Entries by Jim Stergios

Disappointing piece from Dave Driscoll in the Globe

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Former MA education commissioner David Driscoll opined today in the Globe that we should just move ahead with the Common Core standards. Uh, how about no. His is a pretty disappointing piece. It conflates participating in the Common Core Standards process with accepting the final product. Everyone agrees that MA should be involved in the CC standards process. But I hope we also all agree that we should NOT accept the proposed CC standards if they are weaker than our current standards. For some reason, the former commissioner divines that they will be better than our current nation-leading standards. How does he know that? They currently are not – not by a long shot. And while the recent drafts are […]

Kansas: Keep your Race to yourself

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Kansas is not applying for Race to the Top funds, according to the Lawrence Journal World: KANSAS BOARD DECIDES NOT TO APPLY FOR RTTT PHASE 2 FUNDS — In a 9-0 vote, the Kansas State Board of Education chose not to apply for up to $166 million in federal Race to the Top funds this spring because of some of the competition’s caveats. Interim Commissioner Diane DeBaker said the state fared poorly in the first round of applications because it does not have an alternative system for teacher certifications, no statewide system of evaluations for principals and teachers, and teacher pay is not tied to student performance. Board member Sally Cauble said Kansas’ system of local control works against it. […]

Watering down Milquetoast

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Jamie Vaznis in today’s Globe presents a bombshell: The state’s second-largest teachers union organization, which represents teachers in Boston and other big cities, has decided to boycott Massachusetts’ application for the Obama administration’s innovative educational fund, possibly jeopardizing $250 million in grants. Massachusetts lost points on its Race to the Top application because it only got buy-in from about 2/3 of the local teachers unions. In the first round of RttT, the state application received support even from key federation units. While it is devoutly to be wished for, the Obama administration is wrong to insist on union buy-in. Unions may not be the buggaboo they are often made out to be – often the superintendents are worse enemies of […]

A missed opportunity to fix small business insurance

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Small business insurance has been a mess in this state for a while. The health care reform act of 2006 was supposed to help make it work better. It did not. Julie Donnelly of the Boston Business Journal notes that Fallon and some other insurers in the state are seeing the small business market as costing them a lot of money. And they could pull up stakes. That might be the “nuclear” option as Fallon put it, but the sad thing is that the governor could have taken a different approach from his current “wallpaper” policy. Patrick circa 2010 is saying essentially who cares about the cost of health care, let’s set the price. That is akin to someone who […]

He is a maestro

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Watch the video clip of Governor Patrick speaking in Lowell, while police officers are outside picketing him at the Tom & Todd/WRKO show. Give him a baton and the orchestra would swoon. Such a strong speaker and so at ease.

Donal Fox!

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I know I am supposed to spruce up the blog with references to pop culture, but I don’t know how to do that. I’ll leave that to education bloggers at the Fordham Institute and to Jay Greene’s crew. It’s Sunday so cut me some slack, and let me tell you about an incredible night of music. Last night I was blown away by one of the greatest nights I’ve spent listening to music in a long time. Scullers has some great acts, but last night I went to see Donal Fox and was completely blown away. I mean completely blown away. Technically blown away, musically blown away, still blown away. Donal Fox owns his piano in a way few people […]

How Washington is undermining the Bay State's high education standards

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We did not miss out on the Race to the Top primarily because of the fact that we have not yet adopted the Common Core standards that are still in draft form. But that is the easy give for the Patrick administration. First, the Patrick folks don’t want to do the hard work necessary to address the major failing in the application — the lack of any sense as to how they would evaluate teachers using student and other data. That would take imagination, the expenditure of political capital, and good blocking and tackling. They lack all of the above. Adopting the Common Core standards is an easy one for an administration that has been willing, as Charlie Chieppo and […]

Why MA finished 13th of 16 on the Race to the Top

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Yesterday’s piece in the Globe by Jamie Vaznis strikes me as making pretty clear that Legislative leaders are pretty soured on how the administration handled the RttT. We finished outside the winners’ circle (the winners were TN and DE), and we got trounced. The Senate President’s quote in particular shows that she expected the legislative actions taken in the fall and January to be matched by a strong proposal and equally difficult actions on the part of the administration. Now, it seems that the Patrick administration is blaming the state’s poor finish on the RttT on MA’s non-adoption (yet!) of the national standards. OK, let’s go to the facts, and they are all written in black and white in the […]

Race to the Top out of reach

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Holy s^&*! Jamie Vaznis of the Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts is not among the winners of the first round of the Race to the Top competition. Kudos to Delaware and Tennessee for wining the first round. A lot of hard work (900 pages of it in the application, plus a legislative process, lots of print, lots of arguments, and a few fried political relationships) in Massachusetts did not get us there. Time for a deep breath. How is it that the top performer on the Nation’s Report Card did not make it? Vaznis reports on Ed Secretary Paul Reville’s view: “We are committed to reworking the application and filing it again,” said Reville, who added that he is […]

Auto insurance does not equal health insurance

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What’s wrong with a government mandate for health insurance? After all, government mandates auto insurance, right? In any basic conversation about health care — especially in MA where the idea of a mandate started — that is a basic line of argument from pro-mandate folks. My problems with that line of argument are three: 1. The federal government does not mandate auto insurance, and it should not mandate health insurance. (In fact, three states do not have auto insurance mandates.) The point is, states can choose to or not to. I have no problem with the health mandate in Massachusetts – if the system that is scaffolded on top of it works. States constitutionally have the power to mandate such […]

Are Large-Scale School Turnarounds A Myth?

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Tough editorial from the WSJ today, calling the “doubling down” on turnaround plans for schools, rather than simply focusing on creating more charters, a big mistake. Like its predecessor, the Obama Administration is focusing its education policy on fixing failed schools. Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls for a “dramatic overhaul” of “dropout factories, where 50, 60, 70 percent of students” don’t graduate. The intentions are good, but a new study shows that school turnarounds have a dismal record that doesn’t warrant more reform effort. “Much of the rhetoric on turnarounds is pie in the sky—more wishful thinking than a realistic assessment of what school reform can actually accomplish,” writes Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution. “It can be done but […]

Hit the accelerator!

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That’s my takeaway from the 2009 NAEP reading results. Here are just a few takeaways from the racial/ethnic subgroup data from 1992 to 2009 for the 4th grade and 1998 to 2009 for the 8th grade: Black students – 4th grade: The average scaled score goes from 204 to 216. At or above Basic goes from 47 to 62 percent. At or above Proficient from 10 to 23 percent. Advanced from 1 to 3 percent. – 8th grade: The average scaled score goes from 248 to 251. At or above Basic goes from 55 to 64 percent. At or above Proficient from 13 to 17 percent. Advanced drops from 2 to 1 percent. Hispanic students – 4th grade: The average […]

MA tops nation in reading for 3rd time in a row

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From the Department of Education’s press release: “Massachusetts 4th and 8th Graders Rank First in Reading on 2009 NAEP Exam. Results Mark Third Time in a Row MA Students Have Outscored the Nation.” Great news! According to results of the 2009 NAEP exam, the state’s 4th graders scored an average of 234 on the reading assessment, well above the national average of 220 and first in the nation. At grade 8, Massachusetts students achieved the highest average of 274, which exceeded the national average of 262 and tied for first with five other high performing states: New Jersey (273); Connecticut and Vermont (272); and New Hampshire and Pennsylvania (271). Some cause for concern is the flattening out of performance. Commissioner […]

So whaddaya think about Sunday's vote?

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Many thoughts but here are three key ones: 1) What a wasted opportunity to get it right. Little learning from existing experiments like MA’s was drawn upon, and there are no real market mechanisms used to contain costs. Top-down cost containment will just lead to cost-shifting. 2) What a wasted opportunity by Republicans in the early 2000s. Why didn’t they do more than pilot programs to address skyrocketing premiums? 3) What a mess this will be going forward. It is going to be super-expensive for the taxpayer, and it will again shift a lot of the burden to people with private insurance. Two analyses, at antipodes of the ideological spectrum, are worth highlighting. First is Kimberley A. Strassel’s opinion piece […]

Little settlement with words

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Words have history, and that is really why they have power. All it takes is one breath to dredge up all sorts of memories and associations. It’s eye-popping when you read a great observer (plug in your favorite literary reference), but in the realm of politics that history is mainly playing off emotions and seeking to motivate one to action or inaction. Education is probably the place where the jargon and sharp-edged words are most prominent; e.g., “drill and kill,” “the field” (guess what you are excluded!), “choice,” and so on. This morning reading through the news, and I was curious about the statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that East Jerusalem was not a “colony.” It struck me […]

Prop 2 1/2 Jersey style

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David Halbfinger of the New York Times reports that Governor Christie is proposing “deep cuts” in state spending, which will amount to something like 5 percent of the state budget. Interestingly, Christie is taking a page out of Massachusetts’ lore and seeking to replicate Prop 2 1/2: Mr. Christie’s idea for a 2.5 percent cap on increases in property taxes, modeled on Proposition 2 ½ in Massachusetts, would allow no exceptions except by local referendum and would apply to towns, school boards and counties. He also is calling for new handcuffs on towns and school districts as they bargain with unions, to prohibit towns from awarding contracts with pay increases, including benefits, of more than 2.5 percent.

NPT: Rumblings in the non-profit underground?

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The Non-Profit Times sends almost daily emails with surveys and tips on management. I never really open them (catchy eblast titles is something they need a little work at…). Today’s stood out: Survey: No Cash On Hand At 12% of Charities Wow. That’s an eye-catcher. Admittedly, I am not going to dig into the methodology today, as we have a lot on the plate, but, if accurate, things are even more volatile in the non-profit world than I had thought. America’s nonprofits expect that 2010 will be financially more difficult or as difficult as 2009, according to a survey, the results of which were released by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). And, some of them don’t have enough cash on hand […]

Calling all reporters!

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My last blog noted that states will now have to adopt the common core standards or give up much of a chance at the RttT funds. And, yes, I did call Arne Duncan a schoolmarm. 😉 So, one wonders, what exactly did DESE represent to their USED interrogators [;-)] earlier this week? Isn’t that a matter of public record? Will some reporter ask that question? If they don’t, we will.

EdWeek: Adopt standards or forget RttT funds

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Yesterday, the Globe published an editorial that made the reasonable argument that if Massachusetts’ academic standards are higher than the final product coming out of two trade groups, supported by the Obama administration, then the state should not adopt them. But the piece said more. It noted that The Obama administration isn’t going to force states to adopt the new standards. But it is implying that uncooperative states could hurt their chances for federal grants. There ought to be a way that Massachusetts can qualify for such funds without making unnecessary curriculum changes. Problem is that EdWeek‘s Catherine Gewertz published a report the very same day entitled “Ed Dept to States: In Race to Top, Only Common Core Will Do” […]

Don't give up pole position on standards!

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There is little to add to today’s Globe editorial on academic standards other than to applaud the detail and effort that went into hearing out all sides and making the right, nuanced judgment. “Don’t let national ed reform push down standards in Mass.” is a strong piece: MASSACHUSETTS JUMPED wholeheartedly into the fight to raise academic standards when other states were content to maintain a low profile and low expectations. Now, the Obama administration and the National Governors’ Association are trying to prod those other states into action by setting national standards for achievement in English and math. If the federal government starts awarding grants for adopting those standards, Massachusetts could stand to gain — but not if it is […]

A world without public sector unions?

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The Cato Institute just released a brief history of public-sector unionization and some recent data. The recommendation is as you might predict–a ban on collective bargaining in the public sector–but that is hardly an extreme position unless you think North Carolina and Virginia alien territory. After all, they do in fact ban it. Yeah, I know. But it is worth a read!

Kudos to Anne Wass

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Jamie Vaznis leads the Globe with a story that really needs a lot of attention — no matter what your view is. We’ve said it many times before: High academic standards are the lifeblood of high student achievement in our public schools — all of our public schools. We love public charters because they are effective delivery mechanisms, but would we want charters without high academic standards? No thanks. That’s one of the principal reasons why charters in other states often are as ineffective as their district school peers. You’ve seen my view on standards in many a blog post, so let’s applaud others for theirs — and let’s hope they remain strong on this issue. First kudos go to […]

NY Times decades behind on standards

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The editorial on the national standards in today’s New York Times is uninformed as to beggar belief. “National School Standards, At Last” argues that: The countries that have left the United States behind in math and science education have one thing in common: They offer the same high education standards — often the same curriculum — from one end of the nation to the other. The problem with the proposed national standards is not that they would be uniform, though there are good reasons to fear what they would mean for states like Massachusetts, which have used federalism to push ever higher. The principal problem is that the proposed standards are not high at all. The Times goes on to […]

MetroWest Daily: Not these national standards

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The MetroWest Daily today also published a different op-ed piece by Ze’ev Wurman and Sandy Stotsky on the national standards. The piece makes the point that the standards effort started out as a voluntary for states. But President Obama just announced that signing on to once voluntary standards would be a condition for receipt of federal funding, even though the standards aren’t even complete and recent drafts are woefully deficient. In short, the “Common Core College Readiness” standards wouldn’t get you into college. Our review of a recent draft finds that they fail to meet the requirements of almost all the nation’s state colleges and universities. The standards are not benchmarked against those in high-achieving countries. As a result, requirements […]

Worcester T&G: Keep nat'l standards voluntary

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Today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette editorial underscores that adoption of the national standards needs to remain voluntary. The core of the argument is that the federal government should not have “legal power” over the standards. Washington is pressing to command a greater role in dictating what American children should learn, and how they should be taught. The result could be a useful adjunct to local and state instruction, or a costly blunder into a thicket of bureaucracy that does real harm to taxpayers and students. A common set of education standards that draws upon the collective wisdom of educators could present underachieving states and school districts with successful models to emulate, such as those in Massachusetts. But such standards must […]

Wurman & Stotsky skewer the proposed national standards

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In the past days, the announcements by Minnesota and Virginia that they are most likely not going to adopt the common core standards drove giant holes right through the wall of consensus that the CCSSO and NGA have tried to maintain. Ze’ev Wurman, a high-tech executive in Silicon Valley active in developing California’s standards and assessments in the mid-1990s, and Sandy Stotsky, one of the nation’s top experts on academic standards, authored our research, Race to the Middle?, chronicling the numerous weaknesses in previous drafts of the common core standards drafts, as well as the soft conceptual underpinning for the whole effort. In today’s Boston Globe, they come out swinging on the public comment drafts. This is a must read, […]

Our Stand on Standards

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Seems our report and the release of the common core standards draft have set off a lot of interest in Massachusetts’ view, and especially in Pioneer’s take on the national standards effort. See Jay Greene’s blog for a long string of comments. Here is a bit of a longish overview of some of the issues we see in this from the Massachusetts and the national perspective. First, the Mass perspective: 1. Standards are the lifeblood of student achievement in public schools; and that includes even those site-based managed schools that are based on parental choice. You all know the stories of charters and voucher programs that don’t deliver the kind of transformational improvement we all want. In MA, our charters […]

And now VA takes a pass on national standards

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Bob Stuart of the News Virginian reports that now Virginia won’t jump onboard a push for national K-12 standards if it means dumping the state’s standardized test, the governor and other state officials said. … Some of the proposed English and math benchmarks already are partially embedded in Virginia’s standardized test, known as the Standards of Learning, or SOL, educators said. While Gov. Robert F. McDonnell supports the idea of international benchmarks, he said he does not want to substitute the core English and math standards for the SOL’s. “The commonwealth’s policies have demonstrated a significant commitment to accountability, benchmarks and positive education reform,’’ McDonnell said in a statement. “While we support the development of internationally benchmarked targets, we do […]

Hole punched in national standards effort

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As Sam Dillon of the New York Times noted our opposition to the national standards effort because it would weaken the Massachusetts standards. And now the opposition builds. Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota punched a hole in the life raft that the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association are drifting along on, together with all their fellow travelers, by refusing to join the national standards effort because it would entail weakening the state’s math standards: “The math portion of the draft K-12 education standards unveiled today would water down Minnesota’s rigorous standards that require students to take algebra by eighth grade. In a hypercompetitive world, Minnesota should not adopt less rigorous standards than we currently have […]