EWA Unveils Backgrounder on Bullying

Following a rash of suicides around the country, especially after anti-gay harassment, schools, school districts, reporters, and even federal education officials are paying attention to the consequences of student bullying. EWA offers some background information and links for reporters.

Education's Role in 'The Ideological Divide'

Education plays an intriguing cameo role in a couple of essays, one by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek and the other by Christopher Caldwell of The Weekly Standard, that are published today in The New York Times Review of Books. Framed within the context of the midterm elections, both pieces examine new books, Alter's on liberalism and Caldwell's on conservatism, under the banner headline "The Ideological Divide."

Caldwell brings up education as he writes about one author's argument that the Tea Party reflects a resurgent appetite for genuine self-rule after decades of leaving governance up to a "ruling class" of Democrats and Republicans. While expressing sympathy for such impulses, Caldwell says it remains unclear whether ordinary Americans are willing "to reacquire the sinews of self-government." He goes on to write:

"Town, county and state governments no longer have much independent political identity. They are mere 'conduits for federal mandates,' as [author and Boston University emeritus professor Angelo M.] Codevilla puts it. He notes that the 132 million Americans who inhabited the country in 1940 could vote on 117,000 school boards, while today a nation of 310 million votes in only 15,000 school districts. Self-rule depends on constitutional prerogatives that have long been revoked, institutions that have long been abandoned and habits of mind that were unlearned long ago."

Alter, for his part, evokes education when discussing former Vice President Walter Mondale's recent memoir, in which the Great Society liberal concludes that nonwithstanding President Barack Obama's election, "liberalism is still on trial," to which Alter adds, "Especially when it comes to education." Alter continues:

"There's a great struggle under way today within the Democratic Party between Obama and the reformers on one side and, on the other, hidebound adult interest groups (especially the National Education Association) that have until recently dominated the party. If liberalism is about practical problem solving, then establishing the high standards and accountability necessary to rescue a generation of poor minority youths and train the American work force of the future must move to the top of the progressive agenda. Education is emerging as the first important social movement of the 21st century, a perfect cause for a new generation of idealists."

As we enter the final stretch of the midterm elections, are beat reporters hearing echoes of these arguments at the grassroots? How often are conservative candidates calling on Washington to back off the public schools? Are you seeing "the great struggle" that Alter describes among Democrats play out at the state and local levels? Do you agree that education is indeed emerging "as the first important social movement of the 21st century"?

For those of us immersed in debates among education insiders, it's always interesting to see how the issue is perceived by those outside that universe. Let us know of other interesting examples you find!

Media Access to Schools

My favorite watchdog group, the Student Press Law Center, this week picked up on a Pennsylvania school district's attempts to circumscribe students' and teachers' ability to talk to the press.

The proposed policy hasn't been scheduled to go before the Wilson School District and the spokesman told SPLC that administrators are planning to tweak it. Nonetheless, the proposal currently says that students and staffers "shall not give school information or interviews requested by the media representatives without prior approval of the District's communications representative and/or his/her designee."

We'll keep you posted on what happens.

Reporters on EWA's K-12 listserv weren't too surprised. Dan Berrett of the Pocono Record shared the story of the Pleasant Valley School District, which had asked employees to sign a sweeping confidentiality oath four years ago. Fortunately, the policies have changed under a more open administration since then.

While a school district may be within its rights to police what employees say about official business, the policy was too general,  SPLC executive director Frank LoMonte noted.. And it clearly does not have the right to control students' speech, he said.

Meanwhile, the Society of Professional Journalists on Oct. 5 tackled the sticky issue of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the aggressive way universities and school districts have been interpreting it. The organization passed a resolution called on Congress to shift oversight of FERPA from the U.S. Department of Education to another agency, such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The inspiration for the resolution was a Columbus Dispatch 2009 series, Secrecy 101, about how college athletic departments use the law to keep records secret.

Ed News Wrap-Up: Manifestos, talented teachers, test scores and taxpayers

It was a busy weekend in ed news.

Sixteen urban schools superintendents wrote a "manifesto" on how to fix America's schools and the Washington Post's Outlook section printed it this weekend. Their prescriptions weren't the most surprising: eliminating seniority, getting rid of "poorly performing" teachers, allowing more school choice, closing down failing schools, offering pay-for-performance and other financial incentives. The Post's Answer Sheet blogger, Valerie Strauss, found the manifesto "bankrupt," and regularly featured Answer Sheet guest blogger Dan Willingham found it tepid.

Outlook ran another opinion piece on how the U.S. doesn't attract its top talent to teaching. While that's a shocker to no one, the article by Peter Kihm and Matt Miller put the issue in context by comparing our ability to attract the best and brightest with Singapore, South Korea and Finland.

And the New York Times put out a front page heavy hitter by Jennifer Medina, examining New York's flawed accountability system. The brevity of the test and predictable test subjects recycled year after year made it easy to game the system.

And finally, in higher education news, the American Institutes for Research put out an estimate on how much college dropouts cost U.S. and state taxpayers. The $9.2 billion total pricetag prompted Clifford Adelman, a research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, to cry foul. According to Adelman, the federal tracking system doesn't follow students when they leave one college for another, thus inflating that dropout number.

So what do you think of this weekend's newsmakers? Should the manifesto be taken seriously? Is there anything the U.S. can do to attract its top talent to teaching? Can we even afford to pay teachers what starting lawyers make? Should New York residents be worried that students' test scores may not actually gauge what they have learned? And how accurate is the federal Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System?

"Waiting for 'Superman'" Resource Guide for Reporters

The documentary “Waiting for 'Superman’” is helping shine a national spotlight on the challenges of public education in the United States, especially in urban communities. To help journalists cover the film and its impact, the Education Writers Association has compiled a resource guide of articles and reports on issues raised in the documentary, as well as links to coverage and critiques of the movie.

The guide offers stories and reports on charter schools, teachers' unions and contract issues, international rankings and reports about the schools featured in the documentary.