Apt. 11D

Leveling The Playing Field

I really enjoyed Sunday's magazine article on the education gap. It brought together a number of interests of mine - education politics, parenting, class. The article begins with NCLB's goal of improving education in lower income areas, of ending the "soft bigotry of low expectations." No matter what you think about the implementation of NCLB, you must admit that is a worthy goal.

The article points to research by Annette Lareau and other sociologists who find that parenting styles of working class families has an impact on their later success in schools. Poor and working class kids enter Kindergarten at a huge disadvantage from middle class kids and they never catch up.

Aware of these deficits, a number of charter school leaders are working to give those poor kids the tools to succeed that they weren't receiving at home. They increased time in school and are teaching them how to behave in a classroom. The KIPP schools have been particularly successful and that model is being replicated across the country. Scaling up these small schools led by charismatic leaders is always tricky, but the new KIPP schools are also managing to bring up the test scores of new groups of poor students. These KIPP programs are significant, because they show that schools can make a difference.

Why aren't the KIPP schools being replicated in public schools? Why was NCLB so ineffective in bringing up test scores? Politics.

NCLB has relied on sticks and tests to bring up poor schools. The philosophy was that poor kids aren't doing well, because their teachers are lazy and stupid. Force the teachers to get advanced degrees and not waste time doing fluffy stuff in the classrooms. Without funding and other support for these schools, kids are still doing poorly on the national tests. To save face, the education department allowed the states to define their own weak standards to match the poor test results.

NCLB also didn't bring about the fundamental restructuring of public schools that is needed to really bring about change. KIPP schools succeed, because that they bring in the best teachers from Teach For America and lengthen the school year. These measures would also have to be applied to public schools to bring about major change. NCLB didn't do that, but any federal program that tried to do such things would face strong resistance. The teachers' unions would fight lengthening the school year and changing hiring practices. Middle class parents would bristle at the tough measures that are so effective in the KIPP schools. There aren't enough good teachers to go around. Tax payers resist sending more money going to schools, particularly to ones not in their backyard.

Education is the great promise for creating a society where people are able to succeed not based on their on their background or privilege, but one where people succeed based on their ability and hard work. The education gap is a major roadblock in creating a just society. The failure of NCLB shouldn't deter us from working harder to change things.

UPDATE: For a nice summary of the article, check out a new blog, The Psychology of Education.

Spreadin Love

Loved this discussion with Henry Farrell and Dan Drezner on BloggingHeads. I especially liked their analysis about Iraq. Even though I'm not an IR expert, it seems that we're all on the same page. I was listening to this at 2:00 am last night, because I was having trouble sleeping. Their pessimism did not lull me sleep. Also check out Dan and Henry discuss the relationship between blogs and big books.

I'm going to blog on this article on education gap very soon. In the meantime, check out Elizabeth's commentary.

Jane Galt and Tyler Cowen on the misery and regret that comes from having the work/mommy choice.

Milking the Super Rich

Yesterday's Times discussed the development of a new class of the super rich. "One in every 825 households earned at least $2 million last year, nearly double the percentage in 1989, adjusted for inflation." They interviewed one man who instead of using his medical degree to cure cancer, went on to Wall Street and made a fortune as a managing director of health care investment banking.

The article was very sympathetic towards this new class. They live modestly, or relatively modestly, in four bedroom suburban homes and apartments on Park Avenue. And they dabble in philanthropy.

In an earlier Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie argued that talented managers who accumulate great wealth were morally obligated to redistribute their wealth through philanthropy. The estate tax and the progressive income tax later took over most of that function — imposing tax rates of more than 70 percent as recently as 1980 on incomes above a certain level.

Now, with this marginal rate at half that much and the estate tax fading in importance, many of the new rich engage in the conspicuous consumption that their wealth allows. Others, while certainly not stinting on comfort, are embracing philanthropy as an alternative to a life of professional accomplishment.

In a break between getting my Masters and going on for the PhD, I worked for a year in a small art museum. I so enjoyed being around art all day that I considered making it my profession. After watching the director at work, I reconsidered. Her primary efforts were not looking at the paintings and sculptures. In fact, she rarely entered the gallery. She spent most of her time sucking up to rich people to get their stuff. She flattered these old rich people who were lucky enough to enough to inherit money from their grandfathers who invented things like the window envelope or the jiffy bag. When they did hand over an old painting that they didn't care about, there were given a plaque, applause, and a tax write-off.

Sucking up to rich people is an enormous waste of time. Why reward the accident of wealth in this manner? It is so much more efficient and fair to tax the super rich without fanfare and then distribute the wealth to various causes (some may be too unglamorous to gain the attention of the super rich) and with central planning. As our fortunes improve, we're giving much more to charity and have discussed the best way to donate. As much as I like philanthropy, I think that the ego should be taken out of it. The super rich should not be portrayed as Mother Theresa for their "modest" Park Avenue suites or for getting rid of their excess cash that should have been collected at tax time.

Pet Peeve -- Textbooks

Yesterday, Steve took the kids for a long hike. With REM in the background, I sat in the arm chair in the living room and started plowing through the textbook that I've assigned for next semester's Introduction to Political Science class.

It's not a bad book. It hits upon the key words and terminology that the kids have to know. It helps provides the backbone for the class, and I'm assigning other readings to get conversation going. However, the writing gets bogged down with naming dropping.

Scholarly writing has become very formulaic with predictable structures -- introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion. Boiler plates are useful. They make writing less overwhelming, because you know where to plug things in. The reader knows where to find things.

The literature review section is designed to show how your work fits in with the scholarly debate. "Prof. Smartypants says this and Prof. Smartyboots says that. My research sides with Prof. Smartypants in this regard, but Prof. Smartboots in that regard." The drawback comes when your ideas or your interests are entirely new and you have to make strained references to distantly related material. This also has a larger impact on non-scholarly writing.

The writers of textbooks have been so steeped in this style of writing that many can't get out of it. Textbooks, which are aimed at 18 year old kids, have become name dropping catalogs instead of beautifully written discussions of a topic. The average student doesn't want to know and doesn't need to know what Prof. Smartypants has to say about the party system. She needs to know what parties are, how they developed, why different countries develop differing models. The textbooks blow past the basics. They miss opportunities for great anecdotes and examples that will grab the kids imaginations. They are aimed at junior level faculty who are easily impressed with references to their advisors and the big names in the field.

Whenever I read these textbooks, I'm get distracted with thoughts about how they could be better. If I wrote this book, I would talk about this and that and completely delete this long passage. I know where the students are going to get derailed by the name dropping nonsense. I often think that I could do it so much better. But then I think better of it.

Years ago, my dad wrote an Introduction to American Government textbook. It was an excellent book and I used it when I first started teaching in the mid-90s. However, he got burned by the project. He spent years writing it and revising it, but got little pay off for his work. Textbooks don't gather the same respect as boiler plate papers for conferences. And then the small publishing company that he worked with got eaten up by a middle sized company. The middle sized company was gobbled up a short time later by a larger company, which already had a similar textbook. Good-bye dad's textbook.

So, I'll never write a textbook, and the students and I must suffer through these name dropping books. However, we're supplementing it with Dad's other textbook, which is now in the 15th edition.

Adventures in a Fly Over State

We're back from Cleveland. We survived the holidays and the plane trip with the kids. The kids were champs in the airport. Ian was nervous on the plane and, after some whining, he was passed over the seat to Steve. Sitting on Daddy's lap calmed him down and all was well. He and Jonah and another little boy discovered that if they got their little bums on the edge of the baggage carousel just right, they would get a ride around the baggage claim area. Yanked off with some finger wagging.

On Friday night, we got Ian to sleep by 9:00. Jonah watched Shrek 2 with his grandparents and we went to meet Steve's old buddies. Ross picked us up and parked right in front of a smoky bar, Edison's in Tremont. Cleveland, where bars still stink.

Eric, Ross, Jimbo, Matt, the other Steve, Jeff. All the same guys he's known since Kindergarten. Lots of jokes about their old band and some gossip about recent events. Most of the guys still live around Cleveland, except for my Steve and Jeff, though they still make it back to Cleveland quite often.

There is a certain spontaneity out in the heartland that you don't get around here. There's the simplicity of driving into the city and the ease of a parking spot.

Homes are also so much cheaper. Steve's cousin just sold his huge home for under $200,000. Cheap homes mean you can afford to have a life outside of your job. Or even not have a job at all and just spend a year writing a novel, like Jimbo. The other Steve has the time to do standup on the weekends. Eric is running marathons. Ross runs an art gallery with his dad in a great space that would be unthinkably expensive in New York City.

I'm never leaving the New York City area. Too much family here and, when I do get a parking place, there's nothing like a stroll down Central Park West. But I guess there are some pluses to life in the flyover states.

Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy your turkey and carbs. Congratulate Russell on becoming a homeowner. Off to Cleveland. This will be the first plane flight with the kids in three years. Wish me luck. See you all when I get back.

Errands

Yesterday I went through my long list of errands and crossed them off one by one. Dental appointment for me (it's been two years since my last cleaning). Flu shot appointments for the boys. Set up new e-mail account with new college (this turned out to be a twelve step process). Called the benefits office. RSVPed to two parties. Parking pass for new college. Haircut appointment for myself. Sent flight info to in-laws. Got tomorrow's flight added on to the frequent flier miles. And so on. I really hate doing boring errands, so I horde them all up for one painful day. Yesterday was a Day O' Pain.

I'm still figuring out the childcare situation for next semester. I thought that my older son was going to the after-school program at his school. Turns out there's a wait list. There's also a waitlist for Fridays at my younger son's daycare, so I found a babysitter on Fridays, but she won't be able to get to his pre-school until 11:40 and he gets out at 11:30. I still have to sign him up for one activity on Fridays, so he's not stuck in the house for a whole afternoon with Theresa.

And then there's next year.

Ian is aging out of his special education pre-school, which he gets for free through the public schools. It's not entirely clear if he's going to be ready for Kindergarten on time. His academic stuff is fine. More than fine. His speech is catching up, though we're not quite there yet. He can use sentences to ask for things or talk about his books, but the sentences have to be short and he has to be calm. If it's a complicated thought, his words come out like a telegram. "Mom. Ball. Hole. Basement. Come with me. Get it." Translation -- "Mom, I put my ball down the hole in the kitchen floor. It fell into the basement. I want you to stop making coffee and come with me to get it. Isn't this a fun game? Let's do it a hundred more times." He also has trouble with transitions. He likes to play with other kids, but he doesn't have the speech skills to chat. He has weak muscle tone in his hands. Ian would probably need an aide to help him out in a regular Kindergarten.

What's the school going to do with him? Well, it's all a big poker game. Nobody is showing their cards. It will be cheaper for the school to ship him out to a special school rather than keeping in a mainstream setting. This, of course, would be a really bad thing for Ian. I'm not sure what their plans are, because they don't tell you anything until the last minute. However, I have some suspicions. After two years of this, I've learned to not explode when I sense foul play, which is hard when your kid is involved. "Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave." I just have to come up with alternative plans. Very expensive alternative plans. Plans that are going to involve not getting a new kitchen next year. There's no way that the SD knows about this blog, but it's probably best to shut my mouth right now.

Anyhow, the special education poker game sucked up a lot of time yesterday.

As much as I hate doing errands, I kind of enjoy reading other people talk about the stuff that sucks up time in their lives. Geeky Mom has been printing out all of her academic papers, because it's easier to read hard copies. Ianqui says to consider the trees. I've moved towards keeping .pdf files of academic research and newspaper clippings. In the past, these papers and clippings took up vast amounts of space. My dissertation research is in three cardboard boxes in the attic. Now, everything is on my harddrive. Pros -- space, searchable. Cons -- easily lost, hard to make notes, hard to read.

As the holidays approach, the errands will increase, as will my grouchiness. Make me feel better. Tell me what's on your chore list.

Spreadin' Love

Finally, a decision in NY's school equity case. More money, though maybe not enough. Too bad. Mike Rebell was a champ on this case. Could more money have helped to close the achievement gap? More on school funding from Scott Lemieux.

Michael Berube writes about academic blogging and gives props to my friend, The Invisible Adjunct.

Front page article in the Times about this blogger.

Jo(e) writes about adventures in donut making. Make sure you read this post with some sugar snack nearby.

From the academic blogosphere: New Kid writes about conference presentations and Tim Burke talks about prepping for lectures.

Borat in Britain.

Oh Man!

Ian does his favorite lines from Dora.

Weekend Journal

Twice this weekend, I handed over vast amounts of cash for stale popcorn, sticky floors and that all important three month lead time for seeing a film. Usually we just wait for movies to hit Blockbuster, because we prefer to spend our precious babysitting time drinking Bass and eating chicken wings. We're quality people.