MCPS superintendent: Have we really learned lessons of No Child Left Behind?

Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has posted the following article on her blog, The Answer Sheet, by Dr. Joshua Starr, the new Superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Joshua P. Starr

As a school superintendent, I’m glad to see that President Barack Obama has launched a national conversation about dismantling No Child Left Behind. However, I’m concerned about what may take its place and whether a new law will be what our education system and our country need to improve.

The problems with NCLB have been discussed at great length, but we must absorb the lessons learned from the last 10 years or risk repeating the same mistakes.

NCLB rightly forced us, as a society, to own up to the fact that certain children have been systematically shortchanged by public education. History has proven that, without meaningful oversight, states and local districts will not always do what is necessary to ensure that all children have access to a high-quality education. Any new law must remain committed to providing that oversight.

NCLB also forced educators to use data —but it was the wrong data. Using a standardized test as the only indicator of success is short-sighted, and continuing to build flawed policies around the overuse of a test score will simply lead to more failure.

However, perhaps in response to NCLB, I have seen educators develop wonderful ways of looking at meaningful data. Teachers and administrators are collaborating to track student progress using student work and common assessments given throughout the year. They are critiquing their own lessons and watching video of their teaching to improve. These are successful practices that should be encouraged and replicated. Data should start a conversation, not end it.

Third, NCLB has allowed us to see the difference between being held accountable and being accountable. NCLB is rooted in the idea that if educators are held accountable and shamed publicly, they will miraculously develop the knowledge and skills to improve. As we now know, this is folly. But being accountable is what happens on great teams, when everyone feels responsible for the collective success. This happens in schools and districts when the focus is on student and adult learning; when teachers have time to collaborate; when administrators supervise and evaluate for the purposes of improving and developing; and when superintendents and school boards recognize that we have to provide resources and time for people to learn new skills that will help our children.

With these lessons in mind, I suggest that any new national education law be based on what students need to know and be able to do in the 21st century to be college and career ready.

There is widespread agreement that students need not only good technical skills but should be able to think critically, problem solve, work in teams, speak another language and write well. These skills can be embedded in and integrated among all curriculum areas. For example, rather than focus solely on Algebra II as a graduation requirement, schools should ensure that students obtain the conceptual and abstract knowledge and problem-solving skills that Algebra II promotes.

In order for our educators to be successful, we need to invest in them, support them and then trust that they will do right by our children. Ineffective educators must be given appropriate counseling by peers and experts and, then, be removed from schools and classrooms if they don’t improve. The Professional Growth System in Montgomery County does this with incredible success. Systems of support require collaboration with labor organizations and recognition by elected officials that our educators need to be treated as professionals and paid accordingly.

We also must make sure our students have the social and emotional skills they need to be successful. I want Montgomery County students — including my own children — to be good people and good students. They must have the self-confidence necessary to explore and experiment, to embrace success and deal with the occasional failure. These skills are as important to their future as any of the “three R’s.”

The last decade has taught us what not to do when trying to improve outcomes for our children. We now have a choice. Do we focus on what actually works to improve public education and invest in our people, or do we continue to fall prey to the facile notions of accountability and school improvement that simply don’t work?

Moving Beyond 'Blame the Teacher'

Following up on yesterday's post about who gets to do reform, here is an interesting op-ed piece by Saul Rubinstein and Charles Heckscher. The article draws comparisons to American manufacturers in the 1970's and how they dealt with increased competition from overseas. They make the point that reform needs to collaborative and not imposed upon those involved:

"As school begins, we would do well to remember Deming's lesson: In education as in industry, progress toward quality will require collaboration among administrators, teachers and their unions."

Read the entire piece from the Los Angeles Times 

Who Gets To Do Reform?

Author Steven Brill's new book about education "reform" Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools is out and has created a buzz in ed policy circles. Brill's book takes a look at the companies, policy makers, charter schools and hedge fund millionaires who are driving corporate "education reform." The book also shows the connections between those groups and like minded Democrats and President Obama.

The question that these type of writings always elicits is who gets to "do" reform? There seems to be a consensus that those in education who oppose a particular kind of reform are against improving education all together. We know that's not true. All stakeholders, including teachers and our unions need to be a vital part of it. Wealth and clout do not make you the expert.

Diane Ravitch reviews the new book in the New York Review of Books and the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss has an interesting take on it as well.

If A Policy Fails, Should We Do More Of It?

There has been  a lot of talk about the waiver program for the No Child Left Behind law's unreachable goals, that was unveiled last week. MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr recently said: "No Child Left Behind has outlived its usefulness. We need to start looking at 21st-century skills, and we need to be more innovative."

Richard Rothstein writes on his blog about winning, but really losing, a four year old bet with Diane Ravitch about the long term implications of NCLB and his and Ms. Ravitch's thoughts on how the federal government would deal with them. 

The questions remains, will this waiver program be something that empowers locals school systems to continue to improve education or will it simply add to the pile of test and other accountability measures?

No Test Left Behind

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that  President Obama released the details of the waiver program for the states who are trying to avoid the penalties that come with schools not making impossible goals with their AYP (adequate yearly progress) as required by the No Child Left Behind law. 

The problem is, it still looks a lot like the No Child Left Behind law. The program continues to require high levels of standardized testing and creates school accountability measures that are dependent on those scores. Monty Neil of Fair Test, writes about the issues of testing here.  

It also creates more unfunded mandates for school systems as this may also be a way to have states adopt the cornerstone pieces of Race to the Top program, such as creating standardized tests for courses that don't have already have them and revamping teacher evaluation systems. These new systems could require that as much as 50% of a teacher's evaluation be linked to "student growth" with the details being left to the states to determine. This could certainly be financial burden for those states who were not successful in winning funds during the Race to the Top grant process last year. 

Maryland's State Board of Education president has already stated that Maryland will apply for a waiver, as will Virginia. The District is investigating the possibility of applying as well.

Questions still surround the new plan. The most pressing one is whether or not the Department of Education has the authority to enact this plan. Congress will eventually take up re-authorization of NCLB and who knows what impact that will have on the waiver process and how states will continue to try to reform education. One could expect that this will make education a pressing issue during the 2012 presidential election. 

Will We Leave NCLB Behind?

With scores of high performing schools around the country closing in on failing to meet the standards set by the federal "No Child Left Behind" law, many wonder what will become of it. The President and Secretary of Education have a plan to allow for waivers that will be conditionally granted. The question is, what will those exact conditions be? More of what was put upon states with the Race to the Top program, or something else altogether?
You can read more about it in this week's stories in the Washington Post (here) and the New York Times (here). 

Maryland's Budget Outlook Improving

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot released data today showing better than expected revenues for the most recent fiscal year, and a more favorable forecast for the coming year.

State revenues for the fiscal year that ended 8/31/11 exceeded the budgetted amount by more than $314 million. For the current year (FY12) the Comptroller is adjusting the revenue forecasts up by an additional $195 million above that anticipated in the state's budget. Combined, that provides the state with $509 million more in revenue than anticipated.

This is encouraging news that the economy is improving in Maryland,. This should significantly lessen the pressure on the state to cut education funding - or attempt to shift the responsibility for pension funding onto local counties. This is also an encouraging sign that Montgomery County's local revenues should be improving as well.

You can read the full text of the Comptroller's Report to the Governor and see the revised revenue estimates.

If we teach to the test, does it matter if test scores rise?

Interesting piece on why standardized tests are not necessarily the best measures of what our students learned in class.

Yes, there are stupid questions

By Alfie Kohn

It can’t be repeated often enough: Standardized tests are very poor measures of the intellectual capabilities that matter most, and that’s true because of how they’re designed, not just because of how they’re used. Read the rest of the story here.

THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT: IMPACT FOR MARYLAND

President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act would have significant impact on employment in Maryland, including $315 million to reverse and avoid lay-offs for teachers and first responders and earmarks $315 million for investments in infrastructure of Maryland’s schools. Reprinted below is an explanation of the details.
You can also watch President Obama discuss the American Jobs Act.

THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT: IMPACT FOR MARYLAND

The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.

To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit. The American Jobs Act has five components:

1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
• The President’s plan will cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level. In Maryland, 110,000 firms will receive a payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.

2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
• The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the President’s plan will make immediate investments of at least $625,500,000 in Maryland that could support a minimum of approximately 8,100 local jobs.
• The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will provide $541,700,000 in funds to Maryland to support up to 6,000 educator and first responder jobs.
• The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Maryland will receive $315,800,000 in funding to support as many as 4,100 jobs.
• The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Maryland could receive about $20,000,000 to revitalize and refurbish local communities, in addition to funds that would be available through a competitive application.
• The President’s plan proposes $5 billion of investments for facilities modernization needs at community colleges. Investment in modernizing community colleges fills a key resource gap, and ensures these local, bedrock education institutions have the facilities and equipment to address current workforce demands in today’s highly technical and growing fields. Maryland could receive $93,900,000 in funding in the next fiscal year for its community colleges.

3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
• Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the workplace. This could help put the 90,000 long-term unemployed workers in Maryland back to work.
• Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 17,600 people looking for work in Maryland from losing their benefits in just the first 6 weeks. And, across the country, the number saved from losing benefits would triple by the end of the year.
• The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. Pathways Back to Work could place 1,700 adults and 8,300 youths in jobs in Maryland.

4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family
• The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in Maryland, with a median income of around $64,000, will receive a tax cut of around $1,980.

5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.
• To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.

American Schools in Crisis: by Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch, former Undersecretary of Education during the administration of George Bush, has authored yet another well written explanation of the current political debate over public education in America. The article was published in the Saturday Evening Post.
==================================================
"If you read the news magazines or watch TV, you might get the impression that American education is deep in a crisis of historic proportions. The media tell you that other nations have higher test scores than ours and that they are shooting past us in the race for global competitiveness. The pundits say it’s because our public schools are overrun with incompetent, lazy teachers who can’t be fired and have a soft job for life.

Don’t believe it. It’s not true....."

to read the full article, go to http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/08/16/archives/post-perspective/american-schools-crisis.html

NEA Letter to the President on Labor Day

September 5, 2011

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I deeply appreciate your steadfast support for public education and America’s students.  We share the belief that knowledge is the single most valuable commodity in today’s global economy.  Public education is not only the vehicle for individuals’ success, it is the engine of American innovation.  Educators across this country hold the cradle of America’s ingenuity and resilient, hopeful spirit in their hands.  In our public schools every day, students are taught that good ideas combined with hard work can create the next new invention, market, or treasure.  On this Labor Day, I write not only to honor the educators who have gone back to school this year to instill that American spirit and work ethic, but I also write to honor all those who have been laid off and are no longer able to fulfill their calling to help our nation’s students.

I have heard the voices of educators across this country who, in the face of budget cuts and pink slips, worry first about their students.  As I know you are aware, one out of every five children lives in poverty and millions more are living with the uncertainty and instability of parents who are unemployed.  Educators see the impact of the economy on the worried faces their students.  They see it in the growing numbers of children who need support from counselors and other educators, yet cuts in school budgets are shrinking our students’ access to the very professionals who can provide a sense of stability and normalcy as our country weathers this economic storm.  Educators see the impact of cuts through the elimination of classes designed to create well-rounded students who can thrive in a 21^st century globally interdependent world.  They see the impact of cuts to afterschool programs, the increase in the number of hungry children, and in ballooning class sizes.  They even see the impact in the growing list of supplies that educators and parents together must provide to students and schools with their own money.

I, along with the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association, look forward to hearing your address to Congress this week.  We understand that these are challenging times and that no lawmaker or American can possibly expect one proposal or one piece of legislation to remedy all that ails the American economy.  I hope, however, that what guides your leadership continues to be a firm belief that investment in our nation’s human capital—the American middle class—is the surest path to economic recovery.  Educators are smart enough to learn lessons from history, and history has shown time and again that federal investments in infrastructure and other middle class job-creating initiatives is the fastest way to not only put Americans back to work, but to improve the country overall.  We urge you not to countenance the false rhetoric of ideologues who proclaim Wall Street, mega corporations, and billionaires as “job creators” who need continued special treatment under the tax code.  The notion that a government that invests in its people is somehow irresponsible at a time when the wealthiest continue to make record profits, enjoy tax breaks for luxury items, and ship American jobs overseas is beyond offensive to average Americans.  The bottom line for this nation—as with any nation in the world—is that when the middle class thrives, so does the nation’s economy.  Our communities become stronger.   Students’ dreams become more attainable. 

When you address Congress and the nation later this week, I specifically hope that you will emphasize: 

·        Putting Americans to work modernizing schools.  On average, the buildings that house our public schools are more than 40 years old and require an estimated $500 billion in repairs and upgrades. An initial $50 billion school renovation program would employ 500,000 workers — a third of the 1.5 million construction workers now unemployed — and could easily be scaled up. Construction and building repair generally create 9,000-10,000 jobs per billion dollars spent. Eliminating just half the backlog in repairs and improvements would, over a period of years, create more than 2 million jobs.

·        Providing direct aid to local governments.  Federal support for public education is an investment in our nation’s future — in equipping America’s workforce to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century. When educators lose their jobs, students lose too. When students returned to school this fall, fewer dedicated professionals were there to greet and care for them — fewer teachers, teachers’ aides, librarians, bus drivers, food service workers, counselors, and nurses.  These dollars will also help ensure that communities are not placed at risk by cuts to other critical services, such as public safety and healthcare.  Many Americans do not realize that forty percent of all education funding is derived from local property taxes.  Given the avarice associated with the mortgage industry over the last 10 to 15 years—in the form of predatory lending practices and unchecked Wall Street speculation in this sector—local communities and their school systems have borne the brunt of a housing crisis they didn’t create.  As a result, we need to ensure that federal dollars make their way to the people in greatest need, that those dollars are not diverted to other purposes or used to meet general budget shortfalls.

·        Urging the Super Committee to develop a balanced approach to deficit reduction by including revenue-raising proposals and protecting programs for the most vulnerable.  The need to preserve and strengthen programs like Social Security and Medicare is evident, but the moral imperative to ensure that Medicaid, low income programs, Pell grants, and essential education formula funding like Title I and IDEA remain unharmed is a notion that I truly hope is unchallenged.  The country’s long term prosperity cannot sustain a continued growth in the gap between the wealthy and middle- and lower-income American families.  Those who are struggling on Main Street should not become a bargaining chip in the country’s fiscal debate – they should be our highest priority.

Our nation’s educators stand ready to work with you to restore confidence in government and revive the American dream — to strengthen our children’s belief that the United States is a nation where a child can dream of greatness, prepare themselves in our public schools, and see their dreams come true.  On this Labor Day, I join with educators across America in wishing you well and pledging our support to work with you to place the American dream within greater reach for every American.

Sincerely,

Dennis Van Roekel

President

National Education Association

Maryland Residents Stayed After Tax Increase: Common myth is busted

The challenges we face in ensuring adequate funding for public education are intimately related to public policy on taxation. More and more people are discussing the pros and cons of a millionaires tax: to increase the progressivity of Maryland's income tax. Currently, virtually all tax payers pay the same income tax rate.

A recent noteworthy posting from the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute highlighted a new report that analyzed the impact of income tax increases on high income earners. Many opponents of a millionaires tax in Maryland argue that it will drive high income earners out of the state. But the facts don't bear that out.  This new study, conducted by the reputable national Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that "The effects of tax increases on migration are, at most, small — so small that states that raise income taxes on the most affluent households can be assured of a substantial net gain in revenue."

The study included a specific examination of data on the recent increase in Maryland's top income tax rates, and found little evidence that it caused "flight" by high income earners. The posting from the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute is reprinted below:

========================================================================

Raising state taxes on the rich does not cause them to leave and results in substantial new revenue, according to a new report that examined the experiences of Maryland and other states following tax increases for earnings at very high income levels. The report busts a common myth advanced by opponents of Maryland’s 2008 tax increase, which raised much-needed resources to support vital services.

Opponents of Maryland’s 2008 tax increase on income over $1 million point to the sharp decline that year in the number of filers with taxable incomes exceeding that amount as evidence that wealthy residents were fleeing the state. But the report’s examination of actual tax return data shows that the vast majority of this decline occurred not because people moved out of the state, but because their incomes fell below the $1 million mark due to the recession and stock market crash; they remained on the tax rolls, but in a lower tax bracket.

Attacks on sorely-needed increases in state tax revenues often include the unproven claim that tax hikes will drive large numbers of households — particularly the most affluent — to other states.

This claim is false. The effects of taxes on migration are, at most, small — so small that states that raise income taxes on the wealthiest households will see a substantial net gain in revenue.

Cheaper housing, the availability of jobs and a variety of other factors influence Americans to move from state to state, but tax levels rarely factor into such decisions.

The report cites numerous other examples of research debunking the migration myth and, through case studies, shows how misinformation about the impact of taxes on migration can influence policymakers and the media. Those who support the migration myth often wrongly assume a cause and effect relationship, promote irrelevant findings, and inaccurately measure migration, the report found.

Specifically, the report illustrates that housing costs may have a significantly larger impact on Americans’ finances than tax levels.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan, nonprofit policy research organization published the report. View the full report.