“Teachers Make the School Year Go Round”
“Teachers, Teachers, Teachers.”As the first month of school winds down, teachers and issues concerning them took center stage in school districts across the country. Time and again, it seems we can’t go a day without reading a new pay for performance plan for teachers, debates over the type of bonuses teachers receive, accountability issues, instruction, etc. If September is any indication, then the rest of the school year will keep reporters busy delving into some complex and important stories. In this edition of the Education Reporter, we’ll give you the run down on what’s happening in some school districts, as well as offer some new reports and sources. EWA believed it was the right time for a special teacher quality edition because we just wrapped up a regional seminar in Chicago (read event details below). In addition, the Education Reporter says farewell to our interim public editors—Mike Bowler, Bob Frahm and Linda Shaw. The trio stepped in while Linda Perlstein was away on maternity leave and did an outstanding job. You can read Bowler’s final column below. EWA welcomes back Perlstein, and don’t forget to contact her if you need help on deadline. In case you missed it, check out Perlstein’s Q and A with This Week in Education blogger Alexander Russo.
Write on!
A Follow up to Teaching to a New Nation: Are Teachers Ready for the Modern Classroom?
EWA held its teacher quality seminar at Chicago Public Radio where 33 reporters attended the meeting. Guest speakers included: Donna Foote, author of “Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America;” former Chattanooga, Tenn. school Superintendent Jesse Register, now with the Annenberg Institute for Social Reform at Brown University; Patricia Gandara from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA; and Michael Whitmore from the Academy of Urban School Leadership, one of only three urban teacher residency programs in the nation. Also EWA’s regional seminar was featured in this story about principal Andre Cowling and his quest to turn around Harvard Elementary school in Chicago. You can go to our website to hear some audio recordings from the meeting.
Do You Like Research and Statistics?
Have you wanted to learn how to use an Excel spreadsheet so you can better analyze the dropout statistics in your school district? Or wanted to learn Access so you could do a more sophisticated analysis of teacher benefits? The Education Writers Association is here to help you with our annual Education Research and Statistics Bootcamp. The bootcamp runs from January 8-11 at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. EWA pays for three nights of hotel and most meals, as well as up to $250 for airfare, trainfare or mileage. Apply today because space is limited.
OK Now It’s for Real! $222,178 Raised for Challenge Fund. Thank You!
EWA has been awarded the maximum $75,000 in matching funds thanks to your generosity and hard work in making gifts to EWA’s 2008 Challenge Fund for Journalism. You gave a total of $147,178 and the McCormick Tribune, Ford, Knight and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism foundations matched with $75,000, bringing the total amount to $222,178. The funds will be used for reporter scholarships and for EWA’s website re-design, coming soon.
Refreshing Your Story
By Mike Bowler, former Baltimore Sun reporter and communications director at the Institute of Education Sciences
In today’s fast-moving world, sometimes it’s good to update a story even to take a story you might have done a few years ago and see how it looks now. Or maybe you missed the story the first time around. Here are four possibilities, two from lower and two from higher ed, that have come to my attention in recent weeks from newspapers I read in print or online. (Plagiarism is, of course, a no-no. But there’s nothing at all wrong with picking up ideas from others, so long as you don’t copy.)
* What’s the status in your state and your community of the “supplemental educational services” (read tutoring) that are supposed to be provided to students in schools deemed failing under NCLB? Studies in several states (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, Kentucky) have shown that this NCLB provision hasn’t bumped up test scores so much as it has bumped up the income of tutoring firms. Your state ed department can tell you the approved tutoring firms. Scrutinize them carefully. A good source nationally who will tell you the money is wasted is Jack Jennings at the Center on Education Policy in Washington, which has been monitoring NCLB. (202-822-8065)
* Here’s a real chestnut. A major study just out but mostly unreported gives a big boost to preschool education. The study, based on data from 3,000 children in 141 preschools in England, found that the benefits of preschool are impressive and can last for many years. Plug this in to the local situation, which you might not have done for years. What’s your state’s policy? Some states are investing heavily in preschool, some not at all. In my home state, Maryland, the state superintendent, Nancy Grasmick, has seriously suggested that state-supported education end with the 11th grade and that the money saved from the 12th be invested in preschool.
Another source: http://nieer.org/
* There was much ado when 128 university leaders, including 100 presidents, recently called for reducing the national drinking age from 21 to 18. It’s called the Amethyst Initiative, after the Greek word for sobriety. You know the arguments pro and con, and if you cover a local college or university, you know the problem when two-thirds of the student body can’t legally drink but most do anyway. What’s the situation locally as the new academic year gets moving? Did any of your presidents sign (or are sympathetic)? What do the students think, and the MADD mothers? This is an ideal story for the fall, as colleges head in to the fraternity and sorority rush season. http://www.amethystinitiative.org/
* Finally, there’s that little matter of Obama vs. McCain. Obama’s campaign organization is registering (to vote) students big-time on campuses around the country, and in some cases the local election officials are claiming that students who register on campus can no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ health care or car insurance. Is this a Republican effort to cut off the late-teen, early-20s vote, which would go overwhelmingly Democratic? What’s happening locally? Even if you didn’t get to the second part of this state laws that are extremely murky in Virginia, South Carolina and elsewhere just a story on which candidates are registering whom, where and how many, might make a good story.
Linda Perlstein, EWA public editor talks politics
THE OTHER ELECTIONS
I once covered a school board race in which each of the eight candidates—I kid you not—campaigned on a slogan that was some version of “All children can learn.” Yes, we know. Now tell us something we don’t.
Like, what do you think about putting every student in algebra by eighth grade, or in Advanced Placement classes in high school? Should 16-year-olds at risk of failing the graduation exam get double periods of reading and math every day? What’s your philosophy on approving school charters? On dual-language programs? What initiatives, in your mind, should be held sacred from budget cuts?
School board voting guides or campaign stories can be very helpful for readers, if they’re crafted carefully. Questions like “Why should voters elect you?” and “What is your favorite school memory?” may occasionally elicit amusing answers or a tiny bit of insight into a person’s character, but more often they result in clichés you are then bound to print. The ink is valuable; save it for responses that will truly show what kind of choices a candidate would make if in office.
And don’t just ask about views on the issues that are already the most talked-about in the district. Don’t be afraid to ask about the topics you think are important, based on your knowledge of national trends and ground-level observations, whether or not the issues have cropped up yet in the board room. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current teacher and principal evaluation system, and what do you think of factoring student test scores into staff pay? Should students be rewarded for performing well? Do you think preschool should be available to more students, or the pre-K curriculum be changed?
Take a similar approach in writing about, or contributing to political reporters’ stories about, other candidates. If candidates for Congress support using federal money for merit pay for teachers, what do they think such efforts should look like? Challenge them on catch phrases. If they say No Child Left Behind should be amended so that teachers “don’t teach to a test,” or students don’t “waste time filling in bubbles,” ask what they would prefer an accountability system to look like. Do the mayoral candidates have ideas on how to get experienced teachers into the neediest schools? What do the gubernatorial candidates think about the way their states set, and change, proficiency targets under NCLB?Only 1 percent of voters queried in a USA Today/Gallup poll this month said that education would be the most important issue in their vote for president in November. But while education is not at the top of their lists, it’s still on it: In June, 81 percent of respondents said education is extremely or very important to them. So as elections approach at all levels of government, make sure you give readers plenty of meaningful material to work with.
THE EDUCATED REPORTER
This fall, each newsletter column will introduce you to books I consider invaluable for education reporters, each lesser-known (no Kozol here) but in my eyes indispensible. Perhaps they help you understand the history of the U.S. education system, or the sociology of children and families, or the evolution of a hot-button issue. Maybe they’re just great writing about schools. Or maybe their author is a great source—it’s always a good idea to have read what your sources have written.
One excellent addition to your Rolodex, and therefore your library, is the Temple University ethnographer Annette Lareau. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (University of California Press, 2003) and Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) are considered seminal books on the sociology of education and the idea of cultural capital. They are without peer in explaining the differences in parenting styles across social classes, and how those differences affect what children accomplish at school.
According to Lareau, middle-class parents see their children as improvement projects, while to poor parents, education is the purview of the school. Middle-class parents are far more facile at the school-home interactions that contribute to a child’s academic success, yet there are advantages to the parenting style of the poor as well. Perhaps none of this is news to you. There’s a lot of value, however, in watching Lareau show why, through compelling, human anecdotes supported by thousands of hours of observation in homes and in schools. More important, she shows why it matters.
Lareau’s observations underlie the efforts of Geoffrey Canada’s massive social services project for children in Harlem, which Barack Obama has promised to expand to 20 cities if elected, so make sure to read them if you are interested in urban reform. Her writings are also valuable for reporters covering parental involvement, the achievement gap, student motivation, literacy and language acquisition, poverty, “affluenza,” and play.
Linda Perlstein can be reached at lperlstein@ewa.org.
A Round Up of Teacher News
Pay for Performance
The Denver Public School System and Denver Classroom Teachers Association finally settled its contract dispute in September resulting in its first multi-year agreement in over two decades. The two groups were at odds over Pro Comp, a widely praised plan that rewards teachers for improving student achievement in high poverty schools. DPS favored a proposal that would give younger and mid-career teachers more salary incentives. However, union leaders believed the plan would take away too many benefits from veteran teachers. You can read the perspectives here of a second-year classroom teacher and Margaret Bobb, a 17-year veteran who spoke at our 2008 National Seminar in Chicago on pay for performance. Under the compromised agreement, teachers will get more training and a three percent cost of living raise.
D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has tongues wagging in the nation’s capital about her proposal to link teacher licensure to classroom performance. Not only that, but she wants to expand the chancellor’s power to fire teachers she thinks ineffective. Rhee’s plan would make teachers in D.C. some of the highest paid in the country with salaries increasing to more than $100,000 annually. But the chancellor’s proposal isn’t cutting the mustard with some teachers and union leaders. Critics say Rhee is taking a “too simplistic approach” to the pay for performance issue. They are voicing concerns over teachers losing tenure and serving a probationary period under the current proposal. Critics say teachers shouldn’t have to sacrifice job security in order to receive higher salaries. However, Rhee is not backing down. She says her proposal would reward effective teachers and improve student performance.
Protests and Layoffs
Teachers in Broward County, Fla. were not happy about a proposed pay raiseoffered to them this year. More than 1,000 teachers protested in front of district offices because their contracts didn’t include a guaranteed pay increase for the 2009 academic year. School officials blame poor state funding for budget woes. Teachers in a northern Illinois school district reported to class, despite threatening to strike on the first day of school. Teachers in the Huntley Consolidated School District 158 and members of the school board can’t agree on teacher salaries, benefits and pension contributions.
Some teachers in urban school districts such as Memphis and Dallas were bracing for layoffs. School officials blame budget miscalculations for the layoffs.
Can This Program Really Improve Teacher Quality?
The Aspen Institute and Center for Teaching Quality teamed up for a report entitled, “A New Way to Recruit, Prepare and Retain Effective Teachers In High Need Districts.” The report discusses urban teacher residencies and examines programs in Chicago and Boston. UTRs are founded on the belief that new teachers in urban schools should enter the classroom with a minimum of one year of guided clinical experience. The authors of the report say UTRs can be important pathways to improving teacher quality because it establishes best practices in recruitment, screening, preparation, placement, instruction, and teacher leadership. The report says there is some evidence UTRs maybe attracting a diverse set of recruits to the profession. However, there is not enough data to know how effective graduates are in raising student achievement. Participants in EWA’s regional seminar in Chicago discussed UTRs. Reporters visited Harvard Elementary, headed by principal Andre Cowling who was trained at the Academy for Urban School Leadership and who also recruited several other AUSL teachers to his school. Also, the executive director, Michael Whitmore, spoke at the meeting. Barnett Berry of the Center for Teaching Quality distributed copies of the report.
Teaching as a Second Career
Granted, it’s an old issue that just won’t go away. Potential teachers shy away from the profession because they believe the annual salary is too low. A survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation suggests more people would consider becoming teachers if the pay were higher. About 42 percent of the survey’s respondents who’ve earned a bachelor’s degree say they have considered entering the teaching profession at one time. They like the idea of giving back to their communities with most preferring to teach in a high school or elementary school setting. About 30 percent of respondents say it’s important to improve the teaching environment so that learning can take place. The center also finds stronger teaching programs need to be in place to tap into interest.
More Money In Teacher’s Pockets: Does It Mean High Student Achievement?
If you can’t get enough about teacher incentives and pay issues, then check out the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s “A Leap of Faith: Redesigning Teacher Compensation.” The report summarizes three teacher compensation studies CRPE has conducted. The researchers plan to continue the work to build an evidence base for reform. The authors hope their summary will help answer questions in the controversial debate over how reforms should be structured. The authors surveyed teachers in Washington State and found teachers supported rewards for those who worked in high needs schools. But 83 percent of teachers surveyed were cool to the idea of merit pay. The report concludes that effective incentives can be developed through a combination of experience and paying attention to the responses of teachers.
Teacher Evaluation
There is no easy solution to improving teacher evaluations across school districts. Education Sector’s Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman, of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, have an interesting analysis in the summer edition of Voices in Urban Education. The duo says the “superficial principal drivebys” do nothing to build teacher quality. They describe a number of local, state and national systems that do an effective job in the evaluation process including The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in Chicago, where participants in EWA’s recent regional meeting visited Westcott Elementary, which is implementing TAP and had Westcott lead teacher Veronica Griffin speak to reporters.
Also, read Education Sector’s Kevin Carey op-ed piece in the American Prospect about teachers and the double-edged sword they experience over autonomy and their professional status.
Sources for Teacher Quality
If you are planning stories on teacher preparation and pay issues, you may want to contact one of these sources for coverage.
Dale Ballou, Vanderbilt University, 615-322-8039, dale.ballou@vanderbilt.edu, Nashville, TN.
Specialty: Teacher pay and Evaluation
Barnett Berry, Center for Teaching Quality, 919-241-1575,bberry@teachingquality.org, Hillsborough, NC.
Specialty: Teacher quality
Gloria Ladson Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, (608) 263-1006,
gjladson@wisc.edu , Madison, WI
Charles Clotfelter, Duke University, 919-613-7361,charles.clotfelter@duke.edu, Durham, NC.
Specialty: Teacher quality and the effects of background on achievement
Patricia Gandara, The Civil Rights Project/UCLA, (310) 267-4875, gandara@gseis.ucla.edu
Specialty: Educational equity, access, ethnic students
Adam Gamoran, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, (608) 263-9476, gamoran@ssc.wisc.edu
Teacher Specialty:Sociology of Education
Thomas Lasley, The University of Dayton, (937) 229-3146, Dayton, OH
Specialty: Teaching and school culture
Anthony Milanowski, University of Wisconsin, 608-262-9872,amilanow@wisc.edu, Madison, WI.
Specialty: Teacher quality and pay
Arturo Pacheco, Center for Research on Education Reform, 915-747-7712, apacheco@utep.edu, El Paso, TX.Specialty: Teacher education
Michael Whitmore, Academy for Urban School Leadership, (773) 534-0129, mwhitmore@gmail.com
EWA Notes
EWA member Charlisle Lyle has released a new edition of her memoir “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? From the Projects to Prep School.” Lyle is former editor and co-founder of Catalyst Ohio and is moving to Atlanta. Lyle touches on the issues of race, education and her challenges to succeed in her memoir. You can get her book here.
Reporting Position, Journalism Fellowship, Training
The Chronicle of Higher Education is looking for a reporter to cover its academic freedom beat. Applicants should have 5 to 10 years of reporting experience. If interested, send cover letter, resume and at least three writing clips to Josh Fischman, Senior Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1255 23rd St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. Or you can email materials, including clips (no links to clips, please) to josh.fischman@chronicle.com. The subject line of the email should read “Job Applicant.”
Learning Point Associates is currently seeking a Communications Specialist to work directly with the Director of Communications. This position will require some travel, possibly weekly, to Naperville if based in Chicago. All interested candidates must submit resumes through the organization’s web site and include a cover letter with salary requirements. When applying please reference job code: 1294. Two writing samples no longer than three pages each will be required for consideration. Please send information to recruitment@learningpt.org.
The Hechinger Institute on Education and Media is seeking applications from journalists interested in pursuing stories on teaching and learning. The $3,500 fellowship is open to print, broadcast and web journalists in Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio and to reporters working for national outlets. The fellowship will include a one-week stay in New York City. Click here for more information. Deadline for applications is Nov. 15.
If you want to sharpen your technology skills then sign up for a new training seminar at the Knight Digital Media Center. The center is accepting applications for a training that will help reporters learn database-driven map mash-ups, use of GPS for hyper-local news, create and post to blogs, create audio, video and pdfs, podcasts and more. The workshop will be held in December, but the application deadline is around the corner Oct. 17.
The Broad Prize for Urban Education will be announced Oct. 14 in New York City. Five school districts including: Aldine Independent School District, Texas; Broward County Public Schools, Fla.; Brownsville Public Schools, Texas, Long Beach Unified School District, Calif.; Miami-Dade County Public Schools—are finalists for the top prize that could result in $1 million in college scholarships for graduating high school seniors. The four finalist school districts will each receive $250,000 in college scholarships
From the Beat
Mom, I hate my teacher! What to do about bad fits
by Nick Sortal
South Florida
Your child shuffles into the house, crying again.
"The teacher yelled at me!" Your child, the sensitive one, needs a sensitive teacher, you've always said. You even wrote a letter to the principal last spring asking for one.But apparently you drew a screamer. And you're looking at eight more months of this.
Do you march to the office and demand a new teacher? Give your child the "you-have-to-learn-to-cope-with-everyone" life lesson? Or something in between?
Teachers' income doesn't reflect results
by Letitia Stein
St. Petersburg Times
Teacher A has 25 years' experience and a master's degree. Teacher B has just five years in the classroom and no advanced degree. So who's the better teacher? This story originated at EWA's 2008 Education Research and Statistics Bootcamp in Los Angeles. The next bootcamp is Jan. 8-11 at Harvard University.
Why Teacher Strikes Aren't What They Used To Be
by Larry Abramson
National Public Radio
As school gets under way, something is missing: the sound of teachers picketing. Big urban strikes that used to interrupt the school year are pretty much relics of the past.
Poway teacher can sue to restore classroom banners
by Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
A high school mathematics teacher has won a round in federal court in his fight to put "God Bless America" and "One Nation Under God" banners back in his classroom.
Black teachers in Philadelphia schools: A vanishing breed
by Mensah M. Dean
Philadelphia Daily News
As the school year begins, Philadelphia School District officials face a seldom-discussed dilemma: The percentage of African-American teachers is declining, and now stands at its lowest point in decades.
Blogging from the Classroom, Teachers Seek Influence, Risk Trouble
by Eddy Ramírez
U.S. News and World Report
When he started his blog, Teaching in the 408, language arts teacher Kilian Betlach tried at first to remain anonymous. He identified himself only as "TMAO," and he withheld all names, including those of his students and his school. But it didn't take long for teachers and administrators in his district in San Jose, Calif., to stumble onto his blog and realize he was the author.
Please send your best stories and member news to Mesha Williams at publications@ewa.org.
**About us**
The Education Writers Association is the national professional organization of education reporters dedicated to improving education reporting to the public. Contact us by email at ewa@ewa.org, by phone at (202) 452-9830, by fax at (202) 452-9837 or by mail at
2122 P Street NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC, 20037
Our officers include: Richard Whitmire of USA Today, president; Kent Fischer, education reporter at the Dallas Morning News, vice president/actives; Marie Groark, senior policy officer and spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, vice president/associates; Kathy Baron, morning host/education reporter at northern California's KQED-FM (on leave), secretary; Linda Lenz, publisher of Catalyst, immediate past president. Our board members include Dale Mezzacappa, former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and now a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, Tanya Schevitz, higher education reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle; John Merrow of Learning Matters Inc.; Rodney Ferguson, executive vice president of Lipman Hearne Inc. Find contact information at our Web site, http://www.ewa.org.
