More Gadfly highlights
More good stuff from the Gadfly (to subscribe, which I highly recommend: either email thegadfly: <mailto:thegadfly@edexcellence.net> with "subscribe gadfly" in the text of the message or sign up at <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616398> ):
Achievement Trap: How America is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families
Joshua S. Wyner, John M. Bridgeland, and John J. Dilulio, Jr.
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Civic Enterprises
September 2007
It isn't only struggling students who have been left behind: 3.4 million high-ability but low-income pupils aren't receiving the educations they deserve, either. Case in point: almost half of low-income youngsters who scored in the top quartile on reading tests as first graders were no longer scoring in the top quartile as fifth graders. Of low-income eighth graders who scored in the top quartile on math tests, only 25 percent were still hitting that mark in twelfth grade. Academically talented poor students are, it seems, still lumped in with their lower-achieving classmates and not given challenging material or held to high expectations. This report makes clear that low-performing schools -- often in rural and urban areas -- are bringing down their high-achievers rather than pushing them up. While schools focus on bringing low-achieving pupils to a ''proficient'' level, talented kids with the potential to be ''advanced'' slide to mediocrity (or worse). Find the report here <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616387> .
And:
Just say no
When it comes to merit pay, Florida's teachers are about as ill-tempered as a gator buzzed by an Everglades airboat. The state legislature launched the STAR (Special Teachers are Rewarded) program in 2006, which gave 25 percent of public-school teachers five-percent bonuses, based primarily on student scores on the Sunshine State's standardized assessment. Educators growled, claiming that STAR encouraged an unhealthy competition for limited funds. The legislature responded, in March replacing STAR with MAP (Merit Awards Program). The initial response from teachers? NOPE (No merit-pay Options will Placate our Educators). But of late the tide is turning (see here <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616364> and here <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616365> ) and those who still flat-out reject teacher-pay reform are starting to look like a surly lot who simply refuse to compromise. As we see it, the performance-pay train is leaving the station, and the ''just say no'' crowd can either jump on or eventually get left in the dust.
''Teachers Slap 'F' on Bonus Pay Plan <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616366> ,'' by Bill Kaczor, Associated Press, September 16, 2007
And (I'd heard good things about Bennet, which makes it especially bizarre that the union is on the right side of this issue and he's not...):
When progression is regression
The Denver teachers union has proposed to end social promotion in Mile High City schools and instead to tie students' progress to their scores on standardized tests in third, fifth, and eighth grades. Opponents of the plan worry that it will harm the self-esteem of students who are held back and could encourage those youngsters to drop out. ''Unless you've got a very serious set of interventions in place, all retaining kids does is drive the dropout rate up,'' says Denver Superintendent Michael Bennet. The union agrees, which is why its plan calls for extra services for students with low test grades and reading scores. And what's the alternative? Allowing students to progress through the grades without, say, being able to do basic math? If you want to talk about a blow to self-esteem, talk about the seventh grader who reads at a third-grade level. There may be more to this story: the union and district are embroiled in contentious contract negotiations. But on this issue, regardless of the politics that may be involved, we're taking union's side.
''Teachers want more red lights <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=163632089&u=1616374> ,'' by Jeremy P. Meyer, Denver Post, September 16, 2007
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posted by Whitney Tilson at 9:49 AM
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