The Edjurist Accord

Friday Snippets: 06/13/08 - Title IX & Sec. 1983 & Certiorari

Justin Bathon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:27:40 GMT

Interesting case this week out of Florida on pre-release waivers for activities. The case is not related to schools directly, but may have school implications. I get asked a pre-release waivers a lot. My standard advice ... do them, but don't rely on them.

Interesting school newspaper case in CA. Students published a front page photo of a student burning a flag ... principal shuts down paper.

New Orleans voucher bill continues moving forward, this time through the state Senate. Also, Louisiana's anti-evolution bill also progresses. But, no concealed weapon law on college campuses. Louisiana's been quite entertaining this year.

Muslim student who wasn't happy about graduation being held in a church settles.

Hartford's desegregation lawsuit settles up.

So much for California's Year of Education.

Around the Blogosphere:

The big news this weeks was the Supreme Court granting cert. to a Title IX, Section 1983 school sexual discrimination case. Mark Walsh has details. Title IX blog has a bit of commentary. I will try to do a write up on the case in the next week or two.

Jen Weissman has advice on school records and teacher dress codes.

Look for Jim at Maine's Education Law Conference - and be sure to tell him you met him in the blogosphere. I won't be at that one Jim, one of these days though, we will be at the same one.

Mitchell Rubinstein has the City of NY dragging its feet ... and paying the price, in a case against a teacher.

And lots of noise (but no action) on NCLB this week. Sec. Spellings trying her best to spin it positively (a nice little retrospective worth reading). An NCLB Recess until Reauthorization? McCain's Position (official position - no education plan till fall). And sensing opportunity, Democrats are dividing on priorities. A statement on education. A BOLDER statement on education. (and Jon Becker has a lock on the education policy statement futures market).

For your Friday Fun:

Fan of the TV show Deadliest Catch on Discovery? Well, now you can play the Deadliest Catch game, which, amazingly, is pretty cool. You are the captain of the boat and choose where and how to fish to make as much money as possible. Great way to waste a few hours on a Friday.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets: 06/13/08 - Title IX

I Just Don't See How Single Gender Classes Are A Good Idea

Justin Bathon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:57:00 GMT

I have been trying to be patient with this growing single-sex classroom idea. I have tried to withhold judgment and see the issue from all sides. I see the articles week after week from around the country touting how it is such a good idea. But, I just can't get on board with it. Now that it has taken hold in a major American city, Boston, I think it is time to start pushing back against this idea.

Now I am as much about improving student achievement as the next person and I realize the demands being placed on school leaders to have their students perform. The awkward glancing between a bespectacled boy and a flirtatious girl wastes time that could otherwise be devoted to imaginary numbers. Girls, not wanting to act smart in front of their "less smart" male counterparts, may not participate as much in class. So, I get it. I see the benefits. But, I don't buy it. Not for a second.

State sponsored segregation, de jure segregation, by gender, a protected class.

What about that sounds good? What about that sounds legal? Seems like we had a little case about schools engaging in de jure segregation round about 50 years ago. Now, I get the opt out provisions ... but don't kid yourself, this is state sponsored segregation at its core. This is saying that this group performs differently than that group, and that they are not equal and they need to be separated. Forget the separate but equal business all the people are touting in association with this plan, separate can never be equal. You can randomize everything (teacher assignments, classrooms used) but it ain't gonna be equal. And equal is not a matter of better or worse, it is a matter of equal. Don't think about it in terms of the girl's class will be better or the boys class will be better, both classes could be no better or no worse than the other, but even if these were somehow miraculously evenly good, they would still not be equal.

Here is the Supreme Court's unanimous language:

"We come then to the question presented: does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does."

"We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."

About as clear as prescription against state sponsored segregation as you are going to get. To me this segregation by gender is clearly illegal. It is almost spitting in the face of Brown v. Board. But, on top of that, I just plain think this is a horrible idea as an educator. We all know that school is more than about test scores. Well, those awkward glances between boys and girls is partly what school is about. I realize that girls might not be raising their hand as much and I want female students to learn as much as the boys and to grow up and to be corporate CEOs and scientists and everything else. But, you just flat can't separate kids like this. It is inherently unequal.

Update: I knew there were some lawsuits in the works against this, but didn't take the time to research them. Luckily, Western New England Law Professor Erin Buzuvis at Title IX Blog is keeping tabs.

What Can Educational Leadership Learn from the 2008 Election?

Justin Bathon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:15:05 GMT

What can educational leadership learn from the 2008 election?

That is the question I plan to base a upcoming paper on. I am going to wait until after the general to publish it (not even sure where yet) but I think there are a lot of valuable lessons that educational leadership can draw from this election and articulating those is worth something. Given the popularity of the 2008 election, I think it is a good way to get educational leaders and others to reflect on their own practice.

So, here is a working list. I didn't include everything I am thinking about, just sort of a top 5 on my list. I really would love feedback on this list, or other ideas that you may have. You don't have to post them here, but if you write them at your own blogs, be sure to put a link in the comments so I can find them and consider them and link back.

So, in no particular order:

24/7 media. Gaffes, gaffes, gaffes and more gaffes. You can't even fix your hair (somewhat repeatedly). There is even one today. There are even analysis over the importance of gaffes. Anyway, educational leaders should get a sense that cameras and recording devices ... are becoming ubiquitous. Scott McLeod's and my posts on hidden cameras in schools is more evidence of this. But, this is not just going to be limited to hidden cel phone cameras in classrooms. Given the ease of recording equipment, places where educational leaders might have felt safe to speak freely in the past, such as board meetings, will increasingly be subject to cameras. Say the wrong thing and you are not just likely to see a story on it in the morning paper, but you are also going to find video of yourself saying it over, and over, and over again.
Data. This is the first election in my memory that has relied so heavily on data. Not just polling and exit polling, but demographic data, multiple regression analysis, delegate allocations, superdelegate counts, and much more. And this election has made stars out of the people that can deal with the numbers and use the numbers to make accurate projections. Chuck Todd went from being a back office political director for NBC to one of the most authoritative voices on the election. Nate Silver, a baseball statistics analyst, used his data skills to out-project the pollsters and in the meantime made his blog FiveThirtyEight the data resource for the 2008 election. He is such a great story that Newsweek ran a story on him. As I wrote earlier, data (and the people that can make sense of it) are becoming an important resource in all areas of life, but especially when people are a little confused. Where there are not traditional ideas that carry the day or in tumultuous times people are now increasingly putting their trust in the analysis of data analysts to clarify the picture. While all the speculators were speculating on the democratic primary ... people who knew the numbers knew it was over in February.
Inevitability. Yeah, ask Hillary Clinton about her thoughts on inevitability. It is just not as good a position to take anymore. Educational leaders who hold a idea they think is inevitable that everyone will eventually get on board with are taking an increasingly risky position. In this age, people want to be convinced. They want to see the argument. They don't want to just be told what to do because it is inevitable, they want to feel like they are involved in changing things.
Change is in. In the beginning, some candidates were actually trying to run on experience. Now, they are all running on change, even the 71 year old guy. Even the guy that explicitly ran on "experience AND change" couldn't get any traction. The country is in the mood to try something new, whether or not that something has been previously tested in practice. I think this mood applies to both politics and education. Educational leaders that have new ideas, even "inexperienced" educational leaders, should be encouraged to give those ideas a shot while the country and perhaps their district is in the mood for new things.
The Power of the Net. Barack Obama would not be the Democratic nominee without harnessing the inherent power of the net, period. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder even called the Net, HisSpace. In this excellent read, that Atlantic documents how Obama turned Silicon Valley loose on Washington politics and the result was more campaign contributions than anyone in history ... by a long, long shot. He has almost a million Facebook Friends. His internet videos have been viewed tens of millions of times. The will.i.am, Yes We Can music video itself has been viewed over 8 million times. You can't even make a political ad with stock footage without the Net getting involved. And, just in the last couple of days we learn there is an Obama Internet war room to fight slurs. I could go on and on about how the Net has changed American politics. If the Net is having this kind of impact on politics ... shouldn't it be having that kind of effect on education? The Net is changing the way the world operates and schools are slow to catch up.

Anyway, those are 5 things I think educational leadership can learn. I am sure you have more ideas and/or comments about these and I would love to know them.

Friday Snippets: 6/6/08 - I'm an Anti-Dentite

Justin Bathon — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:01:18 GMT

The LA Teacher's walkout plan referenced a couple posts back, will be going forward as a judge denied an injunction trying to stop it.

The Scopes Monkey Trial will not be reenacted in full this year in the Dayton, TN courtroom where the first drama played out. (If anyone around Dayton wants to get that on tape and send it to me, I would love to feature it in a post).

Sneaking in vouchers in Florida. Tisk, tisk. Also, more evidence that vouchers are the hot policy position for young conservative politicians looking to get elected.

NY Times article on Evolution Opponents new strategy. Don't you just love how this debate "evolves" - and every single story or article has to use that metaphor in the first paragraph. Must be some policy on that I am not aware of. (Also: Rubinstein)

We are now in "sweeping under the rug" mode in the NY Attorney Scandal.

Pennsylvania has a new cyber charter school bill.

Here is a school transfer bill for military families that makes a lot of sense to me.

As a person that hates the dentist, mandatory dental exams for children to enter schools is something that just doesn't sit right for me. (ZzzzzZZZZzzzz ZZZzzz ZZZZZZzzz ... god I have an irrational fear of dentists - see below).

And around the Ed. Law Blogosphere (any of my new ed. tech. readers are encouraged to visit other members of our little school law social network that I am working to build):

My new Ed. Tech friends will be interested in Mike Tully's comments on this student blogging speech rights case.

Mark Walsh at the School Law Blog has a rare school elections oriented post (don't see a lot of those, in fact in my three years of blogging, that might be the first).

Jen Weissman this week has her take on Obama's Education policies and schools going green (article link ).

Title IX blog has a $19,000 award against the Massachusetts Athletic Association for not letting a female golfer participate in the boys state final.

Couple weeks ago a teacher let her class "vote" an autistic student out of class. It has been making big waves and Jim Gerl weighs in.

Mitchell Rubinstein has a great resource this week: A 50 State compendium of explanations on Open Meetings Laws.

Pamela Parker has a funny (and concerning) school board member story. Interesting group those school board members.

And Jim Walsh thinks the special ed. opt out in the new DOE proposed regulations is a bad idea.

BoardBuzz has the Choice/SES switch becoming official. I recommended as much a year ago ... what took so long?

And your Friday Fun: I am in a Seinfeld Mood and 2 seem relevant today.

First, given my opposition to dentists ... The Anti-Dentite Episode.

And second, I think I was fired from the Ed. Tech. Blogging Community Yesterday ... if I ever even worked there:

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets: 6/6/08 - I'm an Anti-Dentite

The Ed. Tech Dominance of the Edublogosphere

Justin Bathon — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:06:47 GMT

Scott McLeod (an education technology theorist - is time for your own wikipedia page Scott?) over at Dangerously Irrelevant (a godfather edublog) has put a list together of the Top 50 P-12 Edublogs ... at least as ranked by Technorati authority. It must have taken forever to put together the list and I applaud Scott's efforts. But, the list is dominated by Education Technology blogs, as Jon Becker noted in the comments, which I agreed with. This has triggered Jon, who is also an ed. tech. blogger although he occasionally writes on legal issues, to write a post on his blog about the Ed. Tech. Echo Chamber. As a friend to Scott and Jon, I want to share some thoughts from a non-education technology blogger's perspective.

First, I 100% agree with Jon on his assessment of the education technology blogosphere as an echo chamber. The education technology field online has become so large with so many bloggers that it has become somewhat of a self-contained community, at least to an outside observer like myself. As a generalization (and with knowledge that there are many exceptions) an Ed. Tech. person will write something which gets commented on by ed. tech. folks, gets referenced by other ed. tech. people in their own blogs, and then there may be a Twitter conversation on it and finally it may even be the topic of conversation at an education technology specific conference, of which there are many but NECC is next. All of this is perfectly acceptable behavior and education technology is a healthy, functioning, twenty-first century social network. Something to be proud of, actually, and I can only dream of the day when educational law will look the same.

But, here are the rubs:

First, as far as I can tell, the ed. tech. field sees as Goal #1 the spreading of education technology knowledge to all k-12 educators which will help students learn. Well, when you are twittering, it is hard to bring in non-education tech. folks. It is a struggle just to get K-12 educators to visit blogs. If it were not for Google, I am not even sure how well we would be exceeding at that. To expect them to participate in Twitter conversations is unreasonable - so those conversations are 100% insulated conversations.

Second, largely the ed. tech. field seems to be expecting new bloggers to come to them. Why? Isn't that the opposite of Goal #1 above? When you see the blogosphere as a competitive marketplace for ideas, other bloggers on different topics (who will probably not be giving you Technorati bumps) are competitors, no? Why promote another's blog, especially a non-ed. tech. blog who is not going to reference you back? To me, that is the exact wrong way to visualize the education blogosphere if your goal is to nurture new edubloggers so that they can in turn help their students.

Third, the dominating ed. tech. social network is scary to outsiders. If you are an insider, this is probably hard to understand, but you scare people. New non-ed. tech. bloggers are wide eyed and enthusiastic and think they are on the cutting edge of technology and get to share their ideas about X subject with the world! Yeah! They got themselves a new .blogspot web address and are using a standard template and then they see something like Scott's post yesterday. 50 blogs all with Technorati ratings over 100. Or they visit a page and see something like the visitor location tracker of Students 2.0 (pictured). Or the visit the professionally designed techLEARNING blog. Or they see that Education Week is now picking up bloggers. Or, yes, they see your new Voki, Jon. Then they learn of this thing called widgets and aggregators and podcasting and this and that and the other and it starts to get a bit scary. I don't blame ed. tech. folks for always pushing the envelop and wanting to try new things, that's their job really, but it makes for a pretty scary learning curve that I am sure is discouraging to new bloggers.

Now, again, I am just making (over)generalized observations as an outsider with a Technorati rating of 20 (So, according to the edublogosphere, I have little authority anyway). I have learned a lot personally from the ed. tech. blogosphere and I pass along these constructively critical comments as a friend. But, I do not think the Ed. Tech. Dominance of the edublogosphere is a necessarily healthy thing. It is concerning to me that we are primarily using Web 2.0 devices to ... talk about Web 2.0 devices.

Again with the Duct Taping of Students to a Chair ... For the Love of God, STOP IT!

Justin Bathon — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:20:39 GMT

It is something of a quandary for educational law instructors ... this duct taping of students to chairs.

Most of us teach intentional torts to our students and the easiest example of false imprisonment is always this example. So, when these stories come along we have a tendency to notice them. Scott McLeod noticed this one today, and sent over the link (video). And just like every other one of these stories it involves a student, a chair, and duct tape. Unbelievable.

Here is the thing about torts, especially intentional torts, you don't have to be told these actions are wrong. You don't have to be told that it is a bad idea to hit a kid or to make fun of kid ... or to tape a kid to a chair. We all know it is wrong and all the educational law instructor's job is to give you that legal affirmation and some fancy new words like Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.

So, every time I teach false imprisonment to my students and I use this taping students to a chair example, the whole class sort of giggles. They can't reasonably believe that a teacher would do that to a student, and I can't blame them. It is crazy, right? And yet, these stories continue to emerge! In the year 2008, what in the hell would possess a teacher to do this? Are we going to have to pass a law banning duct tape within 100 yards of school buildings?

Seriously, STOP IT!

Not on the Same Page Here

Justin Bathon — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:55:02 GMT

Much has been made this year of the California Budget Cuts. I have written about it here and in several editions of the Friday Snippets and its been a regular feature in local California newspapers. I think there is real outrage on the part of people with an interest in education ... and rightfully so.

But, those outraged people are not really all that much on the same page when it comes to expressing their dislike of this shortchanging of schools. For instance, LA Unified Teachers want to protest an hour next week over the budget cuts to get some public attention for their position. But, LA Unified, a school district who is just as outraged over the budget cuts, is now seeking an injunction to stop the protest.

And, there is the problem. We are not on the same page when it comes to presenting a public face of education to the general public. This teacher protest could have been a good way (I am not commenting on the merits of it) to gain public attention, but now the infighting is overshadowing the message which everyone agrees on. On top of that you have teachers protesting independently across the state, uncoordinated parental protests, students walking out of class (and being discouraged by the DOE), k-12 students & parents protesting, higher ed. students protesting on campuses, and on and on.

Lots of protesting, but not a lot of pressure on politicians because these stories are all local stories. Certainly, the local protests help make education's case, but what would happen if education were ever to present a united front to the public?

Friday Snippets - 5/30/08 - Gas Prices - Ugh!

Justin Bathon — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:29:11 GMT

Well, surprise, surprise, California schools are not going to get rid of most of their teachers that they gave pink slips to. I just wonder how many good teachers they lost as a result of this fiasco. Probably somebody will do a study on it someday. By the way, if you remember, Texas was at the front of the line in trying to steal teachers away from Calif. schools, now, they are moving on to stealing teachers from Florida. Lesson? Need a teaching job? Try Texas!

Legislators Listen Up! Either support more education funding or lose your job!

Denver teachers are getting a bit restless over contract negotiations.

Hey, Clinton Campaign, pay your bills! I don't want to have to pay higher fees to make up for your debt (and refusal to acknowledge reality).

I am not the only one to notice the hot legislation right now are laws against teacher sex abuse, the AP noticed as well too.

The stupid, annoying, frustrating, ridiculously high gas prices are affecting schools as well. More. BoardBuzz too. (No real surprise there, I am just ultra ticked about the insane prices and needed to vent).

The Duke Lacross players are looking for a little revenge (who can blame them).

Early feedback on the Las Vegas open enrollment choice plan.

South Dakota's governor, apparently, is really fond of laptops in the classroom.

And around the blogosphere:

Jim Gerl has Hearing Officer Openings in DC ... and I agree with Jim's assessment of the job. Can to a lot of good in that job, but respect ... not so much.

Mitchell Rubinstein has the douchebags case coming down in the Second Circuit. Oh yeah, Mitchell, there is going to be lots of commentary on this one. Starting now: Mitchell's commentary is right on. This case is a stretch to say the best. I agree with the rules the court lays out, I am just not sure this is the kind of situation where the school needs to step in and regulate.

Also, the ABA Journal is going to run a full story on the ethics problems of the New York School Attorney Scandal.

Also, LII is RSSing new U.S. Code updates! Nice work Tom Hutton and everyone else at LII. I really like this idea.

Mark Walsh has the Justice Department discouraging the Supreme Court from reviewing a racial disparate impact case stemming from the teaching exam.

Connecticut Jen (love to have a last name sometime Jen) blogs on John McCain and education.

Title IX Blog has links to salary disparities in college coaching between the sexes. Some pretty striking differences there.

Charles Fox has a teacher allowing a class to vote a special education student out of it.

Education returns to the campaign, at least for Obama. Alexander Russo does a good job tracking down reactions. More.

Friday Fun:

I Love the World. I love this video ... and Discovery Channel. Even when watching TV, I love learning new things.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 5/30/08

Could be Hearing More about This Racial Discrimination Case

Justin Bathon — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:50:50 GMT

Here is a case that has all the makings of blowing up nationally. I am not saying it will, but the ingredients are in place to make this case the next Jena 6. Allegations of over-discipline of African American children, racial slurs, etc.

WKRG.com Video

The case is out of Monroeville, Alabama ... the town that was used in Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" (which of course had a lot of racial elements to it). So, as this article shows, the national press is going to have an easy time writing juicy stories on this case. Now that the ACLU is involved, the legal arguments are likely to be ramped up considerably and other organizations, such as NAACP, may also get involved. If this begins to gain steam nationally, don't be surprised to see protest marches, which of course will feed more national coverage, and then the story will blow up.

I am not saying this will happen, I am just saying it has the ingredients necessary for it to happen. There is some question as to the soundness of the case and the unique election year may give pause to some African American leaders, so it may remain just a local story. But, don't be surprised if you are hearing a lot more about Monroeville in the near future.

Friday Snippets - 5/23/08 - Honoring the Legacy of Brown v. Board

Justin Bathon — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:55:37 GMT

The Headliner:

The headliner this week has to be the passing of Zelma Henderson, the last surviving plaintiff in the Topeka case that eventually was consolidated with other cases under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. I am not sure the public really gets what these plaintiffs had to go through in this case with the waiting and the losses in previous courts, but it was a lot, and these parents in Topeka, Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware are American heroes and I am glad that as this case becomes a seminal point in American history that they are being remembered in the right way. That generation of African Americans put their foot down in right way and understood that democracies can change. My greatest hero, and the person I find to be the most inspiring in American history, is Charles Hamilton Houston ... the man who killed Jim Crow.

In other news:

Louisiana is really in a challenging mood lately. They are still trying to move an anti-evolution bill forward. Also, a New Orleans specific voucher plan is moving forward, although a statewide plan was rejected.

Gov. Schwarzenegger seems a bit lost on the budget situation ... although he still supports the homeschoolers.

Changes to Bible Classes in Tennessee and Georgia. (Hard to see how this is legal).

Also a study finds 16% of science teachers believe in creationism and a quarter of science teachers at least mention creationism and/or intelligent design.

Is there a link between parental home ownership and student performance? This study says no.

Arizona's campus concealed carry bill is dead for this year.

Connecticut appeals its NCLB ruling to the 2nd Circuit.

The Federal Court in Idaho will not force the Idaho Supreme Court to offer a remedy on school finance.

Sort of the hot legislative policy right now is tracking abusive teachers ... and Illinois gets in on the action.

More on West Virginia's Pension System Lawsuit.

Ray Suarez (and friends) discuss the gender gap (video).

NPR on California Teacher Poaching (audio).

Around the Blogosphere:

Mark Walsh has a 7th Circuit search and seizure case and a 7th circuit age discrimination case.

Mike Tully offers some commentary on why prosecutions coming out of the Cyberbullying Mother and Student Suicide incident is a bad idea.

The Adjunct Law Prof Blog has a case permitting a public school teacher to send her kids to private school and that this cannot get in the way of promotion to Assistant Principal.

Charles Fox posts his IEP Planning Checklist (pdf).

Jim Gerl has more on the proposed Special Ed. Regulations.

Title IX blog has some takes on recent sexual harassment law journals.

Pamela Parker has a teacher failing a field sobriety test IN THE CLASSROOM! Yes, Pamela, that would make a great movie scene. Also, test score pressure leading to death threats. Nice job this week Pamela.

Integration Report No. 9.

New education law blog this week: educationlaw by Jen (a writer, lawyer and former state department employee). Here is what it is about. She seems to come at it from more of a journalistic standpoint providing a lot more advice than what most ed. law blogs do.

Friday Fun: The Burj Dubai

In case you were not aware, the world's tallest structure is now the Burj Dubai ... and it is not even close to finished yet (those things around it at the bottom are large skyscrapers themselves).

Latest Construction Photos from Imre Solt. You can follow the discussion and progress on this skyscraper and the rest of the world's tallest projects (only a few of which are in the U.S.) at Skyscraper City.

I just enjoy looking at this behemoth rise from the desert floor. Thought you might too.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 5/23/08

What's Al Gore Doing?

Justin Bathon — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:53:53 GMT

Resolving the democratic primary, perhaps? Working on his latest powerpoint presentation? Maybe promoting his book or movie?

Well, no, what he is currently doing is involving himself in the Education Budget Crunch across the country with specific focus in California. (You can see my comments on the California Budget Crunch here).

If Al Gore can do for education what he did for the climate crisis ... I say more power to him. Good to have you on board, Al.

Response to Kevin Carey's "Money-Sucking Flagship Universities"

Justin Bathon — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:37:08 GMT

Over at the Quick and the Ed, they don't allow comments, so I thought I would write my response to Kevin Carey's "Money Sucking Flagship Universities" here.

First, let me say I agree with Kevin a lot. In fact, I agree with him the vast majority of the time ... and I don't totally disagree with Kevin in this case either - I just want to point out some reactions. And, in the interest of full disclosure I am at a flagship state university now and I will move to a different one in the fall.

Okay, first, I don't pretend to be an economist but I have read enough economics to know that utility is the underlying concern, not return on public investment or any other metric necessarily associated with monetary return. Utility can be much larger than money and the positive feelings associated with a world-class flagship university certainly have some utility in an economic analysis. In fact, I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say it is possible that the utility of the pride in the flagship university outweighs the potential utility of sending more dollars to a non-flagship public university like Chicago State. So, we shouldn't lock economists into maximizing dollars and assume that having pride in the flagship is only a "gut-reaction."

Secondly, there are a lot of non-flagship public universities. Just off the top of my head in Illinois are my alma maters, SIUC (42%) and SIUE (46%) as well as ISU (64%), NIU (48%), WIU (56%), EIU (60%), UIC (51%), UIS (?), Governors State (?) and maybe one or two more I am forgetting. So, Chicago State is the outlier in Illinois. On top of that, UIUC's 6 year graduation rate is 82 percent, one of the highest in the country, but still 1 in 5 UIUC enrollees is not graduating either. So, this brings up a couple points. One, maybe it is just Chicago State and we should focus on what to do with that university in particular. Since it provides a resource for Chicago's black community, you don't want to close it ... but? Second, any money you take away from the flagship will have to be spread pretty thin. For every 10 dollars you take away from UIUC, only 1 is going to get to Chicago State since everyone is going to be begging. So how many dollars are you going to have to take away from the flagship to significantly increase enrollment at a single non-flagship institution? Is it better if every public university graduated only 55% of its graduates? Is that a superior outcome?

Third, I think Kevin is assuming that extra dollars for low performing schools like Chicago State can lead to direct improvements in graduation rates. I am no expert by any means and I sure Kevin knows more about it than I do, but that seems like a stretch to me. If a student is predisposed to not graduate, how much money will it take to get that student to stay? And could those same dollars get 2 additional graduates at the flagship school?

Fourth, I am not sure if Kevin is including all the non-monetary returns that Research I universities give back to the community, but that non-monetary return is substantial. All the research, service, library archives, professional organizations, meetings with state officials, interviews with the media ... all that has utility. UIUC's National Center for Supercomputing Applications is only possible because there is a critical mass of researchers, graduate students, well-known faculty members ... and dollars that you are not going to get at any other state university in Illinois. The NCSA created a little thing called a web browser and so every time you click into the Edjurist or the Quick and the Ed ... you owe a little bit to the Illinois Legislature who funded a research university capable of producing such breakthroughs.

Look, I am always going to be a Saluki at heart and I know the trouble that Southern has getting dollars from the legislature. SIU may have even chosen a plagiarizing president just to try and increase the legislative appropriation. But there is significant value in centralizing dollars in one or two flagship schools (I think SIU should be Illinois' second flagship!). There is no doubt the sub-20 percent 6 year graduation rate at Chicago State and other low performing public universities is of high concern and should be addressed. But it takes generations to build a high performing flagship university and those universities have a lot of utility. I just don't think blame should automatically be placed on the flagships when some other schools struggle.

Photocredits: lbj79us; jwinfred

Overpriced School Lawyers?

Justin Bathon — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:41:38 GMT

From today's Philadelphia Inquirer Daily News:

WHILE PHILADELPHIA School District officials continue combing their books for nearly $40 million in spending cuts needed to balance next year's budget, one group of school employees appears to be safe from the ax: lawyers.

The district's Office of General Counsel will receive a slight increase of $325,074 in 2008-09, bringing its total outlay to $13.5 million, according to the budget proposal presented during City Council hearings April 28 and 29.

The head of the office, General Counsel Sherry A. Swirsky, and the 18 attorneys who work for her are not only among the highest-paid school employees, but also make more than the attorneys who work for Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham and City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith.

The school attorneys' high salaries caught the eye of City Council President Anna Verna during the hearings.

"I just can't fathom what they do seven or eight hours a day, five days a week," Verna said. "That's something that I would definitely want to look into."

Later the article goes on to say this:

Swirsky, 56, defended the salaries paid to her and her staff, saying that they have more experience than other city-government lawyers, and more responsibilities.

Five of her attorneys work in the area of contract law, Swirsky said, four in special-education law, one on charter-school issues, two in civil rights and tort litigation, one in claims, one in commercial litigation, two in labor and employment law and two in school law.

"School districts are the most highly regulated institutions that exist," she said. "We get federal and state grants with very technical compliance issues.

"We're a little different than other government law departments in that we have no entry-level positions," she said. "The least experienced person [in her office] has 10 years' experience. The most experienced, including myself, have 30 or more years of experience. Whereas, with the D.A.'s Office and the City Solicitor's Office, they have people right out of law school.

"It would not be possible for someone without a substantial amount of legal experience to practice in this office," she added.

Let me just throw this crazy, wild, wacky idea out there ... maybe we could employ some entry level lawyers (thus cheaper lawyers) if we actually trained law students in school law issues? Will they be as good as lawyers with 10 years experience? No, but they could probably get by and learn quickly ... all while saving the district tens of thousands of dollars which could be devoted to more teacher positions, etc.

This problem, high priced school lawyers, is not going away any time soon. We have clearly entered an era where the school lawyer is an intricate member of the school leadership team. More and more individual districts are employing general counsels and this is a trend that will continue in my estimation until every school district has a general counsel and relies less on outside counsel.

In light of this clear transition that is happening right now in how school law is practiced, we need to make changes to legal education to accommodate that transition. We also need to think about the school leadership team differently in light of the reality that most major decisions pass through the general counsel's office first.

There are lots of ways to save money here, but the key is beginning the discussion with the realization that school law is a legitimate specialty and thus deserves special consideration. Education law is moving beyond a niche practice to a mainstream specialty of law ... with its own niches inside the specialty. The way we employ and train school lawyers has to catch up to this reality. We cannot continue to rely on only lawyers with 10+ years of experience ... we don't have that kind of money. We need to develop a pipeline to bring young lawyers into the system at lower prices and let them develop within education ... not bring in them in from outside education 10 years out of law school. That is a costly and inefficient way of operating. Schools of Education and Schools of Law need to start thinking about this and working together to develop education law concentrations, joint-degrees, law journals, etc. within law school.

These articles, like the one in today's Daily News, are going to become more and more frequent until we figure out a way to bring in young lawyers.

Also: Adjunct Law Prof Blog

Friday Snippets - 5/16/08 - Special Education the Headliner

Justin Bathon — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:13:51 GMT

The Headliner

The headliner this week was special education issues.

(1). The Ninth Circuit went with the Second Circuit's reasoning for unilateral placement reimbursement. Jim Gerl has the details.

(2). Mitchell Rubinstein thinks the 3rd Circuit made a major blunder in Pardini v. Allegheny Intermediate Unit in deciding parents are not entitled to attorney's fees in light of Winkelman.

(3). Karl Romberger has the Department of Education releasing proposed regulatory changes.

Other News and Notes

California is trying to close some teacher abuse loopholes.

The Maine Supreme Court is looking at public funding going toward religious schools again.

South Carolina legislator introduces evolution alternatives bill he acknowledges has no chance of passing. (Its the popular thing for conservative legislators to do these days).

Meanwhile, some South Carolina legislators are actually doing real work and combating sex abuse in schools.

A lawsuit in West Virginia alleges fraud in tricking members to switch away from their defined benefit plans toward defined contribution plans ... as someone who has studied this a little ... stick with the defined benefit plans folks.

No more cookies in Hawaii schools.

Illinois is not changing their moment of silence law.

Utah is now also waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on an Idaho case on automatic payroll deductions for PACs.
A school in Colorado is deciding whether school bus surveillance tapes are educational records. (I always sort of thought so).

Elsewhere around the Education Blogosphere

Jim Gerl has just an All-Star week with several important cases. (1) Connecticut is willing to go all the way in its case against NCLB. (2) the Indiana Supreme Court protects a student's Myspace criticism of his principal ... but not under the First Amendment. (3) Pro-gay speech allowed in a Florida court. (4) And the 9th Circuit upholds school uniforms (clothing not protected speech) out of Nevada. Great Job this week, Jim.

Also Arizona strikes down vouchers for disabled and foster students (more from Board Buzz ) ... which is timely given the topics in last week's snippets. I am becoming more convinced as I think about it that Greg Anrig was right. Although Eduwonk disagrees this week and Greg defends himself again in the comments section. (Greg, I get you man and I agree with your principle argument that vouchers in their pure form are in decline).

Alexander Russo has a teacher being fired for going on Howard Stern ... in a bikini. H/t Scott McLeod

Jon Becker redesigns ... a redesign to this blog is probably about 2 months away (some have complained about my taste in web design).

Friday Fun

Not gonna lie, not having a lot of fun this week as I am wrapping up the dissertation, but I am listening to a lot of music. My favorite of the week is the Duhks.

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 5/16/08

Video Cameras in Schools

Justin Bathon — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:46:49 GMT

Some notes on video cameras in schools.

First, not only are they becoming more prevalent but as the digital technology improves the feeds from the cameras can be sent to an increasing number of places ... other than just the principal's office. The first step was sending a live feed to district headquarters. Now, some cities are moving toward live feeds to the police station. I noted this last fall in a school in NJ and registered some of my concerns with it. Well, this idea of live feeds to police is expanding. Scott McLeod passes along a link that apparently I missed that Chicago is going to the extreme on this with 4,500 live feeds to their 911 technology center. They say that they are only going to regularly monitor cameras on the outside of the school building, but that in emergencies they will access the live feeds from cameras inside the school. The only good thing about this that I can see is that there is 4,500 feeds. You can't watch them all (see Hasan Elahi's interview on the Colbert Report).

I think we can clearly call this a trend now to send live video feeds to police headquarters ... which can then be fed to squad cars and wherever else the police need it. We need to think about what that means for kids and school administrators and how their role or behavior will/should change. You say nothing changes? .... keep reading ...

Okay, second note. Check out this animation of a story by Chris Ware for This American Life, which apparently is also on Showtime now in addition to its usual NPR slot.

I don't bring up philosophy much on the blog ... but I simply can't help but mention Foucault's Discipline and Punish here. I could go into a whole criticism of the live feeds to police headquarters where unknown people are watching you at unknown times and at unknown locations (sometimes I wonder how far away we are from the Panopticon), but Foucault does a better job than me and I will just reference you to him for further reading.

It is the little things like this where you lose something ... a little here a little there and what's left ... well, what's left?

Fordham Scholars Announced

Justin Bathon — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:26:37 GMT

Fordham has announced the winners of their Fordham Scholars program that is oriented toward educational law this year. Each of the winners will receive a $25,000 grant to investigate their topic and publish their results in peer-reviewed journals.

Nora Gordon, an economist at UCSD, plans to look at how litigation has affected homeschooling legislation.

Daniel Nadler, a Ph.D. student at Harvard in Government, plans to study influences on educational judicial ideologies.

And Jason Snyder, a teacher, Ph.D. candidate at Teacher's College, and former Hogan and Hartson lawyer (very impressive Jason, can't wait to get you into a ed. leadership faculty position soon), plans to survey school administrator's views on school authority in light of the additional discretion handed to them by the courts regarding school discipline issues.

All of them sound like great studies and I can't wait to see them in the journals. I want to congratulate the winners and commend the Fordham Foundation for awarding these grants looking into how the courts affect K-12 education. I hope you make that the theme every year!

About Those Greener Pastures

Justin Bathon — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:16:01 GMT

It has been a year for changing jobs among some of the best teacher bloggers: Kilian Betlach (Teaching in the 408); Dan Meyer.

Anyway, these high profile moves have spurred some discussion in the education blogosphere. Chris Lehmann thinks we need to treat early career teachers with more care. Corey Bower (now suffering through the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt, I feel for you) is sad to see them go and thinks these are the type of teacher we need to keep. Finally, Scott Elias, who moved himself last year into administration, writes at LeaderTalk that the Grass Might Not Always Be Greener (and makes good points - and is worth the read for teachers considering leaving).

Well, I am writing because I guess you can count me amongst the group that has left the teacher ranks myself to enter academia. I taught high school for a year in Southern Illinois. Then I went to law school with every intention of never teaching again - and earning that six figure salary at 27 years old they talk about on the TV (it's not real, believe me). At the time I was sad about it, but resolute that it was the right decision for me and my young family.

So some reflections 6 years past leaving the K-12 Classroom.

I miss it. There is a white board that I have put in every office I have had which has all my former student's signatures on the outside of it (I asked them all to sign it after I made the decision to leave). I look at that board and I see a name of a kid I had a relationship with ... and there is something missing. I miss those close relationships. I had a personal stake in those kids lives. I miss those relationships where I knew the kids habits and parents and ambitions and teenage quirks. I don't get that much at all with my college students.
The teaching bug doesn't go away. Ever. You can't lock it up. You can't hide it. You know what I found myself doing a lot of in law school? Teaching. My friends ... first year students ... pretty much whoever was willing to listen.
I miss the hours. The steady schedule and summers off and home to watch the evening news or play in the yard or whatever.
People in the business (and legal) world can be just as cold, and in most cases more so, than the veteran teachers that were in my building. Teaching is somewhat isolated from the cold realities of the business world and your attitude must necessarily be a little more competitive to thrive in worlds outside teaching. I didn't take well to this increasingly competitive atmosphere and I still don't.
I don't miss the politics of teaching. There were a lot of politics in law school, but the politics of the K-12 school, at least the school I taught at, were very personal and uncomfortable. There were a lot of unwritten "rules" amongst the teachers I taught with that really annoyed me. These rules exist in other places, but in other places it is about the people themselves, not the kids. It is one thing to negotiate these politics when you are trying to help yourself, it is quite another and more frustrating situation when those politics get in the way of helping a kid.
There is life after leaving the classroom. I was scared to leave, really. I knew how to teach and I was good at it. I didn't know the first thing about being a lawyer (perhaps I still don't). But, I survived the jump.
You can still teach, even outside the K-12 classroom. Found out, much to my surprise, that these places called universities are willing to pay me to teach (and research and write and be creative).
That said, there is no way to have as much impact on kids as to actually be in the classroom with them. I can't write a policy or interpret a law that is going to make nearly as much difference for kids as if I was in the classroom with them. That's just the reality and truth of it and I have come to terms with that.
Even though I was a good teacher ... I am a better scholar. I have found that I am much more creative and innovative and excited about the work I am doing now.
It was absolutely the right decision for me to leave the classroom and wind up where I did in academia. You have to do what you love and while I loved the kids and teaching, there were other things about the work that bothered me. Now, I really love all parts of my job, even if I tend to complain about some of them from time to time. I like writing, I like teaching, I like working with state officials, I like to blog ... I have found my niche and it turned out it was not in the K-12 classroom.

As Scott Elias rightfully said, it is all about doing what you love. I also hate to see us lose good teachers, but these individuals will fill other niches and many of them will still seek to contribute to education.

Photocredit: Karen cb

Data and Respectability in Confusing Times

Justin Bathon — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:12:17 GMT

Lately I have been sitting at my computer day after endless day crunching numbers. Meanwhile, as I am wont to do, I keep up with politics. It is no surprise this has been an exciting year for politics and the mass confusion surrounding the democratic primary has kept things interesting.

But, throughout this whole process have you noticed who is getting the most respect? Its the numbers guys and it is not even close. Chuck Todd, the numbers guy for MSNBC is probably respected as the best analyst this season and was probably the first mainstream media guy to understand that Sen. Obama won the primary in February as he ran up the numbers on Sen. Clinton. Also, Poblano, who runs the electoral statistics site fivethirtyeight.com (the number of electoral college votes) has gained wide acclaim for his amazing statistical projections, even calling the latest round of primaries in North Carolina and Indiana closer than ANY of the polls using statistical calculations based on demographics and past voting patterns. These two guys, and a few others (CNN's county by county maps have been very helpful), have actually managed to GAIN respect during this primary season as so many other talking heads seem increasingly like opinionated, partisan dimwits that know less about politics than most bloggers.

All of this has lead to my conclusion that there is something about quantitative data that is comforting in confusing times. All of these talking heads are going around speaking with people, listening to speeches, and gathering other qualitative-type evidence which they translate into bombastic opinions hour after hour on the news networks. But, Chuck Todd comes on MSNBC for a 2 min. segment and says more than all the hours of opinion combined. The numbers tell the story here folks, the rest is just fluff.

What is really, really odd about all this is just how simple some of these calculations are and yet we look at these numbers folks as geniuses. Most of what Chuck Todd does is counting, throw in a little addition and subtraction and boom you have a REAL analysis of the state of the race. Check out these ABC Charts and Graphs (ppt) that were put out today that are getting wide acclaim across the Net. Are you kidding me? My high school students could have done that. CNN's awesome county maps are no more than disaggregating the number of votes by county and then calculating a simple percentage. Poblano's statistics are little more involved because he calculates error for weighting purposes, but past that he is using pretty much just percentages disaggregated by state.

My conclusion is then that even simple, easily calculated data can be extremely powerful in confusing times. When everyone knows what's going on and there is general agreement, the numbers are quite meaningless. They just reaffirm the general knowledge, which is nice, but somewhat unnecessary. But, when no one knows what's going on, everyone falls back on the numbers and we put the numbers folks up on a pedestal. As computers become more and more powerful and numbers can be increasingly calculated and posted to the Web automatically in preformed graphical packages (ala Poblano's and CNN's sites). We need to integrate this more into education. Think of a Poblano site for education. Here is the recipe: It takes a certain amount of basic statistical knowledge (which any Doc. Student should have), a basic Web 2.0 knowledge, knowledge of Excel, and a general curiosity. That's it. But with that simple recipe, you can control the conversation in confusing times.

Okay, back to crunching numbers.

ECS and Web 2.0

Justin Bathon — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:22:12 GMT

One of the best but least known resources in the Education World are the StateNotes put out by the Education Commission of the States. Many fellow researchers are vaguely familiar with them and I see them referred to occasionally in scholarly writing, but the StateNotes and the ECS Issue Sites are rarely a education scholar's first stop when looking for information on a given topic (they are probably a first stop for policy folks and legislative aides). This lack of use by scholars is unfortunate as the StateNotes and Issue Sites are a great way to quickly access 50 state laws and regulations as well as relevant research reports and other publications on most education topics. You don't have to be an education law scholar to use this stuff and it would be a great way for non-legal scholars to look at the law as applied to their topic and integrate it into their thinking.

Having worked at ECS and seen the process in action, I can give a little insiders info. First, Kathy Christie, who is now the Chief of Staff, and the good folks of the Information Clearinghouse maintain what has to be one of the best education policy libraries in the U.S. There is a row of file cabinets organized by topic and every time a new report comes out the report is filed under the appropriate topic. This has been going on for years and years so it is pretty extensive. Anyway, then a lot of that information finds its way to links on the web under ECS Issue Sites and those reports spur research that becomes ECS StateNotes. Sometimes these things are sponsored by corporations and sometimes they are part of broader research projects, but they try to get as much information on the Web as they can and make it as recent and relevant as they can. (Disclaimer: I wrote 4 StateNotes (1), (2), (3), (4), in my time with ECS, so obviously I want them to be used more).

Here are some new ECS StateNotes that relate to education law for instance:

School Prayer, Moment of Silence, Other Policies Concerning Religion (March 2008) - Michael Colasanti

State Education Governance Models (March 2008) - Mary Fulton

State Collective Bargaining Policies for Teachers (Jan. 2008) - Michael Colasanti

Okay, couple things here. First, I want more scholars and education students to use ECS. It should be a site that we professors encourage students to use and that we bookmark in our browsers. So, we need to do a better job of using this resource. Especially education law scholars because a lot of what ECS does relates to law and policy.

Secondly, however, it would be nice if ECS made their site more Web 2.0 friendly. For instance, it would be nice if each time they put out a new StateNote, they would RSS it so that it showed up in my aggregator. I am a busy guy so I don't think to check ECS every couple months to see what's new. They need to bring whats new to me. At a minimum, it would be nice if they would RSS their E-Connections newsletter which does sort of summarize what's new, but in the bevy of daily e-mails in my inbox I often neglect to open. I did notice they have recently RSSed their E-Clips, which is daily report of 5-6 news articles across the country that ECS Staff feel are valuable. The RSS Link can be found here. If you RSSed these things you could not only do a better job of notifying your audience when new resources are available, but also you could make widgets which could be embedded on the Web. I made a widget of the E-Clips RSS feed to show what is possible (you can put that on your site if you want, just click on options to get the HTML Code).

Also, in addition to RSSing everything, it would be nice if they expanded their web presence with blogs. A lot of policy organizations are blogging these days (the latest is the Fordham Foundation's FlyPaper) but ECS is not blogging ... at all. So in the increasingly powerful blogosphere (it has made Andy Rotherham a star) ECS has no voice and other policy organizations are managing to gain more and more influence with the Web 2.0 generation as we begin to fill policy, academic, and practitioner positions. Having worked there I think a blog similar to FlyPaper or the Quick and the Ed would be fairly easy to do. Policy folks such as Jennifer Dounay, Mary Fulton, Michael Griffith and Kyle Zinth have a lot of knowledge and great things to say that doesn't all come out in ECS publications.

I just love my old employer and I want to see them used more in scholarly circles. I think with a little effort on both sides we can do a lot better job.

Suspended for Not Standing During Pledge

Justin Bathon — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:38:51 GMT

Three students were suspended in rural Minnesota for not standing during the pledge. The school has a policy that requires students to stand for the pledge, but does not require the students to actually recite the pledge.

This is an interesting little case. I think the law is pretty clear that you cannot force participation in the pledge, but is standing participation? Is the standing showing respect for the flag, the country, or just the other students in the room? If it can be classified only as the latter and not former, it might be okay. However, my feeling is that standing was required to encourage participation in respect of the flag and country. If that is the case, then the policy was probably unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, a nice little exam question.

Friday Snippets: 5/9/08 - Not Quite the End of Vouchers

Justin Bathon — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:22:23 GMT

A pretty busy week here at the end of the school year:

A big story this week was the San Diego State drug bust. The student's have now plead not guilty. Frankly, I am a little surprised this does not happen more often. I don't think it is all that difficult so it might be from a lack of trying.

Another big story this week was the Facebook agreement. More from BoardBuzz. Although my ear to the ground says that MySpace is getting more popular again.

More evidence that your school e-mail account is not safe from FOIA. Law Professor e-mails released to public in West Virginia.

The New York Times finally picks up the school lawyers scandal. Thankfully, this story is beginning to cool down so although I would classify this is an eruption, it was only a minor one and it looks to stay that way. Had the times focused on this story earlier, there could have been a lot more public outcry. (And thankfully (or not depending on your viewpoint I guess) the Presidential race is drowning out a lot of stories this year).

Reading teachers in Connecticut are going to have to take a test on teaching reading before they can be licensed.

A House Bill in Louisiana says that kids should not be allowed to wear body armor in schools. (Who has body armor just lying around?)

Michigan, always a leader in special education, might be taking a step back in some districts.

But, I can't be disappointed with Michigan this week because of this good idea from a State Senator: 16 & 17 year olds should be able to vote in School Board Elections. Why not? It affects their lives more than any other.

New Hampshire takes another stab at a school funding plan.

Indiana was not the only state to allow a school funding lawsuit to proceed ... Montana did too.

Service dogs are allowed in schools in Virginia.

More on the Virginia Internet Safety Classes.

No recruiting by Boy Scouts while classes are in session in Greenwich.

As is always the case, in battles between Governors and State Superintendents of Education ... Governors win. Susan Tave Zelman, from Ohio and of voucher fame, is looking for a new job.

And around the blogosphere:

Mark Walsh has a great story on John McCain and the Newdow case. Interesting to see how that case has been used as a fear tactic even years after it was decided. Also, 13 felony convictions ... apparently 1 too many to be a teacher. Great stuff Mark.

Jim Gerl does a bit of reflecting on recognizing discrimination and how all of us can occasionally miss it.

The Higher Ed Law Prof Blog shuts down. If you are a higher ed law prof ... I encourage you to restart it. The Law Professor Blogs Network is a great network and will give you a lot of hits (and some authority) right away. Sad to see it go, but I could see that coming for a while.

But the Adjunct Law Prof Blog is still going strong. Lots of stuff this week on unions, FMLA, NLRB, etc.

David Hoff has details on the new NCLB Regulations Public Hearings ... go let your voice be heard.

Title IX blogs has details on a sexual harassment case in Texas, which has since been dismissed for lack of "actual knowledge."

I enjoyed BoardBuzz's story on Colbert and Truthiness ... and helping schools.

Finally, an interesting discussion is taking place over at Michelle McNeil's blog regarding vouchers. (1) Greg Anrig says vouchers are out of fashion. (2) Michelle disagrees. (3) Checker Finn weighs in. (4) Greg responds. (5) Michele asks for input (and I gave some and encourage you to do the same). Great discussion though. Michele has been doing great work at Campaign K-12 and I encourage you to add her to your aggregator.

And for your Friday Fun: Check out these amazing pictures of the eruption of the volcano Chaitén in Chile. It is rare to see a pyroclastic cloud, but even more rare perhaps to see one so electrically active. These are probably once in a lifetime pictures, so they are worth a look.

Here is more on the eruption from MSNBC (video). h/t David Kurtz at TPM.

PhotoCredit: Poppyseed Bandits
Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 5/9/08

Hating Paper

Justin Bathon — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:59:35 GMT

So, I am dissertating right now (feeling on the downhill slope finally). God it is horrible.

Anyway, I am really hating the strict format. I am so confined in what I can do with information. The medium is so static. I am not a person that likes to read data in black and white on a page. I am a person that likes to see and play with data. I don't want to read in a paragraph that 34% said X, 26% said Y and 40% said Z. I like to see a pie chart in those situations. It gives me a better feel for who is saying what relative to others.

Anyway, thought I would share a little data to illustrate my point of how much more powerful a dynamic medium can be. For my dissertation I am breaking everything down into bits and spitting out 1 bit at a time. That is a great way of creating a couple hundred pages worth of black and white paragraphs (which seems to be the goal), but not a great way of communicating the big picture. If I do get to add a chart, the most variables I can accommodate without causing mass confusion is 2 and maybe 3 if I used 3 dimensional charts

Compare that to this (press play and feel free to click around in it ... it's dynamic)

If you get an error message below, click this link (shows the motion chart in front of the data used to create it).

This is a chart that tracks multiple variables, as many as you want actually. In this case I have 5 variables at play but could easily add more. In this chart I am showing (1) year of licensure, (2) institution of licensure, (3) average attendance rate at all the schools lead by administrators licensed at that institution in the given year, (4) average enrollment rate at all the schools lead by administrators licensed at that institution in the given year, and (5) average free lunch percent at all the schools lead by administrators licensed at that institution in the given year. Plus, this chart animates change over time and let's the user change the variables to whatever combination they desire. Cool, right? Really, cool if you ask me. But, this is not going to be in the dissertation because the form prevents the function. Nor is this going to be in any print journals.

I am reminded of Michael Wesch's Information Revolution.

What is so utterly frustrating is that I have the tools and knowledge to do better than traditional forms of scholarship will allow ... but that tradition is limiting practice. I have to conform my dissertation to the traditional confines even though it comes at the expense of quality.

By the way, case you were wondering, the chart above was created with Google Motion Chart out of Google Docs. If you are not using Google Docs yet, you need to try it.

Academic Freedom, Garcetti & Blogging

Justin Bathon — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:29:38 GMT

Jon Becker has an interesting discussion going on over at Educational Insanity on Blogging and Free Speech Rights. I encourage you to check it out and leave a comment. (Also, Lisa Nielsen, Teacher 2.0)

My take: Under Garcetti I wouldn't feel to comfortable about anything that you say on a blog being protected. Of course like most things in law this depends on the facts surrounding the situation (if you are blogging at home about your Disney infatuation, fine). Anyway, anything that could reasonably be related to your official job duties as a public educator is likely not protected. Now, I can't tell you exactly how far that line extends because the law is just developing in this area, but to be on the safe side I would not say anything that you would not be comfortable saying in front of the school board ... because that may ultimately be who decides your fate.

But, that is not to discourage either teachers or professors or any other public employee from blogging. I have nearly 300 posts and certainly less than 5 times I found myself asking whether I should post something. It is just not that big of an issue if you are intending to run a professional, informational blog. I am fine sharing feelings but I avoid saying negative things about my employer and I avoid making extremely controversial statements. Just remember that the blog is public (don't say things you wouldn't say in mixed company) so a healthy dose of common sense is the best guide.

Thoughts on Dr. Suellen Reed and Apolitical Education in Indiana

Justin Bathon — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:05:16 GMT

A few days ago we learned that Dr. Suellen Reed is stepping down from her long held (16 years) post of Superintendent of Public Instruction. (Michele McNeil sums up her time here). So, I just want to give a little reflection on her work and how it affected me.

I came to Indiana from Illinois, where my friend Randy Dunn had just taken over the Superintendency in Illinois after the Governor had sort of run off the previous Superintendent. Now Randy is President of Murray State and another person I worked with in my time dealing with Special Education in Illinois, Chris Koch, is now the Superintendent. Anyway, needless to say there is a lack of stability in that leadership position in Illinois. During my time in Illinois, it mattered which political party I belonged to (at least which political party the people I associated with belonged to) in how much access you had to the ear of state educational leaders.

Literally the first week I moved here I met Dr. Reed. I was invited by my mentor Martha McCarthy to a Indiana Network of Women Administrators meeting, which was scheduled in conjunction with an IUSAA meeting. (I tried to tell Martha I was not actually a woman, even though people think I sound like one on the phone, but she insisted I come along). Dr. Reed was present at the meeting and as the somewhat cramped room began to fill in she sat next me (no one knew me, plus I am a man, so no surprise there was a spot open). Martha introduced us and we chatted about this and that a little. Anyway, it was a nice, welcoming way to start my education career here in Indiana.

Since that time I have had the chance to have more substantive meetings with Dr. Reed (she has a marvelous office in the Indiana Statehouse I am sure she will miss) and she has always been very receptive to my work in conjunction with other scholars here at IU. I found her to be knowledgeable, committed, caring, passionate about kids, creative ... pretty much exactly what you would want in a State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She is going to be extremely difficult to replace.

I am not sure I agree with everything she has done in her time, but with Dr. Reed you knew the kids were the first priority. Not politics. Not agendas. Not egos. Kids. And when your priorities are in the right place it is amazing how little the political label after your name means. And her apolitical, kids first style translated down the entire education system. I have found Indiana's education system to be FAR less political of that of Illinois. In Indiana the focus is on the schools, not on the relationships you can glean with other people to further your political ambitions and I think Dr. Reed deserves a lot of credit for that.

The last time I saw her was 2 weeks ago. We met by chance outside the School of Ed in Bloomington and chatted about our gardens and the semester concluding (perhaps not so much by chance, I think she would make an excellent clinical faculty member at her alma mater - just a suggestion). I wish I had known she was hanging it up then. I would have thanked her for her excellent leadership in person. But, the blog will have to do until I bump into her again.

So, thanks Dr. Reed for your great work. Enjoy Retirement!

Letting Parents into the Classroom Electronically

Justin Bathon — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:45:38 GMT

Here is an interesting story (video) from ABC on electronic notifications that allow parents to track students grades and attendance. The online software featured in the video is called ParentCONNECT, which is produced by Pearson Education. You can see a screenshot of the information it offers in the image to the right (right click- view image, to see larger version).

Now, I like this information being shared with parents. There is really no reason not to share this information as most of it is tracked electronically these days and giving access is just a matter of permissions. But this can not be the ONLY information you share with parents. As in pretty much everything else in life, numbers with no context lead people to bad decisions. You can't just say here is the kids GPA, here is his score on assignment X, here is how many times a kid was late to class without knowing what is going on in the school that is leading to those numbers.

So here is the problem with this kind of technology. You are giving parents just enough information to be dangerous but not enough information to actually know what is going on. Can this surface-level information lead to parent-teacher meetings, phone calls, discussions with your kids? Sure. I would hope so. But as you saw in the video, a parent's natural reaction to this is to track it like a stock price. The price goes up, good. The price goes down, bad. Why is the price going up and down? Who knows, but we know that up is good and down is bad and you punish bad and reward good.

This kind of technology is easy and safe and doesn't require a lot of effort, which is probably why it is beginning to be used so widely. I think this is a good use of technology and I don't mean to suggest we should throw it out the window, but it is surface-level only. And surface-level information is usually not good enough.

Now, let me show you what's technologically possible with a little extra effort. Check out Mr. Williams 6th Grade Math. Cool, eh? You combine that kind of classroom level information with the student's progress scores and suddenly parents have some context for the scores. You see that when the math grades dropped slightly, the issue was adding integers, for instance, and Mr. Williams was kind enough to provide you the slideshow used for that lesson so you can go back with your son and daughter and address the reasons for the drop in grades. But, providing this kind of context is much more difficult. I don't know how much time Mr. Williams devotes to the blog each week, but to do it right probably requires at least a half hour a day. It takes a pretty devoted teacher to give that kind of time on top of everything else that is happening and without reward or demand structures in place, this kind of information sharing is going to continue to be a rarity. So, we need to move toward expecting the kinds of information sharing that Mr. Williams is doing and refusing to allow the quick fix, ParentCONNECT, to be the only fix.

School Finance Plaintiffs Win Appeal to Indiana Supreme Court

Justin Bathon — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:20:56 GMT

The Indiana Supreme Court has rendered a decision in the school finance case of Bonner v. Daniels. Short version: Students won a pretty major decision.

Essentially this round was over standing and justiciability in court. What was not decided was the liability of the state in this case. That issue was remanded so a final decision on the merits is yet to come. But, in the larger picture the standing and justiciability issues are pretty important decisions as it puts Indiana in line with many other states that allow for such challenges to school funding policies.

A little background. Indiana is a foundation formula state with a complexity index, but their foundation formula has fallen increasingly out of use in lieu of a Guaranteed Minimum Revenue formula. Also, the Foundation Formula does not cover everything, so school buildings, school technology, school busing and some other stuff must be covered through local property taxes. For more background see this presentation by my colleague Rob Toutkoushian.

In the case, the court found that Bonner had standing to represent the class of individuals that are affected by Indiana's school funding policies. Further, the court found that redressibility (the legislature may do nothing as a result of this case) was also not a concern as it is the court's job to declare rights under the law, whether or not such declarations force action on the part of other branches of government. The Court even cited Marbury v. Madison on this principle. Finally, the court found that Governor Daniels, Superintendent Reed (who has announced her retirement), and the State Board of Education were properly named as defendants. As to justiciability, the court found that it could reasonably interpret the Education Clause of the Indiana Constitution and that doing so would not be an essentially legislative function.

Now, the case heads back down to determine whether Bonner can prove the Indiana General Assembly fulfilled its duties under the Education Clause. Whatever the lower court decides, look for it to be back at the Indiana Supreme Court in a couple years. Given their language in this case, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Court rule in the plaintiff's favor.

Friday Snippets 05/02/08 - Teachers and Bikinis and Keeping their Jobs

Justin Bathon — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:25:26 GMT

Little lighter this week as I was out of town.

Evolution Update: Florida, Louisiana

A little more Jena 6 fallout.

Idaho's District Court is reconsidering what to do to force changes in Idaho's school funding system.

Sometimes the school finance lawsuits pay off handsomely.

An anti-bullying bill in Florida passed the legislature and is expected to be signed by the Governor. BullyPolice calls it the "BEST Anti-Bullying Law written to date" and has the text.

Massachusetts comes out with a new anti-bullying guide.

However, Louisiana's anti-bullying bill hits a roadblock.

Minnesota's House passes an age appropriate, mandatory sex education plan.

Principals have to answer questions in Illinois over their bilingual education programs ... or lack thereof.

Illinois Legislators are protecting your children from the Internet (they think).

Turf v. Grass - Give me the grass.

Scott McLeod sends over the latest hot teacher lifestyle firing. Teacher wears bikini on a fishing charter ... fired. (video)

Scott also has a tennis coach blindfolding students, putting them in the middle of the court, and ordering the rest of the team to fire tennis balls at them. Ahh, coaches. Constant legal issues with them.

And around the blogosphere:

I want to start with Jim Gerl's request for information on the connection between special education due process usage and poverty. I think Jim is right that there is a connection there and a little research could probably document it. If I were not so busy Jim I would look into it with you. Maybe later this year or next year. Anyway, Jim has hit on a really good research project here and if anyone wants to help I am sure he would appreciate it.

What I consider the big news of the week is that the Sixth Circuit is going to rehear en banc their NCLB decision. Mark Walsh has the details. When that decision came down you had to know this was a big possibility, so now we will see what the full Sixth Circuit has to say. My guess is that they will go the other way.

Mark also has the end of the Connecticut NCLB challenge & BoardBuzz reflects on the branches of government that are making educational law ... and the one (legislature) that is not.

Karl Romberger gives thoughts on ability grouping in Pennsylvania.

Erin Buzuvis questions the application of Gebser to athletics. The Title IX Blog also has a link to a new study out of Israel that finds co-educational classrooms benefit everyone.

The Higher Ed Law Prof Blog is getting annoyed that teachers continue to be fired for refusing to sign loyalty oaths.

The Adjunct Law Prof Blog has more professors suing students. (Now that I am switching teams ... it sounds fine to me.) Mitchell also has blogs being incorporated into law classes.

Pamela Parker wonders what happened to May Day in Texas schools.

Kevin Carey has the fall of vouchers.

Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy calls the recent anti-evolution academic freedom tact academic fraud.

Howard Friedman has a settlement in the case of religious art restrictions in school.

And for your Friday Fun ... you can check out pictures of the house I just bought (more). It backs to a school, which I like, although I am not sure how I am going to keep my son off the playground equipment. Also, if anyone loves to refinish hardwood floors and doesn't mind driving to Lexington ...

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 05/02/08

Law Day!!! - Really?

Justin Bathon — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:35:33 GMT

Today is Law Day ... so says the President.

The theme of this year's Law Day, "The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity," recognizes the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in preserving liberty in our Nation and in all free societies. We pay tribute to the men and women in America's legal community. Through hard work and dedication to the rule of law, members of the judiciary and the legal profession help secure the rights of individuals, bring justice to our communities, and reinforce the proud traditions that make America a beacon of light for the world.

Wow!!! I wasn't aware we were so important ... oh wait, yes I was.

There is absolutely no need whatsoever for a national Law Day. Are lawyers important to society ... absolutely yes. Do they already know that ... absolutely yes. There are not many lawyers that are not aware of their role in society. We are talking about a pretty confident bunch here that already sees themselves as the philosopher-kings of America. We even tell ourselves that we are taught in the style set forth by Socrates himself. Lawyers are an extremely arrogant bunch already, there is really no need to reinforce that notion with a national day for Lawyers.

I want lawyers to have that confidence and arrogance, because it is a necessary part of their job ... but I want them to have it quietly. If you truly are the philosopher-kings of society, then how about showing a little more humility. This national law day is embarrassing to me.

Teachers and the Web: A Recipe for Disaster

Justin Bathon — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:48 GMT

Teachers don't seem to get the fact that the Web is a public place. I don't really know why, but they just don't. Teachers would never do the kind of dumb things they do on the Web in their classroom or even a public park. The Web is just as public, if not more public, than these places yet they seem to think they can just post whatever they want and no one will know.

From today's Washington Post:

It's almost like Googling someone: Log on to Facebook. Join the Washington, D.C., network. Search the Web site for your favorite school system. And then watch the public profiles of 20-something teachers unfurl like gift wrap on the screen, revealing a sense of humor that can be overtly sarcastic or unintentionally unprofessional -- or both.

One Montgomery County special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: "Teaching in DCPS -- Lesson #1: Don't smoke crack while pregnant."

Just to be clear, these are not teenagers, the typical Internet scofflaws and sources of ceaseless discussion about cyber-bullying, sexual predators and so on. These are adults, many in their 20s, who are behaving, for the most part, like young adults.

But the crudeness of some Facebook or MySpace teacher profiles, which are far, far away from sanitized Web sites ending in ".edu," prompts questions emblematic of our times: Do the risque pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?

Via Joanne Jacobs

No Drug Dogs in Canadian Schools

Justin Bathon — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:28:55 GMT

Continuing with our "America is Different" theme ...

The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that random searches by drug sniffing dogs are illegal under their Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mark Walsh has the details.

Here is some of the relevant language:

The dog sniff amounts to a search within s. 8 of the Charter. The information provided when the dog is trained to alert to the presence of controlled drugs permits inferences about the precise contents of the source that are of interest to the police. The subject matter of the sniff is not public air space. It is the concealed contents of the backpack. As with briefcases, purses and suitcases, backpacks are the repository of much that is personal, particularly for people who lead itinerant lifestyles during the day as in the case of students and travellers. Teenagers may have little expectation of privacy from the searching eyes and fingers of their parents, but they expect the contents of their backpacks not to be open to the random and speculative scrutiny of the police. This expectation is a reasonable one that society should support. The guilty secret of the contents of the accused’s backpack was specific and meaningful information, intended to be private, and concealed in an enclosed space in which the accused had a continuing expectation of privacy. By use of the dog, the policeman could “see” through the concealing fabric of the backpack.

Reading that one can't help but conclude that the Canadian approach and the American approach to enforcement of Constitutional Rights are fundamentally different. Here the Canadian Supreme Court is expansively reading their Charter to encompass its general intent applied to this new situation. Lately, however, the American Supreme Court narrowly reads Constitutional Provisions looking for exceptions. On the same issue our lower courts have concluded that the air around the backpack is public, thus, the dog sniff does not constitute technically constitute a "search."

There is so much rich information if one were to study differences in educational law across national boundaries. However, so few educational law scholars actually engage in this kind of work. As the world continues to shrink ... we are gonna need more work in this area.

PhotoCredit: Lone Primate - Canadian Supreme Court Building (I like the progressively smaller windows in the roof)

American Teachers Don't Know How to Strike

Justin Bathon — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:47:43 GMT

When teachers strike in other countries ... they really strike.

The latest, a nationwide teachers strike in the UK. 9,000 schools closed in whole or part affecting nearly 3 million kids.

BBC News Video. More: (1) Union answers questions (2) Government Response.

Guardian Story. More.

Times of London.

I am not saying American Teachers need to do the same because of our decentralized system, but this gives a whole different meaning to "bargaining power."

Friday Snippets - 4/25/08 - Chasing Bananas

Justin Bathon — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:39:44 GMT

On we roll another week.

The big news of the week is the NCLB regulatory changes. Summary. Full Changes. H/T David Hoff. (I will offer thoughts when I have more time to parse through it).

10 students ran around school dressed as bananas. 1, dressed as a gorilla, chased them. All were suspended. Image. Video. Pretty creative, boys.

The case of the coach in Ohio who wouldn't get rid of his Bible gets significantly more interesting ... allegedly he burnt crosses into his student's skin. Whoa. Oddly Ohio also passed a teacher misconduct bill on the same day this came out ... so that was fortunate timing for legislators.

Also in Ohio voucher requests are going up.

More schools in contaminated areas ... what is up with that? Cut it out!

Louisiana's Anti-Bullying Bill moves forward.

Private Kindergarten providers in New Hampshire a possibility.

Colorado is considering going P-16.

The University of Florida comes up with a Taser Policy after the "Don't Tase me Bro" incident. What an odd/revealing moment in American History that was.

Single gender charter schools c oming to Delaware. NPR finds South Carolina has had them for a while (audio).

Last week my students asked me about teaching incentives ... well, here is a new housing one in South Carolina.

Doesn't seem to matter how many times we tell them, teachers cannot refuse to give the test.

Still waiting for the California homeschooling appeal decision. And they are still protesting out there ... this time on college costs. Getting feisty in California, everyone seems to protest everything these days.

Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws apply to private schools.

Shakira becomes concerned about education (video). Good for her.

Here is one benefit of the Friday Snippets ... they just reminded me my wife's birthday is next week (no, not because of Shakira). Happy Birthday Jennifer.

And around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

The buzz in the latter half of the week was around Jon Becker's post regarding educational malpractice on the part of schools for failing to integrate technology. I am hoping Jon reports back on his thoughts from this years Commonwealth Education Law Conference, which is going on right now.

Found a new educational law related blog this week: Title IX Blog, which obviously focuses a lot of gender discrimination. The blog is written by a couple of young law professors and a Ph.D. student. This week the Title IX blog was happy to see Danica Patrick win her first Indy Car race ... as was I. Women can compete at the highest levels of sport if given the opportunity.

Jim Gerl finishes his procedural safeguards lesson (I am scheduled to teach special ed. law next summer ... by that time Jim may have written the whole class for me).

Mitchell Rubinstein passes a nice barrier this week and has an interesting 14th Amendment case out of Ohio.

Charles Fox calls on us to call on Congress to support a bill that would give parents the right to recover expert witness fees.

The School Lawyer investigation in NY just won't go away. Martha Neil reports one firm in particular seems to have been fingered.

Scott McLeod, who must not sleep, sends word of a concerning trend of teens sending nude photos by cell phone. He also had a nice week blogging about learning issues.

David Hoff finds that most experts think the time is not right for big changes to education policy at the federal level, but some influential members (George Miller) disagree. For my part, the time is certainly ripe for big changes to federal policy ... there is going to be a really nice window after the new president takes office, but frankly, I think there are a lack of good ideas on the table right now. There really are no big changes that are waiting in the wings, save national standards and my thinking is that both Obama and McCain will be reluctant to go there.

Mark Walsh, doing his regular outstanding work, has a challenge to NCLB HQT rules, banning cell phones is fine in NY, and Be Happy, Not Gay is fine in the 7th Circuit, so says Posner.

Pamela Parker at Texas Teacher Law has a little chiding for administrators that under plan for assemblies and graduations. Seating for 500, 3000 show up. Sounds like an Obama rally.

Michelle Laubin does some really cool work totaling the statistics for Special Education Hearings in Connecticut. About 175 cases filed for hearing. About 5 decided on the merits in favor of the parents (lots settled in favor of parents). She also breaks it down by individual hearing officer (one of the more important parts of special education hearings is picking the right hearing officer). I would love to do the same stats nationally.

Finally your Friday Fun ... This week, the Work of Johnathan Harris. Absolutely Breathtaking Stuff You Did Not Know Was Possible On the Net. Watch Jonathan explain his work in this video.

In order of coolness:

The Universe - Creates a Starfield (yeah, really) of Related Items to Whatever you Search For. Explanation

We Feel Fine - Monitors the World's Feelings at any given moment. Explanation -- Related, Lovelines.

WordCount? Tracks the usage of words on the Internet. Explanation. For fun, give yourself 30 seconds and try to get as far right on the list as possible. I got "Wrestles" at 81,600. See if you can beat that.

The Whale Hunt - Thousands of pictures chronologically document an actual whale hunt in the Arctic. Explanation

Phylotaxis - The day in Pictures. Explanation

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 4/25/08 - Chasing Bananas

Specialty License Plates for Schools

Justin Bathon — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:22:50 GMT

So, I was checking out my new hometown newspaper today and I find that an anti-porn group is seeking to have its own license plates. The plate would carry the motto "In God We Trust" and the proceeds from the sale of the plate would go to combat pornography and other vices in the eyes of the Christian group that is promoting it. I am not going to buy it, so I don't really care if this plate is approved or not. It creates some interesting church and state issues, but I am not going to be offended if I see it on the road. In fact Indiana has had one for a while and it never bothered me while I have lived here.

But, if an anti-porn group can raise money through the sale of license plates ... why can't schools? This, to me, seems like a perfect fund raising opportunity. Lots of universities generate revenue through the sale of license plates (see right) and to me this should translate easily into the K-12 level. It might not generate a ton of revenue, but in a large district I could see it funding an extra teacher. People take a lot of pride in their schools. Particularly in their high schools. We should give them an opportunity to show their pride while helping to get the school a little extra funding.

OK, I hear ya. I know there are general K-12 plates already existing where you can specify a school to benefit ... but without the locally specific information (and team logo) people are unlikely to purchase these plates.

Alright, I also hear those of you complaining about the cost. But, the cost should not be that extensive. I just got a new set of Indiana plates in the mail about a month ago and they were basically ... plastic. We are talking very cheaply made. I think there was a little metal in the plate, but I am not sure. Anyway, the point is that it probably cost a dollar or so to make. It is not like we are making license plates the old fashion way with prisoners stamping them out of sheets of steel anymore. Machines are doing this now, meaning that it should be easier than ever to physically make, but also easier and cheaper to make a new design. I am sure it is just a matter of programming a computer. Which bring me to my second point, design costs ... which are basically nil. Just to show you I designed one (below) for the high school district I am probably moving into. Right now in most states there is a signature requirement and a initial startup cost. We would need a legislature to waive or greatly reduce those requirements, but this seems like exactly the kind of legislation that is designed to help schools that local politicians could get behind.

I like this idea ... and I like it a lot. It might not be economically feasible now, but it will be soon. Thoughts?

There Needs to be More Clinical Work Like This Going On

Justin Bathon — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:16:09 GMT

Great story in today's USA Today about students at Yale Law School taking a school adequacy lawsuit to Connecticut's Supreme Court (also the Yale Daily News). The lead attorneys (law students) on the case are Neil Weare and David Noah who did oral argument today. Neil is a former NY City school teacher. You can find many documents related to the case here.

The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding approached the law students a couple years ago and the students have been working on the case since under clinical programs offered at Yale. The cost of school adequacy lawsuits are enormous and typically is a prohibitive barrier as groups of concerned parents are usually not able to cover the costs. But, much of the work in this case was done for free by the students under the direction of the clinic and law professors.

This story almost brought a tear to my eye. This is exactly the kind of multi-institutional, resource scare collaboration that can help our kids. I am not weighing on the merits of the case, but the fact that these students (who a year from now will probably be billing at $300/hr) were willing to lend their expertise and resources to help other students negotiate the halls of power, while at the same time learning and setting themselves up for sweet gigs, is, well, exemplary. These law students are heroes. Maybe they win their case, maybe they don't. And chances are the kids this case might benefit in the future will never know their names. But this is right. This is good. We need more of this.

Maybe There Are Worse Things You Can Do As A Teacher ...

Justin Bathon — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:58:37 GMT

But not many ...

Packing heat in the classroom.

Educational Entrapment?

Justin Bathon — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:58:03 GMT

Educational Entrapment? Why not?

Okay, I hear you lawyers out there crying foul and you may be right. Typically, entrapment is a legal defense whose application is limited only to instances where law enforcement officials trick a person into committing a criminal act who otherwise would not have committed it.

First, a little background on the case in question. A principal in New Hampshire confiscated a student's cell phone. As per her standard policy (???) she scrolled through the contact list and called other students. When this didn't yield any results she held onto the phone. A student from a different school text messaged the phone back, which the principal opened. The text message asked, "Yo, need a bag?" The principal messaged back saying she did in fact want a bag and set up a meeting outside her school. The police were called and were waiting for the student when he arrived. They searched him found some drugs and arrested him. -- Here is a article on it and here is a CNN story (video).

So, where to start with this? 1) a policy of searching students' cel phones is probably illegal (see Klump). It is very possible this arrest was the result of an illegal search (opening the text message) so the student may well get off. 2) Why not call the police? Since when is the principal charged with community drug enforcement? I think this probably should have been handed off to the police the moment it was evident that drugs were going to be involved. You can read the reaction of other local school administrators here.

But, what I want to talk about is the entrapment issue. Now, rest assured this particular case will not win on the entrapment issue. There are a couple of reasons why. First, the school princpal in question worked at a private school, so not a "governmental official" - you will see why that is important in a minute. Second, although the principal's call to the drug dealing student probably triggered the "You need a bag" response, it was still the student that triggered the drug transaction. For entrapment to work, it is the government official that needs to trigger the transaction, not the criminal. So, it will probably not work in this case.

But, could it work in the right case? Perhaps - and let me explain. First, let's look at the language in the most recent Supreme Court case on the issue:

"In their zeal to enforce the law, however, Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute." (Jacobson v. U.S.)

"Government agent" is the key language here. Even though later in the opinion the Justices refer to "law enforcement officials" when talking about entrapment, the broad language of "government agent" is probably the controlling language. Teachers, principals and other public school personnel are ... "government agents" under the standard definition. This more broad term of "government" or "governmental official" are used in other Supreme Court cases on entrapment as well (see Mathews & Sorrells)

Now, let's change the facts a little. Let's assume the principal was a public school principal and instead of responding to the text message, she originated the text message to the student asking, "Yo, can you hook me up with a bag?" All the other facts are the same. In this instance, I feel entrapment may be a valid defense even though the student was entrapped by a school official and not a law enforcement officer.

I would have to do more research to be sure, but entrapment by educators seems like a real possibility. This would make for a nice law journal if anyone is interested.

Scott McLeod came across this case this morning and sent it over, so a hat tip to him.

The Price of Budget Politics

Justin Bathon — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:47:18 GMT

There is always a price to be paid for playing politics with money ... and it is no different for education. A month ago I wrote that the massive amount of pink slips was going to cost California its young teachers, as a result of enormous proposed budget cuts from Gov. Schwarzenegger. Well, now word that other states have smelled blood in the water and are making efforts to woo California's young teachers away; I don't blame the other states for poaching in the least.

There is always a price to be paid for playing politics with money. Maybe the ultimate political gain is worth it, but the price being paid here is steep. They will never get many of these teachers back and the current cohort of untenured teachers will never be the same and it is the kids that will have to pay the price for this nonsense for years to come.

Judge thinks Harry Potter is "Extremely Complex" - That Worry Anyone Else?

Justin Bathon — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:14:21 GMT

In a copyright case that really has very little to do with education (the defendant was a former school librarian that is wanting to make a book about Harry Potter that J.K. Rowling wants to block) I found this interesting ...

District Judge Robert Patterson Jr said that he had read the first half of the first Harry Potter novel to his grandchildren, but found the “magical world hard to follow, filled with strange names and words that would be gibberish in any other context.

“I found it extremely complex,” he said, suggesting that a reference guide might be useful.

Interesting statement from a guy that spends his time reading intellectual property and other statutes & regulations.

Friday Snippets: 4/18/08 - There is Just Something about Coaches and Religion

Justin Bathon — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:04:05 GMT

Your Friday Snippets for Another Week.

Here we go again with Ken Starr. This time he has agreed to take the long running (as in going on 2 decades) Flores v. Arizona case to the Supreme Court. The case, for those not familiar, concerns the State of Arizona's implementation of their English Language Learner program. The plaintiffs contend that Arizona does ot provide enough funding to properly implement the ELL program so that minority language students have an equal shot, as defined under the Equal EducationalOpportunity Act of 1974. Here is a more complete summary of the case. Here is the latest opinion, the denial of an en banc hearing. Here is the earlier opinion of the 9th Circuit ruling against the State of Arizona. Also, funding for ELL was approved this week, but more court documents have been filed to compel compliance with the ruling. -- With Ken Starr behind it, perhaps we will see this case be granted cert. also by the Supreme Court. Stay tuned on this one.

Some in Arizona (apparently it is Arizona's week this week) also don't want any anti-Democratic or non-Western teaching in its schools.

Illinois' State Senate says no trans-fats in school lunches.

At least schools are more important that ballparks (even if that ballpark is Wrigley Field).

Indiana's corporal punishment law was helpful to a teacher who gripped (slapped) a girl's face.

Louisiana is trying to get around evolution (Missouri too) (who isn't these days?) (btw, BoardBuzz has the complete works of Darwin ).

South Dakota's school funding lawsuit will start in September.

Iowa's sales tax plan for schools i s losing momentum.

Florida, who is really struggling financially, looks to have a 2 year waiting period before the class size reductions take place.

The Ohio bill that is attempting to permit college students to carry guns is stalling (thankfully - looks like all of these bills across the country are failing).

Kansas has a new cyber-bullying law.

Bullying in an anti-bullying meeting in Missouri?

Some pretty striking expulsion numbers in Las Vegas.

Teachers are striking at some Catholic Schools in NY.

And around the blogosphere:

Probably the big story this week was the ruling out of the 3rd Circuit in Borden v. Sch. Dist. of the Township of East Brunswick which found that a football coach cannot join his team in prayer for meals or during pregame prayer. The court found participating in these prayer activities would be endorsing religion. Mark Walsh at Education Week has more as does Molly McDonough at the ABA Journal.

But, that was not out only coach to make news this week. The Kentucky School News and Commentary blog comments on a story from around Columbus, OH where a teacher/coach refuses to remove a copy of the Bible from his classroom. The event has triggered local interest and a 100 person rally for the teacher was held yesterday. The teacher is claiming freedom of speech protection in displaying the Bible (good luck with that) - Richard Day says "His persistent effort over time to impose his strongly held views promoting a specific religion smells like ...establishment."

Martha Neil, who has been doing an excellent job following the NY School Attorney's scandal, posts this week that the probe has moved beyond just school attorneys to all professional involved in government work. This is bad news for NY accountants, architects and others, but sort of good news for school lawyers as they will not be the only ones catching heat and it may help school lawyers save a little face after this embarrassment.

But, the school attorney scandal was not the only way schools can be taken advantage of, as Mark Walsh finds in an odd mail fraud case.

Jim Gerl has a good week continuing his series on Procedural Safeguards in Special Education with IEE's the topic this week, but also gives us a little personal info about the conferences he attends and the Big Wigs he gets to hangs around with. In all seriousness, nice work Jim in promoting the rural special education agenda.

Mike Tully At The Schoolhouse Gate has word of another bullying lawsuit.

Mitchell Rubinstein has the declining relevance of law reviews ... and law reviews are also moving online, somewhat (finally).

Pamela Parker at Texas Teacher Law has an interesting post on how hard to fight when the system turns against you.

Board Buzz has bullying in the lunchrooms, and not how you would expect.

Volume 7 of the Integration Report is up.

Politico has McCain's Arizona Education roots ... and why they are dangerous.

Fordham is now blogging. They also are making videos (calling their weekly spot the Fordham Factor), which are generally good and informative, but could use a much better intro. Seriously, fellas, that intro needs some major, major, professional help. But, I really appreciate the creativity.

And you may have noticed the upgrades to the blog this week. This blog is now using SnapShots so that readers can preview pages (if you don't like it you can tell Snapshots to cut it out). Also, on the sidebar I have my favorite videos. I just have a few in there now, but I will continue updating that with cool new videos. Finally, I have also added my bookshelf to the sidebar you can keep track of what I am reading/recommending (try the physics books, if you get it on tape, it is a great way to travel across the country).

Finally, a Special Request this week concerning Gifted Education. Marty Nemko, a contributing editor at U.S. News among other things, called me up this week and wanted a little information on education law and plaintiff's lawyers for educational litigants. He is particularly interested in the way gifted students are treated (or mis-treated in his opinion) in the United States. Here is a blog post he wrote on his thoughts on gifted education. I gave him a couple names but really did not have exactly what he was looking for so I thought I would put it out to all of you. If you have any ideas for a potential law firm that would be interested in this or have any other thoughts on gifted education, feel free to leave a comment at his blog or get in touch with him. This might be a good way for a young, up and coming student's rights firm to make a name for itself.

And for your Friday Fun: A Little Bathroom Humor (for those of you that know me really, really well, you know I have an extreme aversion to public restrooms). Sorry if it is a little crude ... but it is funny as heck. Men's Room (below) and Ladies Room

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets: 4/18/08 - There is Just Something about Coaches and Religion

Putting the Brakes on Drivers Ed.

Justin Bathon — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:18:28 GMT

Not that long ago my cousin, who was 17, had not went to the driver's facility to get his license even though he had passed driver's ed. and everything else that was necessary to get the license. He just didn't want it - he didn't need it he would say. My whole extended family was sort of shocked by this development, but we wrote it off as just a quirk.

Well, according to today's SF Gate, it might be a trend. In California only 14% of 16 year olds have driver's licenses:

In San Francisco, the school board's two student delegates initiated the effort to drop the graduation requirement.

"We believe driver's education should be more of an option," said Nestor Reyes, a sophomore at June Jordan School for Equity, adding that students are carrying full loads to fulfill college entrance requirements. "Most of them haven't taken driver's education because of time."

Like the Lowell students, teens nowadays appear to be in no hurry to get behind the wheel of a car.

There is also little interest in offering driver's ed. as a course:

In 1990, the state pulled the funding that paid for the driver's training, and almost overnight, the behind-the-wheel instruction was eliminated.

At the time, 250,000 students in 950 high schools got driver's training. Last year, only 440 students in seven high schools - mostly in rural areas - got the training.

The state still requires classroom-based driver's education, but that law is largely ignored, with only 1 in 4 California high schools offering the course.

My cousin eventually broke down and got his license when he was 18 and had a girlfriend, but even today he doesn't drive very much. This is a really interesting development if it is happening nationwide. The price of gas and all the additional driving restrictions may not be affecting the generation that is addicted to cars, but it might be affecting the new generations that are not yet addicted. Guess things are just not like they used to be:

Rest of the Episode (2) ... (3)

What's That on the Lawn? Eww ... Gross.

Justin Bathon — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:17:11 GMT

Here is a little story that caught my attention ... human waste purposefully spread on and around an elementary school play area by the EPA. No, I am not kidding.

KMOX original story (click audio)
KMOX follow up finding that local residents knew of the plan.
Saint Louis Post Dispatch Story

The city of East Saint Louis has a few problems, perhaps you are aware of that (Kozol's Savage Inequalities). Well, growing up near the area, there is a long history to East Saint Louis which I won't get into here other than to mention that at one time East Saint Louis was a thriving industrial city. One of the industries that was in town were lead smelters and paint manufacturers. Anyway, given the low environmental standards, remnants of that era remain. Here is Kozol on the lead problem:

SI Kozol St. Louis, Illinois via kwout

Anyway, to decrease the lead contamination in the area, the EPA came up with a plan to combine human and industrial waste to mix into the soil in an effort to bind the lead particles to inert materials that are not harmful when kids and adults ingest the soil as they play and live on this contaminated ground. That was the plan, although people in the area were not aware of the human source of the new "soil." Some researchers think there has not been enough research done on the use of human waste in such applications and that the human waste itself might not be safe.

The problems run deep in East Saint Louis, literally. It is a good lesson in knowing your school environment and the possible environmental hazards your kids might be facing. We need to keep tabs on who is doing what around the school where our children play, because as this story shows, you can't trust others not to do something stupid like this.

Students Attacking Teachers - Teachers Running to the Media

Justin Bathon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:20:16 GMT

Here is an odd story out of Baltimore. A teacher was attacked by a student in the classroom. It was a fairly brutal fight and students stood around and did nothing to intervene. One student, though, did pull out the old cellphone camera and recorded it on video, which later made its way to Youtube. After the fight, the teacher went to the principal who may or may not have blamed the teacher for the fight. Also, apparently, there was some delay in disciplining the student responsible. The teacher has since left the classroom and has said she is scared to return.

Anyway, once the video is found, the teacher's union recommended that this teacher go public with the story and make the media rounds, which she did extensively (see below). She is apparently on a crusade to make schools safer for teachers from students. And because of the media firestorm, there are also calls to get rid of the principal and more.

Just a very odd story. Perhaps not so odd that it happened, but that the union turned this into a publicity stunt. I am not really sure what the purpose of such a media onslaught is in terms of changes to actual working conditions. I guess you can elicit some value in terms of embarrassing the district publicly, but I am not sure how embarrassing the administration and calling for the principal to be fired is going to improve the working conditions in Baltimore's schools. If anything this would seem to damage the working relationship between the teachers, the union and the administration. Perhaps other have thoughts.

Here is the MSNBC Interview that also gives an interview.

Here is Nancy Grace's 4 part story with doctors, 3 lawyers, union reps ... wow: Part I, Part II, Part III (below), Part IV (below). "We want justice, this is wrong."

Here is a CNN Interview as well.

Odd Story. Probably haven't heard the last of this yet either.

Friday Snippets: 4/11/08 - Cuomo's School Lawyer Net Starting to Catch Fish

Justin Bathon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:12:41 GMT

Here are the snippets for another week:

At AERA, Kevin Brady, said that his review of the education psychology literature found the highest rates of bullying in middle school girls. I believe it. 2 stories this week: 14 year old is beaten up by 2 older girls & Teenage girls gang up on another student.

The NY School Attorney Scandal has cast a pretty wide net ... and they are getting quite a few fish. Perhaps 90 lawyers in 180 districts (so far) were improperly receiving state pension benefits and other compensation.

The homeschooling protests have moved outside California. "Hundreds" of homeschoolers protested a registration bill outside the Michigan State Capital.

The end has come for decentralized testing in Nebraska. Sad - I always sort of liked Nebraska's policy on this.

A new adequacy lawsuit starts in Iowa.

This Idaho politician being fined for speeding in a school zone is so ironic its funny.

Illinois Democrat's plan to double income taxes on those making over 250,000 failed. But, in Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger may be leaning toward a tax increase.

The Evolution Debate continues in Florida.

Athletic Equity for Disabled Students passes in Maryland.

Guns and Kids don't mix, period, in one N.C. school -- so no more shooting team. (Gotta say that is probably a good idea).

Remember that big anti-teacher union billboard in NYC, yeah, that doesn't seem to be working.

If you can pay for it, this is a nice Green idea in Ohio.

Forced parental volunteering in schools?

Also, Lee Hochberg for PBS had a nice segment on the deadend that students of immigrants face at the end of high school.

And, The Civil Rights Project has a new book out.

Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

Jim Gerl offers a compelling point about the connection between special education students and high divorce rates among parents. A sad reality.

Mark Walsh has a good blogging week. He has J. Scalia telling high school students they need to be Constitutional Law scholars. While J. O'Connor stuck to the script in addressing the NSBA, which disappointed both Mark and I. Also a Hartford, CT deseg case settlement, but a possible AA challenge in Texas and Oklahoma. Finally, Boyd County, KY winning a challenge to its anti-harassment (for sexual orientation) policy (that poor district has been through a lot).

Mitchell Rubinstein links to this NY Times article that finds many Muslim students being homeschooled. This follows up on a post I made earlier this week about a Muslim oriented Charter School in Minnesota being tarred and feathered. Little update on that post by the way, the school was also chided for not flying an American flag ... also on the front page of Drudge.

And for your Friday Fun:

This week we are going to go with a music recommendation to spice things up a bit. You HAVE to check out Old Crow Medicine Show. They are sort of an old timey, progressive bluegrass, rock oriented, folk band - which probably doesn't do them justice. They are sort of unique but part of a growing genre of music that sort of combines lots of styles, but still manages to sound uniquely American. They are just super talented and sort of do their own thing. Got to love that. This is their song called I Hear Them All:

More Music (this is all uploaded videos, so forgive the inferior audio quality)

Wagon Wheel (probably their most popular song)
Down Home Girl
Minglewood Blues Live (Austin City Limits)
Gospel Plow (from their Woodsongs music hour at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington ... I can't wait to get there).

Google Document Link: Friday Snippets 4/11/08

SES and Choice Participation Still Lagging

Justin Bathon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:53:40 GMT

SES and Choice were abuzz in the education blogosphere this week. Here are the relevant numbers and here is the DOE report that started it all. Quick summary: It's not good. 17% participation in SES and 1% participation in choice. That does represent a small rise in SES participation but little to no increase in choice.

Being somewhat well read on this issue (here is my choice and SES policy brief), I tend to agree with eduwonkette that yes, district communication is contributing to the problem, but at some point we have to ask the question whether it is the policy itself that is no good, not the implementation. I know it is often preferable to blame the implementers rather than admit the policy itself was flawed, but after 5 years of implementation we are still not seeing much improvement, especially on the choice front. I hope that by the time reauthorization finally does roll around, folks in Washington give long, hard consideration to the possibility that choice and SES themselves are the problem, not the school's use of them. Because the last thing we need is more sanctions for not properly implementing the first round of sanctions. There is a pretty standard rule in teaching that if a couple students miss a question, they probably didn't study. But, if 1/2 the class or more misses a question, it is probably a bad question. That lesson seems to apply here.

Education Law just a Niche?

Justin Bathon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:03:22 GMT

Some evidence to the contrary today. NSBA Legal Clips just crossed the 10,000 subscriber barrier. Congrats all. You are doing a great job and I highly recommend it. It is one of the few educational law related technology items that has managed to transcend the field and is used by old and young, lawyers and administrators, professors and practitioners alike.

If you had just one education question for a candidate, what would it be?

Justin Bathon — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:31:54 GMT

That was the question posed to me this morning by a colleague of mine that is planning to go to a Barack Obama rally tomorrow. The question she is planning on asking (if given the opportunity) is:

"The Supreme Court decision about school segregation last year limited a school's ability to promote a diverse student body. Without being able to racially diversify our schools, how do you propose we overcome structural racism in this country?"

Anyway, it got me thinking about the question I would ask. Here is what I came up with:

For Obama: (video)

Given the movement toward national standards witnessed under the Clinton Administration and the recent openness to the idea by some governors, and given your position as a former Constitutional Law professor, what do you feel the Federal Government's role is in education should be given that it is not mentioned whatsoever in the Constitution?

For McCain: (video)

Given you limited statements on education during this campaign cycle and in the past, would you eliminate, as President Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, former Secretaries Bill Bennett and Lamar Alexander among others have suggested, the Federal Department of Education? And if not, what do you view its role as?

Obviously both of the questions are federalism based. For one, I think the redefinition of federalism in education has been a defining characteristic of educational reform in the past few decades and this era will be remembered as the era when education became a national (and perhaps global) enterprise. But, more importantly, the role of the federal government in education is something the President actually has some control over. The President, even if he or she wanted to, cannot cure most of what ails education. However, the President can control the federal bureaucracy ... in fact, that is pretty much their primary job.

The federalism question is particularly interesting to me because of Sen. Obama's status as a former Constitutional Law Professor at the generally conservative University of Chicago. He is no doubt intimately aware of the fact that the Constitution does not mention education ... at all. Looking at the history of the Constitution, this does not seem to be a mere oversight but rather an intentional omission on the part of the Framers to keep a decentralized system of education in place, which they viewed as superior. I am not the Constitutional Law Scholar that Sen. Obama is, but in my view the Constitution is pretty clear that education should be left to the States. You can see this not just in Conservative Republican rhetoric, but also from Democrats when they do things such as proposing a Constitutional Amendment on Education. A few months ago Checker Finn was giving a speech on education that included support for national standards. I asked Checker at that time whether the Constitution should pose a barrier at all to nationalizing perhaps the most central element of education, the curriculum (as determined by the national standards). Checker said the Federal Government can do whatever it wants in education and that the Constitution poses no barrier whatsoever, as it has not for some four decades now.

There is real confusion right now about what the federal government should be doing related to education issues. Consider that NCLB was passed with wide bi-partisan majorities and almost universal approval by policy folks in 2001. Now, less than a decade later, all three Presidential candidates are backtracking as fast as possible from it and there is pretty wide agreement among educators that it has hurt schools. If the federal government can't get it right even when everybody agrees, what evidence is there to lead us to believe that they can get it right in the future?

Anyway, that would be my question. What would be yours?

Muslim Fears & Public Schools

Justin Bathon — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:51:26 GMT

Funny how our disposition toward the separation of church and state is so dependent on the "church" in question. Today's big story in education law, running as a Drudge top story (the first time I have seen Drudge run an education story at the top that didn't involve shootings), is this article in the Star-Tribune about "Minnesota's Muslim Public School." The school in question is a charter school that does appear to perhaps be tied too closely to the Muslim faith. While the "evidence" relied on for this article is almost totally hearsay (it is a pretty poorly conducted "investigation" written into an article that presents it as fact), I am willing to buy the basic idea that this school may be tied too closely to the Muslim religion. In fact, the ACLU is going to have a look at it.

Of course ... Christian Charter Schools ... well, I don't even need to say it do I? Anyone else think we are just a tad hypocritical about our devotion to the Doctrine of the Separation of Church and State in this country? It is a doctrine that comes from the Constitution itself and is designed to be used broadly, not selectively. If everyone is so worried about the separation of church and state in public schools, I would like to see the author of the article, Matt Drudge and everyone else pursue violations stemming from the Christian religion with as much vigor as this story seems to be pursued.

Devolving Education and Developing Countries

Justin Bathon — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:27:33 GMT

As many of you probably know Zimbabwe has been in the news lately for their recent disputed elections. Today we learn it has the possibility to get violent. You may also know that Zimbabwe was one of the most literate countries in Africa at over 90% literacy rates and by all accounts it had a sparkling education system. Anyway, this is all background for a story in today's LA Times about how Zimbabwe's education system is being dismantled as one by one inflation is forcing teachers out of the education system.

The first to go was the English teacher. Six months later, the commerce teacher followed. The next year, 2005, the trickle turned into an exodus. By 2007, the departures from Mufakose 3 High School were like bricks in a collapsing building: math, science, accounting and many other teachers, all leaving their careers behind to work as cleaners, shop assistants, laborers in other countries.

Zimbabwe's education system, once the best in Africa, is being demolished teacher by teacher.

Some of the teachers at Mufakose 3, outside the capital, Harare, called in sick and were never seen at the school again. Others didn't bother to call and just disappeared.

"You'd come to school and someone's not there and next thing you hear, he's gone," said Knox Sonopai, 43, a history teacher at Mufakose 3.

In 2007, 25,000 teachers fled the country, according to the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. In the first two months of this year, 8,000 more disappeared. A staggering 150,000 teaching vacancies can't be filled. The Education Ministry sends out high school graduates with no degree or experience to do the job.

...

At Mufakose 3, schoolboy Bernard Tinashe stared straight ahead with dreamy eyes as he painted a 10-year-old's vision of someone in a white coat curing the dying and the sick. He recited his hopes and dreams in a singsong classroom voice, as if learned by rote.

"I-want-to-be-a-doctor-because-I-want-to-give-people-medicine-when-they're-sick. Sometimes-they-don't-get-medicine-because-in-this-country-there's-no-medicine. To-learn-is-the-best-thing-in-Zimbabwe-so-that-you-can-be-educated-so-that-you-can-
learn-something-that-you-can-do."

When there aren't enough teachers or there's a strike (a frequent occurrence these days), children are sent home or spend the day outside playing.

"School's boring," Bernard said, "because there are no teachers and we don't learn anything. You just sit and read books but the teachers are not there. Sometimes we are just sitting on the ground or sitting waiting for our parents to come and get us and then we'll go home."

He said some of the children were mischievously delighted when classes were canceled, but not him: "It makes me feel unhappy. I'll never get to be educated. I'll never get to be a doctor. I'm not learning."

Continue Reading...

The education systems in these developing democracies are often forgotten amidst the stories on bloodshed and political power struggles, but we should remember that while these political games play out in the present, it is the future that is lost.

Kudos to the LA Times for pay attention and running the story.

Also today, NPR interviews Lisa Jackson who as a documentary which begins tonight on HBO (10 est) on the extensive rape and harassment of women in the Conflict in the Congo. Here is the trailer:

Mathew's Education Blog List

Justin Bathon — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:46:41 GMT

Those new to the blogosphere can often be overwhelmed by the immensity of it. It is huge. Like, really huge. Technorati is currently tracking 112.8 million blogs. It is the same with education. There are a lot of education blogs. I have been blogging for three or four years now and I have probably only seen like a 1/10 of the education blogosphere.

Anyway, what is quickly becoming one of the gold standards for education blogs lists is Jay Mathews annual list at the Washington Post. Jay is one of, if not the, top reporter in education so his seal of approval is no small thing. I looked over his list and I agree with him that most of the blogs on his list are the most influential in education. I especially liked Jay's inclusion of Teaching in the 408, which is probably my favorite teacher blog. I think Jay's list is a little heavy in education policy blogs (which frequently present much of the same material) and as he continues to compile it I expect he will start to see more of the educational blogs that are actually written by educators, but for now it is a good place to start for those new to the educational blogosphere.

The Redding Strip Search Case Continues to Get Attention

Justin Bathon — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:33:50 GMT

If you have read the blog for a while, you know I took a personal interest in the Redding v. Stafford case a long time ago when Savannah Redding posted a comment to the blog to thank me for my interpretation of the case, in which I sided with the student that a strip search for Ibuprofen was unreasonable. (See my first post and a later post). Well, this case has been gaining national momentum of late, and rightfully so. Here is the latest clip from MSNBC which interviews Savannah and has a little analysis (although the analysis is pretty weak - MSNBC, next time you need some analysis, call me, I can point you in the right direction - Jackie Stefkovich at Penn State, for instance, would have been much better).