Perry pushed policy like board of regents

In my mind this amounts to an attempt to take over public univerisies in the state:

From My SA:

Controversial ‘solutions' to shake up universities pressed hard in emails.

By Patricia Kilday Hart
patti.hart@chron.com

Updated 12:40 a.m., Saturday, April 16, 2011

AUSTIN — Contrary to his public statements distancing himself from a brewing controversy in higher education, Gov. Rick Perry continually pressed his appointees to university boards of regents to promptly adopt “reforms” that critics say are simplistic and harmful to research institutions, according to emails obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

In May 2008, Perry summoned all Texas university regents and chancellors to a higher education summit to hear Austin businessman Jeff Sandefer, a major Perry campaign contributor, explain “Seven Break-through Solutions” to shake up higher education.

Many of the ideas — measuring a professor's “productivity” based on numbers of students and linking compensation to positive student evaluations — received a chilly reception, but the emails, obtained from the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, show Perry's office continued to demand strict implementation of Sandefer's ideas. The emails covered July 2008 through April 2009.

In a Dec. 5, 2008, email, Perry aide Marisha Negovetich invited regents and chancellors to a “Seven Break-through Solutions Follow-up Meeting.”

“The Governor is anxious to put together a cohesive plan of action ... and also learn from you what progress you have made to move these reforms forward,” she wrote.

In an interview last week, Perry said he introduced his regents to Sandefer's strategy at the 2008 higher education summit simply to generate ideas about reform.

“I made it abundantly clear in my remarks that I thought these were some good ideas that were worth having an open and intellectually engaged conversation about,” Perry said.

The governor insisted he left policy decisions to his appointees: “I appoint people to the board of regents. They are in charge of setting policy ... that's their call. It's not the governor's call. It's never been the governor's call and I don't get confused about what my role is.”

Push from Perry

Emails, however, show Perry's office constructed a timeline for implementation and pressed university administrators for regular updates.

Among the questions Negovetich sent the university representatives: “Have you measured and ranked faculty productivity, exactly as described in Breakthrough Reform #1?”

A follow-up email said, “As Governor Perry stated during the meeting, it is imperative that you ensure your university systems' faculty evaluation ratings and course syllabi are available to students, online and in campus buildings, no later than the 2009 Spring Semester. In an effort to assist your system with implementing this, as well as the other reforms discussed, we are attaching a list of the next steps to be taken along with a correlating timeline.”

That “reform” led to Texas A&M posting an online spreadsheet ranking professors based on how much money they earned the university by teaching the most students, an evaluation system critics say puts senior faculty involved in research and graduate level education at a disadvantage. The American Association of Universities, a national organization of the major research institutions in the U.S., sent A&M a letter calling the document “counterproductive” and criticizing it for “undermining the linkage between research and teaching.”

Sandefer's “Seven Break-through Solutions” have been promoted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Austin think tank. A storm of protest by UT and A&M academic and boosters broke out last month when the new chairman of the UT board of Regents, San Antonio developer Gene Powell, hired “special adviser” Rick O'Donnell, who promoted the ideas as a foundation fellow. A key research paper by O'Donnell was found by the Express-News to have two dozen errors in citations, quotes or ambiguous data. The policy foundation said the mistakes happened during the merging of various drafts.

Perry communications director Mark Miner said Friday he saw nothing inconsistent with the emails and Perry's public advocacy of “accountability and transparency.”

Flawn weighs in

In February 2009, Perry's staff again informed university representatives they would be holding conference calls in March and April “to discuss your progress on the remaining initiatives. ... The Governor is anxious to learn what progress you have made to move these reforms ahead.”
Another email advised regents not to be influenced by university staff: “The Governor's intent is that this be a regent driven project. We asked that senior system and/or institutional staff be assigned to listen in on these calls as resources to their respective board members by providing information and research only. Staff should ... not try to influence the regents as to the policy or direction of the proposals.”
Former UT President Peter Flawn called Perry's actions “absolutely a new and unique situation” and said he did not “know of any governor who has ever tried to direct regental policy” to the extent of Perry's involvement.
He also said Sandefer's “Solutions” will lead to a reduction in the number of tenured faculty.
“To me, that would be a backward step from a first-class research university to a second-class undergraduate degree mill,” he said.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Perry-pushed-policy-like-board-of-regents-1339739.php#ixzz1KG7Pf2go

WET Design and the Improv Approach to Listening - Thanks Judy

WET Design and the Improv Approach to Listening

Temple Grandin - Thanks Sue

What is Education For?

I ran across the following post in Andrew Sullivan's website and it occurred to me that before we can begin to think about textbooks or texts or teacher quality or anything related to assessing education quality, we ought to determine what we mean by "education" and what purpose(s) and education is supposed to serve.

I think I know the answer to this, but do we believe in education for its own sake, or education that is supposed to increase earnings potential? Sullivan links to the following:

You know going back and forth with a few people about this education bubble issue, many thoughts occur to me, but none more important than this: education cannot survive on what I am horrified to find is the generally assumed model, that it exists for the purpose of increasing earning potential. To see an education, college or otherwise, as merely a way to increase the amount of money you make is a terrible corruption and fundamentally unsustainable. Education was never intended that way, and it cannot succeed on those grounds.
It never ceases to amaze and dismay me. This totalizing vision of mankind as homo economus, where absolutely every element of human life is reduced to the exchange of currency and resources, has vast, negative consequences. People see them every day, and yet nobody is willing to walk back from the path we're on.
I wonder if this comment matters for us. I imagine that a high percentage of people in the greater Houston area would argue that education is more essential to earnings potential, and "education for its own sake" is something they'd rather not have their tax dollars spent on. Perhaps we can cynically argue that education has never been for its own sake, it has always created opportunities for one group at the expense of another, but its still worth thinking about.

While we think about assessing the quality of the education our students receive, are we clear about what we want that education to do for our kids?

Does College Make You Smarter?

From NYT's Room for Debate.

Contemporary Student Life

John Tierney has links to a variety of stories regarding contemporary student life. These are worth discussing.

Memphis School District Seeks to Merge With the County's

I found the following story in the NYT about a proposal in Memphis TN to merge the city's school district with the county. Just to be provocative, can anyone here tell me why all the school districts in Harris county, if not the greater Houston area, shouldn't be merged? What are the advantages and disadvantages to area students if the happens? And why do we have so many school districts anyway?

Regarding Obama's Education Proposals in the State of the Union Speech

The New York Times features a debate about his specific proposals. 

I lked the following text in the speech:

Let’s also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child’s success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom.  In South Korea, teachers are known as “nation builders.”  Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect.  (Applause.)  We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones.  (Applause.)  And over the next 10 years, with so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math.  (Applause.)

In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice:  If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child -- become a teacher.  Your country needs you.  (Applause.)

Rhee: Education is an Economic Issue, not a Social Issue

Michelle Rhee is worried we have lost our competitive spirit. In this commentary she makes an interesting point about how we view education.

From Marketplace:

There are many nations who have figured out what works in education. Look at Singapore. Last summer, I heard the prime minister gave a speech in which he outlined the plan for making Singapore number one in the world, financially. His economic plan was rooted in education. He knows that if the country can make its education system the best in the world, economic success will follow.

That's the opposite of what we do here in America. We see education as a social issue, not an economic one. And what happens to social issues in times of economic hardship? They get swept under the rug. We need to change our national conversation on education and our national culture on how we encourage kids. I think what's becoming clear with all of this, is that if we don't start to shift our perspective, we'll never regain our position in the global marketplace.

I don't know if I completely agree with the idea that education is not a social issue, but I understand the idea that framing the issue in terms of economic development makes cutting education seem shortsighted and careless.

Schools of Education Require Little Writing -- Huh?

I find this very troubling.

Business people and schoolteachers build their vocations around words. But at some colleges, it is possible to earn a four-year undergraduate degree in business or education without ever doing much writing.

According to a Chronicle analysis of 10 public four-year institutions in Texas, business majors and education majors are typically exposed to only a handful of writing-intensive courses—fewer than five out of the 40 or so courses needed for a degree, on average, for business majors, and fewer than eight courses for education majors. By contrast, history majors typically take 14 courses that require 10 or more pages of writing.

. . . business and education majors reported that they study significantly fewer hours each week than other undergraduates. (On average, business majors said they studied 9.55 hours per week outside the classroom, and education majors said they studied 10.64 hours. The average for the entire pool of students in the study was 12.15 hours.)

Ms. Roksa says that it is costly for business and education majors—or any other college student—not to have extensive exposure to the kind of long writing assignments that build critical-thinking skills.

"Do we want teachers, for example, to know pedagogical theory but not to know how to think and analyze?" Ms. Roksa asked. "How much is it worth to have the subject-specific knowledge but not to have the critical-thinking skills that allow you to analyze and apply that knowledge?

I'm sorry but education majors should study more than other majors. What's more, they should want to study more. It shouldn't be a requirement, it should be a choice. I don't want a teacher who slacked off in college -- who doesn't see joy in the very act of learning -- anywhere near my child.

Is there a way we can put pressure on college's of education to increase writing requirements? If we want to raise respect for the profession we have to make sure people in the profession are worthy of it. It seems to be such an obvious requirement. Who was it this weekend who wanted to redo the curriculum at these colleges? Donna? Andrea? I can't remember, but it might be worth figuring out how to put the screws to these departments. These people make us all look bad.

Collegiate Learning Assessment

I'm useless.

A study of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.
Not much is asked of students, either. Half did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week.

. . .

_Overall, the picture doesn't brighten much over four years. After four years, 36 percent of students did not demonstrate significant improvement, compared to 45 percent after two.

_Students who studied alone, read and wrote more, attended more selective schools and majored in traditional arts and sciences majors posted greater learning gains.

_Social engagement generally does not help student performance. Students who spent more time studying with peers showed diminishing growth and students who spent more time in the Greek system had decreased rates of learning, while activities such as working off campus, participating in campus clubs and volunteering did not impact learning.

_Students from families with different levels of parental education enter college with different learning levels but learn at about the same rates while attending college. The racial gap between black and white students going in, however, widens: Black students improve their assessment scores at lower levels than whites.
- College Learning Assessment.
- Are Undergraduates Actually Learning Anything?
- Academically Adrift.

the Confucian reverence for education ....

I'd recommend you all read Nicholas Kristof's piece in the NYT today. Given Shanghai's results on PISA I expect we will be bombarded with efforts to emulate their learnign system, but two things popped out at me from the article. First:

. . . the greatest strength of the Chinese system is the Confucian reverence for education that is steeped into the culture. In Chinese schools, teachers are much respected, and the most admired kid is often the brain rather than the jock or class clown.

Americans think of China’s strategic challenge in terms of, say, the new Chinese stealth fighter aircraft. But the real challenge is the rise of China’s education system and the passion for learning that underlies it. We’re not going to become Confucians, but we can elevate education on our list of priorities . . . 
Notice that the teacher is a respected member of the community, not someone who can't make a living doing something "better".

Second -- and just as important:

Chinese themselves are far less impressed by their school system. Almost every time I try to interview a Chinese about the system here, I hear grousing rather than praise. Many Chinese complain scathingly that their system kills independent thought and creativity, and they envy the American system for nurturing self-reliance — and for trying to make learning exciting and not just a chore.

In Xian, I visited Gaoxin Yizhong, perhaps the city’s best high school, and the students and teachers spoke wistfully of the American emphasis on clubs, arts and independent thought. “We need to encourage more creativity,” explained Hua Guohong, a chemistry teacher. “We should learn from American schools.”
One friend in Guangdong Province says he will send his children to the United States to study because the local schools are a “creativity-killer.” Another sent his son to an international school to escape what he likens to “programs for trained seals.” Private schools are sprouting everywhere, and many boast of a focus on creativity.

While we complain about our schools we ought not forget what we do well. American's prize creativity and our schools have reflected that. I think many of our criticisms regarding standardized testing are based on a fear that they will destroy the sense of creativity and initiative that has made us what we are. It would be a pity if in our desire to emulate what seems best in the Chinese model that we lose what makes our educational system -- warts and all -- exceptional.

And speaking of trained seals. What is everyone's take on the hubbub over the Tiger Mother?

NASA's Lack of PR

Whatever we decide to do as a group, I think we should seriously consider what we can do to make sure that the first thing people do when they think of teaching as a profession they think of it as important, positive and prestigious. I still think that our ability to accomplish any other objective will be based on that.

I ran across a similar argument made about NASA. Here's a great quote:

NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks. Seriously. None of their brilliant scientists appear to know how to connect with the social media crowd, which is now more important than ever. In fact, NASA is an institution whose funding directly depends on how the public views them.

In all of their brilliance, NASA seems to have forgotten to share their hopes and dreams in a way the public can relate to, leaving one of humanities grandest projects with terrible PR and massive funding cuts.

Doesn't this apply to us as well?

A fan of NASA even made this promotional video (look below) since NASA seems uninterested in doing it themselves. We need to do this sort of thing, effectively.

NASA - The Frontier Is Everywhere

OECD International Report on Teachers

Ed Class IV,

Below you will find links to the international studies I discussed at the Taking Stock Retreat. In terms of my own work, I've been using this international data to discuss teacher recruitment, hiring and development with 10 area districts. Interestingly enough, the goal of that group mirrors ideas outlined by both the OECD and the ALF Ed. Class IV conversation this past weekend. We are attempting to:

a. draft a "Regional Profile of a Quality Teacher"
b. determine the look-fors and evidence that match the profile
c. collaborate with area ACPs and HEIs on redesigning teacher training
d. market in order to re-frame the perception of the profession
e. create a lab school for induction teachers to learn in and from before entering districts
f. and, lastly, develop a regional screening tool that generates a pool of candidates for all districts

If our ALF class chooses to go down the teacher effectiveness track for the project, I see much potential for dovetailing.

Here's the link to the report from OECD:
Teachers Matter Overview
Big Ideas Two Pager

If you are interested in the entire report I checked out a copy from UHCL and can share. You might also find the country reports interesting at OECD site here:
Country Reports

AND, Susan Sclafani's group did some reporting here:
NCEE Reports


Food for thought,

Webster