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Editor's Note: This week, Jim Shelton and John Easton of the Education Department will provide the question and join in the discussion. Shelton heads the Office of Innovation and Improvement, and Easton leads the department's research branch, the Institute of Education Sciences.
The federal government and private institutions such as graduate schools, foundations, and nonprofit groups spend billions of dollars on promoting educational innovation, developing and designing new programs, supporting research, evaluating programs, and disseminating their findings. But these resources are not organized, prioritized, or leveraged for maximum impact. Innovations are often not scaled because of lack of evidence; research is frequently separated from the problems of practice; and evaluation findings provide little insight into why a particular program succeeded or not. These disconnects demand a new vision, one that binds the work of researchers, evaluators, developers, practitioners, and policymakers and builds a cohesive structure for school reform.
Given this need, what are the essential components of an effective innovation, research, development, and dissemination infrastructure in education? How can we tap into the collective expertise of practitioners when designing and refining new school programs? Finally, what are the capabilities that need to exist at the local, state, and national levels and how should organizations that provide them fit together into a coherent whole? Our ultimate goal is to ensure that all students can benefit from well-designed and thoroughly tested best practices.
-- Jim Shelton and John Easton
17 responses: Monty Neill, Justin C. Cohen, John Easton, Alexander Russo, Nelson Smith, Bill Jackson, Tom Vander Ark, Steve Peha, Chad Wick, Joel Klein, Bruce Hunter, Deborah W. Meier, Lisa Graham Keegan, Sandy Kress, Diane Ravitch, Jay Pfeiffer, Mike Antonucci
When Congress takes up reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, whether in 2010 or later, the results will define the nation's education policy for years to come. One of the challenges is reconciling sharp differences about how to amend the landmark bill.
How can the Obama administration and Congress put together a winning majority for reauthorization of ESEA? What should change, what should remain more or less the same, and why?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
21 responses: Dennis Van Roekel, John Bailey, Chad Wick, Michael L. Lomax, Eliza Krigman, Richard Rothstein, Gary Huggins, Rod Paige, Diane Ravitch, Ellen Winn, Steve Peha, Andrew J. Rotherham, Bill Jackson, Monty Neill, Gina Burkhardt, Sandy Kress, Steve Peha, Tom Vander Ark, Greg Richmond, Bruce Hunter, Pedro A. Noguera
Updated at 9:32 a.m. on Nov. 2.
The Education Department is working on finalizing applications for the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's education reform agenda. The program, whose goals include turning around low-performing schools, is widely reported to be a blueprint for the administration's plans for the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.
In a recent article for Education Next, expert Andy Smarick made a compelling case against the "turnaround" strategy. "Once persistently low performing, the majority of schools will remain low performing despite being acted upon in innumerable ways," Smarick wrote. He argued that poorly performing schools should be closed.
Is the turnaround strategy fundamentally flawed? Is the Race to the Top Fund throwing billions of dollars down the drain?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
23 responses: Steve Peha, Andy Smarick, Steve Peha, Eliza Krigman, David G. Sciarra, Steve Peha, Nelson Smith, Eliza Krigman, Andy Smarick, Monty Neill, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Phil Quon, Eliza Krigman, Rep. John Kline, Ted Hershberg, Sandy Kress, Steve Peha, Kevin Carey, Tom Vander Ark, Diane Ravitch, Frederick M. Hess, Sherman Dorn, Richard Rothstein
Hard economic times have prompted public schools to look for or accept private financial support. Education Week reported that private donations are covering $18,000 of the $225,000 annual salary paid to a school superintendent in Indiana. In Boston, public schools worked with corporations, along with pro and collegiate sports teams, to boost school athletic budgets by more than 60 percent over the next three years ($4 million to $6.5 million).
Even with federal stimulus dollars, which won't last forever, many schools are struggling financially and must seek alternative solutions. Should public-private partnerships be formed to shore up gaps in school budgets? Does this pose ethical concerns?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
13 responses: Steve Peha, Eliza Krigman, Monty Neill, Bruce Hunter, Michael L. Lomax, Steve Peha, Jay Pfeiffer, David L. Kirp, Greg Richmond, Diane Ravitch, Sandy Kress, Tom Vander Ark, An-Me Chung
In a report titled "The Widget Effect," the nonprofit New Teacher Project found that in public schools nationwide, teacher effectiveness is not measured, recorded or used to inform decision-making in any meaningful way. The result, according to the study, is a system where teachers are treated as interchangeable parts.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, have called for an overhaul to our nation's teacher evaluation systems.
How should teacher effectiveness be assessed? What role should student performance and standardized testing have in this equation?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
25 responses: Jackie Bennett, Rachel B. Tompkins, Steve Peha, Deborah A. Gist, Deborah W. Meier, Gary Huggins, Monty Neill, Monty Neill, Gina Burkhardt, Lisa Graham Keegan, Margaret Spellings, David G. Sciarra, Rep. John Kline, Ellen Moir, Joel Klein, Bob Peterson, Dennis Van Roekel, Sandy Kress, Steve Peha, Mike Antonucci, Diane Ravitch, Cynthia G. (Cindy) Brown, Ted Hershberg, Tom Vander Ark, Ariela Rozman
Last week Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the department's priorities for grants under the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3), which bolsters local efforts to close the achievement gap. Individual school districts or groups of districts are eligible to apply for grants, and nonprofits may join with those districts to submit applications. The department is currently accepting comments and plans to publish a final application in early 2010 and accept proposals in the spring.
Under the proposed eligibility requirements, districts must have made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years in order to apply. The Education Department indicated it would prefer lifting the AYP requirement and hopes that pending legislation will allow it to do so by the time the applications are released.
Is lifting the AYP requirement a good idea? Would that be a step toward weaker accountability?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
20 responses: Alex Johnston, Sherman Dorn, Jeanne Allen, Lisa Graham Keegan, Alexander Russo, Steve Peha, Steve Peha, Monty Neill, Sandy Kress, Steve Peha, Sandy Kress, Richard Rothstein, Steve Peha, Nelson Smith, Alexander Russo, Diane Ravitch, Tom Vander Ark, Cynthia G. (Cindy) Brown, Russ Whitehurst, Bruce Hunter
A draft of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee proposal to reform federal student aid, obtained by the media, includes significant funds to promote state data systems. The centerpiece of the bill would convert the federally subsidized private student-lending program into a direct loan program run by the Education Department. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the change, pushed by the Obama administration, could save up to $87 billion. The version of the bill that the House approved on Sept. 17 would funnel the money into a raft of education initiatives, including a College Access and Completion Challenge Fund. The Senate alternative envisions a $4.25 billion fund to improve college access, persistence and completion.
Under the Senate's proposal, states seeking to compete for funds through the program would have to create data systems that include all public postsecondary institutions within their borders. These systems would collect information on all students, including their secondary school record, financial status, entry and exit from colleges, job placement, and postsecondary earnings, among other information.
Is an extensive data system like this a good idea? Could it pose an invasion of privacy?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
10 responses: Deborah A. Gist, Steve Peha, Gary Huggins, Terry W. Hartle, Jamie P. Merisotis, Sandy Kress, Steve Peha, Tom Vander Ark, Kevin Carey, Eliza Krigman
The Common Core State Standards Initiative last week released a draft of its college and career-readiness standards for English language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, this initiative has the Obama administration's strong support.
How would you grade this draft? How could common state standards impact the quality of U.S. education?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
15 responses: Gary Huggins, Steve Peha, Dennis Van Roekel, Sandy Kress, Tom Vander Ark, Rep. John Kline, David G. Sciarra, Nelson Smith, Terry W. Hartle, Steve Peha, Monty Neill, Cynthia G. (Cindy) Brown, Frederick M. Hess, Diane Ravitch, Kim M. Stasny
The nation's economy lost roughly $335 billion in additional income from high school students who should have graduated with the class of 2009 but dropped out, according to a brief that the Alliance for Excellent Education released last week. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan often talk about the serious problem of high school "dropout factories" that graduate 60 percent or fewer of their students. But there is no broad consensus on how to address the issue. One solution, proposed by a Texas education official, is for states to voluntarily ban the hiring of high school dropouts as a way of keeping kids in school. What do you think is the best way to solve the high school dropout crisis?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
26 responses: Linda Darling-Hammond, Cornelia Grumman, Gary Huggins, Deborah A. Gist, Steve Peha, Lisa Graham Keegan, Bill Jackson, Alex Johnston, Mary Ann Wolf, Dennis Van Roekel, Deborah W. Meier, Tom Vander Ark, Pedro A. Noguera, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Sandy Kress, Rep. John Kline, Steve Peha, Ellen Winn, Marguerite Kondracke, Phil Quon, Cynthia G. (Cindy) Brown, David L. Kirp, Sherman Dorn, Sandy Kress, Diane Ravitch, Gov. Bob Wise
A book about college graduation rates released last week, Crossing the Finish Line, revealed some alarming statistics. Just 33 percent of the freshmen who enter the University of Massachusetts (Boston) graduate within six years; at the University of Montana, less than 41 percent graduate; and at the University of New Mexico, only 44 percent do so. The findings are based on the records of roughly 200,000 students at 68 colleges. The book's bottom line: America faces a college dropout crisis.
What can be done to boost college completion?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
22 responses: Deborah A. Gist, Eliza Krigman, Steve Peha, Monty Neill, Randi Weingarten, Dennis Van Roekel, Terry W. Hartle, Michael L. Lomax, George R. Boggs, Linda Darling-Hammond, Steve Peha, David L. Kirp, Cynthia G. (Cindy) Brown, Sandy Kress, Diane Ravitch, Jackie Bennett, Kevin Carey, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Arthur J. Rothkopf, Sherman Dorn, Frederick M. Hess, Jamie P. Merisotis
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