SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Non-Spongy Reading Information

There's a new blog on the block. Check out Phonics Talk.

So far, there's an interesting anecdote about systematic phonics, a link to an apparently-powerful way to improve students' public speaking, and don't forget to check out the FAQ's.

Plus, I threw in a cute cartoon for good measure.

There ought to be a law

It can be tricky evaluating whether school choice policies improve student outcomes. In Ontario, for example, the government is boasting about (slightly-) improved test scores - but the provincial tests are very subjective and vulnerable to manipulation. Similarly, the government is crowing about its improved graduation rates - but it has put in place all kinds of measures to make it easier to graduate. 

So here's an ingenious way of evaluating whether school choice is improving student outcomes in North Carolina, one that cannot be manipulated. In the school district of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the district has conducted an open-enrollment lottery for the last ten years, and the researchers compared the criminal activity of students who had "won" the lottery, gaining admission to their preferred school, to the students who had "lost" the lottery. Here are the results.

"In this study, I find that winning a lottery for admission to the school of choice greatly reduces criminal activity, and that the greatest reduction occurs among youth at the highest risk for committing crimes. The impact persist beyond the initial years of school enrollment, seven years after the school-choice lottery was held. The findings suggest that schools may be an opportune setting for the prevention of future crime."

If other studies replicate these findings, it seems that open-enrollment policies may be a no-cost measure that results in significant financial and social savings in later years.

Time is on our side

"Our schools are run like a bunch of factories from the early industrial age. They have rigid work rules, negotiated for the benefit of management and labour (but not the parents or the kids). Seniority reigns, everyone has job security for life, and a distant, top-heavy bureaucracy decrees exactly what gets taught and how. Students of wildly varying talents proceed in lockstep down the assembly line until the system spits them out. Teachers, meantime, scramble to find textbooks for the kids as our bloated ministries of education crank out mountains of bumf that dictate everything from curriculum standards, learning objectives and approved teaching materials to anti-bullying policies, diversity initiatives and the very latest schemes to raise test scores."

So writes Margaret Wente in The Globe and Mail today, making the point that any private enterprise run this way would have gone bankrupt long ago. But of course public education can't go bankrupt, and so we are still stuck with our antiquated public education systems. What will be the catalyst that will vault public education into the 21st century? Hmmm, could it be the coming clash between cash-starved 21st-century governments and antediluvian 19th-century teachers' unions?

Maybe private schools get better results because they teach better….

Critics of school choice often argue that the reason private schools get better results is that they pick and choose their students, excluding those with disabilities. Now a State of Wisconsin study suggests that, "while the percentage of students in the voucher schools with disabilities is substantially lower than the disability rate in the public schools, it is at least four times higher than public officials have claimed." As well, the study points out that public schools have an incentive to identify students as disabled (because they receive additional funding for disabled students), while private schools have no such incentive. Indeed, many private schools are relucant to identify their students as disabled - because of the danger that the children will be stigmatized. This means that private schools may actually have an even higher percentage of students with special needs.

This was similar to the findings of a 2004 Canadian study, which found that at least 13% of Ontario schools serve exceptional students.

This gives a whole new meaning to family planning

A massive study in BC found that girls born in December were 70% more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) than girls born the previous January, while December boys were 30% more likely. As this article in the Vancouver Sun points out, there are some very adverse effects of a mistaken diagnosis: "Children who receive a misdiagnosis may be prescribed unnecessary medication causing 'adverse effects on sleep, appetite and growth and increased risk of cardiovascular events,' the report concludes. Additionally, kids may be stigmatized by receiving the label at a young age."

The drug of choice, Methylphenidate, is a powerful drug in the cocaine family, and should be used with extreme caution. Its use is not approved for children younger than six. 

Clearly, being born in December can be bad for your health if you live in a jurisdiction with a December 31 cutoff date (and if your parents send you to school).

That’ll teach her!

We all know of people who have bought a house in the catchment area of a good school so they could send their kids there, right? So what happens to people who don't have enough money to buy a house in the area, yet wish to send their children to the school? They either lump it or, if they're like Tonya McDowell, they lie about their place of residence and send their kids to the school anyway.

Most people would admire Tonya's pluck and dedication to her child's well-being, but the local school authorities took a dim view of her actions - charging her with fraudulently enrolling her son in the wrong school district. As a result, she has been sentenced to 12 years in jail. If you don't believe me, click here.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would like to reiterate that all parents - not just wealthy, savvy, educated parents - should be able to choose their children's schools. H/T RG

Sunday at the Movies (Milton Friedman)

Here's Milton Friedman, Nobel-Prize-winning economist, explaining why more kids would be better off with school choice. And, breaking news, Virginia has just joined the private school choice club, making it the 14th state and adding to the momentum of school choice. YouTube link

Who’s on first?

Well, the sabre rattling is getting louder all the time, loud in Ontario and louder in BC where the teachers are set to start a three-day strike on Monday. Really, BC is just a bit further along in the same process as Ontario: the province needs to tame its deficit and the teachers’ union refuses to co-operate, demanding a 15% raise over three years.

In Ontario, Ken Coran, the president of the high school teachers’ union took to the airwaves today, just as Premier McGuinty did yesterday. Click here to see his counter-salvo. And despite Mr. Coran’s protestations of how willing the teachers’ unions are to engage in collaborative discussions, his union has cancelled its participation in all or most of its ministry working groups. 

Both the BC government and the Ontario government have no one to blame but themselves for this state of affairs. For years, they have bought labour peace by giving in to the teachers’ unions over and over again - to the point where it was a good question whether it was the government or the unions who were in charge of the province’s education system. Now, it seems we’re going to find out.

Only the shadow knows

Here’s the Ontario premier’s plea for labour buy-in. It’s pretty slick. Notice he’s trying to go directly to teachers, as opposed to their unions. Will it work? See the title. H/T MW

Reality Bites

Looks like Ontario’s “Premier Dad” is going to get a tough lesson from the teachers’ unions.  As the province tries to rein in spending to cut the deficit (caused by spending like crazy) and deal with the Drummond Report recommendations, the federations are not at all happy.

While the province talks tough, the unions are refusing to even sit down with provincial negotiators.  On the table—cutting out the sick leave benefit payout on retirements for newly hired teachers and no wage increases for two years, even if you move up the grid.  Cue the war whoops.

The current Liberal government is about to learn a lesson from the federations—-the only party they support is the union party.

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