Welcome to ReformK12.com! We are dedicated to improving our schools by focusing on effective and practical education reform.
Effective: The best methods have a track record of success, and have been proven to work in real schools, with real students and real teachers.
We don't need theoretical solutions which promise results "any day now."
Practical: The best methods use today's funding, today's people, and today's resources. Reform does not need to be expensive!
In many cases, the effective method is actually less expensive than the 'wonderful' innovative one.

If you are new to our site, please see our "Education Reform Sampler." And for a quick 6-point plan for education reform, see our blueprint.

Carnival of Education Week 50

January 18, 2006


For an excellent sampling of the best the Education Blogosphere has to offer, please check out Week 50 of the Carnival of Education, which is published by the good folks at The Education Wonks.

Crossing Racial Boundaries

January 17, 2006

Yesterday would have been the 77th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his last speech, he told the story of his brush with a would-be assassin:

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up.

The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?" And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman.

I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood—that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital.

They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said.

But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it.

It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

In the April 13, 1998 edition of Time Magazine, which recognized one hundred prominent people of the century, Jack E. White wrote:

It is a testament to the greatness of Martin Luther King Jr. that nearly every major city in the U.S. has a street or school named after him. It is a measure of how sorely his achievements are misunderstood that most of them are located in black neighborhoods.

Dr. King's dream wasn't that there be special privileges for one group, but that there would be equality among all groups. We firmly believe that King's dream can be a reality, and it all starts with education.

Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Making AYP: The Game (Pennsylvania Edition)

January 16, 2006

After the passage of No Child Left Behind, each state had to come up with a system for measuring student progress, complete with metrics for success on a number of different criteria. Schools that don't meet the goals must at least show they're making progress each year, which is called "Adequate Yearly Progress" or AYP.

Here's Pennsylvania's plan, presented as a game.

Making AYP: The Game (Pennsylvania Edition) (Link to PDF) was developed by Benjamin Herold and designed by Bryan Lathrop as a joint project of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and Research for Action's Learning from Philadelphia's School Reform Project.

For your enjoyment, we've reproduced the text only here, as a sequence of questions. Can you navigate the waters to meeting AYP?

START HERE

1. PARTICIPATION Did 95% of students in my school take the appropriate standardized test (PSSA) this year, or did an average of 95% of students take the test over the last three years?
If Yes, go to #2. If No, go to #13.

2. ATTENDANCE/GRADUATION a) If my school did not have a graduating class, was the attendance rate 90% or above, or was the attendance rate better than last year? b) If my school did have a graduating class, did 80% of that graduating class actually graduate, or was the graduation rate higher than last year?
If Yes, go to #3. If No, go to #13.

Continue reading "Making AYP: The Game (Pennsylvania Edition)"

A few words on accountability.

January 14, 2006

When a student graduates from high school, yet cannot read, the question is "how did this happen?" Usually the response from the educational community is to shrug their collective shoulders and say, "We have no idea, but it's worthy of study."

This apparently is quite an imponderable, for kids have been graduating for years without basic skills (or maybe they have basic skills but little else), and there doesn't seem to be any consensus on how or why it happens.

The usual suspects are trotted out: the parents are uninvolved, or the home is broken, or the neighborhood is poor, or the kid is unmotivated. Or maybe the fault lies with the school, but then the blame shifts to lack of funds and large class sizes. In rare cases teachers are included in the realm of possibility, but then the diagnosis is usually a fumble: proclamations for "highly qualified" teachers take no account of a teacher's ability to teach.

Sometimes superintendents get so disgusted at student failure that they institute high-stakes testing programs, but it is often too late.

High stakes testing (such as an exit exam which must be passed to earn a diploma) can be useful if the school system is doing its level best. But what if it's not? What if Johnny simply isn't being taught well? This means the magnifying glass needs to shift away from external unchangables (like Johnny's homelife, or the school budget), and focus on the actual day-to-day teaching.

This means examining teachers, but apparently this is impossible. A student simply interacts with too many teachers in his school career for anyone to be able to determine exactly why Johnny can't read or do math, or so the assumption goes.

Continue reading "A few words on accountability."

Do Vouchers Take Money Away From Public Schools?

January 10, 2006

Opponents to the concept of education vouchers say that they drain money from public education. It's an interesting piece of criticism: dollars to pay for an Opportunity Scholarship voucher in Florida (recently deemed unconstitutional) were actually state funds originally slated to go to the public schools, but diverted to the private school of the parent's choice.

While there are some voucher programs that are either privately-funded or federally-funded, for the most part vouchers are designed to have public school money be used to help pay for private school tuition. So yes, vouchers take money away from public schools.

But is this criticism valid?

Continue reading "Do Vouchers Take Money Away From Public Schools?"

Subscribe to News Feed or Daily Email

January 08, 2006

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Repeating Instructions Yet Again

January 07, 2006

Mr. Lawrence relates an amusing anecdote over at Get Lost, Mr. Chips.

He was subbing for a teacher whose high school journalism class apparently was signed up to use a "mobile computer lab" on a cart:

There's this rolling cart that was brought into the room filled with laptops (the teachers have to sign up for it) and in order to access the Internet, the cart and the laptops need to be properly 'set up.' Since I knew how to do this from another class that needed the cart, I asked the class if they needed the laptops arranged so they can access the Internet, print, things like that.

This was met with deafening silence. He figured maybe they didn't hear him, so he offered a second time, but he got no takers. The kids were pretty well behaved, so he settled in and let them do their thing.

Then, as he writes, they woke from their collective stupor. When they realized that their computers wouldn't print or access the Internet, they began demanding that he do it.

Continue reading "Repeating Instructions Yet Again"

The Roles of Punishment: More than the Offender

January 05, 2006

We're fairly appalled at the story (first spotted at Number 2 Pencil) of the pathological child rapist (his spree lasted 4 years with the same pre-teen victim) who's been given a mere 60-day prison sentence.

Even though at minimum confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett could have received 8 years in prison (we think 20 would be more appropriate), the kindly judge presiding over the sentencing had an epiphany:

But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works. "The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington [Vermont] courtroom.

Earth to Judge Cashman: It's not about anger, and it's not about you. It's about justice. Sadly, this judge's opinion on punishment mirrors those of many school administrators, who don't understand that there are three roles of punishment, only one of which involves the offender.

Continue reading "The Roles of Punishment: More than the Offender"

Connecticut Charter Schools Not Supported by Governor

January 05, 2006

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports that Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut isn't very supportive of that state's charter schools, which are currently at their quota limit, and cannot grow without legislative help. Connecticut has a weak charter school law, which means that it is all the more difficult for charter proponents and operators to open new schools and run them effectively. What is needed is intervention, and Governor Rell isn't lifting a finger.

There are a number of charter schools in Connecticut serving heavily-minority youngsters which are showing tremendous educational gains in comparison to the nearby government-run public schools.

As it happens, Connecticut boasts some of the finest charter schools in the country. In June, the Hartford Courant reported that at "New Haven's Amistad Academy, where 98 percent of students are African American or Hispanic, math and reading scores have risen to triple those of neighboring public schools and equal to scores in [wealthier and predominantly white] Greenwich."

While not every charter school will be such a rousing success, they deserve the chance to serve parents and students.

Continue reading "Connecticut Charter Schools Not Supported by Governor"

Part II: Are public schools unfairly under attack?

January 04, 2006

In this second part of a two-part series, we continue our response to Mark Manley's argument at Thespis Journal that public schools are unfairly maligned.

He writes:

By continually depleting funds from the public education system, mandating that public schools must subject their students to an endless battery of high stakes tests, and by creating a system of mismanaged, inexplicable, and unaccountable charter schools, conservatives in the state of Ohio are trying desperately to starve the public schools and institute a “pay to play” system of public education which does not provide a fair and equitable education for ALL students.

We're not familiar with the political climate in the great state of Ohio, but we can respond to five other points.

"Depleting Funds" The data from 1988 to 2003 don't support this claim. Statewide expenditures for education in Ohio more than doubled (from $8 billion to over $18 billion) while the student body increased less than four percent.

"High Stakes Tests" The best schools embrace standardized testing as a tool to help them teach better. As far as high-stakes testing goes, we're split on the subject. We like the accountability factor, but don't like the arbitrary nature of how schools are graded, and how states don't seem to use longitudinal analysis to compare change over time. None of this is unique to Ohio, though.

"Charter Schools" We're not sure why Mr. Manley described them as "inexplicable and unaccountable" but we'd agree that many urban charter schools are mismanaged. (In a private email, he described the mediocre performance of charter schools in Dayton, and sadly we can report similar findings from Philadelphia.)

But by law charter schools are accountable while public schools are not, in two ways: to the parents, and to the chartering authority (often a school district or state agency). The schools are accountable to parents for all charters have voluntary enrollment. Not so with neighborhood public schools, where parents are often given no choice of schools; the enrollment is allocated based on home address. And the schools have to perform, or at the end of their charter period (usually four or five years) they can be--and have been--shut down. Meanwhile public schools which have been abject failures for decades remain open. (Read more on charter school accountability at USCharterSchools.org)

Continue reading "Part II: Are public schools unfairly under attack?"

Part I: Anecdotal Evidence Piles Up, but Sunlight Disinfects!

January 03, 2006

We recently had a positive email exchange with Mark Manley, who writes Thespis Journal, and among other things is a public high school teacher in Xenia, Ohio. Mr. Manley inspired our article last week about how there's no war on public education, just battles waged against incompetence and problematic areas within public education. He feels there should be more balance in news coverage of public schools, whereby good news is reported in addition to the negative.

We agree that positive news coverage is a plus, but we disagree that the folks who publicize negative stories are simply out to bash public schools and public school teachers. After all, we've been teaching in public schools for over a decade, and we publish these same stories ourselves!

Our philosophy is pretty simple: sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Continue reading "Part I: Anecdotal Evidence Piles Up, but Sunlight Disinfects!"

The Democrats' Plan for Teacher Certification

January 02, 2006

In our continuing series on how there's no war on public education, today we tackle Teacher Certification. (In future articles we'll address Mediocrity, Opposition to Competition, Opposition to Home Schooling, Lack of Discipline and Safety, Zero Tolerance Run Amok, and Lack of Accountability.)

We've written before on teacher certification and how we feel that the current model is an unnecessary barrier to entry into the profession. It turns out that we're not the only folks who feel this way. The Democratic Leadership Council has a position paper which perfectly nails the problem and has the best solution.

The current approach to training and licensing teachers deters and disqualifies many people interested in teaching, yet still does not adequately guarantee the quality of teachers who are licensed. The problem is that our current approach creates "paper barriers" instead of connecting would-be teachers with opportunities to get the skills they need to begin teaching and helping them develop a professional career path.

Emphasis ours. Teacher training and certification would be valuable if it guaranteed a certain level of quality, but it does no such thing. Worse than merely "not guaranteeing quality" it serves as an artificial barrier to those dedicated, competent professionals who want to enter the teaching field, but who majored in a real subject in college other than "Education."

Continue reading "The Democrats' Plan for Teacher Certification"

Charter Elementary Success in Watts: Recipe for Acheivement

December 30, 2005

Via Joanne Jacobs, we learn of a success story in Los Angeles. The Watts Learning Center (WLC), a K-5 charter school serving "nearly all African American and low income" students, has dramatically raised the achievement of its students. For the Pacific Research Institute, Lance T. Izumi writes:

In the Pacific Research Institute’s recent book, Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools, high-performing charter schools were found to have a number of common characteristics. These schools featured good management, high expectations for students and staff, and a rigorous curriculum based on state academic standards. They also used test results as diagnostic tools to address student weaknesses and chose teaching methods based on what really improved student performance. One finds all these critical characteristics at WLC.

Emphasis ours. Let's parse the list of characteristics (which doesn't include "increased funding" as conventional wisdom would have you believe):

Continue reading "Charter Elementary Success in Watts: Recipe for Acheivement"

Teacher Unions, Teacher Activism: Is anyone actually teaching?

December 29, 2005

On Wednesday we pointed out that while there's no "War on Public Education" there are a few areas which need serious reform. Pointed criticism of these areas leads some to believe that people are just "bashing" public education, which simply isn't true.

Today we have a few words on Teacher Unions and Political Activism. (In future articles we'll address Teacher Certification, Mediocrity, Opposition to Competition, Opposition to Home Schooling, Lack of Discipline and Safety, Zero Tolerance Run Amok, and Lack of Accountability.)

Teacher Unions: A major problem with public education today is the behavior of teacher unions. One problem is that they block the door to progress: if it doesn't "serve their membership" in the form of less work for more pay, they're not interested. Teachers often complain that they aren't respected, yet they happily join unions whose leadership is all too willing to conduct labor-union thuggery, the most common of which is extortion (in the form of labor strikes). Writes one conservative teacher, "Want to be treated like professionals? At least act the part."

Continue reading "Teacher Unions, Teacher Activism: Is anyone actually teaching?"

Myth: There's a War against Public Education

December 28, 2005

An interesting exchange occurred recently online. Michelle Malkin posted a column called "Indoctrination, Not Education" containing the line "Reason number 95,385 to keep your kids out of government schools" and some folks took umbrage. Essentially her column simply contained two instances of students being subjected to the political biases of their teachers, with no commentary from Ms. Malkin other than the line quoted above.

But that one line was all some people needed to claim that she was "bashing public education and public school teachers," to quote but one line from Thespis Journal's fourteen hundred word response.

Thou dost protest too much.

Continue reading "Myth: There's a War against Public Education"