Weekend To-Do List

6/8 - 6/9

1. Does American Education Need Reform or Reinvention?

READ: Thomas Arnett says the path to transforming U.S. schools is not through reform, but instead starts with the creation of new value networks. Arnett argues in Education Next that the priorities of our current education system’s value networks make innovation impossible:

Realistically, established schools don’t change their value networks because a school’s value network is the lifeblood of that school: the families who volunteer and vote, the teachers who keep classrooms humming, and the state agencies that set the rules and provide the funding. No rational leader of a conventional school is going to dismiss the existing value network and try to build a new one. Doing so will either cripple the school or get the leader fired. It’s only in very rare instances—often in small school systems facing poignant failure—that a whole value network shifts on its own.

Read more here.

2. More Prisons Set to Offer College Opportunities

READ/LISTEN: Transformation is exactly what’s on the mind of the 44 state corrections agencies currently in the process of developing processes to approve new prison education programs. Amanda Hernández reported on the increased interest in educating incarcerated individuals, which comes nearly one year after the U.S. Department of Education announced it would offer Pell Grants to college students in prison. Advocates and graduates of similar programs say the impact of a college education is long-lasting for these individuals:

“College saved my life. It was a place where I could be free. I could read, I could learn, and I could grow. It was very transformative for me, and I realized that my life wasn’t over,” said Alexa Garza, who obtained two associate degrees and a bachelor’s degree while incarcerated in Texas. Garza now works as a Texas policy analyst and higher education justice initiatives analyst for The Education Trust, an education access advocacy group.

Read more in The 74 here. Chris and Kate recently discussed this topic on an episode of The Citizen Stewart Show. Listen here.

3. Why College Presidents Have Failed

READ: The role of college presidents has been thrust into the spotlight this year with leaders from prominent universities facing harsh criticism for their response to campus protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. With the average college president tenure decreasing from 6.5 years in 2016 to 5.9 years in 2022, Fabiola Cineas at Vox set out to understand why it’s become so challenging to hold this role. Frederick Lawrence, the former president of Brandeis University, cited a president’s inner circle - or lack thereof - as a key factor for success:

“The president routinely has people who he or she consults, and the last couple of people he or she wants in the room. That could be the board chair, the provost, or the chief of operations, for example,” Lawrence said. “You are always trying to get input from people who can help you make the decision, since it’s never a good idea to make a decision in isolation.”

Read more here.

4. Colleges Weigh Disciplinary Action Against Protesters

READ: Jeremy W. Peters at the New York Times reported on the growing debate within colleges over how to address potential disciplinary action for students involved in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas War. Students have been charged with everything from criminal misdemeanors for trespassing to warnings on their academic record, and university administrators are weighing the future impact of being too lenient with being too harsh. Some experts say it’s important for protestors to own their actions:

“You do that to rouse the conscience of the nation or the institutional power in question — to have it reckon with what you believe is a greater moral imperative,” said Tony Banout, executive director of the University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Meanwhile, others say any potential punishment would be flawed by design:

When asked what was the appropriate penalty for his civil disobedience, Mr. [Youseff] Hasweh did not have to think long.

“Nothing,” he said. As someone who is part Palestinian, he added, “I think it’s hypocritical for them to say we’re being disruptive when they’re actively investing in a genocide that is very disruptive to my family.”

Read more here.

5. School Voucher Debate Raises Questions about Church and State

READ: Laura Meckler and Michelle Boorstein published a controversial piece in the Washington Post this week about the expansion of state vouchers, how often those vouchers are being used for tuition at religious schools, and what it suggests about the line between church and state. Critics argue that voucher programs have depleted resources for public school students, some advocates argue that the funds shouldn’t have been seen as public dollars in the first place:

“It’s the parents’ money to use as they see is best,” said Brian Hickey, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio. “We don’t necessarily see it as taxpayer money.”

Read more here.

6. Who Benefits From ESAs?

READ: Jason Bedrick took to the pages of Education Next to condemn a recent report from the Brookings Institution that took a close look at Arizona families’ usages of education savings accounts. Bedrick took particular offense to the report’s claim that education savings accounts primarily support high-income families:

Nowhere in the report do the authors mention that Arizona has another education choice policy—tax-credit scholarships—that predates and works in tandem with the ESAs. Nor do they mention that one component of the scholarship policy is means-tested, let alone that low- and middle-income families can receive more money with the scholarships than the ESAs. That’s right: low-income families can receive tax-credit scholarships that cover a greater amount of tuition than the typical ESA, which is worth about $7,400 annually for a student without special needs.

Read more here.

7. Now Hiring: English-Learner Teachers

READ: Libby Stanford at Education Week dived into the immigration crisis and its impact on U.S. schools and found that the impact is more mixed than the headlines may suggest. Nearly 36,000 migrant students have enrolled in New York City schools over the past two years, while Denver has welcomed 4,700 new students this year, and Chicago says 8,900 migrant students enrolled in its schools this year. While the day-to-day impact can vary greatly based on state and local district budgets, many leaders say the need to hire an English-learner teacher has created the biggest strain:

The number of certified English-learner instructors dropped by about 10.4 percent in just one year, between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, according to the latest federal data. English-learner instructors are also frequently among the most common positions districts struggle to fill.

Read more here.

Heads up! Imbroglio will take a short break next week and return on June 22.