'The Dumbest Thing' in Education Thinking

It's a little hard to make sense of what happened this week in the world of education, but, let's give it a fast try:

*President Obama gave a speech
to the Urban League convention in which he joked about the Jersey
Shore's Snooki and also said the following: "Now, over the past 18
months ... I think the single most important thing we've done is to
launch an initiative called Race to the Top."

Yes, that's what he said: His terribly misguided $4.35 billion
competitive grant program is, apparently, more important than health
care reform, the economic recovery program, improving the student loan
program, increasing Pell Grant payouts, and, well, anything else he has
accomplished since becoming president.

Does he read this stuff carefully before he says it?

*The administration did its best to mute the power of a scathing critique of Obama's education policies issued by a coalition of civil rights organizations, who also offered presciptive ways out of the mess.

According to several sources involved in the drama, the "Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn"
was actually ready to be released about a month ago, but the
administration has been holding meetings with civil rights leaders in an
effort to ease the criticism.

A decision was made to finally release it on Monday, the same week as
the Urban League convention, and a press conference was scheduled for
leaders of the groups to discuss it publicly. The groups were: Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Schott
Foundation for Public Education, National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, National Coalition for Educating Black
Children, National Urban League, and the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, Inc.

But pressure from the administration -- including, apparently, a
threat that Obama would not speak, as scheduled, to the convention --
prompted the cancellation of the press conference and a hastily
scheduled meeting between the civil rights leaders and Education
Secretary Arne Duncan on Monday.

That became news in our education world, along with a few statements
released by some of the civil rights groups that talked about working
cooperatively with Duncan.

What was missed in the coverage is that none of the civil rights
leaders walked away from the powerful framework, except, that is, Rev.
Al Sharpton, who was expected to sign onto the framework, but then
didn't at the last minute. He did sign onto a statement released on
Tuesday that talked about "broad areas of agreement" between the
administration and the civil rights leaders (which I confess escape me).
This is, just to be clear, the same Rev. Al Sharpton who traveled the
country last year with Duncan and Newt Gingrich as a friendly team to
talk about education reform.

*Duncan announced in his own major speech at the Urban League
convention, on Wednesday, that he had heard the civil rights leaders and
was creating a commission to look into the issue of equity of resources
in public schools. The critics got a commission.

*Communities for Excellent Public Schools, a new coalition of a few dozen community groups, released its own report, "Our Communities Left Behind: An Analysis of the Administration's School Turnaround Policies,"
criticizing the administration's restrictive turnaround strategies for
failing schools under the federal School Improvement Grants program.

It said they were educationally and structurally "flawed" and it
offered a different way of helping troubled schools that involves
including community members and taking health, demographics and other
issues into account.

What a concept.

A theme for real education reform ran through both reports -- that
fixing schools also requires dealing with health and social and other
issues -- rather than standardized test scores which permeate key
education policies of Obama and Duncan.

Hmm. This was supposed to be a quick news review. Sorry, but stay with me. Here's what I really want you to read.

The following story is part of the community group's report. It is a
case study of a school that was forced to undergo restructuring under
the administration's education rules, with their emphasis on
standardized test scores to determine teacher and school progress. It
reveals, think, how misguided Obama's school transformation policy,

CASE STUDY: BROOKLYN CENTER HIGH SCHOOL -Brooklyn Center, Minnesota

In June, 2010, Bryan Bass, the principal of Brooklyn Center High School in suburban Minneapolis, was fired.

Brooklyn Center is one of 34 schools on Minnesota's list of
"persistently lowest achieving" schools. The state education
commissioner says that the federal School Improvement Grants (SIG)
program will give the state the opportunity to "really dig deep and try
to solve the educational issues" in their failing schools.

For Brooklyn Center, like all schools targeted under the SIG program,
receiving federal funding for reform efforts required firing the
current principal.

Brooklyn Center High School enrolls about 800 students,
three-quarters of whom are low-income and children of color. Roughly 14%
of the students have learning disabilities, and about 20% are English
Language Learners. The school offers a strong arts magnet program, and
an International Baccalaureate program, making it a popular
open-enrollment school. Though 82% of students who enroll, graduate, the
school has some of the lowest assessment scores in the state.

Bryan Bass has been principal at Brooklyn Center for four years.
Under his leadership, the number of suspensions each month fell from 45
to about 10. The number of graduates who went on to college doubled from
35% to 70%. Student mobility dropped from 33% to 26%.

Bass and Superintendent Keith Lester also worked tirelessly on
meeting another need of the school community. One wing of the school was
recently turned into a one-stop medical and social service center. The
center is equipped to care for any student or school-age resident in the
area.

With or without health insurance, students have access to dental,
vision, mental health and medical services right in the building. The
need for wrap-around supports for students immediately became apparent:
In the first year, 70% of students who were tested were found to have
untreated vision problems. By building a network of existing providers
and agencies, identified needs were met. Children who needed glasses
were given them. The clinic offers a therapist to help students work
through emotional issues.

A social service agency has an office in the clinic that helps students' families find health insurance.

"Overnight - overnight, it absolutely decreased the amount of
behavioral issues," principal Bass told a local reporter about the new
school-based center. "By eliminating barriers, you start to really
understand what's in the way of students getting to learn."

The future of Brooklyn Center High School's health and social
services center is not guaranteed under the federal grant program. One
thing was guaranteed, though. The school's energetic principal had to
go, as a condition for participation in the SIG program.

Superintendent Lester is frustrated with the rigidity of the federal
grants program: "I think that's the dumbest thing I've seen coming out
of education in my years in education," he said.