The Education Gadfly Weekly

Achieve, Inc.
February 2008

As with last year's edition of this report, the progress that states have made toward "aligning high school policies with the demands of college and careers" is slow and ambiguous. Achieve reports that eight more states have aligned their high school standards with postsecondary expectations (19 total); six more have enacted college- and career-ready graduation requirements (29 total though only nine administer a corresponding test); and three more have implemented P-20 longitudinal data systems (eight total). The numbers show that Achieve's American Diploma Project still has a lot of state policymakers to win over. To Achieve's credit, they've attached dates to a number of items so that states can be monitored as to whether the "commitments" they're making are real. But sometimes it's hard to believe that even actual accomplishments are real. For instance, Achieve counts Texas as one of the states that administers a college-readiness test to high school students. Yet recent news from Texas indicates that its exit exam is a joke: only 20 percent of students who fail the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills are actually prevented from graduating. Consider, too, that, according to the report, 11 of the 19 states that "require" students to enroll in a college- and career-ready curriculum allow them to opt out if their parents sign a waiver. The sturdy wall you see going up in the executive summary  weakens a bit as one reads deeper. Find it here.

Dead, white male authors are much maligned but not forgotten. Thousands of educators continue to teach F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, for example, despite repeated salvos from the forces of political correctness. Sara Rimer reports in the New York Times that high school and college teachers, as well as students, still identify with the book's main characters and its themes of aspiration and striving. Rimer notes that the story resonates especially with urban adolescents from first- and second-generation immigrant families. Jamaicans, Dominicans, Chinese, and Vietnamese students--all are enriched by The Great Gatsby's universality, belying goofy multiculturalist notions that "ethnic" kids should read works by authors of their same background. This not only deprives students of the vast richness of Western literature; it also leads to cultural balkanization. Bill Kristol reinforces the point in his latest New York Times column, in which he writes that the English poet Rudyard Kipling, for all his flaws, elucidated timeless truths about the nature of power. What is important about the works of Fitzgerald and Kipling, among many others, is not their author's race or gender or personality, but their ability to capture human truths that speak to readers generation after generation.

"Gatsby's Green Light Beckons a New Set of Strivers," by Sara Rimer, New York Times, February 17, 2008

"Democrats Should Read Kipling," by William Kristol, New York Times, February 18, 2008   

Florida's State Board of Education this week approved newly revised science standards after a long process that, in its final stages, turned contentious over the subject of evolution, a recurrent problem topic for Florida as for several other states. The 4-3 vote enshrined evolution in the Sunshine State's curriculum. But as part of a last-minute compromise made to mollify Darwin's detractors, the wording of the standards was changed to specifically present evolution as a "scientific theory." Board member Kathleen Shanahan said, "Do I believe the theory of evolution? Absolutely. But I believe there's more to explore." The new wording will, presumably, allow such exploration to take place. We're uneasy about that possibility. Students need to be taught science in science class, not encouraged to conjure up their own theories about the origin and development of species. Evolution enjoys unanimous support among serious scientists and should receive similar support in school curricula.

"Evolution joins curriculum," by Ron Matus, St. Petersburg Times, February 20, 2008

We learn from Britain that requiring those whose fluency in a foreign language is being tested actually to speak in that language is "too stressful." This week, the U.K.'s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority abolished oral examinations for students taking foreign-language GCSE examinations. Schools minister Jim Knight calls the traditional testing method, which asks students simply to converse with their teachers for about ten minutes, "unrepresentative" and a "one-off way of testing a student's ability." Instead, teachers will grade students' speaking abilities by evaluating their classroom contributions during the course of several months, thereby reducing the anxiety of 16-year-olds. Forget that fluency means being able to speak and comprehend a language in any circumstance, even a somewhat stressful one. When Gadfly goes out on dates with fetching females, when he is attempting, for the seventh time in three minutes, to pass through the TSA metal detector, when he has set his clothing on fire--he does not suddenly begin communicating in an unintelligible way! One can either speak a language fluently or one cannot. Rather than abolish the 10-minute oral exam, the Brits ought to make students complete it while balancing on one foot and juggling.

"Never say Latin in the quango tango," by Oliver Pritchett, Daily Telegraph, February 20, 2008

"Oral tests to be dropped from language exams," by Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, February 18, 2008

It is not per se wrong to enjoy watching movie star Scarlett Johansson sing breathily about change in America. Millions have, in fact. They've logged on to YouTube and viewed the "Yes We Can" video, in which a divided screen shows Barack Obama on one side, giving a campaign speech while, on the other, actors and musicians sing the words the Illinois senator speaks.

The whole thing is all very uplifting and nice but it undeniably falls into the "fluff" category in which more than a few pundits are beginning to classify Obama's talks. David Brooks writes in his New York Times column, "If that video doesn't creep out normal working-class voters, then nothing will." Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, notes, "It is not ‘the politics of fear' to remind Obama's legions of the blissful that, while they are watching Scarlett Johansson sway to the beat ... people are making plans to blow them to bits. (Yes, they can.)"

Obama is on a ten-state primary contest winning streak. Now the press wonders: Where's the beef?

Here's some. Obama was asked last week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel what he thinks about the city's high-visibility school-choice programs, including its voucher system. "I think we should foster competition within the public school system with charters and anything that works we should try to scale up and replicate," he said. Another snippet: "When Milwaukee initiated the school voucher plan, I thought that at least there was an experiment that would allow us to use that as a test case.... If there was any argument for vouchers, it was 'Alright, let's see if this experiment works.' and if it does, then whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids."

That's remarkably substantive stuff coming from a Democratic presidential candidate competing in a rough primary race. Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, told the New York Sun that Obama's was "a different kind of answer than most of us are used to hearing from politicians."

Asked the same question, Senator Hillary Clinton gave a more predictable response. She questioned the constitutionality of school-choice programs and added that,  if vouchers were widespread,  government would be hard-pressed to deny funding to, for example, a "school of the Jihad." She's been making this point for some time. In February 2006, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, she "ranted that if a school voucher program paid for students to attend a Catholic school, it will also have to issue vouchers for a ‘school of the church of the white supremacist' or a ‘school of the Jihad.'"

Clinton purports to oppose empty rhetoric and embrace detail-oriented policy, which makes her fear mongering about Klan klassrooms especially egregious. When compared to Obama's considered response, Clinton's appears trite.

But Clinton is running for president, too; she mustn't deviate very far from AFT doctrine and of course she knows that the National Education Association has yet to endorse a candidate. According to an NEA press release from this month (modestly titled "Valuable NEA Political Endorsement Remains Up For Grabs"), "NEA is uniquely poised to play a major role in either campaign. Public school teachers have been near the top of the list of America's most admired spokespersons for decades, and according to the Harris polling firm, teachers' grades among the nation's ‘most admired professions' have improved by an average of 23 percentage points over the past 15 years."

NEA President Reg Weaver, who leads this image machine, said last week that he will seek from Obama an assurance that the Illinois senator opposes school vouchers. Up to now, the press has largely ignored Obama's heretical comments about school choice, but if he bucks the teachers' unions yet again, perhaps the newspaper columnists who crave substance will sit up and take notice.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee seems to understand the "fierce urgency of now." The third part of PBS education correspondent John Merrow's fine ongoing series of reports on Rhee's efforts to turn around the D.C. school system depicts a tough-minded leader, unflagging in her commitment to produce real change. Confronted with stale but loud rhetoric from union leaders and District council members, Rhee listens attentively and responds politely (but firmly) that she will not back down from her plans to close 23 schools and cut dead weight from the city's bloated and profoundly ineffectual central offices. So far, no one has called for her head, though one observer interviewed for the segment thinks that "storm clouds are gathering." But there are signs that the storm will blow over. The once-indomitable Marion Barry saw his recent protest over school closings sputter out when no one attended it. And the city council voted overwhelmingly (10-3) to allow Rhee to thin the central office staff. The seas of D.C. politics are rough, but so far Rhee has steered a steady course. She's apparently in it for the long haul, too. The Washingtonian reports that she just bought a sizable house in the District.

"In Battle to Revamp D.C. Schools, Education Leader Faces Resistance," by John Merrow, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, February 7, 2008 

Achieve, Inc.
February 2008

As with last year's edition of this report, the progress that states have made toward "aligning high school policies with the demands of college and careers" is slow and ambiguous. Achieve reports that eight more states have aligned their high school standards with postsecondary expectations (19 total); six more have enacted college- and career-ready graduation requirements (29 total though only nine administer a corresponding test); and three more have implemented P-20 longitudinal data systems (eight total). The numbers show that Achieve's American Diploma Project still has a lot of state policymakers to win over. To Achieve's credit, they've attached dates to a number of items so that states can be monitored as to whether the "commitments" they're making are real. But sometimes it's hard to believe that even actual accomplishments are real. For instance, Achieve counts Texas as one of the states that administers a college-readiness test to high school students. Yet recent news from Texas indicates that its exit exam is a joke: only 20 percent of students who fail the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills are actually prevented from graduating. Consider, too, that, according to the report, 11 of the 19 states that "require" students to enroll in a college- and career-ready curriculum allow them to opt out if their parents sign a waiver. The sturdy wall you see going up in the executive summary  weakens a bit as one reads deeper. Find it here.