BestEssayHelp | Public, charter school compact should benefit kids

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put it correctly this week when he said that the latest global survey of student achievement is a massive wake-up call. Test results showed U.S. students coming in a shameful 23rd or 24th in most subjects.

Clearly, reforming the country’s education system needs to get on a fast track. That’s why the announcement on Tuesday that the Rochester School District and four local charter schools are collaborating to share ideas, facilities and services is promising.

Normally, charter schools and public schools are viewed as competitors. Charter school opponents point to the mixed results of charters across the country and complain that the schools siphon off public monies, while proponents point to success stories of poor urban kids scoring high on tests.

It’s good to see Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard wanting to adopt best practices of high-performing charters. For example, under Brizard’s leadership, some district schools are experimenting with having more autonomy, similar to how charters operate.

For the charters, the compact offers an opportunity to use district facilities, such as a gym, or tap into technology expertise, John Bliss, the head of Urban Choice Charter School, told this page.

For the compact to work, it needs strong partners. A potential one that is missing is the well-known Genesee Community Charter School. Its board should take a close look at joining.

As it should be, an academic focus is at the core of the compact. It calls for public and charter school leaders to create highly effective schools and pursue accountability, and fix or close low-performing schools.

There’s absolutely no reason why charters and city schools shouldn’t work together for the greater good of all children. No one has a monopoly on the best way to teach children.

Source: ROCnow

BestEssayHelp.com | Lawmakers Begin Ed Reform Talks with 'Superman'

Florida lawmakers got their first taste Tuesday of what is projected to be a long and contentious debate over the future of Florida education reform, attending a screening of “Waiting for Superman,” a pro school-choice documentary that largely blames teachers’ unions for failures in public schools.

The Legislature’s screening of the movie largely underscores what is likely to be a major part of the spring legislative agenda, a bill that will attempt to abolish the current contract standards for teachers and implement merit pay systems that would base teacher pay partially on standardized tests.

Republican lawmakers attempted to push through a similar measure last year, but it was met with a firestorm of criticism from the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, which said the bill was unfair to teachers, particularly special education teachers who could not be evaluated in the same fashion as their colleagues.

Though originally a fan of the proposal, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the bill SB 6, citing concerns about fairness to teachers, a group that would be critical supporters in his battle to become the next U.S. senator from Florida. Crist, running as an independent, lost the Senate bid to Republican Marco Rubio.

Backers of the bill promised the issue would return in the 2011 session. Following through on that promise, House members Tuesday got a screening of “Waiting for Superman” and a panel discussion of potential education reform.

During the panel discussion, state Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville told lawmakers there was a need to look at a variety of changes to Florida’s education system, whether it came from charter schools, merit pay or extending the school day.

“We need to make some systemic changes,” said Wise, a retired teacher and chairman of the Senate Prek-12 Education Committee.

The Senate committee will likely be the first to take up a revamped version of the vetoed teacher merit pay bill. A draft bill has been circulating among several education advocacy groups in Tallahassee. The proposal includes some concessions to concerns voiced by teachers, including one that allows for special education teachers to be evaluated differently than their peers.

Wise said he plans to be the bill’s sponsor and will likely not officially file it until the beginning of March. He has, however, begun meeting with the various education groups and hopes to have several of the stakeholders appear before his education committee before legislators begin serious debate on the proposal.

“I think we’re going to get there, but it’s a real slow process,” he said.

The politics surrounding the bill are the first major obstacle. Last year’s SB 6 became as much a fight between the teachers’ union, one of the last Democratic strongholds in the state, and Republicans who wanted to debilitate their political opposition, as it was between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

State Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, who argued against the bill last spring and who appeared on the panel following the showing of the documentary, told lawmakers that the only way any reform package would get through was for lawmakers to put their “egos aside” and to make sure all of the groups, including the union were included.

Leon County Superintendent Jackie Pons, also a panelist, said he was all for merit pay if the Legislature could find a way to pay for it, but he too noted the politics displayed in the documentary, particularly the anti-union sentiment, were not helpful to solving the problem.

“I think we should all leave our politics at home,” he said.

The Republicans hold a 28-12 advantage in the Senate and an 81-39 majority in the House, meaning they do not need Democratic votes to pass a measure. Gov.-elect Rick Scott has also said he favors a merit pay bill, making it likely that he will sign off on it as well.

Wise said he fully expects his vice chair Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, and committee member Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, to be fully involved in any discussions the committee has regarding the bill and in reaching out to the various groups. Montford is also the executive director of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. He also wants a 40-0 vote on the bill in the Senate if possible.

“I want them [Democrats] to play,” he said.

Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow said union representatives have been discussing the issue with the other education advocacy groups, including Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future, the group that has been largely behind the legislation. Pudlow acknowledged that the issue could again prove divisive, but that everyone was still trying to talk and work together.

“At least people are saying the right things,” he said. “Whether they do it is another matter.”

Source: WCTV

BestEssayHelp | Detroit school board: Academic will progress

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Board of Education says it plans to let academic progress continue after winning a court fight with a state-appointed financial overseer over control of the district's curriculum.

Board President Anthony Adams said during a news conference held before Tuesday evening's special meeting that the 11-member board "will not stop academic progress" and urged Robert Bobb not to undertake a costly court appeal.

District spokesman Steven Wasko tells The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press that "Bobb "will most certainly" appeal the ruling.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Bobb after declaring a financial emergency in the district, which has about 77,000 students. Bobb has closed dozens of schools to help close a deficit exceeding $300 million.

Bobb says he doesn't know how to separate money and curriculum decisions.

BestEssayHelp.com | In Light of Budget Gap, Public Education Faces Cuts

The biennial budget shortfall you’ve heard so much about — estimated to be anywhere from $13 billion to $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if state lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes.

Nobody knows for sure how drastic the cuts will be until January, when the comptroller releases her revenue estimate and lawmakers unveil their starting budget. But one educated guess in November suggested school districts may have to prune between $3 billion and $5 billion from the more than $35 billion public ed budget, which represents just under 44 percent of the state’s general revenue spending. Where is that money going to come from?

First, expect fewer teachers in classrooms. For most Texas school districts, personnel costs — employee salaries and benefits — account for 80 percent to 90 percent of total expenses. While the goal for belt-tightening districts will be “to stay as far away from the children” as possible, says Wayne Pierce, the executive director of the Equity Center, which advocates for increased funding to districts, there’s only so much they can do without touching such a large chunk of their budget.

With the specter of the 2011 shortfall looming, many districts have already stripped what they can from administrative and custodial positions, he says. And delaying routine maintenance like fixing leaky roofs until better times can only take them so far. That leaves spending on teachers, which in turn means cutting salaries and, in some cases, eliminating positions. "You have to have electricity, you have to have gasoline for the buses, you have to have teaching supplies,” Pierce says. “So bottom line, you have to cut personnel.”

more on Texas Tribune

BestEssayHelp | Teachers' union target Michelle Rhee to raise $1 billion for education reform

Michelle Rhee made a splash Monday with her announcement of a new organization – Students First – to push her education reform priorities.

The advocacy group will be “a new voice to change the balance of power in public education,” Ms. Rhee promises in a Newsweek cover story that she wrote, which was kept under wraps until after her appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Monday morning.

And – as was the case when she was chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools – she promises not to “shy away from conflict.”

“When [Rhee] left D.C., she kept saying she recognized that there was a need for a political support and political ground game to support that kind of reform,” says Frederick Hess, the American Enterprise Institute’s director of education policy studies, referring to controversial changes Rhee enacted in Washington, including closing schools, firing teachers, and changing union contracts. “She very explicitly is setting out to be a political answer to the unions.”

Rhee has long been a lightning rod in the education world.

She’s lionized by reform advocates who admire her willingness to take on teachers' unions and push ahead on controversial ideas, and was one of the heroes of the recent education documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman.'”

At the same time, she’s vilified by many in the unions, who say her methods – which tend to shun the consensus-building approach that other districts have tried – are counterproductive and unfairly demonize teachers. She stepped down from her post after former Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his primary – a loss attributable at least in part to his education policy.

“Michelle Rhee likes to say that teachers unions are the problem, but the leading states and countries in educational outcomes – such as Finland, South Korea, and Singapore – are heavily unionized,” the American Federation of Teachers said in a statement Monday. “They focus on building on what works … and they do so through collaboration, not conflict or scapegoating.”

In the Newsweek article, Rhee says that across the country, “the rationale for the decisions [in school districts] mostly rests on which grown-ups will be affected, instead of what will benefit or harm children.” And she takes a swipe at the unions, saying that “I don’t think the unions can or should change. The purpose of the teachers’ union is to protect the privileges, priorities, and pay of their members. And they’re doing a great job of that.”

She acknowledges, however, that in Washington she could have done a better job of communicating and of expressing how much she values good teachers.

Students First will be a membership-driven organization, and Rhee’s goal for the first year is to garner 1 million members and raise $1 billion, a large sum of money that could be spent backing reform-minded candidates and policy changes around the country.

Already, the announcement has gathered outsize attention – largely attributable to Rhee’s recognizable name and popularity with the press. She was a trending topic on Twitter Monday morning.

“Something that’s different about Michelle that isn’t in this space right now is her ability to get attention from people that normally wouldn’t be paying attention to education,” says Joe Williams, president of Democrats for Education Reform, which supports many of the more market- and performance-based reforms that Rhee espouses. “I think she’s going to have the ability to really set the agenda.”

Others say that her willingness to charge directly into conflict – in a very different style than that favored by most policy advocates – sets her apart and may allow her to fill a different niche in the already crowded world of education-reform groups.

“She’s a charismatic, high-profile national leader,” says Andrew Rotherham, cofounder and partner at Bellwether Education, and author of the Eduwonk blog. “And she’s unafraid to break a lot of china.”

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

BestEssayHelp | Fight Gove's big sell-off of public education

This is my 47th and final column. Writing them has been a stimulating assignment but, as a fourth year draws to a close, it is probably time for readers to experience a different point of view.

When I started my career as a London teacher in the early 1960s, the country had not long emerged from postwar gloom. Compared to today, public discussion of education was rare, teachers were less well qualified and relatively poorly paid, and fewer than 7% of the age group went to university (though those who did paid no fees and 70% received a maintenance grant).

Over my years in the education service, I have witnessed the policies of 28 secretaries of state. I have observed the work of scores of local authority education officers, hundreds of heads and thousands of teachers, teacher trainers and pupils in many different countries.

I have seen great progress: British teachers today are amongst the best I have seen anywhere. But the improvements to the system, so obvious in the first half of my career, have not kept pace. Anthony Crosland's request to local authorities to go comprehensive, the raising of the school leaving age from 15 to 16, the Plowden Committee's concern for the disadvantaged, the merging of the GCE and CSE into the GCSE and the abolition of corporal punishment pointed the way to a modern education system.

Regrettably, the influence of the anti-progressive Black Papers, the wasted opportunity of James Callaghan's Great Debate and the systematic rubbishing of the comprehensive ideal by both Tories and New Labour have stymied progress. In addition, the downgrading of local government and the creation of new types of schools – from Kenneth Baker's city technology colleges to Michael Gove's free schools – have fashioned a deeply fragmented English education service. Add to this the haughty control and command of New Labour's classroom diktats, and small wonder that – despite the dedication of those who work in schools – the system is a mess.

Will the coalition move education forward? Much of the wording of the recent white paper is positive – especially its efforts to improve the status of teachers and its recognition of the achievement of Finnish education. Gove even claims that he wants to "ensure that the current two-tier education system ends".

Disappointingly, however, the white paper presents few realistic policies to achieve this. The Finnish system of non-streamed comprehensive schooling – with few tests and no inspection – is not to be emulated. Nor is there mention of curbing the influence of private schools, abolishing selection or outlawing misleading league tables. Instead, Gove proposes ties and blazers, limiting the role of universities in teacher training and – in a starry-eyed option – bringing the military into the classroom.

Free schools are mentioned 36 times, but never explained. The assumption is that they will be run by committed parents. Yet surely Gove must realise how impractical this is? What if parents lose interest, favour their own children or are inept at running complex organisations? Can he not see the private companies waiting in the wings to take over the management of such schools and capture an increasing share of taxpayers' money?

The concept of privatisation is not discussed in the white paper, but can be detected in its subtext – with frequent references to "new providers", "private sector organisations" and "a new market of school improvement services". Yet where is the evidence that a market-led system, run by hedge-fund managers and their ilk, will create an education system to equal Finland's?

This is the moment of truth for those who believe that schools should be integrated into society. Do not allow the coalition government – under cover of the financial crisis – to sell off public education. We have seen the contrast between its treatment of the super rich and those on benefits. Take inspiration from the students. Unite and object – now – before it is too late. Adieu.

Source: Guardian

BestEssayHelp.com | Why work doesn't happen at work