Productivity resources from the U.S. Department of Education

From the Department of Education, this looks as if it could be useful.  (Maybe we shouldn't abolish this department just yet.)

Resources on Framing Educational Productivity

From the Education Gadfly

We keep paying more for worse results, in both public education and health care

All through the health care debate the president and the advocates of his horrible health care bill repeated again and again how we pay more than other leading countries for far worse results. Why do they not make the same argument about public education? Instead it’s always how we need to pump more and more money into the system.
We both know the answer, but it would be nice to see some Republicans ask the question.

I agree with Glenn Reynolds that this is an interesting point.

"The reality is you can't do more with less, only less with less,"

"The reality is you can't do more with less, only less with less,"

These are the words of Jeanne-Claire Cotnoir, president of the Briarcliff Teachers Association.  Their community is divided over plans to trim school spending, with passionate sentiments on both sides of the issue.  Former school board member Joan Austin voices an opposing view.

"A leaner school system might just be a better one."

Per pupil spending is $29,964, but proposed budget cuts will trim that slightly.  Plans include teacher layoffs as well as downsized music programs and AP classes.

The teachers union says taxpayers need to increase education spending, but some taxpayers believe that more money does not necessarily lead to better schools.

You can read the entire article after the jump.

Public schools have experienced "negative productivity"

Stephen Moore at The Wall Street Journal:

Where are the productivity gains in government? Consider a core function of state and local governments: schools. Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington. That is what economists call negative productivity.
But education is an industry where we measure performance backwards: We gauge school performance not by outputs, but by inputs. If quality falls, we say we didn't pay teachers enough or we need smaller class sizes or newer schools. If education had undergone the same productivity revolution that manufacturing has, we would have half as many educators, smaller school budgets, and higher graduation rates and test scores. 
The same is true of almost all other government services. Mass transit spends more and more every year and yet a much smaller share of Americans use trains and buses today than in past decades. One way that private companies spur productivity is by firing underperforming employees and rewarding excellence. In government employment, tenure for teachers and near lifetime employment for other civil servants shields workers from this basic system of reward and punishment. It is a system that breeds mediocrity, which is what we've gotten. 

Our local schools are resistant to using technology as a way to measure student performance levels.  This seems to be an obvious area where "21st century skills" could be applied to increase productivity - reducing costs while improving student achievement levels.  Khan Academy, the brainchild of a smart, ambitious man, does this beautifully.

Your classroom data...finally

 

Teachers and coaches can access all of their students' data. You can get a summary of class performance as a whole or dive into a particular student's profile to figure out exactly which topics are problematic. The class profile lets coaches glance at their dashboard and quickly figure out how to best spend their time teaching.

We've put a lot of energy into making sure that the Khan Academy empowers teachers by giving them access to the data they should've had for years. You'll know instantly if a student is struggling in multiplying fractions...or if she hit a streak and is now far ahead of the class.

Pearl River school district renegotiates contracts

Pearl River school district:

The teachers and administrators unions have agreed to contract givebacks for the 2011-12 school year to stave off extensive cuts to programs and staffing positions.
The renegotiated contracts were approved Monday and will reduce salary increases for 217 teachers and 11 administrators. School officials said Tuesday that would realize between $900,000 and $1.5 million in savings for the district over the next four years.
The revised agreement cuts teacher salary increases from 2.6 percent to 0.6 percent for the 2011-12 school year. Administrators will see their 2.75 percent salary increase for 2011-12 reduced to zero.

These givebacks may save about 17 teacher positions and elementary music programs, middle school art and technology instruction, along with some high school courses.

But financial problems are likely to continue.

Superintendent Frank Auriemma praised the teachers and administrator s for the voluntary givebacks, although he warned that future reductions in the 2012-13 school year were likely.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110323/NEWS03/103230356/1024/NEWS08/Pearl-River-teachers-administrators-agree-1-5-million-givebacks

The entire article is below.

Arne Duncan, class size and champion teachers

David Brooks writes that Arne Duncan espouses the idea of "Gold Star" teachers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave a superb speech in November called the New Normal. He observed that this era of austerity should be an occasion to increase productivity and cut the things that are ineffective. Duncan is a fountain of ideas to make more with less.
For example, he says, if we have to increase class sizes, we should put more kids in with the best teachers and then we should pay those teachers more to compensate for the extra load. Most of us parents would rather see our kids in a class of 30 with a great teacher than a class of 25 with an average one.

As a parent, I agree. But I don't think our schools can do this now, because they will not acknowledge that some teachers are better than others are.