Some new political polling – independents care more about education than you might think (it’s still an also ran but not as much as some years). Also, don’t miss the Arizona numbers, relevant to teachers union strategy there.

Speaking of the strikes, there is some confusion about various data being tossed around about teacher pay, state spending and so forth. When thinking about teacher salaries and comparisons it’s important to account for actual days worked – eg comparing a 190 or 200 day with a 260 day work year is problematic. Many analyses don’t account for this. Non-cash compensation, in particular health care and retirement benefits can also be a misleading point of comparison – thogh teacher retirement isn’t as good as commonly assumed it’s often just expensive. Basically, as with any comparison you want to go for apples to apples. And basically, you can do a lot worse than just follow @chadaldeman, who will break this all down for you in real time.

Hey, here’s Chad now on Arizona and Colorado.

Urban data on instructional materials.

One other thougth on this. I’ve always been struck at how reformers have consistently allowed themselves (not always undeservedly) to be painted as being against school spending. Money matters – and of course how it’s spent matters, too. And many reformers get that inequitable intrastate finance policies are a huge problem for students (and teachers), disadvantage low-income communities, and that the budget choices some states have made are a big problem, too (though that’s a more partisan issue). Reform + resources has always seemed like substantively and politically the way to go. Bill Clinton used to say we should invest more in our schools and demand more from them. Hard to argue with that.

Today in Civics ed. Today in gender ed.

Free nudge resources for schools.

Data action in the states.

This Nevada story is best taken with aspirin.

Virginia brookies are having a hard time, students are helping.

Sara Mead:

When I started reading Elif Batuman’s recent New Yorker piece on Japan’s rental family business, I expected it to be fascinating. What I didn’t expect was that it would offer striking insights on the currentdebate over credentials and compensation for early childhood workers in the United States…

Bonnie O’Keefe on co-teaching models for ELL and DL students.

Do not miss this essay by UVA graduate student and soon-to-be teacher Sierra Leickert on first generation students:

…the first time I set foot on the UVA campus, I absolutely fell in love. I felt there was nowhere quite like it — from the research and extracurricular opportunities to the academic rigor, UVA had everything I was looking for. I moved into my first-year dorm excited about the four years to come but quickly found myself feeling isolated. My hallmates and new friends would speak of the groups from home who had matriculated with them at UVA, and of the flexibility in their schedules thanks to the credits they had already earned because of the opportunities at their high schools. The majority of them came from affluent backgrounds, with parents who had gone to college.

I, on the other hand, was all alone. There were two of us from my high school, and we were not prepared in the same way…

Related, this new Pell analysis out from Third Way.

Pension finance lurking behind some of the teacher pay debate. And Medicaid spending creating pressure in state budgets.

Teacher turnover may not be what you think – but still makes great headlines.

Ed Week founder Ron Wolk has passed.

Provocative Marc Tucker.

Buzzy Kettleman on Maryland education. The California state superintendent race is getting pricey. Also in California – a new sup’t in LA. And the Los Angeles fiscal situation is probably bleaker than you thought.

The nation’s first school shooting?

Do more demanding standards cut down on drinking?

This is a crazy story – summer worker stays, becomes high school phenom, age issues catch up with him.

Whiter Shade of Pale.

Hailly Korman on muti-agency coordination, why it matters for kids, and why schools are key. Here’s a longer Bellwether paper on this question released this week.

Did you know there are more college dropouts than high school ones? It’s true. Chad Aldeman on that.

Lina Bankert responds to Derrell Bradford on charters.

Sara Mead on the new “Power to the Profession” report.

Elsewhere:

Flying blind on higher ed.

Get kids outside. But that’s going to be harder to do when stuff like this is happening.

This is an actual press release.

Millennials and literature via a second generation education personality.

Charter schools get their just desserts! No, charter school deserts via Fordham.

The wayback machine on school choice.

Charter schools and discipline.

This is not a good signal for the teachers unions – and some evidence in their own polling that a Janus ruling is going to allow a not-insignificant share of their members who are either disengaged or discontented to bail out.

Feather theft.

Did you know Bellwether has an evaluation practice? We do, and they are sold-out most of the time. So we’re hiring more team members to join a great team led by Allison Davis that includes Beth Tek, Katrina Boone, and others. Two openings below:

Analyst role

Associate Partner role

More info about careers at Bellwether here.

Chad Aldeman and Arun Ramanathan on the “Silver Tsunami.” Bonus Game of Thrones references.

Romy Drucker on union organizing in charter schools.

This idea of turning Impact Aid into a voucher program completely misunderstands why Impact Aid exists and is the kind of idea that discredits school choice rather than advances it. If people want a voucher program for military families – not a totally off the wall idea given concerns about the quality of schools around some military facilities, then do that. But that requires new dollars not raiding Impact Aid.

This Tom Edsall analysis of intra-Dem tensions has some implications for education politics and policy.

Bill Hughes debriefs a school failure in Memphis.

A lot of interesting information in this CSGF annual report.

Wendy Kopp interview.

Rick Hess and Amy Cummings on Oklahoma teacher pay.

Tift Merritt.

New America is hiring for a Deputy Director for their Early & Elementary Education Policy program:

New America’s Education Policy program uses original research and policy analysis to help solve the nation’s critical education problems, crafting objective analyses and suggesting new ideas for policymakers, educators, and the public at large. We combine a steadfast concern for historically disadvantaged populations with a belief that better information about education can vastly improve both the policies that govern educational institutions and the quality of learning itself.

You can learn more about New America and this role and apply via this link.

We could all do with more financial literacy – Max Marchitello with the teacher angle on that.

The 74’s Bev Weintraub on Tammie Jo Shults: Good pilots are calm under pressure, she’s a very good pilot.

Pew with some troubling data on how scared kids are about gun violence at school. Troubling in no small part because it’s a level of anxiety entirely disproportionate to the threat. You might be surprised at the many things, from the too common – cancer and car accidents – to the unusual – becoming a child bride – that are more likely to happen to young people than being shot in school. It’s terrifying when it happens, yes, and we should improve policy here, yes, but we shouldn’t let that cloud our judgement in how we present this to kids.

Here’s an interesting analysis of boundary patterns and enrollment in DC schools.

Jeb Bush on NAEP and Florida.

Mike Antonucci takes a dimmer view of the Oklahoma strike. He’s right in terms of the facts on the ground – which were not well reported in many media accounts. But I’d argue the unions were in a heads they win, tails their opponents lose situation. There may be some momentary frustration but they were playing a longer game here.

These kinds of pension stories about outliers and weird spikes are hard to lay off of, so they get headlines and illustrate that pension plans are a lot more arbitrary than people think. But they’re not the core problem – the core problem in education is that traditional pensions are just a poor fit for the labor market today and need some updating.

Candy Land is hell. How to cheat at games with your kids.

Here is a SEAL seal with a knife.

High-potential but low-income students are getting lost in the crowd, Tim Daly on that.

Times ethicist sums up the school choice debate:

If you just think the voucher program is bad policy, then join the campaign against it. That’s the right way to voice your judgments about the merits of educational policy. You don’t want to sacrifice your son’s education to abstract principle, especially given that you’re not going to end the voucher program by failing to make use of it.

This would make a great Peggy Noonan column: When you can’t even plot strategy in the First Class car on Acela without people eavesdropping on your call then all of our social norms are truly gone. 

“Crowd out” from pension and benefit costs is a real issue – but if it becomes partisan that’s going to make it even harder to solve.

Wasted and Rolling.  Office lizard.

Max Marchitello on why teachers would benefit from more portable retirement.

Janus inoculation. Look for more of this as well as additional legal wrangling in the wake of the Janus decision – assuming it goes against the union, which seems a safe bet given that the court took the case.

Ashley Brenner on educational pluralism. Worth watching. The kind of questions that don’t get enough air in the back and forth about education today.

Check out this new early literacy app.

The Democratic Party has a structural problem on education – its activist class opposes ideas that the people Democrats claim to want to help support. Short term outcome is stuff like this. Longer term outcome, TBD. It’s not tenable over time. The Dems definitely have one asset going for them though that cannot be overvalued in the current moment: The Republicans.

David Osborne and Emily Langhorne on Texas.

College writing and confirmation hearings.

This is a pretty heavy hitting group of backup singers.

For a while education has been animated by the idea that with all this technology around us who needs to know “mere” facts. You can just look stuff up. That ignores how people learn, but more troubling it may lead to things like this: A startling number of millennials don’t know some of the basic dynamics of the Holocaust.

Also leads to this:

“Don’t believe every quote attributed to me on the internet, especially on my birthday” – Thomas Jefferson letter to Adams, 1821.

— Andrew Rotherham (@arotherham) April 13, 2018

Here’s a content analysis of education coverage and partisan lean, both national and trade coverage.

An analysis of Newark’s school enrollment system.

This article is about the ongoing debate about Broward school discipline / Parkland shooting, but this line is something to keep an eye on:

“Teachers come to me and tell me, ‘My principal’s making me feel like it’s my fault when students misbehave,’ and ‘I’m asking for help, and they’re still putting it on me,’ ” Anna Fusco, the Broward County teachers’ union president, tells me the following day. We are at a downtown café between sessions in the all-day school board meeting, and she is describing a form of negligence that doesn’t show up in any documents. “Management denies it,” she says, but hundreds of teachers have complained to her about the district’s “unspoken” rule to avoid referrals.

Marc Tucker on the “has reform worked?” question/debate.

Area successful college-educated man questions benefits of college.

Cornell fire cold case. Engaging read.

Even accounting for the dislike hardcore “lost cause” types have for the cavalry officer, it seems weird that it’s easier to rename schools named after J.E.B. Stuart than Jeff Davis. But here we are. Anyway,  J.E.B. Stuart High School has a new look as Justice High (but same achievement gaps unfortunately). Debate continuing elsewhere about what to do about Confederate-themed schools. (Spelling updated via a very good tweet).

Love child.