Preschool?

Obama said a lot about early childhood education in the debate the other night, and this morning I woke up to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Universal Preschool Hasn't Delivered Results

"A comprehensive study last month - commissioned by the government itself - concluded that, barring at-risk kids, there was "no statistically significant difference" between the educational performance of second-graders who attended preschool and those who did not... [even though] the Tennessee program is regarded as the gold standard of preschool - meeting 9 of the 10 criteria for a high-quality program set by the National Institute for Early Education Research."

Interesting. (Granted, authors Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell work for the Reason Foundation and, I would imagine, are pretty staunchly in the McCain camp. I suspect they will be getting some furious feedback from SF Chron readers.)

In thinking about it, I don't think it really matters to me whether or not early childhood education raises test scores. I think that kids need to be prepared for kindergarten - social and academically, and one of the ways to do that is through an early childhood program like Head Start or any of the many other great programs around the nation. If the programs in Tennessee were considered the "gold standard" of preschool, then I am confident that those kindergarteners came in the door with a leg up on kids who didn't attend preschool.

I feel like this is particularly important in poor and urban neighborhoods where parents may not have the resources or the time to understand and facilitate child development, to read to their kids every night, to encourage language and phonics acquisition, etc. Geoffrey Canada's Baby College and GEMS - they are doing this work full-throttle, giving kids a "head start" from even before birth. Here's the link to the Harlem Children's Zone Page www.hcz.org and to an awesome article about Baby College specifically. The Baby College

I could write another post entirely on Harlem Childrens Zone and Geoff Canada... he, along with Michelle Rhee, is another of my "Educrushes." Paul Tough's new book on his work is really excellent, and I've been enjoying reading it in bits and pieces when I have a free moment.

In other good news... as of this morning, I am done with my 37 page midterm paper on Mik! I can't tell you how excited I am to hand that in in Seminar today. Woohoo!

Michelle Rhee

I have been meaning to write about my love for Michelle Rhee for a while now, and after coming across this video interview with Charlie Rose, I couldn't help but take this opportunity to gush. (Dan Meyer recently refered to his own warm fuzzy feelings for Chancellor Rhee as an Educrush, which I think is adorable.) I have lots of "Educrushes" these days, the more education books and blogs I read, the more I find myself falling in love with other people's ideas and philosophies on teaching. It has definitely been inspiring me to think about the kind of educator I want to be.

Here's the video: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/07/14/2/a-conversation-with-michelle-rhee-chancellor-of-the-district-of-columbia-public-schools

I love her passion for accountablity, I love her no-nonsense, no-excuses approach to education. She seems to truly believe that every teacher should be a great teacher, and she is committed to making it lucrative and possible for extraordinary people to become teachers and succeed as teachers. The woman is not willing to settle for mediocrity, and she's shaking things up in DC education. And I love it. The city needs it.

There are so many factors that affect children's ability to learn, particularly in under-served, inner-city neighborhoods, but blaming all of those factors for a child's inability to read and write is unacceptable. They may not come to school as well prepared as children in other parts of the city, but if we use that as an excuse for why so few are testing at proficiency, then it lets us, as educators, off the hook. We may not be able to fix all of the social and economic problems in the city's worst neighborhoods -- but those problems are not an insurmountable obstacle in the education of the children who live there. Michelle Rhee, in her interview, notes that "education is supposed to be the great equalizer" and at this point it obviously isn't, but it SHOULD be.

Rhee's "red track" and "green track" concept for the teachers union contract is, in my opinion, brilliant. I would without a doubt choose, and be excited by, the opportunity to be evaluated each year (through standardized test scores, interviews, or whatever means necessary) and paid based on my performance as a teacher. I can understand the senority and tenure concerns of older, more experienced teachers, and I am glad that Rhee is giving them the option of staying on that path through the "red track." However, if my students did not learn in my class, then I know I did not do a good job as their teacher, and I take responsibility for their failures. I'm not afraid of being accountable for my work.