The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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School Reform and Money: Can the Former Work Without the Latter?

May 30, 2008

Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute

One of our Australian articles posted in this week's Week in Review discusses a new merit-pay program introduced in New South Wales. Just yesterday I sat next to Reg Weaver, the President of the 3.2 million member National Education Association (NEA) at our Retention 2008 conference in San Diego, and the two of us discussed that exact issue. "Merit pay just doesn't work," said Weaver, with whom I readily agreed. I commented that when I was a classroom teacher in both Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Hampton, Virginia, I prided myself on being an excellent teacher. Did I deserve more than other teachers? Not so sure. There were certainly other good teachers; some great teachers. But how does one decide who is better than another? How does an official body define who has more value added for students? What pure data provide that level of information to disaggregate all the mediating factors? Think about it for a moment: the primary decision-maker in most of these situations is going to be the building principal, or at least the senior administration. How will they make the decisions? I bet a lot of football coaches get merit pay...READ MORE

SO, How does this "retention process" work anyway?

In spite of the attention paid to college student retention:

Only 51.7% of campuses have identified an individual responsible for coordinating retention strategies.

Only 47.2% of campuses have established an improvement goal for retention of students from the first to second year.

Only 33.1% of campuses have established a goal for improved degree completion.

Source: What Works in Student Retention? (ACT)





	Website shows Kentucky students how to get into college Michelle Day, Courier Journal Flanked by cheerleaders and students launching paper airplanes, Kentucky officials yesterday unveiled KnowHow2GOKy -- a multimedia campaign aimed at getting middle and high school students ready for college. The launch, which included performances by cheerleaders and a step team, was designed to get people excited about the campaign and raise awareness about its goals, said Sue Patrick, director of communications for the Council on Postsecondary Education. Idaho asks the feds for a fresh start on No Child Left Behind Bill Roberts, Idaho Statesman Idaho's State Board of Education wants a fresh start for hundreds of public schools facing sanctions under a tough federal education accountability mandate.	Private firm hired to help struggling students Jaime Sarrio, The Tennessean Metro schools plans to hire a private, for-profit company to educate about 500 of the district's struggling students. School board members Tuesday unanimously voted to move ahead with plans for Ombudsman, a program offered by Nashville-based Educational Services of America. The $2.5 million program would launch at seven or more locations during the 2008-09 school year and serve 480 students at a time.


	Stepping up: Two-year schools offer new opportunities David Stanley Ford, News OK Next month, even college students on summer break will be doing a little math as they figure out how much a higher education will cost them in the coming school year. Now that the legislative session is over, higher education officials know tuition increases are on the horizon. The state's budget included little new money for public colleges and universities so tuition likely will increase to help offset about $43 million in rising operational costs. Graduation rates, gender disparity causing concern Eboni Farmer, Black College WireI According to the “Journal of Blacks in Higher Education” in 2007 Howard University had a graduation rate of 60 percent, up two points from the rate the journal reported in 2006. That rate, for those graduating within six years, is 16 points above the national average graduation rate of 44 percent for blacks nationally. The Journal for Blacks in Higher Education calls the 44 percent graduation rate “dismally low.”	Some colleges dropping SAT, ACT exams Brian Bethel, Abilene Reporter News While a majority of the thousands of colleges and universities throughout the United States require either the SAT or the ACT standardized tests for admission, a few schools are lessening their impact -- or jettisoning the exams altogether -- in favor of a greater emphasis on factors such as high school transcripts and personal interviews.


	Falling education spending in states Economic Times (India) It is being increasingly recognised that the participation of a vast majority of our population in our much vaunted economic resurgence would hinge essentially on our ability to provide an effectively functioning education system. National education policy seeks free primary schooling Qazi Asif, Daily Times (Pakistan) The deadline for input on the National Education Policy is May 31, Saturday, after which the government is supposed to announce the plan. Approval may take a while as the Federal Education Minister, the PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal, resigned.	Middle-class students more likely to get first class degree Andy Bloxham, Daily Telegraph (United Kingdom) Middle-class students are more likely to get a 2:1 or first class degree than others from poorer backgrounds. A study found that women outperform men in almost every subject, including those traditionally thought of as male, such as engineering.


	Immigration policies boosting number of degree holders in Canada: study Elizabeth Thompson, Times Colonist There is a large and growing gap between Canadians when it comes to who has a university degree, with visible minorities far more likely to have a university education than white Canadians, according to a new study. More black education needed, board told Brenda Branswell, Montreal Gazette Advocates of a black-focused school made their case to commissioners from the English Montreal School Board last night. “Our detractors will tell you ... what we are proposing is discriminatory,” said Dan Philip, the head of the Black Coalition of Quebec. But Philip said there is nothing more discriminatory than so many black students dropping out of school with no opportunities.	Special education needs of 24 percent of kids with disabilities unmet: StatsCan Canadian Press, Toronto The parents of roughly one-quarter of children with disabilities believe their child's needs for special education are going unmet, while nearly half say they experience difficulty getting special education for their child, according to a new report.


	Scheme rewards top teachers Justine Ferrari, The Australian The NSW Government yesterday unveiled its version of performance pay for teachers, which is based on a scheme to recognise the best in the profession. From next month, teachers in any school in NSW can apply for accreditation at the levels of professional accomplishment and professional leadership, under a system developed by the NSW Institute of Teachers. Uni academics chase 27 percent pay rise Associate Press, The Age A 27 per cent pay increase over three years for Australia's university academics is negotiable, but they deserve it for the contributions they have already made to the booming tertiary sector, a union says. In the past 12 years, university staff numbers had risen by 18 per cent, but student numbers had jumped 45 per cent, National Tertiary Education Union general secretary Grahame McCulloch says.	Support for indigenous education urged Associated Press, Sydney Morning Herald The education of indigenous Australians is a critical national task that needs the assistance of the corporate sector, National Native Title Tribunal deputy president Fred Chaney says. State education systems were struggling to implement policies through central, bureaucratic systems, the former federal Aboriginal affairs minister said on Thursday.


	Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities: Final Report United States Department of Education The Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities: Final Report was designed to study the early implementation of the SLC program. The study based its findings on data from 119 grantees from among those funded in 2000 in the first cohort of grantees and surveyed in the spring of 2002 and fall 2003. The report also used data from in-depth case studies of 18 grantees that intended to use freshman or career academies to structure a smaller learning community. A View Inside Primary Schools: A world education indicators (WEI) cross-national study United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics (UIS) A new UIS study highlights the strong effect of social inequality on primary education systems in many countries and the challenge to provide all children with equal learning opportunities. Entitled A View Inside Primary Schools, the report presents the results of a unique survey undertaken in 11 countries* in Latin America, Asia and North Africa. As part of the World Education Indicators (WEI) programme, the countries were involved in developing and conducting the survey to examine the factors shaping the quality and equality of primary education.


The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher. To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.