The Education Gadfly Weekly

U.S. Department of Education
November 2002

Prepared for the U.S. Department of Education by SRI International, this report is chock-full of data about charter schools and their authorizers, and offers a good review of the state of the charter movement ten years on. Findings include:

• Most charter school teachers are certified and, like in traditional public schools, most are white.
  
• Non-renewal and revocation of a school's charter are predominantly the result of business failings, not poor student performance.
  
• The median enrollment in charter schools is 171.
  
• On average, slightly more than half of charter students are members of ethnic minorities.
  
• Approximately 12 percent of charter pupils have IEPs for special education services, compared to about 13 percent of students in traditional public schools.
  
• Sixty-two percent of charter schools have more applicants than they can accommodate.
  
• Fewer than one-quarter work with Education Management Organizations (EMOs).
  
• The average number of charter schools in operation per authorizer is three.
  
• Authorizers typically do not have separate offices, staff, or budgets to support their activities with charter schools.
  
• Fewer than one-quarter of authorizers report having turned down charter applicants because of problems or concerns with their applications.
  

Geoffrey Borman, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins University
November 2002

The Johns Hopkins-based Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) is the source of this 45-page study. A review of 250 studies of "comprehensive school reform" programs (CSR, also known as "whole-school reform"), it finds that only 3 of 29 school models can be said to "work" in terms of significantly and reliably boosting student achievement. (Those are Direct Instruction, Success for All and the School Development Program.) Though just about every other model can boast some positive effects, implementation matters hugely and, in 26 cases, the jury is still out as to whether the model, overall, can be counted upon to increase pupil learning. The authors don't say they should be dismissed or CSR abandoned, only that better and more sustained research is needed. Still, there's not much comfort here for those who want to believe that CSR models are the secret of turning bad schools into effective ones. See for yourself at http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report59.pdf.

Consortium for Education Policy Research
2002

Two recent papers from the Consortium for Education Policy Research (CPRE) explore the use of knowledge- and skill-based systems of teacher pay and ask whether these systems actually reward teachers who improve student achievement. "The Varieties of Knowledge and Skill-based Pay Design: A Comparison of Seven New Pay Systems for K-12 Teachers" (by Anthony Milanowski, October 2002) describes seven teacher pay systems in Ohio, Colorado and California. Their greatest problem is that they do not always clearly define the teacher knowledge and skills necessary to improve instruction and achievement; instead, they use surrogates like National Board certification. The author also faults these unconventional pay schemes for not aligning their measures of teacher knowledge and skills with the state standards and curricula that teachers in those states are supposed to use. "The Relationship Between Measures of Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: The Case of Vaughn Elementary" (H. Alix Gallagher, April 2002) takes a closer look at the pay system at California's celebrated Vaughn charter school (also profiled in Milanowski's report) to determine whether high ratings on teacher evaluations matched up with student gains. For the most part, finds this study, a high average rating based on evaluations by an administrator, a trained peer, and the teacher was a "statistically significant predictor" of student gains in reading; findings for math and language arts were less clear. Notably, neither state certification nor years of experience was found to be a significant predictor of student achievement. "The Varieties of Knowledge and Skill-based Pay Design: A Comparison of Seven New Pay Systems for K-12 Teachers," is available at http://www.cpre.org/Publications/rr50.pdf. For "The Relationship Between Measures of Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: The Case of Vaughn Elementary," see http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre/papers/pdf/Vaughn%20TE%204-02.pdf.

Bill Lager
2002

E.C.O.T. stands for Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow. It's Ohio's first statewide "virtual" charter school and one that's come in for more than a little criticism due to gaps between what it promised and what it delivered, as well as for being a profit-seeking venture in a world that finds all such motives suspect. But it is also an important pioneer in a new field and its 21 first-year (2001) graduates can fairly be compared to successful education explorers. In this hefty (300 page) volume, E.C.O.T.'s iron-willed founder, Bill Lager, melds his school's tale with individual profiles of most of those initial graduates in the first book I have seen about the challenges and opportunities presented by e-schooling. Yes, it's somewhat self-serving, but it also opens a welcome window on an exciting and little-understood corner of American education. The ISBN is 0972346805; the publisher is EOS Publishing. The book is most readily available via Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972346805/qid=1040144595/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-8993071-0866325?v=glance&s=books. For information about the school itself, surf to www.ecotohio.org.

Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Elizabeth H. Moser
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
December 2002

This report by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy identifies six ways school districts-some of which spend over half their budget outside the classroom - can save money without laying off teachers. The recommendations are sound if mostly obvious: minimize administrative costs; out-source non-instructional services; cut back on overly generous health plans; structure capital costs effectively; and reform collective bargaining. The authors also make a not-too-subtle bid for increased school choice as a means of spurring competition and efficiency. Although they provide only anecdotal evidence of cost savings based on Michigan's experience with "schools-of-choice," their argument is convincing. It will be a challenge, however, to convince administrators around the country that a partial solution to their budget woes may be to lobby for greater choice in their districts - not that the other recommendations will prove easy to implement, either. This report can be found at http://www.mackinac.org/4891.

In the first year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 2nd year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 3rd year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 4th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 5th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 6th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 7th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 8th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Eight supplemental services,
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 9th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Nine school reconstitutions,
Eight supplemental services,
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 10th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Ten new regulations,
Nine school reconstitutions,
Eight supplemental services,
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 11th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Eleven threats to withhold funding,
Ten new regulations,
Nine school reconstitutions,
Eight supplemental services,
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

In the 12th year of NCLB, my Uncle (Sam) gave to me
Twelve rising NAEP scores,
Eleven threats to withhold funding,
Ten new regulations,
Nine school reconstitutions,
Eight supplemental services,
Seven highly-qualified teachers,
Six annual tests,
Five schools to choose from,
Four district improvement plans,
Three disaggregated test scores,
Two state report cards, and
A law based on A.Y.P.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Chancellor Joel Klein says that New York City's best principals will get up to $75,000 in bonus pay if they agree to work for three years with a principal-in-training in a failing school. In addition to opening a leadership academy for new principals [see http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/education/11UNIO.html], Klein also plans to remove the 50 lowest performing school leaders by documenting "persistent educational failure." The intent of Klein's overhaul is to "infuse the ranks of New York's principals with new blood, put the most experienced administrators where they are most needed, and weed out those who preside over schools plagued by low test scores, poor discipline and other problems." "Plan to lure top principals to bad schools," by Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, December 12, 2002

Charles Zogby has resigned as Pennsylvania's Education Secretary, leaving behind a legacy of controversial but sensible and far-reaching reforms. Among many other accomplishments, Zogby and his predecessor, Eugene Hickok, now U.S. Undersecretary of Education, advanced charter schools, instituted tougher standards for teachers and students, and oversaw the state takeover of the Philadelphia schools. Zogby becomes senior vice president of K12, William Bennett's online education firm. Governor-elect Ed Rendell will likely replace him with someone from the heart of the school establishment. "Pa.'s education secretary resigns," by Ovetta Wiggins and Dale Mezzacappa, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 18, 2002

A successful suburban principal with thirty years' experience - a woman hired to work miracles - has crashed and burned after only four months as principal of a troubled Philadelphia elementary school that's now managed by Edison Schools. Struggling to answer to two bosses, the principal was "exhausted, frustrated and finally defeated by the Philadelphia system's bureaucracy, which left her without teachers, and entrenched union rules, which kept her from even meeting with her teachers." For a sobering look at the difficulties of urban school reform, see "Philadelphia School's Woes Defeat Veteran Principal," by Sara Rimer, The New York Times, December 15, 2002

Step back from the furor over Trent Lott's recent statement and observe how the episode itself opens a window onto the legacy of distrust that has characterized African-American views of conservatives and Republicans since the civil rights era.

This distrust has shaped public policy on many fronts but perhaps nowhere as profoundly as in K-12 education. Here, African-American mistrust of conservatives, combined with the left's embrace of civil rights legislation and affirmative action, led to a longstanding alliance between black Americans and the teacher unions and public-school establishment. The result has been a tacit agreement in which the left avoids blaming schools for education problems, promotes bureaucracy and teacher protections as a response to failing urban schools, and cloaks the educational status quo in the rhetoric of civil rights.

This tendency has been especially visible in debates over school vouchers and charter schooling. While one can reasonably oppose choice-based education reforms, much of the opposition has traded on hysterical and race-conscious assertions about the motives of proponents.

The problem for those who are serious about improving American education is that this distrust is not wholly unwarranted. The legislation and court decisions of the civil rights era culminated more than a century of strenuous African-American efforts to widen their children's educational opportunities. During that time, black Americans had few allies and what little support they did receive came mainly from the left. In the years that followed Brown (1954) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), it was mostly the left that evinced continuing interest in African-Americans' concerns about the education of their children - even though, as Abigail Thernstrom reminds us, four fifths of Congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [see "Trent Lott's Blow to Civil Rights," The New York Times, December 18, 2002].

In the 1980s, as the African-American community began to enjoy the fruits of its long struggle to gain full access to the public schools, the country began to awaken to the disastrous condition of those schools - especially in the cities. This awakening, spurred by the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, prompted divergent calls for improvement. The unions and their allies embraced prescriptions focused on teacher pay, participatory governance, teacher professionalism, and investments in curricular and pedagogical reform.

The conservative response featured choice-based reforms. In waving the banner of school choice, however, conservatives endorsed policies that would, among other things, make it easier for families to exit the schools to which African-Americans had only recently gained access. This was understandably troubling to black leaders, even as they, too, grew disenchanted with mediocre schools and with the failure of the reform agenda endorsed by unions and educators.

It remains troubling today. When one interviews urban African-American parents and leaders about education, suspicion of conservative motives is palpable. As one NAACP leader in Milwaukee remarked to me regarding the city's voucher program, "These Republican types, the ones in business and the suburbs, never used to care about black children. Now they do? I don't buy it. They're after something." There is suspicion among the older generation of black leaders that today's charter schools and vouchers are Trojan horses, designed to attract African-American support for programs that may later be rewritten in ways that advantage white, suburban families and corporate interests.

This distrust helps to explain what otherwise seems a political puzzle. While surveys show widespread African-American support for school choice, groups like the Congressional Black Caucus remain solidly opposed to vouchers and African-American voters continue overwhelmingly to support liberal Democrats.

Although the African-American community is by now fed up with failing urban schools, its leaders are reluctant to abandon their traditional allies to align with market-oriented, generally conservative voucher proponents.

Perplexed choice advocates respond that their proposals primarily benefit minority children trapped in poor urban schools, indeed that white suburbanites are none too enthusiastic about such reforms. Yet it's not that simple. Today's voucher and charter programs do indeed promote equity and integration, but that is in large part because they were specifically designed that way: to bar discriminatory practices and advantage poor children. One who is wary of proponents' motives may still fear that this is merely a tactic of the moment, and that the choice crowd secretly itches to discard redistributive rules and equity enforcements once the programs are up and running.

These concerns are coupled with other attachments that the African-American community has forged to public schools. In urban centers, the school system, even if it's not providing a lot of education, is a source of jobs, political power, and community pride. Black community leaders are reluctant to weaken their hard-won influence over such benefits.

But that's not the whole story. Shared interests also draw the African-American community toward more radical school reformers, perhaps even conservatives. Whereas teacher unions and education schools have reason to oppose school vouchers and powerful accountability systems, a new generation of African-American leaders wants to embrace such proposals. Moreover, that new generation is less concerned about traditional issues of access and integration and more interested in school quality and effectiveness. These leaders have come to suspect that their alliance with the unions and the traditional Democratic education constituencies is a bad deal - that access doesn't do much for black children so long as the schools themselves are dysfunctional. They are open to new reforms - so long as they can trust the reformers.

"Trust us" is not, however, a sufficient answer to such concerns. Reformers who would persuade African-Americans to foreswear old alliances must first address fears that conservatives are opportunists who don't really care about black children and will eventually exploit or abandon their new allies. Responding authoritatively to Senator Lott's unfortunate remarks, as President Bush and many conservatives have already done, seems like a pretty good place to start.

Frederick M. Hess is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Virginia third-graders are having a blast while studying for the Standards of Learning (SOL) exams thanks to SOLAR, a computer software program designed by Lockheed Martin Corp. When students answer SOL-like questions correctly, the program rewards them with exciting graphics and sound effects reminiscent of a video game. Meanwhile, a database monitors children's performance in key subjects, enabling their teachers to spot weaknesses as well as strengths. Who said standards and testing must take the fun out of learning? "Engineering A Kid-Friendly Way to Study For SOL Tests," by Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post, December 15, 2002

Massachusetts has granted appeals to roughly 200 students who demonstrated-via good grades, stellar attendance, teacher recommendations, and having taken part in MCAS tutoring-that they knew enough to graduate despite thrice failing at least one section of the state exit test by a narrow margin. State Education Commissioner David Driscoll called the appeals process a "national model" and hopes it will assuage critics who view MCAS as ruthless and unbending. "There do seem to be instances where kids are thrown off by a test," he said. (Driscoll explains further in a letter that appears below.) "MCAS waivers give hope to others," by Michele Kurtz, The Boston Globe, December 11, 2002

Bill Lager
2002

E.C.O.T. stands for Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow. It's Ohio's first statewide "virtual" charter school and one that's come in for more than a little criticism due to gaps between what it promised and what it delivered, as well as for being a profit-seeking venture in a world that finds all such motives suspect. But it is also an important pioneer in a new field and its 21 first-year (2001) graduates can fairly be compared to successful education explorers. In this hefty (300 page) volume, E.C.O.T.'s iron-willed founder, Bill Lager, melds his school's tale with individual profiles of most of those initial graduates in the first book I have seen about the challenges and opportunities presented by e-schooling. Yes, it's somewhat self-serving, but it also opens a welcome window on an exciting and little-understood corner of American education. The ISBN is 0972346805; the publisher is EOS Publishing. The book is most readily available via Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972346805/qid=1040144595/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-8993071-0866325?v=glance&s=books. For information about the school itself, surf to www.ecotohio.org.

Consortium for Education Policy Research
2002

Two recent papers from the Consortium for Education Policy Research (CPRE) explore the use of knowledge- and skill-based systems of teacher pay and ask whether these systems actually reward teachers who improve student achievement. "The Varieties of Knowledge and Skill-based Pay Design: A Comparison of Seven New Pay Systems for K-12 Teachers" (by Anthony Milanowski, October 2002) describes seven teacher pay systems in Ohio, Colorado and California. Their greatest problem is that they do not always clearly define the teacher knowledge and skills necessary to improve instruction and achievement; instead, they use surrogates like National Board certification. The author also faults these unconventional pay schemes for not aligning their measures of teacher knowledge and skills with the state standards and curricula that teachers in those states are supposed to use. "The Relationship Between Measures of Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: The Case of Vaughn Elementary" (H. Alix Gallagher, April 2002) takes a closer look at the pay system at California's celebrated Vaughn charter school (also profiled in Milanowski's report) to determine whether high ratings on teacher evaluations matched up with student gains. For the most part, finds this study, a high average rating based on evaluations by an administrator, a trained peer, and the teacher was a "statistically significant predictor" of student gains in reading; findings for math and language arts were less clear. Notably, neither state certification nor years of experience was found to be a significant predictor of student achievement. "The Varieties of Knowledge and Skill-based Pay Design: A Comparison of Seven New Pay Systems for K-12 Teachers," is available at http://www.cpre.org/Publications/rr50.pdf. For "The Relationship Between Measures of Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: The Case of Vaughn Elementary," see http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre/papers/pdf/Vaughn%20TE%204-02.pdf.

Geoffrey Borman, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Johns Hopkins University
November 2002

The Johns Hopkins-based Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) is the source of this 45-page study. A review of 250 studies of "comprehensive school reform" programs (CSR, also known as "whole-school reform"), it finds that only 3 of 29 school models can be said to "work" in terms of significantly and reliably boosting student achievement. (Those are Direct Instruction, Success for All and the School Development Program.) Though just about every other model can boast some positive effects, implementation matters hugely and, in 26 cases, the jury is still out as to whether the model, overall, can be counted upon to increase pupil learning. The authors don't say they should be dismissed or CSR abandoned, only that better and more sustained research is needed. Still, there's not much comfort here for those who want to believe that CSR models are the secret of turning bad schools into effective ones. See for yourself at http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report59.pdf.

Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Elizabeth H. Moser
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
December 2002

This report by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy identifies six ways school districts-some of which spend over half their budget outside the classroom - can save money without laying off teachers. The recommendations are sound if mostly obvious: minimize administrative costs; out-source non-instructional services; cut back on overly generous health plans; structure capital costs effectively; and reform collective bargaining. The authors also make a not-too-subtle bid for increased school choice as a means of spurring competition and efficiency. Although they provide only anecdotal evidence of cost savings based on Michigan's experience with "schools-of-choice," their argument is convincing. It will be a challenge, however, to convince administrators around the country that a partial solution to their budget woes may be to lobby for greater choice in their districts - not that the other recommendations will prove easy to implement, either. This report can be found at http://www.mackinac.org/4891.

U.S. Department of Education
November 2002

Prepared for the U.S. Department of Education by SRI International, this report is chock-full of data about charter schools and their authorizers, and offers a good review of the state of the charter movement ten years on. Findings include:

• Most charter school teachers are certified and, like in traditional public schools, most are white.
  
• Non-renewal and revocation of a school's charter are predominantly the result of business failings, not poor student performance.
  
• The median enrollment in charter schools is 171.
  
• On average, slightly more than half of charter students are members of ethnic minorities.
  
• Approximately 12 percent of charter pupils have IEPs for special education services, compared to about 13 percent of students in traditional public schools.
  
• Sixty-two percent of charter schools have more applicants than they can accommodate.
  
• Fewer than one-quarter work with Education Management Organizations (EMOs).
  
• The average number of charter schools in operation per authorizer is three.
  
• Authorizers typically do not have separate offices, staff, or budgets to support their activities with charter schools.
  
• Fewer than one-quarter of authorizers report having turned down charter applicants because of problems or concerns with their applications.