<<On the Blackboard>>

EWA Has a New Look

EWA launched its “snazzy” new website and members should have an easier time finding the reports and sources they need with the redesign. If you haven’t already visited the site, please check it out and let us know what you think. In the meantime, keep up to date with EWA because we’ll be adding plenty of upcoming events, articles and resources to our website to help you cover the education beat.

“Reality Check—Where Is Education Heading?”

Make your reservations today to join EWA in Washington, D.C. for its 62nd annual seminar. To make sure you don’t miss any of the action at this year’s meeting reserve your spot at the Madison Hotel by Tuesday, April 7.

EWA knows in these tough economic times, it’s difficult to convince your editors to let you attend a conference.

Fortunately, we can offer assistance. We have scholarships that close the funding gap. Our scholarships for education reporters and editors can cover the registration fee (except awards banquet), up to $250 for airfare, train fare or mileage, and one night of hotel—or two, if you’re willing to share a room. We also have a special scholarship for higher education reporters that covers two nights and plenty of those scholarships are still available.

EWA is pleased to announce that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will host a reception for EWA members on May 1.

Practical sessions will offer reporters tips on how to track stimulus spending in their districts. If you are making the transition to freelancing, we'll have advice on how to make pitches and earn a living. Other sessions focus how to read school budgets, how to use federal statistics, FERPA/FOIA issues, how to judge the way your school system uses its tests.

We have pre-sessions on April 30 with one track for K-12 reporters and another for higher ed reporters new to the beat. If you are contemplating life after the newsroom and you want to blog, we'll have people offer advice on how to do it. Another two-part session will look at social media. The first part focuses on using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as reporting tools. The second part looks at the ethical issues.

Check out more information here. If you already know you want to attend, apply for a scholarship now. Hope to see you this spring in the nation’s capital!

$100 Billion Worth of Stories

By Linda Perlstein, EWA public editor

In his March 10 speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Obama said, “My outstanding Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.”
 

So I can’t tell you how excited I was when, on an Education Department conference call this month, Stephanie Banchero of the Chicago Tribune asked Duncan a question I had long tossed around in my muddled mind but never managed to articulate as well as she did. Given the emphasis among education reformers on evidence-based decision-making—on programs that “work”—Stephanie asked Duncan for the research behind the administration’s support for teacher merit pay and charter school expansion.

It came as no surprise that Duncan danced around Stephanie’s question. Nobody says it out loud, but here’s the feeling I get: We only want to implement proven strategies—except when we really like the strategy.

I wish that as reporters, we called people on this more often. (Story idea alert: Have you noticed who is going to be evaluating whether Roland Fryer’s cash-for-grades programs “work” in various cities? Roland Fryer!) I personally don’t have any problem with trying all manner of new initiatives, but then again, you’ve never seen me waving around the Russ Whitehurst Evidence-Based Practice Playbook.

Anyway. With more than $100 billion about to go toward education from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—or the stimulus, in plain English—we have lots of opportunities to think critically about education reform over the next two years. Here’s a grab bag of issues from the stimulus plan and President Obama’s recent remarks on education that I think are worthy of attention:

*Let’s start with pay for performance, which Obama emphasized in his March 10 speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The stimulus includes $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund, and rewarding teacher effectiveness has been named as one way for school systems to win part of the $5 billion Race to the Top fund. Frankly, this was a hot topic even before Inauguration. So it’s a good time to dig deep.

First, take a look at the way things are done now. Chances are teachers in your districts are still paid based on the old-fashioned scale, which accounts for years served and advanced degrees attained, and evaluated in often haphazard ways. Watch a teacher prepare for the lesson she knows will be the basis of her biannual evaluation. Explain who is evaluating her, how often that person has seen the teacher in action, and what eventually happens, or doesn’t, with the information from the evaluation.

Second, look ahead to a world where teacher pay is based in part on student test scores. Rather than simply quoting union officials on why merit pay is more complicated than it sounds, go into schools and report on what exactly would need to happen to change the system. Take one school and see how many teachers do and do not teach subjects that are on the state’s standardized test. Show the impact other teachers besides the classroom teacher have on various students. (Are kids pulled out for interventions? Do teachers teach reading skills outside the primary classroom, and therefore have a role in a student’s success?) On a broader scale, what would your state and districts need to do to even be able to track this sort of data?

Third, if your state or district uses merit pay, do your colleagues a favor and try to determine the ways it may or may not have helped student achievement so far.

*When it comes to spending more than $100 million,will speed trump effectiveness? In a conference call this week, Duncan said that states would be considered for the Race for the Top money later only if they use stabilization funds in innovative ways now. No more status quo. But who is poised to attempt immediate innovation, when districts need the money just to stay afloat? Will such an emphasis favor quick-hit fads over meaningful reforms? Sit with district and state officials as they meet to decide where money will go and why. Are the funds going toward doing things differently—really differently—or will it be used in the same old ways? Even if you can’t sit in those meetings, you can ask that question.

 * The stimulus requires states to address the inequitable distribution of experienced, qualified teachers. The idea, Duncan adviser Marshall Smith told Education Week, is not for “dramatic change overnight” but rather for states “to begin to address it in a thoughtful way.” No Child Left Behind contained the same requirement, however—and it was ignored. So what’s going to be different now? Ask top teachers what it would take to get them to move into high-poverty schools. Even better, consider that redistribution means that weaker teachers shifted out of the neediest schools would have to go somewhere; ask principals in more affluent schools whether they are willing to take them in.

*Obama called for "standards and assessments" mandate that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity.” Ask your state’s testing director and other psychometricians whether, and how, such skills can be measured—a lemonade-stand task, perhaps?—and what it would take to remake an entire testing system to meet that mandate.

 
* Does providing $54 billion in fiscal stabilization funds to plug holes in state budgets provide a perverse incentive to keep state funding low? Can the kind of reforms that truly improve student learning in the long term be accomplished with only two years’ worth of funds? How much can assessments and data systems really be upgraded in two years?

* Will states get rewarded with Race to the Top money for raising standards and tracking students yet still be able to set targets so low that it takes remarkably little for children to be deemed proficient? You can write a challenging test, but if you only have to answer 10 questions out of 100 correct to pass, it doesn’t tell us much.

* Obama said the administration would be “building on” the work of South Carolina’s Teacher Advancement Program. TAP is active in 14 states; go take a look. Likewise, Obama plans to fund nurses’ home visits to new families. Katherine Boo wrote about this type of program three years ago in the New Yorker, and the Nurse-Family Partnership now operates in 28 states. Visit some families so readers can draw their own conclusions.

* I think Obama’s goal of having the top college graduation rate in the world by 2020 is pretty cool (if a tad ambitious: think 100 percent NCLB proficiency by 2014). But his plea for everyone to get one year of college or work training? That was sort of weird. Because what does exactly one year of college get you? My 31-year-old brother would tell you: not much. I’d love to see a story about what just one year of higher education means to workers—and employers—in the real world.

* With the government about to spend $500 million a year on college access and completion for low-income students, it’s a great time to lay out the problem: Barely half of American students get their bachelor’s degrees in six years, and among low-income or minority students the rate is considerably lower. It’s also a great time to document programs that seem to help, since they may win funds or serve as models to replicate.

* Do you live in a state with a strict cap on charters, which Obama would like to lift? If you are able to write a big-picture piece, consider this question that Russ Whitehurst posed in a Brookings Institution commentary: Insofar as charters are effective, would they be so if there were far more of them? Is there a big enough supply of the kind of top-tier, preternaturally energetic administrators and teachers they thrive on?         

* In his education speech, Obama highlighted student data tracking systems in Houston; Long Beach, Calif.; and Florida. Reporters in those places, please tell the rest of us: Are those systems worthy models? What have been the costs, and the benefits?

* Do you cover a district that receives Impact Aid because of nearby military bases, Indian reservations or other federal properties? If so, keep an eye on how stimulus money is being allocated there. According to some reports, Impact Aid funds will be free from the kind of restrictions that will be placed on other stimulus spending.

* Finally, during that conference call, Duncan said that “the idea of doing stuff with people instead of to them is very important”that teachers must be involved in decision-making. I’d love to see how many teachers were involved in the decisions made so far, and whether they’ll be included as the feds, states, districts and schools figure out how to spend all this money.

Linda Perlstein is available to help you. Contact her at lperlstein@ewa.org or 410-539-2464.

Reports: Online learning, charter schools and state reform

Students and Online Education

More than one million K-12 students in the U.S.are enrolled in online courses, and 25 states have online schools/organizations that provide classes to students, according to the latest edition of Ed Week's annual Technology Counts report. The 2009 edition, Breaking Away From Tradition finds the success of online-only education depends largely on the quality of the curriculum and teachers. Educators say they now have to spend more time assessing the quality of courses and how they match up with traditional classroom interaction.To coincide with the report’s release, Ed Week is also sponsoring an online chat Friday, April 3 analyzing the e-learning lessons the K-12 system can learn from higher education.

Ed Week also took a poll on its website asking readers if online education for K-12 students is more cost-effective than face-to-face classes? About 64 percent of voters said no.

The Odds are on Charter Schools

In his first speech dedicated to education since assuming elected office,President Barack Obama said the nation’s educational system would be strengthen by the growth of charter schools and called on states to eliminate caps. The American Enterprise Institute will release a report Monday, April 6, entitled “Race to the Top? The Promise-and Challenges-of Charter School Growth.” AEI’s report will analyze the challenges schools face balancing fast growth while maintaining a standard of excellence and other issues. Go to RSVP for the meeting.

Immigration and American Schools

Current immigration laws and enforcement policies are marginalizing the lives of millions of children born to illegal immigrants in the U.S.advocates say. A report released by the Urban Institute, entitled Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy,” finds about 1.3 million citizen children have one or both parents who are counted as undocumented in the U.S. The Urban Institute sponsored a panel discussion in which participants say they are hopeful the U.S.will make it easier for parents to gain legal status and protect the interests of children under an Obama administration. Panelists said Congress could do more by passing the DREAM Act which would give illegal alien children who graduate from an American high school, and have no criminal background an opportunity to attend college or serve in the military to earn legal status. But panelists also agreed in the current political and economic climate in Washington that passing the legislation will not be easy.

EWA will hold a session at its national seminar on Latino students and college enrollment.

First Grade Classrooms

The Elementary School Journal has a new report monitoring the quality of first grade classrooms. Two University of Virginiare researchers find teaching quality is inadequate in most first grade classrooms. Researchers based their study on data collected from direct observations of 820 first-grade classrooms in nearly 700 private and public schools in 32 states. Researchers used scoring guidelines to assess the types and frequency of social and instructional interactions between teachers and students. Most teachers interacted warmly with students, but fell short on low academic demand. Researchers say teachers tended to not give constructive feedback or make basic facts more real to students in ways that would expand their understanding of subjects.(Subscription is required, but the study can be accessed at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/593936).

What Works Clearinghouse

The What Works Clearinghouse has revamped its website and it includes a lot of improvements. One especially crucial one: If your school district is investing in a particular curricular program, you can look up the program and see the clearinghouse's conclusions, based on well-designed studies. For instance, if you type in "Voyager," a topic that has come up many times on the listserv, you'll find these conclusions: "Voyager Universal Literacy System® was found to have potentially positive effects on alphabets and potentially negative effects on comprehension."

EWA Puts Spotlight on Early Childhood

EWA is releasing two early childhood reform briefs Literacy Practices in Early Childhood and Comprehensive Services, in Pre-K, written by Linda Jacobson.They will be posted on our website Friday in our Resource Center under the Zero to 5 section.

More States Join Education Coalition

Three more states will implement recommendations of the New Commission Skills of the American Workforce’s 2006, report Tough Choices or Times. Arizona, Delaware and New Mexico join New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Utah at setting new reforms for education. You can read this Education Week article about what states are planning.

Media Notes

We knew the day would come that newspapers would provide content solely on the Internet. In March, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published its last edition and now all news stories will be produced for the web. The Ann Arbor News says it will go digital this summer publishing its last printed edition in July. The Detroit Free Press is mostly digital now with home delivery being limited to Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. What’s happening to newspapers is sobering. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution announced it is reducing its staff by 30 percent.

Upcoming Events and Freelance Position

Need a writing gig? Apply for a free-lance position at Teaching Tolerance Magazine, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Send resume and clips to editor@tolerance.org or Senior Editor, Teaching Tolerance, 400 Washington AvenueMontgomery, Alabama.
 

The Alliance for Excellent Education is holding a one-day conference entitled Meaningful Measurement: The Role of Assessments in Improving High School Education in the Twenty-First Century Tuesday, April 14. The meeting will explore issues related to both the development and use of assessments, as well as federal policy implications. To register contact to all4ed@all4ed.org or contact Shawnice Hood at (202) 828-0828 by April 7, 2009.

The Education Sector will sponsor “Ensuring Accountability for Federal Incentive and Innovation Funds” Wednesday, April 29th in Washington, D.C. To sign up for the event, go here.
 

The International Women’s Media Foundation is now seeking applications for its sixth annual U.S. Leadership Institute for Women Journalists. Applications will be accepted until May 1. Go here for more information.

The eighth annual Newspaper Academy will be held at UNC-Chapel Hill, Friday, May 8.

From the Beat

Adults try to stop overexposed pictures sent to teens via cell phones
Lola Alapo
Knoxville News Sentinel
One in five American teenagers likely has sent a nude or semi-naked photo of themselves to someone else via their cell phone, a recent national survey shows.

Multiracial Pupils to Be Counted in A New Way
Michael Alison Chandler and Maria Glod
The Washington Post
Public schools in the Washington region and elsewhere are abandoning their check-one-box approach to gathering information about race and ethnicity in an effort to develop a more accurate portrait of classrooms transformed by immigration and interracial marriage. Next year, they will begin a separate count of students who are of more than one race.

Report Cards Give Up A’s and B’s for 4s and 3s
Winnie Hu
The New York Times
There is no more A for effort at Prospect Hill Elementary School. In fact, there are no more A’s at all. Instead of letter grades in English or math, schoolchildren in this well-to-do Westchester suburb now get report cards filled with numbers indicating how they are faring on dozens of specific skills like “decoding strategies” and “number sense and operations.”

New Study Reveals Immigrant Blacks Outpace Native Blacks and Whites in Selective College Enrollment
Michelle J. Nealy
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
High school students from Black immigrant populations enroll in selective colleges at a higher rate than U.S.-born Blacks and Whites, because they have greater access to resources that influence postsecondary success.

Online school adjusts course
Sara Leaming
The Spokesman-Review
Of the students who enrolled in online classes at Spokane,Wash. Virtual Learning last semester, nearly half didn’t finish, dropped the course and returned to the regular classroom, or failed.

New ethics code would cover charter schools
Martha Woodall
Philadelphia Inquirer
Charter-school administrators would be barred from using school funds, school credit cards, or lines of credit for personal gain under a new ethics code being released today.The Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools will ask charter schools across the state voluntarily to adopt the new "code of accountability," which lays out strict performance standards in academics, ethics, governance and finances.

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, 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.; Stephanie Banchero, reporter for Chicago Tribune; Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund; Elizabeth Green, reporter for Gotham Schools. org; Scott Elliott, columnist for the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. Find contact information at our Web site, http://www.ewa.org/.