Leonore Annenberg: A Tribute

September 29, 2009 John Merrow Op-ed education, foundations, john merrow, learning matters, leonore annenberg, philanthropy

More than 1,400 people gathered last week at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia last Thursday to pay tribute to Leonore Annenberg, who died in March at the age of 91. Her passing brought together dozens of luminaries including Supreme Court justices, governers, mayors, and reporters. A central theme of the tribute: Lee Annenberg cared deeply about democracy and treated all she encountered with dignity.

“Lee was forever young and ageless,” Andrea Mitchell, NBC news correspondent, told the audience. “Her legacy will certainly live on in the educational institutions she benefited.”

Learning Matters is part of the Annenberg legacy, but our connection came about in an odd—but certainly not unique—way. I never met Walter Annenberg, Mrs. Annenberg only once in passing, but they supported our work for nearly a decade.

And if my answering machine had malfunctioned, it might never have happened. Continue reading →

A Reading List

September 22, 2009 John Merrow Op-ed, teaching john merrow, reading list

I’m curious about what books about education others are reading these days. Here’s what I am reading now or intend to read before the end of the year. (Armchair detectives will figure out that I went to a conference at the Hoover Institution on campus at Stanford.)

Sweating the Small Stuff

Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner City Schools and the New Paternalism, by David Whitman. Published in 2008 by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the book is conservative in its angle of entry. Whitman is now a speechwriter for Arne Duncan.

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The Paradoxes of High Stakes Testing: How They Affect Students, Their Parents, Teachers, Principals, Schools, and Society, by George Madaus, Michael Russell and Jennifer Higgins. (Information Age Publishing, Charlotte NC, 2009) I know and admire George, who is a clear thinker and writer, but I am puzzled by the title. Paradoxes are apparent contradictions, but in our interviews George has pointed out a number of actual ones. So I will find out when I read it. All three authors are from Boston College.

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NO Challenge Left Behind

No Challenge Left Behind: Transforming American Education through Heart and Soul, by Paul D. Houston, published by Corwin Press and AASA, Paul’s old employer, in 2008. One reviewer called it a “funny, uplifting page-turner.”
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Continue reading →

The Sources of Innovation

September 14, 2009 John Merrow Op-ed, school reform, teaching classrooms, innovation, john doerr, john merrow, learning matters, newschools venture fund, Teaching, the new teacher project, widget effect

What produces innovation? Why does there seem to be such an abundance of it in serious fields like medicine and computer technology and trivial ones like online dating, but so little in education, arguably the most important of human activities?

First, let me support my premise, that schooling is largely bereft of innovation. A doctor or an auto mechanic from the 1950’s, if dropped into today’s hospital or garage, would be baffled. A teacher from the 50’s, however, would feel pretty darn comfortable in today’s classrooms. Maybe the desks wouldn’t be attached to the floor, and perhaps the blackboards would have been replaced by whiteboards, but there’d be bells every 50 minutes or so, attendance to be taken, and interruptions by the principal. I rest my case.

Back to why: The thirst for money, prestige and fame are reliable spurs of innovation. Living in Silicon Valley as I do, I’ve seen plenty of evidence of that. Unfortunately, public education is not the road to travel if your goals are money, prestige and fame.

Another spur to innovate is a supportive but challenging environment, one in which failure is seen as an opportunity to learn, not a stain. Does that describe most schools? I don’t think so.

John Doerr’s New Schools Venture Fund is working to recreate in education some of the conditions that have spurred Silicon Valley’s growth. That’s an uphill battle with a number of hurdles standing in the way, including a ‘one size fits all’ mentality and a glut of ‘experts’.

Education’s ‘one size fits all’ approach to evaluating and paying teachers has to dampen enthusiasm for trying new approaches. Why bother if you aren’t going to be rewarded? Continue reading →

Public Schools Need a Wake Up Call!

September 8, 2009 John Merrow Op-ed, school reform, teaching education, education speech, john merrow, K-12, kids, president obama, schools, Teaching

“Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer.”

President Obama’s speech to students, September 9, 2009

Those lines imply support for a progressive, child-centered view of schooling: educate through the strengths a child possesses.

President Obama gives education speech But the President went on, “And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.”

And when and if a child discovers those interests and abilities, what happens? Are classrooms set up to work with individual kids and nurture their talents, or do other pressures force teachers into cookie-cutter behavior?

Kids want to believe. Visit any elementary school on a morning of the first few weeks of school, and you will see joyful youngsters cavorting, laughing and shouting with glee. Their giddy anticipation is palpable and infectious, because they are actually happy to be back in school. “This year will be different,” their behavior screams. “This year I will be a great student, I will learn everything, and teachers will help me whenever I need help.”

However, this celebration, a child’s version of the triumph of hope over experience, is generally short-lived, and for most children school soon becomes humdrum, or worse.

What goes wrong, and what can be done about it? Continue reading →

” I don’t see any headlong rush to abandon NCLB…quite the contrary”: An Interview with Margaret Spellings

September 1, 2009 John Merrow Op-ed, school reform education, george w. bush, john merrow, margaret spellings, nclb, no child left behind, policy, reform

Margaret Spellings served as George W. Bush’s Secretary of Education during his second term and was his White House advisor on education before that. A Texan since third grade, Ms. Spellings was never a teacher or school administrator but worked for the Texas School Boards Association and on a school reform commission for a previous Texas governor. Ms. Spellings is generally acknowledged to be a principal architect of No Child Left Behind, which she continues to defend with vigor. Always a feisty interview when she was in office, she clearly has not lost a step, as you will see.

The Interview

Let’s start by talking about tomorrow. There was a lot of talk about your running for Governor of Texas. I know that’s not happening now, but are you interested in replacing Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the U.S. Senate? Or in the governorship down the road?

I have no plans to re-enter the public arena any time soon in either an elected or appointed capacity. I am currently loving life after public service.

And now the past, specifically No Child Left Behind. What are your feelings about what strikes me as a headlong rush to abandon No Child Left Behind? Some hard-core Republicans don’t even use the name any more, unless they’re talking about drastic repair work. And many Democrats have gone back to calling it ESEA, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the original name from 1965.

Huh? John, I am not seeing any headlong rush to abandon NCLB…quite the contrary. While you are right in that the name (NCLB) is often attacked, I am thrilled that the major policies are very much in place and supported by the current administration, which supports standards, data, pay for performance and charters. I believe we did something very significant with NCLB in creating a unique coalition of supporters, largely from the civil rights and business communities, who continue to stay strong in the face of vested stakeholder groups and those who argue against a federal role. Besides, No Child Left Behind actually describes the policy embodied in this law, and if they walk away from those policies and decide to leave kids behind they should change the name.

You famously compared NCLB to Ivory Soap–99.44% pure, meaning that it needed only some tinkering. Do you still feel that way?

I sure do. The core principles of the law – annual assessment, real accountability with consequences and deadlines, a focus on teacher quality, and confronting failing schools—are still the right issues, and I am pleased those in states all over this country and the new administration agree. Having said that, no legislative body has ever passed a perfect law. Continue reading →

The Merrow Report

Month: September 2009