Why The Secrecy DOE? – Voucher study facts withheld

By this point everyone knows that President Obama’s slogan was change. One of the most reassuring changes Obama promised included government transparency and accountability. This was a welcome change after the Nixonian secrecy of the Bush Administration. For ed policy wonks and those his campaign , it was no surprise when Obama called for the same principals to be applied to education.

Yes everyone from students to teachers to administration, presumably straight up to the DOE would be accountable for the health of our education system. Supposedly we would be privy to accompanying stats as well.

When I read this story about the hijinks surrounding a recent DC voucher study I felt betrayed.

from Real Clear Politics

[The voucher program's] popularity notwithstanding, Obama stayed silent as Congress scheduled this initiative’s demise after the 2009 — 2010 academic year. Both a Democratic Congress and DC authorities must reauthorize the program — not likely.

Now it emerges that Obama’s Department of Education (DOE) possessed peer-reviewed, Congressionally mandated, research proving this program’s success. Though it demonstrates “what works for the kids,” DOE hid this study until Congress squelched these children’s dreams.

This analysis compared voucher users’ test scores to those of students who requested vouchers but lost the award lottery. Among DOE’s results:

*While they were no better at math, voucher recipients read 3.7 months ahead of non-voucher students.

*Student subgroups — including high achievers, those from functional schools, and applicants between Kindergarten and grade 8 — showed “1/3 to 2 years of additional learning growth.”

*While 63 percent of non-voucher parents gave their kids’ schools As or Bs, 74 percent of voucher parents so rated their children’s campuses.

This good news remained concealed, from the study’s conclusion last fall, through March’s Congressional debate, until April 3, when DOE finally released this report. That was a Friday afternoon, precisely when news whisperers issue stories they want journalists to miss in the mad dash for the weekend and citizens to overlook as Saturday’s papers vanish beneath ski equipment, movie tickets, and pitchers of beer.

Worse yet, DOE researchers reportedly were forbidden to publicize or discuss their findings. “You’d think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program,” the April 5 Wall Street Journal editorialized.

For Team Obama, this is transparency we can believe in.

One expects better from Obama who won a scholarship at age 10 to attend Hawaii’s prestigious, private Punahou school. “There was something about this school that embraced me, gave me support and encouragement, and allowed me to grow and prosper,” Obama has said.

DC voucher recipients want such life chances. If you want to bawl like a baby, visit VoicesOfSchoolChoice.org and watch the Internet’s most inspirational and simultaneously heartbreaking video.

“In my old public school, people screamed at the teacher, walked out of school during class, hurt me, and made fun of all my friends,” says Paul, age 11, imploring Obama to keep hope alive. “I love going to school, where I can learn and be safe,” says Breanna, 9. “I want to go to Morehouse College, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” says De’Andre, 9. “I am going to grow up and be a good man.”

With young black kids themselves begging for vouchers, why would reputedly pro-poor, pro-black Democrats kill this popular and effective school-choice program?

Follow the money: Teachers’ unions’ paid $55,794,440 in political donations between 1990 and 2008, 96 percent of it to Democrats. Senator John Ensign’s (R – Nevada) March 10 amendment to rescue DC’s vouchers failed 39-58. Among 57 Democrats voting, 54 (or 95 percent) opposed DC vouchers.

I can understand withholding information sensitive to national security. It almost goes without saying. Education research is not a national secret. Especially good news. Every single American should have been privy to this information as soon as it came out. It turns my stomach to think that the administration would have withheld this study until after a vote to end the program. Could this information have saved the DC voucher program? Quite possibly. Playing this sort of underhanded politics with our children is disgusting and repugnant.

Unfortunately this story may go unnoticed. I hope that it is carried to all across the nation. You wanted to have the most transparent and accountable government Mr. Obama. Now it’s time to stand up and take your lumps on this debacle. You, Duncan, and the DOE must be held accountable.

UPDATE: Here are a few links to other articles and the PDF links to the study itself.
The DC Voucher Impact Study
Opinion of Brookings Institute rep involved in study
Bismarck news outlet calls buried study news a “shocker”
The Examiner gathers some opinions on the matter

My Michelle – Michelle Rhee and the union shuffle

Dylan Thomas said, “Don’t go gentle into that good night.” Chancellor of D.C. schools Michelle Rhee lives by those words.

Most of those who know of Michelle Rhee have one of two reactions upon hearing her name: gush with adoring praise or curse her name and spit on the ground. Personally I see her for what she really is, someone with ambitious ideas that puts children first, but who works poorly with others.

The Huffington Post ran a story yesterday, yes sometimes they actually do more than just post links, on Rhee’s crusade to turn around one of the worst urban school districts in the country. Half of the article is devoted to the tough accountability changes Rhee wishes to impose on D.C.’s teachers and the resistance from teacher unions. Rhee’s words make her sound more like General Patton than an education official.

from Huff Post

Rhee, a widely praised if controversial education reformer, has promised to raise student test scores. She told the Huffington Post: “We are going to impose the new evaluation tools regardless” of the outcome of talks with the union. “We are going to be moving people out who are not performing.”

Rhee’s comments stunned union officials. “I’m dumbfounded,” said a top American Federation of Teachers (AFT) official involved in the negotiations, declining to publicly identify himself.

“She is correct to say she has the power to unilaterally impose a teacher evaluation system,” the AFT official said, but “all you have to do to get her real agenda is to look at the language she used with you. Words like ‘impose,’ ‘unilaterally,’ ‘regardless,’ and ‘power.’ They all say the same thing. She wants to do it to teachers, not work with them.”

He contended that Rhee’s stance disregards the right of the WTU “to bargain the outcomes of the evaluation system. This obviously includes due process rights and compensation, if she wants to attach pay to the results of the evaluation.” In a plea to Rhee, the AFT official said, “If the chancellor is willing to collaborate with the union in developing a fair and expedient evaluation system, the Union is willing to use those results for performance pay and possible dismissal.”

Accountability is important. Good teachers should be rewarded. Tenure and bonus should be linked teacher assessments. Extra training, mentoring, and other assistance should be offered to teachers not meeting standards. Those who consistently perform under standards should be let go. We need these standards, that is non negotiable. What standards we set and how we assess those standards needs a great deal of work. This is where cooperation with teachers and unions are key.

Teachers are in the trenches so to speak. Their input on students is first hand, not just from statistics. If teachers are going to be involved in implementing these standards they have got to have input on what they are. There are so many pieces of this puzzle to consider. Special needs students, districts that already perform high, local factors, and so many other aspects need to be examined. To drop those standards down from on high would be inappropriate.

Though reformers like Rhee are hated by teachers, the numbers are showing they can get results.

from Huff Post

From 2002 to 2008, the percentage of 4th graders in New York City meeting the math grade standard rose from 52 to 79.7 percent. Over the same period, the percentage of 4th graders reaching the English standard rose from 45.5 percent to 61.3 percent.

“We’ve changed the situation on the ground, creating the conditions necessary to transform our schools and classrooms and results for kids,” Klein declared when the statistics were released last June. “We’ve set high standards, created strong academic interventions for struggling students, held schools responsible for results, and given educators the tools they need to assess how well they’re doing and how well students are progressing.”

There are many who would refute Klein’s gains and his methods. Numbers only tell half the picture. I still find Klein’s remarks promising. If the numbers haven’t been doctored by say stacking schools and keeping special needs kids out, then they back up a lot of the reform principles myself and others hold.

A study done by Paul Tough in 2006 questions that these methods alone can lift our students.

from Huff Post

Other studies, according to 8,500 word November 2006 NYT Magazine piece by Paul Tough, have found, however, that — teacher competence notwithstanding — it is extremely difficult to improve test scores in schools located in poor, minority neighborhoods, and point to family background as a leading cause of poor student performance:

“[The] data largely confirm that idea [that family background is the leading cause of student performance], demonstrating clearly that the best predictors of a school’s achievement scores are the race and wealth of its student body. A public school that enrolls mostly well-off white kids has a 1 in 4 chance of earning consistently high test scores . . . a school with mostly poor minority kids has a 1 in 300 chance,” Tough reported in the New York Times after examining a host of studies

Tough suggested that the problems of educating poor minority children lie not only in the family background of the students, but also in the structure of the public school system:

“The evidence is now overwhelming that if you take an average low-income child and put him into an average American public school, he will almost certainly come out poorly educated. What the small but growing number of successful schools demonstrate is that the public-school system accomplishes that result because we have built it that way. We could also decide to create a different system, one that educates most (if not all) poor minority students to high levels of achievement. It is not yet entirely clear what that system might look like …. but what is clear is that it is within reach.”

Race and family background are not excuses. They may be obstacles we must overcome, but ultimately all students can achieve no matter what their background. The school’s responsibility is not to right these social wrongs, but to give students the tools to right them once they have completed their education. Tough is correct, we don’t yet know what a new system would look like, but it’s not far away. In getting there we have got to remember why we are doing this. Not for unions, not for reformers, not for teachers, not for bragging rights, not for fame, not for fortune, but for the kids. It’s cliche, but it’s true. Everyone should repeat that every time we debate these issues. Kids come first.

Your view?

Plumber Watch ’09 – Joe’s last ride

Well I’m sick of Joe the Plumber. I mean, I never enjoyed him in the way I enjoyed say Firefly (man that was a great show), but it Joe’s antics at least gave me some fodder to blog about. The man has gone from sad curiosity to pathetic media whipping boy. I feel a slight pang of sympathy for the man. He really got put threw the ringer, partly the fault of his own big mouth.

Well Joe’s book has premiered. Sam Wurzelbacher appeared at a D.C. area Border’s for a talk and signing. Washington Post covered the glum event. This, as far as this blog is concerned, is Joe’s Last Ride.

from Washington Post

Joe the Author, Plumbing New Lows in Interest

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 26, 2009; C01

Joe the Plumber (no longer a plumber; first name actually Samuel) popped into our town yesterday evening to sell his new book and to remind people that he’s still a plain and simple guy. Mission accomplished, on at least one of his missions.

About 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement of a downtown Border’s bookstore to hear Joe speak. Joe addressed them from behind a lectern and with a microphone, but that seemed unnecessarily formal.

If you’ve already forgotten “Joe” Wurzelbacher, 35, of Toledo, Ohio, it just goes to show you how ephemeral the life of a plain-speaking, Republican Everyman is these days. Joe was the square-jawed guy briefly drafted by John McCain’s campaign to be its Voice of Regular Folks. Joe got a couple of news cycles’ worth of attention starting on Oct. 12 — he remembers the date clearly — when he was videotaped confronting Barack Obama about his small-business tax plans. He later called Obama’s plans “socialism.”

Now, only a few months later, he’s kind of like a vestigial tail, a leftover artifact from a forgotten time. He’s Clara Peller, Willie Horton or Gennifer Flowers — names that are the questions in a “Jeopardy!” category called “Presidential Campaign Distractions.” To his credit, Wurzelbacher is hip to the audacity of hype: “I get e-mails all the time from people asking me when my 15 minutes is going to expire,” he grinned after his talk. “Sometimes they just write, ’15 . . . 14:59 . . . 14:58 . . .’ “

It’s fair to say Joe’s appearance at Borders at 18th and L streets wasn’t eagerly anticipated. People just kind of shuffled over when Joe strode in with Thomas N. Tabback, the co-author of “Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.” Annie Hickman, a young woman whom Wurzelbacher called “sweetie” during a brief Q&A, was browsing when the PA announced that Joe was in the house. “I’m missing pottery class for this,” she said.

Lawyer Alana Hecht was curious. “I was upstairs reading ‘Dreams From My Father,’ ” Obama’s memoir. “It’s just fate. Who could leave when this is happening?” She and Hickman laughed. Washington, such a weird town.

Joe had something to say about hard work and having good values; it’s probably in his book, but he said it bluntly and plainly. He has presence; he’s solidly built, with a shiny bullet head, and large, workingman’s hands. “I’m just your average guy,” he said several times.

He wore a gray long-sleeve undershirt and baggy jeans, and looked as if he just walked in from a construction site. Joe says he plans to work in construction (hello, stimulus package!) once his gig doing commentary for a conservative Web site runs out at the end of March. Plumbing? Not happening. “I show up on a plumbing job and the first thing someone’s going to say is ‘Joe the Plumber didn’t do the job right,’ ” he said. “The next thing you know, it’s on the national news. It would be naive to go back to it.”

Wurzelbacher says he’s still no fan of Obama, but confessed that he never liked McCain all that much, either. Nor has he cared for the politicians he’s met on Capitol Hill. “Liars and thieves,” he called them.

The only heat generated by Joe’s appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the “hegemony” of the white man in America is “doomed” now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.

Joe replied that he believes “our American heritage is being torn apart” by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American (“We’re all Americans,” he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, “America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country.”

Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of “Joe the Plumber” sold: five.

Opinions?

Plumber Watch ’09 – Joe’s last ride

Well I’m sick of Joe the Plumber. I mean, I never enjoyed him in the way I enjoyed say Firefly (man that was a great show), but it Joe’s antics at least gave me some fodder to blog about. The man has gone from sad curiosity to pathetic media whipping boy. I feel a slight pang of sympathy for the man. He really got put threw the ringer, partly the fault of his own big mouth.

Well Joe’s book has premiered. Sam Wurzelbacher appeared at a D.C. area Border’s for a talk and signing. Washington Post covered the glum event. This, as far as this blog is concerned, is Joe’s Last Ride.

from Washington Post

Joe the Author, Plumbing New Lows in Interest

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 26, 2009; C01

Joe the Plumber (no longer a plumber; first name actually Samuel) popped into our town yesterday evening to sell his new book and to remind people that he’s still a plain and simple guy. Mission accomplished, on at least one of his missions.

About 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement of a downtown Border’s bookstore to hear Joe speak. Joe addressed them from behind a lectern and with a microphone, but that seemed unnecessarily formal.

If you’ve already forgotten “Joe” Wurzelbacher, 35, of Toledo, Ohio, it just goes to show you how ephemeral the life of a plain-speaking, Republican Everyman is these days. Joe was the square-jawed guy briefly drafted by John McCain’s campaign to be its Voice of Regular Folks. Joe got a couple of news cycles’ worth of attention starting on Oct. 12 — he remembers the date clearly — when he was videotaped confronting Barack Obama about his small-business tax plans. He later called Obama’s plans “socialism.”

Now, only a few months later, he’s kind of like a vestigial tail, a leftover artifact from a forgotten time. He’s Clara Peller, Willie Horton or Gennifer Flowers — names that are the questions in a “Jeopardy!” category called “Presidential Campaign Distractions.” To his credit, Wurzelbacher is hip to the audacity of hype: “I get e-mails all the time from people asking me when my 15 minutes is going to expire,” he grinned after his talk. “Sometimes they just write, ’15 . . . 14:59 . . . 14:58 . . .’ “

It’s fair to say Joe’s appearance at Borders at 18th and L streets wasn’t eagerly anticipated. People just kind of shuffled over when Joe strode in with Thomas N. Tabback, the co-author of “Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.” Annie Hickman, a young woman whom Wurzelbacher called “sweetie” during a brief Q&A, was browsing when the PA announced that Joe was in the house. “I’m missing pottery class for this,” she said.

Lawyer Alana Hecht was curious. “I was upstairs reading ‘Dreams From My Father,’ ” Obama’s memoir. “It’s just fate. Who could leave when this is happening?” She and Hickman laughed. Washington, such a weird town.

Joe had something to say about hard work and having good values; it’s probably in his book, but he said it bluntly and plainly. He has presence; he’s solidly built, with a shiny bullet head, and large, workingman’s hands. “I’m just your average guy,” he said several times.

He wore a gray long-sleeve undershirt and baggy jeans, and looked as if he just walked in from a construction site. Joe says he plans to work in construction (hello, stimulus package!) once his gig doing commentary for a conservative Web site runs out at the end of March. Plumbing? Not happening. “I show up on a plumbing job and the first thing someone’s going to say is ‘Joe the Plumber didn’t do the job right,’ ” he said. “The next thing you know, it’s on the national news. It would be naive to go back to it.”

Wurzelbacher says he’s still no fan of Obama, but confessed that he never liked McCain all that much, either. Nor has he cared for the politicians he’s met on Capitol Hill. “Liars and thieves,” he called them.

The only heat generated by Joe’s appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the “hegemony” of the white man in America is “doomed” now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.

Joe replied that he believes “our American heritage is being torn apart” by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American (“We’re all Americans,” he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, “America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country.”

Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of “Joe the Plumber” sold: five.

Opinions?

Plumber Watch ’09 – Mr. Wurzelbacher goes to Washington

I’m starting to feel bad for the GOP. They lost a hard fought Presidential election. The Dems have an almost filibuster proof majority in the senate. They are working hard to find a relevant identity in the 21st century. Will they drift further toward the Palins or closer toward the sensible center?

Amid all this there is that linger PR disaster Joe The Plumber. Plumber Watch ’09 has received reports that Joe is on the move. Mr. Wurzelbacher, fresh of his Gaza war correspondent gig, is heading to DC. There he will meet with the GOP strategy group The Conservative Working Group Tuesday morning. The focus of the meeting is the economic stimulus plan. Mr. Wurzelbacher is aparently not too happy with this plan. Who could have guessed? More here, here, and here.

They Can Shoot A Teacup At Over Four Miles

Inauguration day for Barack Obama looms ever closer. Our first black president will be sworn into the highest office in the land. Entering with one of the highest approval ratings of an entering president, Obama will face a recession teetering on the edge of a depression, an aggressive Russia, one ally at war and another two inches closer and the struggle of living up to huge expectations. That the 21st of January 2009 will be historic almost goes without saying. But will a devastating black mark mar this red letter day?

Security coverage of the inauguration will be tight. Perhaps tight is an understatement, as would be any analogy to Fort Knox. Likening the security to that of the British Armageddon Letter at the bottom of the Atlantic would be the most appropriate.

Skilled snipers supposedly able to shoot a teacup at over four miles, roughly 13,000 national guard units ,officers from over 100 different law enforcement agencies from states neighboring DC, and of course the Secret Service will be on site. There will be enough officers to stand one every ten feet on the National Mall. The official area of the National Mall from 1st to 14th is 6.36 million square feet. I’ve read attendance estimates from two to four million. Try to wrap your head around all that. I take no responsibility for your mind blowing. Back to the civilians in a moment.

Barack Obama will ride to and from the ceremony in a shiny new Cadillac. This Cadillac comes equipped with a few snazzy extras including armor and bullet-resistant glass. SWAT teams armed to the teeth will be heading and following the motorcade. Fighters will patrol the skies. Despite a foil neo-Nazi assassination plot in October of 08 and Al-Qaeda recently blaming Obama for the Gaza war, secret service has received no serious threats and are confident in President Obama’s safety.

Civilians in attendance will be the most at risk, especially those in locations where no tickets are required. This area will most certainly be a logistical nightmare. Despite the large number of law enforcement in the area it will be impossible to completely police these areas. Officials have said that they will search everyone
entering these areas. What they will consider contraband they have yet to announce. Now matter how extensive the searches it is difficult to believe they will be one hundred percent.
“How do you search all of these people?” asked one retired Secret Service agent
, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of security work. “If a suicide bomber or two or three got loose in that crowd, God only knows what would happen. It would be disastrous.”

I shudder to even think of that sort of scenario or something similar to what recently happened in Mumbai, which the feds warned local DC businesses to be prepared for. Again, the Feds have stated they have received no serious threats at this time. However we do have these encouraging words from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism: “That’s the central problem with [counter terrorism]. We’re not that good at predicting [attacks].”

What about the more likely occurrence of a domestic prankster? An ill placed smoke bomb or firecracker could cause a massive stampede. The amount of injured and killed would be as staggering as any terrorist attack. Look at the chaos this past Christmas over TVs on sale. TVs! Think if there was even the hint of an actual emergency.

While we are watching history unfold on the 21st, remember the months and months of planning that has gone into securing the inauguration. Remember the intricate law enforcement net placed over our Nation’s capital. Remember the millions of men, women, and children in attendance. Pray, think happy thoughts, do an inauguration dance, whatever it takes to get this thing off without any serious issues. This election was all about hope, so let’s hope it goes off without a hitch.

They Can Shoot A Teacup At Over Four Miles

Inauguration day for Barack Obama looms ever closer. Our first black president will be sworn into the highest office in the land. Entering with one of the highest approval ratings of an entering president, Obama will face a recession teetering on the edge of a depression, an aggressive Russia, one ally at war and another two inches closer and the struggle of living up to huge expectations. That the 21st of January 2009 will be historic almost goes without saying. But will a devastating black mark mar this red letter day?

Security coverage of the inauguration will be tight. Perhaps tight is an understatement, as would be any analogy to Fort Knox. Likening the security to that of the British Armageddon Letter at the bottom of the Atlantic would be the most appropriate.

Skilled snipers supposedly able to shoot a teacup at over four miles, roughly 13,000 national guard units ,officers from over 100 different law enforcement agencies from states neighboring DC, and of course the Secret Service will be on site. There will be enough officers to stand one every ten feet on the National Mall. The official area of the National Mall from 1st to 14th is 6.36 million square feet. I’ve read attendance estimates from two to four million. Try to wrap your head around all that. I take no responsibility for your mind blowing. Back to the civilians in a moment.

Barack Obama will ride to and from the ceremony in a shiny new Cadillac. This Cadillac comes equipped with a few snazzy extras including armor and bullet-resistant glass. SWAT teams armed to the teeth will be heading and following the motorcade. Fighters will patrol the skies. Despite a foil neo-Nazi assassination plot in October of 08 and Al-Qaeda recently blaming Obama for the Gaza war, secret service has received no serious threats and are confident in President Obama’s safety.

Civilians in attendance will be the most at risk, especially those in locations where no tickets are required. This area will most certainly be a logistical nightmare. Despite the large number of law enforcement in the area it will be impossible to completely police these areas. Officials have said that they will search everyone
entering these areas. What they will consider contraband they have yet to announce. Now matter how extensive the searches it is difficult to believe they will be one hundred percent.
“How do you search all of these people?” asked one retired Secret Service agent
, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of security work. “If a suicide bomber or two or three got loose in that crowd, God only knows what would happen. It would be disastrous.”

I shudder to even think of that sort of scenario or something similar to what recently happened in Mumbai, which the feds warned local DC businesses to be prepared for. Again, the Feds have stated they have received no serious threats at this time. However we do have these encouraging words from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism: “That’s the central problem with [counter terrorism]. We’re not that good at predicting [attacks].”

What about the more likely occurrence of a domestic prankster? An ill placed smoke bomb or firecracker could cause a massive stampede. The amount of injured and killed would be as staggering as any terrorist attack. Look at the chaos this past Christmas over TVs on sale. TVs! Think if there was even the hint of an actual emergency.

While we are watching history unfold on the 21st, remember the months and months of planning that has gone into securing the inauguration. Remember the intricate law enforcement net placed over our Nation’s capital. Remember the millions of men, women, and children in attendance. Pray, think happy thoughts, do an inauguration dance, whatever it takes to get this thing off without any serious issues. This election was all about hope, so let’s hope it goes off without a hitch.