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Here's something you won't read too often in RHSU: "UFT president Michael Mulgrew is right." But he is. Just today, a New York state appellate court ruled that New York City must release reports that show value-added data on a teacher-by-teacher basis, with teachers' names attached. I agree with Mulgrew that this is an unfortunate decision.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the federal Department of Education has given school districts rather broad permission to cut special education spending and never restore it. The move alarmed some in the special education community. But one group of objectors broke the new guidance from the Education Department down into the simplest terms I've read on this somewhat complex topic.

If you read media reports about education, a lot of the stories you see make extraordinary claims about remarkable, heart-warming turnarounds in student achievement, which are often debunked some time later. This cycle of enthusiasm-debunking-disappointment gets us nowhere in improving outcomes for kids. Genuine miracles--dramatic turnarounds in formerly low-achieving schools--are just as likely in education as they are in any other field. That is, not very likely at all. In fact, most miracles in education turn out on inspection to be due to a change in the students served (as when a new charter or magnet school attracts higher performing students) or changes in demographics (as when school catchment areas are gentrifying). Apparent miracles may be due to changes in tests (as when an entire state gains in one year due to a change to an easier test), or due to other redefinitions of outcomes (as when districts reduce their standards for high school graduation and graduation rates increase). All too often "miracles" never happened at all, as when "turned around" schools deliver poor scores or graduation rates, or when large changes occur for one year but reverse in the following year, or when schools improve on one measure but all other indicators are poor.

It's become a mantra of reformers that the quality of teachers is the single most important in-school factor in student performance. If so, is the quality of doctors the single most important in-office factor in patient health? This question passed my mind after I read a letter to the editor written by Richard Amerling, M.D., director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, that was published in The Wall Street Journal ("Better Use of Medical Records Is Good as Far as It Goes," Sept. 26).

To anyone concerned with the state of America's schools, one of the more alarming experiences of the past few decades has been the sight of waves of innovative reforms crashing upon the rocks of our education system. Charter schools have popped up all over the landscape; vouchers are being implemented in more and more places; massive federal initiatives like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have invested billions of dollars in fixing our schools. And yet the results remain dismal: Millions of children still cannot read satisfactorily, do math at an acceptable level, or perform the other skills needed for jobs in the modern economy.

All right, enough of this already. This is the last day on "Our Achievement Gap Mania" (at least for now); I promise. But some folks have wondered how I can be goofy enough to argue that such a popular rhetorical strategy is bad for sustaining reform. My default answer is to encourage folks to read the whole piece. But since many of you are busy, let's highlight a few key points here.

Chicago has long been seen as a leader in education reform, and the apparent progress here even helped elevate Arne Duncan from district CEO to U.S. Secretary of Education. But a study released today by the Consortium on Chicago School Research claims there's been no significant improvement in the key area of elementary school reading, and that the racial achievement gap has worsened over the past two decades since the advent of the first phase of school reform.

One recent Monday morning, I boarded the C train at 168th Street in Upper Manhattan, on my way to jury duty. While I waited on the platform, I noticed a young black man, high-school student age, professionally dressed in a blue shirt and tie and dark blue slacks. The young man's face was hardened, possibly to ward off any conversation from strangers. We both boarded the train and took seats which called for direct eye contact if either of us faced forward. The young man happened to be sitting under a poster that read "Welcome Back to School." The posters are sponsored by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the principal's union, and the one above his head had a picture of me on it.

The Star Tribune declares it a miracle school on 9/24/11 with the headline 'At this school, usual excuses don't apply' http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/130474133.html Claim from the article: In this year's state math tests in grades three through eight, this school outperformed every metro-area school district, including Edina and Wayzata. Its students outperformed all state students in reading proficiency (77 percent to 75 percent), and state white students in math proficiency (82 percent to 65 percent).

Jeff Pfeffer and I had a piece appear today in The New York Times "Preoccupations" column called "Trust the Evidence, Not Your Instincts."  We are pleased with the points it makes and how it reads, but as is inevitable given the space constraints in newspapers, the final version is a bit shorter than the piece we submitted. In particular, we wish there had been space to include our point that, not only has linking incentives to standardized test scores been generally ineffective, a nasty side effect is that such programs often drive teachers and administrators to cheat (giving students the right answers or erasing wrong answers and replacing them with right answers).

Note: This is a continuation of the last post, so be sure to read that one first.

A young charter school administrator named Jessica Reid (pictured) played a small but important role in Steve Brill's book, Class Warfare, both in illustrating how some of the higher-performing charter schools do things and in highlighting the wear and tear that such efforts can create. What's it been like for her to be part of the book - her second stint as a character in a nonfiction account of school reform - and what does she think about key issues such as sustainability, ending LIFO, and unionization? Read the interview below.  You might be surprised.

If you read the news magazines or watch TV, you might get the impression that American education is deep in a crisis of historic proportions. The media tell you that other nations have higher test scores than ours and that they are shooting past us in the race for global competitiveness. The pundits say it's because our public schools are overrun with incompetent, lazy teachers who can't be fired and have a soft job for life. Don't believe it. It's not true.

If you watch the documentary "Waiting for Superman" or read Steven Brill's "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools," you will learn that many advocates of school reform think they know how to increase teacher productivity: Rate teachers according to their students' performance on standardized tests and fire those who don't make the grade. But economic theory suggests several reasons why this approach will probably backfire.

Average SAT scores fell across the board this past year-down 3 points in critical reading, 2 points in writing, and 1 point in math. This year, 1.65 million students in the high school graduating class of 2011 took the college-entrance exam, up from 1.6 million for the class of 2010, according to results released today. The increase in test-takers can lead to a decline in mean scores, the College Board says, because more students of varying academic ability are represented.

Al Shanker was very concerned about the need to identify and replace incompetent teachers. The first time he wrote a column about it, his wife was one of the many people who warned him that the union's teachers would be up in arms (see here). Shanker wasn't worried, replying that "All of my members will read that, and they'll all agree, because not one of them will think that they are one of the bad teachers that I'm talking about."

I read something truly awful today in The New York Times Magazine article, What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? But before I share what it was, I'd like to preface it by restating my concerns about a pattern I see of some school reformers taking ideas and practices that have a huge learning and teaching potential and, instead, warping them so their benefits disappear and  can actually become destructive.

The College Board attributes the dip to the larger, more diverse participant pool that includes more first-generation, ethnic and racial minority,and low-income students. Still, the downward trend in reading and writing is cause for concern, says Wayne Camara, vice president for research and development for the College Board. While there is no one explanation, he says educators need to look at curriculum as a factor.

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Fish has won international mountain bike races, has ridden alongside Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and hopes to become a professional cyclist when he turns 19. To do that, he trains 20 hours a week: four-hour bicycle rides, long runs and practice on a stationary bike. Spending seven hours a day in traditional private or public schools would leave Kevin riding in the evenings - or not at all, depending on homework. Then his family read about Star Charter School on the Web. The campus, which received the highest academic rating under the state accountability system, offers small classes and four-hour days. And as an open-enrollment charter school, it is public and tuition-free.

On a largely bipartisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives this week approved legislation aimed at expanding and promoting charter schools throughout the country. The Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act, passed 364-54, and now goes to the Senate for further consideration. Although the bill, designated as H.R. 2218, had wide backing from both parties, including "ayes" from Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., skepticism about the effectiveness of charter schools looms over the legislation. Organizations opposed to the bill as it currently reads include the National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher organization, the American Association of School Administrators, and Parents Across America.