Preschool pays off

New ammo for advocates of universal preschool. New RAND research says California will gain $2 to $4 for every dollar invested. The study estimates that the cost of a high quality universal preschool program would be more than offset by benefits such as a drop in the amount of special education provided, less grade repetition among K-12 students, less youth and adult crime, and a more productive state workforce.

KIPP, parents and performance

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post has an interesting piece on a new evaluation of the KIPP charter schools. Some suggest that KIPP students are atypical because their parents are more motivated, which explains the students' success. Here's what Mathews says:

"Some critics (although not Rothstein) have suggested that KIPP's scores have increased so much because they recruit students with the most motivated parents. This seems wrong to me. Those students had those same great parents when they were getting much lower scores back at their regular schools. Their progress would almost certainly deteriorate if all the KIPP schools closed tomorrow and they had to return to low standards and disorganized teaching at their neighborhood schools, no matter how conscientious their parents were.

"KIPP, I think, makes parents better by giving them something to do, and yet does not put so heavy a burden on them that they might collapse under the strain. In the KIPP system, students who do not complete their homework in time for class the next day are in as big trouble as I would be if I did not send my stories to my editors before The Post was distributed the next morning. The parents don't have to correct or explain the homework. If students have questions, they are told to call their teachers, whose cell phone numbers they have. All the parents have to do is make sure their child had completed the homework, and sign the paper to demonstrate that they have looked at it. If they don't do that, their child is disciplined -- usually made to sit in a corner of the classroom -- and the parents are asked to come to school to discuss it. Their only other important duty is to get their child to school each day, which in most big cities can be done by making sure they catch the right bus. "

Inside 4th grade

The Washington Post continues its interesting series on learning, grade by grade. You can also catch up on previous articles covering kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Data galore from Standard & Poor's

Incredibly powerful new data tool from Standard & Poor's unveiled today, allowing parents, educators and taxpayers to compare their school district and local schools on many, many indicators. In 10 minutes, for instance, here's what I found out about my home district, Arlington, VA. 16 other districts in the state serving similar percentages of low-income students consistently outperform us. We're slightly below the state average in reading proficiency, slightly above in math--with not much change in the past few years.

We serve much higher percentages of ELL students, slightly more disabled and poor students than the state average. We greatly outspend the state average per student and have a significantly higher percentage of adults with college degrees. We have a lower percentage of highly qualified teachers,lower class sizes, a higher percentage of instructional and administrative staff, lower percentages of support staff, and we're much wealthier than the state average. On any of these indicators, I can compare Arlington not just to the state but to four other districts--neighbors, districts with similar demographics or spending levels, and so on.

Best yet, a Better Performers section let's me see how Arlington stacks up to other school districts in reading, math and graduation rates. For instance, over the past three years, in grade 5 reading proficiency, 25 districts have done better than us ....4 better than us if you look only at low-income students .... none better than us in educating 5th grade ELL students .... but 24 better than us in educating low-income 5th-graders.

And finally, and likely to be the most controversial, I can see how Arlington compares on the Return on Spending Index (the average reading and math proficiency for every $1,000 spent) and the Performance Cost Index (what it costs for every point of reading and math proficiency attained, adjusted for districts with a high cost of living and disproportionate percentages of high needs students). Arlington doesn't fare too well on these indices.

There's lots more, but you get the idea. Think of this Web site as a powerful question generator, giving parent leaders the knowledge to ask: where are we doing well compared to others, where are we behind, who's consistently doing well, if they can do it, why can't we? Parent leaders in every community in the country owe a big thank you to S&P and the Broad and Gates Foundations, which funded this resource.

Black parents tackle the gap

Good story in Boston Globe, profiling efforts in New York City and elsewhere to boost involvement of inner-city African-American parents. From Virginia Walden Ford, an African-American educator in Washington who initially placed the responsibility for educating her children on the schools. ''I do believe middle-class and affluent black parents are seeing we have to do more and more. ...I started seeing in my children things education was not giving them, and it became very clear in watching them that I needed to intervene....I started watching my white friends and asking them for advice: 'How do you get into that community organization and that program?' They were like bulldogs when they wanted something for their children."

Achievement Alliance newsletter

New online newsletter from coalition that includes Ed Trust, BRT, Just for the Kids and National Council of La Raza. Features include Mythbusters (defending NCLB), It's Being Done (profiles of schools that are having solid academic success with minority and low-income students) and Why Schools Don't Work for All Kids (flipside of the good-news It's Being Done section).

Assessing NCLB

Some nuggets from this week's big report on NCLB from Center on Education Policy.

Overall: Student achievement is up in nearly three-fourths of states and school districts surveyed. Virtually all districts are now using test data to help improve teaching and are aligning curiculum and instruction with standards and tests.

Choice: only 1% of eligible students are taking advantage of this option, with lack of space for transfers, concerns about transportation and leaving neighborhood schools the main barriers. 25% of states and districts say they're having a hard time getting timely information to parents. (Would be interesting to know what percentage of parents think they're getting such info. A Mass. survey cited in this report said 42% of parents there didn't even know they had a choice.)

Supplemental services: only 18% of eligible students are taking advantage, but only one in five states and districts say they're having a hard time getting info to parents, which seems to suggest that 72% of parents are knowingly turning down free tutoring for their children, which is hard to believe.

Lots more...228 pages worth. Unfortunately, nothing in here about the quality of reporting school results (generally lousy) or about NCLB's other parent involvement provisions, which are especially relevant to the 99% of families who are staying put.

Uncommon common sense

Good roundup from Ed Week on recent Coalition for Community Schools annual conference in Chicago. Community schools offer a slew of wrap-around services to students and families at the school site, from mental health to job training to parent workshops. Parents and community members typically have a huge role in governance and decision-making. “We want to make our schools centers of the community, community anchors, rather than an isolated island open five or six hours. We are really trying to redefine what school is,” said Chicago supt. Arne Duncan, a huge proponent. Great quote from C. Warren “Pete” Moses, the executive director of the Children’s Aid Society, a NY-based group and leader in the movement: “Everything we do is pretty commonsensical, with the exception that it is not very common.” At least not yet, though the number of schools are growing. More at the Coalition's web site, including a conference blog. (Full disclosure: Coalition is a longtime client of ours.)

Parent leadership in Philly

New Parent Leadership Academy to open in Philadelphia, with $750,000 grant from a local foundation. Ed Week brief here.

Parent policies, by state

The Education Commission of the States has compiled a helpful state-by-state summary of parent involvement policies. See what your state says that it and school districts are supposed to be doing. Walking the talk is another story.

6th grade warning signs

Only 1 in 10 sixth graders who failed English or math; who were flagged for bad behavior; or who attended school less than 80 percent of the time ended up graduating from high school on time, according to a new study of Philly students. Ten percent of the sixth graders graduated a year late. Most of the rest, the researchers said, never graduated at all. A good reminder, in the wake of all the recent attention to high school, that the entire educational pipeline matters.

Communication Breakdown...

Open to the Public, a report released by the Public Education Network yesterday, provides some interesting insights into how little parents and the public still know about key NCLB issues such as assessments, teacher quality, supplemental services, school performance and their rights to information. There's growing frustration among parents and members of the community who say they are actively excluded from the school improvement process. Schools say they need more parent involvement, but parents say they are being shut out. The PEN findings certainly track what we see around the country. Some happy exceptions that we're particularly familiar with, since they're clients: serious statewide effort in Maryland by Nancy Grasmick to strengthen parent involvement policies and put some teeth into them; and parent-friendly report cards in Kansas City, MO we've developed with Schoolwise Press with support from Kauffman Foundation. Seems like it's time for the Ed. Dept. to step up and insist on the kind of quality information and involvement opportunities that the law promised.

Wide variation in transfers, tutoring

Ed Week has a very useful state-by-state roundup of percentage of eligible students who are taking advantage of school transfers (only 1% nationally) and tutoring (11% nationally) under NCLB. Transfers: best are Alabama and Kansas, worst are Idaho, Nebraska, Maine and Texas (with zero transfers). Tutoring: best are Utah and Tennessee.

Community school, Comer schools

Two good articles in the March issue of Education Leadership magazine. One documents how parents, community members and educators collaborated to create a new community high school in Chicago...the other by James Comer describes his School Development Program, which for 40 years has been transforming what he calls "parent paralysis" into parent participation. Involvement is focused at 3 levels: parents providing general support (homework help, parent-teacher conferences, etc.); parents as school volunteers; and parents as decision-makers on school planning and management teams. Our Case for Parent Leadership (free) uses a similar framework to help describe and organize the work. Abstracts of the Ed Leadership articles here; you'll have to pay $3 for the complete articles.

How NOT to do parent involvement

Talk about dumb. Detroit Public Schools hires an ex-con with no PR experience, pays him over half a million dollars to distribute flyers, t-shirts, banners and the like to boost parent attendance at school meetings. Read about it here. Many parents say they never saw the stuff. Even if they had, we're skeptical that feel-good PR campaigns like this work very well anyway. Better bet: Make sure parents know exactly what their children are supposed to know at each grade, how that learning will be tested, how the parent can help at home, and what the parent should expect from teachers and the school system. In other words, treat parents more as partners with something to contribute.

And in Nebraska...

Governor Heineman and key state senator say expanded parent involvement is one of three priorities to strengthen high schools, along with more challenging academics and better coordination between high school graduation tests and college admissions tests. More here. Commitment made after major national summit on high schools sponsored by Achieve and National Governors Assn. Wash Post's Jay Mathews this week profiles an innovative approach by a DC-area principal to reach out to high school parents: home visits, a program that's gaining popularity in many districts, including Sacramento.

Maryland takes the lead

Under leadership of chief Nancy Grasmick, an advisory group of about 150 parents has proposed sweeping changes in policy and practice to strengthen parent involvement in the state's schools. Highlights: 2 parents on the state board, parent satisfaction built into teacher evaluations. This is the most ambitious statewide program in the country. As Grasmick says, "I think we've given a lot of lip service to parents. I honestly feel this is the first time we've had such a profound and substantive set of recommendations that would put parents in a very important position relative to their children's education." She's right.

County-by-county hearings this spring, with final report presented to state board of ed this summer. Read more in Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and Ed Week. Details, including recommendations and schedule of forums, here. (Full disclosure: we're serving as national consultant to this effort.)