Beyond the Test Bubble: Accountability, Expectations, and Planning

How can we hold schools accountable while ensuring that students receive a rich education, graduate from high school, and are prepared for the challenges of the 21st century? This month on the Whole Child Podcast, we'll hear from Richard Rothstein about his vision for a broader accountability system, which he describes in his new book, Grading Education. We'll ask Tommy Bice, deputy superintendent of the Alabama Department of Education, about how Alabama is responding to the growing dropout crisis with its First Choice plan. Finally, John Brown, author of Educating the Whole Child: An ASCD Action Tool, will explain how schools can implement a comprehensive planning process that moves beyond our current conception of accountability to ensure that all children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

This month's podcast is now available for download. Listen to archived episodes anytime at www.wholechildeducation.org/podcasts.

Odetta and the Music Connection

Today we mourn the passing of folk singer Odetta, remembered in the New York Times as a musician "whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement."

The Times notes that she sang "O Freedom," a song dating to the days of slavery, at the historic march on Washington for civil rights in 1963. Educators looking to integrate music into the curriculum can find relevant—and very moving—songs in Odetta's catalog. The singer once told the Palm Beach Post that folk music was "the filling in of the history that was left out of the school books."

Andrea H. Antepenko, a 5th grade teacher, describes how she successfully engaged students in American history through music in "The Music Connection," from Educational Leadership's September 2008 issue.

Has Education Research Become Too Polarized?

In his article in this month's Educational Leadership ("The Spectrum of Education Research"), Jeffrey R. Henig claims that many people mistrust the findings of education research because special interest groups often report such findings in a politicized fashion. "On politically contentious policy questions," Henig writes, "opposing cliques are ready and able to muster their own stable of researchers and findings to buttress their claims and challenge those cited by the other side. The seeming malleability of evidence reinforces cynicism."
 
Do you think education research has become too politicized? How do you decide which research to trust?

Ed. Jobs & Broomsticks

Obama's transition team seems to be channeling Usain Bolt when it comes to filling his key Cabinet positions, but he's taking his time choosing the next Secretary of Education. Aside from who he'll choose; what kind of education leader do we need?

Some are calling for the selection to be a so-called education reformer. Led by the likes of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and New York City Public Schools Superintendent Joel Klein, "reformers" lock horns with the teacher's unions on a regular basis over merit pay, tenure, implementing a businesslike structure for education, and rewarding student achievement with cash or gifts. They've also been more open to working with charter schools and private organizations like Teach for America and KIPP, challenging a public education system that has largely resisted structural change for almost a century.

Would U.S. education benefit more from the hawkish leadership of a "reformer" such as Klein or Ted Mitchell, CEO of New Schools Venture Fund? Or would someone like Linda Darling-Hammond, who's worked extensively on school redesign and urban education, but is regarded more as working within the system (and has been critical of Teach for America), be the best fit for an ailing education system?

Bail Out Our Classrooms, Says Carvalho

Maybe instead of private jets, the heads of the nation's largest school districts could pile into school buses, set their routes to swing by Washington, and join the lunch line at the federal bailout trough?

That's sort of what (minus the strained metaphor) Miami-Dade Schools chief Alberto Carvalho wonders in his suggestion to consider using federal bailout dollars to invest in education (Miami Herald). This year, Florida state tax revenue shortfalls could slice an additional $65 million from the already trimmed by $325 million Miami-Dade Schools budget.

Challenging Carvalho's bailout proposition, the Herald cites University of Miami Economics Professor Michael Connolly who notes that schools, by being public, already receive a sort of "bailout" in the way of federal funding. Adding, "If the Florida school system goes down the drain, it will make no difference to the U.S. economy." 

This is from a guy that teaches in a Florida school? Oh right, U of M is private!