Vol. 4, No. 17
May 7, 2002

* CHARTERS: Last week's National Charter School Celebration saw over 200 events throughout the country, from school to community to state. Dozens of high-level events showcased the importance of charter schools and unique aspects of their successes. If you missed the stories and the reports CER issued daily, check out our National Charter School Week 2002 home page to catch up. You'll also find reports about the signing by the President of a Proclamation supporting National Charter Schools Week, as well as Education Secretary Rod Paige's visit to the highly successful Friendship-Edison Collegiate Academy in Washington, DC.

*Utah's Center City School -- home last week to Utah's celebration of National Charter Schools Week -- this week celebrated being one of only eleven schools nationwide selected to be the first project schools in the First Amendment Schools initiative. This multi-year reform effort, sponsored by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the First Amendment Center, is designed to transform how schools model and teach the rights and responsibilities of the First Amendment, and help students become active and engaged citizens. The schools were chosen from a national grant competition and include only three middle schools of which Center City is one.

* UNIONS: From the Education Intelligence Agency's May 6, 2002 report: "New Projects Start Next Phase in Union Battle Against School Choice":

"With both sides of the voucher debate waiting impatiently for the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the Cleveland program, NEA and its affiliates found time to fine-tune their strategies to deal with other avenues of school choice.

"One of the issues to be addressed by the NEAFT Partnership is the question of tuition tax credits, which, unlike vouchers, have had a relatively easy time getting court approval. The two national unions will form a joint 'research' project on the issue. EIA places 'research' in quotes because the unions have already determined the results of the research will be used in 'key states' this fall, along with polling, focus groups, and 'support for affiliates battling tuition tax credits.'

"Charter schools will also be getting a new kind of union attention this year. As described in the EIA report, Due & Forfeit: The Absorption of Charter Schools (available on the Reports page of the EIA web-site), NEA has expended a lot of effort to craft different strategies for dealing with charters, which the union now considers to be an unpleasant fact of life. NEA and AFT will jointly participate in a pilot project to organize charter school staff. This is an area where unions have not had very much success, but the effort may be worthwhile for them if the charter schools are large enough."

* TEACHERS: According to a new report, earning National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification has no bearing on student achievement. The Education Consumers Consultants Network compared the academic improvement of Tennessee students taught by nationally-certified teachers with the improvement of all other students in the state. The data revealed that "on the whole, the students taught by NBPTS-certified teachers gained no more than their local peers."

This shouldn't be a surprise. NBPTS certification is really just ordinary certification on steroids -- a puffed-up assessment of teachers' mastery of conventional certification standards. Considering the large body of research finding almost no correlation between certification and teacher effectiveness, it makes sense to expect no correlation between "super-certification" and student performance. What one should expect is proportionately inflated rhetoric about the value of the certification, which is exactly what one finds. Unfortunately, candidates must pay a handsome fee to undergo the process, and spend an enormous of time to assemble portfolios of their work, submit videotapes of their efforts in the classroom, and take an all-day exam. There is a pay-off to the teacher, however: states and districts often offer $5,000 to $7,500 raises for NBPTS-certified teachers, and most participants argue that they were glad they went through the process. Still, if it doesn't improve learning -- maybe the years of private and federal subsidies are for naught. For a copy of the report, go to http://www.education-consumers.com/briefs/may2002.shtm.

* CHOICE: As you read this, a conference committee of the Wisconsin legislature is debating cutting $23 million from the Milwaukee voucher program, part of an overall effort to resolve the state's $1.1 billion budget deficit. The measure would cut voucher amounts for all ages; for example, vouchers for grades K-6 would be slashed from this year's level of $5,784 to only $2,000 next year, and by half again in grades K-8 the following year. We will continue to monitor the situation, and hope that the Badger State's belt-tightening won't squeeze the life out of this program that has brought hope to so many.

COMING UP:

The results of the NAEP 2001 History assessment will be released this Thursday. History proficiency was last assessed in 1994 and the results for grades 4, 8 and 12 were less than inspiring. The percentages of "proficient" students were, respectively 17, 14, and 11. Since then, groups like the American Textbook Council and the National Association of Scholars have argued that history lessons in most textbooks are too broad and too thin. This week's results will be interesting and hopefully will help to inform schools about positive changes they can make. Update: CER Newswire May 14, 2002.

Individuals interested in the progress of New Jersey standards should be aware that on Wednesday, May 15th, the State Board of Education will hold a work session on the Core Standards: Language Arts, Math, Science at1:00 pm and at 3:00 pm that same day, will hear public testimony. NOTE: The Deadline to sign up for testimony is 12 pm Friday, May 10. For more information call (609) 292-0739 or go to: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/code/title6a/chap11/index.html.

Indiana's Second Annual Charter Schools Conference is just two weeks away, to be held May 21-22 in Indianapolis. Last year's conference attracted over 400 participants, just 40 days after Indiana's legislation was signed into law. Like last year, this year's conference includes charter school leaders from across the country. For more information and registration materials, go to http://www.indianacharters.org. But don't delay! Deadline for registration is May 16!

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