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Stimulus Providing Big Funding Boost For Early Childhood |
By: PR Newswire Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) is calling on President Obama to establish the Commission which would work to identify and address longstanding disparities in educational opportunity resources. As envisioned by Representative Fattah, the Commission would partner with states to lay a foundation that would ultimately provide comparable resources to all of the nation's schools. "We can not expect equivalent returns without equivalent deposits," said Fattah. "Fully investing in every student, in every school will reap dividends beyond measure. Our children deserve it and our conscience demands it." A meeting with Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan left Fattah encouraged that establishment of the Commission is being considered at the highest levels of the Administration. In addition to Jonathan Kozol, the latest to endorse the Commission include: Organizations Concerned about Rural Education - a coalition of national education, rural, cooperative and business organizations, the Schott Foundation and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Author Kozol in a letter to Fattah wrote, "I enthusiastically endorse your call for President Barack Obama to establish a National Commission on Educational Opportunity with the responsibility of studying the degree to which children in different schools, districts, and states receive the resources critical for meeting high and ambitious academic standards." Organizations Concerned about Rural Education President Dale Lestinasaid, "Such a Commission could provide new information to aid state and federal policy makers in their decisions about the allocation of resources to public schools." NAACP Washington Bureau Director Hilary Shelton said, "Once again Congressman Fattah has taken the initiative in ensuring equitable resources for all students. The National Commission on the Opportunity to Learn is an important step in ending the achievement gap, and providing all of our students equal educational opportunities. The NAACP supports this long overdue effort to bring real opportunity to America's students." The growing list of Commission endorsers now includes:
Stimulus Providing Big Funding Boost For Early Childhood
By Christina A. Samuels Advocates for early-childhood education are taking President Obama at his word that the billions of dollars for programs like Head Start included in the recent economic-stimulus package are merely a “down payment” on future expansion. Expansion PlansStimulus money for early-childhood programs is also contained in other funding streams. For instance, Part C and Section 619 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—programs that serve children with disabilities from infancy to kindergarten age—are receiving $900 million. Pre-K Competition?One early-childhood constituency to watch will be prekindergarten programs, said Sara Mead, a senior research fellow with the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. While the bulk of stimulus dollars in education will flow through individual states’ school finance formulas, prekindergarten programs are often funded through a different revenue source in state budgets.
In Budget Talks, Higher Tax Brackets and No Increase in School Spending SCHOTT GRANTEE NEWS
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and the Legislature have tentatively agreed to freeze state education aid and trim back a proposed tax increase on health insurers, while the Assembly and Senate have both begun serious discussions about the size and structure of an income tax increase for the wealthy, virtually ensuring its inclusion in the final budget deal. They are also close to agreement on overhauling New York’s scandal-plagued Empire Zone program, officials and lawmakers involved in the discussions said on Thursday. Mr. Paterson’s proposal to allow grocery stores to sell wine appeared headed for defeat on Thursday night, as did a major expansion of the state’s recycling laws, which earlier this week appeared to have won the approval of key lawmakers. But with this year’s budget negotiations shrouded in unprecedented secrecy and Democrats in the narrowly divided Senate still undecided on major spending items, it remained impossible to say with any certainty which deals would remain on the table when the budget deadline arrives at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his staff have been particularly close-mouthed; when Mr. Silver does speak, he sometimes contradicts what other Assembly members have said. Emerging from a meeting Thursday evening with the governor and Malcolm A. Smith, the Senate majority leader, Mr. Silver would not discuss any detail of agreement, saying only that he was optimistic the budget would be finished soon. But Mr. Silver and Mr. Smith said they were negotiating a bailout of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — which on Wednesday voted for substantial fare increases and service cuts — in tandem with budget talks. “Nobody likes the actions of the M.T.A. board, in terms of outrageous fare increases and outrageous service cuts,” Mr. Silver said. “So we’re going to have to take some less outrageous actions to raise some revenue to avoid those actions.” Mr. Smith said they were “looking at every option” to avoid the steep fare increases, some of which will otherwise go into effect on May 1. Though some senators appeared to support using money from an income tax increase to bail out the authority, Mr. Silver said he “would be surprised if that’s the conclusion.” Officials involved in the negotiations said that with the economy continuing to deteriorate, the state faced a budget deficit of more than $10 billion in the next fiscal year, even after factoring in $6.5 billion in federal stimulus aid. The gap has become so large, the officials said, that the final budget is now certain to include both severe spending cuts and some form of income tax increase. The only question remaining is how much of each. The rough agreement on education aid would use the federal stimulus to restore some of Mr. Paterson’s cuts but essentially postpone $1.5 billion in new aid due to New York’s schools under a 2006 court decision, leaving spending unchanged from last year. Advocates for increased education outlays said they would continue to pressure lawmakers. “President Obama and the Congress did their part, prioritized education, and gave New York sufficient education funds to restore cuts to last year’s budget levels,” said Geri D. Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, an education coalition whose lawsuit led to the 2006 ruling. “New York State must now commit its fair share of state resources to make a down payment on the third year of C.F.E. funding.” Assembly Democrats have proposed adding three higher brackets to the income tax for individuals making $300,000, $500,000 and $1 million. The new taxes would raise roughly $4 billion, according to Assembly projections. The current top rate of 6.85 percent applies to those who make $40,000 a year or more. Senate Democrats discussed a range of proposals on Thursday night, including one that would raise taxes for those making $500,000 and above, but at a higher rate than the Assembly plan. Others are pushing for a plan that would raise as much as $6 billion, with some dedicated to the transportation authority, though that would meet resistance from Mr. Paterson and Mr. Silver. A tentative agreement on expanding the recycling law, which would require a nickel deposit on water bottles, appears to have been scuttled in the Senate. And the proposal to allow grocers to sell wine — which Mr. Paterson hoped would raise $100 million in new revenue — has met sharp resistance in the Assembly, where Mr. Silver appears opposed to a compromise that would allow liquor stores, in exchange, to sell items like cheese and crackers. “I don’t understand why people are so opposed to it,” said Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, a Manhattan Democrat. “But I think it is gaining momentum in the Assembly and is something that could still possibly go forward.” The three leaders appeared to have agreed to drop $120 million in tax increases on insurers, a victory for the health care lobby. But fewer details were available on the Empire Zone program, which has provided billions in tax breaks to New York businesses but has become so riddled with abuse that some lawmakers have pushed to shut it down. Administration officials said that they expected significant changes to the program but that specifics were still being negotiated. The only pronounced pushback on an income tax increase came from Tom Golisano, the Rochester billionaire and political gadfly, who visited the Capitol on Thursday express his displeasure. With the state’s top elected officials largely absent from public view, Mr. Golisano said their budget would continue to make New York less competitive than other states, while failing to contain spending growth. “We can’t spend that much more money than we take in and expect the federal government and the credit suppliers to bail us out year after year,” Mr. Golisano said. His political action committee, Responsible New York, worked to tip the balance of power in the Senate toward the Democrats in last year’s elections, but he warned that that could change. “Responsible New York probably had a leaning towards the Democratic Party this year,” Mr. Golisano said. “Maybe next time that leaning won’t be there.”
By CASEY SEILER, State editor Released as the Legislature is weighing a range of proposals to do just that, a new open letter to Gov. David Paterson and legislators asks that any budget cuts to programs affecting education, health care and the poor be ameliorated by "an increase in income taxes on those who can afford it — which means us." The letter was organized by a consortium of groups, including Responsible Wealth, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and the Fiscal Policy Institute. The signatories include New York residents as well as those who live outside New York but pay in-state income tax. "I've been pretty lucky, and I've always felt that a disproportionate share of the tax burden falls on lower-income people," said Chet Opalka of Averill Park, who put his name on the letter. The well-known philanthropist and founder of Albany Molecular Research said that government tends to "cut in all the wrong places" — from the arts to education — and that he's equally committed to tightening up government spending. Even so, Opalka said, "In these times, it's important for the haves to take care of the have-nots." In a news conference Monday, Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness said the letter's signers were collected according to the state Division of Budget's definition of what constitutes the upper strata of New York wealth: more than $200,000 of adjusted gross income. The names were collected from the members of Responsible Wealth, as well as through a call-out to board members of nonprofits, including many of those likely to face cuts under the proposed budget. "As human service providers, we don't have access to the country club listserv," said Deutsch. Also Monday, the three most powerful state leaders likely to receive the letter — Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — said there was no agreement on a plan to boost the income tax on the wealthy as part of the fiscal budget that's due at the end of the month.
A Diverse Set of Voices Struggles to Be Heard on School Control SCHOTT GRANTEE NEWS
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ Zakiyah Ansari sat in the back row of the auditorium at New York City College of Technology with a dog-eared sign reading “Don’t Believe the Hype!” For the fifth time in seven weeks, Ms. Ansari had spent a long day at a public hearing of the State Assembly’s Education Committee on whether to renew the 2002 law that gives New York City’s mayor control over its schools and expires on June 30. She had grown accustomed to the vending-machine lunches, the long slogs to unfamiliar corners of the city and hours upon hours of quarreling between lawmakers and bureaucrats from the City Department of Education. And she was hardly alone. Several hundred people turned out for the final hearing on Friday in Downtown Brooklyn, many waking early to car-pool or ride the bus with their friends and stake out seats. Each hearing followed a familiar routine, taking on the aura of a trial with lawmakers as the chief prosecutors. Each morning around 10 a.m., a familiar set of players filled the seats: education policy devotees, advocates for teachers and, in large numbers, parents affiliated with organizations that either feverishly oppose or passionately support the idea of centralized power. Often they stayed until after dark. Ms. Ansari, a mother of eight (four currently in public schools), is part of a group called the Campaign for Better Schools, which has suggested major changes to the system of mayoral control. When an Assembly member asked Department of Education officials for graduation rates for black and Hispanic students on Friday, she shook her head as education officials seemed unable to find the numbers. “How do you forget that?” Ms. Ansari said quietly. Then she held up a report by her group containing the bleak numbers and proclaimed, “I have them!” City officials ultimately found the data, showing a gap of as much as 26 percentage points between white students and black and Hispanic students. “That does not show racial progress,” Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries said. “That is an embarrassing number.” On the other side, members of the East Brooklyn Congregations, rallied in the early-morning snow, moving into the auditorium to cheer and stomp their feet as their minister testified in support of the mayor. At one point, the group gathered in the hallway to pray. “We ask you, God, that our children be kept first,” said the minister, the Rev. David K. Brawley. Enrique Diaz, 17, a member of the group, had not heard of mayoral control before Thursday. But when his economics teacher at Bushwick Leaders’ High School for Academic Excellence explained the concept, he decided to attend the hearing. He said he supported keeping mayoral control of the school system. “Education should be our first priority,” he said. “I think if control stays in the city, they can provide more services to the children.” Earlier in the day, William C. Thompson Jr., the city’s comptroller and a candidate for mayor, outlined a detailed position on the city’s education system for the first time, to cheers from critics of the mayor in the audience. At the center of Mr. Thompson’s proposals were significant changes to the Panel for Educational Policy, the 13-member body that replaced the old Board of Education; critics say it has turned into something of a rubber-stamp board for the mayor’s policies. Mr. Thompson proposed creating a 19-member advisory board of teachers, parents, business leaders and administrators that would nominate three people for each of nine seats and allow the mayor to choose among them. Currently, he appoints 8 of the 13 panel members on his own. Mr. Thompson also echoed critics of mayoral control in calling for more channels for parental participation, an independent body to audit data and more power for local education councils. “The current administration has sought to avoid debate and public scrutiny,” Mr. Thompson said, “while fundamental decisions regarding education reform have been made by executives with very little education background.” As the day progressed, city officials sparred with lawmakers over test scores, class size, test preparation and no-bid contracts. Parents booed, hissed and applauded, flashing signs and passing out pamphlets. Two of the heavyweight parent groups at the hearings were the Campaign for Better Schools and Learn NY, a nonprofit organization that supports mayoral control. Both organizations estimated that they had recruited hundreds of parents to attend the hearings. Some parents — and children — had negotiated days off from work and school to attend. A group of older women knitted as officials droned on about national test scores and contract procurement. Laura Acosta, an organizer for Learn NY who does not have children in public schools, said that she had learned over the course of the hearings that even representatives of warring groups could find common ground. She said every parent she had spoken with agreed that parents should have more of a voice in education decisions. “If people really took the time to listen to each other,” she said, “maybe we can come to some sort of happy place.”
2,000 teacher jobs could be cut absent fair share of stimulus cash, Chancellor Joel Klein warns
BY Elizabeth Lazarowitz About 2,000 teaching jobs could be cut if the state denies the city its fair share of federal stimulus funding, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein warned Thursday. "Today, as we prepare to cut back more, we have no choice but to reduce the number of dollars sent to our schools," Klein told City Council members at an education budget hearing. The state is expected to hand over between $360 million and $500 million to city schools in federal economic stabilization funds, Klein said. If the city is given the lower number, the average school budget will drop 8% in the upcoming school year, and about 2,000 teaching positions - some currently unfilled - would go, he said. Even under the better scenario, school budgets will still need to be cut 6%, Klein said. That will mean "significant layoffs" of nonteacher school-based staff, such as school aides. Schools also will have to slash tutoring and after-school programs. "We may still not be able to avoid a small reduction in teachers," Klein added. Klein said it would be tough to make deep cuts at Education Department headquarters because 8% of administrative jobs were just cut this year. Klein also defended spending on a new data tracking system, saying that he expects additional federal funding to cover the costs. Teachers union chief Randi Weingarten railed against the suggestion that cutting teachers and school staff is a necessary evil. "We need to cut things that ... aren't core," she said.
State education leaders plan to inject a reality check this fall into the "good class versus bad class" debate by tracking the performance of individual students as they advance from one grade to the next. The new measurement could shed light on who is falling short, teacher or pupil, and lead to fundamental changes in the way students are taught. Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said yesterday that the new analysis will make it harder for local school leaders to be dismissive of poor test scores. "It takes away a lot of the excuse-making," Chester said at yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, where the new system was unveiled. Under the current system, the state judges a school's success by comparing its MCAS scores at each particular grade level with the scores posted by that grade the year before. The English and math MCAS tests are given in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10. Many teachers and administrators have called the approach an apples-and-oranges comparison because the variation could simply reflect a class of particularly gifted or challenged students. The problem can be especially acute at small schools, where there are only a few dozen students at each grade level and the performance of a handful of students can create dramatic shifts. Using the new tool, the state will augment that analysis by examining the performance of individual students or classes of students over several years, starting in the third-grade. The examination of current and past scores will allow them to predict students' likelihood for improvement in the future and assess whether they are on track to meet expectations. If a number of a students at a particular school are exceeding the statistical predictions, that could indicate that the administrators and teachers there have identified promising teaching methods. If a number of students are falling short of predictions, that would indicate there could be a problem. The system could also lead to earlier interventions for students who appear to be lagging behind, despite an overall pattern of success at a school, and enable the state to more closely monitor the academic growth of groups of classmates of similar socioeconomic backgrounds. "It makes far more sense to track a population of kids, rather than just a grade level," said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, which has been pushing the state to adopt a student tracking system. "It's more of an apples-to-apples comparison." The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union and a longtime critic of MCAS, declined yesterday to comment on the new system, saying that the group needed to gather more information. The state will begin reporting the tracking scores this fall. The state will be able to gather scores from as far back as three years ago, when it began testing students across the board in grades 3 though 8 in English and math. Previously, the state only tested students in those subjects at certain grade levels. By taking a long-term view of student performance, state leaders hope to identify schools making huge leaps in student performance, even if those schools might be performing slightly below state averages. Those schools may have strategies that can be shared with other teachers and administrators in schools across the state where improvement is not as strong. The reports will also indicate whether each student is on track to reach the federal government's goal of proficiency, a basic understanding of skills and concepts in English and math, by predicting the student's probable range of scores in future years. The state will do that by comparing that student's record on the MCAS to older students who had similar records at that grade level. "I'm just blown away by the power and the potential of this kind of an analysis," said Thomas Fortmann, a state education board member from Lexington, during yesterday's presentation. "This is a poster child for strategic investment." Massachusetts is modeling its system after one in Colorado, which was developed by the National Center for Assessment, a consulting firm in Dover, N.H., that works with states on data analysis. Colorado just dispatched its first set of scores to schools this school year. "Instead of being a system that demonizes schools, it tries to shine a light on schools that have had successes," Damian Betebenner, a senior associate of the Dover consulting firm, said in an interview yesterday. Nevertheless, he emphasized that the system still holds administrators and teachers accountable for results, forcing them to examine whether a lack of progress was a result of their own shortcomings. Massachusetts, like Colorado, plans on seeking approval from the federal government to use the new system as another way to assess schools under the No Child Left Behind Act, which places sanctions on schools that fail to make progress over time. While helping underperforming schools was the thrust of yesterday's conversation, state officials say the system holds a lot of promise in homing in on a concern of parents at some high-performing schools: Are students excelling because of great programs or because of their own socioeconomic background? The data will show which schools might be resting on their laurels by finding scores that, although high, had improved only marginally compared to other schools. "We want to make an accountability system that is as fair as possible," said Jeffrey Nellhaus, a deputy education commissioner, after making the presentation to the board. "The more information we have on improvement and growth, the better."
Activists denounce education cuts at State House rally SCHOTT GRANTEE NEWS
By Matt Viser "Every school district is looking at layoffs and program cuts, even with stimulus aid," Leslie Nicholson, the state director for Stand for Children, said in a written statement. "And families everywhere feel a sense of urgency about protecting children from recession fallout." The group, which held the rally in Gardner Auditorium, called on lawmakers to implement new taxes and give cities and towns more tools to raise revenue and drive down healthcare costs. Lawmakers have not yet voted on whether to let municipalities raise taxes on meals and hotels, a proposal that has been pushed by Governor Deval Patrick. After the rally, residents from more than 90 cities and towns dispersed to deliver to lawmakers about 7,500 postcards carrying a plea: "All children deserve a quality education. All means all." Speakers at the event, which was hosted by House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, included Boston public schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, Lowell City Manager Bernard F. Lynch, and Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat and chairman of the Joint Committee on Revenue. The statewide organization, which has members in more than 70 communities, is also seeking more early education and expanded-day programs. They told lawmakers that with 10,000 Massachusetts students a year dropping out of school, children need quality education now and can't wait for the economy to turn around. Patrick announced $162 million in federal stimulus money for the state's public colleges and universities yesterday. Last week, Patrick said that he wanted to allocate $168 million to school districts that would otherwise fall below state-mandated funding levels. All told, the state is expecting US aid of $819 million to spend on public education over the next 27 months.
Despite fiscal crisis, education moves forward
Op-Ed by Paul Reville While the commonwealth is rightly focused on managing through difficult financial times and developing the action plan that will allow us to emerge from this crisis leaner and stronger, we have been hard at work implementing the governor's vision of a transformed education system. The most significant accomplishment of the year has been the governor's successful advocacy for the inclusion of education as a top priority in the new federal stimulus bill. It would be hard to overstate the significance of this federal aid, not just for Massachusetts but for every state and all of the nation's schools. Gov. Deval Patrick led the charge on this critical aid which will allow us to stabilize our public education systems while advancing aspects of our reform agenda. We have two main goals: improve the quality of teaching and learning, and ensure that each student is prepared to take advantage of an improved learning environment. The Readiness Project presented a set of strategies to build on our successes and accelerate the work to close persistent achievement gaps. Upon its inception this summer, the Executive Office of Education initiated the work of coordinating an integrated pre-kindergarten-through-higher-education system. No sooner had we begun than the global budget tsunami swept across Massachusetts. Notwithstanding the agonizing business of administering cuts, we moved to streamline budgets, achieve major cost savings and to emerge with a smarter, more powerful education system. First, we have chosen new leadership and at our education departments: Early Education and Care (EEC) Commissioner Sherri Killins started in February; Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) Commissioner Mitchell Chester started in May; and Higher Education (DHE) Commissioner Richard Freeland started in January. Strong education begins with strong leadership, and we have three dynamic leaders who are pushing an aggressive reform agenda. They meet regularly to engineer alignment of priorities and promote the collaboration we believe will improve our education delivery system, such as college readiness strategies crafted by teams of high school and college educators, early educators and higher education faculty designing programs to improve content knowledge in the early childhood sector, and elementary school teachers collaborating with early educators to identify school readiness indicators. Second, we have worked with each department on key initiatives that guide our reform work. EEC: The department has engaged in the expansion of universal pre-kindergarten grants, upgraded their Web site to aid families searching for child care providers, launched a new procurement process for providers, mounted a "Birth to 3" Task Force to target state policy on children's learning, and begun to develop a quality rating and accountability system for their programs. ESE: The department released regionalization planning grants to 12 communities, worked with their board to approve a new charter school in Gloucester and convene a task force on achievement gaps, increased the number of expanded-learning-time schools, and is developing a new accountability and support system to immediately address issues in underperforming schools and districts. DHE: The board approved new rules for measuring student persistence, moved to access tens of millions of dollars in federal student financial aid, maintained dual enrollment programs and is nearing a system-wide agreement on a transfer policy among the 29 campuses. Finally, we have begun releasing funds for long overdue campus construction as part of the governor's historic, $2 billion higher education capital bond bill. We have accomplished much in our office: The Readiness Cabinet is progressing on the work to integrate health and human services and educational systems to improve child readiness through collaboration and building a data management system. The Dropout Commission is providing critical guidance as we continue our work to keep students engaged and on track to graduate. We are building partnerships with colleges, school districts and charter school providers to aid in the development of Readiness Schools, autonomous, in-district, charter-like schools. The Task Force on 21st Century Skills presented a report detailing how we can strengthen our schools and set higher expectations for students by ensuring they can apply and demonstrate their core knowledge and an array of "hard" skills demanded by 21st century employers. And working with the governor, we proposed a new approach to charter school accounting and lifting the cap in ways which target our neediest students and our best charter schools. The responsibility of leadership is to project a vision and to engineer progress in order to realize that vision. We cannot afford to back away from our vision of the more robust education system outlined in the Readiness Project if we are to meet the 21st century needs of our students, our society and our economy. We will move ahead in spite of formidable challenges because of our commitment to deliver on our education ideals and the promise of education reform: equity and excellence.
U.S. Must Learn From International Peers, Report Says
By David J. Hoff To respond to the Obama administration’s call for common educational standards, federal officials need to take advantage of several resources that will show where the United States stands compared with other developed countries, a group advocating such standards says in a new report. The United States has "tunnel vision" when it comes to comparing the performance of its students, its educational expectations of students, and policies affecting every level of education, the Alliance for Excellent Education writes in a policy brief released today. While other countries "eagerly compare" themselves against their peers, the report says, the United States "ignores the opportunities to learn from its international peers in education." The Alliance for Excellent Education is working with the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and other groups to establish a method for making such comparisons, often called international benchmarking. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have given such efforts a boost since taking office by endorsing attempts to produce common, or national, standards that are in line with what other countries expect of their students. In a March 10 speech on education, President Obama said that other countries are ahead of the United States in creating internationally competitive education standards. Mr. Duncan has said that he would allocate portions of a new $5 billion innovation fund to support efforts to increase the rigor of education standards. Potential Flaws In its policy brief, the Alliance for Excellent Education says the United States should increase its participation in testing and policy research conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based organization of developed countries, including the United States. While the United States participates in OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, no U.S. states or cities provide big enough samples to measure their performance. In many OECD countries, provinces and cities participate in PISA to compare their results against other countries’, says the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based nonprofit advocating policies to improve the quality of high schools. Lessons from such research could be "an important piece" of the benchmarking process, Bob Wise, the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, said in an interview. Other countries actively use the research and the OECD’s consulting services to help improve and refine their policies, said Andreas Schleicher, the director of OECD’s division of education indicators and analysis. "It's at the center of the policy debates in most OECD countries," Mr. Schleicher said. While other countries have embraced the OECD’s work, one prominent researcher questions whether the group’s data are good enough for the United States to use in making policy decisions. "Our standards of evidence across all kinds of methods are higher than the OECD's," said Mark S. Schneider, the vice president for special initiatives in the education, human development, and the workforce division at the American Institutes for Research, a Washington-based company. Mr. Schneider was commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2008. What's more, the OECD's researchers sometimes overstate the implications of their research, Mr. Schneider asserted. "The line between policy and statistical analysis is too thin for my taste," he said. Last month, a report from the Brookings Institution maintained that questions on the PISA reflect ideological bias. (PISA Called Inappropriate for U.S. Benchmarking, March 4, 2009.) But the new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education said PISA's emphasis on measuring critical-thinking skills are "just the sort of skills that economists say an increasingly globalized and digitized economy will demand."
Grantee and Partner Highlights Highlighted below are some of the exciting projects of the Schott Foundation’s grantees and partners. Please visit the Schott Foundation website at www.schottfoundation.org to see a listing of current grantees.
Alliance for Excellent Education Report |
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The Snap Schott is distributed by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. For more information, please visit www.schottfoundation.org. |
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