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The debates surrounding Ohio's biennial budget and other education-related legislation during the first half of 2011 were intense, and it's no wonder. The state headed into the year facing a historic deficit, federal stimulus money was vanishing, and school districts were preparing for draconian cuts. Meanwhile, despite decades of reform efforts and increases in school funding, Ohio's academic performance has remained largely stagnant, with barely one-third of the state's students scoring proficient or better in either math or reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Achievement gaps continued to yawn between black and white students and between disadvantaged youngsters and their better-off peers. 

Yesterday, the state finally released school test scores; for NYC schools they are posted here.   Individual student test scores will only be made available August 17 - through the ARIS system, for which you will need your child's OSIS number.  Although the city showed gains of a few percentage points, the results were nothing to write home about: only 43.9 percent of city students in grades 3-8 met the standards in reading and 57.3 percent in math.

Now, regarding the "no evidence" claim, I would recommend reading this article from Teachers College Record, this year, which summarizes a multitude of rigorous empirical studies of state school finance reforms finding generally that increased funding levels have been associated with improved outcomes and that more equitable distributions of resources have been associated with more equitable distributions of outcomes.

State test results released today show little change in the proficiency of Colorado students on annual exams in reading and science and only slight increases in math and writing.

Key findings from this study include the following: Achievement on state reading and math tests has improved for Title I students in most states with sufficient data. Gaps between Title I and non-Title I students have narrowed more often than they have widened since 2002, although trends were less encouraging at grade 4 than at grade 8 or high school.  When gaps narrowed, it was most often because achievement improved at a faster rate for Title I students than for non-Title I students. The size of achievement gaps between Title I and non-Title I students varied greatly among states but was often smaller than gaps for low-income students or for certain racial/ethnic groups.

While the U.S. Department of Education warns that a majority of schools are falling behind in meeting the student-progress targets required under the No Child Left Behind Act, a new analysis suggests that students who participate in the law's largest education program, the Title I program for disadvantaged students, are making strides in mathematics and reading.

Variation and Change in State Standards for Reading and Mathematics, 2005-2009

Here's what I have come to believe: we test too much in reading and math, and that narrow focus means schools are not teaching other basic subjects like history. A 2007 study by the Center on Education Policy (PDF), a middle-of-the-road organization, found that "approximately 62% of school districts increased the amount of time spent in elementary schools on English language arts and or math, while 44% of districts cut time on science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch or recess."

Ruling can be read at http://www.scribd.com/doc/60600507/Mulgrew-v-BOE-2 In a defeat for the city's teachers' union, a judge ruled on Thursday that the Education Department could proceed with plans to close 22 schools because of poor performance and place 15 charter schools in the buildings of traditional schools in September.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Today, my perspective (as well as those of Sabrina Stevens Shupe and Amy Valens) on the SOS March & National Call to Action was featured in a CNN.com article by Sam Chaltain. I'm famous! (hahaha) I was honored when he told me about the project and asked if I would answer some questions. Of course, he couldn't possibly include my responses in their entirety, especially since as you've probably noticed, brevity isn't exactly one of my talents. Sam did a fantastic job of editing and consolidating my remarks, but in case anyone's interested in any elaboration, I wanted to share here my remarks in their entirety:

Each time I read the newest claims coming from the new reformers -- Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and Geoffrey Canada -- I think about my days in the classroom and on the field. These new reformers reached their positions of authority in education reform, first, without any real expertise (similar, I must admit, to how I became a varsity soccer coach without ever having played the game). Next, one of the central refrains of their message has been teacher accountability.

Despite a strong body of research on the value of internal strengths, we continue to measure kids using standardized, quantitative tests. Why? Because skills like critical thinking, curiosity, and collaboration are much more difficult to measure quantitatively across large populations. So we tend to measure what can most easily be measured - reading, math, and science knowledge.

When the new book 'Class Warfare' came out, the story of the current ed reform movement featuring TFA and KIPP, I refused to buy it, since I didn't want anyone to profit from passing fiction and fantasy off as non-fiction. But when I received a complimentary copy as a gift from my frequent debate opponent, Whitney Tilson, I promised that I would, at least, read it. Analyzing a short research paper or an hour long debate is one thing, but a 500 page book - well, I was hoping that I wouldn't find much to say about it since I really don't have the time, yet I can't resist.

I greatly admire Steve Brill and his writing, and so was surprised to read what felt like a jeremiad against the teachers' unions. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot amiss with how the teachers' unions have come to defend their members at the expense of the children, and at the expense of honest, true school reform, but why the finger pointing when there's plenty of blame to go around, if blame is what we're after.

It often takes an essay by a high-profile writer to confirm what lesser known writers have long maintained. I thought of this once again after reading "Super Teachers Alone Can't Save Our Schools" by Steven Brill that was published in The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 13.

Realizing that many people reading my blog don't have the book to follow along with, I'm going to add more context in this post than the previous one.

If you listened just to news about public education or read some of the briefs coming out from the U.S. Department of Education, you could be forgiven for thinking that that the country is overrun by "dropout factories" and "failing schools," and that we are inundated by schools that need a dramatic "turnaround" or even a "takeover." You would be justified in thinking that the state of our nation's schools was in total decline and that there was little reason for cheer. Actually, the truth is very different.

We have read about all of the "cheating scandals" across our nation and how the tests need to be made more "secure." I want to take a moment of your time and tell you about a lesson that a handful of students taught me two years ago and it is a lesson that I believe can absolutely destroy the push toward using student standardized test scores to evaluate schools and individual educators because it shows that the test can never be truly "secure."

At a time of persistent unemployment, especially among the less skilled, many wonder whether our schools are adequately preparing students for the 21st-century global economy. This is the second study of student achievement in global perspective prepared under the auspices of Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG). In the 2010 PEPG report, "U.S. Math Performance in Global Perspective," the focus was on the percentage of U.S. public and private school students performing at the advanced level in mathematics. The current study continues this work by reporting the percentage of public and private school students identified as at or above the proficient level (a considerably lower standard of performance than the advanced level) in mathematics and reading for the most recent cohort for which data are available, the high-school graduating Class of 2011.