Media Support Archive
June 17, 2013: Huffington Post
Another Casualty of Excessive Testing: Great Teachers
By Elaine Weiss
Signs that standardized tests are overused and misused continue to emerge. Those on the front lines of the testing battles, however, have had a hard time being heard. Teachers who object to being judged on the basis of their students' test scores are labeled as weak or unwilling to be held accountable. A pattern has emerged recently, however, that makes it harder to dismiss them. Across the country, strong teachers are sacrificing their jobs -- their life's work -- to protect themselves and their students from reforms gone terribly wrong.
June 4, 2013: Huffington Post
An Easy Reach Across the Aisle on Education
By Helen F. Ladd
The Obama administration deserves praise for its recent strong support for greater investments in early childhood education. With reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind in its current incarnation) stalled in Congress, and the many valid concerns about narrow test-based initiatives that do nothing to address the challenges of children from disadvantaged families, this new direction is a welcome change. In addition, it has the potential be a winner because it should gain the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
June 3, 2013: The Answer Sheet
How school reform preserves the ‘status quo’ — and what real change would look like
By Arthur H. Camins
The pillars of current education reform are more likely to preserve rather than change the status quo. Further, there are alternative policies that are more likely to mediate educational inequity, creating real rather than illusory movement. None of the pillars of reform will address either of these conditions at scale. ... they are still essentially maintaining the status quo, creating the illusion of movement, without fundamental change.
May 8, 2013: Greater Greater Washington
Test Score Data Has Appropriate Uses and Limitations
By Elaine Weiss
Steve Glazerman recently suggested in a blog on Greater Greater Washington that using NAEP to expose reformers' exaggerated claims, as BBA recently did, constitutes "misnaepery." Check out BBA explanation of NAEP's superiority (and other reasons that Glazerman is wrong).
April 22, 2013: Huffington Post
Can We Move Past Market-oriented "Reforms" to Policies That Actually Work?
By Elaine Weiss
It has been a decade since reformers promised a swift solution to America's most challenging education problems. Instead of results, we have gotten rhetoric, and our children have fallen further behind. It is time we adopt policy solutions that match the depth and complexity of the problems and address them head on.
April 15, 2013: Huffington Post
Missing the Point on Cheating -- The Incentives Problem is far Bigger
By Elaine Weiss
Recent coverage of the arrest of former Atlanta superintendent Beverly Hall misses a larger pattern. Cheating is just one of many responses to heightened pressure in recent years to deliver the impossible: substantially increased test scores, in short order. Yes, district-level cheating problems have risen in tandem with this pressure, but so have other forms of gaming the system, all of which pose similar detriments to students. A new report from the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education documents the widespread nature of this problem.
April 14, 2013: Washington Post Answer Sheet
Study: School reform in 3 major cities brings few benefits, some harm
By Valerie Strauss
Many people paying attention to corporate-based school reform in recent years will not be surprised by this, but a new study on the effects of this movement in Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago concludes that little has been accomplished and some harm has been done to students, especially the underprivileged.
April 10, 2013: Huffington Post
Another Casualty of Chicago School Closures
By Elaine Weiss
The Children's Literacy Initiative may make a real difference, especially if its enrichment can expand beyond the few CPS students whose teachers and classrooms currently receive its benefits. If schools just beginning to implement it are closed, however, CLI will have a hard time demonstrating its potential and expanding. Moreover, CLI and other promising initiatives cannot attain sustained district buy-in until "CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett gets past the current school closings issue and takes a closer look at curriculum and instruction."
March 28, 2013: Hufffington Post
Closing Schools Despite the Data
By Elaine Weiss and Kevin Kumashiro
Mayors and reformers would have us believe that school closures, like the 54 recently announced in Chicago, will save districts money while improving outcomes for students who are moved out of "failing" schools. The problem is, districts have been closing schools for many years -- in Chicago, for over a decade -- and it's clear that they won't accomplish these goals. In fact, the opposite has happened.
March 12, 2013: Washington Post Answer Sheet
The Sequester's Impact on Hunger and School Achievement
By Elaine Weiss
Two new documentaries coming out this month make chillingly clear the horrific impact the sequester will have on poor families, especially those with school children, who are already struggling to cope with the recession and the decades of wage stagnation and poverty that preceded it. Both films -- A Place at the Table and American Winter -- also make clear the direct, but perhaps not intuitive, connection between living in poverty and the odds of school, and thus life, success.
February 25, 2013: Huffington Post
Jennifer Howard's Review of "Radical" -- More Rave Than Review
By Elaine Weiss
The level of controversy Michelle Rhee has engendered as a school reformer contrasts sharply with largely unskeptical reviews of her new book, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. That holds true even in Washington, D.C.Indeed, Jennifer Howard's Washington Post review is technically neutral, but, in reality, credulous and fairly laudatory. Given Rhee's major impact not only on DCPS schools, but increasingly on schools and districts across the country, a more in-depth exploration is merited.
February 14, 2013: Huffington Post
Investment in the Middle Class: Obama's Biggest Boost to Education?
By Elaine Weiss
President Obama's first State of the Union address after his reelection established two important education policies as high priorities for his second term: incentives for high schools to incorporate real-world job training, and universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Both address critical holes in current education policy, and both would improve the prospects for low-income and all students. His broader jobs and labor proposals, however, may represent even more important boosts to improved educational outcomes.
February 6, 2013: Huffington Post
Afterschool and Summer Enrichment: Getting the Policy Attention They Richly Deserve
By Elaine Weiss
As Jim Kohlmoos of the National Association of State Boards of Education, noted at the release of Expanding Minds and Opportunities, the amount, longevity, and rigor of the data no longer permit doubt as the to the positive impact of high-quality afterschool and summer programs. The evidence from studies across a range of program models, participant ages, cities, and outcome goals is solid. And while it is clearer now than ever that such programs can narrow achievement gaps, particularly by improving academic achievement of high-needs students, their other benefits are even more significant and further-reaching.
February 1, 2013: The Nation, This Week in Poverty
Time to Take on Concentrated Poverty and Education
By Elaine Weiss and Greg Kaufmann
Nation poverty reporter Greg Kaufmann and BBA coordinator Elaine Weiss write, "Researchers know a lot about how various factors associated with income level affect a child’s learning... but we rarely discuss the impact of concentrated poverty—and of racial and socioeconomic segregation—on student achievement. ... It's time that we stop ignoring it."
January 23, 2013: Huffington Post
Turning Promising Signals into Better Policies in Obama's Second Term
By Elaine Weiss
The weeks leading up to President Obama's second inauguration brought some good, if tentative, news on the education policy front. Early childhood education has received serious attention and pledges of substantial new investment. Skepticism is rising regarding the number and inappropriate use of standardized tests, and courts in several states are trying to make education more equitable. At the same time, the narrow "reforms" that have been front and center through Obama's first term may be fading a bit.
January 16, 2013: Huffington Post
Where are our graduate schools of "educational public health"?
By Elaine Weiss and Eric Colburn
A lot of one's education -- arguably, most of it -- happens outside of school. Estimates suggest that 60 percent of educational achievement is driven by out-of-school factors, with in-school factors contributing only 20 percent, at most. Though teachers can't help but address this reality every day, most current policy discussion ignores it, to our collective detriment. This is parallel to discussions of health, where medicine gets much of the attention that public health deserves; we need to change both.
January 10, 2013: Washington Post Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss
A call to Obama to focus on early childhood education
By Elaine Weiss and Cassie Schwerner
Schott Foundation senior VP Cassie Schwerner and Elaine Weiss write:
Dear President Obama,
The next four years present a host of both opportunities and challenges. As you set priorities for that second term, we hope that you will devote real effort to a small but critically important policy issue that would address several of our most pressing problems: early childhood care and education.January 8, 2013: BBA
For our Babies – A Cultural Agenda
By Glen Harvey and Ron Lally
This blog, co-authored by Glen Harvey, CEO of WestEd and Ron Lally, Co-Director, WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies, is the third in a short series of pieces on early childhood education authored for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education. As our country looks toward Inauguration Day, it's worth noting that both Democratic and Republican national party platforms addressed early childhood education in the recent campaign. Why is that?
January 8, 2013: Huffington Post
A Broader Bolder Approach to the Common Core Engages the Whole Child and All Children
By Elaine Weiss, Howard Adelman, and Linda Taylor
This blog is co-authored by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor, co-directors of the national Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA.
As more states move to implement the Common Core State Standards, we should applaud the movement's potential benefits, but also recognize its limitations. Like many other school improvement plans, the Common Core largely ignores barriers to learning and teaching, thus impeding teachers' capacity to effectively engage all students.
December 20, 2012: The Nation
A Broader, Bolder Christmas: Top Ten “Gifts” for Under the (Education Policy) Tree
By Greg Kaufmann and Elaine Weiss
BBA and Nation poverty reporter Greg Kaufmann jointly offer ten wishes to improve low-income students' prospects for happy, healthy educations. They range from a roof over every student's head to well-resourced schools staffed with qualified teachers in appropriately-sized classrooms. Health clinics, enticing school breakfasts, enriching after-school activities, and high-quality early childhood care and education help round out the list, which calls, too, for societal-level supports so parents can provide their children with what they need to thrive.
December 18, 2012: Huffington Post
A Smart Investment: Skilled Early Childhood Workforce
By Elaine Weiss and Rob Grunewald
At a time of fiscal uncertainty and the need to reexamine our public investment priorities, investments by government and public-private partnerships in the early childhood education workforce are a smart choice.
This blog, co-authored by Rob Grunewald of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, is the second in a series that explains the benefits of a comprehensive approach to early childhood.
December 7, 2012: Book Review
Review of Paul Tough's, How Children Succeed
By Evelyn Frankford
In this note for BBA, Health policy consultant Evelyn Frankford reviews Paul Tough’s recent book, How Children Succeed, which has helped to elevate the importance of so-called “soft” or “non-cognitive” skills as critical to school and life success. While Frankford appreciates Tough’s acknowledgement of poverty’s role and importance, she worries that his emphasis on individual, rather than systemic, or societal drivers, may lead to limited policy solutions that fall short of the Broader Bolder Approach we need.
November 21, 2012: Huffington Post
Education Begins Before School
By Dana Friedman and Elaine Weiss
This blog is co-authored by Dana Friedman, founder and president of the Early Years Institute. The blog is the first in a series of BBA blogs on early childhood education that explain the benefits of a comprehensive approach to early childhood and highlight effective efforts in specific states.
November 18, 2012: Education Week Bridging Differences blog
Keeping Equity at the Center of Reform
By Pedro Noguera
We have got to make a commitment to equity in education a central component of whatever we they do. It is remarkable that despite all the rhetoric about education being the civil rights issue of the 21st century, our leaders make no mention of the need for equity in educational opportunities, or conversely, the need to address the profound inequity, that characterizes so much of American education today.
November 13, 2012: Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Legacies of the Civil Rights Era: Accountability and Attention to Poverty (John Spencer)
By Larry Cuban
As we reflect on the election, and both presidential candidates’ commitments to enact policies that would narrow stubborn achievement gaps, this blog by John Spencer makes clear why a Broader Bolder Approach, rather than narrow “reform” strategies, represent the philosophy of the civil rights movement.
October 15, 2012: Huffington Post
Grading Schools or Grading Ourselves?
By Elaine Weiss
We have been increasingly occupied in recent years with giving grades to schools and those who work in them ... A recent report, however, suggests that this is misguided. We ought to be grading ourselves as a nation and as a society. First Focus and Save the Children have done so, and found us severely lacking.
October 2, 2012: Huffington Post
The Toxic Toll of Child Poverty
By Elaine Weiss
In many large urban school districts, three in four students or more are poor. Cutting school nurses and social workers, substituting test-prep for afterschool enrichment, and making classes so large that teachers cannot have individual time with students, are the worst education policy choices we could make. If there was ever a moment in education policy that called for a Broader Bolder Approach to Education, hard science and social science have come together in agreement that it is now.
September 24, 2012: Huffington Post
Lessons from Arne Duncan's Back-to-School Bus Tour
By Martin Blank
As Secretary Arne Duncan travels the country on his Back-to-School bus tour, he has refocused his attention on the community schools strategy as a vehicle for implementing a Broader Bolder Approach to Education.
September 14, 2012:
Chicago Teachers Go to Bat - and Take a Hit -- for Their Students
By Elaine Weiss and Kevin Kumashiro
"At schools across the city, 29,000 Chicago teachers and education professionals are on strike -- demanding both a fair union contract and a radically different vision of school reform than that propagated by nearly the entire nation's political class." The mainstream media has largely missed the import of teachers' reasons for their brave action, say BBA national coordinator Elaine Weiss and UIC professor Kevin Kumashiro in Huff Post blog, Teachers Go to Bat - and Take a Hit - for Their Students.
August 30, 2012: HuffPost
Investing in Children's After-School Hours
By Jodi Grant and Elaine Weiss
For some reason, too many budget-writers seem to see afterschool and summer learning programs as add-ons, something that's nice to have when we can afford them, but not something we can pay for when times are tight. They're exactly wrong.
August 6, 2012: Huffington Post
Bumps in the Road? Or Signs of Derailment?
By Elaine Weiss & Noelle Ellerson
The recent "bumps" in Tennessee on the teacher evaluation components of Race to the Top (RttT) efforts can either simply bruise education reform efforts or they can serve to inform it. RttT implementation provides lessons about reliability, capacity, and time, among others, which leaders must learn from as more states and districts implement RttT or similar reform measures.
July 25, 2012: Washington Post
The Hard Bigotry of Poverty: Why Ignoring It Will Doom School Reform
By Brock Cohen
Teacher and student advocate in the LA Unified School district, Brock Cohen presents a compelling and insightful call to better acknowledge and address the role of poverty in student learning: "Claiming that poverty is no excuse for student failure trivializes the damage caused by years of actions and inactions that have widened the gaps between rich and poor communities. Good schools aren’t molded through harsh sanctions, private takeovers, or even soaring rhetoric. They emerge from healthy, stable communities. That is, they emerge from a commitment to justice."
July 11, 2012: Huffington Post
Budgets and Children: A Total Disconnect
By Elaine Weiss
Two reports - one by the American Association of School Superintendents (AASA) and the second by First Focus, the Brookings Institution, and the Urban Institute - reveal clear evidence of a need to invest more in children -- especially low-income and minority children and younger children -- and Congress' insistence on ignoring it.
June 27, 2012: Jackson Free Press
Students Deserve Better Than a Quick Fix
By Derrick Johnson
Rather than face NCLB punishments, the state of Mississippi has chosen to apply for waivers, which essentially leads to little to no change in educational policy. By continuing the state's focus exclusively on outcomes without addressing the problems and growing inequities of inputs, teacher effectiveness can only be harmed and reforms undermined. Instead, what is needed is "comprehensive, system-wide improvements".
June 25, 2012: Washington Post
Is teacher churn undermining real education reform in D.C.?
By Mark Simon
When good teachers are getting pushed out under the reforms designed to let go of ineffective teachers, one has to question the design. Under overly simplistic evaluation processes, some terrific teachers are being laid off, undermining reform and harming students even further.
June 15, 2012: Huffington Post
Addressing School Segregation All Year Round
By Richard D. Kahlenberg
Each year in May, educators celebrate the anniversary of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education and reflect on the current status of integration in schools, an important matter as research shows the negative impact of segregated schools on students. Socioeconomic integration serves as a tool for raising performance rates of low-income and minority students as research suggests that low-income students attending socioeconomically integrated schools perform better than low-income students attending high-poverty schools even when the latter receive more per-pupil school spending.
June 13, 2012: The Hechinger Report
Millions spent on improving teachers, but little done to make sure it’s working
By Beth Fertig and Sarah Garland
Millions are invested into professional development, yet we know very little about how reliable the benefits from on-the-job training for teachers truly are. With so many provider options, more research should be done on assessing the quality of these programs and their actual effects on student learning.
May 4, 2012: Huffington Post
Time to Make High Quality Early Education a Legal Right
By David Sciarra
States need to reconsider their reductions in early education funding, programs which have been proven effective in reducing the income-based achievement gap. Preschool ought to be universal.
April 25, 2012: Huffington Post
A New Take on 'No Excuses' -- Tackling Poverty to Provide Meaningful Opportunity
By John H. Jackson
So long as “no excuses” reformers stubbornly refuse to employ effective, evidence-based strategies to alleviate impediments posed by unequal out-of-school conditions such as access to health care, early learning and afterschool opportunities, the serious impediments posed by hunger, poor health, and lack of enrichment will continue to be excused, and income-based achievement gaps will inevitably persist.
April 20, 2012: The Century Foundation
The New Brookings Report on Economic Segregation
By Richard Kahlenberg
Where housing integration policies mix low-income and higher-income students in schools, thereby deconcentrating poverty, achievement gaps are lower.
April 10, 2012: Huffington Post
Back to the Basics, Indeed: A Brief Overview of Education Research
By Elaine Weiss
Elaine Weiss agrees with Pedro Noguera that more evidence and less rhetoric would better serve at-risk children’s interests and educational needs.
April 9, 2012: The Atlantic
Picking Up the Pieces of No Child Left Behind
By Randi Weingarten
Data shows NCLB has failed to bring equality in academic achievement. It has focused too much on testing and not enough of development and intervention for struggling students.
April 1, 2012: Huffington Post
The For Our Babies National Campaign Is Live
By J. Ronald Lally
The recently launched For Our Babies campaign advocates for essential resources for expectant mothers and infants in order to improve developmental, educational, and ultimately societal outcomes. Health care and support for pregnant mothers, paid parental leave, infant health screenings, and access to quality infant and toddler care are investments which can prove to be cost effective in the long term.
March 30, 2012: American Journalism Review
Flunking the Test
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post senior contributing writer Paul Farhi sets out how good a job American public schools are actually doing, contrasting that reality with the "failure" picture painted by the majority of journalists who lack on-the-ground understanding of what goes on in schools.
March 30, 2012: Commercial Appeal
Early childhood education is goal of Excel By 5
By Henry Bailey
Excel By 5 in Hernando, Mississippi is a preschool program which seeks to reduce academic disparities before kindergarten through a collaboration with local businesses, charities, libraries, and health centers. It provides resources for parents as well as children by community collaboration.
March 28, 2012: The Answer Sheet
Researchers blast Chicago teacher evaluation reform
By Valerie Strauss
The latest research on value-added assesment and evaluation based on test scores suggests Chicago should reconsider its current plan to jusge effectiveness from standardized tests.
March 26, 2012: NY Times
Judged a Failure by the Data, a School Succeeds Where It Counts
By Michael Powell
Considered a transfer school for students with little high school credit and poor achievement, Bushwick Community High School faces closure for low graduation rates despite praise by students. This is another case of the limitations of data.
March 23, 2012: Huffington Post
Education Is a 'Both-And' Issue
By Martin J. Blank
Despite Paul Peterson's attack on the Broader, Bolder Approach, the organization and its partners advocate for both effective teachers and out of school support for low-income children. These goals are achieveable through a community schools approach to education reform.
March 20, 2012: Huffington Post
Maybe it's Time to Ask the Teachers?
By Linda Darling-Hammond
A recent MetLife survey finds increasing job dissatisfaction for teachers as growing bureaucratic hurdles, layoffs and school cuts, and the challenges of overcoming child poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity stifle people's passion for education. There is a need to professionalize the occupation, grant teachers greater say in school improvement, and foster community partnerships that bring services to children and ensure school readiness.
March 17, 2012: Go Local Worcester
122 Children at Sullivan Middle School are Homeless
By Ashley Klann
As homelessness around the country including Worcester, MA increases, communities and public schools need to take action to provide resources to students struggling with the effects of displacement.
March 16, 2012: The Answer Sheet
A new poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-much argument
By Valeries Strauss
Valerie Strauss parries another attack against those groups trying to underline the impact of poverty on educational outcomes. Groups such as the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education believe that reforms to in-school structures are necessary to boost student achievement, but addressing the effects of poverty on student achievement is crucial and often ignored by education reformers.
March 9, 2012: Huffington Post
Superintendents, the Correct Answer Is "D -- All of the Above"
By Elaine Weiss
Education reform policies should not choose just one strategy to improve academic outcomes of low-income children such as improving teacher effectiveness, expanding early education opportunities, or creating new after-school and summer enrichment programs. Policymakers and communities should invest in all of the above initiatives.
March 6, 2012: Education Week
Growing Gaps Bring Focus on Poverty's Role in Schooling
By Lesli A. Maxwell
Income inequality affects the educational outcomes of young students from a variety of angles. Wealthier parents have more time and money to invest in their child's development out of school. Several groups have organized to redirect the focus of education reform policies towards poverty and out-of-school factors driving the achievement gap.
March 4, 2012: The Bellingham Herald
Richland schools, organizations fight effects of poverty on students
By Ty Beaver
An influx of low-income families in Richland public schools has led to an increase in the achievement gap but inspired community-wide efforts to bring resources to these children. These students, facing such challenges as homelessness and food insecurity, are disadvantaged academically before they even start class.
February 26, 2012: The Answer Sheet
School health clinics face obstacles — and how Arne Duncan could help
By Richard Rothstein
A child's health plays a crucial role in his or her readiness to learn. School-based health clinics can help address the poor health outcomes which afflict low-income students so as to improve their educational achievements. Yet, policy has not appropriated sufficient funding to bring health services to schools and available funding is often unaccessible.
February 25, 2012: NY Times
In Teacher Ratings, Good Test Scores Are Sometimes Not Good Enough
By Sharon Otterman and Robert Gebeloff
In New York City recently released teacher evaluations reveal how poorly test scores work to assess teacher effectiveness.
February 24, 2012: Huffintgon Post
Reinvigorating the American Dream: A Broader Bolder Approach to Tackling the Achievement Gap
By Peter Edelman
Widening ncome-based achievement gaps in the US cannot be addressed by reforming teacher accountability systems. But it's not too late; policymakers can improve educational outcomes by addressing out-of-school factors such as food insecurity, insufficient afterschool and sumer programming, and poor early educational opportunities.
February 23, 2012: The Quick & The Ed
Gates on Shaming NYC Teachers
By Elena Silva
Philanthropist Bill Gates sides against NYC's recent decision to make the names on value-added teacher evaluations public saying it will not improve student outcomes. Moreover, he believes evaluations require more than value-added measures to be accurate and useful.
February 16, 2012: Huffington Post
Thinking Outside the Box to Boost Teacher Effectiveness
By Martin J. Blank
Teacher bonus programs have fallen short in improving educational outcomes and NCLB testing has threatened both broader curricula and teacher effectiveness. Community schools can address the deficiencies in current education reforms, helping teachers improve student outcomes through comprehensive health, nutritional, and out of school programs.
February 10, 2012: The Daily Beast
Obama Grants Waivers to NCLB and Makes a Bad Situation Worse
By Diane Ravitch
The NCLB waiver policy adopted by the Obama adminstration is an inadequate response to the program's failures. What is needed instead is for Congress to reauthorize the law with an emphasis on supporting the most troubled public schools with adequate resources to guarantee all children an opportunity.
February 9, 2012: NY Times
Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say
By Sabrina Tavernise
While racial achievement gaps have narrowed over the years, class-based disparities have grown by 40% since the 1960s.
February 3, 2012: Education Week
Evaluate Teachers and Doctors the Same Way
By Walt Gardner
Just as a multitude of factors affect a patient's health beyond a doctor's control from living conditions to lifestyle choices, teacher's face the same issues regarding a child's educational outcomes. Teacher evaluations need to take into account the difficulties or advantages of educating children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, varying parental involvement, and disparate access to early education and out-of-school enrichment programs.
February 1, 2012: Living in Dialogue, Education Week
America, Stop Making Excuses for Inequality
By John Kuhn
Poverty is not an excuse for poor educational outcomes, it is a cause. Labeling poverty as such is excusing inequality. Current policies do little to nothing to address disparities in school funding and out-of-school resources.
February 1, 2012: Huffington Post
U.S. Schools Have a Poverty Crisis, Not an Education Crisis
By Michael Rebell and Jessica Wolf
Poverty is the primary issue facing education. Poor academic performance can be addressed by providing resources such as health services, early childhood education, out-of-school programing, and family engagement.
February 1, 2012: Huffington Post
The Problem With School Accountability Systems
By Tom Payzant
The dominant school accountability systems fail to improve student outcomes and endanger our education system by encouraging narrowing curriculum to tested materials, cheating, and the glossing over of other subjects important to a child's development. These assessments demand improvements without guiding or nurturing important synergy amongst those involved in a child's education from parent to superintendent.
January 30, 2012: Living in Dialogue, Education Week
John Kuhn on Education Funding in Texas: There is a Hole in the Bucket
By Anthony Cody
Unequal access to school funding draws another battle line in the fight over education reform as schools in low-income Texas neighborhoods receive less resources per student in their efforts to achieve the same goals as better-funded schools in wealtheir neighborhoods.
January 24, 2012: Huffington Post
Afterschool Programs in Peril
By Jodi Grant
Afterschool programs serve to complement a child's knowledge base beyond school subject matter as well as improve academic outcomes such as attendance, study habits, behavior, and grades. Such programs need to be expanded to the millions of children without any available afterschool initiatives.
January 5, 2012: Bangor Daily News
Maine companies create investment group to fund early childhood education efforts
By Seth Koenig
With research suggesting that 85% of a child's core mental development occurs before age three, even businesses see the benefits of investing in early childhood education.
January 5, 2012: Learning First Alliance
Moving Beyond Political Rhetoric in International Comparisons
By Anne O'Brien
Amongst all the rhetoric on maintaining international competetiveness few discussions go beyond improving accountability and school choice, ignoring the policies of top-performing countries which focus little or not at all on these issues.
December 18, 2011: Twin Cities Daily Planet
The three stages of education reform
By Michael Diedrich
In terms of education reform, most communities find themselves either ignoring the existence of achievement gaps or trying to topple the system with ineffective policies such as test-based accountability.
December 15, 2011: NY Times
Teachers union leads effort that aims to turn around West Virginia school system
By Lyndsey Layton
The McDowell Initiative in West Virginia promises to address a lack of resources and other out of school obstacles to educational success through community partnerships.
December 12, 2011: The Australian
Education reform 'simplistic'
By Justine Ferrari
Education reformers in Australia point to the same issues as back home; high-stakes accountability ignores the complexities underlying inequality.
December 12, 2011: Answer Sheet
A superintendent calls school reformers’ bluff
By John Kuhn
A Texas superintendent calls into question the motives of reforms advocating for high-stakes accountability rather than addressing the societal issue of poverty. Education reform should focus on social inequality and on developing a system which ensures equality for children.
December 11, 2011: NY Times
Class Matters. Why Won’t We Admit It?
By Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske
The correlation between poverty and poor educational outcomes is proven; yet policy ignores the issues to focus on in-school factors. It is time for policymakers to stop ignoring inequality by expanding early education, nutrition, and summer programs to low-income children.
December 9, 2011: Salon
What real education reform looks like
By David Sirota
The issue of education reform comes down to poverty and inadequate policies not unions.
December 7, 2011: Washington Post
D.C. schools have largest black-white achievement gap in federal study
By Lyndsey Layton
Across the country, the narrowing of achievement gaps that NCLB promised have failed to materialize, and with the laregst black-white achievement gap, Washington, DC is perhaps among the starkest examples of why treating poverty as an "excuse" is a mistake.
December 4, 2011: NY Times
Why School Choice Fails
By Natalie Hopkinson
A Washington D.C. mother and author describes how reform policies aimed at school choice such as closing struggling schools and offering vouchers and charter school options have crippled community-based education while providing more resources to schools in wealthier neighborhoods. Despite the evident failures of these polciies, they continue to grow in popularity with policymakers.
December 3, 2011: NY Times
The Economy Is Painful in Skokie, Even in High School
By James Warren
Conversations with students from Skokie, IL reveal how the struggle for educational success goes beyond school walls such as balancing helping support one's family and schoolwork, dealing the with issues of homelessness, learning English, and hunger.
December 3, 2011: NY Times
Plan to Close or Restructure 21 Chicago Schools Draws Quick Reaction
By Rebecca Vevea
Newly elected Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues the same policies of closing struggling schools and "turning around" others without discussion on poverty and other factors which need to be addressed
December 2, 2011: Huffington Post
Bolder, Broader Strategy to Ending Poverty's Influence on Education
By Pedro Noguera
BBA co-chair Pedro Noguera highlights the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education's efforts to correct school reform in New Jersey with a focus on early education, project-based learning, and stronger school relationships with the community.
November 29, 2011: Huffington Post
We Must Do More Than Merely Avoid the NCLB Train Wreck
By Pedro Noguera
BBA co-chair Pedro Noguera explains why NCLB waivers do not go far enough to address the issues with education reform legislation and advocates a more holistic approach which does not ignore the effects of poverty.
November 28, 2011: New York Times
Principals Protest Role of Testing in Evaluations
By Michael Winerip
658 principals from New York are protesting the current use of test scores to evaluate teachers and principals citing their unreliability, limited scope, and lack of adequate trials. The existing system of accountability "degrades" professionals in the field of education.
November 24, 2011: New York Times
In New York, Mexicans Lag in Education
By Kirk Semple
The poor outcomes of Mexican Americans in New York highlight the problems facing disadvantaged and English language learning students across the country, but also those unique to illegal immigrants.
November 16, 2011: Ed Week
A Steppingstone to Better Teacher Evaluation
By Terry Grier
Houston schools try out a new peer-review teacher evaluation system with success providing a more comprehensive and informative accountability structure.
November 13, 2011: The Star-Ledger
Early childhood education key to success for poor children
By Julie O'Connor
Early Childhood education addresses many issues related to poverty, especially language gaps.
November 9, 2011: The Baltimore Sun
Grasmick: Early childhood education played a key role in boosting student test scores
By Nancy S. Grasmick
Maryland's former state superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick reports that early childhood education initiatives have led to 81% of Maryland's five-year olds entering school prepared.
November 8, 2011: Huffington Post
The Global Search for Education: The 20%
By C.M. Rubin and Diane Ravitch
Our 20% child poverty rate explains how the achievement gap begins before children enter the classroom.
November 6, 2011: School Finance 101
When VAMs Fail: Evaluating Ohio’s School Performance Measures
By Bruce Baker
Researcher provides more evidence against the usefulness of value-added measurements by analyzing the biases underlying Ohio's VAM system.
October 30, 2011: Answer Sheet
New data Bill Gates, other ed reformers should care about
By Anthony Cody
Bill Gates has missed the data on how poverty affects educational outcomes.
October 27, 2011: Kappan Magazine
A broader and bolder approach uses education to break the cycle of poverty
By Pedro A. Noguera
Making bold assertions that all children can achieve while doing nothing to address the challenges they face is neither fair nor sound public policy.
October 24, 2011:
Solving the Nation's Dropout Crisis
By Russell W. Rumberger
Persistent high school drop-out rates suggest reform efforts should focus on more comprehensive strategies such as developing a curriculum which extends beyond narrow college-preparatory models, adopting incentives to educate all students rather than encouraging transfers, building long-run school capacity, desegregating schools, and strengthening the role of families and communities.
October 17, 2011: Ed Week
Creating Education Success at Home
By Marc Tucker
Despite one of the highest levels of education spending, America lags behind other countries. The key to improving these outcomes includes moving beyond standardized tests, greater professionalization of teachers, and investing more in the "hardest-to-educate" students, not carrot and stick policies.
October 16, 2011: The News Jounral
With investment, learning gets a head start
By Nicole Dobo
Delaware invests in early education to reduce the achievement gap for low-income children who might not otherwise have the opportunity before kindergarten.
October 11, 2011: Education Week
Testing and Cheating: A Tragicomedy
By Ellen Balleisen
In meting out punishment for teachers involved in the Atlanta cheating scandal, the district joins others in missing the mark: high-stakes testing is the problem.
October 3, 2011: The School Administrator
The Elusive Value in ‘Value Added'
By Elaine Weiss
In this article targeted to school administrators, BBA National Coordinator Elaine Weiss discusses technical practical issues with value-added measures (VAM) of teacher performance. These include conflating the impact of both in-school and out-of-school factors, a bias against teachers in high-poverty schools, narrowing of curriculum, and incentives to game the system or cheat.
October 3, 2011: Huffington Post
The End Is Near for American Education
By Randy Turner
Education reformers focused solely on in-school accountability based on standardized tests see the problems of education as limited within school walls. However, poverty, abuse, absenteeism, and high mobility form real barriers to a student's achievement and cannot be addressed by placing the entire blame on teachers.
September 23, 2011: Dallas News
20 years later, debunking the 'Texas Miracle'
By Diane Ravitch
Dallas, perhaps the birthplace of modern school reform, has seen failure in closing the achievement gap using merit pay based on test scores. Improvements must be made in both Dallas' schools AND society where 85% of students live in poverty to improve educational outcomes.
September 15, 2011: New York Times
New York Hands Off Part of Teacher Evaluation Effort
By Sharon Otterman
New York City abandons value-added measures when evaluating teacher performance. Shael Polakow-Suransky, the city's chief academic officer, reports efforts to include factors such as poverty and race in the new evaluations.
September 15, 2011: The Economic Policy Institute Blog
Young children and unemployment
By John Irons
Parental unemployment endangers the health, developmental, and educational outcomes of children. With 10.6% of children living with at least one unemployed parent, reducing unemployment is crucial issue for more than just our economy.
September 14, 2011: Washington Post - The Answer Sheet
The cause of standardized test cheating and how to stop it
By Lisa Guisbond
As another school is found guilty of cheating on standardized tests, policymakers stand by the defunct strategy of test-based accountability, claiming the solution is better policing. Meanwhile, the evidence is building that high-stake testing is toxic in itself and compromises the education of untested skills.
September 14, 2011: Washington Post - Answer Sheet
Public education's biggest problem gets worse
By Valerie Strauss
While bad teachers exist and they are an important in-school factor on student outcomes, the effects of poverty on aspects of a student's life such as mental and physical health, remain most significant barriers to improving educational achievement and should be addressed as such.
September 12, 2011: Ed Week
International Test Scores, Irrelevant Policies: Misleading rhetoric overlooks poverty's impact
By Isis C. Rotberg
Concerns with international test scores have overlooked the effects of family poverty and concentrations of poverty in schools on educational achievement. PISA has found that socioeconomic status accounts for nearly 60% of the achievement gap in reading across OECD countries, and 80% in the U.S.
September 1, 2011: Huffington Post
Message to Feds: Stop Kicking the Can Down the Road and Call AAA
By John H. Jackson
Investment in education is key to getting the U.S. economy back on track. However, like other critical issues, Congress has avoided serious debates around ESEA and Race to the Top. Duncan's waivers only allow poliicians to further dodge the issue.
August 25, 2011: Education Week Straight Up
Appellate Court Gets it Wrong on NYC Teacher Data
By Rick Hess
AEI's Rick Hess is "increasingly nervous at how casually reading and math value-added calculations are being treated as de facto determinants of 'good teaching.'" While stopping short of condemning so-called "VAMs," Hess lays out multiple reasons to avoid their use.
August 22, 2011: Washington Post, the Answer Sheet
A tale of two schools: Who's to blame for the differences?
By Brett Rosenthal
Brett Rosenthal, vice president at New York's South Side High School, illustrates five ways in which high- and low-performing schools differ, none of which teachers control.
August 19, 2011: New York Times
Steven Brill's Report Card on School Reform
By Sara Mosle
Former Teach for America member Sara Mosle explains why she finds Brill's support for schools-only, anti-union "reform" policies unpersuasive, noting solid evidence that out-of-school factors matter more than teacher quality in student outcomes.
August 18, 2011: Reno News and Review
Fads for the schools: Reform depends on who defines it
By Dennis Myers
Comparing 1998 and 2008 Time cover stories on education, Myers says both "had the same four problems... (1) easy answers, (2) villains, (3) quick fixes and (4) and all of it done on the cheap." He praises Richard Rothstein for rejecting such fads and promoting evidence-based responses to student needs.
August 10, 2011: Pathways
Race to the Bottom
By Diane Ravitch
In this article for Pathways, Diane Ravitch explains how federal education policies spearheaded by Arne Duncan, in particular Race to the Top, impede the capacity of low-performing schools to improve and of low-income students to obtain an enriching education.
August 9, 2011: Learning Matters
An Act of War
By John Merrow
Johh Merrow succinctly articulates both the harsh reality that NCLB waivers offered by the Department of Education simply force states to do more of the same and "what strikes me as the root of the problem: NCLB’s demands for more and more testing in reading and math."
August 7, 2011:
Huge Achievement Gaps Persist in DC Schools
Huge achievement gaps in both reading and math remain nearly five years into Rhee-Fenty "reforms" of DC public schools, with poverty dividing high-scoring Wards 3 and 4 from low-performing Wards 7 and 8 East of the Anacostia.
August 7, 2011: Washington Post, The Answer Sheet
How many testing scandals do we need as a wake-up call?
By Lisa Guisbond
Guest writer Lisa Guisbond, a FairTest policy analyst, writes that widespread cheating scandals are not isolated incidents, but the logical response to a system focused too narrowly on testing and irrationally demanding impossible (yet not meaningful) results
August 1, 2011: SFGate
Arne and Bill's Misguided Adventure: An Open Letter
By Dr. Jim Taylor
Taylor addresses the misguided reform efforts of Bill Gates and Arne Duncan, criticizing their dismissal of poverty on educational outcomes. Poverty, Taylor says, is not an excuse, but an explanation; one we need to recognize if we are to get reform on the right track.
July 27, 2011: Detroit Free Press
Survey: Nearly 30% of State's Teachers Feel Pressure to Cheat
By Chastity Pratt Dawsey and Kristi Tanner-White
A survey of Michigan educators find that 30% feel pressure to cheat on standardized tests, and half of teachers in schools failing to meet federal standards say they feel pressure to cheat. 8% of teachers admitted to cheating themselves. Educators agree that high-stakes testing is at the root of this nationwide problem.
July 24, 2011: Washington Post (Answer Sheet)
Why 'no excuses' makes no sense: Revisiting the Coleman report
By Valerie Strauss
Gary Ravani highlights various studies which point to the impact of socioeconomic factors on student outcomes, factors which teachers cannot be responsible for. A "no excuses" approach to reform that emphasizes only in-school changes falls short of what is needed to help underperforming children.
July 18, 2011: Washington Post
Want to stop teachers from cheating? A history lesson from corporate America
By Dan Ariely
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains how the shortcomings of test-based accountability are analogous to those in corporate incentives programs.
July 18, 2011: New York Times
New York City Abandons Teacher Bonus Program
By Sharon Otterman
New York City discontinues merit-pay program in light of recent research showing no impact on student achievement.
July 12, 2011: Education Week
Creativity Drives Programs to Prevent 'Summer Slide'
By Nora Fleming
Cities and school districts make summer learning programs a priority despite budget contraints through a blending of funding and community partnerships. The successes of several programs in improving educational outcomes are outlined.
July 7, 2011: New York Times
No, Seriously: No Excuses
By Paul Tough
Paul Tough calls out high-profile education “reformers” on both their criticisms of those like BBA who insist that the consequences of poverty be addressed in education policy, and the lackluster results of those reformers’ efforts to close the achievement gap without doing so.
July 3, 2011: New York Times
A Failing School? Not to These Students
By Michael Winerip
School closure decisions are preordained when officials “stack the deck” by concentrating high-needs students, then bemoan low test scores. Labels of “failure” overlook the many success stories – student, teacher, and principal – inside walls like Jamaica High’s.
June 27, 2011: Washington Post (The Answer Sheet)
The reform pretenders
By Carol Corbett Burris
Current education “reforms” dominated by high-stakes testing and market-based policies are detrimental to school improvement, and their claims of success are misleading. True reformers view both children and education holistically.
June 15, 2011: Education Week
Panel Finds Few Gains from Testing Movement
By Sarah D. Sparks
The National Academies of Science found no positive effects on achievement from ten years of NCLB-driven test-based accountability structures, and safeguards against gaming the system have been found to be inadequate, thereby undermining learning.
June 13, 2011: Salon
We need to fix the economy to fix education
By David Sirota
Out-of-school factors, such as job loss, have an impact on educational outcomes that is largely overlooked by reformers. Reform policies and accountability systems that ignore these factors unfairly scapegoat teachers.
June 5, 2011: New York Times
Helping Teachers Help Themselves
By Michael Winerip
Michael Winerip spotlights Montgomery County Maryland's Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) system as a model for teacher support and evaluation that is praised, yet not promoted, by DOE.
May 27, 2011: Education Week
Bolder, Broader Action: Strategies for Closing the Poverty Gap
By Paul Reville, Massachusetts Secretary of Education
Data from Massachusetts find that two decades of reform focused on school solutions such as accountability and instructional improvement have failed to maximize student proficiency. Recognizing that, ithout addressing the educational barriers posed by poverty, the achievement gap cannot be closed, Governor Deval Patrick has enacted several policies to address these out-of-school factors.
May 25, 2011: New York Times
The Limits of School Reform
By Joe Nocera
New York Times education columnist Joe Nocera makes clear the limits of Joel Klein’s school-only reform policies and promotes a Broader Bolder Approach.
May 24, 2011: Huffington Post
Educating for Democracy: Are We Really Serious About Education?
By Joel Shatzky
The article suggests with respect to the large body of evidence against test-based teacher evaluations that, if similar experts in other fields – medicine, engineering, or law – had expressed such grave concerns about a system, relevant stakeholders would have changed course.
May 23, 2011: Times Union
Top teachers give new evaluation system an F
By Casey Seiler
The past seven New York State Teachers of the Year penned a letter “expressing ‘sadness, pain and frustration” at the new teacher evaluation regulations tailored by Governor Cuomo and approved by the Board of Regents, presenting seven real-life scenarios in which they would create perverse incentives and damage student outcomes.
May 23, 2011: Education Week
Why Attention Will Return to Non-School Factors
By Jeffrey R. Henig and S. Paul Reville
Suggesting that although there is a refusal “in polite education reform circles” to acknowledge the impact of poverty and community factors, a combination of logic and evidence will soon change the conversation, and “a broader, less conventional conception of education will emerge as the common-sense framing for school and social reform.”
May 20, 2011: Washington Post
Five Myths about America's Schools
By Paul Farhi
The dominant "reform" rhetoric of failing schools, malignant unions, pay-for-performance programs, charter schools, and effective teaching have spread many misunderstandings about our public school systems.
May 2, 2011: Texas Tribune
Is Poverty the Key Factor in Student Outcomes?
By Reeve Hamilton
University of Texas physicist Michael Marder emphasizes the critical impact of poverty on student achievement, pointing out that “not one” Texas school serving high concentrations of poor children graduates students who are ready for college.
April 27, 2011: Washington Post (The Answer Sheet)
How School Reform Damages Poor Children
By Alfie Kohn via Valerie Strauss
Current school reforms, which also ignore the impacts of socioeconomic conditions, promote a “pedagogy of poverty,” with poor children and children of color subjected to “overly directive, mind-numbing… anti-intellectual acts that pass for teaching [and] have become the gold standard.”
April 23, 2011: Courier-Journal
Cincinnati’s Oyler Elementary finds winning formula to fight poverty
By Chris Kenning
This urban school in a highly distressed neighborhood used a broader, bolder community schools approach to address a range of student and family needs related to poverty, with a resulting dramatic increase in high school graduations and first-in-the-family college attendees.
March 7, 2011: YorkCounts
Education Summit preview: Interview with Elaine Weiss
By Dan Fink and Elaine Weiss
BBA National Coordinator Elaine Weiss discusses education policy and the need for a broader, bolder approach with Dan Fink of YorkCounts Communications.
March 1, 2011: Economic Policy Institute
A look at the health-related causes of low student achievement
By Richard Rothstein
Multiple health issues, from vision, hearing, and dental problems to the detrimental effects of lead exposure, fetal alcohol syndrome, and asthma, disproportionately affect the poor and contribute to the achievement gap. Expanding health care to students who might not otherwise have access to these reources, such as through school-based centers, can narrow this gap.
September 5, 2008: New York Times
24/7 School Reform
By Paul Tough
The in-school and out-of-school dichotomy is out of date; education encompasses both environments. Poverty plays a major role in educational outcomes and must be addressed to narrow the achievement gap. Comprehensive, community-based strategies are necessary for success.
July 14, 2008: New York Times
New Vision for Schools Proposes Broad Role
Randi Weingarten criticizes NCLB, in favor of a community-schools approach to school improvement. Schools alone cannot address the achievement gap.
March 1, 2007: New York Times
A Critique of Pure Reason
By David Brooks
Contrary to conventional discussion on school improvement, there are some factors of underachievement that schools alone cannot address. David Brooks outlines a broader, bolder approach to education.
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