Student Achievement Archive

How long can a community stand by and watch tens of thousands of children being condemned to a life of poverty? Forty years and counting -- at least in Detroit.

That conclusion could be drawn from August’s ASBJ cover story, “Summer of Fate,” which examines the 1967 riots that ripped through Detroit. I examined the political, economic, and racial factors that fed the riots and continue to shackle the city’s academically and financially struggling school system.

As the article makes clear, poverty and its accompanying social ills pose huge obstacles to student learning. Meanwhile, school officials are hampered by limited resources in an economically troubled city.

What the article doesn’t do is convey the outrage that should accompany this reality. Year after year for two generations, academic failure has been the status quo. In a nation as wealthy as ours, with the values we hold, this situation should be intolerable and viewed as a crisis -- an overused, but applicable term in this case.

It might appear that Detroit is being singled out. But we all know stories of similar tragedies. Poverty is everywhere, and yet we go to bed each night without losing sleep over the academic failure of so many children.

So, where is our outrage?

Del Stover, Senior Editor

When you look at the racial demographics of school districts in metropolitan areas, do you see the promise of Brown v. Board of Education—or the legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson?

In case you don’t recall, Plessy was the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sanctioned the practice of racially segregated schools.

That old case came to mind while researching the August ASBJ cover story, “Summer of Fate,” which looks at the impact of the 1967 riots on the Detroit and Newark, N.J., schools—and what has happened in the four decades since.

After visiting both cities, I was struck by how tenaciously our nation has resisted true integration. Despite all our efforts, the lines of segregation remain sharply drawn between city and suburb—in both the neighborhoods and in the schools.

For educators, this reality has many implications. Students isolated racially will be less prepared to function in our increasingly diverse society and global economy. Issues of equity have—and will continue—to plague racially segregated schools.

Some say that school integration is a noble effort—but that making schools more successful is the higher priority. That sounds logical. Of course, in Brown, the argument was that segregated schools have—and never will be—truly equal. And, if we accept the idea of separate but equal, haven’t we come full circle and embraced the policies espoused in Plessy?
Del Stover, Senior Editor

She wore fuchsia.

There -- that’s the extent of my political observations concerning perhaps the most talked about, analyzed, and equally reviled and celebrated woman in America (who isn’t Paris Hilton). I’m talking about Hillary Clinton, who has a fair shot at becoming the next president of the United States.

And, by wearing fuchsia to a Washington, D. C., press conference on quality preschool education, the New York senator was boldly displaying her femininity while being careful not to appear too … oh, you finish the sentence. Because, truth is, there was about zero political intrigue at the liberal Center for American Progress last month. (And no refreshments, either.) The woman everyone claims to know -- “Tell me if she’s all fluff,” a friend asked earlier as I dropped my 3-year-old daughter off at preschool -- was poised, gracious, well-prepared, and extremely articulate.

Perhaps, then, we should focus on what she had to say. And what Clinton said is that the country is finally coming round to the belief that all children need quality preschool. Her Ready to Learn Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Christopher (“Kit”) Bond, R-Mo., would provide federal money to build on what states are already doing. Three years ago, only three governors made universal preschool a priority; today the number is 29.

Clinton appeared with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., whose Prepare All Kids Act also calls for more federal money for preschool. To learn more, see www.preknow.org. You’ll get lots of information -- minus the fashion commentary.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

I was 11 years old when Harry Potter broke loose. A year later, the Potter fad took America and my middle school by storm. A seventh grader, I thought I was too cool for Harry and his magical world. But eventually I caved, becoming enthralled with J.K. Rowling’s adventurous tales.

Nearly a decade later, I gathered with friends at Barnes and Noble as they waited to pick up the seventh and final Harry Potter book. It was a bizarre site, watching hundreds of adults and children -- some dressed up in Potter-like attire -- proceed through the store to pick up their books at midnight.

But despite the popularity of the Harry Potter series – Amazon.com pre-sold 2.2 million copies of the book and Borders sold about 1.2 million copies on day one – and the newly emerging young fans, childhood literacy is an increasing problem.

American 12th graders are currently performing worse in reading than 12th graders in 1992, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. According to NAEP 2005 test results only about 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading.

If you don’t think Harry Potter is high quality literature that ranks along side Great Expectations or Hamlet, you might want to think again. NAEP’s 2000 assessment of fourth-graders found that 87 percent of students who read for fun once a month or more, preformed at the proficient level, while students who never or hardly ever read for fun performed at the basic level.

Perhaps the Potter phenomenon has more worth than we think.

Sarah Karlin, ASBJ intern

I say proudly that I am the son of two career teachers. My mother worked 41 years in elementary schools, while my father taught middle school art and history in four different decades himself.

For that alone, he should have won a medal.

In 2004, my dad retired because of health reasons, somewhat unsure of the impact he had on countless adolescents who walked through the Texas City schools. But over the last three and half years of his life, which ended July 29, he was reminded of his employment legacy.

A student stopped by to say thanks as my father stood in the front yard. Another peeked into his hospital room and stayed to talk. Others mentioned his kindness, soft-spoken nature, and sense of humor.

Art was never far from his life, even when he taught history. Posters, models, and laminated pictures of various historic figures and people covered his classroom. One former student spoke of my dad’s unusual history lesson -- asking his classes to redesign the Texas and U.S. flags, using the elements of each, and then discussing their decisions.

If he were still working, my dad would have been a prime beneficiary of Texas City’s “Foundation for the Future,” which provides grants to deserving teachers. We were pleased to designate the foundation (www.texascity.isd.tenet.edu) as the place to send memorials in his name.

School districts across the country rely on foundations and outside organizations to reward teachers who take the extra step. You can read about establishing a successful foundation of your own on our website or in our magazine’s pages. If it’s something you’re not doing, consider it for your district.

And consider the thousands of teachers out there, just like my parents, who need that pat on the back for a job well done.

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief

“She didn’t say ‘I’m sorry’ respectfully,” my 5-year-old moans.

I really don’t need this. Not on Thursday morning. Not when my wife and I are rushing around like crazy people trying to get the house ready for the cleaning service -- yes, that’s right: clean the house for the cleaning service, and if you saw our house, you’d understand.

Now my elder daughter is telling me that her just-turned-3-year-old sister -- the angelic one on the sofa -- is not respectful enough.

Respectful? She’s 3-years-old! She doesn’t respect anything. (I take that back, she respects Elmo, and maybe Little Einsteins.) For the most part, though, she is a walking, talking, and yes, whining, Id.

Where did this culture of respect come from, anyway? From school, perhaps? At my elder daughter’s elementary school, the kids were once called “Peacemakers” -- which is sort of nice when you think of the war-like monikers that schools often adopt. (My Midwest high school, for example, was “The Bombers.”) And, given that the school serves a diverse community, I imagine teachers consider respect for others a key virtue.

Of course, it’s better to focus on giving respect to others than demanding it for ourselves (elder daughter take note). Think of the poor, inner city kids who engage in the futile ritual of demanding “respect” from their peers. Yet, even this is understandable, given that society as a whole doesn’t seem to respect these children much, either. Look, for example, at the paltry federal budget for children, something I write about in September’s ASBJ. You won’t find the word “respect” anywhere.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

For our September “What is Ready?” cover package, the editors of ASBJ interviewed educators, scholars, and researchers about the topic of student readiness for the 21st century. Over the coming weeks, we will post many of those interviews on asbj.com in our “online only” section.

Today, we kick off the series with answers to our questions from Richard Rothstein, the former New York Times education columnist and author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap. As you might expect from Rothstein, who has contributed a number of articles to our magazine, his answers are provocative and thought-provoking.

Here is an excerpt:

Editors: What is "ready"? What specific skills should students have when they leave high school to enter higher education or the workforce?

Rothstein: This is the wrong -- or at least too narrow -- question. Contemporary education policy places too much emphasis on preparation for higher education or the workforce. Our public education system, historically and today, exists for more than this. Also of great importance is preparation for citizenship, for community responsibility, for good health (physical and emotional), and for adult leisure which benefits from an appreciation of the arts and literature.

For example, for citizenship, what kinds of conflict resolution skills do students have? Do they accept a responsibility to support or dissent from public policies, when appropriate? Can they combine advocacy with respect for differences? For physical health, are they in the habits of regular exercise and good nutrition; do they engage in responsible and safe sexual practices?

A colleague, Rebecca Jacobsen, and I wrote about these multiple goals in the October 2006 issue of the American School Board Journal.http://www.asbj.com/MainMenuCategory/Archive/2006/October/WhatBoardsWantfromSchoolsDoc621.aspx In that article, we described a survey we conducted of a representative sample of NSBA members, confirming that school board members support a broader mission for public education than preparation for higher education or the workforce alone.

For more, go to our “Online Only” section and click on Q&A: Richard Rothstein.

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief

In what ways will schools morph and change to accommodate a new generation of learners and public expectations? The short answer: No one really knows. Barring a federal takeover, schools and communities now and in the future will still be able to exercise judgment on what to highlight, what to supplement, and what to ignore. That customization, after all, has been what’s made our public school system such a dynamic and unique entity.

Even with so many unknown variables, it didn’t stop us from stretching our imagination a few decades forward. My article in the What’s Ready package in September, “Educating Generation Z,” however, wasn’t simply some literary construct or tale of whimsy. Much of it, in fact, was derived from the ideas of education leaders and business professionals who have their finger on the pulse of the latest technological and pedagogical advances and where the two can merge.

R. Stanley Williams, director of the Hewlett Packard Quantum Science Research group, for example, envisions a school in the not-to-distant future where digital assistants, capable of real conversation, could respond to questions from students. Will Wright, a computer programmer and creator of SimCity, predicts entertainment media, like gaming or other simulation programs, will be used more by educators. One thing is certain: Nearly everyone who tried their hand at being a futurist foresees classrooms becoming much more than four walls where information can only be accessed between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

Just what exactly are these "21st century skills" that people keep talking about?

The editors of American School Board Journal attempt to provide some answers in this September’s issue. And I think, for the most part, they provide a fair answer to the question.

But I’m not entirely satisfied.

I was asked to write about the role of technology in the effort to prepare America’s youth for the future. In the end, however, my conclusion was modest: Today’s students need to know basic skills—reading, writing, math, science, history, etc.—and then they need to be taught how to think, solve problems, and work well with others.

The world is changing—and students do need more exposure to technology.

But I can’t shake the feeling that educators and policymakers are making too big a fuss over the details—those nuanced changes—needed to prepare students for the 21st century. The bottom line is that a good education is a good education. The graduate of an excellent school in 1840—one who was taught to think by his teachers—would likely do well in 2040.

Indeed, given how many of today’s students are falling short academically, I’d like to see every American student get what passed for a good education two centuries ago.

That’ll do plenty to make us globally competitive in the 21st century.

Del Stover, Senior Editor

Get ready for the doom and gloom report. SAT scores were released today, and the average of high school seniors dropped slightly in all three categories tested – reading, math, and writing.
The drops were minor (1 point in reading, and 3 points in math and writing), but you can expect the Chicken Littles who scream about every little decline to have their megaphones out. What they won’t talk about are some positives:

# Nearly 1.5 million members of the class of 2007 took the exam this past year, the largest and group on record. Minority students made up 39 percent of the total.

# Almost one-fourth of those taking the test did not use English as their first language. The 24 percent figure is up from 17 percent in 1997 and 13 percent 20 years ago.

# Fee waivers to take the test, administered by the College Board, also have grown by 31 percent in just two years.

You can twist the statistics around any which way, but I’m tempted to agree with College Board President Gaston Caperton, who said the numbers mean “an increasing number of students in this country are recognizing the importance of a college education and are taking the necessary steps to get there.”

What does this mean for interested board members and administrators? Take some advice from NSBA’s Center for Public Education (www.centerforpubliceducation.org), which notes the need for more advanced, rigorous courses (such as trigonometry and physics) that are available for all students.

“School board members should determine if rigorous courses are offered and ensure that students are on track to take these advanced classes from the time they enter high school (if not sooner),” the Center noted in its analysis of ACT scores, which were released earlier this month. “Although it is not an easy task, the payoff for preparing more students for college is tremendous.”

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief

“I don’t care if it’s not ‘kid-friendly,’” I said to myself. “I’ve got to see it.” So on the last day of the exhibit, my wife and I packed up our 3- and 5-year-old daughters for a trip downtown to the Corcoran Museum’s blockbuster show: Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939.

No, it was not a fiasco. I gave up trying to explain it to the little one (“See the car? See the funny man with four noses?”) and she still made it to the 1930s before the meltdown.

But what to tell her sister? “This is the art and architecture of your great-grandmother’s generation -- and it’s called, um, ‘modern.’”

I’m no expert, but I learned that Modernists believed art could create a dynamic, expansive environment, a Utopia even, for the new 20th century man. It didn’t work out that way, of course: The 20th century, with its two world wars and the Holocaust, signaled, if anything, the triumph of the old man -- his penchant for conformity, his weakness for authoritarianism and totalitarianism, his unimaginable cruelty.

Interesting, though, that while the Modernists were making their pronouncements and their art, another progressive thinker was espousing a vision of education that was every bit as revolutionary as the paintings of Picasso and the swirling edifices of Le Corbusier. John Dewey -- with his emphasis on reasoning over rote learning -- seems to have emerged from the 20th century more relevant, and necessary, than them all. For proof, just read the experts in September’s ASBJ story on 21st century skills. Listen to them talk about the need for problem solving and collaboration, for critical thinking and authentic learning. Sounds a lot like John Dewey to me.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Three reports -- two provocative and one time-honored standby -- were released today, pointing out severe flaws in the federal government’s response to schools affected by Hurricane Katrina, more information on rising segregation in the South, and the public’s attitudes toward public schools.

* The Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation (www.southerneducation.org) slammed the federal government with its new report, Education after Katrina: Time for a New Federal Response. In sobering detail, the 30-page report chronicles the losses for students from pre-K to the university level.

“Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the United States witnessed so many of its own students thrown out of school,” the report states. “During the last two years, however, the most powerful national government in the world has spent relatively small amounts of time, money, and effort in helping to set right the hurricane-displaced students and the schools they attend.”

* Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration Strategies, issued by the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA (www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu) describes what Gary Orfield calls “the racial realities in American schools.” The report criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court for taking away “useful tools for educators at the same time academic evidence clearly shows the benefits of desegregation,” and asks Congress to provide help to school districts.

* Finally, the 39th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools (www.pdkintl.org) revealed no great surprises. Local schools and school boards get high marks, while public education in general is only average.

What’s interesting about this year’s poll are the answers surrounding the public’s knowledge and support for No Child Left Behind. Almost half of those responding say they know very little about NCLB. And while the public is split on the law’s effect on public schools, NCLB gets less favorable reviews when people get more details.

Ah, those details…

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief

It’s tempting to see the Village School in Great Neck, N.Y., as a wave of the future.

It’s an unusual alternative school in an affluent Long Island community. While traditional alternative schools are for students with behavioral and academic problems, the Village School is for students in danger of getting lost in Great Neck’s two large, comprehensive high schools. It is not for the academically struggling student: The Village School is college-prep, with most students going on to four-year universities.

The school reflects many elements of the current high school reform movement -- small classes, a nurturing environment with lots of personal attention from teachers, challenging academics, and an emphasis on learning to think, speak, and write critically.

Students who attend the Village School were overwhelmed by their large high schools. Some suffer from social and emotional problems. Others face anxiety and difficulties with focus and organization. These problems are easier to deal with in the Village School’s intimate, low-key atmosphere.

You could make the argument that all high school students should learn in places like the Village School. When I mentioned this to Principal Stephen Goldberg, his answer surprised me. The Village School isn’t for every student, he said. He used himself as an example: His large, comprehensive high school gave him the chance to shine on a larger stage.

Those in the high school reform movement have cast the comprehensive high school as the villain that causes dropouts and creates places where kids feel anonymous at best and unwanted at worse. But can the large high school offer some good qualities to students who thrive on competition and lots of extracurricular choices?

Read about the Village School in my September article, “The Caring Village,” and judge for yourself.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

My elementary school was, like many of its era, named after the president. Except Roosevelt-Wilson was named after two.

In third grade, I asked my mom (a first-grade teacher at the school) about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. She promptly handed me an encyclopedia (remember those?) and showed me where the two fell in the line of succession.

Being a teacher, she encouraged me to read more about the presidents. “Why don’t you see if you can memorize them in order?” she asked. So I did, going from number 1 (George Washington) to number 37 (Richard Nixon) in short time. Then I learned what years they served, their parties, and the states they came from, forever cementing my status as a nerd in my third-grade class.

More than 30 years later, I still can name the presidents, including last names only in less than 20 seconds. (I call it my party trick.) I’ve taught two of my children to name them all as well, hoping that knowing the order will encourage them to learn more about each president’s place in U.S. history.

Sadly, only 7 percent of Americans can name the first four presidents in order, according to a new survey by the U.S. Mint. And only 22 percent know there have been 43 presidents to date. We shouldn’t laugh at the on-the-street skits that Jay Leno does on late night TV; we should be ashamed.

The Mint hopes to improve Americans’ knowledge base by issuing a series of $1 coins featuring each of the presidents. It also has developed a series of interesting facts and information on the presidents and posted them on its website (www.usmint.gov).

A worthwhile project? Indeed. Whether we test it or not, history continues to inform us, even though we seem to repeat our mistakes. Perhaps when the next survey is done, we won’t repeat this one.

Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief

I remember a high school classmate telling me how her parents had promised her a $100 bill for every A she brought home. I sensed an opportunity and quickly tried to broker a similar deal with my own padres. Not a chance. My grades were something I had to earn, through hard work, not cold cash, they reasoned, gosh darn them.

Of course, they were right, and their sage advice came to mind when I read about the peculiar grading system employed by one high school in southwest Florida. Apparently students taking honors journalism class at Naples High School aren’t evaluated merely on their writing skills or reporting abilities, but their salesmanship. According to the syllabus, $600 worth of ad sales will get you an A, $500 a B, and $400 a C; anything less than $300 and you’ve failed that particular assignment.

District officials and board members expressed concern upon learning about this particular assessment model. “It bothers me. I don’t think you should be able to buy a grade,” Collier County School Board Member Linda Abbott told a local television station. “We have to come up with a better way to encourage participation.”

Indeed, under this scenario, I would’ve been better off approaching my teacher, rather than my parents.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

For American teenagers, getting a drivers license is a right of passage. But is the allure and freedom of driving enough to keep students in school?

Illinois officials are hoping it is. A new state law will revoke the licenses of students who are expelled, drop out, or are chronically absent from school. The teens will have to wait until they are 18 to receive their licenses.

Last year, 24,000 students dropped out of Illinois schools. According to statistics, a loss of driving privileges likely will be the least of these teens’ problems if they don’t stay in school.

The median income of those 18 and older who dropped out of high school is $12,184, while the median income of those 18 and older who completed high school is $20,431, according to the National Drop Out Prevention Center. High school dropouts are also more likely to report being in worse health and comprise a disproportionably higher percentage of the country’s prison and death row inmates.

The National Drop Out Prevention Center also found about five of every 100 students enrolled in high school in October 2003 left without a diploma by October 2004. If a drivers license is enough to deter teens from dropping out, it may save them from a lifetime of unnecessary struggles.

Sarah Karlin, ASBJ intern

“Good job, Michelle,” Jerry Weast said to the pretty young woman sitting beside him, who had just made her presentation at a Washington, D.C., forum.

If that sounded a tad patronizing, remember that Weast, a grandfather who probably has a good 25 years on Michelle Rhee, is the nationally known superintendent of the Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools, the nation’s 16th largest.

And Rhee? Well, at the time of this Center for American Progress forum on turning around low-performing schools, she was just weeks into her first job in public education --- chancellor of the troubled District of Columbia Public Schools.

What an entry level job that is!

The enormity of her task is self-evident. While Weast and another veteran, Jack Dale of the Fairfax County (Va.) schools, spoke of helping individual students, Rhee, the neophyte, talked about the need to turn around an entire system. It reminded me of how veteran teachers often gravitate to the suburbs, leaving their rookie peers to fend for themselves in tougher urban schools.

That said, I think Rhee was a brilliant choice by Mayor Adrian Fenty. She’s bright, energetic, self-effacing (she told the forum that she was there to learn as much as anyone) but also tough and focused. As former head of the New Teacher Project, she knows public education but wasn’t in public education. She carries no baggage with the D.C. schools.

Is it naive of her to put the controversial issue of school consolidation near the top of her agenda? Maybe. But Rhee says it’s essential to close some of D.C.’s underused schools: schools of little more than 100 students that are too small to have the kind of enriching activities -- art, music, high-level science -- she said all students deserve. And she plans a comprehensive public relations campaign to get that message out.

I wish her well.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

I can’t tell you how much this article disturbed me …… OK I’ll try.

Recently, the Washington Post reported on research concerning our propensity to believe myths or untruths. In fact, not only are we more likely to believe falsehoods that are repeated over and over -- something one would expect -- we’ll believe them even in the face of denials, if those denials involve repeating the original false information. (As in, “I did not kick my dog.” Listener’s translation: “You are a dog-kicker.”)

It seems our minds are quite willing to believe either what we want to believe, or have been told to. And it’s not just silly urban legends: These beliefs have real consequences. As the Post noted, 59 percent of Turks and Egyptians, and 56 percent of British Muslims, believe Arabs were not responsible for the 9-11 attacks. Across the Atlantic, one in three Americans think Saddam Hussein was “personally involved.”

It’s probably obvious why this bothers me, but let me explain. I can’t think of anything that’s more important than the truth. And telling the truth -- or, at least, trying to get the facts straight -- is what journalism is all about. But if our minds are programmed to believe all sorts of fabrications, we reporters have our work cut out for us.

And so do the schools. Have you ever heard someone who had little or no knowledge of public education (and, perhaps, your connection to it) tell you how abysmal, how unsafe, how money-sucking -- whatever -- the schools were? I have. And I wonder how much of that comes from the mark of failure that influential detractors have been able to affix to them.

In his 1981 inaugural address, Ronald Reagan famously declared, “Government is not a solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Is it any coincidence that two years later a high-level commission would expand on that theme, declaring in A Nation at Risk that, had these government schools been foisted on us by a foreign power, we would consider it “an act of war?”

There are plenty of bad schools out there, but it’s not Canada’s fault. And fixing them will take more than sanctimoniously saying, “It’s the government’s problem.”

That Post article does offer one bit of hope. Not everyone believes the myths. “But the mind’s bias does affect many people, especially those who want to believe the myth for their own reasons, or those who are only peripherally interested and are less likely to invest the time and effort needed to firmly grasp the facts.”

The key, then, is to move the “peripherally interested” into the mainstream -- to show them why they should care about their schools, and learn the truth about them, learn their real problems as opposed to those fabricated by people who may not have the best interests of the public schools at heart.

It will take a lot of effort.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Leave it to the media to spoil any party; and I must admit, at Tuesday’s presentation of the fourth- and eighth-grade NAEP results in math and reading, I did my small part.

I’m sure you know the news by now: Average reading scores were up for all students, as were the scores of African Americans and Hispanics (although racial and ethic gaps showed little change). And the math increases were even bigger.

So, naturally, the second question from the media was:

“What’s wrong with Oklahoma?”

Yeah, what is wrong with Oklahoma, anyway? I’m sure that was foremost in your mind. (The state posted gains in math, but was down in reading from the 1990s.)

Next question? More nattering negativism: “Is the three-to-five-year estimate for closing the racial achievement gap [the estimate from Sacramento Superintendent David W. Gordon] overly optimistic?”

No, Gordon said.

And finally, from this reporter: “To what extent did NCLB have anything whatsoever to do with these increases?” (I didn’t mean to put such a pejorative spin on it, but what can I do? I’m in the media.)

“I don’t know how you would sort out the impact of one from another [state reforms from NCLB],” said Darvin M. Winick, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board. “But I think that the focus on data that NCLB encourages is a very positive impact.”

That was it: four questions. And, as the meeting was breaking up, I overheard someone remark that the media don’t know what to ask when the news is good. Oh, how the truth hurts!

But, seriously, when it comes to NCLB, I really do have an open mind. So open, in fact, that I don’t know what to think. Dedicated policy analysts from the Education Trust say the law is tantamount to educational civil rights for poor and minority children. On the other side, renowned author Jonathan Kozol is weeks into a partial hunger strike to protest the law’s impact on …. poor and minority children.

Is it a great law, a flawed bill that just needs tweaking, or a drill-and-kill abomination? I honestly don’t know. But as the law’s reauthorization makes its way through Congress this fall, I promise to keep asking those downbeat questions.

I’m in the media. It’s what we do.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

We’ve all had those times where we felt fate had a hand in our encountering an old friend. And the last place I ever expected to run across a college buddy was People magazine.

I actually have no interest in celebrity gossip. But a back issue was the only reading material available when I was getting my nails done one rainy day this spring. And sandwiched in between Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears was a blurb on Jeff Kinney.

Jeff’s first children’s book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was the must-read hit this summer. It’s about a rather geeky kid named Greg Heffley and his immature antics and quests to be popular in—or at least survive—middle school. The book, filled with cartoon drawings, really puts you in the mindset of a preadolescent who’s hopelessly misunderstood by his parents, friends, and the world at large.

Jeff’s biography doesn’t mention this, but Greg Heffley bears a strong resemblance to Igdoof, a very popular cartoon published in The Diamondback, the University of Maryland’s student newspaper, where we worked together several years ago. After graduation, Jeff moved to Boston, and he shopped a version of that strip to cartoon publishers to no avail. He told me a while back he was experimenting with a book and online comic strip, but we’d lost touch shortly afterward.

As it turned out, Jeff was experimenting with Greg’s tales of misadventures online while designing children’s games at Funbrain.com. But he credits sheer luck in meeting his editor at Harry N. Abrams publishers, who immediately saw the potential of this book.

The book’s currently number one on the New York Times’ children’s chapter book bestseller list, where it’s been hovering near the top since it came out this spring. Jeff’s gotten a five-book contract from Abrams and is hard at work on a sequel, when he’s not opening fan mail and letters from teachers happy to have found an inspiration for their reluctant readers.

Jeff’s story is another example of someone rewarded for passion and persistence. Check out my Q and A with him under Five Questions on our home page. We can’t wait to see where Greg Heffley goes next… personally, I’m hoping for a guest appearance by Igdoof.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Racism was a largely abstract concept for Gary Hannah for most of his life. He knew it existed. He sensed the influence of racial attitudes and stereotypes on our society. But he'd never confronted it face-to-face in his personal life.

At least, not until a few years ago, when he became principal of H.W. Byers High School in Marshall County, Miss.

That's when this black educator first came into contact with a segment of the population that he'd never before encountered -- poor, working-class whites. These were the kind of whites who generations earlier had joined the Ku Klux Klan. These were the poor farmers and laborers who had once supported Jim Crow so that -- as poor and politically powerless as they were -- they were not at the bottom of the social and economic ladder.

As Hannah tells it, only a few parents revealed their true feelings -- and they never said anything overtly offensive. There were no racial epithets voiced. It was more the attitude of these parents that spoke volumes. It was their sense of silent outrage that they had to deal with a black man in a position of authority.

This week, as I wander Marshall County to research an article for ASBJ, I'm hearing a lot of stories about the role that race plays in the public schools -- ugly stories from decades gone by and uplifting stories of today's hard-working educators. I look forward to sharing more of these stories in the future.

In the end, Hannah's story has a happy ending. A school administrator who knows his business, Hannah did not allow himself to be embittered or distracted by the foolishness of a few ignorant individuals -- instead he has worked to win the confidence of parents and community members. And he appears to be succeeding.

Whether he has won over that handful of parents who initially struggled to accept him . . . that remains anyone's guess.

Be sure to check back in November when my cover article on education and race in rural Mississippi is posted on www.asbj.com.

Del Stover, Senior Editor

Much is made of the lost educational opportunities of students living in desperately poor urban communities -- and rightly so.

But, as I toured rural Mississippi last week on assignment for ASBJ, I was struck by the plight of another at-risk population -- poor students living in economically depressed rural communities.

This is not a small group of kids. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are more than 10 million students living in rural communities -- and more than one-third are eligible for free and reduced price meals. Nearly one in five of poorer rural students eventually drop out of school.

In Potts Camp, Miss., a rural community of about 500, Principal Ken Basil doesn't cite statistics but true-life stories -- of high school girls who look no farther into the future than marriage, and boys ready to graduate and start a life of farming or factory work. For them, college is not a consideration.

That's a daunting mindset for Potts Camp educators to tackle. When a teacher organized a "college night" at the high school, only one parent showed up, Basil says. "That's the biggest challenge, changing the expectations here."

Basil hopes the school has turned a corner. About half of last year's graduates enrolled in college, he says, and teachers are constantly preaching the message that the world is changing -- and education is the key to the future.

I thought that message was obvious. I thought most students gave up on college because their families needed them to work -- or their academic failure discouraged them. But apparently I was wrong. And that makes me wonder: Whether your school district is located in a rural, suburban or urban community, how many of your students simply don't "see" the value of continuing their education? It might be more than you think.

Del Stover, Senior Editor

Educators often see the same trends circle back around every few years or decades. It’s now taken about 80 years for the push for community schools to come back into vogue, but community planners and leaders are realizing that school facilities can play host to many types of activities, for many ages.

Each year, the American Architectural Foundation and the Knowledgeworks Foundation honor a school and community that have built an exemplary example with its Richard Riley Award, named for the former U.S. Secretary of Education. Riley’s pet project since leaving office in 2000 has been facilitating community partnerships and advocating for better school buildings.

This year’s winner is Rosa Parks School at New Columbia Community Campus in Portland, Ore. The campus includes a new K-6 school, Boys and Girls Club, and a community center that offers a variety of classes and programs for non-school-aged residents.

Financing of the project also used a partnership: The campus was built on land donated by the Housing Authority of Portland and construction was paid for with market tax credits, which give investors tax breaks in exchange for a low-income community development project.

And perhaps most impressive, the facility has received a Gold LEED certification for its sustainable design and environmental practices—something that will give back to the community for generations.

For more information about community schools and an update of how schools in New Orleans are being rebuilt as the centerpieces of their neighborhoods, there’s a terrific article in October’s ASBJ written by architect Steven Binger and Martin Blank and Amy Berg from the Coalition for Community Schools. For more information about this school or the award, check out AAF’s website at www.archfoundation.org.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

“Write about my school!” my daughter says, all excited, as I’m trying to get her to bed.

I’ve told her before what I do for a living, but it’s never made quite the impression as right now. Unfortunately, “right now” is nearly 9 p.m. -- way too late for a first grader on a school night -- so I dismiss her suggestion, as parents are prone to do, with an “OK. Sure, I will.”

The next night at dinner, she’s drawing a picture.

“How do you spell ‘elementary?’”

I tell her.

“Three Es?”

“Yes, three Es.”

She gives the crayon drawing to me, and it does indeed look like the entrance to her elementary school in Arlington, Va. Great, I say. I’ll take it to work.

“It’s to remind you to write about my school,” she emphasizes.

I was going to write today about this article in Education Next and its monumentally unfair comparison of -- of all people -- Richard Rothstein, a dogged advocate for poor children, and Charles Murray, co-author of the infamous Bell Curve. See, Ed Next says, they both say there are limits on what schools can do to help the poor, and…. But that can wait. I’ll tell you instead about my daughter’s school, McKinley Elementary, and her first day of kindergarten last year.

Like all parents preparing to enter the world of public education, we were, to put it mildly, nervous. And a lot of our fears were concentrated on the thought of putting our just-turned-5-year-old on that big yellow bus. (Would she be scared? Probably, seeing as how we were reacting.)

The first day came, and it was raining in torrents. But we felt we had to put her on the bus anyway, even though we could have easily driven her. The kindergarten teachers were supposed to ride the buses that day, we reasoned, and if she missed it she might be even more frightened on Day Two.

So there we were -- my wife and I, our elder daughter in her newly purchased raincoat, her then-2-year-old sister in her stroller with the plastic tarp all over it -- trudging through the downpour to the bus stop.

The bus arrived and it was … huge. And, as my daughter gamely stepped on, we realized that she was the only child on the bus, even though it had made at least four stops. Evidently, the other parents had sensibly decided to drive their kids to school.

Oh, and there was no teacher, either. We had it wrong: The teachers were riding the buses home, in the afternoon.

Mr. Jose, the kindly bus driver nearing retirement, could read our faces. He looked down at us, a near-silhouette in the driver’s seat.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll take care of your baby.”

And that was it; the huge yellow bus turned the corner with a roar, and we said goodbye. I can’t adequately describe the emotions I felt at that moment, but I’m sure you can understand. It was a mix of apprehension and pride, a little sadness, and this overwhelming feeling that were joining something much bigger than us.

As school board members, teachers, principals, and administrators, you serve that “something much bigger than ourselves” that is public school. There is no one -- no one -- who has a more important job than you.

You take care of my baby.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Why is it that America’s public schools invest more than $8 billion a year in special education but no more than $800 million to maximize the potential of our most gifted students?

I’ve been asking that question for weeks, ever since reading these figures in an intriguing Time magazine cover story, “Are We Failing Our Geniuses?”

Three million or so students in K-12 schools are considered academically gifted, estimates the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). Of those, Time writes that 62,000 students have an IQ of 145 or higher -- what many would consider highly to profoundly gifted.

Exploring the NAGC website -- and other articles and research available online -- it appears too few of our schools truly know how to maximize the potential of their smartest students. What’s more, it appears federal and state spending on gifted education has been on the decline in recent years.

All of this raises some interesting questions about the America’s priorities. Certainly we need to give special education every opportunity to grow to their full potential. But aren’t our smartest kids entitled to the same opportunity?

As Congress works on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, perhaps it’s time policymakers put some attention on the education of our highest-achieving kids. After all, we are worried about the nation’s ability to compete globally in the 21st century.

At least, we say we are.

Del Stover, Senior Editor

I’ll bet you didn’t know it, but Richard Rothstein, author of Class and Schools, and Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, are soul mates. Or, as Jay P. Greene puts it in the fall issue of Education Next -- complete with a ridiculous photo illustration of the liberal Rothstein and right-wing Murray in matching cowboy hats and boots -- “The Odd Couple.”

You see, both Murray and Rothstein say there’s a strict limit to what school reform can do to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students, and whites and minorities. Rothstein attributes this limit to poverty; for Murray, it’s all about IQ.

There is a small measure of truth to Greene’s argument -- very small. Some on the left cite Rothstein’s work to argue that schools don’t need to improve that much, that it’s all society’s fault.

Similarly, on the right, Murray’s acolytes contend that that no matter how much schools improve, there’s only so much a low-IQ child can achieve. This argument makes some sense when you consider the illogic in proclaiming that all students must meet “high standards” on state tests: Ether some students won’t meet the standards, or these standards aren’t really all that high after all. You can’t have it both ways.

Where Murray goes off the deep end, of course, is to attribute these IQ differences to race. And this is why the supposed comparison to Rothstein is so unwarranted. In fact, the two could not be more different.

Murray believes IQ is immutable, largely fixed at birth. It makes a convenient pretext for not investing in poor kids, who, on average, perform lower on IQ tests than rich ones.

Rothstein, by contrast, says that for poor children, school achievement -- read IQ or activities that presume to reveal IQ -- is highly influenced by a myriad environmental factors: lead in drinking water, poor nutrition, the explosion of asthma cases, and the lack of adequate dental care in poor communities. His point is not that schools can’t improve, but that meaningful achievement gains will not occur among disadvantaged children until America makes a commitment to alleviating the conditions of poverty.

Fortunately, Rothstein has some compelling research on his side. Years ago, studies of identical twins raised separately showed little environmental impact on intelligence. Such research helped inform controversial books like The Bell Curve, which claimed that, on average, African Americans have lower IQs than whites. However, because these studies were done almost exclusively on middle class twins, they failed to account for the impact of poverty. When Eric Turkheimer, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, looked at a wider cross-section of twins, he made a groundbreaking discovery: For the poor kids, environment was the key.

Just like an elementary school experiment in which one bean plant fails to thrive because it’s put in a cupboard rather than on the windowsill (the apt analogy of a writer at UVa’s Oscar magazine) poor children fail to thrive to their genetic potential.

“We found that for the poorest twins, IQ seemed to be determined almost exclusively by their socioeconomic status, which is to say their impoverished environment,” Turkheimer told Oscar in 2005. “Yet, for the bet-off families, genes are the most important factor to determining IQ, with environment playing a much less important role.”

Murray looks at the bell curve of student achievement and says, “Why bother?”

“There is no reason to believe that raising intelligence significantly and permanently is a current policy option,” he wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, “no matter how much money we are willing to spend.”

Rothstein looks at that same bell curve and sees a national imperative to address the poverty and inequality that have kept too many disadvantaged children from reaching their potential.

He is a much different thinker than Charles Murray.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

We all know what poverty means … or do we? Ever since the federal government attempted to define poverty in the 1960s, critics have argued that those guidelines are inaccurate and out of touch with reality.

The debate has grown and splintered in recent years, with some saying poverty is as much about choices as it is about circumstance, while others decry that viewpoint as myopic and ignorant of the very real institutional infrastructures that limit the mobility of the indigent.

Poverty makes an educator’s job that much harder because poverty typically doesn’t travel alone. It comes with lower levels of literacy, health issues, poor nutrition, and a host of other social ills that schools must face and conquer.

If that’s not enough, schools are increasingly seen as the great equalizer, the one place where one can increase their chances for success and a better future. In studying new data released from the Internal Revenue Service, the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119215822413557069.html) recently discovered the gap between the richest and poorest American has continued to grow.

Many academicians cited globalization and the associated skills needed to compete in a “flat world” as the reason for the chasm and Bush, himself, told WSJ that a good education, especially one that incorporates 21st century skills (read "What's Ready" http://www.asbj.com/MainMenuCategory/Archive/2007/September.aspx in September ASBJ for a comprehensive look on this topic), was one of the few sure ways to combat the economic inequality.

Bottom line: Educators, you have your work cut out for you.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

Ellen Moir, of the New Teacher Center, calls it “mentoring lite,” and -- wouldn’t you know it? -- it doesn’t work.

That’s when, for example, a principal asks a roomful of teachers: “Who here would like to mentor a new teacher? Raise your hands.”

The volunteers later respond by placing little notes in their new buddies’ mailboxes, saying: “Have a nice day; call me if you need help.”

Smiley faces optional.

Moir and her colleagues at the New Teacher Center were in Washington, D.C., to call for something quite different: “comprehensive, high-quality, thoughtful” induction policies for new hires. Research by her group, based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, (see www.newteachercenter.org), shows that comprehensive mentoring not only dramatically increases teacher retention, it also makes these new teachers better faster -- thus improving student achievement. Indeed, according to NTC research, for every dollar spent on quality teacher mentoring, society saves $1.66 after five years.

So why are superintendents typically lukewarm to the idea? Moir suggests it’s because they have so much on their minds and are reluctant to invest significant dollars in a program whose true benefits may not appear for several years.

If that’s true, it’s shortsighted. And I’d hope that if superintendents are skeptical, their school boards would do their homework, research the issue, and bring those findings to their superintendent’s attention.

Of course, this all costs money. But NTC says it can also be a question of redirecting available funds. In addition, there are several bills in Congress to provide more federal money for new teacher support, including separate initiatives by Sen. Jack Reed, (D-R.I.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

“I have to be honest with you, it took me five years to be an effective teacher,” Amy Treadwell, a Chicago teacher now mentoring in a NTC-sponsored program, said at the briefing. Unfortunately, she added, “Those kids on the south side of Chicago don’t have five years: They don’t have five years for teachers to figure it out.”

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

The idea struck me as counterintuitive. After all, how many supervisors would give a worker struggling with a small task a bigger project? Maybe it’s not the best analogy, but it’s pretty close to what New York education officials are proposing for the 12,000 students on the brink of dropping out.

Desperate to keep the students from giving up on school, the state’s Board of Regents approved a plan on Tuesday that would place at-risk students in college courses, where they could earn college credit while still in high school.

Dual-enrollment program have found success in many school districts across the country, but New York’s version would be one of the first to specifically target potential drop outs.

Risky? You bet, though most of the lawmakers and bigwigs in New York seemed willing to take that risk.

“Especially with the expense of college being what it is, if you can get kids from disadvantaged families to complete work in high school, they would be saving substantial dollars,” Manhattan assemblywoman Deborah Glick told the New York Times.

Ok, hold on a minute. We’re not just talking about disadvantaged kids, even though statistically, many underperforming students do come from impoverished backgrounds.

Who we’re talking about are students that, for a variety reasons, have become disillusioned with school and the solution, from a practical and analytical standpoint, doesn’t seem to me to include making what is already difficult for them, even more challenging.

I wouldn’t tell someone who is obese that the way to solve their weight issues is to train for a marathon. The lofty goal may work for some, but it seems that individual would be better served to examine why they battle weight problems in the first place and what they could do simply, everyday to win that battle.

Not all students want to go on to a university and not all students have to. I understand the power of setting goals high, but let’s not set them so high we forget to deal with what’s in front of them.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

Call me a nerd if you want to, but I really like this book. It’s called The New Meaning of Educational Change, and it’s not exactly beach reading.

I’ll admit I was skeptical -- both (generally) of my upcoming assignment to write about change, and (specifically) of this 338-page tome by Michael Fullan, an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto, which I found using the time-honored research method of typing “educational change” in Google and seeing what came up.

It turns out this is the fourth (!) edition of this same book, hence “new” in the title. It seems the professor has been writing about this subject for some 25 years. Is there really that much to say about change? I thought. Can’t you -- in the immortal words of the philosopher Nike -- “Just do it?”

I was wrong. Far from being irrelevant and “academic” -- in the worst sense of the word -- the book goes to the heart of why schools and school districts have such a hard time with what Fullan calls “innovativeness.”

“We vastly underestimate both what change is … and what factors and processes account for it ...,” Fullan writes