Morning Shots

I read with some interest and a lot of frustration this Washington Post article, taking as gospel the findings of a flawed study conducted by The National Education Policy Center (NEPC). The study “found” K12 Inc. lags behind traditional public schools.

Once again we have good reporters getting snookered by “research” based on un-comparable data and lacking any value-added measurement of performance progress over time.

By any reasonable standard, reputable research needs to be based on an apples to apples comparison of subjects. The NEPC methodology makes no effort to compensate for the fact that the basic nature of virtual schools like K12 makes it difficult to compare their students to those in traditional public schools. Consequently, it ends up comparing apples to watermelons.

The NEPC report also cites a 2009 CREDO study that is one of the most egregious examples of bad research out there. CER has successfully debunked it time after time and yet the media continues to trot out that Trojan horse for some reason.

Where does madness end? When is the media going to learn to recognize good research from bad?

–Jeanne Allen, Founder and President of the Center for Education Reform

For K12 Inc.’s perspective, check out the Spotlight section on their website.

In his book, Renewal: Remaking America’s Schools for the Twenty-First Century, Harold Kwalwasser, former general counsel of the L.A. Unified School District, offers a comprehensive examination of what it takes to move America’s school systems into the 21st century. He urges a shift away from remnants of the Industrial era (seniority, tenure, single salary schedule) to more flexible environments. His call for “ending a system designed to lose track of kids” resonates with efforts in the reform movement to put children first and do what it takes to put quality in the classroom. Kwalwasser uses examples from traditional public schools, charters, parochial and private schools he visited to explain his recommendations for building an effective and efficient school. Renewal is structured to focus on school leaders (superintendents, principals), teachers, and customers (student and parent). His Six Beliefs, along with the Eight Practices that stem from them, sound like the how-to plan for some of the nation’s most successful charter schools, including KIPP, Success Academy, Harlem Children’s Zone. That’s not surprising since Kwalwasser argues that charters are a “powerful push toward decentralization” that will drive not only reform and best practices, but put us on a new road to education in the future. We think so, too.

We only question his title, Renewal. Although Kwalwasser means renewing our pledge to teach every child, it’s hard not to think of renewal as a way, for example, to update a driver’s license. American education requires much more than an update to get on the right path and Kwalwasser’s recommendations suggest more than a renewal of old-time education. Breaking free of Industrial era thinking, based on the factory model of mass production that led to teacher contracts being more industrial than professional and children being treated more

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Today at the Govs’ summer meeting — an annual event of all US Governors — Ed Secretary Arne Duncan shared new data indicating that America continues to lose ground internationally when it comes to producing college graduates. College attainment rates have risen nominally (1/2 percentage point), but America still lags far behind on the world stage. Once number one, we have fallen to a disconcerting 16th in the world.

It’s just one more indication that America’s kids are not receiving the same level of education as their peers in other countries. We’ve hit a glass ceiling of education that others have broken through.

Duncan says that affordability is the culprit, and anyone paying (or trying to pay) for college today knows that’s a huge issue. But cost containment isn’t the main reason our kids don’t graduate once there. There are many low cost options. The biggest obstacle to obtaining a college degree isn’t that students can’t afford it, it’s that they aren’t equipped to earn it. Once they are in college — be it a community college, four year liberal arts school or technical school — our kids don’t finish! And the reason for that starts long before, when our kid are advanced through their primary years without being proficient, year after year. More than three quarters of all higher ed institutions must remediate large numbers of freshman. And we wonder why they can’t complete work or are deterred by the potential of even going?

So let’s try something else. Let’s expand educational options and encourage more innovation. Let’s give parents the power to choose the best school for their child, and then have the money slated for that child’s education follow them to their new school. College attainment requires secondary

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