally don't do as well in college or the work force.

While states will no longer be able to use their own methods for calculating grad rates, they will still be able set their own goals for getting more students to graduate. Critics say that allows states to set weak improvement goals.

The six-year-old education law is President Bush's signature domestic policy initiative. The law requires testing in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. The stated goal is to get all kids working at grade level by 2013-14.

Lawmakers recently tried but were unable to pass an updated version of the law due to disagreements over how to judge schools and teachers, among other things. Without a renewal, the existing law stands.

Spellings has been taking steps in recent months to make changes from her perch. However, the proposed regulations amount to the most comprehensive set of administrative changes she has sought so far.

"The Congress, I guess because of the political and legislative climate, has not been able to get a reauthorization under way this year," Spellings said in an interview. "I know that schools and students need help now, and we are prepared to act administratively."

The regulations call for a federal review of every state policy regarding the exclusion of test scores of students in racial groups deemed too small to be statistically significant or so small that student privacy could be jeopardized. Critics say too many kids' scores are being left aside under these policies.

The regulations also call for school districts to demonstrate that they are doing all they can to notify parents of low-income students in struggling schools that free tutoring is available. If the districts fail to do that, their ability to spend federal funds could be limited under the proposal. The department estimates only 14 percent of eligible students receive tutoring available to them.

An even smaller percentage of kids who are allowed to transfer to higher-performing schools make that switch, in part because they aren't always informed of vacancies on time. The regulations require schools to publicize open spots at least 14 days before school starts.

The administration's proposal also would tighten the rules around the corrective steps schools must take once they've failed to hit progress goals for many consecutive years.

The administration is seeking public comments before finalizing the regulations in the fall.
Regulations can be overturned by a new administration. Spellings said that's unlikely in this case, because the rules she is proposing have widespread support. She said she hoped the ideas would help shape the legislative debate on Capitol Hill whenever the law is revisited there.

"I think these things will help the law work better in the field ... and I think they are ways for the Congress to have a good jumping-off place when they start on their work," she said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate education committee, said the regulations "include important improvements for implementing No Child Left Behind."
___
On the Net:
Education Department: http://www.ed.gov/

Ed Daily: Students with Disabilities make little progress on NAEP

(login required)

SDS gained some on NAEP Writing 2007, but didn't close the gap between students w/o disabilities.

EdWeek: Make a Science Generation

When even Newt Gingrich wants to triple the funding of something, it must be important.

High School Seniors Get an "F" in Finance

The Fed released a survey saying that high school seniors got less than half of questions about personal finance and economics right, the lowest percentage in the six surveys they've administered. No NAEP Economics mention, unfortunately, but worth noting in case we ever do Econ again.

AP Language, Computer Courses Cut

AP Italian, Latin and French literature are being cut from the list of AP courses, as is Computer Science. These courses have been underenrolled by a lot, says College Board.

NAEP Writing Report coverage round-up

Only the big ones:

AP - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5guahnmZPHr8GssFKtPhlkhccpkqgD8VQEA7O2

WaPo -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040301655.html?hpid=topnews

Ed Week - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/04/09/32naep.h27.html?tmp=1563593171

NYT -

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/education/03cnd-writing.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Teachers in US paid less than other countries

Interesting report from EPI via McKinsey. Teachers in South Korea and Germany make 141% of per capita GDP, vs. 81% in the US.

ED to require states to use a uniform dropout formula

A lot of talk about the crazy ways of counting dropout rates has resulted in ED requiring all states to use the federal formula. This is "one of the most far-reaching regulatory actions taken by any education secretary," according to the article. NGA signed on to this in 2005, but haven't gotten there yet. Spellings is announcing this today at the start of a campaign by a new group called America's Promise Alliance, which seems to be headed by Colin Powell and his wife.