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Free iTunes Holiday Sampler
 Several years ago, one of our daughters gave my wife an Ion USB Turntable to help digitalize our record collection. The turntable sat unused until this week when I finally dug it out, read the directions, and got it going. The turntable comes with the free, open source audio software, Audacity, which together do a good job of recording albums at 45 RPM and then changing the speed to 33 1/3 RPM. I started with a great live album, Harry Chapin's Greatest Stories Live , that I found had no breaks between tracks. There's just applause with Harry introducing the next song, so splitting and importing the tracks into iTunes took a while. My second try with an easier studio album with conventional breaks between tracks, The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range . It was a snap to cut up and import into iTunes. My wife, Annie, got a good laugh when she walked by as I imported and played the first cut, On The Western Skyline . I'd forgotten to have Audacity change the speed from 45 to 33, so it sounded like the Chipmunks and the Range doing the song!
Performance Pay (Again) Nick Anderson writes in the Washington Post that "federal funding for performance pay in public schools would quadruple...under a bill moving through Congress that reflects the growing political momentum behind an education reform idea once considered anathema to many Democrats and labor leaders." In Performance pay funding for teachers may increase, Anderson relates that the Teacher Incentive Fund, launched during the Bush administration, has become a priority for the Obama Administration. It has "awarded more than 30 grants to school systems, states and public charter schools to develop new ways to reward top-performing teachers and principals in high-needs schools, with student test scores a significant factor but not the only one. Classroom evaluations are also considered." A somewhat related Associated Press story, Politics dominate Calif education reform effort by Juliet Williams, tells of California's efforts to amend their education laws to compete "against other large states such as Florida and Texas, which already have made bold school reforms." Achievement Gap and D.C. Schools Bill Turque has a good commentary about the recently released results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress math test. Turque notes in Behind D.C. schools' math gains, an obstacle that while the report "showed fourth- and eighth-graders making strides at a faster pace over the past two years than cities including Atlanta, Chicago and New York," it also showed that "the achievement gap [in D.C. schools] actually grew between 2007 and 2009, from 53 to 58 points." Odds 'n' Ends Postings this week on Educators' News may be a bit irregular, as I'll be back in one of my favorite classrooms for several days.
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Six Tips for Winning Race to the Top Money Yong Zhao's tongue-in-cheek Six Tips for Winning 'Race to the Top' Money in Education Week is probably the best rebuttal I've seen to the current reform proposals from the Department of Education and others. Parochial School Financial Woes I'd written last Friday about a two Indianapolis Catholic schools that were seeking charter school status because of financial pressures. Reader Ed Harris wrote to point out a couple of related links about Washington, D.C. area parochial schools also facing financial difficulties. Consultations underway at seven parish elementary schools in Maryland tells of seven Archdiocese of Washington schools that "face very significant deficits this year - in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some have exhausted parish savings in support of their school." Loss of D.C. Opportunity Scholarships would hurt students, put schools at risk tells of the impact ending the D.C. voucher program could have on four Consortium of Catholic Academies elementary schools in the District. Postings this week on Educators' News will be brief and a bit irregular, as I'm back teaching in one of my favorite classrooms for several days. Slow Day I guess I could have used the "Odds 'n' Ends" heading here, as there's not a lot going on this morning in education. I did find one especially good column on the Los Angeles Times. Seema Mehta's Controlling a classroom isn't as easy as ABC is one of those columns you wish all non-teachers, especially those who are so critical of us, would read. Mehta tells of the struggles and successes of teachers in establishing a good classroom climate with fair, consistent discipline. School Districts Scramble After Albany Delays Aid is one of those things you read and say, "Oh, no," to yourself. Midyear, unexpected fund withholding takes a heavy, heavy toll on school districts and student learning. We're about to do the same here in Indiana. Postings this week on Educators' News will be brief and a bit irregular, as I'm back teaching in one of my favorite classrooms for several days. The Race To Nowhere Diane Ravitch's The Race to Nowhere is just one of what is quickly becoming a chorus of outcries by serious educators against the school reform proposals of the Obama Administration and the Duncan Department of Education. She writes that "NLCB and the Race to the Top are really the same, except that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's 'Race' has nearly $5 billion as a lure to persuade states to climb aboard the express train to privatization." Valerie Strauss gave over her The Answer Sheet blog on Wednesday to "veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author, Marion Brady. Brady unloaded on Obama & Co. in Brady on education unions: I'm no fan but they get a bad rap. Don't let the column title put you off, for if you dig down into the posting, you'll find gems of wisdom.
The voices above join recently linked articles from Yong Zhao, Six Tips for Winning 'Race to the Top' Money, and Thomas Hatch's Four Flawed Assumptions of School Reform And What Can Be Done About Them in exposing the errors of the current reform agenda, mostly put together by folks who've never taught or only taught briefly before moving on to some think tank or another. Add the late Gerald Bracey's last Report on the Condition of Public Education for a full picture of how misguided our current reform efforts have become. I'm getting to the point where about the only things I can support in the current reform movement are a longer school day and/or school year and a continued emphasis on closing the achievement gap. I'd love to support the movement for better evaluation systems of teachers to weed out those who really don't belong in a classroom. But the looming reality of these proposals seems to be evaluation systems implemented by local school boards that overemphasize student test scores to the detriment and elimination of all of the other good things teachers should be doing. And of course, the bottom line still is that school administrators generally don't effectively employ their current evaluation systems to help teachers improve and weed out the chaff. Yong Zhao's tongue-in-cheek proposal for "true accountability" comes to mind:
While I'm sure the chamber of commerce types might like paying teachers on commission, Zhao's admonition that many accountability schemes have "driven many teachers out of the schools" needs to be taken to heart by those who are driving school reform. We're losing some of our best and most talented teachers from my generation because we simply don't nationally respect them or their craft of teaching. We've nationally dissed them for years while continuing to ask them to do seven amazing things before breakfast each day. Performance pay, implemented well, could be of some value, although the many good teachers I know are already pretty well maxed. I'm not really sure a competitive system that could pit teachers against one another will help them find more time, dedication, or resources to improve their students' learning and lives. Building level incentives could work, but the way things seem to turn out in education, I'd bet on performance pay tied to student test scores becoming the norm for individual teacher evaluation and performance pay. Closing underperforming schools and reopening them as charters seems to be a shell game that masks the lack of attention to some of the root causes of underperformance. Yes, some charters have done some amazing things, but the overall performance of charter schools is really mixed. And it appears from at least one study that was reportedly watered down to de-emphasize the shortcoming, that the successful charter groups probably can't gear up to make that much of a difference in schools nationally. Rather than emphasizing charters, I wish the administration would look harder at some of its other objectives that directly impact schools such as early childhood initiatives, community health, jobs for our inner cities and rural poor. When I'm in the classroom these days, many of the problems that present themselves in our classroom are ones directly resulting from poor health care and the poverty of our children's parents. And since I'm really on a rant now, I'm tired of hearing about this model and that model for fixing our schools. I'm tired of listening and learning tours where our U.S. Department of Education officials don't listen and certainly haven't learned much about how education really works in the trenches. The possible improvement promised by stimulus funds was taken away by state budget cutbacks to schools across the nation. Our schools are being kept at a subsistence level while constantly being asked to address more and more things. They need more money and a little breathing space to get it together. Some intelligent national direction would be nice, but so far, little of that has been evidenced by the Obama/Duncan education proposals. I'll shut up now. Weed Out Ineffective New Teachers Jason Song and Jason Felch report in the Los Angeles Times that LAUSD Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines has "ordered administrators...to weed out ineffective new teachers before they become permanent, acknowledging that the nation's second-largest school system has largely failed to adequately evaluate teacher performance." Song and Felch add that teachers become tenured in California after two years, "as long as their principal does not move to prevent it."
And of course, the implication once again is that there are many, many ineffective teachers out there that need weeding out. Jim's Rant The sub-headline reads, "State education officials looking for more-precise way to measure progress." School-label method changing in the Arizona Republic actually tells of a new system for labeling Arizona schools, but towards the end gets to the hopes of Tom Horne, Arizona superintendent of public instruction, to use "student growth to gauge teacher performance," as "this method is the fairest he has seen." The article notes that student test scores "could be combined with other criteria, such as a teacher's willingness to continue pursuing additional education and to work with other teachers to develop effective lesson plans." The last part about lesson plans set off Jim Crittenden on a strongly worded reply about the education situation in Arizona that he shared with me as well. Jim is a longtime Educators' News reader and contributor. He teaches at Kayenta Middle School on a Navajo reservation in Arizona where years ago he established excellent computer labs for his students with not much more than a strong will and some computer hardware most folks considered junk at the time. Jim wrote:
Indiana Gears Up for $300 Million in Education Cuts Indiana schools are getting ready for $300 million in cutbacks this summer announced by the Governor this week. The schools are being urged to "make every effort to make their cuts without laying off teachers," according to Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett. Recent state revenue forecasts that came up far less than previous projections are given as the reason for the action. Critics of the move point out Republican Governor Mitch Daniels's apparent presidential aspirations as a fiscal conservative, as he continues to hold onto a state surplus of over $1 billion. Imagine Charter Schools Violate Indiana's Open Door Law The Imagine Schools in Indiana are in trouble for violating Indiana's Open Door law. Imagine’s closed votes broke law, expert says relates that Indiana public access counselor Andrew J. Kossack ruled that "The local Imagine Schools board violated state law by not voting in public on a series of resolutions related to opening two charter schools in Texas." The ruling was in response to a complaint filed by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, which has had a long, running battle with Imagine's policy of making decisions at a corporate level and using the non-profit board that oversees its Indiana schools as a rubber stamp. Ed Harris sent a link today to a revealing story about the Imagine Schools on the Edumacation Archive. Imagine Schools Cash in on Education tells how the for profit charter school company operates and appears to be making big bucks on schools in several states. In part it says:
EDUCATION INC. – Part I: Private company skirts public boards in running tax-funded charter schools in the Journal Gazette gives a bit more background on the situation. The whole Imagine Schools controversy brings up why people are wary of for profit corporations running public schools. The appearance is that Imagine cares far more about the bottom line than the students it is supposed to serve. Blackboard and D2L Settle Lawsuits Commercial course management system developers Blackboard and Desire2Learn settled their court squabble this week according to eSchool News. In the course of the three-and-a-half-year court battle, Blackboard saw parts of its patent for online learning systems invalidated, along with a lot of it and D2L's business migrate to free, open source alternatives such as Moodle and Joomla. In the end, "the companies agreed to license each other's patents and drop long-standing lawsuits." Cyber Safety Booklet Speaking of eSchool News, they had an article this week about a new cyber safety booklet (506K PDF document) collaborated on by several federal departments. Winding Down the Week I hope you'll forgive my use of the "other button" graphic today, as nothing else seems to adequately describe what is currently going on in Arizona and across the nation in the name of education reform. Possibly because I spent three days subbing this week in a moderate-severe special education classroom, Special ed students learning life skills from WauwatosaNow.com in Wisconsin really appeals to me. It's about teachers helping real kids do real stuff that will equip the kids with "practical life skills that will help them live more independently." Have a great weekend and holiday season.
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for education. If the nation had only known that such a simple decree would rid us of "bad teachers," we probably wouldn't need school reform. It appears that Cortines is making the move in response to some devastating columns by Song and Felch earlier this year in the Times. Cortines, like many supers, is saddled with a two-year "permanent" or tenure law, which is a very short time to evaluate a teacher. Generally, new teachers hit their stride at around the three to four year mark. It takes time. And part of the problem is that school administrators are often poor at nurturing new teachers and even worse at effective evaluation and improvement programs.
to the current situation in Arizona! He mentions "paid consultants" in his response to the article, and that's an issue that really needs the light of day. Under many of the current "reform" proposals, a lot of consultants, test vendors, and such are going to rake in a bunch of state and federal dollars...that should be going to our students' education. 
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