Thursday, September 30, 2010

Removing Superman's Cape



The Real Facts About Waiting for Superman, prepared by Mass. Citizens for Public
Schools and FairTest - available as a flyer in pdf and in text below so you can adapt
it for your own use.

The Real Facts About Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman may be good melodrama, but the movie fails the test of accuracy, and its purported solutions will not improve education.

We agree: Too many young people, mostly low-income, do not graduate from high school or get a strong education. The questions are why, and what can be done about it. Waiting for Superman and its unprecedented hype risk leading us dangerously astray from real solutions to real problems by making a number of misleading or factually incorrect claims in a number of important areas:

Public school quality: The most recent Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll found that 77% of Americans would give the public school their oldest child attends an A or a B. Does this suggest our public schools are failing across the board, as WFS says? In international comparisons, most of our middle class schools do well. Under resourced schools that serve low-income kids who are disproportionately African American, Latino, or recent immigrants, do far less well. However, they face challenges that schools, alone, can never address adequately.  Improving schools is part of the solution - but the changes must help all children obtain a high-quality education.

Poverty:
Poverty matters a lot – and the movie shows that it does, even while trying to tell us it does not. The Harlem Children’s Zone spends heavily to provide services to needy children and their families, services the government does not provide. Two-thirds of HCZ funding is private, not public – making it like a well-funded private school. Who will pay for these services for all the children who need them?

Unions: States with the most unionized teachers do better than states with weaker or fewer unions, and countries with strong educational systems mostly have strong teacher unions. WSF’s demonization of unions ignores the real evidence.

Tenure:
Tenure says you cannot be fired without due process and a good reason: you can’t be fired because the boss wants to hire his cousin, or because you are gay (or black or…), or because you take an unpopular position on a public issue outside of school. A recent survey found that most principals agreed they could fire if they needed to. While WSF may have its own opinions on the value of tenure, it may not have its own facts.

Charter schools: Charter schools get public money but are run by private groups, which means there is less public oversight. The most extensive national study found that 46% of charters did about the same as regular public schools, 37% did worse, and only 17% did better. Meanwhile, charters routinely accept fewer students with disabilities and fewer English language learners. Since charters only serve 4% of the nation’s K-12 students, they represent a distraction and a drain from the focused work needed to renew quality schools for all children. They are not a solution.

Using standardized tests like MCAS to evaluate teachers: The National Research Council and many other researchers say that evaluating teachers based on student test scores is inaccurate and unfair. Several reports found that some 20-25% of teachers in the bottom groups one year are in the top groups the next - and vice versa. This is because many more things affect student learning or teacher's rankings than just the teacher's own efforts.

Using standardized tests to tell us if schools are successful: Most test score differences are not due to what schools do, but to the kids’ ZIP codes. As opportunity, health and family wealth increase, so do test scores. When schools focus on boosting scores on tests like MCAS, they ignore important subject areas and teach to the test, leaving children less prepared for the future. We need a lot more than test scores to know if schools are doing well and to help schools improve.

How students learn: Most people know what science confirmed years ago: learning is an active process. Pouring disconnected information into kids’ heads, as the movie shows, has no lasting value, and it does not educate students for citizenship, college, lifelong learning or employment. Why didn’t the movie show us what excellent teaching looks like?

Competition: There is no evidence for the claim that competition will improve education. Teachers competing against each other will endanger cooperation among teachers and reduce their ability to help children most in need.

Since No Child Left Behind, the rate of school improvement has declined!  This film pushes for another generation of failed reforms.

Don’t wait for Superman. Take the time to inform yourself, to find out the real stories from teachers, parents and principals.  Get the real facts on which to base your opinion, and consider how you can make a difference by doing what is right and good for children, not what “Superman” tells you to do.
Citizens for Public Schools and FairTest

For more information and genuine ways to improve schools, see http://www.citizensforpublicschools.org and http://www.fairtest.org.
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The Latest from the Standup Economist

Economic Education Video Competition

Sponsored by the St. Louis Fed.  For college students.

Senator Harkin, Luke Swarthout, I love you both

Senator Harkin is becoming my hero, and so is Luke Swarthout. Right now, Harkin said this about the for profits. Here's how he sees it (I am ripping this nice diagram from a Tweet sent out by @EducationSector): "The industry money trail according to Harkin: Taxpayers --> Poor Students --> For-Profit Colleges --> Shareholders.

Yup. That sums it up. Thanks, Sen. Harkin and Luke!

Thank you to our sponsors!

Thank to our many sponsors for supporting Holocaust education!

Economics at Yahoo!

I've blogged before about Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, and how his role in the organisation has been central to Google's business model. I have also mentioned pioneering work at Yahoo! Research on the effectiveness of online advertising, the battle between Google, Yahoo! and Bing in the economics of internet search, and the statement by Yahoo! Research that they routinely compete for talent with the top ten economics departments in the world.

However, it has only now come to my attention that Varian has a counterpart at Yahoo! The economist in question is Preston McAfee, on leave from the position of J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business, Economics, and Management at the California Institute of Technology. At Yahoo!, Professor McAfee is Vice President and Research Fellow at Yahoo! Research in Burbank, CA, where he leads a group focused on microeconomics research. Here is a list of recent publications from the Microeconomics and Social Systems cluster at Yahoo!

Professor McAfee wrote Introduction to Economic Analysis, a free, open-source text that spans both principles and intermediate microeconomics. In 1994, the FCC in the USA auctioned access to a number of radio frequencies for new communications services, using an auction designed by Paul Milgrom, Robert B. Wilson, and Professor McAfee, and raised over $17 billion. This auction design was copied around the world. McAfee, Milgrom, Wilson and John McMillan (1951-2007) formed a company, Market Design, Inc., that advises governments on how to maximize the return from sales of radio frequencies, mineral rights, airports, and other assets.

Returning to Yahoo!, The Register magazine describe the company's Right Media exchange — a display advertising marketplace that matches advertisers with publishers and ad networks — as (by one measure) the largest exchange in the world, running over nine billion auctions each day. Finally, the Yahoo! Advertising Blog is also an interesting read; the current post - Mad Men No More - features a discussion by "advertising’s new guard" on how they are re-defining the industry.

Why the school grading system, and Joel Klein, still deserve a big "F"

Amidst all the hype and furor of the release of today’s NYC school "progress reports", everyone should remember how the grades are not to be trusted. By their inherent design, the grades are statistically invalid, and the DOE must be fully aware of this fact. Why?

See this Daily News oped I wrote in 2007, in which all the criticisms still hold true, “Why parents and teachers should reject the new grades”.
In part, this is because 85% of each school’s grade depends on one year’s test scores alone – which according to experts, is highly unreliable. Researchers have found that 32 to 80% of the annual fluctuations in a typical school’s scores are random or due to one time factors alone, unrelated to the amount of learning taking place. Thus, given the formula used by the Department of Education, a school’s grade may be based more on chance than anything else.
(source: Thomas Kane, Douglas O. Staiger, “The Promise and Pitfalls of Using Imprecise School Accountability Measures, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Autumn, 2002.)

Now Jim Liebman admitted this fact, that one year’s test score data was inherently unreliable, in testimony to the City Council, and to numerous parent groups, including to CEC D2, as recounted on p. 121 of Beth Fertig’s book, Why can’t U teach me 2 read.” In responding to Michael Markowitz’s observations that the grading system was designed to provide essentially random results, he admitted:

“There’s a lot I actually agree with, he said in a concession to his opponent…He then proceeded to explain how the system would eventually include three years’ worth of data on every school so the risk of big fluctuations from one year to the next wouldn’t be such a problem.”

Nevertheless, the DOE and Liebman have refused to comply with this promise, which reveals a basic intellectual dishonesty. This is what Suransky emailed me about the issue, a couple of weeks ago, when I asked him about it before our NY Law school “debate.”

“We use one year of data because it is critical to focus schools’ attention on making progress with their students every year. While we have made gains as a system over the last 9 years, we still have a long way to reach our goal of ensuring that all students who come out of a New York City school are prepared for post-secondary opportunities. Measuring multiple years’ results on the Progress Report could allow some schools to “ride the coattails” of prior years’ success or unduly punish schools that rebound quickly from a difficult year.”

Of course, this is nonsense. No educators would “coast” on a prior year’s “success”, but they would be far more confident in a system that didn’t give them an inherently inaccurate rating.

Given the fact that that school grades bounce up and down each year, most teachers, administrators and even parents have long figured out how they should be discounted, and justifiably believe that any administration that would punish or reward a school based on such invalid measures is not to be trusted.

That DOE has changed the school grading formula in other ways every year for the last three years also doesn’t give one any confidence….though they refuse to change the most fundamental flaw. Yet another major problem is while the teacher data reports take class size into account as a significant limiting factor in how much schools can get student test scores to improve, the progress reports do not.

There are lots more problems with the school grading system, including the fact that they are primarily based upon state exams that we know are themselves completely unreliable. As MIT professor Doug Ariely recently wrote about the damaging nature of value-added teacher pay, because of the way they are based on highly unreliable measurements:

…What if, after you finished kicking [a ball] somebody comes and moves the ball either 20 feet right or 20 feet left? How good would you be under those conditions? It turns out you would be terrible. Because human beings can learn very well in deterministic systems, but in a probabilistic system—what we call a stochastic system, with some random error—people very quickly become very bad at it.

So now imagine a schoolteacher. A schoolteacher is doing what [he or she] thinks is best for the class, who then gets feedback. Feedback, for example, from a standardized test. How much random error is in the feedback of the teacher? How much is somebody moving the ball right and left? A ton. Teachers actually control a very small part of the variance. Parents control some of it. Neighborhoods control some of it. What people decide to put on the test controls some of it. And the weather, and whether a kid is sick, and lots of other things determine the final score.

So when we create these score-based systems, we not only tend to focus teachers on a very small subset of [what we want schools to accomplish], but we also reward them largely on things that are outside of their control. And that's a very, very bad system.”

Indeed. The invalid nature of the school grades are just one more indication of the fundamentally dishonest nature of the Bloomberg/Klein administration, and yet another reason for the cynicism, frustration and justifiable anger of teachers and parents.

Also be sure to check out this Aaron Pallas classic: Could a Monkey Do a Better Job of Predicting Which Schools Show Student Progress in English Skills than the New York City Department of Education?

Senator Burr's comment about students' choice is a joke

Senator Burr recently claimed that he's worried about which colleges will receive federal student loans. He contends it will limit the student's 'choices,' and noted that it would hurt military members. Are you friggin' kidding me? I mean, I am trying not to have a HEART ATTACK over this bullshit. Yes, I said bullshit. Senator Burr, you are FULL OF BULLSHIT. How much money have you received from the for profits, sir? Tell us.

I mean, is this the Twilight Zone?

Building a Man Cave: A Tale of a Forty Six Inch Tub of Hummus

I'm a trial and error guy. Sort of a throw it up against a wall and see what sticks attitude. And that was often the way I taught - which I think may be a bit taboo today since T&E takes a lot of time. When faced with a problem - a math problem, fixing something or a social situation, I often just try something and see if it works, most often a disaster in the latter situation.
I often applied T&E in teaching - which made me an awesome teacher at times and  awful teacher at others. Probably not the best way to bring stability to a classroom, but it certainly kept the kids on their toes - and somewhat engaged in a guessing game of "what's coming at us next?"

When it comes to home projects, living with someone who is the exact opposite - who needs all the answers before tackling a problem – can be a bit of a challenge. And therein lies a tale.

I was out in Cedarhurst yesterday getting a special pair of computer glasses made up by my pals at Central Vision Care - maybe I will no longer have to stagger around half blind - a serious problem when you are about to drive. On the way back I stopped off at Costco to buy gum and a tub of hummus.

I've been looking for a 42" set to put in my work area while writing and doing video - guaranteed to make me even less productive than I am. Also a room for my buddies and I to watch Jet games without being disturbed. My Man Cave. I convince my wife to go for the 42. She measures and measures to make sure it will not be too big. I mean she is exact. She finds an Ikea TV cabinet that will be just the right height for the TV- to the exact quarter inch. I'm rolling my eyes. Just get anything and I'll do T&E and figure out how to make it fit. No dice.

First, I had to get a new carpet - it is the only room in the house with a carpet because it is over the garage and gets pretty cold in the winter. This part of the project took over a year. But with the old carpet turning green - and not with envy - my wife finally made the move and we ordered from Costco - a nice lady came to the house and the arguments started breaking out with the first sample. She wants a deeper pile. Hmmm. A good idea - she couldn't see all the the broken taco chips that get buried. But, no, better to just fess up and vacuum every 6 months.

Then comes the color argument. She wants light. I want the carpet to be the color of salsa so you don't see the stains. I win this one when the carpet lady pulls out a nice shade my wife likes. So we wait weeks and finally this past Tuesday the carpet guys come and do the installation. (Three hours late of course, which almost makes me late for Leonie's Parents Across America press conference at NBC's Education Shmation.) Carpet looks fabulous. So next on the list is the TV.

I always take a run by the TV sets at Costco but never buy. I've been researching this LG 42LD550 with internet access. Cheapest price was at Amazon for $750. So I'm strolling down the aisle and there it is. For the same price. Quick decision. Wrestle it into the cart. Is there still room for the humus and gum (and the special jumbo franks for my dad-  almost 93 and eating freakin Hebrew National crap, God bless him)?

Okay. Go grab the other stuff I need - phone calls are coming in with new additions to the list. Do I need 2 carts?" Buy a white shirt for the wedding this Saturday," (sorry all you guys going to DC on Oct. 2. I am really partying.) "What size am I?" Okay, you ladies, I know what you are thinking. And you are right. "I'll go look and call you back," she says. I want to get that LG sucker home so I get shirts with 2 possible sizes and will return the one that doesn't fit. T&E baby.

I'm on the checkout line when I notice the TV box. "46LD550." 46 inches? For $750? I assumed at that price it was a 42 so I never looked carefully. What to do? Ahhh, buy it and take it back if it doesn't fit. T&E.

So, I wrestle the humus and TV upstairs. And the battle begins. Out comes the tape measure. "Go look up the dimensions. I measured exactly and it won't fit." Oh, boy. "Why don't we just set it up and see if it works?" T&E. Nooooo. Printing dimensions for the 42 and 46. It comes to maybe an inch difference in the height. "I'll raise the shelves," I scream! Okay. That gets settled.

Then it's off to Ikea to buy the stand. That's another story altogether.

How am I going to put this sucker together? Don't need no stinkin' directions. T&E baby. T&E.

Right now I am surrounded by cabinet parts all over the salsa colored carpet. I'd take a picture and show you but if you know me, there's plenty of time. It will look the same in a week.

Update: Sat. Oct. 2: It's hummus, stupid
I knew something was missing when I tasted the humus. It was an "m". But just eat the stuff, not look at labels.

Have these people gone crazy? Rallying for the for-profits? Are they being paid?

This rally put on by students who are supporting for-profits proves that the world is truly topsy-turvy, and not in some delightful way.

I have one word for this event: ludicrous. 

Hedge Fund Pair o Dice - Another Rap Inspired by Real Reformers

This just came in over the transom. Real Reformers: Get out those capes.
Inspired by the Real Reformers calling BS on all those slim shadies. As Tom Lehrer used to say, "Every revolution needs a folk song.... Ready, Aim, SING."

Best,
Schoolio
 _________

Hedge Fund Pair o Dice
-- Schoolio

As I walk through the city and my mind is bereft,
I take a look at my grades,
And mediocrity’s left.
'Cause I've been tested and messed with so long,
That even Obama thinks that my mind has gone.
And his homeboy Arne Duncan said we need a Katrina,

To overhaul the schools, or he’ll squeeze us like sardines, yo.

To the suits in the news we need nuthin’ but charters,

To them an inner city kid’s political barter.

They act like there ain’t nuthin’ to rampant co-location,

But damn if you’d see their Muffy in a bowl-shit situation.

Don’t gimme EIP’s -- how’s an IEP gonna fit, son?

Fool, I’m the kinda G that little homie’s wanna be like,

On my knees in the night,

Prayin’ for a “3” in the street light.



[Chorus]
They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.


Proficiency ain’t suffient, see?

Excellence be gettin’ hell away from me.

In my situation, a graduation proclamation,

No regents scholar, diploma and a buck can’t even buy a dollar.

Remedial classes just to fit in with the masses,

Credit recovery, where’s the class room that I didn’t see?

Where’s MY Campaign for Frickin’ Equity?

My mama brought the suit, and still there’s nothing left for me!

My passion is my destiny.

I know the truth, now which of you all fakers got the guts to say I’m free?

I scored a “2” yo, will I live to see a “4”?
I need recalibratin’, if I’ma raise my score.



Tell me why are some still blind to see,

Their only move -- blame the UFT.
- Show quoted text -


[Chorus]
They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.


Power in the money, money in the power,
Pay me for my test score! hour after hour.
Everybody's cramming, but half of them ain't booking.
It's going on in Tweed,
Where School Prog Reports are cooking.
They say I gotta learn,
Sent an intern here to teach me.
If they can't understand me, how can they reach me?
I guess they’re tryin,
But inside I’m dyin.
They blame it all on tenure,
But that’s Bloomberg manure!

[Chorus]
They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Playing with a hedge fund pair o dice.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.

They’re spreading edu-lies,

Living in a hedge fund paradise.


[Refrain – and Retain]
Tell me why are some still blind to see,

Their only move -- blame the UFT.

Tell me why are some still blind to see,

Their only move -- blame the UFT.


-- Schoolio

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Real Reformers Stood Up: Video of the Rap at the Waiting for Superman Gap

Here is a compilation of the performances Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up at the Loews Lincoln Square movie theater at the Waiting for Superman premiere on Sept. 24, 2010. It includes a brief section of the Real Reformers running into Michael Moore on the street (It was opening night at the NY Film Festival.) See press release below.





Press Release                                  
Date:  Wednesday, September 29, 2010   
Contact: Norm Scott: 917-992-3734

Parents and Teachers, the Real Reformers, Organize Response to “Waiting for Superman”

On Friday, September 24th, parents and teachers participated in a demonstration outside of the premier of “Waiting for Superman”.  The film, which has garnered significant publicity in recent days, has taken the lead in framing the conversation regarding education reform.  A grass roots group, The Real Reformers, reject this framework and offered an alternative voice to the conversation.

Explaining the impetus for Friday night’s actions and the development of a forthcoming grassroots documentary, Julie Cavanagh, a teacher in Red Hook, Brooklyn said, “We felt compelled to demonstrate a resistance to a film that can be described only as propaganda.  The film continues to propagate myths about the so-called crisis in education and further espouses false claims about supposed reforms and reformers that are garnering much of the media’s attention right now.  It is time for Real Reformers to stand up, and lead the conversation on what works in our public schools, and the policies needed to improve our public schools.  There are no easy answers.  Viewing charter schools as a silver bullet and blaming teachers, the vast majority of whom work tirelessly for students and families every day, is part of a larger movement to privatize public education.  We must be vigilant in protecting, while improving, true public education, the pillar of our democracy.”

Lisa Donlan, a public school parent and President of Community Education Council One added, “For too long now our children have been the pawns of powerful politicians and their handpicked bureaucrats who paint themselves as reformers while they reinforce the status quo, depriving our neediest children of the quality education that is their birthright. No man, not even Superman can alter the sad reality: the achievement gap persists, our schools and communities are segregated and less money is spent on students despite tripled budgets.  In the words of Frederick Douglass in 1857:  "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Outside of the Loews Lincoln Square movie theater, the Real Reformers stood up and presented their vision for real education reform.  The Grassroots Education Movement provided two pieces of literature including:  “The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman” which outlined information regarding misleading and factually inaccurate claims in the movie and “The Truth About Charter Schools”, a brochure that outlines “myths” and “truths” about charter schools.  The group also released the trailer for their upcoming documentary, “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”, which will be shown in New York City neighborhoods, and across the country, this fall.  The trailer for this film is posted at http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/.
Parents and Teachers also engaged in a flash mob performance of “Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up”.  (The video of this performance and the movie trailer can be found at (see the trailer at:  www.waitingforsupermantruth.org).

Various groups were represented at Friday night’s event.   Attendees expressed a myriad of objections to the film, while joining in a shared mission to expose the narrow lens with which Guggenheim tells his story. 

Mona Davids, President of the New York Charter Parents Association commented, “The so-called education reformers consisting of hedge fund millionaires and billionaires do not respect parents and the communities of color they serve.  Charters in NYC have been denying parents their civil rights by vehemently opposing PA/PTA's in charters.  NYCPA in it's one year of existence has brought about charter reform including charters serving special education and English Language Learners; PA/PTA's in every charter in NYC; audits by the state comptroller; public lotteries; monthly board meetings, stronger conflict of interests requirements and the ban of for-profit charter schools, to name a few.  These reforms should have been enacted 10 years ago.  It's hypocritical of the charter lobby and education reformers to say this is the civil rights issue of our time when they are refusing to comply with the revised charter law requiring PA/PTA's in charters and violating the civil rights of charter parents.  Apparently, their children attending private schools can have PA/PTA's but not the children of color attending publicly funded privately run charter schools.  Charter parents don't matter. Just the per pupil funding does!”

Sam Coleman, a teacher in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and member of Grassroots Education Movement and NYCORE, had another take, “The insinuation that teachers and teacher unions are to blame for what ails public education is insulting to teachers and distracts from the real issues. Talk to students who are getting police records for school hallway scuffles about what is stopping them from graduating and getting a job. Talk to high school students who are also parents and are forced to drop out because there is no childcare in their schools. Talk to immigrant students who cannot go to college because of their immigration status, or to queer youth who are bullied and pushed out of school. Ask any of them; their stories reveal the complexity of what ails our educational system. Let’s stop blaming teachers and teacher unions. Let’s give control of education to communities and educators. Let’s fund communities equitably and let the corporate lawyers hold bake sales to buy their shredders."

Visit:  www.waitingforsupermantruth.org for more information


Additional Contacts:
Lisa Donlan, Parent: 917-848-5873
Mona Davids, Parent: 917-340-8987
Sam Coleman, Teacher:  646-354-9362
Julie Cavanagh, Teacher: 917-836-6465

Links of Interest: 29th September

1. President Barack Obama chose Austan Goolsbee to succeed Christina Romer as the head of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. Here, the Wall Street Journal do a profile of Goolsbee.

2. The Guardian: a "nudge unit" set up by David Cameron in the Cabinet Office is working on how to use behavioural economics and market signals to persuade citizens to behave in a more socially integrated way.

3. The Daily Telegraph on Rory Sutherland's quiet behavioural economics revolution in the advertising industry.

4. Greatest Good: "a unique firm formed with the goal of applying rigorous, cutting-edge data analysis and economic methods to the most salient problems of business and philanthropy." Founding partners include Steven Levitt, Gary Becker, Daniel Kahneman and John List. Affiliates include David Laibson, Emily Oster, Steven Pinker and Richard Thaler.

5. The U.S. National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. They have a separate mandate to the Congressional Budget Office. "The Commission is charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run."

6. A fascinating read for any Ph.D. student in Economics, or Ph.D. economist: 'Market Structure in the Production of Economics Ph.D.s'. Frank A. Scott, Jr. and Jeffrey D. Anstine; Southern Economic Journal Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jul., 1997), pp. 307-320.

7. The (Irish) Department of Education and Skills Inventory of Data Sources: "This document contains a matrix of educational data sources which are available from the Department of Education and Science and the agencies under its aegis."

8. University Attendance Scanners: "Northern Arizona University has installed electronic devices that record student attendance in an effort to boost freshmen grades and lift lagging graduation rates. But some students say the monitoring makes them feel less independent." (Southern California Public Radio).

9. "The Production and Deployment of an On-line Video Learning Bank in a Skills Training Environment" - Gerald Cannon, Mary Kelly, Colette Lyng, Mary McGrath; AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol 1, No 1 (2009).

10. For economics undergraduates: the Irish Taxation Institute Fantasy Budget Competition. Who needs fantasy football?

Carrots and....the Holocaust?

Eating carrots will improve your vision. True or false?

False.

Carrots are a great source of vitamin A, and it’s true that severe A deficiency causes night-blindness. But there is no proof that eating extra vitamin A, in carrots or other forms, can help eyesight.

This myth has a great backstory, though: During World War II, the British Air Ministry didn’t want the Germans to know about their new radar system so they spread the rumor that the fighter pilots who shot down Nazi planes ate a lot of carrots. The Germans bought it...as did generations of parents.

Talk about propaganda!

You can read more about the story here:
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp.

Removing "Mental Retardation" from Federal statutes

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill (unanimously!) to strike the words "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" from many Federal statutes, replacing those terms with the words "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability." Read the full text of the bill here.

Within the context of special education laws, the bill will mean that wherever "mental retardation" is referred to (for example, when discussing eligibility categories), that term will be stricken and replaced with "intellectual disability." The same applies to section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The law is called "Rosa's law" and is named for a child with Down Syndrome from Maryland. You can read about Rosa's story, including the inspirational testimony of her brother Nick in a hearing before representatives of the Maryland General Assembly, in this press release from Senator Barbara Mikulski's office, or in ABC News' story about the law and the family that inspired it.

This is only one step, albeit an important one, among many that will be needed to stop the R word. Changing the designation in laws may not stop the use of the R word as a derogatory slang or insult, but it is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of societal awareness.

More on Education Indoctrination

We held a press conference yesterday at Rockefeller Center, in protest of the one-sided coverage of NBC's Education Nation, which has turned out to be an infomercial brought to you by the Billionaire boys club of Gates, Broad and Bloomberg. Here is some coverage from Gotham Schools, and the Epoch Times.

As made clear by this media extravaganza, a handful of wealthy men and their corporate-style, free-market views were allowed to completely dominate the media, as they already control much of the output of the education research organizations and think-tanks in DC, despite any evidence that their methods will improve our schools, all in the name of "innovation." They are wreaking destruction not only on our public education system, but waging a massive misinformation campaign, with even the National Academy of Sciences powerless before them.

Bloomberg was allowed to make a 15 minutes speech on MSNBC, uninterrupted, without a single reporter allowed to ask questions, in which he claimed great progress in our schools. At the same time, during Council hearings downtown, members of the public and local elected officials were lambasting his record, and pointing out that his claims of improvements were based on fraudulent and inflated state test scores.

And yet this highly damaging model of education reform that has utterly failed to improve our schools here in New York City is being held out as a model, and foisted on the nation as a whole, in the form of charter school expansion, wasteful teacher merit pay, and even more emphasis on high stakes testing, all of which which hurts our neediest students most of all.

In essence, NBC's entire media extravaganza should have been called Education Indoctrination, an opportunity for the corporate influences that are engineering their hostile takeover of our public schools to broadcast their distortions, without little or no fear of being contradicted. Here is our press release from yesterday, here is my Huffington Post column about it, and here is a letter of protest to NBC that you can sign.

There were a few bright spots; check out NYC teacher Brian Jones, who managed to infuse a few words of truth amidst the heated rhetoric of Geoffrey Canada, Randi Weingarten, Steven Brill, and Michelle Rhee. On the same panel, Allen Coulter, the head of the Gates Foundation education division, managed to spread more of the special Gates' brand of misinformation, such as claiming that there is no evidence of benefits from class size reduction after 3rd grade, which is simply false.

There are at least 15 studies showing correlations between smaller classes in the middle and upper grades and higher student achievement and lower dropout rates, no matter how much the Gates Foundation would like to deny this. Like their support of the anti-evolution organization, the Discovery Institute, Gates seems to have no respect for research and evidence. Instead, the foundation would rather waste millions on incentive pay tied to test scores, and other free-market "experiments" that have repeatedly been proven to be worthless.

See our press release from yesterday, my Huffington Post column, and then send a message to NBC, by signing our protest letter, with 400 signatures so far and growing fast.

Here are some excerpts from the press release, from outraged parents, teachers and citizens:


Natalie Beyer, a founding member of Parents Across America and a school board member in Durham, NC: “Strong public schools are our most fundamental public resource and the foundation of our democracy. In recent years, a few wealthy philanthropists have profoundly influenced education policies and programs. Parents Across America believe that our public schools and our children’s educations are not for sale. Across this nation, we elect citizens to serve on local Boards of Education, to insure local accountability, transparency and oversight of our public schools. As a public school parent and elected school board member, I am disappointed that NBC’s Education Nation has excluded the voices of parents and critics. Your relationship with your sponsors seems to have turned what could have been an important news event into an infomercial. As your program concludes and you dismantle your Learning Plaza, rest assured that those of us who work in public education will continue the important work of challenging students every day.”

Karran Harper Royal, New Orleans parent leader and member of the Community Education Coalition: “The entire premise of this show is very offensive. The rest of America does not need another Hurricane Katrina, and certainly doesn’t need the kind of education reform that we’ve had in New Orleans. Parents are largely left out of the decisions being made by the State of Louisiana, and the claims of success of our Public Schools are being greatly exaggerated. In a recent report, the Brookings Institute and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center admitted that "Statistically, academic growth has not been correlated with reforms." And despite Paul Vallas’ claims to the contrary on MSNBC’s panel discussion today, charter schools in New Orleans often push out students with disabilities or do not serve them well, and there have been many instances where such children have been turned away. We resent NBC using our tragedy to promote an agenda financed by big business, and that does not include the very people who use our public schools.”

Mona Davids, head of the NY Charter Parents Association, said: “Contrary to the claims made by NBC’s Education Nation, charter schools are not a magic bullet to improve our public school system. Too many of them have very high student and teacher attrition, exclude special education students, feature abusive disciplinary practices, and demonstrate disappointing levels of student achievement. What we need in this city and elsewhere is to learn from the practices of our best charter schools, and apply them to all public schools, including small class sizes, a supportive and welcoming environment for parents and teachers, and a well-rounded curriculum, featuring art, music science, all of which are being driven out of our public schools by Bloomberg and Klein, and the other so-called “experts” featured on these panels."

Lisa Donlan, NYC public school parent leader in lower Manhattan: “It is outrageous that NBC is allowing Joel Klein and our Mayor to portray our public schools as a model for reform, given the never-ending scandals, reorganizations and failed experiments that have damaged our kids over the last eight years. Charter schools, merit pay, competition among schools for students and resources, high stakes standardized tests as the basis for teacher bonuses, student promotions and school closings - -none of these things have worked in NYC, or anywhere else in the country for that matter. Bloomberg's experiments on our children have not improved teaching and learning, have not narrowed the achievement gap, have not increased equity of access to quality schools for most families, and any claims to the contrary are simply lies.”

Julie Woestehoff , Executive Director, Parents United for Responsible Education, in Chicago and founding member of Parents Across America: “Over the past few days, NBC, Oprah, "Waiting for Superman" promoters and other corporate-funded propagandists have waged war against public school parents and teachers, hoping to break their traditionally strong ties, to vilify, label, and destroy public schools, and to fool the nation into accepting a vision of education that consists of replacing open, democratically-run school systems designed to serve all children with a system of strip mall franchise schools where families are forced to "shop" for education and children are
served differently depending on how they score on standardized tests.

That's not the vision of education that will lift our nation or give our children a strong future. We reject NBC's corporate vision of education and instead support and dedicate ourselves to the rich, well-rounded, ennobling vision of education offered by true school reformers, beginning with John Dewey and embodied today by the millions of dedicated, hardworking teachers who are doing their best under ever-worsening circumstances. We choose to listen to our teachers first, and support their efforts rather than join corporate media's war against them."

Musical Elective of the Month: September-October 2010

The Musical Elective of the Month is Crowded House.

Those of you who know me well, you know that Crowded House is my all-time favorite band, going on almost 25 years dating back to my high school years. So you're probably asking, "What took you so long to feature them as a Musical Elective?" Well, patience isn't one of my virtues, but I do try to demonstrate it every once in a while. That said, I have featured founding member/lead singer/ songwriter Neil Finn as a solo Musical Elective as well as his son, Liam Finn, and Neil's 7 Worlds Collide collaboration with members of Wilco, Radiohead, Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall and other musical luminaries. So patience is overstated....

The Crowdies, as the band is affectionately known in Australia, just completed a tour of North America and are on their way to South Africa and Down Under. (Yours truly saw them in concert in Milwaukee on September 7.) Their new album, Intriguer, was released in July 2010. PopMatters offers a nice review, saying "Finn’s stability and contentment has informed the sound of Intriguer, a mature, thoughtful, and mostly mellow album.... It’s a great album in the classic mold, one that rewards you. It is fun to listen to, and though that fun is of the grown-up sort, it makes for one of the year’s best pop albums all the same."

As a bit of history, Neil Finn is one of the great, under-appreciated songsmiths of the last 30 years. A New Zealand native, as a teenager, he almost single-handedly lifted his older brother Tim's one-of-a-kind, art rock band Split Enz into New Wave prominence. Neil penned and sang the band's biggest #1 hit (in Canada, Australia and New Zealand), 1980's "I Got You."

Neil went on to form Crowded House in 1985 with drummer Paul Hester and bassist Nick Seymour, fashioning it into an internationally renowned band. The current line-up of Crowded House also includes Mark Hart, who joined the band prior to its 1994 album, and Matt Sherrod who replaced Hester as the band's drummer and had previously supported Beck. Crowded House reformed in 2006, coming together following the suicide of Paul Hester the year prior. The original group of tenants iteration broke their lease in 1996 in a Farewell To The World concert before a quarter million fans at the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Crowded House's eponymous debut album was released in 1986 and produced two top 10 U.S. hits, "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong." They never reached such heights again in the states, lost amidst the grunge and rap of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Crowded House's second album, Temple of Low Men, was a critical success in 1988 but a commercial disappointment, but includes such stellar tracks as "Into Temptation," "When You Come," and "Better Be Home Soon." Woodface, the third album, was released in 1991 and made the band certifiable stars in Europe. For this album, Tim Finn--Neil's older brother--joined the band as an official member and co-penned a number of the tracks. It includes the singles, "Fall At Your Feet," "Weather With You," "Four Seasons In One Day," and "It's Only Natural." Crowded House's fourth album, Together Alone, was released in 1994. It includes "Locked Out" (featured in the film Reality Bites) and the international hits "Distant Sun" and "Private Universe."

If you don't know Crowded House, by all means check them out. If you know them from years ago, give them fresh listen. YouTube (for links to live and TV appearances) and the official Crowded House web site are good starting places.
But you know what it means to me, babe
In the course of a history, hey
It all makes sense to me somehow
It’s a course in philosophy, yeah
What is life is it just a dream, no
The perfect mystery but somehow I know
You will love this one
You will love this one
And if we create something magical, honey
There are times come
These are times that come
Only once if your life
Or twice if you’re lucky

-- "Twice If You're Lucky," Intriguer (2010)
Click here for past Musical Electives




Naked Lecturing

In an article in yesterday's Irish Times, Ferdinand Von Prondzynski calls for lecturers to adopt "Naked Teaching". Don't get too excited, he means ditching powerpoint slides.

"The standard approach – 36 slides spelling out all the key points, with the presentation printed out for everyone in the room – increasingly represents bad practice, as it may actually inhibit the intellectual connection between the presenter, the topic and the audience, creating an automated process of very little value."

Diane Defends Detroit - Advice From Ravitch and Nancy Flanagan: Never Stop

Nancy Flanagan writes: 
I asked Ravitch how teachers can organize to preach our own experienced truth, if our unions have been rendered toothless and the media juggernaut has overwhelmed reason and research.

Oh--never stop, she said. Teachers need to build their own networks of social capital. Form and join groups. Read good books to arm yourself with information. (She recommended Richard Rothstein, Daniel Koretz and Linda Darling-Hammond.) [see http://www.amazon.com/Grading-Education-Getting-Accountability-Right/dp/0807749397/ref=pd_sim_b_2 ] Know that the struggle will last for a long time. Refer to other high-achieving nations as models--countries that have systemically designed their public schools and their teaching profession as long-term investments in civic excellence. It can be done. So don't give up.

 -----
[Flanagan closes with] In education policy, we are witnessing a power grab of epic proportion; the very folks we hoped would lead us toward equity and opportunity have decided that it's easier to rely on the market. Oh well. Never give up. Never give up.
So, yes. Follow Diane's and Nancy's advice. Don't give up. Blog. Join groups. We have choices here in NYC. Last night's GEM meeting was packed with a bunch of new teachers, mostly young, who we met through our action at the Superman opening. Will they stay? Let's hope so. Join them. GEM's next meeting is Oct. 26 and will focus on closing schools. 

And look for our new video of the rally coming out today on ed notes, gem and the inconvenient truth behind... blogs.

I posted Nancy's full piece at Norms Notes. Here is the original link:

From Teacher Magazine - Education Week's Blog, Teacher in a Strange Land, Saturday, September 25, 2010. See http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2010/09/diane_does_detroit.html



The Education Buzz

The latest edition of the Education Buzz, hosted by the blog Bellringers (like us, another Washington Post best for 2010), is now available. Bellringers is the brainchild of Carol Richtsmeier, a high school teacher and former Dallas Morning News reporter.

The next edition is posted on October 13th -- submissions due on October 9. So if you're an education blogger who wants to share your posts with a wider audience, consider submitting to the Education Buzz.

Good Stuff on Neuroanthropology

A lot of interesting and relevant links on neuroanthropology this week, including,

Christian Jarrett, Power Leads Us to Dehumanize Others

John Lehrer, How Much Should We Practice?
Practice 50% less by “combining periods of task performance with periods of additional stimulus exposure.”

Greg Hickok, More Problems for Mirror Neurons
It’s not all mirrors in the mind

Justin Smith, More on Non-Western Philosophy (the Very Idea)

Martin Robbins, Cocaine Detectors for Parents are a Terrible Idea

Christopher Furgeson, Attempt to Revive Video Game Law a Waste of Money
“Claiming that the research consistently links video games with violence is simply dishonest. My own research, published in peer-reviewed journals in pediatrics, psychology and criminal justice, has found no links between violent video game playing and violent behavior.”

Good Stuff on Neuroanthropology

A lot of interesting and relevant links on neuroanthropology this week, including,

Christian Jarrett, Power Leads Us to Dehumanize Others

John Lehrer, How Much Should We Practice?
Practice 50% less by “combining periods of task performance with periods of additional stimulus exposure.”

Greg Hickok, More Problems for Mirror Neurons
It’s not all mirrors in the mind

Justin Smith, More on Non-Western Philosophy (the Very Idea)

Martin Robbins, Cocaine Detectors for Parents are a Terrible Idea

Christopher Furgeson, Attempt to Revive Video Game Law a Waste of Money
“Claiming that the research consistently links video games with violence is simply dishonest. My own research, published in peer-reviewed journals in pediatrics, psychology and criminal justice, has found no links between violent video game playing and violent behavior.”

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

New NRC Rankings

The National Research Council has released updated rankings of PhD graduate programs.   You can find the ranking of economics departments here.

Call to Action on the Truancy Bill: Part 3

Truancy Bill Part 3: Sample Letter

Please read Part 1 and Part 2 for more information on this topic, including contact information and instructions for contacting the Governor's office.

Below is a sample letter for parents, advocates, etc to utilize in order to contact the Governor's office about this issue. You can (and should) personalize this letter prior to sending it.

INSERT YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION

INSERT THE GOVERNOR'S CONTACT INFO (See Part 2 of this series)

DATE

Re: SB 1317 / Please Veto

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

I am writing to request that you veto SB 1317, the truancy bill authored by Senator Leno. There are already serious penalties for parents who neglect their children, a concept which includes failure to ensure that the child is educated. Since this bill comes into play with a student who has missed 10% of the year to date, depending on the time of year, it could be applied based on a small number of absences. It is vague in defining parent fault: it applies to a parent "who has failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the pupil's school attendance." It does not set forth any exception for parents who are not currently encouraging school attendance for very good reasons. It could easily be interpreted to make absences that do not fall within the narrow excuse categories recognized by law, regardless of the reasons for those absences, a serious offense capable of wreaking financial havoc through large fines and separating families by jailing parents. Students miss school for many reasons, some obviously bad and some of which may represent the best choices in bad circumstances. Their out of school activities range from committing juvenile offenses to caring for sick siblings to watching TV to receiving intensive educational services for 30-40 hours per week at their parents' expense. This bill treats very different types of "truancy" the same. It could easily worsen the problems that lead to absences.
While the theory seems to be that prosecutors will use discretion wisely, it is not realistic to expect that they will be able to investigate reasons for truancy in each case, and this bill does not require them to. Alternatives to punishment are optional. Though the bill does not apply to home schoolers who intend to home school and provide appropriate paperwork from day one, it would greatly endanger parents forced into informal homeschooling by absence of appropriate special education services or by bullying midway through the school year. Districts in special education disputes would attempt to apply it to students who are in tutoring programs that are not certified as schools. This bill would empower administrators who refuse needed services or who dismiss complaints about bullying and harassment without adequate investigation. It would allow oppositional teenagers to create massive legal problems for their parents. It would terrify parents who have good faith, reasonable beliefs that their child needs to be removed temporarily from school until problems are discussed and addressed, and could frighten them out of taking steps which are necessary for their children's progress and even safety.
Please work this budget year on protecting school funding, and figuring out how parents and teachers can work together to do more with less. Please veto this measure which would instead pit schools and parents against each other.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

Call to Action on the Truancy Bill: Part 2

Truancy Bill Part 2: How to get involved and make yourself heard on this issue

Please read Call to Action on the Truancy Bill: Part 1 for information about why this bill would be unjust for parents of students with disabilities.

Contacting the Governor: For this "call to action," Parents, advocates, attorneys and others in the special education community are encouraged to send a letter (see sample in Part 3) by either email or fax, or call one of the office numbers below to provide your input.

1. Email: http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email

2. By fax or phone call to Governor's office in Sacramento:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
PHONE: 916-445-2841
FAX: 916-558-3160

3. By fax or phone call to District office across CA

Fresno Office
2550 Mariposa Mall #3013
Fresno, CA 93721
PHONE: 559-477-1804
FAX: 559-445-5328

Los Angeles Office
300 South Spring Street
Suite 16701
Los Angeles, CA 90013
PHONE: 213-897-0322
FAX: 213-897-0319

Riverside Office
3737 Main Street #201
Riverside, CA 92501
PHONE: 951-680-6860
FAX: 951-680-6863

San Diego Office
1350 Front Street
Suite 6054
San Diego, CA 92101
PHONE: 619-525-4641
FAX: 619-525-4640

San Francisco Office
455 Golden Gate Avenue
Suite 14000
San Francisco, CA 94102
PHONE: 415-703-2218

Part 3 of this posting will include a sample letter for your use, courtesy of the California Association of Parent Child Advocacy.

Call to Action on the Truancy Bill: Part 1

Truancy Bill Part 1: Why the call to action is necessary

Over the past couple of months here in California, Senator Leno's "Truancy Bill" has been a big topic in the world of public education. The bill's well-intentioned point is to "improve efforts to fight truancy," and as an effect of those efforts, hopefully do something to prevent kids from becoming juvenile delinquents. As noble as this sounds, and as much as we need to combat truancy issues in our schools, as written, the serious negative consequences for truancy (including jail time for parents or hefty fines) could be applied in circumstances involving students with disabilities in a harmful and unjust manner.

Take for example some of the following scenarios:

* Parents disagree with the school district's offer of placement and services because they believe that the child requires intensive 1:1 instruction or an ABA (applied behavioral analysis) based program. They remove their child from school for part or all of the school day, providing appropriate notice as required under special education laws, and place their child in a private program at their own expense. Case law recognizes the importance of allowing Parents the opportunity to fund private placements and services, and take the financial risk of seeking reimbursement for those programs, rather than requiring Parents to leave their child in a "potentially inappropriate" setting. This right would be virtually stripped if those Parents would face jail time as a penalty for invoking this process.

* Child with a disability has serious anxiety and depression, and refuses to go to school. Although not physically "sick" in a traditional sense, the child's health and well-being may be affected if he/she attends school with such extreme levels of anxiety, and Parents keep the child home until alternatives can be agreed upon or supports can be put into place. Parents will not be able to make these decisions about their child's welfare under this bill.

* Child with a disability has social/emotional and/or behavioral difficulties that include school refusal. Parents are doing everything they can to attempt to get the child to school or encourage school attendance, but school district officials don't believe they are doing enough. Those Parents may face the penalties called for under this bill.

* Child with a disability has been seriously harassed or bullied by other students because of his/her disability, and Parents have reported the bullying to school officials, who have done nothing in response to prevent the bullying from occurring. Parents do not feel the school is a safe environment because of the physical harm being caused to the child. These Parents would not be able to keep their child home until safety is ensured. Effectively, school personnel who "ignore" such reports of bullying would be empowered to do so.

These are hypotheticals based on scenarios that special education attorneys, advocates and parents see and experience on a regular basis. There is no language in the bill to provide an exception for such scenarios, and the language that is included is vague and easy to misinterpret, misapply, and even abuse. Most alarmingly, perhaps, is the lack of clarity as to what constitutes a "chronic" truancy problem giving rise to the penalties it imposes. Because these penalties are triggered by missing 10% of the school year to date, without further clarification, interpretation could lead to imposition of penalties for a very small number of dates depending on the time of the school year. (For example, 30 school days, or approximately 6 weeks, into the year, a child who had missed only 3 days would be considered chronically truant.)

The current state of this bill is that it has passed the state Senate and House, and is awaiting the Governor's action on it. Thus, this "call to action" is for Parents, advocates, etc in the special education community to contact Governor Schwarzenegger and request that he veto SB1317, the "truancy bill."

Parts 2 and 3 of this posting will include contact information and a sample letter.

Libertarianism and Paternalism

I am putting up some descriptions of discussions from the undergraduate lectures to facilitate wider discussion. The tension between libertarian and paternalist solutions to regulating the world is coming up more in the lectures on behavioural economics. Behavioural economics as applied to policy is viewed by some as a corrective to policies based on unrealistic assumptions about human behaviour and viewed by others as a threat to human liberty, potentially enabling extra government powers to be assumed on the basis of arguments about the fallibility of individual decision making.

Libertarianism is a very broad term encapsulating a wide range of schools of thought. I give some definitions in the course of the class but, by and large, I equate libertarianism with the belief that individual freedom is the core value that should underpin law and policy. Individuals must be free to pursue their own course of action, subject to them not harming others or infringing on their property rights. To the extent that people are concerned with distributional or other ethical issues, they should pursue action in the form of voluntary associational membership. Social problems, such as poverty, should be addressed by charitable groups rather than through tax-financed public action. When it comes to areas such as income insurance, pension provisions, health-care provision and related core services, these should be taken up voluntarily by individuals and provided by private companies. Thinkers such as Robert Nozick have made the point that enforcing redistributive policies and other form of reallocations engenders a form of slavery in that the government forcibly seizes the incomes of some in order to fund its projects.

Milton Friedman, as well as being one of the foremost economists of the 20th century, was also one of the staunchest political advocates for libertarianism. In this video clip, he responds to a question from Phil Donahue about whether he ever becomes disillusioned by the greed underlying capitalism. His response is a classic (downloaded now a million times on youtube). "The great achievements of civilisation have not come from government bureaus.....in the only cases in which the masses have escaped from grinding poverty...are where they have capitalism and largely free trade". Here he argues the libertarian case on why drugs should be legalised. Here he argues against government regulation in most (though not precisely all) areas of life. Friedman and similar thinkers argue that governments do not have the incentives or the information to improve our lives through centralised action. I would advise anyone starting to read Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. If you want a five minute cartoon version, it is available here.

Libertarianism and Rationality have many different links. One line that we have started to draw in the class is the equation of believe in rationality with the belief that governments should not intervene in people's individual decisions. There is some sense in this argument as most of the students in the class will already be aware of the efficiency properties of markets and that these properties depend on rational actors. Though, most libertarians would still argue against intervention even in the case of widespread evidence of irrational individual behavioural dispositions. Throughout the rest of the course, we will examine the idea of libertarian paternalism advocated by Thaler and Sunstein in a number of works over the last ten years.

I have only one real piece of advice to students encountering the debate between libertarians and those advocating more centralist solutions to economic problems and that it is to keep your mind open and consider the arguments coming from the different sides.

Bill Clinton channels Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

Bill Clinton, 9/21: "Do you know how many political and economic decisions are made in this world by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about?"

HT: Newmark's Door.

Real Reform on Front Page of NY Times - HUH?

Yes, kiddies, on the very front page of the NY Times we see some example of Real Reformers at work at the giant Brockton HS in Massachusettes. (4,100 Students Prove ‘Small Is Better’ Rule Wrong.)

It took real teachers without interference from administrators. Union teachers who followed the contract to a tee. And one of these teachers became the principal instead of the 30 day wonders who know nothing about education. And it has taken over a decade.
What makes Brockton High’s story surprising is that, with 4,100 students, it is an exception to what has become received wisdom in many educational circles — that small is almost always better.
That is why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last decade breaking down big schools into small academies (it has since switched strategies, focusing more on instruction).
The small-is-better orthodoxy remains powerful. A new movie, “Waiting for Superman,” for example, portrays five charter schools in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere — most with only a few hundred students — as the way forward for American schooling.
Brockton, by contrast, is the largest public school in Massachusetts, and one of the largest in the nation.
Ooooh! Is that a smash mouth directed at Bill and Melinda?
At education conferences, Dr. Szachowicz — who became Brockton’s principal in 2004 — still gets approached by small-school advocates who tell her they are skeptical that a 4,100-student school could offer a decent education.
“I tell them we’re a big school that works,“ said Dr. Szachowicz, whose booming voice makes her seem taller than 5-foot-6 as she walks the hallways, greeting students, walkie-talkie in hand.
She and other teachers took action in part because academic catastrophe seemed to be looming, Dr. Szachowicz and several of her colleagues said in interviews here. Massachusetts had instituted a new high school exit exam in 1993, and passing it would be required to graduate a decade later. Unless the school’s culture improved, some 750 seniors would be denied a diploma each year, starting in 2003.
 Wow! Teacher driven. And the teacher who led it became the principal.
Fear held some teachers back — fear of wasting time on what could be just another faddish reform, fear of a heavier workload — and committee members tried to help them surmount it.
“Let me help you,” was a response committee members said they often offered to reluctant colleagues who argued that some requests were too difficult.
Brockton never fired large numbers of teachers, in contrast with current federal policy, which encourages failing schools to consider replacing at least half of all teachers to reinvigorate instruction.
You mean they didn't fire the entire staff? What would Obama/Duncan say?
Teachers unions have resisted turnaround efforts at many schools. But at Brockton, the union never became a serious adversary, in part because most committee members were unionized teachers, and the committee scrupulously honored the union contract.
An example: the contract set aside two hours per month for teacher meetings, previously used to discuss mundane school business. The committee began dedicating those to teacher training, and made sure they never lasted a minute beyond the time allotted.
“Dr. Szachowicz takes the contract seriously, and we’ve worked together within its parameters,” said Tim Sullivan, who was president of the local teachers union through much of the last decade. 
Union rules strictly followed. My goodness.

So why not try a radical idea? See what students think:
..the school retained all varsity sports, as well as its several bands and choruses, extensive drama program and scores of student clubs.
Many students consider the school’s size — as big as many small colleges — and its diverse student body (mostly minority), to be points in its favor, rather than problems.
“You meet a new person every day,” said Johanne Alexandre, a senior whose mother is Haitian. “Somebody with a new story, a new culture. I have Pakistani friends, Brazilians, Haitians, Asians, Cape Verdeans. There are Africans, Guatemalans.
“There’s a couple of Americans, too!” Tercia Mota, a senior born in Brazil, offered. “But there aren’t cliques. Take a look at the lunch table.”
“You can’t say, those are the jocks, those are the preppy cheerleaders, those are the geeks,” Ms. Mota said. “Everything is blended, everybody’s friends with everyone.”
 So, let's sum up: unionized teachers, contract followed, experienced teacher in same school becomes school leader, takes a decade, teachers not fired but won over, large school with a full range of activities and services you can't find in small schools. And the kids seem to love it.

Now, here's my caveat. The article talks only about the narrow judgement through the lens of test scores and data. There's probably more to this story. I do believe it is possible to have an impact even when money remains the same. Due to the unique relationship between the teachers and the admin - one of them ended up leading the school - I believe it is absolutely crucial that teachers have a major role - along with parents - in choosing the school leader. As a matter of fact, though it is ignored in the article, it just may be the missing ingredient.

So, okay Bill Gates, let's funnel some of that cash for a true reform that would work- teachers and parents elect the principal.

The Harvard Nobel Prize Pool

is up and running.

Brian Jones Made Sure to Touch on Ruelas Suicide on Education Nation Forum

Boy I bet they are sorry they allowed the fox into the pen. Standing all alone (don't count Randi on his side), among all the other points, Brian Jones made sure to bring up the suicide of Rigoberto Ruelas toward the end of the forum on MSNBC's ed deform fest.
People have been asking for links but I can't find any. Since Brian's points dominated the discussion, they probably burned the tapes.

We will be at Rockefeller Plaza today at 4pm with Leonie Haimson, Mona Davids, Julie Cavanagh and others - Parents Across America, Class size matters - CAPE, GEM and NY Charter Parents Association - to let them know what we think about this sham. map here.
After Brian brought up the story, LA Teachers Union President AJ Duffy called out from the audience to confirm the story about a well respected teacher being so distraught over the embarrassment of having been publicly identified as a poor teacher. For most people it is hard to imagine but when a teacher goes so far beyond the call like Ruelas seems to have done, the devastation must have been intense. (See Brian's panel here: http://tiny.cc/wf4jh).


Sunday night I and a whole bunch of bloggers wrote about Rigoberto. You can find links in this post.

Blood on Their Hands

This morning GEM received this email from a colleague of Rigoberto:
Hello Fellow Educators,

I am a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School located in South Los Angeles. Recently, the elementary public school teachers of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have become the subject of a series of articles published by the LA Times which focus on the creation of a database that publicly ranks our performance as educators using a highly controversial evaluative method known as Value-Added Methodology (VAM). The pressure to increase test score output, along with the humiliation that came from receiving a widely disseminated poor review have seemingly resulted in the loss of one of our most beloved educators, Rigoberto Ruelas. This type of evaluation that is so highly regarded by proponents of "Race to the Top" brand of educational reform has caused irreparable damage and is being used as a weapon to destroy public school education. I ask for your help in spreading the word about what has happened to us and to stand in solidarity with us as we fight on behalf of our dear friend, Rigoberto Ruelas, and all educators and students across the nation who are being damaged by the policies of NCLB and the current administration.

Here's a link to an article about Mr. Ruelas:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/27/rigoberto-ruelas-lausd-te_n_740544.html

Peace and Justice,
Grace Marroquin
Also read this piece in the LA Times, which is trying to wash the blood off its hands.

Colbert on Immigration

Via Greg Mankiw, this is good. Includes the great line "Because my great-grandfather did not travel 4,000 miles of the Atlantic ocean to see this country overrun by immigrants. He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumour..I don't know if that is true...I'd like that stricken from the record".

You don't say? The President tells the Arizona Daily Wildcat that higher education needs to be affordable

Pres. Obama recently told the Arizona Daily Wildcat that higher education needs to be more affordable. Huh. Wow. You don't say? What about those of us, Mr. President, who are currently drowning in student loan debt? Did you know that we can't buy homes? Or perhaps you are aware that we can't have families? Are you also aware that we can't do a lot of productive things that would help the economy?

Here it goes again: What about us? I'm tired of asking, Mr. President. Very tired of asking. I don't suppose you'd get your VeePee to come out and yell at me and say, "stop yer whinin'!" God forbid, Mr. President. God forbid.