The Magic of Teachers and Fear

It annoys me when the mainstream media runs scary teacher stories. There are millions of teachers, but the press have an amazing ability to spot the few bad apples among them and use that as evidence that the entire system is corrupt.

So, I enjoyed this story dripping with satire from the Colbert Report last night.  

Here is the real story.

The Growing Education Law Blogosphere

Did some searching today for educational law blogs and wanted to pass along my findings.

Our little community of educational law bloggers is growing. By my count, there are at least 15 specific educational law blogs that are active, give or take a couple. Add to that about 5-10 blogs that tangentially blog on educational law issues. And, for the first time today, I am introducing two ed. admin. school law class specific blogs (see below). So, we are moving forward, folks. We all benefit when more educational law blogs and readers come online, so encourage your educational law friends to start their own and be sure to read what others are writing in the community and comment and recommend good posts to your friends.

Anyway, since we are beginning to have a critical mass here, I created a search box for educational law blogs only. When you search using this tool, it will only return results from educational law blogs. It is a great tool to find relatively trustworthy information on educational law for free. It would be especially helpful in educational law classes whether they are in law schools or schools of education. I plan to use it in my school law class, for instance. And don't forget, I built all these educational law blogs into my public aggregator which you can use.

Permanent Search Link: (would be great to link to on your blog)

Search Widget: (If you would like to embed this search box on your site, just leave a comment and I will give you the code).

EDUCATIONAL LAW BLOG SEARCH

Custom Search

So, the new ones:

First, a couple new education law related blogs to add to your aggregators.

1.     Wrightslaw is blogging. Wrightslaw, the famous special education parental advocacy site, has now added blogging to their online empire. Folks interested in special education law, on either side of the due process hearing table, would do well to add them to their aggregators.

2.     Second, an older blog that is worthy of picking up as it deals with school law issues on occasion is the Public Sector Law Blog. It is written by Patrick Fanelli, a lawyer in practice in Pennsylvania. While he privledges Penn. school law issues over national issues, it still has a fair amount of national school law related posts.

3.     I have linked to this one before, but Jen Weissman is doing a great job so far at her education law blog.

Second: 2 blogs that have been used in educational law classes. This is a great way of using a technology tool to aide learning.

1.     Public School Law 509 - Dr. Charles Luke, Tarleton State University.

2.     UNCC School Law 8120- The school law professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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

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

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.

Update 2: Jen Weissman offers up a bit of opinion on the issue as well and points out that the Washington Post ran a story on the issue a couple days after this post.

What Can Educational Leadership Learn from the 2008 Election?

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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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. 
   
5. 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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Friday Snippets - 5/23/08


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).

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.

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.

What's Al Gore Doing?

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"

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?

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."

Continue Reading ...

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

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. I miss the hours. The steady schedule and summers off and home to watch the evening news or play in the yard or whatever.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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.
7. 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).
8. 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.
   
9. 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.
   
10. 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