Teacher Shortage Shenanigans, The Boss & School, Juvenile “Justice,” Jane Pauley, West On Driverless Trans, School By Design Launches, CER Relaunches, Ed Ideas And Music!

Last week I mentioned the new education blog starting up with a music theme. Today I shared about a recent Springsteen show and one of my kids over there. More music below.

More pushback on the teacher shortage narrative via Goldhaber. Here’s Chad Aldeman with even more:

The LPI report confuses these sources of new teachers. They estimate a generic number for “teacher demand” at roughly 200,000 teachers, growing over time to more than 300,000 per year. This is worrying because as a country, only 200,000 to 250,000 people complete a teacher preparation program each year, and those numbers are likely to fall in coming years. LPI eyeballs these sets of numbers and concludes that we’re heading for a severe teacher shortage in coming years.

But LPI’s figures are misleading, because they’re counting all new teachers, not just recent graduates. For example, in 2004, LPI says there was demand for 236,407 new teachers. According to NCES, that year there were only 74,500 new hires who were recent college graduates. LPI repeats the same error in 2008, where it reports 247,964 new hires, even as NCES says only 92,500 of them were recent graduates. The numbers aren’t readily available for more recent years, but it’s clear that LPI’s figures are way out of proportion.

This wouldn’t be a problem if LPI noted these distinctions. Instead, they compound their error by comparing apples and oranges. They compare their figures for total demand against the supply of new graduates. As it should be clear by now, those two figures are not actually comparable. A better comparison is to look at the number of recent graduates who are hired versus the total production of recent graduates. When you look just at recent graduates, you get very different numbers.

Once you start comparing apples to apples, LPI’s “teacher shortage” narrative goes completely out the window…

Oops.

More debate about the NAACP charter school position.

America’s juvenile justice system needs some work…Hailly Korman, call your office!

School By Design pulled the curtain up this week. Story here.  Also, the Center For Education Reform is relaunching.

Darrell West looks at driverless cars. The trend toward automation in transportation will impact education, too.

Jane Pauley taking over for Charles Osgood on CBS this morning. She hosted the Bellwether launch event and is active and supportive on education in Indy via The Mind Trust, so she has a special place with us and we wish her well.

Apparently there is some sort of political event tonight. Here are 16 ideas you won’t hear discussed!

Watch this Rhiannon Giddens concert. The music is fantastic and you’ll learn something.

5 Replies to “Teacher Shortage Shenanigans, The Boss & School, Juvenile “Justice,” Jane Pauley, West On Driverless Trans, School By Design Launches, CER Relaunches, Ed Ideas And Music!”

  1. UPDATE:
    Kaya Henderson (the self described bigger , darker version of Michelle Rhee)

    blockquote><But when Payne persisted with a question about Henderson’s “personal goal of closing achievement gaps,” the chancellor explained: “I am not exactly convinced that schools alone can close the achievement gap. I think about the fact that in Washington, D.C., we have the greatest income inequality in the country. That gap is only growing, and the fact that our achievement gap is growing in a similar way shouldn’t be baffling. But I think what we’ve learned is that equity is really more appropriate, giving different people different kinds of support…And for different groups and different kids that means different things.”

    http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20835261/left-behind-how-kaya-henderson-failed-atrisk-dcps-students

    So, will Andrew Rotherham, Tim Daly, Richard the Witless and the rest of the Professional Education Reform Crowd excoriate Kaya like they did to the teachers and others (like Diane Ravitch) who said the same.

    I fucking doubt it. If they do, an ACPS school (where class size is capped at 20 with 2 college educated adults in the room) can expect a (small) donation of behalf of Terry Lenox and me.

  2. Phillip …

    I know of no one in the “Professional Education Reform Crowd” who asserts that schools alone can close the achievement gap, though everyone in that crowd believes that schools can do and should do a lot more toward that end.

    Debating how to make schools better is tough enough without wasting time on straw men.

  3. Then Art, you haven’t been paying attention for the past ten years.
    With the failure of Michelle Rhee’s policies in the District, the inability of chartered New Orleans to produce the best schools in the nation, the notion that schools will close the achievement gap is receding like floodwaters in Lumberton.
    Instead, we now hear that children, especially those on the low end of the achievement gap, have to be given the “opportunity” to attend a great (i.e. charter) school.

    Light up the Wicker Man. http://tinyurl.com/zp5fnne

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