Does This Stimulate Change?

The Washington Post is onto something here ("An Education Stimulus?")

EDUCATION is poised to win big under the economic stimulus plan hurtling through Congress. But it remains to be seen whether America's schoolchildren really will be helped by the huge investment of public funds that is being planned. After all, it seems that much of the billions of dollars of new federal spending is aimed at continuing programs and policies that largely have failed to improve student achievement. For the amount of money being spent, Congress should insist on real change, not simply more of the same.

Its editorial underscores what I was saying yesterday in this post ("Overstated"). More money by itself won't produce educational reform unless the way that money is spent locally changes. It doesn't appear that such requirements will be made part of the stimulus legislation. Thus, the federal role in education isn't poised to become more significant apart from covering a higher (albeit still small) portion of overall education costs.

The Iceman Cometh

Amen! "Washington Post: "As To Ice, Chicago Still Obama's Kind Of Town".

"My children's school was canceled today," Obama said, speaking to reporters before a meeting with business leaders. "Because of what? Some ice? . . . We're going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."

In 2001, the first of three winters I lived in Washington, DC, I innocently walked into my local grocery store one evening on my return home from work. Before me stood dozens of Washingtonians scooping up batteries, bottled water and toilet paper, with checkout lines stretching halfway up the aisles. Why? Two-to-three inches of snow was forecast for the next day. A native New Englander, I rolled my eyes and walked out.

If we lived like that here in Wisconsin -- or in my former Vermont -- the entire state would shut down for half the year. Not gonna happen.

I think President Obama is onto something. Maybe as a condition to giving Washington DC statehood, the Prez should insist on more "Chicago toughness."

In Chicago, where the President's daughters previously attended school, the schools haven't closed for weather since a 1999 ice storm.

------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Just discovered that Huffington Post, Alexander Russo and Kevin Carey beat me to the punch on this one. Guess it takes longer for news to reach Wisconsin ... especially through all this ice and snow.

Overstated

I'm sorry. Am I missing something?

How is the infusion of new federal resources for schools in the stimulus bill going to transform the federal government's role in education? I just don't see it.

Today's front-page New York Times article ("Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood Of Aid to Education") couches the stimulus bill as a transformative vehicle.

The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

Critics and supporters alike said that by its sheer scope, the measure could profoundly change the federal government’s role in education, which has traditionally been the responsibility of state and local government.

Hey, $150 billion is nothing to sneeze at. But it still represents a fraction of overall education spending. According to the U.S. Department of Education, federal dollars currently account for less than 9 percent of overall education spending. State and local dollars account for more than 80 percent of the total. Even with a doubling of federal outlays, Uncle Sam would still account for less than 1 in 5 dollars spent on schools.

Republican leaders are crying wolf as well. From the New York Times:

Howard P. McKeon, Republican of California and the ranking minority member of the House education committee, said, “By putting the federal government in the business of building schools, Democrats may be irrevocably changing the federal government’s role in education in this country.”

Listen, short of the inclusion of some major new education policy in this stimulus bill (which won't happen) - greater accountability for spending, such as Title I and Title II dollars, for example - how is this piece of legislation going to "profoundly change" the federal role in education? Answer: Apart from coughing up some new federal resources at a time of need, it's not. It won't fundamentally change the business of teaching and learning without further legislative and policy changes. We still await action on ESEA reauthorization - the next best hope for positive changes and needed reforms to current federal law.

Saying something represents change doesn't make it so.

You Really Like Us...

The Education Optimists just received its 10,000th visitor today. When we began this blog in the middle of last year, we had no idea if people would actually read it. How gratifying that people actually are.

But please stop ringing the doorbell ... just come on in!

Tuskegee and the Obama Effect

By now you've all heard the fascinating news of a study (New York Times: "Study Sees An Obama Effect As Lifting Black Test-Takers") that seems to demonstrate an Obama effect on the black/white gap in test scores. In short, a team led by a Vanderbilt University researcher administered a series of 20 questions (drawn from verbal section of the GRE) shortly before Obama's nomination and again after his acceptance and then again after the election. Black performance on the test improved after Obama's acceptance, and rendered the black/white gap in test performance nonsignificant.

I'm the first to admit the potential for an Obama effect. Every time I hear him speak I think of the power of a role model, and dream of possible studies that could uncover such an effect.

But in this case, I'm not so sure what's being captured is an effect of Obama on the confidence of black students in their academic performance. Here's why:

(1) The students taking the test at each administration were different students. If the same kids took the test repeatedly, obviously we'd expect their scores to increase.

(2) According to the lead researcher, in a personal communique with me, while the pool of potential participants was constructed at time 1, the actual sample at each time was based on volunteers offered a monetary incentive to participate (what size incentive? I don't know).

There are more critical pieces of information missing as well:

(a) Whether the reasons for participation vs. non-participation differed by race, and are correlated with test-taking ability.

and

(b) Whether the rates of participation were similar for both racial groups.

What we do know is that ever since the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis (TSUS), African Americans are less likely than Whites to volunteer for participation in research. Given the known gaps in achievement, if they knew anything about what the study required they may've also simply lacked the confidence to participate. This is completely understandable. The question is, could it influence the findings in this study? Are there other plausible explanations for the change in test scores observed in the study?

Yes. Let me suggest just a few.

(1) A disproportionate effect of the economy on black's financial status. The study took place during a year of steady decline in the economic standing of many Americans. Is it possible that the money offered for participation wasn't enough to offset the concerns of higher-achieving black students about research (or to offset the opportunity costs associated with participation)? But that by time 2, the money was simply worth more (e.g. more effective as an incentive) and induced greater participation of black students? I'm positing that during the period whites were both less affected by changes in the economy and overall less averse to volunteering to take a test.

(2) An effect of Obama on black's trust in society, including researchers. So at time 1 the black students in the pool are generally more suspicious and only the lower-achievers are affected by the monetary incentive enough to overcome that suspicion and take the test. At time 2, they're feeling more goodwill towards the world, and higher-achieving black students are willing to participate.

(3) Maybe higher-achieving black students, when asked twice to do a study, tend to do it? I don't know if nonrespondents at time 1 were asked again.

These are just three ideas about how sample selection could bias these results. I have many more. What about the gender composition of the samples? ( Black men have lower test scores on average and are generally less likely to participate in studies. )

I want to quantify the good feelings we're all having in the post-Bushie world too. I get the motivation. But I don't think we should get too carried with feel-good stories on studies that have not yet undergone peer review.

Musical Elective of the Week

The Musical Elective of the Week is Liam Finn.

Finn is a 25-year-old Kiwi singer/songwriter. Not only does he have a most excellent first name, but this guy can rock! Probably best known as the eldest son of singer/songwriter extraordinaire and Crowded House founder/lead singer Neil Finn, Liam laid down the gauntlet with his first solo album, I'll Be Lightning, released in January 2008 in the U.S. He was named one of Rolling Stone magazine's 10 Artists to Watch for 2008.

Recorded with a mixing deck that once belonged to the Who, I'll Be Lightning melds Elliott Smith-style melodies with loosey-goosey execution and the big, airy harmonies of yacht rock. Finn plays every instrument on the album — and during live shows. Triggering loops he creates via pedals, he'll riff on guitar, go nuts on theremin and pummel a drum kit for a one-man-band extravaganza.

Finn is an unbelievable persona in concert, literally doing everything on stage and making enough noise to make you believe that is an entire band up there. I saw him open for Crowded House at the House of Blues in Chicago back in 2007 and was spellbound. (He later opened for Eddie Vedder in the U.S. last year.)

I'll Be Lightning is a difficult album to categorize, parts rock, folk, and experimental. Some of my favorite tracks include the first three -- "Better To Be," "Second Chance," and "Gather To The Chapel" -- as well as the Beatle-esque "Energy Spent" and "Music Moves My Feet."

Finn will be part of the very exciting, upcoming Seven Worlds Collide album featuring his dad (Neil Finn), members of Radiohead (Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway), members of Wilco (including Jeff Tweedy), KT Tunstall, Johnny Marr (of the Smiths and Modest Mouse), Sebastian Steinberg (of Soul Coughing), and others. Recording was done over the holidays in Auckland, New Zealand and several concerts were performed. Proceeds will benefit Oxfam International.

Check out more about Liam Finn at his web site.

Better to be, bigger than the other

Heart on your sleeve and hat on your head

I want to see you playing with your shadow

Hypnotise me with every step

--"Better To Be," I'll Be Lightning (2008)

Link to past Musical Electives of the Week.

Treatment of Transfers

What to do, what to do about those pesky community college students? Their graduation rates are so low, they lack big ambitions, they bring those families and kids and jobs, they're "older," they're poorer, they're loan averse... no wonder their transfer rates to 4-year schools are so low!

Sound familiar? To those of you familiar with the extended policy and academic debate about the educational opportunities created by or diverted by community colleges, well, it should.

I reported Friday about the increasing numbers of students changing colleges. And yet, and yet...here's an excerpt from a recent New York Times online chat with a couple of admissions gurus from 4-year colleges:

QUESTION: I’m curious as to how admissions criteria are altered or shifted in importance for a transfer applicant compared with a freshman applicant.

QUESTION: How are transfer applicants from community colleges viewed in the admissions process? What advice would you offer these applicants?

ANSWERS:
Mr. Poch of Pomona: There are huge variations in transfer student possibilities from institution to institution. Some have lots of room and some little or none. USC enrolls more than 1000 transfer students each year. Pomona has room for 10 to 15. Obviously different factors affect both of these patterns and common answers will be hard to find.
Transferring to Pomona is tough. There are proportionally many fewer spaces than there are for first year students in huge part because of the high graduation rate of our incoming first years. Space doesn’t open up. We look at the high school record, especially for those seeking to transfer as sophomores. We look closely at the college record and the extent to which the student has pursued a general education program which would leave them time to dedicate the time they and we would wish to their electives and their major when they enroll at Pomona. We will explore the reasons for transfer and to understand as best we may about why Pomona and how the student sees life changing in our educational environment. Are they transferring FROM something or TO something?

Mr. Brenzel of Yale: Our unusual system of residential colleges makes the freshman year and sophomore years critical to our undergraduate program. So we maintain only a very small transfer program, limited to 24 places each year.

Mr. Syverson of Lawrence: In the case of transfers, the bulk of the academic evaluation focuses on the college record. We welcome transfer applicants from community colleges and treat them essentially the same as transfer applicants from four-year colleges.

What is wrong here? Oh, let me count the ways:

1. Mr. Pomona--A nice back-handed slam against USC for admitting plenty of transfer students, by not-so-subtly suggesting that only poor retention rates could lead to another places for transfer students (Pomona's 6 year grad rate is 93%, USC's is 84%). Not true: underclassmen require different classes and services than upperclassmen. Schools often find they can fit more upperclassmen on a campus even when retention rates are quite high.

2. Mr. Pomona again-- Oh, beware that wayward transfer student who is just trying to escape from a crappy school and come running to yours... Yeah, we all know about those community college transfer students banging on the doors of 4-year schools like Pomona, just dying to run from their community college

3. Mr. Yale-- Yeah, I'm sure the 1st two years of Yale make it so different that students who did their first two years elsewhere could never merit your precious degree.

4. Mr. Lawrence-- Why treat applicants from community colleges the same as those from 4-year colleges? Why is this something you are showing off, like it's a good thing?

Bottom line- why aren't more kids transferring? Open your eyes: it's all about preserving privilege. Make the kids spend more time on our campus before they can get a degree (read: pay more money to our school). Keep out those bottom-dwelling community college goers who might try to sneak past the gates. Watch out, in all fairness, students who had an opportunity to earn a BA must be treated the same as those coming from a school that doesn't grant one!

At least there it all is, in the New York Times!

What I'm Worried About

Post #2 in an ongoing series...

This month I had several friends granted tenure. Which led me to think, what if I don't get it?

This is the kind of torture exercise I seem to enjoy wallowing in, so I looked up some statistics. Did you know:

Among 1997-1998 tenure-track entrants at 10 of the top research universities (specifically: Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and my own UW-Madison)....

Only 53% were awarded tenure by 2004-2005?

That tenure rates were 8 percentage points higher for men, compared to women, and 2 percentage points higher for non-minorities, compared to minorities?

Sure, some will raise the reasonable excuse that folks fall off the tenure track long before their year to go up for tenure. This is especially true for women who "opt out" (again, gag me), to go home.

It's next to impossible to find hard data on the percent of people who, having given 6+ years of their life to family/exercise/pleasure-sacrificing efforts all in the name of job security suddenly find themselves turned down-- and without a job? I know, in this economic climate those of employed should simply be grateful- heck, we could be tenured and laid off, too.

But it's simply nauseating to think about where the bar is now set, how many reams of pubs one is supposed to have, and yet how insanely political, personal, and downright random the process remains. It's enough to make one stay up far too late blogging, instead of caving into sleep.

A Win for Science

The Texas State Board of Education yesterday voted down an attempt to weaken the teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms. Read the full account in the Dallas Morning News.

In a major defeat for social conservatives, a sharply divided State Board of Education voted Thursday to abandon a longtime state requirement that high school science teachers cover what some critics consider to be "weaknesses" in the theory of evolution.

Under the science curriculum standards recommended by a panel of science educators and tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the "strengths and weaknesses" of Charles Darwin's theory that man evolved from lower forms of life.

See yesterday's post ("Onward, Christian Soldiers!") on this some topic - prior to the Board's vote.

Winners: Science, Students, Teachers

Losers: Governor Rick Perry, Social Conservatives

Ensuring Real Education

It's been months since his PR folks sent me Real Education but I'm finally ready to weigh in on C. Murray's new treatise. Far too many naive bloggers think Murray's hit the nail on the head.

So here's my take: Murray is an opponent of expanding formal education, and especially a college-for-all culture that broadly promotes college aspirations. He argues that academic degrees reflect students’ general cognitive and social skills rather than what they learned in college or how well they will perform on the job. But even though in some sense credentials do act as signals and of course the skills of college graduates are not entirely created by colleges, there is still good evidence that what students learn in school has an invaluable, positive impact on their long-term life outcomes.

Moreover, Murray offers no practical alternatives. He argues that employers should develop testing instruments to better assess skills for specific jobs when, in fact, these assessments already exist in many occupations and organizations. Where such assessment tools are being used, they are at best very weak predictors of worker performance. The bottom line is that formal education both creates important skills and provides signals for employers that are quite valuable.

You won't find me arguing for an increase in meaningless credentialing nor advocating that college to become compulsory for everyone. My take is that by setting expectations for sub-baccalaureate outcomes and equipping community colleges with the resources needed to achieve those outcomes, we can enable a revitalized focus on student learning. I mean both the forms of general and specialized learning needed to perform specific jobs, and the kind of skills that all citizens need, and that colleges are best positioned to provide.

So in conclusion, no-- Murray's Losing Ground didn't change my opinion of welfare, and it sure isn't changing my opinion about schooling. But I do thank the publishers, since Real Education has evolved into a tasty chew treat for my puppy.

Not Coming Back for More?

According to ACT, Inc (Midwestern counterpart to the SAT), the number of college freshmen returning for a second year at their original "4-year" institution is on the decline.

Shocking, I know... (Ok, I'm being ironic-- I wrote a dissertation about the "swirling" students who attend multiple schools, and have been quite vocal about the importance of mobility to debates over student success and degree completion.)

Approximately 2/3 of students who enter 4-year colleges stick around for another year. That number used to be (somewhat) higher (closer to 70-75%). Something to get worked up about? Depends on how you approach the question.

If you're a higher ed administrator focused on dollars and cents, sure you're not going to like it. Fewer returning students means more empty seats in upper-level courses, which you should but probably aren't filling with transfer students. It also means your institutional degree completion rates are lower.

If you're an educational reformer focused on student success, you probably see things differently. Before getting upset, you'd first want to know: Are students leaving school 1 to drop out of college? Or do they move to school 2, find a better fit (financially, academically, socially?) and end up with a degree? Are students moving because moving is a fact of their life, they've always been mobile, and they're not attached to colleges in the "traditional" sense of one student/one school? Or, are schools serving them poorly, eventually encouraging their departure?

My own work has identified some causes for concern. Students do not change schools in equitable ways-- meaning that the more advantaged kids tend to leave one 4-year college for another, and not suffer much in terms of BA completion, while the less advantaged (read: lower levels of parental education) tend to leave 4-year colleges after struggling academically in their first year (this is NET of high school prep, btw), and end up at a community college. Those folks hardly ever get degrees. All of this is described in my 2006 paper in Sociology of Education, and a forthcoming paper in the same journal.

The ACT folks say the trend "suggests that more students may be opting out of college during or after their first year." First, as a sociologist let me gag openly at the idea of "opting out." Second, having not accounted for changes in the composition of college freshmen that could account for changes in retention rates, it's not clear what we do with this trend.

From a research perspective, we should also ask why we're stuck with ACT data on this one-- they aren't capturing enrollment beyond school 1 (as we can with national datasets such as the NELS) and so can't dig underneath the trendlines. Why are we stuck? Because the kind of longitudinal student unit record data we'd need to do the analysis is only collected by the feds every 10 or so years-- hard to establish much of a trend with that. If you just compare NLS-72, HSB, and NELS, it doesn't look like much of a trend... More micro, more interesting.

So we're left with a bunch of hypotheses, for now. The ACT guy thinks students leave 4-year colleges for financial reasons. Maybe. My own analyses suggest that family income doesn't have much to do with it though. We can sort of test this in my study, by estimating a causal effect of financial aid on first year retention. With the first cohort of kids in the middle of the school year right now, you'll have to bear with me... I'll try to find the answers.

In the meantime, let's get focused on whether and when students graduate. Not where they finish. That is: a student-focused rather than school-focused approach to success. Whaddya say?

Onward, Christian Soldiers!

Today's New York Times ("In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate") reports on attempts to discredit evolution iin the Lone Star State.

No longer do religious conservatives employ an in-your-face strategy, but take a craftier approach to undermining science. In Texas, it involves taking advantage of a passage in the state curriculum that requires students to critique the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. From there, they attempt to bring religious teachings into public school science classrooms.

In the past, the conservatives on the education board have lacked the votes to change textbooks. This year, both sides say, the final vote, in March, is likely to be close.

Even as federal courts have banned the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in biology courses, social conservatives have gained 7 of 15 seats on the Texas board in recent years, and they enjoy the strong support of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican.

The chairman of the board, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist, pushed in 2003 for a more skeptical version of evolution to be presented in the state’s textbooks, but could not get a majority to vote with him. Dr. McLeroy has said he does not believe in Darwin’s theory and thinks that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event, thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion as scientists contend.

On the surface, the debate centers on a passage in the state’s curriculum that requires students to critique all scientific theories, exploring “the strengths and weaknesses” of each. Texas has stuck to that same standard for 20 years, having originally passed it to please religious conservatives. In practice, teachers rarely pay attention to it.

This year, however, a panel of teachers assigned to revise the curriculum proposed dropping those words, urging students instead to “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence.”

Scientists and advocates for religious freedom say the battle over the curriculum is the tip of a spear. Social conservatives, the critics argue, have tried to use the “strengths and weaknesses” standard to justify exposing students to religious objections in the guise of scientific discourse.

“The phrase ‘strengths and weaknesses’ has been spread nationally as a slogan to bring creationism in through the back door,” said Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science in Education, a California group that opposes watering down evolution in biology classes.

In my last post, I gave kudos to Alabama Governor Bob Riley, a Republican, for his leadership on teacher quality. In this post, let me aim barbs at Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry for appointing the likes of Dr. McLeroy to public office. As Bugs Bunny might say, "What a maroon!" That goes for both of them.

Image courtesy of popsucker.net.

Background:

7/21/2008: Praise Jesus (In Public Schools)

6/3/2008: "NY Times: "Opponents of Evolution Are Adopting New Strategy"

Who Says Democratic Governors Have A Monopoly on Education Policy?

In January 2006 Alabama Governor Bob Riley initiated one of the more thoughtful gubernatorial commissions focused on teacher quality in recent years. And the commission didn't produce a document to sit on a shelf or fatten up a web site, but its work is on-going and is having impact.

In just three years, the Governor's Commission on Quality Teaching -- led by former National Teacher of the Year Dr. Betsy Rogers -- has already impacted public policy in the Heart of Dixie. Its initial recommendations, released in November 2006, were central in leading to the creation of a statewide teacher mentor program and the development of new standards for the teaching profession.

The commission's latest recommendations focus on creating a professional pathway for teachers in addition to maintaining support for the Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program, continuing a biannual Teaching and Learning Conditions Survey, and reforming teacher preparation.

Read the Commission's complete report here.

1. Professional Pathways for Alabama Teachers - The Commission recommends that two systems be selected as “demonstration sites” to begin implementation of the Professional Pathways system. The Commission would raise $75,000 from private sources for a planning grant to work on development with the two systems beginning in the summer of 2009.

2. Improve the Quality of Teacher Preparation - This set of recommendations seeks to structure meaningful partnerships between Colleges of Education and P-12 schools and districts in order to improve both the academic and clinical preparation of prospective teachers. This includes a strong focus on Alabama-specific initiatives, such as the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI). They also aim to increase the accountability of teacher preparation institutions for the quality of their graduates.

3. Consolidate and Expand Teacher Recruitment Efforts - These recommendations include a centralized and user-friendly teacher recruitment website, student-produced ads to highlight the opportunities provided by the teaching profession, and a pilot seminar course in teaching for high school students.

4. Improving and Expanding Alternative Certification - These recommendations seek to create new routes that encourage the best and the brightest to enter the teaching profession. They include (a) a partnership with Teach for America to bring talented young people from across the country to teach in high-needs areas in Alabama, (b) improving the quality of our current Alternative Baccalaureate Certification, and (c) creation of an adjunct certification to allow individuals with recognized expertise and experience in high needs disciplines to work part time in public schools.

5. Maintain and expand the Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program - The Commission recommends the continued funding of Alabama’s highly-successful mentoring program for first-year teachers and the addition of a low-cost program for second-year teachers that uses small groups to continue their training and enhance small learning communities in schools..

6. Adopt a new definition for professional development - The Commission recommends that the State Board of Education adopt the National Staff Development Council’s definition of professional development to clarify, enhance, and support the existing Professional Development Standards.

7. Continue the biennial administration of the Take 20 Teaching and Learning Conditions Survey - The Commission feels it is critical that we institutionalize the biennial administration of our teaching and learning conditions survey to all educators so that leaders can continually assess the state of their schools and plan for constant improvement. The Take 20 survey was recommended by the Commission in 2007 and first administered to all Alabama educators in 2008.

The idea of a professional pathway for teachers isn't a completely new idea. In 2001, under the leadership of then Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, Iowa developed a teacher career ladder, a multi-tiered licensure system, as reported by Education Week. But due to funding constraints, this initiative was never fully implemented. The only parts that were enacted were a small pay hike and a teacher mentoring program.

But this idea is the wave of the future. Fewer and fewer young people are going into teaching as a life-long career. And fewer are going into teaching because of the limited opportunities for advancement while staying in the classroom. Opportunities to advance in the profession and be compensated for teaching excellence and leadership roles are needed. Right now, given the typical steps and lanes pay structure, the only way to make this happen is to move into educational administration or to leave public education entirely.

Although Democrats are often framed to be more pro-education than Republicans, and in reality often are, Alabama's Riley is a notable exception. His leadership has led to some real steps forward in public education in Alabama.

The Commission's efforts were recently featured in Education Week's Teacher Beat blog, in a post authored by Vaishali Honawar as well.

The Dream and The Inauguration

Media outlets are reporting that Americans believe that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has been fulfilled as a result of Barack Obama's election to the presidency. In fact, a new CNN poll found that more than two thirds of African-Americans believe that to be true.

The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I have a dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.

But let us not forget that economic justice was a central component of King's vision. In fact, at the time of his assassination, King (with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) was focused on the "Poor People's Campaign," an effort to promote a bill of rights for poor Americans.

The election of Barack Obama by itself does not erase the fact that economic inequality in our nation is at historic highs. This inequality disproportionately affects the black community. There is work to be done. Educational opportunity provides a path to success in the labor market and resulting economic gains. President Obama has a tremendous opportunity to be not just a physical embodiment of King's dream but to change national policies that feed inequality, both in opportunities and in outcomes.

EduStimulus

I'm not feeling great, so all I have the capacity to do is cut 'n' paste. Fortunately, I'm just auditing this course. Just five days 'til the Inauguration....

Here is a summary of the education-related provisions of the federal stimulus bill (AKA the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009), courtesy of U.S. House Appropriations Chairman and Wisconsin Congressman David Obey:

EDUCATION FOR THE 21st CENTURY

We will put people to work building 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries to help our kids compete with any worker in the world.

21st Century Classrooms

School Construction: $20 billion, including $14 billion for K-12 and $6 billion for higher education, for renovation and modernization, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. Also includes $100 million for school construction in communities that lack a local property tax base because they contain non-taxable federal lands such as military bases or Indian reservations, and $25 million to help charter schools build, obtain, and repair schools.

Education Technology: $1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training.

Higher Education: Tuition is up, unemployment is up, and as a result more people are choosing to go to school to upgrade their skills and more of these students need student aid. This investment addresses those short term needs while investing in our nation’s future economic strength.

Pell Grants: $15.6 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500, from $4,850 to $5,350.

College Work-Study: $490 million to support undergraduate and graduate students who work.

Student Loan Limit Increase: Increases limits on unsubsidized Stafford loans by $2,000.

Student Aid Administration: $50 million to help the Department of Education administer surging student aid programs while navigating the changing student loan environment.
K-12 Education: As states begin tackling a projected $350 billion in budget shortfalls these investments will prevent cuts to critical education programs and services.

IDEA Special Education: $13 billion for formula grants to increase the federal share of special education costs and prevent these mandatory costs from forcing states to cut other areas of education.

Title I Help for Disadvantaged Kids: $13 billion for grants to help disadvantaged kids in nearly every school district and more than half of all public schools reach high academic standards.

Statewide Data Systems: $250 million for competitive grants to states to design and develop data systems that analyze individual student data to find ways to improve student achievement, providing teachers and administrators with effective tools.

Education for Homeless Children and Youth: $66 million for formula grants to states to provide services to homeless children including meals and transportation when high unemployment and home foreclosures have created an influx of homeless kids.

Improving Teacher Quality: $300 million, including $200 million for competitive grants to school districts and states to provide financial incentives for teachers and principals who raise student achievement and close the achievement gaps in high-need schools and $100 million for competitive grants to states to address teacher shortages and modernize the teaching workforce.

Early Childhood Development

Child Care Development Block Grant: $2 billion to provide child care services for an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work. Today only one out of seven eligible children receives care.

Head Start: $2.1 billion to provide comprehensive development services to help 110,000 additional children succeed in school. Funds are distributed based on need. Only about half of all eligible preschoolers and less than 3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers participate in Head Start.

IDEA Infants and Families: $600 million for formula grants to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.

Things Are Looking Up

Well, sort of. In my family, not so much -- we've all been knocked out by various colds, pneumonia, ear infections, etc for the last 7 days. But out there in the wider world -- things are starting to look downright perky for education!

For example:

--4 separate times today articles about increasing funding for community colleges crossed my desk
--MDRC issued some much more intriguing results from their Opening Doors aid study
--Arne Duncan talked about increasing the Pell Grant
--I read, and enjoyed, two bright and interesting memos to Obama-- one by Davis Jenkins and Julian Alssid, and the other by Jamie Merisotis
--Sociologist extraordinaire Linn Posey accepted an offer to join my department!
-- I heard that Gates is starting a value-added initiative

I'm sure there's more to come. It feels like a whole new world with Arne and Barack (and LDH?) at the helm....

Wait, Wait! Something to be Optimistic About!

Sorry for another long silence this week, as my boys got downed by a slew of crappy sicknesses, including strep, pneumonia, "bacterial conjunctivitis," and other yummy things....

But since it's a new year, and I've posted some cynical stuff lately, I thought I'd go upbeat on you for a bit. Here are a few reasons to smile tomorrow-- besides the upcoming inauguration of O-Mama! (as Conor calls him):

1. There's a teeny bit of evidence that Americans might be readings books again.

2. I myself, mother and academic, found the time to read two outstanding Anne Lamott books during the past 3 weeks: Bird by Bird, and Traveling Mercies.

Ok, that's two and I'm tired. I have to wake up tomorrow and see if the New York Times finally figured out where I live. Seriously, since moving to Stoughton in September I've not received a single issue of my beloved paper. They tell me they don't deliver here-- yet my neighbors a block away get the paper 7 days a week. I guess they really mean they don't deliver HERE. Man....

Musical Elective Of The Week

The first Musical Elective of the Week for 2009 is Alejandro Escovedo.

While I had heard the name, I really discovered his music last month on WXRT while driving down to O'Hare to pick up Sara on her way back from Barcelona.

Escovedo's music is old-school rock 'n' roll. To me his voice echoes Warren Zevon and I hear influences of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen in his sound. At this point, what I know of his music comes from his latest album, Real Animal, released in June 2008. The album has been mentioned on a number of musical top 10 lists for 2008. The single "Always A Friend" is what initially appealed to me and drew me in to listen to the other 12 album tracks.

Escovedo comes from a musical family. Fun fact: Sheila E (of Prince fame) is his niece. He has been playing music since the 1970s, beginning with the San Francisco punk band The Nuns and in bands around Austin, Texas in the 1980s. He released his first of nine solo albums in 1992. Over the years, he has collaborated with the likes of Ryan Adams and Chuck Prophet (who co-wrote all of the songs on Real Animal).

Escovedo turns 58 on Saturday. Happy birthday! Check out more at AlejandroEscovedo.com.

I lived in the Chelsea once on 7th and 23rd
we came to live inside the myth of everything we heard
the poets on their barstools, they just love it when it rains
they comb their hair in the mirror and grow addicted to the pain.

--"Chelsea Hotel '78," Real Animal (2008)

Do You Know The Way To San Jose?

Who says there's nothing to do in February?

Come on out to San Jose, California for the New Teacher Center's Annual Symposium on February 2-3, 2009 to learn all you ever wanted to know about supporting our newest educators. I promise you a fun and informative time - and if you bring this blog post with you and join us to watch the Super Bowl on the big screens in the Fairmont lobby, the beer is on me.

Early registration ends on Friday, January 9!

Need-Sensitive Admissions: A Follow-up

Yesterday's New York Times has a "data" piece in the Education Life section titled "How Sensitive Are They?" It lists private schools with need-blind and need-sensitive policies, and statistics on the % of incoming freshmen who have their need fully met by an aid package, and the average % of need met (across all incoming freshmen with any need as determined by the college). In most cases, it looks like need-sensitive schools meet close to 100% of the need of incoming freshmen, and in turn most of their students have their need fully met. In contrast, schools that are need-blind meet a smaller % of demonstrated need and have lower proportions of their freshmen with need fully met.

Ok... again, duh: With fewer low-income kids to serve, you can meet more of their need. Why, oh why, didn't the Times include a column indicating the % of incoming freshmen receiving Pell grants, and the graduation rates of their minority (proxy for Pell in absence of another) students??? Talk about taking a one-sided approach to the story...

What I'm Worried About

A new series for 2009, highlighting worries, concerns, and insecurities related to my academic life.

I'm worried about our classified staff. UW-Madison, like all colleges and universities, leans heavily on them for support but pays them little (e.g. the folks I know are making $25-40K for full-time work).

Until this week my department of 11 full-time faculty and numerous affiliates relied on 2 administrators for everything. Now, thanks to severe budget cuts, one of those positions has been cut back substantially as we're forced to share the position with another department. I have no idea how our single full-time administrator is going to shoulder all of the work we generate, and why she should be expected to for only $40K per year.

I thought of these folks as I read about U. Michigan's $2.5 billion construction effort. Wowsa.

Image courtesy of bluebicicletta.wordpress.com.

Denver's Bennet Scores A Senate Seat

While Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet may have been bypassed by Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan in the quest to be President Obama's Secretary of Education, he just received a promotion of a different sort: the United States Senate.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a Democrat, today appointed Bennet to the U.S. Senate vacancy created by Obama's nomination of Sen. Ken Salazar to be his interior secretary.

Let the musical chairs continue...

Here are some snippets on Bennet from today's New York Times article on his appointment. He's not some Johnny-come-lately but is a pretty well-connected guy with a pedigree. Not sure if that will make him a good U.S. Senator or not, but he certainly appeared to have a beneficial impact on Denver Public Schools during his tenure there.

Mr. Bennet, 44, was born in India, where his father, Douglas Bennet, a diplomat, was stationed. He was raised mostly in Washington and will return there with a diverse résumé and a reputation in Colorado as a soft-spoken, analytical thinker who is not afraid to take on jobs that promised mostly headaches — specifically running the troubled Denver school system.

He took the job in 2005 after three years as chief of staff to Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver....

He arrived at Denver City Hall in 2003, for example, after six years as a managing director for an investment firm in Denver, and before that, he had served as counsel to the deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

He graduated with a history degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut — which his father led as president from 1995 to 2007 — before getting his law degree at Yale. His wife, Susan Diane Daggett, who also got her law degree from Yale, has worked as an environmental lawyer. James Bennet, his brother, is a former reporter for The New York Times and is now editor of The Atlantic magazine.

From the start as schools superintendent, Mr. Bennet did not behave like a traditional educator. He liked to ride the bus with students on the first day of class and made it a point to be the public face of the district in public meetings with parents over some of its most wrenching decisions, like school closings. But he also came armed with a weighty Rolodex full of highly placed friends to personally lobby city officials, state legislators and others for what the Denver schools needed.

Under Mr. Bennet, Denver pursued consolidation — closing some underperforming, under-populated schools — and merit-pay incentives for teachers. He overhauled the grading system to provide more information about students’ strengths or weaknesses. Student performance on standardized tests improved. Last July, for example, Denver posted the biggest increases in math and reading proficiency among the state’s largest districts.

A Class Gap in the "Gap Year"

Thanks to Joanne Jacobs's blog for alerting me to yet another story on the trend of high school graduates taking a so-called "gap year" before entering college. I was especially happy to see that she pointed to blogger Donald Douglas's post that points out the gap year is the privilege of students who can afford to take one.

So true, so true. In fact, as I wrote in a paper given at AERA in 2006, there is a "class gap" in the gap year. Using national longitudinal data (NELS), my graduate student Seong Won Han and I found that students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds are nearly six times as likely as students from more advantaged families to delay college between high school graduation and college entry. We examined two explanations for those differential rates of delay: academic coursetaking and family formation. Poor students are less likely than wealthy students to take a core lab science in high school, and they are more likely to become parents before college entry. We find that these differences, along with family background, educational expectations, and high school preparation, explain nearly one-fifth of the unconditional socioeconomic gap in delay.

There are consequences to delaying college. In a 2005 paper, Robert Bozick and Stefanie DeLuca found that each additional month of delay between high school and college entry decreases the odds of bachelor’s degree completion by 6.5 percent. That effect does not operate entirely via an increase in the time-to-degree or a delay in completion; rather, it acts to independently reduce the likelihood of eventual completion.

In sum, if middle and upper-class kids are increasingly exercising their ability to take some time off before college to gain interesting life experiences they can later bring to the classroom, while low-income kids only delay when required to earn money for school or raise a child, the socioeconomic gap in college completion rates is likely to only get worse....