2008 March Archive at The Core Knowledge Blog

Archive for March, 2008

Four and a Half Myths About NCLB

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 31, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

Checker Finn had a think-piece in Sunday’s Washington Post on the “5 Myths About No Child Left Behind,” which is facing an uncertain fate—or at least an uncertain timetable—as it awaits reauthorization this year. Finn points out that NCLB isn’t compulsory since states can opt out, and is merely “another incarnation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965,” part of LBJ’s Great Society initiatives. He dismisses the notion that NCLB in underfunded, and is spot-on in asserting that “instead of demanding more money for No Child Left Behind, critics should ask why states and local communities get such dismal returns on the half-trillion dollars, or nearly $10,000 per student, that they already spend on primary and secondary education every year.”

Finn is on shakier ground labeling as myth that the standardized testing required by No Child Left Behind gets in the way of real learning. “If the test is an honest measure of a solid curriculum,” he writes, “then teaching kids the skills and knowledge they need to pass it is honorable work.” And “if” a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bounce its butt on the ground. As E.D. Hirsch, Jr., has written recently, state standards are notoriously vague and content-free. Finn and Fordham have long done excellent work demonstrating the glaring inconsistencies in standards from state to state.

One can argue ad nauseum about whether the legislation or its feckless implementation are to blame, but without meaningful standards—content standards, not process standards—upon which to base tests, we’re merely spinning our wheels.

Update: Good update on NCLB, the campaign and the disappointments of both in the Economist.

A Visit to Cherokee Elementary School

Published by Gerald Terrell on March 28, 2008 in Core Knowledge School. 6 Comments

My visit to Cherokee Elementary School, a Core Knowledge school in Americus, Georgia last week provided an interesting and inspiring experience. Here in this small, rural community (population 17,000) I found a delightful and well-maintained mid-sized school, under the leadership of Dr. Wanda Jackson. Cherokee is clearly committed to excellence and fairness in early education and has fully embraced the ideas set forth by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and the Core Knowledge Foundation.

I first met Dr. Jackson at our Leadership Institute a couple of years ago. She was so excited about implementing Core Knowledge and invited me to please pay them a visit. If you recall, Americus was hit with a terrible hurricane last year. I spoke to Dr. Jackson in the aftermath of the hurricane and she indicated that no matter what had occurred with respect to the hurricane, Cherokee Elementary was dedicated to Core Knowledge now more than ever. She indicated that they were planning a Core Knowledge Day for the community and that someone from the Foundation had to come. When I considered all that had happened to this community and their commitment to Core Knowledge, I had to go.

Cherokee’s commitment to Core Knowledge is further evidenced in how the school has engaged its entire community. My visit included a breakfast meeting with the Superintendent of Schools, various principals, central office staff, school board members, city councilors, and other interested citizens. Never before have I had the opportunity to speak to such an array of interested individuals who were so receptive to the work of the Foundation, in general, and the progress of a school in particular. Prior to my presentation, we were all entertained by a choral group and students from the art club who, under the direction of the art and music teachers demonstrated how music and art can be integrated into Core Knowledge history and geography. It was an exciting and educational experience.

After a day of classroom visits, came the grand finale of my visit. That evening I was treated to a spaghetti dinner along with over 200 parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and anyone else who saw the sign welcoming me to Cherokee Elementary. Again the students entertained the audience with songs and recitals. The teachers, who I really enjoyed meeting and visiting their classrooms, served dinner to the parents and students. I made a short presentation and spent the rest of the time talking to parents.

In 12 years of traveling the country to visit Core Knowledge schools, this visit stands out as one of my best.

Gerald Terrell is the Executive Vice President, K-8 Schools, of the Core Knowledge Foundation

A Solution in Search of a Problem

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 28, 2008 in Opinion and Research and Reports. 4 Comments

Some of my favorite ed bloggers, fresh from the AERA conference are chatting up the media and its limited use of (or for) ed research. Alexander Russo’s This Week in Education observes that ed research “isn’t much of a player” and bemoans how “journalism still avoids dealing with education research as much as possible and struggles to deal with it when there’s just no other escape.”

Having spent far more of my life in news than education, I wish I could be more sanguine about the potential for education reporters having a better grasp of education research. Every practical fact in contemporary journalism argues against it. Face it, ink-stained wretches are in wretched shape. Advertising revenues have fallen off a cliff, readers are defecting to the Web in boxcar numbers and the beat system, which allowed reporters to become truly informed experts, has ceased to exist even at elite publications (I’m old enough to remember when TIME, where I worked for several years, had reporters who covered education, religion, and law full-time).

The other factor that weighs against education research making more of a splash in the news is, frankly, interest. Sure research studies might be a gripping read for wonks, but the lay reader will expect what they’ve always expected–for some neutral arbiter to keep a finger to the wind and alert them when there’s a change in direction. Thus the bar for what’s considered newsworthy for the general reader when it comes to research is still set pretty high. Nothing new there.

A commenter on Russo’s blog hit the nail squarely on the head earlier this week when he wrote “Education writers have not the time or the inclination to report education research because it is most often irrelevant and removed from their daily reporting duties and impossible to sell to an editor who, in the newspaper industry these days, wants local, local, local. The education writers I work with are way too busy covering their districts and feeding the daily news beast to bother reading (much less report on) on the the latest “study” out of, say, Think Tank X.”

That’s not going to change anytime soon, but more to the point it’s not a problem. As Russo points out, there are a bevy of blogs that regularly post on research. It’s a remarkable flowering of mainstream access to data that simply didn’t exist even a few years ago. So to bloggers who bemoan the media’s lack of attention to ed research I can only suggest it’s not their role any more. It’s ours.

You are present at and a participating in an increasingly flat marketplace of ideas. If traditional media have less manpower, time, training and interest to wrestle with education research and policy that’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity. Take advantage of it.

Under Pressure

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 28, 2008 in Education Leadership and Testing. 0 Comments

A Texas middle-school principal is accused of threatening to kill his science teachers and himself if their test scores didn’t improve. New Braunfels Middle School Principal John Burks allegedly made the threat in a Jan. 21 meeting with eighth-grade science teachers, according to the San Antonio Express News.

Science teacher Anita White, an 18-year veteran, said Burks was angry that scores on benchmark tests were not better, and the scores on the upcoming Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests must show improvement. “He said if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers,” White told the paper. “He said ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, ‘You don’t know how ruthless I can be.’ We walked out of the meeting just totally dumbfounded because it was not a joke,” White said.

Never happened, said Burks. Police are investigating the incident as “a terroristic threat.”

Quote of the Day

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 28, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

“What do you call a Massachusetts public school student struggling to read at the 10th grade level? A graduate!”

Radio talk show host Michael Graham in his op-ed “Who You Calling Failure” in the Boston Herald. Massachusetts is considering changing its designation of “underperforming” schools to “Commonwealth priority” to avoid stigmatizing teachers and students.

Manuscripts Illuminated

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 27, 2008 in Curriculum. 0 Comments

Back in the age of Ike, Elvis, and tail fins millions of kids were introduced to great works of literature in a magazine called Classics Illustrated. A new generation of CI books is on the way, and Newsweek writer Malcolm Jones likes what he sees.

Jones waxes rhapsodic about a new version of The Wind in the Willows. In illustrator Michael Plessix, Rat, Mole, Toad and Badger “have met their Michelangelo,” he writes. “Every frame is drawn and colored with meticulous care. Every elegant page is composed with a dual purpose: to enchant the eye and to further the various narratives that make up the loose plot. Plessix knows how to advance and retard the story’s pace. He knows just when to zoom in and when to pull back for a wide shot.”

Teachers have a tortured relationship with “graphic novels,” often dismissing them as mere comic books. Some of us, present company included, reflexively bridle at what we perceive as the dumbing down of challenging classics, or shrug and mumble apologetically about the need to engage students “at their level.” Jones’ perspective is enlightening. Describing the original Classics Illustrated series he notes “that was where I first discovered just how good stories could be.”

“For kids who came of age after World War II, Classics Illustrated was our first encounter with stolen—or, put more mildly, borrowed—goods,” Jones writes. “How many kids, from the ’40s through the ’60s, first encountered Captain Ahab or Jean Valjean or Madame Defarge in the pages of those comics with the unforgettable yellow logo in the top left corner of the cover? Did we know who Charles Dickens was, or Victor Hugo, or Herman Melville? Probably not. We just knew that these were good stories, to be read and reread and passed around. We did not care particularly where they came from, if we thought about that at all. Somebody named Hugo wrote ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ but he didn’t draw the pictures in our comics, any more than he had anything to do with the old black-and-white movie that we sat through every time it came on TV. Which suggests an intriguing esthetic principle: might we say that a truly great novel or movie or play is one that so thoroughly works its way into the culture that we forget who created it in the first place? Are these not ultimately the most potent stories, the ones that belong to everyone, and no one? It’s about as close as we get to myth these days.”

The Sum of Our Fears

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 27, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

The New York Times the other day visited a New Jersey high school and followed the principal, roaming the halls as a crazed gunman might, looking for victims during a “lockdown drill” — a reaction to Columbine-style school shootings. The Times reports such drills are becoming increasingly common in U.S. schools.

”Gone are the days of the traditional fire drill, where students dutifully line up in hallways and proceed to the playground, then return a few minutes later,” the Times reports. “Now, in a ritual reminiscent of the 1950s, when students ducked under desks and covered their heads in anticipation of nuclear blasts, many schools are preparing for, among other emergencies, bomb threats, hazardous material spills, shelter-in-place preparation (in which students would use schools as shelters if a dirty bomb’s plume were to spread dangerously close) and armed, roaming sociopaths.”

By the way, the days of the traditional fire drill are most assuredly not gone. Just wondering: researchers have catalogued every other aspect of the school day, minute by minute. Has there ever been a study on the amount of instructional time lost to fire drills and other “planned” disruptions? In my school, we had 10 to 15 fire drills a year. Add up the amount of it took to trudge down from the 5th floor, march outside, listen to the principal complain or praise the students’ performance on the PA, settle the class back down after the excitement, and you’re talking about a pretty good chunk of time. It’s not ”just a few minutes.” Is it heresy to suggest that this is a little bit excessive?

Public Schools Expand Curriculum Online

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 26, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

Interesting piece on NPR’s Morning Edition and website on a move by some innovative public school districts to add online courses to their offerings

The NPR segment focuses on Virtual Virginia, a state program that offers dozens of online classes to middle and high school students. “The program allows children to take classes that aren’t offered at their schools,” Larry Abramson reports. “Nationwide, programs like Virtual Virginia help hundreds of thousands of students take the kinds of unusual courses that make colleges sit up and take notice.”

I believe this approach holds out promise for public education, for differentiation and enrichment, well before the high school level. As a teacher, I long lamented my inability to give my brightest 5th graders a truly challenging curriculum faced with a classroom mostly filled with high-needs kids. I experimented with “learning contracts” that allowed them to pursue individual academic interests, but the self-discipline it takes for a 5th grader to work independently is seldom seen. I would have loved to have online units or mini-courses based on the Core Knowledge Sequence, for example.

Above Average Babble

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 25, 2008 in Educational Policy and Preschool. 0 Comments

Children under five in Great Britain could lose the freedom to play thanks to a “toddlers’ curriculum” that imposes 69 learning goals on pre-school youngsters, teachers warn. According to the London Daily Mail, the Early Years Foundation Stage, which applies to all 25,000 private and state nurseries in England sets out 69 early-learning goals that every child should reach after a year at primary school, including writing simple sentences using punctuation, using the phonics system to attempt to read complex words and beginning to grasp addition and subtraction. “Children will be checked against more than 500 development milestones before they are five, including whether they babble and gurgle as babies,”the paper reports.

Britain’s National Union of Teachers, an organization in dire need of a new acronym, is arguing that the imposition of an overly formal academic curriculum can distort young children’s learning experience. “These occur most naturally and effectively through a subtle combination of free play, movement, rhythm, repetition and imitation.”

Sound and fury, signifying nothing, reply Education Ministers, who say it will help all children reach their potential and close the achievement gap between rich and poor. The Department for Children, Schools and Families added: “The early years foundation stage is about learning through play. It does not prescribe teaching methods for young children nor prescribe any testing whatsoever. It sets a series of goals so parents and nursery staff know whether a child is developing properly.”

There’s No Place Like Homeschool

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 24, 2008 in Education Practice. 2 Comments

With over a million kids and growing at double-digit rates, homeschooling is no longer a fringe activity for the religious and rebellious. Increasingly it’s a sensible answer to chaotic and dysfunctional schools.

Homeschoolers reflect “the virtues of the old American frontier settlement or the Amish barn-raising — we co-operate in self-reliance. My wife and I have been teaching our children ourselves for more than 15 years, and we’ve found that home-schooling opens doors that schools leave closed,” writes homeschooling father of six Gregory J. Millman in a compelling essay in the Washington Post. “Today, a well-established and widespread infrastructure of home-schooling groups, Web sites and networks has made home-schooling accessible to a broader population, people who wouldn’t consider themselves either particularly countercultural or particularly religious. People like my family,” he says.

With six children, one income and priced out of the better school districts in New Jersey, to say nothing of private schooling, Millman turned to homeschooling rather than send his children to school in Plainfield, “an elegant old central New Jersey city with typically poor urban public schools characterized by bureaucratic mismanagement, low teacher morale and student violence.”

Continue reading ‘There’s No Place Like Homeschool’