________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT January 03, 2005 - Vol. 5, No. 01 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... WHAT TO EXPECT IN EDUCATION COMMITTEES Who is likely to head the House and Senate Education Committees now that the Democrats control both chambers of the Vermont Assembly? The obvious choices are Rep. George Cross (D-Winooski) for House Education Chairman, and Sen. James Condos (D-Chittenden) for head of Senate Education. Rep. Cross has been vice-chairman of House Education for several years, and Sen. Condos was chair of Senate Education during the last session. To get an idea of how each man will approach education issues, it's instructive to look back over the record of bills they've sponsored. Both present an interesting picture - and one that isn't entirely partisan, which is good news for those who support education reform initiatives that cross party lines. For example, Rep. Cross has a record dating back to 1999 that includes several solid bipartisan efforts to enhance local control of schools while at the same time ensuring that the fox wasn't guarding the hen house. To that end, he's co-sponsored with Republicans and Democrats two bills that would have prohibited employment by a school district of a school board member two years after serving on the board, would have stipulated that school administrators didn't need a teaching license, and would have enabled superintendents to grant temporary teaching licenses when necessary. These are common-sense reforms that empower local school leaders. Too bad they didn't pass. Rep. Cross also co-sponsored an unsuccessful bill in the 1999-00 session that would have granted tuition to a post-secondary school for kids who finish high school in three years. This was another bipartisan effort. And he co-sponsored a bill that would have required superintendents and headmasters to check sex-offender registries and notify schools prior to placement of a felon in school. These are pro-family, pro-child reforms. However, Rep. Cross also seems to have toed the union and party line at times, co-sponsoring a bill in 1999-00 that would have essentially repealed Act 150 before it began. Act 150 is the modest public school choice program that now allows a handful of students from public high schools to choose another public high school with which their school has formed a collaborative agreement. The co-sponsors of the repeal read like an attendance sheet for the Democratic and Progressive caucuses. Sen. Condos, on the other hand, has only been in the legislature since 2001 so his record is not as deep. However, he has co-sponsored legislation that would have beefed up civics education in the state, and he spearheaded S.166, the early education bill that went nowhere in the House after passing the Senate. Look for that initiative to resurface this year.  ARE YOU A PICKY PARENT? The Progressive Policy Institute's regular Bulletin (reprinted below) contains some news on a terrific web site - http://www.pickyparent.com -- where parents can find useful information on how to go about selecting a school for their children. While the site is a promotional device for a book of the same name, it still contains lots of great, highly-usable tips. Here's a sample -- a "ten ways to tell if your kid's school is mediocre": 1. Your academically typical child needs out-of-school tutoring to make grade level  2. Your child struggles academically, but gets the same instruction as other students 3. Your academically advanced child is taught the same material as other students  4. At school you are warned not to let your child get "too far ahead" in a subject 5. Your child learns more in some core subjects outside of school than in school 6. The things your child studies seem easier than what kids you know at other schools are learning 7. Your child rarely if ever has academic time one-on-one or in a very small group with the lead teacher 8. Your child's principal says low grade level pass rates are to be expected, given the student population 9. Your child didn't test gifted, and so is not expected to exceed grade level in basic subjects 10. Jockeying for teachers is critical to parents in your child's school, because the quality is so uneven  Adapted from Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child's School with Confidence, The Elementary Years (K-6). © 2004 by Armchair Press, LLC. All rights reserved.  *   *   * ELSEWHERE  ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SCHOOL CHOICE A challenge for city economic development agencies is stopping the flight of young professionals from the city. Often this flight is connected to the availability of good schools. The most recent issue of Central Philadelphia's economic development agency newsletter, however, touts the city's pumped-up public school choice efforts in an attempt to promote the city as a good place for young professionals to live. The front page story in the "Center City Digest," published by the Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corporation (both public-private collaborations), talks about "opening the door to more school choice" through a series of initiatives where residents can choose among 11 city elementary schools. "While independent and charter schools long ago adapted to a market economy," the newsletter says, "public school principals must add to their measures of success the ability to grow market share through the creation of first-rate schools of choice for Center City's families." Center City is a district within Philadelphia.  Read more about the initiative at http://www.CenterCitySchools.com.  FROM...The New Democrats' Progressive Policy Institute  YEAR-END WRAP UP: BEST AND WORST OF 2004 It was a tumultuous year for education policy, though one without major changes. The outcome of the elections will surely mean some changes for education policy, yet concern about schools and colleges was barely a blip on the public's radar screen. As Education Week recently noted, despite some intense opposition, No Child Left Behind became more rooted in the nation's schools. Higher education emerged as an even more prominent issue, with greater concern being paid to data and financing, but Congress failed to finish work on the Higher Education Act. And finally, Secretary of Education Rod Paige reluctantly resigned after a term marked by much unrest but too little action. Perhaps 2005 will see the opposite: more progress and action and less contention. But don't bet on it... Here are our third annual end-of-year awards, a few of our favorites from 2004: Most Amusing Spin of 2004: Give credit where it's due: with a well-timed and well-promoted release the American Federation of Teachers has succeeded in turning a heap of largely inconclusive NAEP data on charter school student achievement into a growing conventional wisdom that charter school students aren't doing as well as students in traditional public schools. It didn't hurt that The New York Times is apparently one newspaper in America (rumor is that The Washington Post said "no") that will uncritically take the AFT line on charter schools. We respect skilled spin but still think it's a shame that all the energy the AFT has put into charter bashing lately wasn't instead better spent advancing the kind of progressive education reforms for which AFT was once lauded. Least Amusing Spin of 2004: Charters again! Despite the cheap shot on charter schools, charter proponents were not blameless in the dust-up. There was plenty to criticize in the entire episode, but one criticism that many charter advocates seized on was also one of the least problematic aspects: the fact that the charter school NAEP data, on which the AFT and a more recent NCES report draw, reflect "single snapshots" of charter school performance at a single point in time. Of course, background information and data on student growth are optimal, and longitudinal or "value-added" measures certainly provide richer and more useful information, but studies lacking these things are not prima facie invalid. Charter students do likely start out even further behind than their public school peers, which is important context when considering various studies and something research designs should strive to overcome. But it's worth noting that, regardless of how disadvantaged charter students are or how much charters are improving their performance, it matters whether or not students master the basic levels of proficiency that state achievement and other "one-shot" tests measure. Charter schools now have tremendous political appeal and support within disadvantaged and minority communities precisely because they promise to get students who've been left behind to these levels of performance when other public schools have failed. In terms of the spin, there are also those within the charter community who for years have held up NAEP data as evidence of shortcomings in the traditional public schools. Fair enough, but NAEP is what it is and to suddenly declare it invalid when it looks at charters again weakens the public position of charter schools. Finally, and in the same vein, charter supporters look ridiculous when they simultaneously dismiss snapshot studies with results ostensibly unfavorable to charters and trumpet other snapshot studies with more favorable results. One of the most frustrating things about this entire episode was the inability of some media outlets to cut through the smoke. That task was, however, made harder by friends of charters who were throwing up smoke, too. It was not only ineffective spin; it was counterproductive. Quote of the Year: "But I think what is happening now is we are starting to turn the corner. I think more and more members of Congress are starting to understand that this legislation is in fact starting to get some very positive results, and it's starting to close the gap between majority and minority students, between rich and poor students. It's starting to put more time on task for students so that they will have the chance to read at grade level and to progress with what that means for that, to have that capability." Who said it? Some Bush Administration shill? Republican leader? Business Rountable official? No... it was... Rep. George Miller (D- CA), ranking minority member of the Education and the Workforce Committee and someone whose credentials as a Democrat, progressive, and liberal are unquestioned. Must Read Article of the Year: In a political season, it's particularly easy to conflate pedagogical and service delivery innovations in education with political ideologies and agendas. Yet some of the most promising reformers are using education approaches that are too often dismissed as "conservative" -- for example phonics, back to basics curricula, no-nonsense disciplinary approaches -- to pursue "progressive" social justice goals, like closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged kids. An outstanding summation of this (and implicit caution about why it's so important to avoid knee-jerk reactions to educational methods) is a column by Sam Freedman in The New York Times. Since taking over the education column, Freedman has delivered a series of excellent columns on issues ranging from higher education to education in Iraq. This piece, which looks at the predominantly low-income and minority Gainesville, Georgia, Elementary School, and its principal, Shawn Arevalo McCollough, stands out. McCollough is a self- described "social reconstructionist" who keeps a copy of Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed on his desk but also employees an unwavering approach to test-based accountability and tough-love intervention to ensure his students are performing proficiently at grade level. Read the article yourself to get the full picture: "Politics Aside, a School's Real Success," Samuel G. Freedman, The New York Times (09/29/04): http://www.samuelfreedman.com/articles/education/nyt09292004.html Must Read Book of the Year: If you believe the market is the real reflection of where culture is going, then the publication this year of the Picky Parent Guide, by Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel (themselves the parents of two young children, as well as national education experts), reflects an emerging sea change in how parents think about their children's education. Barely a decade ago it would be unthinkable that a book designed to help parents choose the best school for their children would have much of a market beyond affluent urban families. But the successful publication of the Hassels' book, and its resource-laden associated website, reflect both the rapid propagation of public and private school options for many more American families, and an increasingly consumerist approach to schooling on the part of parents eager to find the best educational opportunities -- in or out of school -- for their children. Picky Parent moves beyond labels. It is not about choosing a private school, public school, or public charter school for your child but instead about choosing the school that will be the best fit for them. Picky Parent also shows up the flaws in standard conservative and liberal rhetoric about parental choice. The book's useful advice about how to use test score data and other forms of public accountability to help parents choose quality schools for their children shows the wrong-headedness of conservatives who too often refuse to acknowledge any public role or rules are necessary in ensuring school quality in an educational marketplace. At the same time, too many on the left dismiss the ability of parents to make educated choices at all. By providing useful guidance to help an increasing number of parents make good choices for their kids, Picky Parent demonstrates where both sides fall short. The Picky Parent Guide Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel (2004): http://www.pickyparent.com/index.html Innovator of the Year: Teacher quality can be one of the most frustrating areas to look at if you're an education reformer. Research shows that teachers are the most crucial in-school factor impacting student achievement. Current policies around teacher certification, compensation, and assignment too often serve to deter promising individuals from the profession. In the past few years promising new policy initiatives have emerged to help address these issues, but many more of them are stymied by political opposition from those resisting change. That's why this year's innovator of the year truly stands out. A long-term Denver public school teacher Brad Jupp is also the driving force behind that district's recently enacted "Pro-Comp" program. Pro-Comp replaces the outdated "steps and lanes" system of pay based on degrees and experience with a new, more professional model that reflects knowledge and skills, the placements teachers take, and student achievement, in the process offering an opportunity for skilled teachers to earn far more than they would have under the previous system. But what really makes Brad Jupp an innovator is that he's a die-hard union member and was the Denver Classroom Teacher's Association's point person on the district-union team that designed and sold Pro- Comp to the city's teachers. Jupp's a true advocate for students short-changed by society and the education system, and he's not afraid to speak truth to leaders in his own union who are obstructing progress on this issue. But his leadership in Denver and arguments for Pro-Comp are also an important counter to conservative rhetoric that blames teachers unions for all the woes besetting public education. Pro-Comp doesn't go as far as some would like, and much farther than others want, but it would not have gone anywhere without a visionary like Brad Jupp to help lead the effort.  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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