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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Thomas B. Fordham Institute <thegadfly@edexcellence.net><br>
To: anngift <anngift@aol.com><br>
Sent: Thu, Jan 17, 2013 5:07 pm<br>
Subject: The Education Gadfly Weekly: Playing the gifted-student race card<br>
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<h1 style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-weight: normal; color: #015484; margin: 0pt; text-align: center;"><a name="top"></a>THE EDUCATION GADFLY WEEKLY</h1>
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<td style="padding-left: 5px; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: #434344;">A weekly bulletin of news and analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute</span></td>
<td style="text-align: right; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: #be2d1a;">VOLUME 13, NUMBER 3</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><strong>January 17, 2013</strong></span></td>
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<td style="padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px;"><span style="background-color: #434344; padding: 10px; color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 20px;">In this Edition</span>
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<h2 style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: #015484; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt;">OPINION + ANALYSIS</h2>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">OPINION</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#opinion1">
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>Playing the gifted-student race card</strong></span></a><br>
Shame on the <em>New York Times</em><br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By Chester E. Finn, Jr.<br>
</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">OPINION</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#opinion2"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>A bad precedent for charter schools</strong></span></a><br>
Be careful what you wish for<br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By Adam Emerson<br>
</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">OPINION</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#opinion3"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>The progressive view of school choice</strong></span></a><br>
Options for students, not parents<br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By J. Martin Rochester<br>
</em></span></div>
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<h2 style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: #015484; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt;">REVIEWS</h2>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">REPORT</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#SR1"><strong>Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct</strong></a><br>
Like a bad penny<br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By Andrew Saraf</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">BOOK</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#SR2"><strong>Strife and Progress: Portfolio Strategies for Managing Urban Schools</strong></a><br>
A crash course in portfolio management<br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By Andrew Saraf<br>
</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">JOURNAL ARTICLE</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#SR3"><strong>Multiple-Choice Tests Exonerated, At Least Some of the Charges: Forgetting Test-Induced Learning and Avoiding Test-Induced Forgetting</strong></a><br>
How I stopped worrying and learned to love the multiple-choice test<br>
<span style="color: #939393;"><em>By John Horton<br>
</em></span></div>
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<div><span style="color: #939393;">PODCAST</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=ZpB91SzDXeRfrpa4dQnpdQ"><strong>Scapegoats</strong></a><br>
Mike and emerging scholar Morgan Polikoff discuss accusations of
discrimination in gifted-and-talented programs, <em>Quality Counts,</em> and lightning rod/tiger mom Michelle Rhee. Amber contemplates
whether multiple-choice tests lead students to learn or forget.</div>
<div><span style="color: #939393;">VIDEO</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=PjOvDtrmSgg3dPIpaeIeFw"><strong>Exam Schools & 3 Myths</strong></a><br>
Chester
E. Finn, Jr., co-author of <em>Exam Schools:
Inside America’s Most Selective Public High Schools</em>, discusses three myths
surrounding exam schools: that they serve only rich white kids, that they are
charter schools, and that they teach students more effectively. His comments
may surprise you!<br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=uyEHMT8IGRvqXk0Ns4ut-A"><img src="http://www.edexcellence.net/assets/images/videos/20120919_ExamSchools_Screenshot.jpg" alt="Exam Schools & 3 Myths" border="0" height="113" width="200"></a></div>
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<h3 style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: #015484; padding-top: 10px; font-weight: normal;">OPINION + ANALYSIS</h3>
<h4 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a name="opinion1"></a>OPINION</h4>
<h5 style="font-size: 20px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">Playing the gifted-student race card</h5>
<div><strong>By Chester E. Finn, Jr. / January 17, 2013</strong></div>
<div>Oh, how I would
welcome and laud a nationwide education regime in which every high-ability
student has access—beginning in Kindergarten—to teachers and classrooms ready
and able to expedite and accelerate that youngster’s learning; in which every
child moves at her own best pace through an individualized education plan and
readily gets whatever help she needs to wind up truly college- and
career-ready, whether that happens at age fifteen, eighteen, or twenty-one; and
in which every teacher possesses the full range of skills and tools necessary
to do right by every single pupil for whom he is responsible, regardless of
their current level of achievement.</div>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a title="Math in the classroom" target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=wgkJqodmToqUmFvsrzH7EQ"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3362/3278616743_3bcdb02af7_m.jpg" alt="Math in the classroom" border="0" height="180" width="240"></a><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;">Millions of high-ability, academically promising youngsters are not receiving the challenging education they need to reach their maximum potential.</span><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;"><em>Photo by <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=mqe2dQcf8Na0uzcoufhDVA">mrcharly</a></em></span></td>
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<div>That’s what we
should aspire to—and work to make happen. Alas, that’s not how many places
currently function. Among the victims of our present dysfunction are millions
of high-ability, academically promising youngsters who are not getting the
kinds of “gifted-and-talented” education that would likely do them the most
good and help them to realize their maximum potential. (Collateral victims are
a society and economy that thereby fail to make the most of this latent human
capital.)</div>
<div>There’s no
agreed-upon definition or metric for “giftedness,” so there are no truly satisfactory
data on how many such youngsters reside in the United States. But assume, for
this purpose, that we’re talking not about rare geniuses and prodigies but
about the “talented tenth,” the one child in ten with the greatest potential
for high-level cognitive achievement. That would translate to about 5.5 million
girls and boys.</div>
<div>Nobody today can
tell us how many of these kids actually make it into gifted-and-talented
programs and classrooms, Advanced Placement (and International Baccalaureate)
programs, specialized “exam schools,” and the myriad but motley other special
offerings that do a decent job of serving such youngsters. (One encouraging
datum: The College Board <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=FriCUV_emQACwGKyD-erLA">reports</a> that 18 percent of 2011 high school graduates
earned a score of 3 or better on at least one AP exam during their high school
careers.)</div>
<div>States, districts, and individual schools differ
dramatically in terms of the arrangements they make for such students, the
extent and accessibility of their offerings, and the mechanisms by which they
do and don’t successfully identify high-potential kids. Not many of them,
however, are well-disposed towards creating separate classes, courses, programs,
or schools for such youngsters—nor towards “ability grouping” them within
schools and classrooms. Indeed, the education fraternity is dominated by the
twin beliefs that “tracking is evil” and that “smart kids will do OK
regardless.” The same fraternity is also under considerable pressure from
federal and state policies to focus attention and available resources on
low-achievers. As a result, high-potential kids are often neglected.</div>
<div>Insofar as teachers, schools, and programs do exist for them
within U.S. public education, it’s well known that children from middle- and
upper-middle class families with educated—and education-minded—parents are most
apt to take advantage of such offerings and that poor and minority youngsters,
particularly those without a lot of educational sophistication at home, are
least likely to. Here is how the College Board frames the problem:</div>
<h6>Hundreds of thousands of prepared students were either left
out of an AP subject for which they had potential or attended a school that did
not offer the subject. An analysis of nearly 771,000 graduates with AP
potential found that nearly 478,000 (62 percent) did not take a recommended AP
subject. Underserved minorities appear to be disproportionately impacted.</h6>
<div>This is a great
shame, of course, but it’s not exactly a surprise that more affluent kids are likelier to end up in gifted
programs. Their families don't face the stress of poverty, and they tend to
have two parents who read to their children, send them to preschool, etc. The
socioeconomic achievement gap (see <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=HQ2FGPxrxrYsZMfCzRJi0w">Mike Petrilli's appearance</a> in Dr. Josh Starr's podcast) is well documented—and a corollary of it is that
kids from more fortunate circumstances are more apt to end up in gifted
classes. (Note, though, that Jessica Hockett and I found almost the same
proportion of low-income youngsters in the country’s handful of “exam schools” as
in the broader high school population in our book <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=QluUSIEGPxQc9F1Z2KiTzQ"><em>Exam Schools: Inside America's Most Selective Public High Schools</em></a>.)</div>
<div>The problem
begins well before high school, of course. Indeed, for many youngsters it
begins at home in the early years, leading to ill-prepared (though possibly
very bright) kindergartners and first graders, then to middle schools with gifted-and-talented classrooms dominated by kids whose parents did prepare and push
them—and helped them navigate complicated access arrangements.</div>
<div>The <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=f0PavLRVWE23SaKDtldyqw"><em>New
York Times</em></a> on Sunday
made a huge fuss about this as it plays out in our largest city—specifically,
in a K–5 school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that is 63 percent black and
Hispanic but in which such kids comprise only 32 percent of the enrollment in
the gifted classes.</div>
<div>Following standard <em>Times</em>
(and Upper West Side) ideology, reporter Al Baker chose to focus on the city’s
mechanisms for screening and selecting kids for entry into its gifted programs
(and high-powered high schools, etc.). The burden of his article is that New
York’s education department discriminates against “children of color” via
selection mechanisms that result in white (and Asian) youngsters receiving the
best odds of accessing such programs and schools.</div>
<div>One may well yawn because this is so predictable a
perspective. It’s also the wrong perspective. We might first acknowledge that
many urban school systems would be thrilled—and praised—if a third of the kids
in their gifted classrooms were black and Hispanic. But the more important
point is that the supply of such classrooms is skimpy almost everywhere and
America’s entire K–12 education enterprise does a lousy job of identifying and
cultivating high-ability kids whose parents (for whatever reason) are not
prepping and steering them into the available seats in such classrooms.</div>
<div>We’d be outraged—as would be the <em>Times</em> —if we learned that there weren’t enough special-ed
classrooms, teachers, or programs to accommodate the population of children
with disabilities. (Indeed, a big problem in the special-ed realm is <em>over</em>-identification of such kids.) But
when it comes to high-ability students, instead of lamenting the
under-identification challenge and the dearth of suitable classrooms, teachers,
programs, and outreach efforts, the <em>Times</em>—and
a lot of others—settle for playing the race card.</div>
<div>Shame on them.</div>
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<div style="padding-bottom: 5px;"><a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#top"><span style="text-decoration: none; color: #434344;">↑ Back to top</span></a></div>
<h4 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a name="opinion2"></a>OPINION</h4>
<h5 style="font-size: 20px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">A bad precedent for charter schools</h5>
<div><strong>By Adam Emerson / January 16, 2013</strong></div>
<div>The
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools should be careful what it wishes
for. Although a <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=9ZI-dJTXjU4HgxE6oc8BSg">recent case before the National Labor Relations Board</a> (NLRB) was decided in the direction
favored by the Alliance,
by vacillating opportunistically on the issue of whether charters are public or
private, the organization has weakened the charter movement’s long game.</div>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a title="Teachers at Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy" target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=BlXTIkqiQcs98EoM4Mxdpg"><img src="http://www.michiganacts.org/storage/images/cmsa_web_photo_1.jpg" alt="Teachers at Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy" border="0" height="188" width="250"></a><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;">Two years ago, teachers at the Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy voted to form a union by card check.</span><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;"><em>Photo by Photo from <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=pRyEVTSR05M6jhKj8hP4gA">ACTS Michigan</a></em></span></td>
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<div>Here’s
what happened: Two years back, teachers at the Chicago Mathematics and Science
Academy voted to form a union via <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=aJ7AyuigIDZHrXtrkWuHXg">card check</a>—a power granted to public
employees under Illinois labor law. In response, the charter school asked the
NLRB to intervene, arguing that it was a privately run institution, not a
“political subdivision” of the state—and, therefore, that attempts to organize
its employees should fall under federal law and be done by secret ballot.</div>
<div>In
March 2011, the Alliance, led at the time by Peter Groff, filed a
brief supporting the Academy’s position. Charter schools are indeed public
schools, the Alliance reasoned, but they’re run by private entities. Hence
their employees should be treated like other private-sector employees. “To impose state labor law
obligations on private charter school employers, even in a public school
setting, is inconsistent with the goal of differentiating these schools from
‘traditional’ public schools,” the Alliance argued.</div>
<div>And the NLRB agreed with that position,
though it did so by invalidating an earlier ruling from the director of its
Chicago region (akin to a “lower court”). In the overturned ruling, the NLRB
regional director had determined that even though the government hired and
fired no one at the Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy, the charter school
was still a political subdivision with responsibilities to the public. “CMSA
and its Board of Directors are subject to statutory restrictions, regulations,
and privileges that a private employer would not be subject to,” the regional
director said. Not the least of those privileges is public funding.</div>
<div>Interestingly—and confusingly—his position resembled that taken by the
National Alliance on a separate matter involving pensions in February 2012. At
that time, the Alliance objected to proposed IRS regulations forcing states to
prohibit charter school teachers from participating in government retirement
plans. <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=JSiNFoPC_VqN2TRVQucC4A">In its statement on the draft pension regulations</a>—which
would have reversed previous IRS rulings that charters are state
“instrumentalities”—the Alliance argued,</div>
<h6>The
evidence is clear: charter schools are public schools; the degree of state
control over charter schools and public funding of such schools justify
amending the Proposed Regulation such that public charter schools are
considered agencies or instrumentalities of the state for purposes of the
Internal Revenue Service’s ‘governmental plan’ definition; and to hold
otherwise would harm more than 93% of our national public charter school
workforce.</h6>
<div>So are
they public or are they private? You cannot argue that charter schools are <em>not</em> governmental subdivisions for
purposes of escaping hostile state labor laws and sundry public regulations in
one breath, and then urge the IRS to deem charters “agencies or
instrumentalities of the state” so that their employees can continue to benefit
from government retirement plans in the next.</div>
<div>Such
inconsistency does no favor to charter schools—particularly when it comes to
funding. The Alliance had endeavored for years—and with mounting success—to codify the proposition that charter schools
are <em>public </em>schools and therefore deserve all
the funding and access to facilities that one would expect public schools to
have. Their public-ness is also vital to their constitutionality in a number of
states. But how can they be public schools if it is also contended that they’re
private entities?</div>
<div>
To be sure, the NLRB
decision was limited to the Chicago charter school. But by helping to convince
the board that even one such school is not an “instrumentality of the state”
and therefore should come under federal labor jurisdiction, the Alliance may
have subjected other charters to federal labor laws and unionization they never
before had to worry about, thereby playing right into the hands of teacher
unions keen to organize the instructors in these new schools. Bad.</div>
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<h4 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a name="opinion3"></a>OPINION</h4>
<h5 style="font-size: 20px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">The progressive view of school choice</h5>
<div><strong>By J. Martin Rochester / January 17, 2013</strong></div>
<div>While visiting a local high school as a
liaison between my department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the
high school’s Advanced Credit program, I had occasion to speak with its young
principal—a newly minted doctor of education. I told him about a challenge
facing those of us who teach in K–16 education: the difficulty of getting
students to summon the patience, stamina, and will to read dense text,
particularly book-length writings, in an age of instant gratification,
sound-bites, jazzy graphics, and condensed versions of knowledge. In short, I
asked him, do students still have the capacity for deep reading, followed by
deliberation and reflection? Can they conduct serious discourse? The
principal’s response struck me: “Today’s students are actually smarter and
better than students of yesteryear, since students today get to choose their
own readings.” Really? I immediately wondered whether we should trust the
judgment of adolescents, much less pre-adolescents, to decide for themselves
what makes educational sense. And for that matter, since when has the mere act
of “choice” been a measure of intellect?</div>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a title="Kids reading" target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=R3462PvCGqG42UspQ708Pg"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/6924841482_cd27df7e9c_m.jpg" alt="Kids reading" border="0" height="240" width="240"></a><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;">Should we trust the judgment of pre-adolescents to decide for themselves what makes educational sense?</span><br>
<span style="color: #8e8d8d;"><em>Photo by <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=aXpMTE1y78a2ArdYGXCwmA">slightly everything</a></em></span></td>
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<div>Bizarre as this principal’s comment
seemed at the time, it was grounded in mainstream progressive thinking—the
student-centered, active, discovery-learning paradigm—that goes back to
Rousseau, Dewey, and Piaget and that was more recently promoted by disciples of
Lucy Calkins’s “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=_lo_gv2HGiqCFY-4tPyCeA">Reading and Writing Project</a>” at Columbia University’s Teachers
College. A 2009 <em>New York Times </em>article,
“<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=7ILwxybz8ycOD9A1zwFjGg">A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like</a>,” noted the example of a Georgia teacher
letting her seventh- and eighth-grade English students select their own books,
reflecting “a movement to revolutionize the way literature is taught in
America’s schools” that “is catching on” in New York City, Seattle, Chicago,
and other school districts. “Voice and choice,” as this perspective has been
dubbed, means giving students themselves more choices. Indeed, voice and choice
has been extended to preschoolers through the so-called “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=PHx7YJdVGC8wPwbwg9skxw">emergent curriculum</a>,” “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=xFQmYXW2u65NA8jzbhKlow">Reggio Emilia</a>,” and other offshoots of progressive
education. (Little Johnny and Shirley cannot find the potty, but somehow they
are expected to think critically, including about what it is they should read—or even if they should read at all, as opposed to playing in the
sandbox.)</div>
<div>Of course, there is much to be said for
encouraging students to take ownership of their own education, to take personal
responsibility for choices in their lives, to be active rather than passive
learners, and to think more self-consciously about their abilities and
interests. This all sounds well and good, but the educators pushing these ideas
have been guilty of considerable pretentiousness, hypocrisy, and self-delusion.</div>
<div>First, the lectures on personal
responsibility suddenly give way to a “kids-will-be-kids” mantra, with regard
to enforcement of rules and standards. When students turn in late papers and
flunk exams, for example, the consequences of their behavior can be easily
reversed via grade-inflating redos, test retakes, and extra credit. Want to
enforce cheating and plagiarism rules? You won’t get far in most American
schools.</div>
<div>Second, unless one believes in the
Orwellian logic of “less is more” promoted by Ted Sizer and others, student
workloads are becoming lighter, not heavier. Popular perception and warnings
about K–12 students being overburdened with homework are belied by trends that
seem to be in the direction of assigning shorter books or articles (albeit with
more pictures) and shorter papers. Jay Mathews of the <em>Washington Post</em> has noted that only about 10 percent of American
high schools—predominantly located in affluent suburbs—maintain a culture of
high academic expectations reflected in lots of homework. Rather, most fifteen-
through seventeen-year-olds study less than one hour a day, while the homework done by
elementary-schoolers takes “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=GF3RNbwf46ZsbTcddE2acQ">less time than watching an episode of
‘Hannah Montana Forever</a>.’”
A 2011 <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=wfmino5mDG_Z-Y3Wc7uepg">study</a> by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute found that
only 39 percent of incoming college freshmen “report that they studied 6 or
more hours a week on average as high school seniors.” Not surprisingly, this
lack of academic engagement has carried over into college itself. In the 2010
study <em>Academically Adrift</em>, Richard
Arum and Josipa Roska found an overall 50 percent decline in the number of
hours a student spends studying from previous decades; less than half of the students
surveyed had ever written more than twenty pages for any class, and relatively
few had been assigned more than forty pages of reading per week.</div>
<div>What is the likelihood that the voice-and-choice movement in K–12 will produce an increase in academic
standards rather than further erosion? After all, as Diane Ravitch once framed
the issue, “What child is going to pick up <em>Moby
Dick</em>?” Where all this “choice” leads can be seen in the recent case of an
Honors English course at my local high school where at least one student,
entrusted with selecting a “great book” to read as the basis for a semester
project, opted for Paris Hilton’s autobiography. I guess we should be impressed
that this student was reading a book rather than watching and reporting on <em>Entertainment
Tonight</em>. If you believe that the average student, when given a choice, will
choose to read a 200-page book rather than a book half that size, or will
choose to write a twenty-page paper rather than a ten-page paper, well, then
you probably also believe in E.T. Have we carried the idea of empowering
students with “choices” a bit too far? You be the judge.</div>
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<h3 style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: #015484; border-top: 1px dashed #bebebe; padding-top: 25px; font-weight: normal;">REVIEWS</h3>
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<h2 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top: 1px dashed #bebebe; padding-top: 25px;"><a name="SR1"></a>REPORT</h2>
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<h5 style="font-size: 22px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct</h5>
<div><strong>By Andrew Saraf<br>
</strong></div>
<div>Now
seventeen years old, <em>Education Week</em>’s
annual <em>Quality Counts</em> (QC) report
grades states (and the U.S. as a whole) on six indicators: K–12 achievement;
standards, assessment, and accountability; the teaching profession; school
finance; “transitions and alignment” (which investigates early-childhood
programming and college and career readiness); and the <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=EmLrwWC7z48IsBmqt3u9qg">ever-controversial</a> “chance for success”
index. In this iteration, only the latter three have been updated—which
strengthens the feeling that we’ve read this book before: The top five states
retained their positions (with Maryland at the head with a B-plus), as did the
lowest (South Dakota, D-plus). The U.S. average crept from 76.5 to 76.9. Even
the most notable shifts aren’t exactly page-turners: West Virginia bumped from
fourteenth to second on the school-finance indicator by upping its per-pupil
funding $1,000. And Georgia earned the series’ first perfect score on
“transitions and alignment” by embracing QC’s fourteen pet policies (like
defining school or work readiness). Beyond the state rankings, this year’s QC
also explores the intersection between school-discipline policies and student
learning, calling attention to a key tradeoff: How do education leaders balance
the need for a safe environment (not just by <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#BN">keeping weapons out of schools</a>
but by keeping other violence and disruption out, as well) against the benefits
of keeping kids in school? Conventional wisdom says that too many students are
being suspended or expelled—but “fixing” that problem <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=U2nBP07p9wngsqw448g6uw">might create new ones</a>. If quality is to
“count,” then classrooms need to be places of learning, not disruption.</div>
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<a title="Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct" target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=7L89o0RUa1IkW_QqFsb6pw"><img src="https://myaccount.edweek.org/epe/photo/thumbnail/QC2013.jpg" alt="Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct" border="0" height="150" width="150"></a><br>
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<div><span style="color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">SOURCE</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Education
Week, <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=ASp4TwgHI71zCcIbkriNXg"><em>Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct</em></a><em> </em>(Bethesda, MD: Editorial Projects in Education, January 10,
2013).</span></div>
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<h2 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top: 1px dashed #bebebe; padding-top: 25px;"><a name="SR2"></a>BOOK</h2>
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<h5 style="font-size: 22px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">Strife and Progress: Portfolio Strategies for Managing Urban Schools</h5>
<div><strong>By Andrew Saraf<br>
</strong></div>
<div>For over a decade, and almost entirely under the leadership
of the prolific Paul Hill, the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing
Public Education (CRPE) has promoted the “portfolio-district strategy,” in
which districts manage a “portfolio” of diverse schools (charters, magnets,
traditionals), each with a high degree of school-level autonomy and
accountability. Since beginning this work, CRPE <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=ZWPbB1yyYi1swZ5KisugVg">has written</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=0KfERCOtXO0NvE2xZeuIFg">myriad reports</a> on the PMM (portfolio-management model)
and partnered with an ever-larger number of districts to help them roll out
this strategy. <em>Strife and Progress</em>—a new book by Paul Hill and two
current CRPE firecrackers, Christine Campbell and Betheny Gross—compiles their
immense amount of knowledge and experience. First, the authors outline and
explain the seven components that any successful portfolio-district strategy
must embrace: school choice, school autonomy, equitable school funding,
talent-seeking and retention, support from independent groups,
performance-based accountability, and public engagement. Drawing on case
studies of several portfolio districts (mainly New York City, New Orleans,
D.C., Chicago, and Denver), it then probes both the strategy’s promise and challenges.
Clearly, for example, it cannot succeed without political support: The book is
admirable in its acknowledgement of past public-relations failures within
districts of this sort (e.g., the contentious tenures of Michelle Rhee and
Cathie Black), and it expends much ink on the need to build relationships with
local organizations and clearly communicate such measures as school closings
and openings. Further, establishing the success of the portfolio model proves
problematic, mostly because of numerous confounding variables. The authors do,
however, offer concrete ways to deal with this complexity, including natural
experiments through school lotteries and time-series analyses (which might, for
instance, look at a student’s performance in one school versus another). The
challenges, then, are real but not insurmountable. At a time when <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=QBWlng1X8k272jkImUvwHg">some
people want to give up on urban districts entirely</a>, the strategies set forth in <em>Strife
and Progress</em> may offer this governance structure a fighting chance for
success.</div>
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<a title="Strife and Progress" target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=sx2rRZ3HdC7T3Q6tjpJKAQ"><img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/press/books/2012/strifeandprogress/strifeandprogress/strifeandprogress_2x3.jpg" alt="Strife and Progress" border="0" height="225" width="150"></a><br>
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<div><span style="color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">SOURCE</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Paul T.
Hill, Christine Campbell and Betheny Gross, <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=0RWSd01etoa4rJ-1dErmlw">Strife and Progress:
Portfolio Strategies for Managing Urban Schools</a> (Washington, DC:
Brookings Institution Press, 2012).</span></div>
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<h5 style="font-size: 22px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">Multiple-Choice Tests Exonerated, At Least Some of the Charges: Forgetting Test-Induced Learning and Avoiding Test-Induced Forgetting</h5>
<div><strong>By John Horton<br>
</strong></div>
<div>Successful Common Core
implementation will hinge on a number of factors. Among the largest of these
will be getting the assessments right—in terms of both design and cost. Central
to these issues are the controversial multiple-choice “bubble” tests, which are
welcomed by some as fast and efficient means of gauging student knowledge and
skills and derided by others as the cause for “teaching to the test” and
superficial knowledge. This recent report found within the <em>Journal of</em> <em>Psychological Science</em> finds merit in the bubble
test—if designed well. It explains findings from two small-sample studies (one
had thirty-two participants, conducted out of UCLA, the other ninety-six,
conducted out of Washington U.). The upshot: Both found that properly
structured multiple-choice tests (those which offer plausible wrong answers
alongside the correct response) “trigger the retrieval processes that foster
test-induced learning and deter test induced forgetting.” In other words,
bubble tests with competitive responses trigger actual knowledge-retrieval
processes rather than simple recognition processes—and do so better than
cued-recall (fill-in-the-blank) tests. The bottom line is both cautiously encouraging.
Multiple-choice tests—done correctly—can be a useful tool in an assessor’s kit
(a point <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=Lgi7sKvR_WYVmGiIzB-0LQ">that we have previously argued</a>).
The CCSS assessment consortia would be wise to keep that in mind.</div>
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<div><span style="color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">SOURCE</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Genna Angello, Elizabeth Bjork,
Robert Bjork, and Jeri Little, “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=Zm8w-5Z_dnQHNSusnWyuDw">Multiple-Choice Tests Exonerated, At Least
Some of the Charges: Forgetting Test-Induced Learning and Avoiding Test-Induced
Forgetting</a>,”<em> </em><em>Psychological Science</em> 23, no. 11
(October 2012): 1337-44.</span></div>
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<td style="padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 5px;" colspan="2"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; padding-left: 10px; color: #015484;"><a name="GFD"></a>BEST OF THE EDUCATION GADFLY DAILY</span></td>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; color: #434344; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #015484;">FLYPAPER</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=w2wIIUyeBYqZdu7LkCJklg">
</a><a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=66SV8v8tVKi-80RVsaE52A"><strong>Mike Petrilli's testimony on Indiana and the Common Core</strong></a><br>
By Pamela Tatz on January 16, 2013</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; color: #434344; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #015484;">FLYPAPER</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=n7WH696t8WZvOHdX9vMpnA"><strong>The MET study: implications, winners, and losers</strong></a><br>
By Andy Smarick on January 14, 2013</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; color: #434344; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #015484;">CHOICE WORDS</span><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=-plABN5WD8KsnR53RbuKTQ"><strong>The threat of the parent trigger and the change it begets</strong></a><br>
By Adam Emerson on January 11, 2013</div>
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<div style="margin-top: 0pt; font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; padding-left: 10px;"><a name="BN"></a>BRIEFLY NOTED</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; padding-left: 10px; color: #015484;">Assault weapons are out, math is in<br>
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<div>On Wednesday afternoon, President
Obama recommended a <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=vSWC_w4tsfFMr8zmuadx3g">package of national reforms</a> aimed at preventing tragedies like last month’s in
Newtown, Connecticut. Amidst the high-profile ban on assault weapons and
mandatory background checks on all gun buyers, he included a <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=6N4E1GqOkqVGQxEsUeivHA">slew
of proposals</a> designed to help schools prepare for and respond to violent
threats and improve access to quality mental-health services, including new money
for <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4ePl5Lz44gVs3Ln3eAJv3Q#SR1">new school counselors</a> and training in identifying students with mental
disabilities. And the President’s <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=aq5pTxB19TsM7ZOUg4i3xA">approval ratings</a> leaped in response.</div>
<div>In the least surprising news
since the <em>New York Times </em>told us that
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=D517KpWwSUoUDD-jMpEHbw">SAT scores correlate with family incomes</a>, Arne Duncan has announced he will <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=mrbI_Kivg1hO_juzuHm97g">stay on</a> as
Secretary of Education during President Obama’s second term. (We can also blame
the <em>New York Times</em> for tantalizing us
with the faint hope that he would take on a <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=c8eLzUok0Oh9iIJuQkMRXg">much more surprising role</a>.)</div>
<div>A new study found that students
who struggle on college-readiness tests use <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=ZQlYtX4wN8cIWJ3C-1gJOg">different brain processes</a> for simple problems than do high-achievers. Researchers
asked forty-three students to perform basic arithmetic while having their
brains scanned via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It turns out that
low-performing students’ brains seemed to be performing calculations to solve
the basic problems, while high-performing students appeared to solve the
equations by rote memory. To our eye, this research buttresses the Common
Core’s call for “<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=CDlzcHKS_FP5RSB6i1pSAg">automaticity</a>”
of math facts in the early grades. </div>
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<div>A group of professors at Columbia
University’s <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=Pmy7oq4__cxAUapyKnjL1A">Teachers College</a> are apprehensive about New York’s participation in the <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=4tvUqhXL9dC9-PtV9DQCrA">edTPA</a>, a performance-based teacher-licensing
test, which—among other things—requires teachers to record and analyze parts of
their own instruction. Their concerns were threefold: the privacy of the
children in the recordings; that not enough information is currently available
on the qualifications of those who would score the exams; and the very notion
that Pearson, a for-profit company, was contracted to administer the test.
Sounds like sour grapes to us.</div>
<div>After profiles in PBS’s <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=CcOCJkAxECP2W4rta5DbpA">Frontline</a> and the <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=H2J3hSi_ZdktDCkynuqrEQ"><em>Washington
Post</em></a>, both of which coincided with
StudentsFirst’s release of its <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=DUWBCNSU_O1W8OTkTFNF-Q">2013 State Policy Report Card</a>, Michelle Rhee is squarely in the limelight. And
while some love her and some love to hate her, it cannot be denied that her
personal celebrity and willingness to play the heavy have helped attract
attention to education and its reform. For more on Michelle Rhee, check out this week's <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=BJ47dcmLtkLTLrev_DR_Iw">Gadfly Show</a> podcast.</div>
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<h4 style="font-size: 15px; color: #939393; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 10px;">FEATURED PUBLICATION</h4>
<h5 style="font-size: 22px; color: #015484; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin: 0pt; line-height: 28px;">Exam Schools: Inside America's Most Selective Public High Schools</h5>
<a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=yTbQxWEhSUIZ1RLIJDwW7w"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px;" src="http://www.edexcellence.net/publications/publication-thumbnails/ExamSchools.jpg" alt="Exam Schools" align="left" border="0" height="211" width="163"></span></a>
<div>What is the best education
for exceptionally able and high-achieving youngsters? Can the United States
strengthen its future intellectual leadership, economic vitality, and
scientific prowess without sacrificing equal opportunity? There are no easy
answers but, as Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett show, for more than 100,000
students each year, the solution is to enroll in an academically selective
public high school. <em>Exam Schools</em> is the first-ever close-up look at
this small, sometimes controversial, yet crucial segment of American public
education. This groundbreaking book discusses how these schools work—and their
critical role in nurturing the country's brightest students. <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=0yxRD03f78bCTuB0FmaNMw">Click here to read more about it<em>.</em></a><em> </em></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; padding-left: 10px; color: #015484; padding-top: 10px;">Fordham seeks a research + staff assistant</span>
<div style="padding: 10px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; color: #434344;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Would you like to work at the forefront of the national education-reform movement? Are you a personable, organized, and detail-oriented self-starter? Are you comfortable handling varied responsibilities? Calm under fire? A born multi-tasker? A resourceful researcher? A savvy writer/editor? A <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=n7cx_d-JpAC_RaLXAxzCCg">great dancer</a>? If so, you might be the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s new D.C.-based research + staff assistant. For more information and to apply, please visit the <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=r0LUxQiyA3hR3MrKzYbIEw">job description</a> on our website.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; padding-left: 10px; color: #015484; padding-top: 10px;">January 31: Cato hosts a policy forum</span>
<div style="padding: 10px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; color: #434344;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">As our nation comes ever closer to being “majority minority,” Americans will look increasingly to our education system to unite us. A natural impulse will be to force, or at least nudge, children from different ethnic, religious, or other backgrounds together in public schools. But physical proximity does not guarantee affinity or trust, and the question of how to structure education to maximize social cohesion has a complicated—and uncertain—answer. To get at that answer (and mark National School Choice Week), the Cato Institute will host Mike Petrilli, Richard Kahlenberg, Neal McCluskey, and Greg Toppo to debate how great a role the choices of parents and educators must have in order to maximize social harmony. For more information on this event, visit the Cato Institute’s <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=i18LzpRL0ISvTTAjUiJYzw">web page</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; padding-left: 10px; color: #015484; padding-top: 10px;">Educators 4 Excellence seeks an executive director</span>
<div style="padding: 10px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; color: #434344;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This exciting new role will be charged with launching Educators 4 Excellence–Connecticut. As a member of the E4E senior leadership team, the founding executive director will have strategic and operational responsibility for E4E-CT staff, programs, growth, and execution of its mission to elevate the voices of teachers in Connecticut state and local education policy. He or she will implement a comprehensive strategic plan, recruit E4E-CT team members, build a membership base, and launch E4E’s full host of programming. This is an exciting opportunity for an innovative and entrepreneurial leader. For the full position description, visit Educators 4 Excellence’s <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=srOR3toe5jHVUA_VQZHeLQ">web page</a>.</span></div>
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<div>The <em>Education Gadfly</em> is published weekly (ordinarily on Thursdays), with occasional breaks, by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Regular contributors include Aaron Churchill, Adam Emerson, Daniela Fairchild, Chester E. Finn, Jr., John Horton, Greg Hutko, Emmy Partin, Michael J. Petrilli, Kathleen Porter-Magee, Matt Richmond, Terry Ryan, Andrew Saraf, Andy Smarick, Pamela Tatz, Amber Winkler, Brandon Wright, and Dara Zeehandelaar. Have something to say? Email us at <a href="mailto:thegadfly@edexcellence.net">thegadfly@edexcellence.net</a>. Find archived issues or other reviews of reports and books <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=3NVq_m_5HviBFFtxqFVnog">here</a>.</div>
<div>Follow the commentary online: <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=Tt0StPLD7A-8GoTljzc13g"><img src="http://support.edexcellence.net/images/content/pagebuilder/twitter-icon.gif" alt="Twitter icon" border="0" height="21" width="22"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=YmorxSmQWPtf-gx1hpEltA"><img src="http://support.edexcellence.net/images/content/pagebuilder/facebook-icon.gif" alt="Facebook icon" border="0" height="21" width="20"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=a3pr5TY_ksZIyekv4lg2cQ"><img src="http://support.edexcellence.net/images/content/pagebuilder/10993.png" alt="[object Object]" border="0" height="21" width="21"></a></div>
<div>The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a nonprofit organization that conducts research, issues publications, and directs action projects in elementary and secondary education reform at the national level and in Ohio, with a special emphasis on our hometown of Dayton. (For Ohio news, check out our <a target="_blank" href="http://support.edexcellence.net/site/R?i=sLi81Zs_zl_wtUmt6SiWqQ"><em>Ohio Education Gadfly</em></a>, published bi-weekly, ordinarily on Wednesdays.) The Institute is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University.</div>
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