Dana Goldstein

Against Tiny School Districts

One of Governor Andrew Cuomo's contentious budget cutting ideas is to consolidate very small school districts. I'm generally a tax-and-spend liberal, but this is a good idea, especially in relatively densely-populated parts of the state. I was reminded why today by the New York Times, which reported on a controversy engulfing the tiny Westchester village of Katonah, NY, not far from where I grew up. Katonah's school board would like to hire a superintendent named Paul Kreutzer, who happens to be the only superintendent in Wisconsin to have publicly supported Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to ban teacher collective bargaining. 

Unsurprisingly, hundreds of Katonah teachers, parents, and students are loudly protesting Kreutzer's appointment. 

But what really caught my eye was that if he does get the job, the 39-year old Kreutzer is set to earn $245,000 annually to oversee a district of just six schools and 3,800 students. Ninety-three percent of these kids are white, and just 1 percent are non-native English speakers. Approximately 0 percent of Katonah public school children participate in the federal free-and-reduced-price lunch program. 

The nearby Bedford Central School District, which encompasses the more diverse town of Mt. Kisco, has seven schools and just under 5,000 students. There, 20 percent of students are Hispanic, 5 percent are black, and 5 percent are Asian. Fourteen percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and 7 percent are currently learning English. The superintendent in Bedford earns a lot of money, too, though less than the one in Katonah--about $225,000 plus benefits, according to the most recent data I could find. But he also has a somewhat more difficult job, serving a larger and more diverse population.

It would be good public policy to consolidate these two school districts, which are geographically contiguous with one another. Not only would it save money on administrative costs, but it would allow more children to enjoy the benefits of attending racially and socioeconomically integrated schools. 

Currently, New York State has some of the most regressive school districting in the country. Due to a system that has changed very little since the early 19th century, there are 697 school districts in New York. 

In Florida, the state closest to New York in terms of population, there are just 74 school districts.

Politically, consolidating school districts is very controversial, even though larger school systems are often able to offer more course options and other perks. In large part, this is because consolidation is a full frontal attack on white privilege and class privilege. Currently, the ability to pay Katonah property prices and taxes earns a family the right to prevent their children from attending school with the children of Mt. Kisco's Guatemalan day-laborers. Some people move to Katonah instead of to Mt. Kisco for exactly that reason.

To be sure, neighborhood school zoning can lead to de facto segregated schools even within districts that encompass entire counties. But there are many good examples of progressive large school distrcits. Montogomery County, MD has made great strides in educating both affluent and low-income children in part because of the community's and administration's conviction that this should be a shared responsibility. 

New York  can do way better.

Greg Mortenson and the Trouble With Celebrity Philanthropy

I am pretty blown away by Three Cups of Deceit, Jon Krakauer's investigative e-book revealing the depth of philanthropic guru Greg Mortenson's lies. 

To summarize: Mortenson is the founder of the Central Asia Institute, which constructs schools in remote parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is also the author of the best-sellers Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, which purport to tell the story of how Mortenson's 8-day kidnapping by the Taliban inspired him to commit his life to educating the children of Central Asia. 

It is hard to overstate Mortenson's influence in the world of international philanthropy. When President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, he donated $100,000 of his winnings to CAI. From fall 2009 to summer 2010, I worked full-time at The Daily Beast, mostly editing stories on philanthropy and international social issues. Mortenson's name came up again and again among my writers and the sources they interviewed. He was a huge celebrity, well-known from his speaking tours and media appearances, and was regarded as a hero for championing girls' education.

Now Krakauer, in a feat of reporting across cultural and linguistic boundaries, has revealed that Mortenson completely fabricated the tale of his kidnapping, that he renegged on a promise to build a school in the village of Khane, that he spent very little time in the places where his books are set, that many of CAI's schools are completely empty or lack teachers and basic supplies, and that just a fraction of the money the charity raises actually goes toward educating kids. 

Nick Kristof, who has promoted Mortenson's work, responded to the revelations with a defensive column this morning, arguing that even if all these accusations are true, Mortenson has still "built more schools and transformed more children’s lives than you or I ever will."

I find this unconvincing. To me, the most troubling aspect of Krakauer's reporting is that Mortenson portrayed entire regions and ethnic groups within Pakistan as corrupted by terrorism, when in fact, at the time that his narrative purpotedly takes place, in 1996, there were no Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters in regions such as Ladha. In fact, it was only after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that, as Krakauer writes, "large numbers of Taliban fled across the Durand Line into the tribal areas of Pakistan, seeking refuge from American drones and bombers."

Mortenson's lies have deep political significance. They obscure the true effects of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and misrepresent Pakistan and the Pakistani people to the American public. In the words of sociologist Nosheen Ali, as reported by Krakauer:

"The most troubling irony is that the focal region of Mortenson’s work—the Shia region of Baltistan with its Tibetan-Buddhist heritage—has nothing to do with the war on terror, yet is primarily viewed through this lens in [Three Cups of Tea]."

What's more, in responding to Krakauer's allegations, Mortenson has engaged in more offensive cultural stereotying, claiming, "It is important to know that Balti people have a completely different notion about time." It is ridiculous to claim that any group of people do not know when a pack of lies have been spread about them. Here are the words--written in a letter to Krakauer--of Ghulam Parvi, CAI's former Pakistan program manager, who has split with Mortenson and his organization:

"...innocent people working with him in Pakistan, especially in Baltistan, had to face disgrace, loathsome from the society, religiously bashfulness and financial losses. Times and again Greg Mortenson was requested not to perform such acts, which bring bad name and defame to us, but he always very politely and smilingly neglected our requests."

The reporting and editing I've done on international social justice work has made me extremely wary of self-promotional, celebrity philanthropy. So often, the most amazing non-profit work is done by organizations and people you've never head of, folks like Molly Melching and Sunitha Krishnan, who live in the countries and communities on whose behalf they advocate. 

What's more, celebrity philanthropy very often obscures the fact that without political, legal, and military reforms on-the-ground, no amount of private funding can eradicate problems such as sexual violence or girls' lack of access to education. 

The upside of celebrity philanthropy, of course, is that it draws attention to important issues. But I hope this sordid tale serves as a reminder that the media ought to be far more skeptical and hard-headed about evaluating philanthropic claims, both domestic and international. Krakauer's reporting deserves to be celebrated.

On College Debt and the Drop-Out Crisis

On Monday the New York Times' published a story about the immense and growing debt burden on college graduates. In 2003, two-thirds of bachelor's degree receipients had college debt, and their average individual debt load was a whopping $24,000. 

As the piece, by Tamar Lewin, notes, most economists still consider student debt "good debt" because a college degree raises a worker's lifetime earnings. But what about those young Americans who take out loans to pursue higher education, yet drop out before receiving any kind of degree? Afterall, just 53 percent of students who enter four-year colleges graduate within six years. At two-year community colleges, half of all students drop-out in the first year, and only 25 percent finish their programs within three-years. 

Half of all college drop-outs have borrowed some money for tuition. And consider this depressing statistic: One in five students who drop out of college leave only after accumulating $20,000 or more in debt.

These are the folks most unable to pay back their loans; the rhetoric of "college for all" simply does not match the reality of their lives. That's why we need to be providing young teenagers--in middle schools and high schools--with much savvier college and career counseling. Given the state of the economy, we have a responsibility to help young adults protect themselves from the spurious claims of for-profit and low-quality colleges with high drop-out and loan default rates, and we need to explicitly direct people toward cost-effective higher education and job training programs that have clear records of preparing students for remunerative employment.

How (and Why) I Reported My Latest Feature Story

Over at This Week in Education, Alexander Russo has a critical post about my new feature, "The Test Generation." Alexander is correct to point out that just because some school districts--like the one I profile in the piece, Harrison District 2 in Colorado Springs--are pursuing value-added evaluation of teachers through way more high-pressure standardized testing of kids, it doesn't mean all districts will do so. I acknowledge so much in the piece. But it's important to note that when districts do pursue this strategy, they are doing so partly in response to federal incentives. We need to see how these federal guidelines are playing out on-the-ground in classrooms, because otherwise, we won't know how to guard against the possible unintended consequences of well-intentioned programs like Race to the Top.

I want to address a few other issues Alexander raises in his post:

Did I interview "too many teachers who wanted to talk to [me], a common mistake in education reporting?"  Alexander suggests I somehow sought out teachers with an axe to grind against testing and merit pay. This accusation is simply false. I reported this article with the full cooperation of the Harrision District 2 administration, and I want to commend them for working with me openly and honestly. The vast majority of the teachers I report on in the piece are teachers the administration introduced me to--people whom they felt would reflect well on the district and even support administration policies. This includes the art teacher who opens the piece and is critical of test prep; the literacy instructor who tells me about the stresses of teaching with his classroom door open and expecting random observations; and the guidance counselor who enthusiastically supports the district's merit pay plan. 

In addition to visiting schools and observing classrooms, at the district's invitation, I attended a focus group meeting of teachers from various schools; the woman randomly seated next to me found out I was a journalist and leaned over to tell me she was unhappy and anxious. At that same meeting, teachers spoke openly to Miles about their fears about over-testing. An honest dialogue took place.

On my own, I met a few other Harrison District 2 teachers through the local teachers union, the Pikes Peak Education Association. These teachers, however, would not agree to go on the record, and so none of their stories appear in the piece. Suffice to say, I feel I met a broad range of Harrison educators with varying opinions on their district's policies. The piece contains a lot of criticism from teachers because that is what I heard on-the-ground; that said, I also made sure to cite district poll numbers that suggest a small majority of teachers do support the outlines of Miles' merit pay plan. 

Is it really true that parents oppose too much standardized testing?: Yes. Polling has been remarkably consistent on this question. But as I note in the article, the parents who tend to organize to push back against over-testing are wealthier and more educated than the parents in Harrison. (Think Scarsdale, New York, or the popularity of the documentary "Race to Nowhere" in affluent communities.) Because of this, experiments in new types and uses of testing tend to be conducted disproportionately with low-income kids.

Is testing only stressful for kids because teachers make it stressful? While some teachers amp up testing stress and some teachers effectively play it down, it seems clear to me that a district where students sit for high-stakes tests 25 days per year or more is going to have a different day-to-day, week-to-week feel than one where kids take just a few standardized tests in the spring. Teachers are not the people who set these policies, so I don't think it's fair to hold them wholly responsible for the stresses they cause. Harrison's superintendent, Mike Miles, acknowledges this stress and is unapologetic about it, because he believes anxiety is a fair price to pay for accountability. That's a debate worth having.

Now, onward and upward! I have a post coming later today or tomorrow about student debt and the college drop-out rate, so stay tuned...

The Test Generation

In Harrison Distict 2--a low-income, predominantly Latino school district in Colorado Springs--students at every grade level sit for pencil and paper tests in every subject, including art, music, and even physical education. 

On their gym class exam, first-graders are asked to draw a picture of how to position's one's hands while catching a ball. In art, they are asked to identify three shapes within this Picasso cubist portrait. In music, they clap along to the beat of a song as it is played aloud. 

The purpose of these tests is to collect student achievement "growth" data in order to assess teachers and award them merit pay. The typical Harrison child will sit for standardized exams about 25 days each school year.

It seems self-evident, and yet it's rarely discussed: If we are going to evaluate every single teacher, at every grade level, according to how well he or she "grows" student achievement, children are going to have to be assessed far more frequently--and in many more subjects--than they currently are.

To explore the affect of value-added teacher evaluation on kids in the classroom, I spent much of my first semester as a Spencer Fellow reporting on Colorado. The result is my May American Prospect cover story, "The Test Generation." 

In response to Race to the Top, the Colorado state legislature passed one of the most aggressive new teacher evaluation laws in the country, the "Great Teachers and Leaders Bill." Fifty-one percent of every teacher's evaluation will soon be based on student achievement data, and if a teacher fails to grow student achievement two years in a row, he or she can lose tenure protections. 

Local districts will have some autonomy in how they choose to collect this data, but a few dominant models are emerging--and one of the most celebrated by politicians and education reformers is Harrison Distrct 2's, which over-relies, in my view, on testing. I hope you read the entire piece.

Cathie Black's Departure: Totally Predictable. Plus: Meet Dennis Walcott

I don't know why the front page of the New York Times is calling NYC schools chancellor Cathie Black's departure "surprising." Was anything more predictable? Over the past year, in cities from Newark to Washington, D.C. to Denver to New York, neighborhood protest movements arose to push back against the same few controversial policies being pursued by reform-minded mayors: charter school co-locations within public school buildings, neighborhood school closings, and more test-driven instruction. 

Without getting into the merits and drawbacks of this agenda, the politics here have been clear for some time: There is absolutely no conensus among public school parents either in favor or against such changes. Neighborhoods are attached to the institutions that have served them for generations, regardless of whether these institutions are labeled as "failing." And sadly, the trend of school co-location in space-strapped urban centers has set charter school and neighborhood school communities in competition with one another, instead of encouraging a productive relationship of sharing best practices. 

It seemed self-evident that, politically, the best person for Mayor Bloomberg to appoint to be the face of his education agenda would be someone who could soothe anxieties around race, class, neighborhood autonomy, and instructional best practices. Cathie Black was, almost comically, the opposite of all that. A publishing executive with no personal or professional experience with any public school sytem--let alone with the incredibly complex New York City public school system--Black sent her own two children to private boarding school in Connecticut, and had attended parochial schools herself. As my friend Elizabeth Green just noted on WNYC, one of Black's first comments upon visiting New York City school buildings was that they seemed "clean." 

Black's replacement, Dennis Walcott--currently Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development--has a very different biography. He attended Queens public schools during the integration and community control struggles of the 1970s, so comes to the job with a deep appreciation of the difficult history of the New York City schools. A social worker, Walcott worked as a kindergarten teacher before pursuing a career in youth and anti-poverty advocacy, eventually serving as CEO of the New York Urban League.

Tellingly, Walcott has spoken clearly about the importance of neighborhoods and communities in urban policy-making. Here's what he said in a Q&A with the Department of Education's website:

"Just being from a neighborhood—I have a really clear perspective of neighborhood life and issues of neighborhoods and what that means. I haven’t moved too far from where I grew up so there’s still that balance of working class/middle class neighborhood and what that meant and what it reflects of the City. I think that’s always been a part of me and will always be a part of me so I’ve never moved away from that."

Why are We Denying Welfare Moms an Education?

Diana Spatz was a San Francisco welfare mom working as a housecleaner when, in 1987, she enrolled in a community college program to learn basic word processing skills. Her modest hope was to increase her earning potential from $7 an hour to $15 an hour, so as to better provide for her 10-month old daughter, Eden.

A few weeks after her classes began, Spatz was shocked when her caseworker cut off her welfare benefits and stopped returning her panicked phone calls. What happened? As Spatz recounted in a 1997 Nation magazine essay, her student financial aid was counted as income, and thus made her ineligible for the payments she relied on to meet her daughter’s needs.

Twenty-four years later--and 15 years after the passage of welfare reform (TANF)--far too little has changed. As a new report from Legal Momentum makes clear, it remains extremely difficult for mothers on welfare to access the kind of education and training that lead to good jobs, the kind that pay a living wage and come with benefits such as paid sick leave and health insurance. 

The problem is the narrow definition of "work" according to TANF's "work first" requirement. If a recipient is over the age of 20, the program allows for just one year of vocational education while benefits are being paid. One year, however, is not long enough to earn occupational certificates in many growing professions, such as nursing and dental hygiene, especially if a mother is attending school only part-time because of childcare responsibilities. 

Only six percent of adult TANF recipients are currently enrolled in some kind of educational activity. This is egregious; a workforce-relevant education is the single most transformative experience society can offer low-income adults and their children. Fewer than 50 percent of welfare moms who complete “Work First” programs find jobs, compared to 90 percent of welfare moms who earn a two or four-year college degree. The majority of TANF recipients earn just $7 or $8 per hour when they leave the program, while a registered nurse with an associate's degree can earn up to $30 per hour.

TANF is currently up for reauthorization, so this is all politically relevant. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the GOP to come to the table on any progressive improvements to the program, but offering greater educational opportunities to single moms on TANF would be an excellent way to fight intergenerational poverty and secure longterm cost savings. Currently, most former TANF recipients remain below the poverty line, so they and their children remain eligible for benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps. In addition, we know that more educated parents raise more educated children, who in turn are less likely to depend on government to meet basic needs. 

Diana Spatz, by the way, successfully sued the state of California to have her benefits reinstated, and eventually graduated from UC-Berkeley. Spurred by the desire to help other welfare moms get an education, she founded LIFETIME, a grassroots organization that provides social supports, such as childcare and career counseling, to welfare moms looking to achieve educational goals. 

Government should be scaling up LIFETIME's successful model by supporting single moms who want to better themselves and their families through education.