Category Archives: Government

Inside Higher Ed: Saudi Arabia releases prof

Saudi Arabia released a noted political science and human rights activist, Matrook Al-Faleh, from prison over the weekend, without explaining his freedom or why he was held in a maximum security facility for nearly eight months, CNN reported. Al-Faleh, a professor at King Saud University, was detained shortly after he spoke out against prison conditions in the country. Several human rights and academic groups — including the American Political Science Association and the Middle East Studies Association — have been seeking his release. In 2004, the Middle East Studies Association gave Al-Faleh an academic freedom award for his work on behalf of academics and others in need of freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia.

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The Global Labor and Politics blog presents an informative analysis of Obama’s pivot to the right on education with the nomination of Arne Duncan as Education Secretary.

The post includes analysis of Duncan’s work as “CEO” of Chicago Public Schools by George Schmidt, publisher of Substance, the newspaper of record on education in Chicago.

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From: “Monty Neill”
Date: December 16, 2008 1:45:09 PM EST
Subject: [eddra] Chicago under Arne Duncan

Nearly two years ago, FairTest and the Chicago-based organizations Parents United for Responsible Education and Designs for Change released a detailed analysis of “Renaissance 2010,” Chicago’s major ‘school reform’ effort under Arne Duncan, which was initiated and conceptualized by Chicago corporate leaders. We referred to it as “NCLB Chicago Style.” (Other folks helped write the report as well.)

While the analysis is detailed, the summary and recommendations are fairly brief, and I insert them below.

The report is on the websites of FairTest and PURE; Substance newspaper reprinted the report and it is on their website as well: http://www.fairtest.org/new-report-challenges-strategies-promoted-chicago– is the news release with links to the report on the FT website (links are also in the excerpt below); see alsowww.pureparents.org and www.substancenews.net.

It may be that Duncan will be somewhat different in Washington than in Chicago. Regardless, any positive changes will require continued great effort on our part. As a friend remarked yesterday, “It’s what my husband said: If McCain is elected, might as well fold up the tent and go home. If Obama is elected, it means a lot of hard work on our part.”

— Monty Neill, FairTest.org

Chicago School Reform: Lessons for the Nation
January 2007
Executive Summary

Public education in the U.S. faces a critical choice. We can continue to follow the path of punishment and privatization promoted by business and political interests and enshrined in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and various Chicago Public Schools (CPS) policies and practices. Or we can expand the fairer, more effective strategies that have been evolving in the most successful schools in Chicago and elsewhere. Unfortunately, many ineffective CPS strategies are being promoted across the nation as solutions to schools failing to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) under NCLB. This report takes a close look at the successes and failures of Chicago school reform – what research shows has and has not worked. The report covers Chicago school reform from the decentralization period of the early 1990s (Chapter I), to the 1995 mayoral takeover (Chapter II), and on to the most recent CPS improvement scheme, called the “Renaissance 2010” plan (Chapter III).

Among the ineffective, damaging practices carried out in Chicago are educationally counter-productive central office interventions, most rooted in the misuse of high-stakes tests, such as scripted curricula and reconstitution; grade retention based on test scores; undermining local decision making; and increased privatization. While NCLB does not require all of these, the test-focused environment created by NCLB encourages these harmful practices.

An alternative approach for sustained, continuous school improvement uses strategies shown to be successful in Chicago (Chapter IV). The recommendations listed below and described in more detail in the final chapter sum up and are based on these successful approaches. They are supported by current research in key areas such as professional development, parent involvement, and assessment. While these recommendations focus on Chicago, most have implications for NCLB, such as improved funding equity, ways to ensure schools can assist one another to improve curriculum and instruction, and focusing on strengthening school capacity to serve all children well through professional development and parent involvement.

Recommendation 1: Illinois and Chicago must improve funding adequacy and equity.

• Illinois needs to provide substantially more funding, allocated especially to those districts with the most needs, including Chicago.

• Chicago’s Mayor and CPS need to establish a fair, adequate and equitable distribution of resources within Chicago Public Schools.

Recommendation 2. CPS must initiate a program of sharing best practices, including those developed in its stronger schools, among both successful schools and struggling schools.

Recommendation 3: Elected parent-majority Local School Councils (LSC) must be the default governance structure in all non-charter CPS schools.

• Hold charters accountable for parent involvement in decision-making by requiring annual reporting of parental activity in this area.

• Outsource LSC support and training to qualified groups and individuals to avoid conflict of interest between local school and central office/city hall interests and increase the quality of LSC training.

Recommendation 4. CPS must improve curriculum and instruction and foster high-quality professional development:

• Eliminate scripted curricula and move away from “teaching the test.”

• Ensure that professional development focuses on authentic, intellectually challenging and engaging curriculum and instruction.

Recommendation 5. CPS must prioritize professional development, supporting a decentralized and collaborative approach, following the guidelines of the National Staff Development Council and the

U.S. Department of Education Professional Development Team.

Recommendation 6. CPS must improve parent involvement training and practices.

• Ensure that schools have access to high-quality training for parents and teachers on parents’ rights under NCLB to observe classrooms and be involved in school improvement planning and evaluation.

• Construct a standard, CPS-approved, comprehensive annual parent survey; and require schools to use it or some comparable tool to gather parent input prior to developing or modifying parent involvement and school improvement plans for the coming year.

• Require all schools to report to the public annually on progress with parent involvement.

Recommendation 7. CPS must implement high-quality assessment practices and fair and beneficial accountability policies:

• Ensure that learning high-quality assessment is part of expanded professional development, including work on using formative assessment techniques.

• Implement the assessment and accountability recommendations of the CPS-developed Commission on Improving Classroom-based Assessment and the New ERA plan, which rely more on performance-based assessments than standardized tests, while pushing Illinois to support high-quality local assessment.

• Halt the grade retention program, making retention a rarity while providing needed assistance in mastering a rich curriculum to all students who need it, regardless of their test scores.

• Implement both the letter and the spirit of the remediation, probation, and intervention provisions of the Chicago school reform law: carry out high-quality needs assessment, program planning, and program evaluation in a process which includes all school stake-holders including the LSC; provide adequate time and resources for programs to succeed.

Recommendation 8. CPS must actively participate in the ESEA/NCLB reauthorization process by supporting the recommendations in the Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (2004).

This report is endorsed by the following groups:

Designs for Change

National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest)

Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE)

Monty Neill, Ed.D.
Deputy Director
FairTest
monty@fairtest.org
857-350-8207 x 101; fax 857-350-8209
15 Court Square, Ste 820
Boston, MA 02108-9939
http://www.fairtest.org
Donate: https://secure.entango.com/servlet/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Lawmaker suggests merging historically black colleges

Republican Seth Harp wants to save money by putting them with white-majority schools

The chairman of a key state Senate committee wants the University System to consider merging historically black public colleges with nearby white-majority schools to save money.

In making the suggestion Monday, Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland) immediately ran into opposition from supporters of the black schools who say they serve an important role as independent campuses.

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The Chronicle News Blog: College of Santa Fe Looks to State as Deal With Laureate Collapses

The State of New Mexico might need to take over a struggling private college there after its discussions to be acquired by a for-profit provider fell through.

The College of Santa Fe was in talks with Laureate Education for it to assume the college’s debt and assist in marketing the college, in affirming its brand, and in recruiting more students.

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San Francisco Chronicle: Stanford professor leads Obama transition team

Darling-Hammond, a teacher-friendly educator, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to head his transition team on education policy.

Her name appears on some – not all – of the guessing-game lists put out by education observers speculating about who Obama will pick to head the huge U.S. Department of Education. And she is the subject of an online petition begun by a teacher in Hawaii that’s attracted thousands of people – many of them teachers – urging the president-elect to choose her.

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Washington Post: Top Scientist Rails Against Hirings
Bush Appointees Land Career Jobs Without Technical Backgrounds

The president of the nation’s largest general science organization yesterday sharply criticized recent cases of Bush administration political appointees gaining permanent federal jobs with responsibility for making or administering scientific policies, saying the result would be “to leave wreckage behind.”

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AP: Venezuela, Iran team up on university plan

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela and Iran plan to start a new university program in the South American country with a focus on teaching socialist principles.

Venezuela’s government says it plans to establish the University of Civilizations under accords recently signed with Iran.

Deputy Minister for Academic Development Tibisay Hung says the program will begin in Caracas at the existing, tuition-free Bolivarian University.

Hung tells the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that the aim is to promote discussion of “21st century socialism.” Venezuela announced the program on Monday.

President Hugo Chavez is promising to lead Venezuela toward socialism, and in recent years has built increasingly close ties with Iran.

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The Chronicle: Obama’s Possible Candidates for Education Secretary

If history is any guide, Barack Obama will spend several weeks chugging through higher priorities on his presidential to-do list before choosing an education secretary.

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