Welcome
Chapter 1
Readings
Education is not merely the concern of educators. Public health officials assert that health
and education are linked. Basic educational expertise – including basic knowledge, reasoning ability, emotional self-regulation, and social interaction skills – is an essential contributor to and a component of good health. Authors argue that educators, public health policy makers, and practitioners work together to implement educational programs and policies that close achievement gaps to promote health equity.
After reading this article, consider:
- Discuss the ways you agree – or disagree – with the following broad definition of education: “Education is a personal attribute, which includes not only subject matter knowledge, reasoning, and problem solving skills but also awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others and control of one’s emotions (“emotional intelligence”) and associated abilities to interact effectively” and “Education improves health by increasing effective agency, enhances a sense of personal control that encourages and enables aa healthy lifestyle, has cumulative effects, and grows across one’s lifetime.”
- Explain how education is an element of health.
- Describe at least three findings from empirical studies associating education and health.
- Looking at Figure 4, consider the pathways from educational attainment to health outcomes. In what ways do you agree or disagree with this figure?
- Discuss why education is a legitimate focus of public health action.
NOTE: Articles 1.2 and 1.3, two competing viewpoints, should be read together.1.2 is a Cato Institute report on public schools and 1.3 is a National Center for Education Policy critique of that report. To read one without the other would leave readers misinformed and/or confused.
Writing for the libertarian Cato Institute, Corey DeAngelis concludes that while
education may be worthwhile public expense; public schooling is not. Traditional public schools – or as he calls them, “government schools” – fail as a “public good” when assessed from an economic perspective. Arguing for vouchers that permit parents to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools, DeAngelis cites “evidence” to concluded that public schools appear to have a negative effect on society through a less educated citizenry, higher taxpayer burden, and other undesirable outcomes. In his view, the U.S. government should not operate schools, and U.S. citizens should not fund government schools. Instead, the U.S. should fund education directly – rather than schooling – through a universal Education Savings Account program.
After reading the report, consider the following– and be sure to read 1.3, a critique of this report – to help you determine what you think of this position.
- Explain how and why DeAngelis differentiates “education” from “schooling.”
- In your view, using the examples DeAngelis provides, explain where the economic definition of “public good” or “merit good” fits – or does not fit – education in public schools.
- In the studies noted, suggest what factors other than higher quality curriculum and instruction might cause private schools to produce higher math (and sometimes, reading) achievement as compared with public schools.
- Describe how DeAngelis uses Horace Mann, data (specifically numbers), a literature review, and respected data sources to persuasively advance his thesis.
- Express your agreement or disagreement with DeAngelis’s conclusion that the government should de-fund public schools and direct the money into Education Savings Accounts for parents to use at their private schools of choice.
Doris A. Santoro, professor at Bowdoin College, critiques the recent Cato Institute report
(above, 1.2) asserting that it uses improper conflation and false equivalence of civic and economic definitions of “public good” and misrepresented literature to portray American public schools as “agents of harm.” Santoro summarizes the Cato report and argues that its imbalance, flawed logic, and limited research base make it useless to policy makers.
After reading Santoro’s critique, consider:
- Identify what you believe are Santoro’s strongest arguments in critiquing the Cato report and explain your reasons.
- Describe the evidence that Santoro provides to illustrate that the Cato report rests on an “inadequate and cherry-picked research base,” lack of transparency, shifting and undefined variables, and logic flaws.
- Explain why you, as a budding educational leadership scholar, must bring a critical eye to the professional literature if you are to develop a complete and accurate picture of your area under study.
Jack Schneider, an educational leadership scholar at University of Massachusetts Lowell, addresses the perception gap about American public schools, writing, that they generally are meeting American’s expectations, not “teetering on the brink of failure.” This perception gap is extremely important.
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain why the perception gap concerning school quality has such important policy and parental implications.
- Discuss why Americans hold pessimistic views of the nation’s schools even when their personal experiences are largely positive.
- Explain why data – including students’ standardized test scores – give incomplete and inaccurate picture of public schools and misrepresent school quality.
- Identify what Schneider sees as possible solutions to this perception gap problem.
Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/06/everything-in-american-education-is-broken/488189/
Jack Schneider, an educational leadership scholar at University of Massachusetts Lowell, writes that despite the cries from critics that America’s public school system is “dangerously broken” and need to be “scrapped,” the truth is that across many generations, American schools have slowly and steadily improved. Its challenges today are those of complexity and scale.
After reading Schneider’s article, consider:
- Discuss several key points that Schneider makes to argue that American education has improved over the generations.
- Identify several “serious unintended consequences” of continuing to repeat this “broken system” narrative of failing public schools.
- Explain what Schneider means when he writes that “many of the deepest flaws (in American public education) have been deliberately cultivated.”
- Explain what Schneider means when he writes that today’s challenges for public schools is one of complexity and scale.
Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel, economists with the Economic Policy Institute, provide data on the crisis in teacher pay that is no longer providing educators with a comfortable middle-class living commensurate with other professionals with similar education. Research shows that effective teachers are the most important school-based determinant of students’ educational achievement. If appropriate compensation is an important part of recruiting and retaining talented teachers, how will the deteriorating state of teacher pay affect the quality of teaching and learning?
After reading this report, consider:
- Describe how the relative teacher pay –teachers’ compensation (wages and benefits) – compares with other careers requiring the same amount of education – has been eroding for over 50 years.
- Explain how the erosion of teacher pay relative to that of comparable workers since 2008 reflects state policy decisions rather than less available funds.
- Discuss several pieces of data in this report that your find especially surprising or frustrating about the teacher pay penalty.
- Describe any gender differences in the teacher pay penalty.
- Explain how the teacher benefits factors affect teacher pay.
Martin Carnoy, labor economist and education professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, challenges the rationales and education policy analyses that find U.S. students performing academically well below their international peers on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment, 15-year olds), TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science Study, 8th graders), and similar tests. He appraises their value as assessments and looks at their social meaning and worth for U. S. educational policy.
After reading this report, consider:
- Identify Carnoy’s four main concerns about using the average PISA scores as comparative measures of student learning. Discuss how this information can help teachers and principals educate their colleagues and other stakeholders about the meaning of U.S. students’ achievement in international comparisons.
- Explain Carnoy’s four main concerns about how these international achievement data can be misused to (mis)guide U.S. education policy.
- Explain how the lack of students’ socioeconomic status influences the meaning of their achievement test results.
- Discuss the education policy implications for public schools, generally, from misunderstanding these international test results.
- Discuss the benefits that may come from correctly understanding and using these international test results for state education policy.
Politicians and journalists often judge the quality of countries’ education systems by using international test rankings and see American students’ middling-to-poor performance as a rationale for radical school reform. Economists Martin Carnoy and Emma Garcia, and researcher Tatiana Khavenson write that these comparisons are too simplistic and explain why U.S education policy makers should look inward, not outward.
After reading this report, consider:
- Explain how the U.S.’s schools – run by 50 different states’ separate education systems (plus the District of Columbia) – make it difficult to draw accurate conclusions about U.S. students’ national average performance in comparison to peers in comparable industrialized nations.
- Explain how examining why certain U.S. states have made large gains in math and reading achievement and achieved high test scores can help U.S. policy makers learn about improving education.
- Identify and discuss the factors – social, political, and economic – that make comparing U.S. students’ achievement (nationally) with international peers lead to misleading and incorrect conclusions.
- Describe the actual condition of American students’ academic achievement in reading and mathematics (by states and disaggregated for certain student populations) that the authors present – by states and in international comparisons.
- Express in one or two sentences your possible response to a local news reporter who asks if American public schools’ achievement is falling behind that of our international competitors, putting our country in economic jeopardy.
Videos
VICE News. (2017, January 6). 5 min., 48 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBjrdHANZXo
American education spending fell by about $600 per student between 2009 and 2014. At
the same time, public schools are enrolling an increasing number of students who cost states more to teach: English language learners. By 2025, almost 30% of children in U.S. public schools will be Hispanic.
After viewing this video, consider:
- Explain how the individual and community benefit when Latino children learn to speak English in school.
- Explain how state-wide budget cuts and tax cuts harm, rather than help, a state’s long-term economic health.
- Describe the programs and resources your present school district has to teach English as a second language effectively.
The Atlantic. (2018, April 17). 16 min., 1 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcLoBdkqxos
Who doesn’t like a tax cut? In 2012, Kansas passed one of the largest income tax cuts in the state’s history. The governor’s goal: boost the state’s economy. But as tax revenues fell, severe budget cuts followed, and schools and other public departments lost essential resources. The quality of life for the state’s citizens suffered. Sixty-one percent of Kansas citizens call the tax cuts a failure. In 2017, after 5 years of poor outcomes, the Kansas legislature restored the taxes.
After viewing the video, consider:
- Describe the economic rationale for incomes tax cuts and business tax cuts.
- Explain why it is essential to think through the full implications and impacts of tax policy and the community’s social responsibility before approving income tax cuts.
- Identify the array of public services that can be limited or ended by ideologically-driven tax cuts.
- Explain how the “Kansas experiment” does not apply only to Kansas.
Education Week for PBS Newshour (2016, September 2). 8 min., 42 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3RZn2hPQE
With American public schools becoming increasingly diverse and the teaching population largely white and female, programs are looking for ways to help future teachers develop the cultural competencies to work effectively with their students and communities. This video describes one such program.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe the types of skills and attitudes that teachers need to help their high-needs and diverse students succeed academically and socially.
- Describe the types of cultural sensitivity you need to work with students from families unlike your own.
Teachings in Education (2018, April 7). 10 min., 27 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFtg2xub10E
No wonder special education students cost more to teach! Learn in detail about the 14 different categories and classifications of special education students. The characteristics these students bring to their classrooms– and the need for additional resources – challenge their parents and teachers.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify several learning needs that children with disabilities bring to the classroom that require extra resources of people, materials, classroom formats, and time.
- Describe the knowledge, skills and personal characteristics that teachers need to be effective with special needs – that regular education teachers may not need (if any).
- Explain why it is essential to education students with disabilities with high expectations and high supports.
Enrique Baloyra (2016, August 20). 2 min, 19 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpaEHZPX3jI
The demand for effective teachers is rising even as the supply of talented teachers is falling. Relatively poor salary is one of the reasons. The Economic Policy Institute study finds that the gap between teacher salaries and that of comparable careers is growing. Public school teachers now earn an average of 17% less than other college-educated professionals. The erosion of relative teacher wages has fallen more heavily on experienced teachers
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the variety of factors that account for the relative drop in teacher wages as compared with other college-educated professionals.
- Identify several factors that are increasing the demand for teachers.
- Explain why “merit pay” will not solve the teacher shortage problem.
The Young Turks (2015, November 29). 5 min., 17 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABEy28A10U
A 2015 study into the salaries of college educated individuals shows that teachers are grossly underpaid – earning 67% less – than other college educated workers in other professions. High school teachers earn 71% of what other college educated workers earn. This pay penalty continues to this day.
After watching the video, consider:
- What do teachers’ salaries say about the value and status they hold in their communities and nations?
- Explain the argument that if teachers made higher salaries, it would attract more talented candidates.
- Explain why you think teachers and teachers’ unions have become political scapegoats for high government expenditure.
StanfordCEPA (2015, October 30). 2 min., 27 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fyKymV5e-0
Because the U.S has 51 – not one – educational systems, comparing the average U.S. student to the average student internationally leads to confused and inaccurate conclusions. Professor Martin Carnoy, who teaches comparative education at Stanford, discusses his research on the value of comparing state and international comparisons of student achievement. Carnoy finds that American educators learn more when they look at state achievement outcomes to see which states are generating higher learning achievement with similar students and identifying successful interventions.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify the factors that make it “off the mark” from a policy standpoint to compare U.S, students nationally with students of another country.
- Explain why it makes sense for policy makers to look at what factors make one state successful in raising student achievement and another state with similar demographics did not.
- Discuss your responses to Carnoy’s argument.
1.7. YouTube: Are International Comparisons a Smart Way to Judge U.S. Education
Policy?
The Economic Policy Institute. (2015, October 30). 1 hour, 28 min., 57 sec. [Actual
presentation runs from to 6 min., 40 seconds to 29 min., 34 sec. and 29 min, 34 sec. to 38
min., 19 sec.; the rest is a useful panel discussing the report for those interested in greater understanding.]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn76Ia8cZU0
This report breaks new ground. Although the quality of education in the United States has been sharply criticized in part because of the average U.S. students’ mediocre-to-poor performance on international tests such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the most relevant lessons for education policy makers can be found in our successful states rather than in other countries. It is not valid or reliable to compare U.S. students' test scores with those of students in countries with very different social, political, and educational environments.
After watching this video, consider:
- Identify the study’s three main points and explain their relevance to understanding the meaning of these international test scores for American education policy.
- Explain how FAR (Family Academic Resources, a proxy for poverty or affluence) impacts students’ achievement test scores and why omitting this variable from test results leads to misleading conclusions.
- Explain what we can learn from NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) achievement comparisons over time among states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut.
- Describe the “tri-level effect of poverty” and explain how it is a meaningful variable when understanding achievement test results.
- What points in the report made the greatest impression on you that will stay with you after the video ends.
- Discuss how this information can help you, your teachers, your local media, and your stakeholders better understand the meaning of U.S. students’ performance on international tests.
Chapter 2
Readings
Chapter 2 Readings:
2.1 Boston, R. (2002). The Blaine game. Washington DC: Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
So-called Blaine Amendments are likely to be the next big battleground over school funding. About 36 state constitutions do not permit public money to pay for private religious schooling. This brief article explains why school choice voucher advocates are challenging “no funding” amendments in state courts by demonizing them, playing the “Blaine (blame) game.”
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain who James Blaine was and tell his connection to the “no funding” issue.
- Describe the history of “no funding” amendments in state constitutions.
- Explain why voucher advocates choose to refer to all “no funding” amendments as Blaine Amendments.
- In your view, explain why efforts in states to remove “no funding” amendments have largely failed.
2.2 Jolly, J. L. (2009, Spring). Historical perspectives: The National Defense Education
act, Current STEM initiative, and the gifted. Gifted Child Today, 32 (2), 50-53.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ835843.pdf
A national crisis can mean large financial resources for public education. Jennifer L. Jolly, an education professor at Louisiana State University, recounts how the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik into space (1957) propelled the U.S. Congress to invest $1 billion a year over 4 years in public education reform so as to compete with the Soviet school system that focused ion preparing young scientists. Today, however, other interests are directing education funding elsewhere.
After reading the article, consider:
- Identify the academic courses, programs, and personnel that gained the most attention and funding from NDEA and explain the Congress’s rationale for doing so.
- Describe the nature of the educational reforms in science and math curricula and instruction to result from NDEA monies.
- Explain the implications of NDEA for guidance and counseling personnel and practice.
- Explain the implications of NDEA for gifted students, our understanding of intelligence, and their teachers.
- Discuss how the contemporary economy and political environment is impacting STEM and gifted programs today.
2.3 National Council on Disability (2018, February 7). Broken promises: The underfunding of IDEA. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from
https://ncd.gov/sites/default/files/NCD_BrokenPromises_508.pdf
In 1975, Congress promised to cover 40% of the average per pupil cost to educate a child with disabilities and spent billions of dollars to make this a reality. It later amended the law to say it would pay a “maximum” of 40% of per-pupil costs. Today, the federal government pays less than half (about 18%) of what it originally promised. Yet states are required to provide free and appropriate public education [FAPE] for all eligible students regardless of the level of federal funding. This report examines the past-to-current funding levels for IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and analyzes the impact that the lack of full funding has had on states in meeting their obligations to provide FAPE to students with disabilities. It also provides recommendations for future funding.
After reading this report, consider:
- Describe how federal funding for special education recognized the link between poverty and children needing special education services.
- Summarize the trends 1988-2017 in federal special education spending and student enrollment in special education, children ages 3 – 21, preschool, and infants and families.
- Summarize the trends in funding and how school districts are classifying students with special needs.
- Discuss why it is essential to study special education expenditures and generate reliable state-level and national data.
- Describe the impact on school districts, students, and families of the lack of federal funding for special education.
- If you could make one recommendation to improve this funding situation, what would it be?
2.4 Education Commission of the States (2012, June). Understanding state school funding.
The first step toward quality reforms. Progress of Education Reform, 13 (3).
Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/02/86/10286.pdf
Researchers have long recognized the relationship between quality education reform and the structure of a state’ school funding system. Nonetheless, many policy makers still see their state’s school funding formula as a barrier to change rather than as a tool for reform. When policy makers (and educational leaders) do not understand the basics of their state’s funding system, they have difficulty deciding what changes are needed and to encourage reform. This brief article helps makes sense of these complex systems.
After reading this article, consider:
- Briefly explain how and why state funding formulas to support public education stopped being simple.
- If you were the decision maker for which way of “counting the kids” is the most efficient, easiest, and with best outcome for localities, explain which method you would choose and why.
- Explain why revising a state’s school funding formula is so difficult.
2.5 Jackson, C.K., Jonson, R.C., & Persico C. (2016, February). The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance
reforms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131 (1), 157-218.
Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/131/1/157/2461148
Improved access to school resources can significantly improve life outcomes, especially for low-income children. Education finance reforms from 1971 through 2011 – mostly court-mandated – caused the most dramatic changes in the structure of K-12 education spending in U.S. history. An exhaustive and sophisticated analysis of these reforms on adult outcomes finds a strong positive relationship between school spending and the adult outcomes of affected students. For example, funding high-poverty schools at levels 20% higher than they were over the period studies would have improved the graduation rate by 23%, enough to erase the high-school completion gap between the poor and non-poor. Researchers conclude that the relationship was causal, not merely correlational. [For the purpose of this activity, focus on the study’s objectives and findings, discussion, and conclusion; studying the methodology is optional]
After reading this study, consider:
- Explain how the shift from heavy reliance on financing schools through local property taxes to financing schools as the result of court-ordered equate/adequacy reform led to a substantial change in the structure of public school finance.
- Discuss the ways in which increased funding for school quality – including reduced student-teacher ratios, increased teacher salaries, increased instructional time, and longer school years – can impact adult outcomes of affected students.
- In your view, explain why court-mandated education finance reforms would lead to spending money on “more productive” school inputs than simply increasing funding by other means.
Videos
Chapter 2 Videos:
2.1 YouTube: School funding: The Devil’s in the Details.
KCPT. (2017, March 21). 4 min., 20 sec.
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9W2Vlg2GVA
The responsibility to fund education is centuries old. This video briefly traces American public school funding from the “Old Deluder Satan” Law (1600s) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) to make it clear that education funding is “our” responsibility. To this day, in large measure, local property taxes funding local schools has led to much inequality of educational opportunity.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the importance of the San Antonio Independent School District vs. Rodriquez for school finance.
- Discuss the importance of informed citizens voting for school finance issues.
- In your view, which has more impact on the quality of student learning: high property taxes which can hire experienced teachers, provide small teacher-student ratios, and purchase plentiful teaching and learning materials – or – the ample family resources that enable high property taxes and provide children with wide and deep learning experiences from infancy through 12th grade and beyond? Explain your answer.
2.2 YouTube: History of Education in the United States of America
Iamvision14, (2013, June 18). 2 min., 42 sec
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2s3ItLTw00
This historical review of history in the United States begins with the Colonial Period (1600s to mid-1700s), Early National Period (Mid-1700s to 1800s), the Common School Period (19th Century), illustrated with pictures from these eras. Gender and racial differences in education are provided. A very brief but accurate depiction of American education over time.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain how the history of the United States can be seen in the changes in how it provided its children with education.
- Identify aspects of early American education that continue in today’s public schools.
2.3 YouTube: Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Dr. Madonna Murphy (2016, August 3). 4 min., 52 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4okt6u6OEkg
Lyndon Johnson., a former school teacher and U.S. President, believed that an equal chance at education meant an equal chance at life. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) 1965 was President Johnson’s legislative feat to provide more federal funds to support quality and equality in education as part of his “War on Poverty.” Under Johnson, education also became a focus of civil rights law.
After viewing this video, consider:
- Explain how Johnson’s own teaching experiences influenced his goals for federal education funding.
- Describe how ESEA was used an in incentive for states to improve education practices, especially for low income and minority students.
- Discuss the long-term impact of ESEA on educational quality and equality.
2.4 YouTube: 45 A Nation at Risk Summary & Effects on Education
Fuzzuydizzy123, September 24, 2016, 6 min., 43 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JludkJXuqMw
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan put together a special commission to report on the state of American public schools. The 36-page report, A Nation At Risk, offered a grim picture of American education. The report concluded that our education was subpar, and it put the nation’s economic wellbeing in jeopardy. Recommendations and critiques of the report are offered.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain how the report’s recommendations of increased academic rigor; new, clearly defined, and challenging state standards; improved teacher preparation; and tying teacher salary directly to their student’s achievement impacted public education in ways we still see today.
- Describe the student achievement data that contradicted the report’s findings.
- Summarize the critique offered by Berliner and Biddle’s The Manufactured Crisis.
- In your opinion, was A Nation At Risk accurate or was this a political document intended to advance a certain education agenda? Explain your answer.
2.5 YouTube: 35 Years After A Nation at Risk: 36 Pages that Bent the Arc of Education.
The 74. (2018, April 10). 9 min., 40 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAtuIt36PJM
A Nation At Risk warned the threat to Americans was not the Soviets’ ballistic missiles but our own schools! Key players in A Nation At Risk recall how they determined that the condition of American education had deteriorated so badly in the prior 25 years.
After watching this video, consider:
- Describe President Reagan’s and Republicans’ views on American education.
- Explain how Professor Gerald Holton of Harvard, who wrote the report’s first draft, used rhetoric to present the findings so as to grab attention from the American people and the president.
- In your view, what essential facts did Holton and the Commission overlook when writing about our “miserable educational system.”
- Identify what Reagan proposed to do legislatively as an outcome of his response to the report.
- Explain what Professor Holton meant when he said, “We have been had” when the Commission members heard Reagan’s ’s response to the report.
- Describe how the news media and the American public responded to the report.
2.6 YouTube: A Nation at Risk: A Clarion Call to Action Continues
The 74. (2018, April 13). 3 min., 51 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCQnKfeU-1E
Some call it the beginning of the modern educational reform movement (for increased accountability, academic quality, and an improved teaching corps), and put educational quality at the center of the national discussion. On the 35th anniversary of the 1983 report, A Nation At Risk, educators and historians look back at its legacy.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe the impact that A Nation At Risk had on state government.
- Explain the view that education is a national security issue.
- Explain the relationship between A Nation At Risk and school choice.
2.7 YouTube: ESSA Explained: Inside the New Federal k-12 Law
Education Week, (2016, March 31). 3 min, 38 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWQGmU-J80Q
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) rolled back much of the federal government’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) “big footprint” in education policy, affecting everything from academic testing and teacher quality to low-performing schools. Importantly, ESSA gave states much more sway in deciding their own education practices. Alyson Klein, an Education Week writer, explains what the law means for schools, educators, and students.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the change in the assessment practices between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and ESSA.
- Describe the differences between NCLB and ESSA on teacher qualifications.
- Summarize what ESSA says about the Common Core curriculum.
- Describe how ESSA treats low-performing schools.
- Identify what you see as the benefits and disadvantages of ESSA for schools, teachers, and students.
2.8. YouTube: New education law shifts federal influence over public schools
PBS NewsHour (10`5, December 10). 7 min., 8 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGzhL9rDJ4
After years of debate and delay, a bipartisan Congress agreed on a new education law to replace No Child Left Behind. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) continues the required annual testing of certain students between 3rd and 8th grade and once in high school but removes the federal government’s power to impose penalties on underperforming schools. Alyson Klein of Education Week joins Judy Woodruff for a closer look at the questions and criticisms of ESSA.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain how ESSA improves upon several weaknesses of NCLB regarding state authority, accountability, and teacher evaluation.
- Describe some of the criticisms of ESSA.
- Identify the aspects of ESSA that you think most – and least – beneficial.
Chapter 3
Readings
Chapter 3 Readings:
Retrieved from https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/17/08/when-it-comes-education-federal-government-charge-um-what
The U.S. Constitution does not mention education, but the 10th Amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution…are reserved to the States…” As a result, the U.S. Department of Education does not directly oversee the nation’s 100,000 public schools. By contrast, the 14th Amendment requires all states to provide “any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This would seem to give the federal government the right to intervene in certain disputes that denied students equal protection. Nonetheless, the federal government uses a complex system, of funding, policy directives and the “bully pulpit” to shape what, how and where students learn. This article recounts the history of the (limited) federal role in public education.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain how the 10th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution would seem to put two basic tenets of our government into conflict.
- Describe how the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) provided “incentives with caveats” for states to allow the federal government to influence the state’s education policies and practices.
- Using examples, summarize how the federal role in education waxed and waned according to the political climate of the times.
- Explain how the three branches of the federal government each have a role in influencing state education policy and practice.
As a whole, U.S. students are not achieving as highly as some of their international peers. This was true in 2013 (when this article was written) and is still true. Why? In part, it has to do with how each country views education. Every country that outperforms the U.S. has a constitutional or statutory commitment to this right. Did the U.S. Constitution’s framers get this wrong?
After reading the article, consider:
- What are our competitor nations doing to maintain high educational standards and practices – a “culture of education” – that the U.S. is not doing?
- Explain the consequences to education, students, and the nation by not having laws – or even become signatories to international agreements – affirming education as a fundamental right of citizens, at least until the age of adulthood.
- Given our political and judicial history, express the arguments supporting the view that the U.S. has – or does not have – a national culture that supports education as a national value.
- Express your views on whether the U.S. should have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to education as a fundamental value.
In a landmark 1968 class action, Mexican American parents in Texas sued the Texas system of financing public education on behalf of schoolchildren throughout the state who were members of minority groups or were poor and resided in districts having a low property tax base. The State court ruled the Texas school finance system unconstitutional. The State appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled 5-to-4 that the U.S. Constitution gave “no fundamental right to education” [schools had no right to equal funding] and reversed the State court’s decision. Read the San Antonio ruling, argued October 12, 1972 and decided March 21, 1973. [Read Sections 1 – 39]
After reading the facts and the decision, consider:
- Describe the demographic, commercial, and resource differences between the Edgewood Independent School District’s and the Alamo Heights Independent School District at the time of the suit.
- Summarize the U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning for its ruling.
- Express the extent to which you agree or disagree with the Court’s statement (Section 37): “…where only relative differences in spending levels are involved and where…no change fairly could be made that the system, fails to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire the basic minimal skills necessary for the enjoyment of the rights of speech and of full participation in the political process” the Court will not interfere into otherwise legitimate state activities.
- Explain your view on whether or not education is a “fundamental right” deserving Constitutional protections.
Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-1973-supreme-court-decision-has-contributed-to-our-inequality
In the author’s view, the San Antonio v. Rodriguez decision (1973), in which the Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional right to an equal education, was a key event that contributed to both educational inequality and today’s income inequality. He asks, “Does the Supreme Court really believe in “Equal Justice Under Law”? He argues that the problem is inequality of resources. Does he make his case?
After reading this article, consider:
- Discuss the tensions between a “minimal ‘adequate’ education,” local control, and inequality of educational opportunity.
- Explain the view that the current education finance system “exacerbates” inequality by “reinforcing the advantages of wealth and perpetuates the disadvantages of poverty from one generation to the next…defeating the notion that in America every person has a fair chance to succeed.”
- In your view, how could a Supreme Court that unanimously decided Brown v. Board of Education, writing that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local government...the very foundation of good citizenship.…[and] where the state has undertaken to provide [an education], it must be made available to all on equal terms” make the Rodriguez decision that education was “not a fundamental right”?
- In Rodriguez, Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented, arguing that the decision was a “retreat from our historic commitment to equality of educational; opportunity” and was too important an issue to leave to the “political” process. Explain the extent to which you agree or disagree.
If education is a public good and paying for it is a pubic obligation, why does Rondout District 72 have so much money and the Chicago Ridge School District have so little? They are less than one hour apart but the communities and the disparity in resources spent on its public schools seems worlds apart: $9,794 per student versus $28,639 per student. This disparity is not unique to Illinois.
After reading the article, consider:
- Describe the demographic and economic differences between the two school communities.
- Explain how this resource disparity is affecting the academic achievement gap between the wealthiest and poorest students.
- Explain some of the consequences of relying on local property taxes to fund public schools, even with states providing extra funding for its low-income students to help level the playing field.
- Summarize the reasons underlying the plethora of school-funding lawsuits in nearly even state since the early 1970s.
https://www.tc.columbia.edu/media/news/images/2017/december/TCTF17_10_Federal-Case-1.pdf
Michael Rebell, Professor of Law & Education Practice and Executive Director of Teachers College Center for Educational Equity (CEE) and author of Flunking Democracy (2018) is an advocate for school finance reform. He and his students are filing a complaint in a federal district court arguing that local schools are not adequately preparing young people as citizens. They hope the case reaches the Supreme Court, so they might establish a Constitutional right to a quality education.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain the political and judicial reasons influencing the Supreme Court’s decision on Rodriguez that left an opening for a future case that sought to link school funding to the exercize of citizenship.
- Describe Michael Rebell as a scholar/advocate and explain his successful “educational adequacy” and “people buy-in” approach to school finance litigation.
- Summarize Rebell’s reasoning for bringing this case before the conservative John Roberts’ Supreme Court.
- Express the extent to which you agree or disagree with Rebell’s view that the civic preparation formerly taught in schools has been severely reduced because of political factors and a focus on other priorities.
- Discuss what practical outcomes – in terms of public policy, public sentiment, and adequate funding – Rebell wants from a favorable Supreme Court decision about education as a fundamental right.
- Describe your view of what “productive civic participation” should look like in schools.
Videos
Chapter 3 Videos:
3.1 YouTube: School finance and opportunity: The law and the road ahead.
American Enterprise Institute, (2017, February 13). 1 hour, 32 min., 21 sc. [Part 1]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt98BEdRQC4
In the landmark decision of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s school finance system, ruling that there was no “fundamental right” to education in the U.S. Constitution. Since the 1973 decision, many state-level lawsuits on school finance have occurred. A panel of four engaging experts (first two presented here) join the American Enterprise Institute to discuss pressing issues around school finance and how states and districts can ensure a high-quality education for all students. [For Part 1, watch the presentations, from the beginning to 24 min., 10 sec.]
After watching the video, consider:
- Summarize Kimberly Robinson’s views on how laws – specifically states’ school funding formulas – contribute to school funding inequities that deny equal access to an excellent education for many students and her recommended solution.
- Using examples, discuss David Hinojosa’s views that the education funding policy making is divorced from the research base (and may be influenced by “political winds”).
- Identify what adequate funding for school systems can “buy” (or hire) that enables high-quality education.
3.2 YouTube: School finance and opportunity: The law and the road ahead. [Part 2]
American Enterprise Institute (2017, February 13). 1 hour, 32 min., 21 sc.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt98BEdRQC4
In the landmark decision of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s school finance system, ruling that there was no “fundamental right” to education in the U.S. Constitution. Since the 1973 decision, many state-level lawsuits on school finance have occurred across the country. A panel of four engaging experts [last two presented here] join the American Enterprise Institute to discuss pressing issues around school finance and how states and districts can ensure a high-quality education for all students. {Watch the presentations, from 24 min., 10 sec. to 46 min. 03 sec.}. the discussion following is interesting but optional)
After watching the video, consider:
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with Rocco Testano’s views on the roles of courts, public policy developed through the democratic process, money for public education, and improved student performance.
- Discus the areas in which you agree or disagree with Jim Kelly’s views about the proper roles of state, local, and federal government in providing resources for a high-quality education, rejection the notion of education reform as a struggle for social justice because it risks short-circuiting “democratic evolution’. (i.e., philosophical views widely discussed, become value systems, and adjudicated about the how the world should operate).
- Express your view about the ideas presented that inspired or depressed you, and why.
3.3 YouTube: Brown v. Board of Education in PBS’ The Supreme Court
Herve Cantero (2008, December 1). 4 min., 53 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGHLdr-iak
The U.S Supreme Court’s historical rejection of segregated Southern schools – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas – was a landmark decision that changed American education and reshaped the wider culture. This video explains the political context and conditions after World War II that led to this lawsuit and eventual decision.
After viewing this video, consider:
- Summarize the arguments that the experienced lawyer against Brown. John W. Davis brought to persuade the justices.
- Summarize the argument that Thurgood Marshall and John Carter used to advocated for the Brown decision.
- Discuss the impact that Chief Justice Earl Warren, the former California governor, had on the outcome of this case.
- Explain how Brown became, for many, “the Magna Carta, the second emancipation” and reshaped the larger American culture.
3.4 YouTube: “We Were There” – Brown v. Board of Education
AmericanHistoryRules, (2007, May 9). 4 min., 54 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d98aGdkX15U
“The spark for the civil rights movement was lit. “Separate but equal” educational facilities were constitutional but hey were not equal. This video explains the Brown v. Board case from the perspective of those made separate and unequal.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain why Linda Brown’s father, Oliver, filed suit to desegregate schools.
- Describe the arguments on both sides of the issue.
- Discuss how the fight for equal rights for all Americans is still not over.
3.5 YouTube: Brown v., Board of Education (1954) – Separate is NOT Equal.
State Bar of Georgia, May 21, 2016, 8 min., 3 second.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX9Dmo24_cc
No civil rights battle of the 20th century was more essential than overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine. The NAACP advocated for integrating educational institutions. This video gives the background story of how the NAACP strategically tied together the cases – including persuading Reverend Oliver Brown to try to enroll his children in an all-white neighborhood school – that led to the Supreme Court.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe the NAACP’s strategy to integrate public schools.
- Discuss the impact of the 9-0 unanimous decision coming from the Supreme Court on school and other public accommodations integration, nationally.
3.6 YouTube: The Blaine Amendments: State Constitutions & School Choice
The Federalist Society, May 11, 2017, 2 min. 20 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLf1H1BExng
“No funding” clauses in state constitutions – sometimes called Blaine Amendments – prevent taxpayers’ dollars from funding sectarian (religious) institutions. In this brief video, Professor Richard Garnett of Notre Dame Law School outlines the issues surrounding the Blaine Amendments and how they impact choice-based school reform.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain how Professor Garnett calling Blaine Amendments “generic provisions put into state constitutions in the 19th century that are basically about the same thing” are part of his attempt to persuade listeners that his argument is not part of a political agenda to use public funds to support religious schools.
- Discuss why it is important to know who sponsors a YouTube video – in this case, the Federalist Society – when trying to understand and assess its meaning.
- Summarize Garnett’s arguments in favor and against Blaine Amendments.
- Identify the two ways Garnett suggests to fix the “Blaine Amendment problem.”
3.7 YouTube: Accountability & Local Governance at Charter Schools/ Info Briefing
Network for Public Education, California Teachers Association (2017, May 10). 1 hour,
59 min., 11 sec.; Questions below related to video from Start to 28 min., 0 sec.]. [The rest of the video is very interesting and optional.]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9T3ghB2okw
“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted.” The Network for Public Education (NPE) is leading national advocacy organization to defend public education and public schools from privatization. Expert speakers, Anthony Cody, NPE Co-founder and Gordon Lafer, University of Oregon professor, address the lack of charter school accountability for academic or fiscal performance. Although using data from California, speakers’ conclusions about how states write their charter school laws are relevant to charter schools nationwide.
After watching the video, considered:
- Explain the ways in which charter schools are NOT public schools.
- Discuss the lack of fiscal accountability that charter schools enjoy in some states.
- Discuss the lack of academic accountability that charters enjoy in some states.
- Describe how charter schools in a locality brings actual fiscal and academic “costs” to nearby public schools.
- Explain how some charters are using public money to buy private property.
- Discuss the need for standards of quality (and identify several things that need to be included) when state legislators write their charter school laws.
- Discuss the charter school accountability laws that apply in your state.
Chapter 4
Readings
Chapter 4 Readings:
4.1 Schultz, T.W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51
(1), 1-17.
Retrieved from http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEESchultzInvestmentHumanCapital.pdf
Theodore Schultz, an empirical economist, grew up on a South Dakota farm. After World War II, while interviewing a poor farm couple, he noticed their contentment. He asked why they were so happy even though poor, and they answered that they were not poor. They had used their farm to send four children college, and these children would be productive because of their education. This led Schultz to the idea of human capital – capital produced by investing in individuals’ knowledge, which he discussed in this article. In 1979, Theodore W. Schultz won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for this concept.
After reading his seminal 1961 article, consider:
- Explain why Schultz’s view of investing in human resources was so revolutionary at the time
- In Schultz’ view, describe how laborers become capitalists and give examples.
- Describe the role of human capital in a highly technical, information-intensive world.
- Discuss what Schultz sees as the mistakes that developing economies make by only investing capital in forming brick and mortar structures, buying equipment, and building up inventories but not in people.
- Describe the five major categories that can improve human capabilities. Identify which your current employer uses to invest in your health, professional growth, and productivity.
Hanushek, E.A. & Woessmann, L. (2007). Education quality and economic growth.
Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099079934475/Edu_Quality_Economic_Growth.pdf
“…[U]ltimately, it is the degree to which schooling fosters cognitive skills and facilitates the acquisition of professional skills that matters for development.” Using data on economic growth and student cognitive skills, economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann show that the quality of education, rather than simply access to education, is what impacts a nation’s economic growth. Their research finds that a nation’s productivity is an outcome of its schooling’s quality (not simply access to education) and its students’ learning achievements.
After reading [pages 1 – 11, 14-16] of the report, consider:
- Explain what the authors mean when they write, “Schooling has not delivered fully on its promise as the driver of economic success,” and identify what they suggest as remedies.
- Discuss the authors’ view that “the quality of education, measured by the knowledge that students gain as noted in tests of cognitive skills, is substantially more important for economic growth than the mere quantity of education.” Discuss the implications for American education, especially in low-income communities.
- Explain which is better for a nation’s economy: education for all, education for “rocket scientists” (the very top student achievers) – or both. What policy suggestions would you make from this conclusion?
- Describe the role of resources and teachers as they impact student learning and achievement.
4.3 Crimmins, E.M., Saito, Y., Kim, J.K., Shang, Y.S., Sasson, I., & Hawward, M.D.
(2018). Educational differences in the prevalence of dementia and life expectancy
with dementia: Changes from 2000 to 2010. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B. 73 (1, Issue supplement), S20-S238.
Even into their eighties, most people with at least a college education have good cognition. A University of Southern California study finds that people age 65 and over in the United States with more education have more years of cognitively healthy life, lower prevalence of dementia, and fewer years with dementia. The more the education, the more years the persons had of good cognition and the fewer years spent with dementia. By comparison, those with less education area more likely to develop dementia and live with it longer. What is the individual and societal cost of having low educational attainment?
After reading the article, consider:
- Describe the relationship that the study finds between life expectancy, education, and good cognition. Speculate why this might be the case.
- Discuss the implications for individuals and their families of elderly parents/relatives having good or poor cognitive health.
- In your view, how does having a higher educational status impact both cognitive function and having a longer life?
4.5 Becker, G.S. (1994, January). Human capital revisited. In G.S. Becker (Ed.), Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. 3rd edition. (pp. 15-28). Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics
Just as capital means a bank account or 100 shares of Apple, expenditures on schooling (education and training) are investments in human capital – knowledge, skills, values, and habits. Education has both monetary and non-monetary benefits. No longer do we speak of college graduates as “over-educated.” Rather, now we express concern about whether the U.S. provides adequate quality and quantity of education and other training.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain why acceptance of the human capital concept has been widespread across cultures and economic systems.
- Describe how the benefits and costs from completing a college education have risen over time and expanded women’s career options in the United States and internationally.
- Discuss the relative benefits and limitations of “credentialing” vs. work experiences/on-the-job training/internships for prospective employees.
- Describe how the employer-employee relationship has changed since Becker wrote this chapter in 1994.
- Give examples of how families can create human capital in their children.
- Explain how the increase in technology has increased the value of education and on-the-job training.
4.6 Best, J. R. (2010). Human capital development in education: Challenges and policy options. Denver, CO: McRel. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED544612.pdf
Ample research tells us that the best way to increase student achievement is to have an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school. Attracting and retaining highly skilled teachers and leaders to bridge the gap between underperforming American schools and our international competitors is a human capital challenge. This article provides guidance to state and districts as they develop policies and strategies to stock their human capital pipeline.
After reading this article, consider:
- Discuss several concerns, policy options, and possible recommendations to the challenge of inadequate teacher or school leadership preparation. Identify the ones that you believe most impact you in your own professional school leadership program and explain why.
- Discuss several concerns, policy options, and possible recommendations to the challenge of retaining effective teachers and school leaders. Identify the ones that you believe most impact you in your own professional school leadership program and explain why.
- Describe the recommendations that you think will work best for you as a future administrator.
4.6 Goldin, C. (2014). Human capital. In C. Diebolt & M. Hapert (Eds.), Handbook of Cliometrics (pp. 1-20). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. Retrieved from https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/goldin/files/human_capital_handbook_of_cliometrics_0.pdf
Today, we all believe that investments un people through education, training, and health increase an individual’s productivity – their human capital – “the skills the labor force possesses and is regarded as a resource asset.” This was not always popular wisdom, however. Thinking of “human capital” used to be equated with slavery rather than with freedom, property, and marketable assets. This article reviews the origins and development of the human capital concept and the role of education and training in producing it.
After reading pages 1 – 17 in this article, consider:
- Explain why the human capital concept has greatly expanded over time, especially in the twentieth century.
- Discusses the meaning of the term, “knowledge economy.”
- Describe the Galor and Weil (2000) model of human capital.
- Identify several enabling institutions that help foster human capital formation. Explain how they do so. Discuss the extent to which these institutions are present and functioning well in the United States.
- Identify the factors and policies in twentieth century America that enabled it to become the “human capital century.”
- Summarize the state’s reasons in in subsidize education for its children.
Videos
Chapter 4 Videos:
1.1 YouTube: Human Capital Theory.
Stefanie Adams 2016, April 24). 7 min., 1 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_5NcLazCwQ
Human capital is everything inside of a human’s head. This video relays how Horace Mann, Theodore Schultz, and Daniel Bell created and elaborated the theory of human capital.
After watching the video, consider:
- Justify how educator Horace Mann could arguably be considered as the Father of Human Capital.
- Explain how economist Theodore Schultz came to coin the phrase, human capital.
- Describe Daniel Bell’s vision of post-industrial and the need for more education.
- Define “human capital” as presented in this video.
- Explain how a country’s workforce can be improved with education, health, and moral values.
- Describe how companies and other workplaces can build human capital.
- In your view, assess the extent to which your present employer uses the three dimensions of development – preparation, recruitment, and retention – is both sufficient and effective.
- Explain how an organization’s culture affects its human capital.
1.2 YouTube: Human capital & the age of change: Constantin Gurdgive at TEDxDublin
TEDxTalks. (2013, November 13). 17 min., 18 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1sueM_jhSk
“Does Google empower us or do we empower Google?” Constantin Gurdgiev, a lecturer in Finance with Trinity College, Dublin, talks about the shift in the global economy toward more human capital-intensive growth. The changes this will bring in entrepreneurship, creativity, and the relationship between risk taking, risk management, and returns to labor will present a major challenge to advanced economies and their social democracies.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain the impact on teaching, learning, and assessment/accountability as human capital’s meaning evolves from formal education and skills and work experiences, to less measurable qualities such as aptitude, creativity, innovative capacity, risk attitudes and abilities, entrepreneurship, and social and emotional skills.
- Describe how these changes in our understanding of human capital have affected – and will affect – your own professional journey.
- Discuss how human capital is moving globally and how this might impact your own career.
- Define “mosaics of knowledge” as “knowledge and skills as enablement, rather than the final end of developing human capital”
- Explain how “mosaics of knowledge” is becoming the next step in education for developing human capital and identify ways that this “mosaic of knowledge” impacts your own professional growth.
- Discuss the challenges to formal education of the need for “mosaics of knowledge” and entrepreneurship for developing human capital.
- Describe how the structure of organizations will change to develop a more complete version of human capital. Describe how you think this might impact schooling.
1.3 YouTube: Cognitive Decline and Education May Be Related.
Anthony Cirillo (2011, February 18). 2 min., 10 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0NqgkGJQI
Does more education prevent cognitive decline – loss of the ability to reason or remember? In a 2007 study, a higher percentage of elderly persons completing less than 12 years of education reported one or more cognitive disorders (8.6%) when compared with elderly persons reporting 12 years of education (4.9%) and elderly reporting more than 12 years of education (2.7%). Anthony Ciriillo, president of Then Aging Experience and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, reports on the research that links education and cognitive decline.
After watching the video, consider:
- Hypothesize about the relationship between having more and better0 education and having less cognitive decline in elder years.
- Describe what this study suggests for your own continued learning.
1.4 YouTube He Who Opens a School Closes a Prison. Daniel Geiter
TEDx Talks, November 21, 2016, 20 min., 36 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Z9mVtDRbY
“Education as the catalyst for life change and opportunity.” No one knows this better than Daniel Geiter an ex-convict, who came to understand that his only option for growth was education. So he put himself on the path to earn an Ed.D. He is now the founder and president of Ward College in Illinois. Listen to his views, based on his own life experiences, that education enables personal change and is an investment in human capital.
After watching this video, consider:
- Respond to the assertion: “Education as the catalyst for life change and opportunity.”
- Discuss the literal and figurative meanings of the statement: He who opens a school closes a prison.
- Describe how Dr. Geiter uses props to advance his thesis.
1.5 YouTube: Education and Incarceration – C-Span StudentCam 2017 3ed Prize
Raymond Castillo II (2017, November 10). , 7 min., 24 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAll5JfOIpo
The United States has the world’s largest prison population and highest incarceration rates. We spend more per student to lock him/her up than to provide them with a first-rate education. This award-winning student project explains.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the relationships among youth unemployment, incarceration, and education.
- Describe several strategies to reduce the incarceration rate by improving access to quality education.
- Discuss how education helps improve an individual’s problem-solving skills (before, during, and after incarceration).
1.6 YouTube: Education gap: The root of inequality
Harvard University (2016, , February 17). 5 min., 54 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lsDJnlJqoY
Educational inequality is probably the underlying cause of broader inequality. Access to a range of careers, income and wealth, and political participation depends equalizing the skills dispositions, and frames of mind that a quality education produces. Harvard’s Ronald Ferguson, director of The Achievement Gap Initiative, says there’s much hard work ahead.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain how receiving a high quality education can give a young person a sense of agency that positions him or her for a more successful and satisfying life.
- Identify several educational equity issues that exist in American education.
- Discuss several factors that effective teachers use to help their students in low-income schools succeed.
- Assess the merit of Ferguson’s idea of intervening into the youth culture of a school to help students develop a culture they really want in school.
4.7 YouTube: Adult Education – An Investment in America’s Future
Coalition on Adult Basic Education (2018, March 21). 5 min., 23 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL3JfSUrPXQ
President Joh Kennedy once said, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.” Rob Lowe observes that in our complex world, success in life often begins with success in school. Not everyone succeeds in school the first time around. Thus the need for adult education.
After viewing this video, consider:
- Discuss why not having at least a high school education or having low literacy skills would adversely affect a person’s employment, community life, or as a parent.
- Identify reasons why some people are reluctant to seek and use adult education opportunities.
- Explain ways in which “education can transform a family.”
Chapter 5
Readings
Chapter 5 Readings:
5.1 Leachman M., Masterson, K., & Figueroa, E. (2017, November 29). A punishing
decade for school funding. Washington, DC: Center of Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding
Money affects educational outcomes. So why has public investment in K-12 schools – an essential investment if individuals, communities, and the U.S. economy are to thrive –sharply declined since 2007? Why have the states with the deepest school funding cuts also also cut income tax rates, reducing their main revenue source for supporting public schools? Although school funding has improved in most states since 2015, 29 states were still providing less total school funding per student in 2017 than they were in 2008. What does this mean for our nation’s future?
After reading this article, consider:
- Of the factors identified for why states have cut funding so deeply, which do you believe are the most relevant to school funding in your state?
- In your view, explain why do so many state governors and legislatures (and the voters that support them) believe that cutting funding for public schools – and cutting the taxes that back them – is a good option to address budget shortfalls.
- Identify where your own state falls in funding for schools relative to its 2008 levels. Describe how this has impacted teaching and learning in your own work setting.
- Explain how shortchanging school funding has impacted education reforms widely acknowledged to increase student achievement.
- Identify and discuss the equity issues in this school finance situation.
5.2 Carroll, S.J., Krop, C., Arkes, J., Morrison, P.A., & Flanagan, A. (2005). California’s K-12 public schools. How are they doing? Santa Monica, CA: Rand Education. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG186.sum.pdf
California was the first state to enact comprehensive school finance reform, but were voters “penny wise but pound foolish”? In the 1970s, California’s public schools had an excellent reputation. That is not true today. Rather, many believe that California’s schools have slipped in quality over the years and are no longer performing as well as they once did or as well as schools in other states. Although written in 2005, the funding and educational conditions in California are only marginally better today.
After reading the report, consider:
- Describe the ways in which California is demographically different than other states. Identify the implications for public schooling that these demographics might bring (related to funding needs).
- Explain how California’s schools – teacher salaries’ purchasing power, pupil-teacher ratios, teachers’ qualifications, school facilities, students’ academic achievement, and other variables – and their funding have changed between 1980 and 2005 as compared with similar states.
- Discuss the equity issues involved in California’s school funding practices.
5.3 Robison, K. (2018, June) California. Prop 13 turns 40. Fair + Equitable, 16 (5), 11 – 13. International Association of Assessing Officer. Kansas City, MO. Retrieved from https://www.iaao.org/publications/Fair_and_Equitable/FE_June_18.pdf
Over 40 years ago, California voters passed what is arguably the best-known property tax law in the United States. Proposition 13 (Prop 13) limited commercial and residential property taxes to
one percent of a property’s value at the time of purchase and capped any increases to a maximum of two percent a year, regardless of market value. Any property tax increase would require a two-thirds or higher vote by affected property owners. A taxpayer’s dream come true? Not if tax fairness was the goal.
After reading this article, consider:
- Describe Prop 13’s intended – and unintended – consequences.
- Explain how Prop 13 substituted tax stability for tax fairness.
- Discuss which group is harmed the most by the Prop 13 rules – educators and students, older home owners, newer homeowners, or local government – and explain why.
5.4 Kenyon, D.A. (2007). The property tax-school funding dilemma. Cambridge, AM: Lincoln Institute. Retrieved from https://www.lincolninst.edu/sites/default/files/pubfiles/the-property-tax-school-funding-dilemma-full_0.pdf
School funding is controversial. Nearly half of all property tax revenues pay for public elementary and secondary education, and almost every state has faced school funding litigation over the past 50 years. Challenging school funding myths and using case studies, this report presents an overview of the critical concerns and the related policy issues.
After reading this report, consider:
- Chapter 1: Identify three myths about property taxes and school funding that most persuade you to think differently about using property taxes to fund public schools. Explain why.
- Chapter 1: Describe the focus of “old” as compared with “modern” education finance issues (pages 8 – 12, including Table 2).
- Chapter 2: Identify and discuss the role of property taxes, funding equity, and student achievement in three (of the seven) school funding litigation case studies presented. Discuss the insights this comparison reveals.
- Chapter 3: Discuss the three property tax myths that you that you view differently after reading tis section – and explain why.
- Chapter 3: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using property taxes to fund schools.
- Chapter 4: Summarize the two myths about school funding litigation.
- Chapter 5. Summarize the two myths regarding state education aid
- Chapter 6: Discuss the two policy recommendations. Investigate whether our current state uses either of these policies to make school funding fairer and more equitable.
5.5 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2018, July 25). Policy basics: Where do our state tax dollars go? Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/policy-basics-where-do-our-state-tax-dollars-go
In fiscal year 2016, the 50 states and the District of Columbia spent $1.2 trillion in state revenues. By far, over half of state spending, on average, are spent on education (both K-12 and higher education) and health care. Understanding where state tax dollars go – and the trends in state spending – can help state policymakers make good decisions about how to pay for important services now and in the future.
After reading this article, consider:
- Provide a rationale for states’ spending priorities.
- Discuss why the spending mix varies from state to state.
5.6 Carroll, S. J. & Erkut, E. (2009). The benefits to taxpayers from increases in students’ educational attainment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Education. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG686.html
Motivating taxpayers to provide funds need to meet increasing educational needs is challenging. But findings from this study may help. Using statistical modeling and national data, RAND researchers analyzed how increase in educational attainment are associated with tax revenues, funds for social support and insurance programs, and spending on incarceration. Findings: For all racial/ethnic groups, an increase in a student’s educational attainment – such as completing high school rather than dropping out – is associated with substantial value for taxpayers over time – even for taxpayers without children (or grandchildren) in public schools. [Read Summary, pages xiii – xx; Chapter 3: Payments for Taxes and Social Programs, pp. 31-40.]
After reading this report, consider:
- Explain why increasing students’ educational attainment leads, on average, to substantially increased payments into – and reduced demands on – the public budget.
- Identify the different types of taxes that you contribute to your state and federal government.
- You are the member of your town council tasked with the responsibility of addressing your local taxpayer’s association about why they should support public school funding. Prepare a 3-minute talk using RAND information to persuade them that spending taxpayer dollars to increase educational attainment [in ways supported by evidence]– even for children not their own – can yield net benefits to the public budget
5.7 Smith, C. (2018, February 7). The new tax law’s subtle subversion of public schools. Education. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/the-new-tax-laws-subtle-subversion-of-public-schools/552356/
American public schools have been – and continue to be – deeply unequal. People typically blame teachers, parents, and students at dilapidated and underperforming schools for poor student performance. The truth is more complex. Student performance also depends on structural factors – such as funding and the particular resources they bring to the learning situation. In this context, the 2018 federal tax law has the potential to make it easier for parents to send their children to private schools and place more obstacles in front on the neediest students. Is this a stealth massive “transfer of wealth”?
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain how funding the wealthiest 25% of school districts with 15% more in per-student funding from state and local governments as compared to the poorest 25% of school districts can significantly disadvantage students who need the most supports to achieve as well as their more affluent peers.
- Describe how the newly expanded 529-college savings plans can jeopardize public education.
- Summarize the “false pretense” that school choice advocates present.
- According to a Stanford University study, over the past two decades, the gap in academic achievement between children from high-income families and low-income families is approximately 40% larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier. Why do you think that is?
- Discuss how the 2018 tax law can make the disparities in educational expenditures (and student academic performance) between high and low-income schools worse.
Videos
5.1 YouTube: Taxes: Crash Course Economics #31
CrashCourse, (2016, April 27)., 12 min, 28 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qtr_vA3Prw
People have been paying taxes – and complaining about them – for as long as folks have lived together in communities. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” Importantly, taxes help us pay for services – like public safety, national defense, and education – that economic markets might not provide on their own.
After watching the video consider:
- Describe the services that government can provide using taxes, and explain how this benefits both individuals involved and the larger community.
- Give examples of how governments can use taxes to redistribute wealth in a society.
- Give examples of how a government can use taxes to incentivize (and possibly change) people’s behavior.
- Discuss your views about which taxes are fair and justifiable and which are not and explain.
- Describe how the progressive, regressive, and proportional taxes in the United States affect you.
- Identify several implications of a poor tax policy.
5.2 YouTube: Progressive, Proportional, & Regressive Tax Structures.
Kramer Academy, (2014, January 12)., 4 min., 57 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-qrIrHIT6E
When policy makers decide on a tax, they must consider what type of tax, the goals it intends to achieve, how it will be structured, and how the burden will be shared by individuals at different income levels. The answers to these questions will help determine whether a tax will be progressive, proportional, or regressive. This brief video explains the three most prevalent types of tax structures.
After viewing this video, consider:
- Summarize the three types of taxes described in this video and give examples of where they are used.
- In your view, which of these are “fair” taxes? And “fair” to whom?
5.3 YouTube: The Progressive Income Tax: A Tale of Three Brothers
PragerU, (2014, November 3)., 4 min., 59 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HEH23W_bM
This clever video explains in real life terms how a progressive tax works. As you will see, although it makes good sense when applied to personal income tax, it may not be the fairest tax in every situation.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe the differing priorities that brothers Tom, Dick, and Harry (and their wives) had for their lives and how this affected their work, income, savings, and lifestyle.
- Summarize each brother’s argument for how to best pay for their street improvements.
- Discuss how the progressive tax approach is not appropriate for this circumstance.
- Explain the solution that you think best/fairest for this situation.
5.4 YouTube: How Your Property Tax is Calculated
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, (2016, March 24)., 3 min, 6 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGbLotF_QQ
Learn how your property taxes are determined and why property tax rates change.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the relationship between property value and property taxes.
- Discuss the fiscal and political factors that policy makers must consider when deciding whether to provide additional desirable services to their community or when they must increase the costs of existing services.
5.5 YouTube: These are the states you should live in to pay the least taxes
Business Insider, (2017, March 328), 1 min., 23 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMEJcfJKEBM
The average U.S. household pays over $5,700 a year in federal income taxes. Certain states have tax rates nearby three times less than other states. This brief video gives a picture of the tax rates in all states, accounting for four types of teases: real estate, vehicle property, income, sales and excise.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify where your own state falls in its tax rates relative to other states.
- Discuss the benefits of higher tax rates in terms of services – including high quality education – for a state’s citizens.
- Alaska, Nevada, Florida, and Delaware have among the lowest state tax rates. Explain some of the other relevant factors in these states that may enable high quality services with relatively low real estate, vehicle property, income, and sales/excise taxes.
- Discuss some of the fiscal and political concerns of policy makers in states with the highest tax rates.
5.6 YouTube: What you need to know about the [2018] tax law and education
PBS NewsHour, (2018, January 2)., 3 min., 21 sec. [watch only the part on the tax law]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWRC_xFFlsA
The 2018 federal tax law included education-related changes that allow parents to use up to $10,000 from their tax-free 529 college savings account to help pay for private or religious schools for K-12 as well as college. What are the implications for public education?
After watching this video, consider:
- Discuss which families and children will gain the most by this change in the tax law: children from low income families or children from the most affluent families?
- Explain how the new tax law’s $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes from a person’s federal taxes will negatively impact public education.
- Summarize the impact to public education if Congress rescinds DACA.
Chapter 6
Readings
6.1 Gordon, T., Auxier, R., & Iselin,J. (2018, March). Assessing fiscal capacities of states. Research Report. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Retrieved from https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/publication/140136/2000646-assessing-fiscal-capacities-of-states-a-representative-revenue-system-representative-expenditure-system-approach-fiscal-year-2012.pdf
States differ in their taxing and spending, varying widely in the amount of revenue that they and local governments collect from taxes, fees, and changes, and how much they spend on public goods and services such as schools, roads, and hospitals. States also differ in fiscal capacity. This report looks at states’ revenue capacity and expenditure needs as well as the difference between the two measures – the fiscal gap and capacity. Policy makers and citizens wanting to understand how their state’s fiscal choices –revenue capacity and revenue effort – compare to the national standard will find this report eye-opening.
Read the Executive Summary and Overview, pp. vi – 6; scan the rest of the report as needed to consider:
- Summarize the factors that account for the state and local revenue and spending differences.
- Identify at least five factors that account for the wide variance among states in the amounts of revenue collected and the amounts spent.
- Identify three facts about your own state regarding its revenue collections (in general sales taxes, property taxes, individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, and general charges) relative to its per capita capacity. What conclusions about your state can you draw from these data?
6.2 Center on Regional Politics. (2015, April). Understanding measures of tax effort and tax capacity. Policy Brief. Philadelphia, PA: William Penn Foundation, Temple University. Retrieved from https://williampennfoundation.org/sites/default/files/reports/Tax-Effort-and-Capacity-Brief-Web.pdf
Many states include measures of tax capacity (wealth) and tax effort (a comparison of actual revenues raised in each jurisdiction relative to its taxable wealth) in their school funding formulas so the state government has a rational basis for providing additional aid to school districts with fewer local resources to fund schools. Historically, states use the market value of real estate as an important element in measuring school district capacity and tax effort in relation to capacity. This measure is flawed, however. Although Pennsylvania published this policy brief, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of various measures of tax need and capacity, the concepts and practices hold true for many states.
After reading the policy brief, consider:
- Explain why policy makers would specify no ideal level of tax effort or capacity.
- Describe two approaches to measuring a locality’s tax capacity and give examples of each. Which approach does the jurisdiction in which you work use?
- Discus why it is difficult to compare tax capacity or tax effort from one jurisdiction to another.
- Give your ideas about why not all states use tax effort as a component of school finance.
- Discuss the implications of decisions regarding tax capacity and tax effort for schools and students.
6.3 Kent, C.A. & Sowars, K.N. (2009). Property taxation and equity in public school finance. Journal of Property Tax Assessment & Administration, 6 (1), 25-42.
Since the early nineteenth century, U.S. localities have used property taxes mainly to support elementary and secondary education. This article provides an overview of the importance of property taxation and the court cases since 1971 that impact how localities use property taxes to pay for local schools.
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain why property taxes have been at the center of many state court cases.
- Summarize the four criteria for school funding that state courts have established and identify the implications for funding schools within a state.
- Explain the limitations of foundation programs to provide either equitable or adequate school funding.
- Explain how the concept of educational adequacy affects school funding.
- Discuss how states determine what constitutes an “adequate education.”
- Describe several models of state fiscal aid to schools. If you were the decision maker, which approach would you recommend, and why.
- Summarize how the ability of property taxes to support local schools is eroding.
- Explain what happens to funding and schools when states eliminate local property taxes for local school support almost entirely.
6.4 Hadderman, M. (2009). Equity and adequacy in educational finance. ERIC Digest Number 129. ED454566. Eugene, OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED454566.pdf
What is the hope for remedying fiscal equity problems? Since the founding of public school systems in the 1800s, most states have experienced obstacles trying to equalize education funding among schools and districts. Widespread dependence on property taxes to fund local schools meant that students living in districts with high-priced houses or commercial properties received substantially greater resources to support their education than students living in less affluent districts. Although court challenges have advanced fiscal equity for education, challenges remain.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain how educational adequacy funding is a promising development to reduce disparities in school funding between wealthy and poor districts.
- Discuss at least four persistent challenges to fiscal equity and adequacy.
- Explain how state differences in population density, stability, poverty, minority composition, and other demographic factors affect equity considerations and make interstate comparisons difficult.
- Identify several strategies that district and state policymakers can use in their pursuit of greater equity in school finance.
6.5 Kogan,V., Lavertu, S., & Peskowitz, Z. (2016 April). Performance federalism and local democracy: Theory and evidence from school tax referenda. American Journal of Political Science, 60 (2), 418-435.
Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001 – 2015), the federal government has required public schools publish their student achievement test results as a proxy for accountability. This approach – federal to state accountability – has unintended consequences, such as not allowing voters to draw valid inferences about their schools’ quality. As a result, poor school performance tends to result in less voter support for school levies in those very districts where the students and schools need the most fiscal support, undermining the quality of public education.
After reading this article, consider:
- Define performance federalism and explain its role in standardized testing for school accountability.
- Summarize how the NCLB measurement approach had serious shortcomings that undermined its potential for helping voters accurately assess their local school districts’’ performance.
- Explain how voters’ view on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) influenced their beliefs about school quality and affected their voting behaviors in local elections.
- Discuss how NCLB’s flawed construction and use of the AYP performance metric may have undermined the federal goals of promoting academic achievement and closing the achievement gap between student subgroups.
Videos
6.1 YouTube: Property Tax Basics
PUExtension (Purdue University), (2014, October 12)., 8 min., 1 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjyRCFoNy8I
Property tax revenue is the main source of money for local government. Professor Larry DeBoer of the Purdue University Extension in Indiana explains in clear terms: what property taxes are, what assessed value means, and what the tax levy and tax rate are and how they are determined. These concepts are true regardless of state, even though details may vary.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify the types of people who pay property taxes in your locality.
- Summarize how the property tax revenue is apportioned among the various local funds.
- Find the property tax rate (dollars per $100 assessed value) in your locality.
- In your view, why are property taxes so unpopular.
6.2 YouTube; Education Matters: School Funding and Property Taxes
NJSBA (2013, November 15). 6 min., 29 sec.
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAh3Q-soA54
The largest share of state budgets goes to fund public education. Although every state has its own way of funding public schools, each state wrestles with the same – or similar – factors. In this video, the New Jersey School Boards Association leaders discuss how the state calculates state aid and how property taxes fund education.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify some of the factors that the state considers when deciding on a baseline cost per student.
- Discuss several factors the state considers when deciding on how much money it needs to fund an adequate budget.
- Summarize how a state decides how much money it should give in equalization aid to each locality and what is the local fair share.
- Discuss the options that localities have if they want a higher-quality education system than the state is willing to support financially.
6.3 YouTube: Introduction to State-by-State Property Tax at a Glance
LincolnLandPolicy, (2018, January 25). 2 min., 41 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRyVqaYPvm4
[Directions for how to use their website tools to learn more about property taxes in each of
the 50 states.]
Use this brief video to navigate the State-by-State Property Tax at a Glance website:
The Lincoln Land Policy Institute is a think tank based in Cambridge, MA that seeks to improve quality of life though the effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. Their website provides a detailed look, state-by-state, of how each state uses the property tax and allows comparisons between states. The visualization tools highlights three sections: Sources of Local General Revenue, Selected Property Tax Statistics, and Property Tax Features.
After watching the video, consider:
- Using the website and the Sources of Local General Revenue visualization tool, select your state and one other state to compare sales taxes, income taxes and other taxes.
- Compare your state with the other state on Sales Tax, Income Tax Other Tax, and State Aid. What does this comparison tell you about property taxes in your state as compared with your other state and with the U.S. overall?
- Using the Selected Property Tax Statistics, compare your state, the United States overall, and the other state on per capita property taxes, property taxes percent of personal income, and total property tax as a percentage of state-local revenues. What does this comparison tell you about the size and rank of property taxes in your state?
- Under the map, click on Administration and Assessment. Summarize what your state funds.
- Under the map, click on Recent Developments to see what is new in taxing in your chosen states. Summarize what you fund.
6.4 YouTube: Potential Property Tax for Education
King 5. (2018, October 30). 1 min., 55 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tErmvooKSk
Most people want better education but face a dilemma when confronted with property taxes. In this brief news video, Seattle residents and political leaders weigh a new tax to support preschools but wonder about the sustainability of their constantly increasing property taxes. It’s easy to understand the frustration between two desirable ends.
After watching this video, consider:
- Discuss the dilemma for educators, political leaders, and property owners of adequately funding education.
- Express your view of the benefits (and downsides) of giving taxpayers transparency so they can see their tax bill in dollars and cents with and without the new tax,
- Express your view of the benefits (and disadvantages) of showing taxpayers on how their tax dollars are apportioned for different public uses.
- Discus how you might vote on this new family education tax levy if you lived in Seattle and explain why.
6.5 YouTube: Property Taxes Explained
Sarpy County (2015, December 7). 3 min., 36 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOV0J3rAhJQ
Tax assessors are not boogeymen! They are taxpayers like the rest of us who try to make sure we pay fair and equitable property taxes. Take a closer look and have empathy for the beleaguered assessor.
After watching this video, consider:
- Describe what property tax assessors do and don’t do.
- Explain how property tax assessors make property taxes fair and equitable.
- Identify who sets the locality’s budget and tax rates.
- Identify the factors the property tax assessors consider as they determine a property’s value.
Chapter 7
Readings
7.1 Baker, B. D. (2017, December). How money matters for schools. Washington, DC:
Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/How_Money_Matters_REPORT.pdf
When it comes to positive student outcomes, money matters, schooling resources that cost money matter, and state school finance reform matter. This report presents the relevant research that shows spending in ways that reduce class sizes for young children, for those with greater academic needs, and improves teacher quality have strong academic payoffs. Some findings also suggest that increasing and equalizing school funding in a substantive and sustained way may be most effective when it is part of a comprehensive set of efforts to improve teaching and learning.
After reading the report, consider:
- Discuss how inequitably funded schools can lead to dramatically different educational opportunities for children and add to differences in access to key educational resources, such as expert teachers, personalized attention, and high-quality curriculum.
- Using Figure 1 (p. 2), explain the conceptual map of the relationship of schooling resources to children’s measurable school achievement outcomes. Identify what some of the “trade-offs” might be.
- Summarize the research that shows that large and sustained increases in school funding can make a positive difference in student outcomes, especially for low-income students.
- Identify and discuss the schooling resources that cost money and that research findings suggest make a positive difference in student outcomes.
- Explain how increases in teacher wages may be associated with increased student achievement.
7.2 Catapano. J. (n.d.). The challenges of equity in public education. Teacher Hub.com.Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/challenges-equity-public-education
When it comes to education, equality and equity are not the same. A National Board-Certified high school English teacher discussed the challenges of providing equity in public schools – ensuring that all students had equal educational opportunities.
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain the difference between educational equality and educational equity. How would you describe the difference as conceived and practiced in your current school.
- Describe the difference between horizontal and vertical equity and give examples of how these differences are conceived and practiced in your current school.
- Discuss the benefits and challenges to school children’s parents to understand how and why horizontal and vertical equity are practiced in their children’s schools.
- Support or refute the following statement about performance equity: “It is equitable to demand that two students with differing backgrounds, intellects, environments, dispositions, and unique needs achieve the same end point (or minimum standards). Justify your position with examples and/or reasonable argument.
- Support or refute the following statement about monetary equity: Schools from low-income communities should receive more state resources to help students overcome the challenges associated with an impoverished background, even if it means taking those dollars from a different community. Support your position.
Baker B.D. , Sciarra, D.G., & Farrie, D. (2014, January). Is school funding fair? A national report card. Third Edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Education Law Center, Rutgers University. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED570455.pdf
No matter where they live, students must have the opportunity to learn. Fair school funding practice that ensure equal educational opportunity for all children are the essential precondition for school districts throughout states to deliver high-quality education and achieve higher educational outcomes. This 2014 “report card” examines the condition of states’ finance systems for education after the Great Recession while states were still wrestling with its aftermath. It argues for states to improve the fairness of their school finance systems. [Note to professor: This may appear like a lot of reading, but actually consists of many tables and figures. Activities ask students to find data and draw implications for their own states]
After reading this report consider:
- Table 1 (p. 3) shows concentrated student poverty in U.S. school districts. For your state, find the number of districts, student enrollment, and percent of enrollment attending schools with 10% to 20%, 20% - 30%, and 30% and over of concentrated student poverty. Add the three percents. Express what this tells you about the percents of students and number of districts in your state that need more school resources than other, more affluent schools.
- Explain why existing measures of state school finance are limited in their usefulness and accuracy in assessing the current condition of school funding in the United States.
- Explain what the authors mean by “fair school funding” and summarize the fairness principle
- Describe the four separate but interrelated fairness measures in the Report Card used to compare the 50 states.
- Using Table 2 (p. 13), compare your state’s funding level to others by rank nationally 2007 to 2011.
- Using Table 3 (p. 15), compare your state in its relative grade and rank for fairness in funding distribution relative to student poverty. Using Figure 2 (p. 16). Determine whether your state’s funding distribution is Progressive, Flat, or Regressive in how it distributes school funds relative to student poverty.
- Find your state on the regional funding profiles [Figures 5 -15] and describe its school funding profile relative to states nearby.
- On Table 4 (p. 26), determine the trend your state has taken on state effort – how it uses its fiscal wealth – for funding education.
- Use Table 5 (p. 29) to determine the coverage rate in your state for 2011 – the percent of school aged children enrolled in public schools and the ration of household income between public and nonpublic students. What do these data suggest about your state taxpayers’ interest in financially supporting public education?
- Using Table 6 (p. 31), find where your state falls by grade, rank, and direction of change on funding distribution, effort, funding level, and coverage since 2007.
- Using Table 7 and Figure 16 (pages 33-34), find the percent of preschool enrollment for 3- and 4-year older by income level. How well is your state doing in enrolling ow-income children into preschool? What are the implications for school readiness and primary grades’ success for these youngsters?
- Use Table 8 (p. 36) and Figure 17 (p. 37) to find the pupil-teacher ratio for your state in 2011. Are high-poverty districts receiving a smaller pupil to teacher ratio than low-poverty districts? What does this suggest about the extra teacher time high-needs students receive to be able to keep up with grade level work?
- Use Figure 18 (p. 39) to determine the wage competitiveness for teachers in your state. How does the funding in your state for teacher wage competitive put it in a position to attract and retain high-quality teachers who are essential to student success?
7.4 Rebell, M.A. (2002). Educational adequacy, democracy, and the courts. (pp. 218-
268). In Ready, T., Edley., Jr., C., & Snow, C.E. (Eds.), Achieving high
educational standards for all: Conference Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/10256/chapter/13
How can a state ensure an adequate level of education for all students, especially those with distinctive educational needs? After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 San Antonio v. Rodriguez that education was not a fundamental interest under the federal constitution, 44 of 50 state courts became the center of court cases trying to rectify inequities in state education finance systems. In this chapter, attorney and Teachers College, Columbia professor Michael Rebell reviews the history of these cases and discusses the concept of students’ rights to the opportunity for an “adequate” education.
After reading thus chapter consider:
- Discuss what Rebell means by an “adequate” education.
- Explain how the “dearth of clear solutions and the lack of judicially management standards for navigating” education finance policy played a role in the Supreme Court’s Rodriguez decision. (p. 224).
- Explain why the adequacy approach to state funding of public schools (along with the standards-based reform movement) has been more successful than arguing for equal funding (“equity”) and complex property tax reforms.
- Identify the constitutional core components – or the student capacities to develop – of an “adequate” education.
- Discuss the implications of an adequate education for a democratic society.
7.5 Owings, W. & Kaplan, L. (2010). The alpha and omega syndrome: Is intra-district funding the next ripeness factor? Journal of Education Finance, 36(2), 162-185.
While education is expensive, providing poor and inadequate education for large number of students may be even more costly in the long run. Fiscal inequities occur within school districts, shortchanging students and teachers in high-poverty schools while amply supplying more affluent schools with resources. Is this fair? Is it smart? And if not, how can we fix this situation?
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain the concept of “ripeness” when it comes to litigation.
- Summarize the school finance cases since 1971, and explain how they move school finance beyond strict reliance on local property taxes (and beyond federal courts for school funding remedies).
- Summarize the court cases on within-district fiscal inequity.
- Discuss the causes – related to school/district and student characteristics and/or politics – that account for intra-district fiscal disparities.
- Explain why determining intra-district funding inequities is difficult.
- In your own school district, identify the “Alpha” and “Omega” schools.
- Explain why you would prefer to work in an Alpha or Omega school.
7.6 Jackson, C., Johnson, R., & Persico, C. (2016). The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance reforms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(1), 157-218.
Do public school court-mandated spending reforms affect long-run adult labor market outcomes? This longitudinal study says, “Yes.” The study finds that a 10% increase in per pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school – with improved school inputs – leads to 0.31 more completed years of education, about 7% higher wages, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; effects are much more pronounced for children from low-income families.
After reading this article, consider:
- Identify several limitations in prior studies of school spending and student outcomes that made it difficult to tell whether spending made a difference to students’ life outcomes.
- Discuss the three reform-induced school spending factors that contributed to the improved student/adult outcomes.
- Describe the differences between arguing in court for increased school funding based on the basis of equity as compared with adequacy.,
- Express your response to this study’s findings as they relate to reducing intergenerational transmission of poverty.
7.7 Morgan, I, & Amerikaner. A. (2018, February 27). Funding gaps 2018. Washington, DC: The Education Trust. Retrieved from https://edtrust.org/resource/funding-gaps-2018/
School districts that serve large numbers of student of color and students from low-income families receive much less funding – 13% less – than schools serving White and more affluent students. See the condition of finding equity in your state.
After reading this brief article, consider:
- Describe how your state fares in school funding by student of color: Progressive, moderately progressive, neutral, moderately regressive, or regressive. Did you know or suspect this status?
- Identify how your state fares in school funding by students from low-income families.
- Identify several states that defy these pattern of underfunding low-income, minority students.
Videos
7.1YouTube: Why Equity Matters
Northwest, (2017, November 2), 1 min., 7 sec.,
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkmMGVckNjo
What is the difference between equal and equitable treatment in education? Practicing equity means understanding each student’s needs.
After watching this brief video, consider:
- Explain how considering equitable needs and providing necessary resources and support can make a meaningful difference in student learning.
- Discuss how equitable treatment of students with more learning needs often requires more funding and more resources.
- Describe how your current school district practices equity for student learning.
7.2 YouTube: The consciousness gap in education – An Equity Imperative. Dorinda Career Andrews
TEDx Talks (2014, March 10)., 15 min., 6 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrgf3wTUbo
Engaging in critical self-reflection and developing a critical consciousness can make us better educators. Gaps in mindsets prevent educators from providing equitable schooling experiences for all students. Understanding the roles of race and culture in teaching and learning can help educators better understand their minority students and strengthen teacher-student relationships.
After viewing this video consider:
- Discuss Dr. Carter Andrews’ view that “racism and other forms of oppression [i.e., racism, classism] underlies the academic underperformance of many students of color and poor students in our country.”
- Give examples of how issues of race, culture, and power, unless identified and understood in terms of personal biases and stereotypes, can lead to under-educating students of color and low income.
- Reflect and share your responses to these three questions:
- “How does my own race, class, gender, and religion shape my mindset about teaching and learning, the students I am servicing, and the practices I use?”
- “What more do I need to know about what I don’t know related to culture, power, and difference, and where can I learn it?”
- “How can I be a more critically race-conscious leader and teacher?”
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with Dr. Carter Andrews’s “Three Big Ideas” undergirding our culture. [1. The U.S, culture is based on white male supremacy 2. We cannot be color blind nor color mute; 3. Meritocracy is a myth.]. How do her ideas and the feelings they engender influence your attitudes and behaviors as educators?
- Express the argument for equity in education.
- “When is the next time you are going to speak about issues of power, privilege, and oppression in education and what are you going to do about it?”
7.3 YouTube: Ensuring Educational Equity for All Students
The Leadership Conference, (2016, April 22), 1 min., 55 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjrFnmeGtL8
This brief video explains one key cause of the achievement gaps between different student groups and stresses the importance of ensuring educational equity in American public schools so that all students are prepared for college and career.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify the key issues around academic standards, adequate funding, and student achievement mentioned in this video.
- Discuss the target audiences for this brief video, and identify what the video producers wanted them to understand and do as a result of seeing and discussing this film.
- If you were to use this video with your stakeholders, identify the types of questions would you expect to discuss.
7.4 strong>YouTube: Adequate and Equitable School Funding: How Much is Enough to Achieve High Standards for All?
WGBH Forum, (2014, April 15)., [Watch 20 min. 13 sec. of a 1 hour, 22 min., 37 sec.
video, from 19 min., 25 sec. to 39 min., 38 sec]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpHSZKocr_g
What makes up a meaningful high school education? What will it take to ensure that all students have a full and fair opportunity to meet the rising academic standards that all states now expect their students to meet? Watch Michael Rebell, Executive Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a national leader for finance adequacy, discuss the courts’ rulings in school finance cases in general and New York in particular [Watch from 19 min., 25 sec. to 39 min., 38 sec.]
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain why Rebell says the reaction of state courts in the wake of the federal Supreme Court’s Rodriguez decision (“education is not a fundamental interest”) had never been “…so dynamic, so pathfinding, and so substantive as in education adequacy.”
- Explain why the state courts’ rulings on the first five education fiscal equity in after the Rodriguez decision surprised many civil rights advocates.
- Describe the influence of the state-based standards-based reform movement on state courts’ favorable rulings on adequacy from 1989 to 2004.
- Discuss why judges understand and support the adequacy approach more than the equity approach to adjudicating school finance.
- Identify the skills high school graduates need to engage in “civic participation” (be capable voters and jury members).
7.5 YouTube: How America’s Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty/Kandice Sumner
TED, (2016, November 28). 13 min., 50 sec.,
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O7BMa9XGXE
As a 5-year old, Kandice Sumner took a 1-hour bus ride to an affluent school while her friends remained in an under resourced school. Now a teacher of the same students she left behind, she looks at how public schools in low-income neighborhoods “keep their kids in poverty.”
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain your response to Kandice Sumner’s account of “survivor’s remorse”
- Discuss the difference between an “achievement gap” and an “education debt” as it applies to low-income children.
- Explain the meaning of Ms. Sumner’s donated classroom library to the larger issue of equitable school funding.
- Respond to the following statement: “The problems we have as a country are the problems we created as a country” [as it comes to educating black and brown children and the achievement gap, the income gap, etc.].
- Discuss the things that we can do on a macro-level to improve education for low-income and minority children.
Chapter 8
Readings
8.1 Duncombe,W.D. & Yinger, J.M. (2010). School district consolidation: The benefitsandcosts. What recent research reveal about expected financial savings when small districts merge. The School Administrator, 67 (5), 10-17. Alexandria, VA: American Association of School Superintendents, Retrieved from http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=13218
School district consolidation has been a major trend in public K-12 education, with the number of school districts dropping 88% from 1939-40 to 2006-07. Syracuse University Professors William Duncombe and John Yinger study the economics of size in public education. Their recent research finds both benefits and disadvantages from consolidating small school districts into larger ones.
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain how state aid programs that encourage consolidation are often contradictory. Why do you think this is so?
- Describe the ways in school school district consolidation can cut costs.
- Explain the difference between education spending and education costs.
- Identify the conditions under which school districts may benefit from economies of size.
- Discuss the disadvantages that school district consolidation brings.
- Discuss the empirical findings about costs and non-cost effects (including equity) in school district consolidation.
- Given these findings, if you were a consultant on district consolidation for your own district, what would you recommend and why?
8.2 Baker, B.D. & Corcoran, S.P. (2012, September). The stealth inequities of school funding. How state and local school finance systems perpetuate inequitable student spending. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Part I: Introductory chapter and Chapter 1, “How state aid formulas undermine educational equity in states”, pages 1-10, 15 – 53).
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535555.pdf
Too many children are denied access to high-quality education because they attend underfunded and under-resourced schools. Gross funding inequities exist in the United States, and too often, schools serving students with the greatest needs receive the fewest resources. Many funding inequities are not solely due to differences in available resources. Bruce Baker explains how many states are directing more tax dollars to lower-poverty school districts.
After reading Part I [Chapter 1] of this report, respond to the following:
- Express your reposes to the data in Tables 1 and 1a. Do you think local or state legislators share these data with taxpayers? Why or why not?
- Explain the concepts of equal educational opportunity and desired student outcome goals as they related to school funding.
- Identify the individual and contextual factors associated with the costs of achieving common outcomes.
- Describe ways that state aid formulas, often designed to promote equity and adequacy can work against their own stated objectives (by “stealthily” directing more taxpayer dollars into lower-poverty districts). Explain why you suspect this happens.
- Describe how providing tax relief to high-income districts promote both inequity and inefficiency.
- Summarize Baker’s recommendations for states to reduce their “stealth” school funding inequities.
8.3 Baker, B.D. & Corcoran, S.P. (2012, September). The stealth inequities of school funding. How state and local school finance systems perpetuate inequitable student spending. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Part II: Chapter 2: “The role of local revenues in funding disparities across school districts” (pp. 55 – 87). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535555.pdf
Too many children are denied access to high-quality education because they attend underfunded and under-resourced schools. Too often, schools serving students with the greatest needs receive the fewest resources. In this chapter, Sean Corcoran explains how local revenues paly a role in resource disparities across low- and high-poverty schools.
After reading Part 2 (Chapter 2) of this report, consider:
- Describe how local property and non-property sources of revenues and state/local restrictions on raising revenues contribute to funding inequities in schools.
- Select one of the states listed and give examples of techniques they use to fund their schools inequitably.
- Identify what states can do to reduce reliance on local financing of public schools and ensure that high-poverty and low-wealth districts are not left behind.
8.4Verstegen, C.A. (2011). Public education finance systems in the United States and funding policies for populations with special educational needs. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19 (21), Retrieved from https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/769/923
How are school funds currently apportioned by the states to local school districts? And what does this mean for students with special educational needs or higher costs to educate? After a brief history of funding schools in the United States, survey data from all 50 states focuses on state finance policies and programs for elementary and secondary education, especially for special education populations.
After reading this article, consider:
- Identify and discuss the trends in financing public education from the colonial period to today.
- Summarize the types of school finance systems currently in use. Using Table 1 and discussion that follows, identify the types of state funding formulae your state uses for public elementary and secondary schools.
- Explain how states generally pay for special education programs and services. Using Tables 2 and 3, identify the methods your state uses to pay for the extra costs of educating students with special needs.
- Using Tables 4, 5, and 6identify your state’s funding for low-income students, students with Limited English Proficiency, and English Language Learners (respectively).
- Using Tables 7 and 8, identify whether your state providing funding for Debt Service and capital Outlay and for Transportation.
- Discuss the conclusions you can draw about trends in state financing of education, especially or meeting the needs of students who cost more to educate to state standards.
8.5 Adamson, F. & Darling-Hammond, L. (2002). Funding disparities and the inequitable distribution of teachers: Evaluating sources and solutions. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20 (37).
Retrieved from https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1053
Not all students have access to well qualified and effective teachers. In state after state, studies have found that students of color in low-income schools are 3 to 10 times more likely to have teachers who are uncertified, not fully prepared, or teaching outside their field of preparation than students in predominately white and more affluent schools. This “opportunity gap” contributes to achievement gaps. Many factors contribute to this inequitable situation. This article discusses the issue of how and why teacher quality is inequitably distributed by reviewing research and examining data on school funding, salaries and teacher qualifications from California and New York. Authors present solutions to remedy this situation.
After reading the article, consider:
- Discuss why teacher qualifications including academic background, preparation for teaching, certification status, and experience matter greatly for student achievement.
- Identify and discuss policy efforts – and their success or failure [and why]– to address inequitably teacher quality.
- Discuss what research finds as the role of salaries and working conditions in recruiting and retaining high quality and effective teachers.
- Explain how unequal school resources impact high quality teacher recruitment and retention.
- Summarize the study’s findings about teacher quality disparities between high and low-wealth school districts in California and New York and the role of school resources (money to buy needed people and materials) in creating and sustaining this situation.
- Discuss possible promising solutions and threats to the teacher quality disparity between high-and low-wealth school districts.
8.6 Aldeman, D., Robson, K., & Smarick, A. (2015, June). Pacts Americana: Balancing national interests, state autonomy, and education accountability. Washington, DC: Bellwether Education Partners. Retrieved from https://bellwethereducation.org/sites/default/files/Bellwether_ESEA_June2015.pdf
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, 1965) began a deal between the federal government and the states: billions of dollars in federal funds in exchange for a list of state activities. The funds were optional, but states choosing to keep receiving federal education dollars were accountable for producing results with those funds. In this paper, authors review the federal state bargain, look at “key lessons learned” from ESEA, and offer a new approach to accountability in the state-federal bargain (results in exchange for funding): performance “compacts.”. (NOTE: Two of these authors, Aldeman and Smarick, are featured in video 8.1).
After reading this paper, consider:
- Describe how ESEA has evolved in focus, funding, accountability, and practice over time.
- Discuss the three key lessons learned from NCLB.
- Explain the three principles underlying the proposed “federal-state performance compacts.”
- Summarize the differences between waivers and compacts.
- Discuss your view of this proposal with other educators or classmates.
8.7 Chingos, M.M. & Blagg, K. (2017, May). Do poor kids get their fair share of school funding? Education Policy Program. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/90586/school_funding_brief.pdf
Today, 35 states have a provision in their school funding formula that provides additional monies to districts serving more low-income students. But despite the progressive funding formulas on paper, many states do not achieve the goal in practice; and these extra funds do not always go to districts and schools serving the neediest students.
After reading this paper, consider:
- Explain the rationale for progressive state funding to counteract regressive local funding for schools.
- Using Figures 3 and 4, identify where your state stands in the balance between regressive local funding and progressive state funding. How well is your state doing in providing additional resources to high-needs schools and students?
- Discuss how the addition of federal funds tips the overall balance of states to most being progressive in their school funding.
- Discuss how economic segregation of schools affects funding progressivity. And how states can address this.
- Discuss the historical, institutional, and political constraints that prevent additional funds going to high-poverty schools.
Videos
8.1 YouTube: Education Reform: State vs. Federal Government – Interview with Chad Aldeman/Viewpoint
American Enterprise Institute (2018, May 2), 18 min., 26 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70ZnflWWIY
What is the right balance of power between federal and state governments regarding K-12 education? Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama changed the federal government’s input into education, giving it “a more muscular role.” The American Enterprise Institute’s Andy Smarick and Chad Aldeman from Bellwether Education Partners discuss the benefits and disadvantages of federal involvement in each state’s education policies.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify several ways the Bush-Obama era influenced education policy and practice in the states.
- Identify several positive outcomes from these federal influences in state education policy.
- Identify several less-than-positive outcomes from this education era.
- Respond to the following statement as it refers to federal influence in state and local education policy: “The federal government can force state and local governments to do things, but they can’t force them to do things well.”
- Express the extent to which you agree or disagree with Chad Aldeman’s or Andy Smarick’s views of Every Student Succeeds Act as it relates to federal influence over state education policy.
8.2YouTube: How Small is Too Small? An Analysis of School District Consolidation
Legislative Analyst’s Office (2011, April 30)., 9 min., 26 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqERjPYH4lw
Rachel Ehlers, Legislative Analyst in California, reports on the pro’s and con’s of school district consolidation. Although this analysis occurred in 2011, it makes points that remain relevant in deciding whether to consolidate small school districts.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify the factors that allow localities in this state to create very small (1000 students or less) school districts.
- Discuss the arguments that favor and discourage school district consolidation.
- Summarize the research findings presented on student achievement and fiscal data for school district consolidation.
- Express the extent top which you agree or disagree with the legislative analyst office’s recommendations.
8.3 YouTube: Merging Small School Districts: Showdown in Vermont. The controversy over school consolidation in rural Vermont, by Carmen Rojas (2016, June 1).
PBS NewsHour and EdWeek (2016, May 31). 6 min., 36 sec.
Retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on-air-video-blog/2016/06/the_controversy_over_school_consolidation_in_rural_vermont_video.html
Plunging student enrollment and escalating educational costs are persuading Vermont lawmakers to consolidate its widespread system of public schools. But it is not happening without a fight.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain how Vermont is incentivizing localities to consolidate their school districts.
- Explain the academic and tax relief benefits that Vermont seeks to gain from its school district consolidation plan.
- Describe several factors at play in the Vermont school consolidation situation.
>8.4 YouTube: Educational Equity, Equality, and Opportunity Today: A Discussion
Education Week (2018, December 5)., 50 min., 15 sec. [Watch from start until 39 min.,
16 sec when Q & A beings]
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkJr1ykqZwU
As comics Stan Laurel once said to Oliver Hardy, “We’ve made a fine mess of things!” Prominent civil rights activist Wade Henderson joins Mark W. Bomster, deputy managing editor at Education Week, and Michael Feuer, dean of the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, for an insightful and wide-ranging discussion of how current political and social pressures bear on the quest to assure all students a quality education and a conducive learning environment.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify at least five structural issues that reinforce inequities in public schools (these are discussed throughout the video).
- Explain the view that “political fragmentation and financing of public education through property taxes … is a recipe for disparity.”
- Discuss how the explosion of inequalities (i.e.., poverty vs. affluence) in this country since the 1960s has worsened educational, political, and economic inequalities.
- Describe the racial and economic trends in the achievement gap.
- Explain how legislators, lawyers, and higher education have reasons for optimism about improving the educational (and other) opportunities.
- Discuss “what’s working” to improve educational equity and opportunity.
- On which of these structural issues do you believe you can have the most impact – and how will you?
8.5 YouTube: Education Summit 2017: The Role of Government
The 74 (2017, May 25). 3 min., 10 seconds.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4mQcXttY8
With states and localities paying 90% of the bill for public schools, what should be the federal government’s role? Thoughtful conservative and progressive scholars briefly debate the federal role in education. Each side has a point. Can you find them?
After watching this video, consider:
- Identify and discuss the constructive points for a limited federal role in education.
- Identify and discuss the constructive points for a more expansive federal role in education.
- Since we live in a less than “ideal” world, what do you think the balance between federal and state/local involvement (in terms of money and policy) in education.
Chapter 9
Readings
9.1 Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & Stuckey, D., (2014, April). Seven trends: The transformation of
the teaching force. CPRE Research Reports (#RR-80). Philadelphia, PA Consortium for
Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&=&context=cpre_researchreports&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fscholar.google.com%252Fscholar%253Fhl%253Den%2526as_sdt%253D0%25252C47%2526q%253Dstudent%252Bdemographic%252Btrends%252Bon%252Bteaching%2526btnG%253D#search=%22student%20demographic%20trends%20teaching%22
Large-scale changes are happening to the teaching profession. Over the past decades (1987-2012), the types and kinds of persons going into teaching have changed dramatically. This exploratory research presents seven trends that describe today’s teachers as “larger, grayer, greener, more female, more diverse (race/ethnicity, consistent in academic ability, and less stable.” Why are these trends happening, and what do they mean?
After reading this article, consider:
- Identify the major trends (and their causes) that have led to the rapid “ballooning” of the teacher workforce.
- Discuss the misconceptions about they “graying” teacher workforce.
- Discuss the implications for student behavior, learning, achievement, and financial issues of high numbers of beginning (“green”) teachers in the workforce.
- Explain the factors that account for the increases in the number of female teachers today – and some of the implications.
- Summarize what the researchers have learned about the increase in minority teachers.
- Discuss the misconcepti0ons people in general have about teachers and their academic caiber relative to other professions.
- Discuss the varying types of teacher turnover/attrition and its increase on recent years and their implications for school culture/climate, student learning, and school finance.
- Discuss the implications of these trends on the view of teaching as respected a profession.
9.2 Hachfield, A., Hahn, A., Schroeder, S., Anders, Y., & Kunter, M. (2015, May). Should teachers be colorblind? How multicultural and egalitarian beliefs differentially relate to aspects of teachers’ professional competence for teaching in diverse classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 48, 44-55.
Should teachers be colorblind? Or should they develop the professional competence to understand their students’ varied cultural beliefs? Teachers’ beliefs influence their perceptions, judgment, and behaviors in the classroom. Investigators study how cultural beliefs relate to aspects of teachers’ professional competence by comparing multiculturalism and colorblindness with beginning teachers. Only one set of these beliefs has positive outcomes for ethnic minority and immigrant students’ learning and achievement.
After reading the article, consider:
- Describe the differences between the “colorblind” and “multicultural” approaches to teaching culturally diverse students. Which approach do you use?
- Explain with examples why teachers’ beliefs about cultural diversity are an important factor in students’ opportunities to learn.
- Discuss the extent to which you find the model of professional competence for teaching in multicultural settings, Figure 1, accurate and useful (or not).
- Explain why holding positive intentions towards teaching cultural minority and immigrant children are not enough to effectively teach them.
- Discuss the major problem for teachers and students of the colorblind ideal in diverse classrooms.
- Summarize this study’s limitations and relevance for teacher education and professional development for in-service teachers.
9.3 Edmond, C. (2017, June 28). These rich countries have high levels of child poverty.
New York, NY: World Economic Forum. Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/these-rich-countries-have-high-levels-of-child-poverty/
In the world’s 41 richest countries, one in five children lives in relative poverty, and one in eight risks going hungry or not getting the right food. In the United States, one in five children faces food insecurity. How are these children supposed to perform well in school?
After reading this article. consider:
- Define relative child poverty and food security; explain why these factors should be a concern for school leaders and teachers.
- Identify where the U.S. stands among the richest nations in children’s wellbeing. Discuss why you think this is the case and what might be done to improve the situation.
9.4 Morsy, L. & Rothstein, R. (2015, June 10). Five social disadvantages that depress student performance. Why schools alone can’t close achievement gaps. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/files/2015/Morsey-Rothstein-07-06-2015.pdf.
Students’ social and economic characteristics shape their cognitive and behavioral outcomes. This is well established. But policy makers seem to disregard this reality and instead, ask for better schools and teachers to close achievement gaps. This report describes how five (of the many) social class characteristics depress achievement and suggest policies to address them.
After reading this article, consider:
- Summarize the five social class characteristics noted in this paper that depress academic achievement.
- Discuss why contemporary education reform efforts focus disproportionately on school and teacher incentives (as opposed to students’ background characteristics) as the means to narrow the achievement gap.
- Describe the parenting practices can advance or impede children’s intellectual and behavioral development.
- Explain how single parenthood, generally speaking, can affect children’s academic and social maturation.
- Summarize how parents’ work schedules impact children’s academic and social outcomes.
- Discuss how access to physicians can impact children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
- Explain how environmental toxin, such as lead, affect children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development.
- Identify several recommendations to improve the cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes for low-income students.
9.5 Fernald, A., Marchman, V. A., & Weisleder, A. (2013). SES differences in language processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months. Developmental Science, 16(2), 234-248.
The language gap between rich and poor children begins in infancy. This research followed English-learning infants from advantaged and disadvantaged families from 18 to 24 months using real-time measures of spoken language processing. Investigators found significant disparities in vocabulary and language processing efficiency already evident at 18 months between infants from higher-and lower-SES families. By 24 months, there was a 6-month gap between the SES groups in the skills critical to language development. What does this mean for school readiness and school success?
After reading the article, consider:
- Discuss the implications of the following statement: “The disparities in children’s cognitive performance at kindergarten entry that were attributable to SES differences were significantly greater than those associated with race/ethnicity” (p. 235).
- Summarize the history of the debate about the early origins of SES-related disparities in cognitive skills relevant to school success.
- Discuss the implications of this research for PreK and elementary teachers who want to support the academic and behavioral growth of their low-income students.
- Identify the parental/caretaker and environmental sources of variability in young children’s early language proficiency.
- Summarize the long-term consequences of early differences in language skills.
- Discuss the implications of this research for Pre-K and elementary educators.
9.6 Chang, H. & Balfanz, R. (2017). Preventing missed opportunity: Taking collective action to confront chronic absence. Baltimore, MD: Attendance Works and Johns
Hopkins University. Retrieved from http://attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/PreventingMissedOpportunityFull_FINAL9.8.16_2-1.pdf
The United States promises every child an equal opportunity to learn, regardless of circumstances or social class. But about 13% of children miss three or more weeks of school, enough to erode their achievement and jeopardize their chances of graduating. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires reporting chronic absence. What is the chronic absentee situation in the U.S., where does it mostly occur, and how can educators sand their community partners and public officials solve the chronic absence problem?
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain how chronic absenteeism both reflects and exacerbates the problems in students’ communities.,
- Identify and summarize the five patterns that research finds characterize chronic absenteeism.
- Using Table 7, page 16, characterize the chronic absentee condition in your state.
- Discuss the six steps for using chronic absence data to take action. Determine the extent to which your own state (or district) has taken these steps. What is the chronic absence rate in your state (or school) according to grade, student population, and geography?
- Using Table 8, page 29, which of these data are available regularly and which practices are your school administrators using to inform key stakeholders?
- Using Figure 9, page 30, discuss the reasons for students’ chronic absences.
Videos
9.1 YouTube: The Future of America
The Daily Conversation, (2015, July 27), 4 min., 10 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWTYZGM8e0g
A demographic look at the United States from the Pew Research Center. Projections show two big transformations in the U.S.: our population is becoming non-white, and it’s aging in record numbers. What does this mean for education and the workforce?
After watching this video consider:
- Discuss the implications for education of many fewer future workers generating social security payments for a many more retirees. [42 workers to retirees in 1940 is now a ratio of about 3 workers to 1 retiree].
- Explain how diversity is driving Americans’ (relative) open-mindedness.
- Discuss the implications for public education and student achievement as the U.S. becomes less white (from 85% white in 1960, 64% in 2010, to a predicted 43%white in 2060).
- Discuss the implications for teaching and learning of the increase in immigration.
9.2 YouTube: Schools & Social Inequality: Crash Course Sociology #41.
CrashCourse. (2018, January 22), 11 min., 26 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMk3Bk08NA
Using social conflict theory to understand variations in school funding and quality, this video explores several social inequalities in the U.S. public schools. Also discussed are recent findings by American economists Jackson, Johnson, and Persico [see Reading 2.5, above] using a natural experiment – court mandated school finance reform – to show that a school with more resources has better student (and adult) outcomes.
After watching this video, consider:
- Identify the findings from the Jackson, Johnson, and Persico study that you find most impressive.
- Define “cultural capital” and explain its role as a key resource available in certain communities and not others and how it affects students’ school achievement and outcomes, apart from per-pupil spending.
- Describe the forms in which parents give their children “cultural capital.”
- Identify at least three ways in which schools and funding reinforce inequality among students from varied backgrounds.
9.3 YouTube: More Students Living in Poverty Strains Education System
PBS NewHour (2015, January 18). 4 min., 13 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKGyoCLSqeE
A 2015 report says the majority (51%) of all public school students across the United States come from low-income families. More than 21 states have more than half their students qualify for free or reduce-price lunches. Experts say that could have important implications for the nation’s education polices and teachers.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe how the increase in high-poverty children in school affects teachers’
responsibilities inside and outside the classroom.
- Explain how having many high-poverty students in a school impact student achievement.
- Explain how the increase in high-poverty students influences education policy debates. Express your own views on this issue.
- Identify the stats where the high-poverty students and their families live. What percent of children in poverty attend your school and district?
9.4 YouTube: Bridging the Cultural Gap in the Classroom/Manuel Hernandez Carmona
TEDxAmoskeagMillyard (2015, March 11). 18 min., 42 seconds.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br22BFA7bAg
All 10th graders in New York City Public Schools are expected to learn Hemingway, Poe, and Shakespeare in their English language arts classes. But Manuel Hernandez Carmona’s students just didn’t “get” Romeo and Juliet.” As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and author Hernandez saw that his 10th grade students, many of whom recently arrived from Latin America and elsewhere, wanted to learn. But the traditional materials left them blank. What happened when he brought in culturally relevant materials to help bridge the cultural gap?
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify several “problems” that English learners bring to the classroom and the “bridges” that teachers can use to help them connect to and understand the American curriculum.
- Describe your experience as one of Hernandez’s “students” in this video. Identify his strengths as a teacher.
- Discuss the following statement as it applies to classroom teachers: “Bigotry and ignorance can only be confronted with education.”
- Identify several culturally relevant materials you can use to teacher multicultural students in your current discipline and explain how you might use these to improve student understanding and learning.
- Discuss your responses to Hernandez’s “real alternatives.”
9.5 YouTube: Diversity in the Classroom: Conflict Sparks Anger
USA Today (2014, November 24). 5 min., 1 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br22BFA7bAg
Student diversity in classrooms occasionally leads to community conflict about what is best for students. This true story has a happy ending. Watch and listen to what occurred in Eden Prairie, Minnesota school district that educates 33% students of color who speak 70 different languages.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain why drawing new school boundaries to reduce racial disparities in elementary schools led to conflict in this community.
- Discuss the reasons you think students’ academic performance improved to above the state benchmarks after the school boundary changes.
- Discuss why you think Somali parent advocates believe the boundary changes drew a sharper line between their community and the district.
- Identify actions that you would call “courageous leadership” regarding racial inequities.
- Explain how school segregation is connected to affordable housing.
9.6 YouTube: How Does “Toxic Stress” of Poverty Hurt the Developing Brain?
PBS NewsHour (2015, June 27)., 9 min., 36 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdTiPGVZNes
A growing body of research shows that the stress of growing up in poverty can have long-term effects on children’s brains and cognitive development. How can so-called “toxic stress” be prevented?
After watching this video, consider:
- Describe the physical response that chronic stress evokes in bodies and brains.
- Describe how young children experiencing this “toxic” stress might behave in the classroom.
- Explain how poverty can be a cause of “toxic” chronic stress can adversely impact a child’s cognitive development.
- Identify factors in a child’s life that can minimize the effects of “toxic” stress.
- Describe how can community organizations improve this situation for parents and children.
- Discuss what teachers and school leaders can do to help students who have experienced chronic stress.
9.7 YouTube: Children in Persistent Poverty
Urban Institute (2016, October 18), 5 min., 47 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDkpWwkXkHw&list=PLMqzki72irGPoJE5Dl4SgZjs5Gj_Wh2Op
The economic situation of families that children are born into too often predetermines the opportunities they will have to lead productive lives. This is particularly troubling for children who are born into poverty. Indeed, about half of poor newborns will spend at least half of their childhood living below the poverty line. The effects can reproduce themselves generation after generation. This affects persistent poverty affects children, adults, and society at large. How do we shape policies to break this vicious cycle?
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify some of the challenges that teachers and administrators of persistently poor children face in educating them.
- Explain how investing resources in effectively educating poor children on the front end save our society billions of dollars on the back end.
- Discuss several policy steps that communities and educators can take to break this persistent poverty cycle.
- Identify two things that you as an educator can do to help these vulnerable children succeed in education.
Chapter 10
Readings
10.1 Leachman, M., Masterson, K., & Figueroa, E. (2017, November 29). A punishing
decade for school funding. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/11-29-17sfp.pdf
Over the past decade, the public investment in K-12 education has dramatically declined in many states. Some of the deepest cutting states have also cut income tax rates, weakening their main revenue source for supporting schools. With public schools being an essential engine of economic opportunity, underfunding our schools undermines schools’ capacity to develop the intelligence and creativity of our next generation of workers and entrepreneurs.
After reading this report, consider:
- Discuss why you think so many states cut income taxes even as they continue to underfund their public schools.
- On Figure 3, identify where your state falls on total state K-12 funding below 2008 levels.
- Summarize reasons why many states cut their education spending so deeply.
- Summarize the consequences of K-12 state and local education budget cuts.
- Explain how deep budget cuts for education hamper states’ and districts’ ability to implement many of the education reforms that research shows improve student achievement.
- Discuss how cuts to state and local education budgets can slow the economy and inhibit long-term growth.
10.2 American Association of School Administrators (n.d.). School budgets 101. AASA White Paper. Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved from
https://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/SchoolBudgetBriefFINAL.pdf
Local governments or agencies – including public schools – use budgets to describe its program plans for the upcoming year. This general primer on school budgeting discusses who is involved, the school budget’s role and purpose, the major school district budget categories, where the resources come from, where schools spend their monies, and how this information is related to the current federal budget proposal and local economic realities.
After reading the article, consider:
- Identify the persons/roles involved in creating the school budget.
- Explain how the school budget process gives school leaders an opportunity to communicate with their community.
- Discuss the amount of school budgets directed towards salaries and benefits.
- Explain why school districts usually keep their state and local funds separate form federal funds.
- Using Appendix B, summarize the school year budget calendar.
10.3 Roza, M. (2009). Breaking down school budgets. Education Next, 9 (3). Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/breaking-down-school-budgets-2/
Educators are asked to do more with less. When does it make sense to keep classes small? Which classes can be increased in size to cut costs? Marguerite Roza, a senior scholar at the Center on Reinventing Public Education and a research associate professor at the University of Washington, outlines a “mission-critical functions” (cost-of-services) approach to cutting school budgets that respect what happens in the classroom and informs strategic decision making. Notably, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires such school spending transparency.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain the meaning of: “the classroom is where the mission-critical work happens and where the conversion of resources into services affects student performance.” What is the value (or disadvantage) of expressing teaching and learning in this way?
- Discuss how key cost drivers such as class sizes, teacher assignments and compensation, and the school schedules work to affect spending.
- Discuss how spending more on core classes than on electives or spending more on electives than core classes, or more on higher-level (i.e., Honors, AP, IB) than mid- or lower-level (general or remedial) courses reflects the community’s, school division’s and/or principal’s priorities.
- Discuss the policy implications for cost-of-services approach to school budgeting.
10.3 Rennie Center, Education Research & Policy (2012). Smart school budgeting:
Resources for Districts. Boston, MA: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.renniecenter.org/sites/default/files/2017-01/SmartSchoolBudgeting.pdf
In this age of public accountability, how can schools best maximize their current investments in teaching and learning? How can schools become more strategic and deliberative in their approach to school budgeting? This document gives school leaders a “toolkit” to set goals, analyze spending patterns, build consensus on an effective approach, chose the right budget model, and track costs. It also directs school leaders to practical information to help shape resource decisions.
After reading the document, consider:
- Explain the typical disconnect between finite resources (school spending) and student learning outcomes in school district and building budgets.
- Explain “resource reallocation” and its rationale as a means to better align resources with student needs.
- Discuss the political and communication challenges involved with school resource allocation or reallocation.
- Discuss the pros and cons of popular school budgets. Which types are best for aligning resources with students’ learning needs? Which types does your school use?
- Summarize the steps in the budget setting process recommended here and explain the rationale for each step.
- Summarize the evidence for school resource reallocation strategies that improve student achievement. Which of these practices is your school district currently using?
- Describe the extent to which your school’s leaders develop your school budget in ways aligned with – or contrary to – this report’s recommendations – and explain.
10.4 Calvo, N. (2011, May). Opportunities and challenges of student-based budgeting. Watertown, MA: Education Resource Strategies (ERS). Retrieved from
https://www.erstrategies.org/news/opportunities_and_challenges_of_student-based_budgeting
Student -based budgeting (SBB) comes with its opportunities and challenges. Although the “devil is in the details” of how a school system in structured and operated, this article provides a broad overview for school district leaders who are considering a SBB approach to constructing their school budgets.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain why student-based budgeting works best when principals have greater autonomy over how to use these resources.
- Discuss the opportunities – funding equity, budget transparency, resource flexibility, strong leadership, and incentives to attract and keep students – that SBB offers.
- Discuss the challenges – potentially painful central office transition; complexity; fiscal oversight, compliance, and accountability; increased data needs; principal capacity; and added leadership burden – that SBB offers.
- Given the pros and cons, what argument would you use to persuade your supervisor for or against initiating a SBB process for your school?
10.5 National School Boards Association (2018, September 13). How much ACTUAL influence do principals think they have ion school decisions? Newsroom. Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved from
Principals have a degree of authority or power to make major decisions affecting their schools. More autonomy contributes to principal leadership and contributes to improved school performance. This article describes data from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS,2011-2012) about how much autonomy principals report having and in what area. How much authority do principals perceive that they really have – and about what?
After reading the article, consider:
- Identify the areas that principals believe they have the most influence on decisions.
- Discuss the school leadership implications of 90% of principals believing they had a moderate to major influence on how to spend their school budget.
- Discuss how principals’ belief in their autonomy over budget decisions affects their other instructional leadership responsibilities.
10.6 Government Finance Officers Association (2015, January). Best practices in school district budgeting. Best Practices. Resources. Chicago, IL: Author.
Retrieved from http://www.gfoa.org/print/3559
The Government Finance Officers Association has developed a series of Best Practices in School Budgeting which clearly outline steps to develop a budget that best aligns resources with student achievement goals. This article focuses on optimizing student achievement within available resources and gives a complete cycle for long-term financial planning and budgeting. Aspiring or active principals can review these steps to see which best practices are – or are not – in place in their current school district/school and formulate ideas for improving local budgeting practices.
After reading this article, consider:
- Interview your principal and school district finance officer to determine the extent to which, in their view, each sub-step of Steps 1 and 4 are currently in place and the extent to which it is effective in generating student achievement improving budgets. Identify the suggestions they have to improve this “Plan and Prepare” and “Implement Plan.”
- Interview your principal, the district superintendent, and a school board member to determine the extent to which, in their view, each sub-step of Steps 2, 3, and 5 are currently in place and the extent to which it is effective in generating student achievement improving budgets. Identify the suggestions they have to improve “Set Instructional Priorities” and “Pay for Priorities.”
- Summarize your findings about the extent to which your current school district is following best practices for budgeting for student achievement and make three recommendations for where/how school leaders can improve their current process or practices.
10.7 Waggoner, C.R. (2009). Learning about the school budget: A constructivist model.
Research in Higher Education Journal, 2, 1 – 11.
Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/08130.pdf
Budgets impact school operations. Prospective school principals need opportunities to learn how to use all school district information, financial and cultural, in becoming effective and ethical budget planners. This article offers them and other school leaders a Constructivist model of how to develop school budgets.
After reading this article, consider:
- Respond to the following statement as a student in a principal preparation program: “Students must assimilate the new experience of building a school budget into an already existing framework of what they understand about how school buildings are organized for the education of children and how revenue and expenditure dollars are coded through the district accounting manual.”
- Working with one or two classmates, select one of the schools mentioned and conduct the activities on pages 10-11 “What is asked of the students” using the totality of the information concerning their school district, their assigned building, and the windfall dollars. Present the proposed school budget orally and with illustrative graphics to the superintendent and board of education (your fellow classmates and professor) who will review and critique the proposed budgets.
- Discuss your views on constructivist lessons such as provided in this article as an instructional approach to teaching future principals,
Videos
10.1 YouTube: Budget Overview #1: How Do You Develop a School District Budget?
MWCSD1, (2017, May 4). 2 min., 5 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmS8NmrFd4
A school district assistant superintendent explains how a public school district develops its budget.
After watching the video, consider:
- Identify and discuss what you see as the strengths in this budget process.
- Identify and discuss what you see as the weaknesses in this budget process.
- Identify recommendations you would make to this assistant superintendent to improve his budget process to better address improving student achievement.
10.2 YouTube: Best Practices in School Budgeting = Beaverton School District.
Government Finance Officers Association (2016. July 7), 7 min., 24 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfc6sk_GJSU
Beaverton, Oregon, School District uses the Government Finance Officers Association’s best practices for budgeting and smarter school spending. Educators align their school budgets to where they want to go by investing in student achievement. They align their financial resources to programs to have the greatest impact on student outcomes. [See Reading 10.6 for the Best Practices]
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain the context in which the Beaverton School District rethought their budgeting practices and targets.
- Discuss the rationale for Beaverton’s new budgeting priorities and give examples.
- Describe how the Beaverton School District used student data target budget priorities.
- Identify the components in Beaverton’s summer school credit recovery program that helped students increase their academic achievement during summer school and in the following semesters.
10.3 YouTube: Vision 20/20 Education Initiative, Difficulties Managing School Budgets
IllinoisChannelTV (2014, December 2). 12 min., 55 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxsMO-bYZrs
Two Illinois educational leaders – although they could be from any state – discuss their vision for education improvement and the struggles educators have putting together a budget without knowing the long-term state budget.
After watching this video, consider:
- Discuss how the Illinois 20/20 vision – highly effective educators, 21st century learning, shared accountability, and equitable and adequate funding system for schools based on evidence-based outcome model – offers a coherent plan to improve public education. Discuss how these goals might drive school budgets in your own state and districts.
- Explain how the calendars for state school budgets and school district budgets work against each other.
- Discuss the feasibility and benefits of a “year ahead” state funding plan.
- Discuss the role of “reform fatigue” in our own school district.
10.4 YouTube: SchoolFunding: Stepping Back From the Brink/ Pat Hynes/ EEDxHerndon
TEDx Talks (2016, August 2)., 14 min., 54 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5snhbU5uSUc
Public school funding is a “tipping point” story – “that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, and spreads like wildfire” (Malcolm Gladwell). For public schools, this is when funding for a school system is so underfunded, so far behind the needs of students and system that is costlier to recover the schools we want than if we tried to maintain them at minimal effectiveness. Community reputations slips, school quality falters, businesses and families choose other places to locate and live, and a downward spiral begins. What is true for Fairfax is also true across the country.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain several pressures (evens and popular beliefs) behind the United States becoming a place that underfunds its public schools.
- Identify the ways in which school districts adjust to reduced state revenues.
- Describe ways in which school district leaders can generate public support for increased state funding for schools.
10.5 YouTube: Four Day School Weeks are the New Normal in Oklahoma (HBO).
VICE News (2016, November 7). 5 min, 21 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq1B5cZWPIc
From 2008 to 2016, Oklahoma cut education funding per student more than any other state. Many Oklahoma school districts have had to provide 4-day school weeks in order to survive financially. In Oklahoma’s Noble school district, all schools are closed on Fridays to save money, one principal oversees two elementary schools to avoid hiring a second administrator, and the district superintendent also works bus duty. In 2018, Oklahoma teachers went on strike for better salaries and school funding (See video 10.6).
After watching the video, consider:
- Discus your responses as an educator and citizen to state underfunding of education – and 4-day school weeks, larger classes, and overextended educators– in exchange for tax breaks for businesses and lower taxes on residents.
- Explain what you might say to parents who say that they enjoy a 4-day school week for their children.
- Describe the short- and long-term consequences for children of a 4-day school week.
- Discuss what you can do as educators and citizens to improve this situation in your own state.
10.6 YouTube: Oklahoma Teacher Strike: “I have 29 textbooks for 87 pupils- BBC News
BBC News (2018, April 2). 6 min., 26 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQyW5X7IGIQ
In 2018, U.S. teachers’ strikes for higher salaries and more education funding made international headlines. In this BBC video, three teachers in Oklahoma open up their classrooms to show the impact of funding cuts.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain how the education underfunding is impacting teachers and students in Oklahoma,
- Discuss what you see as the short- and long-term implications of the fact that a teacher’s salary is not a sustainable living income.
- Discuss your responses to the notion that the world is watching how U.S. states are underfunding education.
Chapter 10
Readings
11.1 Baker, B.D. (2017, December). How money matters for schools. Palo Alo, CA:
Learning Policy Institute.
Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/How_Money_Matters_REPORT.pdf
A society that invests in its children reaps real and lasting economic and social benefits. Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker’s How money matters for schools reviews a substantial body of research to answer three questions: (1) Does money matter? (2) Do schooling resources that cost money matter? and (3) Do state school finance reforms matter? The answers to all three questions is Yes. Baker summarizes, “An increasing body of rigorous empirical evidence suggests that substantive and sustained state school finance reforms matter for improving both the level and distribution of short-term and long-term student outcomes.”
After reading the report, consider:
- Summarize the three conclusions that Baker derives from the evidence of rigorous empirical research on school funding and student achievement.
- Identify and discuss the key school resources that are positively associated with student outcomes.
- Beginning with the Coleman Report (1966), trace the recent history of important studies linking school funding to student achievement.
- Summarize the longitudinal studies of school finance reforms nationally and state-wide.
- Discuss how ambitious goals, student characteristics, and district features can make a difference in the costs needed to educate all students to state standards.
- If you were to recommend the most effective ways to invest dollars into student achievement in a high-needs district, what policies and practices would you recommend.
11.2 Johns Hopkins School of Education (2017, November). Does money matter?
Hanushek, Jackson, and the questions we ask Alanna Bjorklund-Young, senior research and policy analysis. Baltimore, MD: Author, Institute for Education Policy. Retrieved from http://edpolicy.education.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Does-Money-Matter-Commentary.pdf
“Does an increase in education funding yield better educational outcomes?” This rather straight-forward question has generated considerable controversy. This article briefly reviews the history of the spending and student achievement debate and elaborates on a 2016 study that finds increased spending to educational quality and quantity yields large improvements in educational attainment and improved labor market outcomes. [The study is available in 11.3]
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain why the research question, “When is increased spending associated with improved academic outcomes?” shows a positive relationship whereas asking, “Does increased spending usually result in increased student achievement?” does not.
- Identify the specific resources that research find tends to increase student achievement.
- Summarize the Jackson, Johnson, and Persico (2016) findings on spending and long-term student outcomes.
- Discuss how in addition to how the money is spent, the school district conditions also impact student outcomes.
- Explain the challenges to the Jackson and collogues’ study.
11.3 Jackson, C.K., Johnson, R.C., & Persico, C. (2016). The effects of school spending on
educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from School Finance Reforms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131 (1), 157-218.
This study links school spending and school finance reform data to detailed, nationally representative data on long-run adult outcomes for children born between 1955 and 1985 and followed through 2011. Findings reveal that a 10% increase in per pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school leads to 0.31 more completed years of education, about 7% higher wages, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; effects are much more pronounced for children from low-income families.
After reading this article, consider:
- Explain why the researchers focused on long-run outcomes such as educational attainments and adult earnings rather than on student test scores.
- Summarize the investigators’ rationale for using exogenous (court-ordered school-finance reforms and funding) influences on school spending and long-run adult changes rather than on endogenous (changes in resources decided inside the school district) forces and student outcomes.
- Describe the equity issues involved in court-ordered school finance reform and their required spending changes,
- Identify and discuss the interventions that appears to have the greatest positive impact on long-term outcomes for low-income children.
- Discuss the policy implications of this and other studies supporting increased spending and improved educational attainment and adult employment outcomes.
11.4 Lafortune, J., Rothstein, J., & Schanzenbach, D.W. (2016, July). School finance reform and the distribution of student achievement. IRLE Working Paper #100-16. Berkeley, C.A: University of California Berkeley. Retrieved from
Between 1990 and 2011, average real spending per pupil in K-12 schools rose by nearly 40%, mostly in low-income school districts. Did it make a significant difference in student outcomes? This study looks at the impact on post-1990 school finance reforms on absolute and relative spending and achievement in low-income school districts. Using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), investigators found that reforms caused increases in student achievement in these districts following the school finance reform. They conclude that the implied effect of school resources on educational achievement – especially in low-income districts – is large.
After reading this study, consider:
- Discuss how courts and legislatures can force improvements in school quality for students in low-income districts.
- Explain the meaning of “adequacy” reforms to school spending as compared with “equity” reforms and how they have different impacts on the level and distribution of school funding.
- Identify the challenges in estimating the causal effect of school funding on student outcomes.
- Explain how the state-level school finance reform enacted during the adequacy era markedly increased the progressivity of school spending.
- Discuss why school finance reforms reduced achievement gaps between high- and low-income school districts but did not have a measurable effect on resource or achievement gaps between high- and low-income (or white and black) students.
11.5 Hanushek, E.A. (2016, Spring). What matters for student achievement.EducationNext, 16 (2).
Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/what-matters-for-student-achievement/
The Coleman Report, Equality of Educational Opportunity, is the keystone for those committed to evidence-based education policy. Yet many educators and policy makers initially drew incorrect conclusions from it. Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, an early critic of increased spending for schools (and a recent believer that well-targeted resources do increase student achievement) updates what we understand about the 1966 Coleman Report and the influence of families and schools on students’ outcomes.
After reading the article, consider:
- Explain how reporters, educators, policy makers, and the public at large drew two, incorrect but long-lasting conclusions about families, money, and student achievement from the Coleman Report,
- Describe how the Coleman Report shifted attention from defining a “good school” by its inputs into a view that defined a “good school” by its outputs/outcomes.
- Describe the strengths and weaknesses of Coleman’s innovative (for the time) methodology.
- Discuss how the Coleman study failed to identify the importance of teacher quality and within-school variations in teacher quality and its impact on student achievement.
- Discuss the policy implications [and the extent of your agreement or disagreement] of the statement: “There now appears to be a general consensus that how money is spent is much more important than how much is spent.”
- Discuss what you believe is the Coleman Report’s most important impact for today’s education policy and practice.
11.6 Isenberg, E., Max, J., Gleason, P., Johnson, M., Deutsch, J., & Hansen, M. (2016, October). Do low-income students have equal access to effective teachers? Evidence from 26 districts. NCEE 2017-4007. Washington, DC: Institute of Education
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20174008/pdf/20174007.pdf
Are low-income students taught by less effective teachers than high-income students? Inequities in educational outcomes are substantial and persistent in U.S. schools. Students from high-income families tend to get better teachers as well as better academic outcomes than low-income peers. Would reducing this inequity narrow the achievement gap? Do patterns of teacher hiring, development, and mobility affect student access to highly effective teachers? This value-added study takes a closer look.
After reading this report, consider:
- Describe the study’s sample.
- Summarize how a value-added model measures teacher effectiveness works.
- Table III.2 (p. 20) identifies 11 policies designed to improve the effectiveness of teachers in high-poverty schools relative to other schools. Identify which of these policies are currently in place in your own school district.
- Discuss the study findings regarding access to effective teachers between low- and high-income students in this study, in general.
- Describe the inequitable access to effective teachers that researchers found in a small number of study districts (mainly larger districts in the southern U.S.). Discuss the extent to which this is true of your own school district.
- Discuss the finding that both high- and low-incomes students are taught by a mix of more and less effective teachers. Discuss the extent to which this is true of your own school district.
- Explain how teacher hiring, transfer, and attribution relate to low-income students’ access to effective teachers.
Videos
11.1 YouTube: What’s More Important: Class Size or Teacher Quality?
American Institutes for Research (2014, February 20). 1 min., 22 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1-mX_EcWmk
Many people commonly assume that smaller classes lead to more individualized instruction and therefore, better outcomes for students. Michael Hansen senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research argues that is not always true. In fact, research suggests that working with highly effective teachers can be more important for student learning and achievement than smaller class sizes, generally speaking.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain why studies suggest that the biggest benefit from small classes is in kindergarten, and first- through – third grades.
- Discuss why students’ learning benefits more from having a highly effective teacher as compared with having an “average” teacher.
- Discuss what schools and districts can do to give more students access to highly effective teachers – and the impact on school funding.
11.2 YouTube: Eric Hanushek – Teacher Effectiveness
The Brainwaves Video Anthology (2016, March 12), 4 min., 46 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuv8RkQxgZc
Eric Hanushek, economist of education at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, recounts how he came to study the Coleman Report and teacher effectiveness. He believes that teachers are the most important part of the school, and we should recognize this when we make policies about education.
After watching this video, consider:
- Discuss why the issue of “teacher effectiveness” might be controversial.
- Discuss how ineffective teachers can harm students (and our national wellbeing) in the short- and long-terms.
- Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree (and why) with Hanushek’s claim that we do not really know the characteristics that make teachers effective.
- Discuss how hiring, developing, and rewarding the really effective teachers would impact student achievement and school funding.
11.3 YouTube: Webinar: How Investing in Teacher and Leader Professional Development
Can Support Student Success. Learning Policy Institute (2017, August 28), 58 min., 57 sec. [The first 15 min., 45 sec. focuses on the information on teacher and principal professional development. After this, the panel of practitioners (superintendent, teacher, and principal) discuss the issue].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wWdMLlvs4g
Does investing in teacher and leader professional development make a difference? And if so, what separates effective professional development from ineffective offerings? Research has affirmed that classroom instruction and effective school leadership are the top two in-school factors in raising student achievement. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires evidence-based professional development. This comes among competition for limited funds.
After watching this video, consider:
- Identify and summarize the seven core elements of teacher professional development that positively impacts student learning. Discuss the extent to which you own professional development uses this paradigm.
- Identify the school-level and system-level challenges that make it difficult to provide this high-quality professional development.
- Explain why principal learning (professional development) is a cost-effective investment in teacher quality and student learning.
- Identify and summarize the recent research findings on school leaders’ professional development that positively impacts student learning.
- Discuss what you find to be the most meaningful information or insights you gained from the panel discussion.
- Discuss the impact of implementing these professional education development practices that increase student learning and achievement on school funding.
11.4 YouTube: One Question: Does Class-Size Reduction Improve Student Achievement?
New York University (2017, September 26). 1 min., 30 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eJQwXMihv8
In a brief video, a New York University assistant professor in economics summarizes the research on class size and student achievement and finds that smaller classes are not a cure-all, in most cases. Research on outcomes of smaller classes is mixed. Without effective teachers leading small classes, the costs of hiring inexperienced or ineffective teachers do not justify the meager academic outcomes.
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain why the California experience with smaller classes wiped out the positive effects of smaller classes.
- Discuss the student populations or situations in which smaller class sizes linked with effective teachers could lead to short- and long-term benefits for students.
11.5 YouTube: Research Shows Class Size Matters
Enrique Baloyra (2016, July 4). 2 min., 12 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I43hLrEaWXY
Common sense tells you that smaller class sizes means more individualized attention and less classroom management issues, resulting in improved student achievement. Ask any parent. Substantial research affirms the short- and long-term benefits of smaller classes, “all other things being equal,” especially for low-income and minority students.
After watching the video, consider:
- Discuss what does “all else being equal” in the context of class size research means.
- Discuss how this qualification places limitations on the outcomes from smaller class sizes.
- In an era of tight school district budgets and the desire to get “the biggest academic bang for the buck,” for which students would you recommend small class size and what qualifications would you place on their classroom teachers.
11.6 YouTube: School Building Conditions Deeply Affect Student Learning AFTHQ (2006, December 4). 5 min., 9 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e2bWHkMNi8
Pest infestation, mold, extreme heat or cold in classrooms, peeling paint or broken flooring, unhealthy air quality are conditions found in many American public schools. The American Federation of Teachers produced this brief video in 2006 but it remains relevant today. The quality of school building facilities strongly impacts student learning.
After watching the video, consider:
- Describe the relationship between children’s school achievement and the school buildings – the physical environment – in which they are learning.
- Summarize the research on poor school facility conditions and student health and academic achievement.
- Describe the facility conditions in your own school and how they impact teacher and student health and learning.
- Discuss the impact of maintaining good school conditions school-wide and in every classroom and school funding.
11.7 YouTube: Education Facilities Clearinghouse: What We Can Do For Your School! Ask Efc (2015, May 29), 3 min., 47 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ8NCyRj5Cw
Having a well-maintained school building is critical to student success. Yet many U.S. schools re over 40 years old and are in “fair “to “poor” condition. Managing infrastructure is a constant challenge. And no-cost help is available for diagnosing concerns and identifying solutions.
After watching this video, consider:
- Describe some of the facilities’ maintenance conditions in your own school or district.
- Describe what your district or school is doing to address these maintenance issues.
- Interview your district’s superintendent or director of facilities maintenance to identify the district’s priorities for remediation or improvement.
Chapter 12
Readings
12.1 Corcoran, S. P., Allegretto, S., & Mishel, L. (2011, March 30). The teaching penalty. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Retrieved from https://www.epi.org/files/page/-/old/issuebriefs/IssueBrief298.pdf or https://www.epi.org/publication/the_teaching_penalty_an_update_through_2010/
Teachers are at a compensation disadvantage in the labor market. A large body of research shows that public school teachers and other government workers have total compensation that is lower – or at least no higher – than that of comparable private sector works. And the “teacher penalty” has grown over the years, with their pay declining relative to their comparable private-sector peers.
After reading the report, consider:
- Discuss the trends in teacher salary over the past decades relative to other college-educated professionals working in the private sphere.
- Describe how teachers’ non-wage benefits have fared over time and how this impacts the pay disparity with other college-educated professionals.
- Using Table 2, describe the public school teacher and college graduate salary disparity for your own state and two neighboring states.
2.2 The Pew Charitable Trusts (2018, April). The state pension funding gap: 2016. Washington, DC: Author.
Retrieved from http://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2018/04/state_pensions_funding_gap_2016_final.pdf
Many state retirement systems are on an unsustainable course, coming up short on their investment targets and having failed to set aside enough money to fund the pension promises made to public employees. Without new policies that commit states to fully funding retirement systems, the impact on other essential services—and the potential for unpaid pension promises—will increase. This brief outlines the primary factors that caused the widening divide in most states between assets and liabilities and identifies tools that can help legislators strengthen policies and better manage risk for their state’s retirement plans.
After reading this report, consider:
- Identify three state policy choices that caused the trillions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities.
- Using Figure 1 (page 3), identify where your state stands in its funded ratio of your state pension plan (2016). Identify where this is relative to the national U.S. average.
- Discuss the state policies that would reduce their unfunded pension liabilities.
12.3 Doherty, K. M., Jacobs, S. & Lueken, M. F. (2017, February) Lifting the pension fog.
What teacher and taxpayers need to know. Washington, DC: National Council on Teacher Quality and Education Council.
Retrieved from https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Lifting_the_Pension_Fog
“The pension fog — a mix of optimistic projections, willful ignorance, and deferral of consequences — hangs heavily over the policy landscape. In 2016, teacher pension debt nationwide stands at $516 billion dollars. While this is a crisis situation by any definition, little has changed on the teacher pension policy landscape over the last decade.” In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality partnered with EducationCounsel, an education consulting firm, to present a comprehensive analysis on the health of teacher pension systems in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on the basis of four goals for pension health: pension flexibility, sustainability, neutrality, and transparency. The “magical thinking” must end.
After reading the report, consider:
- Figure A (page i), only 16 states publicly disclose detailed information about pension debt, and only three states provide teachers with detailed information on retirement benefits. Discuss reasons why you think states resist transparency on these critical issues.
- Discuss the key findings that only 11 states nationwide meet any of the four goals for teacher pension health, and no state meets them all, and in 38 states, most of employer contributions (69%) to teacher pensions go towards funding the debt service on the system’s unfunded liabilities.
- Explain how the defined benefit plans for teacher pensions is contributing to this unsustainable situation.
- Discuss the pension policy recommendations and identify which suggestions you personally support or disagree with.
- Using the figures in this report, gather the data on where your state stands in regard to pension sustainability, pension flexibility, pension neutrality, and pension transparency.
- Explain why the traditional teacher pension model of relatively low salaries (compared to other college-educated professionals working in the private sector) with defined benefit pensions no longer a workable plan.
- Discuss the recommendations that the report gives for lifting the “pension fog.”
- Identify the actions that you as an educator and taxpayer can have on the teacher pension decisions in your state.
12.4 Aldeman, C. (2017, January 11). What are the options for states dealing with unfunded pension liabilities? Education Next.
Retrieved from https://educationnext.org/what-are-the-options-for-states-dealing-with-unfunded-pension-liabilities/
Annually, states are contributing roughly $37 billion a year just to pay off teacher pension debts, and those pension debts can’t just be wished away. What are the choices states face in dealing with those large pension debts? Chad Aldeman, teacher pension expert, sees at least six options.
After reading this article, consider:
- Discuss the pro’s and con’s of each alternative solution suggested.
- Identify several of the broader structural changes to teacher pensions that must accompany these alternatives if solutions are to be sustainable.
- Explain how states are using a new generation of teachers to pay off their past debts rather than structurally reform their pension systems.
- Discuss Aldeman’s ideal solution and the likelihood that states will adopt it.
12.5 U.S. Department of Education. (2016, September). Nationwide assessment of charter and education management organizations. Final audit report. (ED-OIG/A02M0012).
Washington, DC: Author.
Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2016/a02m0012.pdf
Educational entrepreneurs or scam artists? Charter management organizations are making money off taxpayers’ dollars, sometimes resulting from mismanagement and fraud. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) offices in Washington, DC determined that 22 of the 33 charter schools in their six-state review (California, New York, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas) posed significant risk to the Department program objectives. These included: financial risk from waste, fraud, and abuse; lack of accountability over federal funds; and performance risk. These deficiencies were especially true for charter schools affiliated with certain educational management organization. Plus, the U.S. Department of Education did not implement adequate monitoring procedures to identify and mitigate the risks.
After reading this report, consider:
- Describe charter management organizations (CMOs) and explain their governance and funding.
- Give examples of the significant risks in financial practices, lack of accountability over federal funds, and program performance risk that suggested fiscal misuse or malfeasance by CMOs.
- Discuss possible remedies to identify and remedy such significant risks to taxpayer dollars by CMOs.
12.6 Harris, D. N. & Larsen, M.F. (2018, July 15). What effect did the New Orleans school >reforms have on student achievement, high school graduation, and college outcomes?
New Orleans, LA: Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.
After Hurricane Katrina (2005), the state of Louisiana took over almost all of the New Orleans public schools from the local school district and turned them over to non-profit organizations. Students and families could choose to attend any school in New Orleans. Strong academic results for disadvantaged students ensued. But report authors warn that these results were a “one-off” not likely to arise in other school districts. Investigators present an interesting case study that may not be generalizable to other locales.
After reading the report, consider:
- Summarize some of the positive outcomes of the New Orleans education reform move to an all-charter public school district.
- Describe how the education reforms affected the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in New Orleans.
- Identify factors other than the move to charter schools in New Orleans that might help explain the positive student outcomes.
- Discuss the role of state government in authorizing charters schools, setting performance standards, oversight, and accountability in the New Orleans’ charter school successes.
12.7 Leonhardt, D. (2018, July 22). A plea for a fact-based debate about charter schools.Opinion. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/opinion/education-reform-charter-schools-new-orleans.html
New York Times columnist David Leonhardt looks at some of the shortcomings of the New Orleans charter experiment. He writes that we need to think about school choice as a vehicle of education reform “in a more nuanced, less absolutist way.” Charter schools are not a “magic bullet.” What should we expect and what should we look for to decide how to best educate our children?
After reading the article, consider:
- Describe what Leonhardt sees as the two high-profile camps on education reform. Discuss how each side distorts the facts about charters.
- If these camps represent two ends of a continuum, where would you place yourself (and explain why).
- Summarize what Leonhardt describes as the reality of today’s charter schools – strengths and weaknesses.
- Discuss how education advocates can center their arguments around facts rather than on fixed beliefs.
12.8 Miller, R. & Roza, M. (2012, July). The sheepskin effect and student achievement.
Washington, DC: Center for American Progress,
Retrieved from https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2012/07/pdf/miller_masters.pdf
“Most of the nation’s school districts remain shackled to the traditional, simplistic salary schedule in which just two measures matter: years on the job and advanced degree attainment. “Although teachers with master’s degrees generally earn additional salary or stipends—the so-called “master’s bump”—they are no more effective, on average, than their counterparts without master’s degrees.” Is it time to end this outdated tradition?
After reading the article, consider:
- Describe the research findings on the relationships between teachers’ years of classroom experience, teachers’ advanced degrees (masters and doctorate), and student achievement.
- Explain why the masters’ bump might be a lost opportunity for more meaningful compensation reform. Identify what it means financially for your state (Table 1, pages 4-5 and Table 2, pages 6 -7.
- Explain how state-level policies impact the masters bump. Using Table 3 (page 8), identify how your state policies stand on this issue.
- Summarize the article’s policy recommends. Discuss which recommendations you strongly support or strongly disagree and explain why.
12.9 Natale, C.F., Gaddis, L., Bassett, K., & McKnight, K. (2016, January). Teacher career advancement initiatives: Lessons learned from eight case studies. A report prepared for the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and Pearson.
Arlington, VA: NNSTOY and Pearson.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED581291.pdf
How can the teaching profession evolve to meet 21st century career expectations for a new generation of teachers and learners? Sustainable teacher career pathways can positively impact teacher recruitment, retention, job satisfaction, and student achievement. This 2016 review of eight successful established career advancement initiatives identifies factors that make it so.
After reading the report, consider:
- Discuss the rationale for initiating sustainable and successful teacher career advancement initiatives.
- Discuss the six design features that are essential for teacher career advancement initiatives.
- Identify and discuss the features of a successful and sustainable teacher career pathways that would be most challenging for your school district to implement. Explain why this would be most challenging and explain what might be done to overcome these obstacles.
- Discuss the eight teacher career initiatives described in this report, identify the ones you think you would most like to participate in, and explain why.
- Discuss which teacher career initiative would best fit with your current school district and explain why.
- Discuss the enabling conditions that allow a school district to successfully initiate and sustain teacher career pathways. Identify which of these conditions are currently available in your own school district.
- Discuss the costs – fiscal and otherwise – of initiating a successful teacher career initiative.
Videos
12.1 YouTube: How State Budgets are Breaking US Schools/Bill Gates
TED (2011, March 4). 10 min., 46 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiUKpX09zo4
Investing in the young is one of the things that make America great. But events of the past decades are bringing this value into question. America has 50 state school systems (plus D.C.). States pay approximately half the cost of educating its children. At the same time, state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and weighted with increasing deficits. Financing public education is at the losing end. Although produced in 2010 in California, the situation today has only worsened in virtually every state.
After watching this video, consider:
- Identify several factors that have allowed the mis-accounting (i.e., deficits) in state budgets between expenditures and revenues.
- Research and find the unfunded teacher health care liability in your state.
- Explain the options that states have to address their teacher health care costs.
- Discuss the implications of this unfunded liability on education in the present and future.
- Identify and discuss several suggestions that might improve this fiscal picture.
12.2 YouTube: The Real Reason American Health Care is So Expensive Vox (2017, November 30). 5 min., 41 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNla9nyRMmQ
Why is the free market so bad at controlling the cost of health care in the United States? Americans don’t go to the doctors more than their German or Japanese counterparts; Americans just pay more. The private health care spending in America – not the public spending on Medicare, Medicaid, or the Veterans Affairs – that makes health care so expensive. Ezra Klein of Vox looks at the data and explains. Is “single payer” the answer?
After watching the video, consider:
- Explain why private insurance costs its users significantly more to for doctors, hospitals, and medications than public health insurance, such as Medicaid.
- Explain how other countries (the “European model”) control their health care costs.
- Explain why the view that Americans are ineffective health care “consumers.”
- Discuss what Klein sees as the “irony of America health care: It is so expensive that it is hard to make it cheaper.”
12.3 YouTube: At Issue: Public Pension Debt Crisis KPIX CBS SF Bay Area (2017, September 24). 7 min., 26 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHp80H4Tko
Approximately one-third of local and state budgets go to pay for public pensions, and cities and counties are going broke trying to keep up with pension debt. This report from a Stanford University workshop tells how California is typical of how states are overpromising their public service employees and placing the entire pension system at risk. Who is going to pick up theses unfunded pension liabilities?
After watching the video, consider:
- Discuss the factors that have contributed to the public pension shortfall.
- Explain why public pension reform is a “bitter pill to swallow.”
- Identify the major players in pension reform, and discuss the obstacles each will have to overcome in order to solve this problem.
- Explain how private and public sector rules about pensions differ.
12.4 YouTube: The Ticking Pension Bomb
Manhattan Institute (2018, October 21)., 6 min., 31 sec.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFH-h8RlwYk
America’s underfunded government pensions systems are consuming increasingly larger shares of state and city tax revenues, squeezing budgets, and limiting vital services. At the end of fiscal 2017, state government pensions nationwide were only 70 percent funded, down from 87 percent in 2007. Although most media coverage of the pension crisis focuses on states in the worst condition: California, Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey, the majority of pension funds are heading in the wrong direction. Without reform, the gap between what governments owe retirees and the money that public-pension funds have on hand could grow so large that the whole system could face collapse.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain how this situation has gone on so long without folks paying attention.
- Explain the legislative incentives to “short” the pension funds.
- Describe the conditions that allow pension funds to cut retirement benefits (despite what’s in the contract and traditionally strong legal protections).
- Summarize what some politicians are doing to make the situation worse.
- Identify several possible solutions to this problem.
12.5 YouTube: Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value added Measures.flv
auntyBROAD (2010, August 19). 3 min., 43 sed.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuB_3au6q5M
This brief witty video explains how giving teachers merit pay based on student performance is flawed. Understand the metrics underlying the weaknesses in value-added measures of teacher effectiveness.
After watching this video consider:
- Identify and discuss the six reasons why giving merit pay based on student achievement using value added measures is unfair.
- Discuss your agreement or disagreement with the statement: Merit pay cannot work until there is a way to measure teacher performance that is fair.
12.6 YouTube: Creating Sustainable Teacher Career Trajectories: A 21st Century Imperative
The Education Gadfly (2013, December 12). 1 hour, 25 min., 9 sec.
{Note: viewers can stop at 24 min. 49 seconds which relate to considerations below 1 – 5
or continue through the discussion section. Considerations 6 – 11 respond to the rest of
the video}
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK0uUzs5vSM
[Note: This video accompanies the report: Natale, C., Gaddis, L., Bassett, K., & McKnight, K. (2013). Creating sustainable teacher career pathways: A 21st century imperative. Arlington, VA: A joint publication of Pearson & National Network of State Teachers of the Year. Retrieved from https://www.nnstoy.org/download/career_pathways/Final%20updated%20Research%20Report.pdf]
“Teaching is not rocket science; it is much more complex.” The greatest challenge to staffing the nation's classrooms with the most motivated, highly qualified teachers is making teaching an attractive profession with career opportunities for those who seek those challenges. In this report, NNSTOY (National Network of State Teachers of the Year) and Pearson offer a new vision of teacher career pathways for the 21st century that holds promise for recruiting and retaining excellent teachers who further student learning. Education researchers and practitioners Rick Hess, Kathy McKnight, Katie Natali, Lynn Gaddis, Kimberly Worthy, and Jason Kamras discuss the conditions necessary to develop sustainable teacher career pathways or continuums in order to make teaching a more attractive career option for a new generation of teachers.
After watching this video, consider:
- Explain the varied rationales for the current intensive look at teacher career pathways/ continuums of practice.
- Discuss how the research on human motivation has influenced the career pathways/ continuums of practice efforts.
- Discuss what the education profession can learn from other professions about employee expectations, human capital development, and talent management, especially with knowledge workers.
- Respond to Lynn Gaddis’ dilemma and her choice about her career’s next steps.
- Discuss what you think it would take to put a sustainable systems of teacher career continuums models in place.
- Discuss the points about teachers as leaders that Rick Hess makes that you agree with – or disagree with – most strongly.
- Discuss the following statement: “Teacher need to take ownership of the changes they want to see” and the obstacles (and solutions) to having this happen.
- Argue the merits and disadvantages of paying teachers for performance (merit pay) as compared to paying teachers for the role and responsibility they take on in the organization (differentiated pay).
- Discuss the role of trust (or its absence) in the relationship between teacher preparation programs and policy makers that would help future teachers become empowered professionals.
- Discuss ways to recruit underrepresented populations – African Americans and Latinos – into the teacher profession.
- Identify one key takeaway you have from listening to this discussion.