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REL N

Highlights of Obama's 2012 spending plan - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Budget

shared by REL N on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 15 Feb 11
     
    Obama requested $77.4billion for education. The latest republican cuts included reductions in Pell Grants and other education line items.
REL N

Obama's budget: A play for the center? - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Budget

shared by REL N on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • While it's absolutely essential to live within our means ... we can't sacrifice our future in the process," he told reporters while touting some targeted new education spending. "We have a responsibility to invest in those areas that will have the biggest impact in our future" while "demanding accountability."
REL N

Quantitative Analysis in, Educational Administrator Preparation Programs - 1 views

www.edweek.org/...20schoolboards.h30.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Governance

shared by REL N on 08 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 08 Feb 11
     
    School Board members are still focused on student achievement over charter schools, performance pay etc. Hess article attached.
  • REL N on 08 Feb 11
     
    School Board members are still focused on student achievement over charter schools, performance pay etc. Hess article attached.
REL N

63% Say It's Too Hard To Get Rid of Bad Teachers - 0 views

www.rasmussenreports.com/...ard_to_get_rid_of_bad_teachers

ADMS707 Niemeyer Tenure Student Achievement

shared by REL N on 13 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 13 Feb 11
     
    New poll captures discontent for teacher performance and public schools.
REL N

Advancing Student Achievement Through Labor-Management Collaboration | U.S. Department ... - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...labor-management-collaboration

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • teachers, we should look at multiple measures of effectiveness, including student achievement. I encourage you to survey your colleagues and develop a system that works for you.
  • school boards should be evaluated as well
  • we need a system where school boards also get the meaningful feedback they need from their partners, not just voters
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    One of the suggestion that Duncan made in his remarks is that school boards should be evaluated by means other than just elections.
REL N

Superintendents, School Boards, and Policy - February 11, 2011 - Reference Desk Digest ... - 1 views

relnei.org/referencedesk.2011-02-11.php

ADMS707 Niemeyer Superintendents SchoolBoards

shared by REL N on 03 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 03 Mar 11
     
    Research syntheses r.e. a superintendent's role in education policy by REL-NEI
REL N

Accountability Lost : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/accountability-lost

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards accountability

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - Cached
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      Tried to identify confounding variables to increase the likelihood that any changes in voting behavior were due to school performance
  • incumbent school board members won a larger share of the total vote in a precinct when test scores in that precinct improved. We estimate that improvement from the 25th to the 75th percentile of test-score change—that is, moving from a loss of 4 percentile points to a gain of 3.8 percentile points between 1999 and 2000—produced on average an increase of 3 percentage points in an incumbent’s vote share. If precinct test scores dropped from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, the associated 3-percentage-point decrease in an incumbent’s vote share could substantially erode an incumbent’s margin of victory.
  • percentile scores had increased in the year preceding the election, incumbents won 81 percent of the time in competitive elections; in districts where scores had declined, incumbents won only 69 percent of the time.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • significant relationship with precinct test scores and the absence of a relationship with district scores suggests that voters were more concerned with school performance within their immediate neighborhood than across the district.
  • all indications of a relationship between school performance and an incumbent school board member’s vote share vanished after the passage of NCLB in 2002.
  • None of these approaches yielded clear evidence of a link between school performance and voter behavior in school board elections.
  • the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicated that school board members were not being judged on improvement or weakening in school test scores.
  • School performance as measured by test scores may have helped determine which candidates sought reelection and which faced a challenger.
  • assess the relationship between test-score trends and incumbents’ decisions to run for reelection, and then to estimate the effect of test-score trends on the probability that an incumbent who runs faces an opponent.
  • incumbents may bow out in anticipation of being held accountable for poor test-score performance by schools in their district.
  • drop from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, our results lead us to expect that incumbents will be 13 percentage points less likely to run for reelection. In fact, 76 percent of incumbents sought reelection in districts with improving test scores; in districts with falling scores, only 66 percent did.
  • we failed to find any indication that incumbents in 2002 and 2004 based their decisions about running for reelection on student learning trends.
  • In these years, only 30 and 34 percent of articles, respectively, touched on test scores. The decline in media attention leads us to suspect that concerns about student learning trends probably did not stand at the forefront of voters’ or candidates’ thinking in the 2002 and 2004 elections.
  • “The PACT needs to be seen for what it is: a vehicle for politicians to say that they are tough on education (and educators). This may make for good politics, but it makes for bad educational policy.”
  • Reacting to the rising criticisms directed toward PACT, voters may have grown disenchanted with the state’s accountability system and removed test-score performance from among the criteria on which they evaluated school board candidates.
  • if most schools appeared to be average or better, parents may not have been prompted to hold incumbents accountable for poor school performance. Incumbents and potential challengers may also have become less responsive to scores when the testing regimen began to give nearly every school a passing mark.
  • School board elections give the public the leverage to improve their schools. If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement.
  • Neither the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) nor the states impose direct sanctions on members of school boards that oversee large numbers of underperforming schools.
  • According to a 2002 national survey, student achievement ranks second only to financial concerns as school board members’ highest priority.
  • the basic purpose of all school board activities is to facilitate the day-to-day functioning of schools.
  • analyzed test-score data and election results from 499 races over three election cycles in South Carolina to study whether voters punish and reward incumbent school board members on the basis of changes in student learning, as measured by standardized tests, in district schools
  • impact of school performance on incumbents’ decisions to seek reelection and potential challengers’ decisions to join the race.
  • All but 4 of the state’s 46 counties hold nonpartisan school board elections. Approximately 80 percent of school board members receive some compensation, either a salary, per diem payments, or reimbursement for their expenses. Over 90 percent of South Carolina’s 85 school boards have between 5 and 9 members, while the largest board has 11. And, as is common practice in other states, nearly 9 out of 10 South Carolina school districts hold board elections during the general election in November.
  • the most important difference between South Carolina and most other states when it comes to local school politics is the role played by the state’s teachers unions, which are among the weakest in the country.
  • South Carolina school boards are unlikely to be beholden to the unions, which should make the boards more responsive to the broader public.
  • examine whether voters are more concerned with student performance districtwide or in their local neighborhood, we computed two measures of average school performance to include in our analysis.
  • separate the effect of school performance from the effects of other factors that could reasonably influence an incumbent school board member’s vote share
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    Details about research on the impact school performance has on how people vote for school board members. The authors conclude "If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement."
REL N

School Boards Circa 2010--Governance in the Accountability Era - 0 views

www.aei.org/103116

ADMS707 Niemeyer Governance Empirical Research

shared by REL N on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • the National School Boards Association, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Iowa School Boards Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation have joined together to support new research on school boards and their members.
    • REL N
      REL N on 15 Feb 11
       
      Balance of politics across organizations
  • little empirical research on national board practices has been conducted since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.
  • survey sample was drawn from the National School Boards Association's database of school boards and superintendents from 7,100 districts throughout the United States. The sample was stratified,
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • At least one response was received from 80.1 percent of the districts surveyed.
  • When asked what they consider the most important objectives for schooling, the most popular board member responses are to "prepare students for a satisfying and productive life" and to "help students fulfill their potential."
  • nearly two-thirds also see an urgent need to dramatically boost achievement.
  • Board members think a number of much-discussed reforms hold little or no promise, with 40 percent saying they attach little or no importance to recruiting nontraditional teachers. More than 50 percent feel that way about increasing within-district school choice, more than 60 percent about a year-round school calendar, and more than 80 percent about the creation of new charter schools
  • REL N on 15 Feb 11
     
    Posted 03-Feb-2011: Empirical research on school boards
REL N

D.C. schools to use data from teacher evaluation system in new ways - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011021302584.html

ADMS707 Evidence-based Decision-making VAModels Niemeyer

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • by matching teachers' ratings to the universities they attended, officials are deciding which pipelines deliver the best, or worst, talent.
  • "We'll just stop taking graduates from institutions that aren't producing effective teachers."
  • Teacher ratings from one cluster of schools might be compared with those from another cluster to assess how a particular instructional superintendent is faring. Principals will be judged in part by the number of "highly effective" teachers they are able to retain from year to year. Instructional coaches will be held accountable for the ratings of the teachers they coach.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Critics of value-added evaluation models, who have objected to using the data to fire teachers, say that expanding their use is unwise at this point. "The core problem with these data is the creation of incentives to narrow the curriculum," said Richard Rothstein, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute and one of the authors of a recent report critical of value-added evaluations.
  • "It's never been piloted, never been tested," Saunders said. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    DC is expanding the use of the data from value-added evaluation models. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
REL N

NAEP and the Common Core Standards - Brookings Institution - 0 views

www.brookings.edu/...0111_naep_loveless.aspx

ADMS707 Niemeyer CoreStandards NAEP

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    Advanced release of a Brown Center (Brookings Institution) report on the Common Core Standards.
REL N

Rhee faces renewed scrutiny over depiction of students' progress when she taught - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011021007240.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Test Scores Rhee

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    The principal for whom Rhee worked said that there was "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood" in statements Rhee made about the magnitude of improvement in test scores for her students. Frederick Hess, who was not involved with that school or its faculty said : "There's simply no way with these data to say anything, good or bad, about Rhee's teaching performance,"
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    The principal for whom Rhee worked said Rhee's statements about the magnitude of improvement in test scores for her students were "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood." Frederick Hess, who was not involved with the faculty or school responded "There's simply no way with these data to say anything, good or bad, about Rhee's teaching performance,"
REL N

A Board's Eye View : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/aboardseyeview

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards reform

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • “Code of Conduct for School Board Members.” This was intended, wrote the superintendent, in recommending the code, “to set standards for how the Board interacts with itself.” Sounded like sex to me. But the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them. The superintendent was definitely attempting to tip the balance in favor of the pros. “We will not attempt to exercise individual authority over the district’s operations, staff, or personnel decisions,” read one of the rules he was proposing for us. Another: “We will not express individual judgments about the performance of the superintendent or staff. . . . We recognize the value of the chain of command. When approached by staff, constituents or the public, we will channel all inquiries to the administrator.” I e-mailed the superintendent, “Is this a joke?” He called and laughed lamely.
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      "... the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them."
  • “We should let people know we are looking for quality, of course, but not to the point of advertising outside official channels.”
  • the board never reviewed other major expenditures, such as the installation of a new computer system.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • I asked the superintendent how a new asphalt parking lot was installed at the Greenport School without board approval–or even a bid or a notice or a need. He informed me that a bid wasn’t necessary for a job worth less than $10,000.
  • no clarification of what any of this meant–or cost. Don’t ask. “Mandated” was the knowing word from veteran board members.
  • almost 16 percent of the children in the school district were disabled, almost double the national average.
  • more than 350, were either “emotionally disturbed,” “learning disabled,” or “speech impaired.” These were the kind of catchall categories that allowed a district to dispose of many problem children–in Hudson those children were mostly black–with expensive baby-sitting.
  • over the next several months as I learned that the district had been running a deficit for several years. In fact, the state comptroller’s office, which oversees the fiscal integrity of all state and local government agencies, had conducted its own audit and found the same thing: “overexpenditure of budgetary appropriations and the overestimation of revenues.” Money was being moved around, from one fund to another, which was also against the rules, the comptroller noted. And when auditors had asked for records, they couldn’t be found.
  • the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost.
  • The teacher union president, normally a regular presence at school board meetings, stopped coming so that he wouldn’t have to answer my questions about what was being done to improve things that his teachers controlled. (He had already stopped responding to my phone calls and letters.)
  • the debate was as much cultural–and racial–as educational,
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      The author was frustrated that the board refused to discuss the academic mediocrity in the schools and then he realized that "the debate was as much cultural-and racial-as educational,...."
  • “Mandates” and laws sprouted acres of explanatory weeds–most of them unnecessary. No one ever read the original “mandate.”
  • no one seemed to know why the “Parent/Family/Community Involvement Policy” was necessary, but it was assumed that it was required by some Oz-like authority, passed through the policy-writing machinery at some school board association office, and sent to us for our “approval.”
  • No one else on the board expressed any hint of having read it. And I was beginning to discern a pattern: the more written, the less understood.
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    A concerned parent joined the local school board in hopes of improving the academics. After 6 frustrating months he resigned from the board believing that "the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost."
REL N

Why America's teachers are enraged - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Teacher-evaluation reform states politics

shared by REL N on 24 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Right-to-work states do not have higher scores than states with strong unions. Actually, the states with the highest performance on national tests are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire, where teachers belong to unions that bargain collectively for their members.
  • One must wonder how it is possible to talk of improving schools while cutting funding, demoralizing teachers, cutting scholarships to college, and increasing class sizes.
  • REL N on 24 Feb 11
     
    If everyone agrees that teachers are important... why do they think that demoralizing them will improve students' experience and performance in school?
REL N

Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...21blog.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Blogs

shared by REL N on 24 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier.
  • Former bloggers said they were too busy to write lengthy posts and were uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said they had no interest in creating a blog because social networking did a good enough job keeping them in touch
  • REL N on 24 Feb 11
     
    Many of us said that we found writing in the blog difficult because it took a lot of time to craft the "perfect" text. This article explains how many are shifting from blogging to social networks as a more convenient way to quickly share updates.
REL N

An Unlikely Hero Breaks Through the Blackout: Diane Ravitch - Living in Dialogue - Educ... - 1 views

blogs.edweek.org/...nlikely_hero_for_teachers.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Reform Ravitch Gates

shared by REL N on 01 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 01 Mar 11
     
    Great video clip provides background and clarity r.e. NCLB, Gates et al.
REL N

Education Week: KIPP, Teachers' Union Go Toe to Toe in Baltimore - 1 views

www.edweek.org/...24kipp_ep.h30.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer kipp Union Teacher-pay

shared by REL N on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Virginia have the same kind of requirement that Maryland does.
    • REL N
      REL N on 15 Mar 11
       
      I thought that Virginia teachers were not represented by a union. Was I mistaken? Or are teachers in charter schools represented by a union while those in traditional public schools are not?
  • REL N on 15 Mar 11
     
    KIPP is threatening to close schools in Baltimore unless they are able to resolve a dispute with the teachers' union regarding teacher pay for extended school days.
REL N

No Effects Seen in NYC Schoolwide Pay Program - Teacher Beat - Education Week - 1 views

blogs.edweek.org/...choolwide_pay_program_sho.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Pay for Performance

shared by REL N on 10 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 10 Mar 11
     
    Latest research from Harvard indicates that pay-for-performance did not effect student achievement or other measures. Questions about the effectiveness of the design of the bonuses still linger.
REL N

Lawmakers Grill Duncan on Spending, ESEA - Politics K-12 - Education Week - 0 views

blogs.edweek.org/...kers_grill_duncan_on_spen.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer duncan ESEA

shared by REL N on 10 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 10 Mar 11
     
    Duncan said that 82% of the schools were on track to fail this year.
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