I've moved and evolved!

My mom couldn't find this blog. So I created another one.

The SAT Paper Chase pt. 1: SAT Data in the The District

SAT data are extremely important for suburban families. Yes, they're a blunt instrument. They don't tell how well a school district is doing. I believe that SAT scores are more linked to family income than anything else (unless you're in Prince George's County, MD). Yet parents want their kids to go to the most selective colleges, and SAT scores are a key ingredient in determining which students get into schools and how much these students have to pay.

So with that I unveil the SAT Paper Chase!

The goal of the SAT Paper Chase is to obtain SAT score data from all Washington, DC public, private, and charter schools. Families, should NOT use SAT scores or AP scores in isolation to help determine whether a school is right for them. Instead, they should seek to see how SAT and AP scores correlate with family income and reduced lunch percentage. Any time you have a positive outlier, a school that has strong scores with a large population of reduced lunch students, you know that school is likely exceeding national performance by means fair or foul. Any time that you have a negative outlier, a school that has weak results despite having few reduced lunch students, you can be pretty confident that you have a school whose reputation may exceed its results.

Read a breakdown of how three public school district, DC charter schools, and DC private schools handle SAT data transparency after the jump.

Education and Today's DC Special Election

Education issues are always a battleground in DC politics, especially in the wake of Michelle Rhee's reforms. While many have lamented the sad state of the DC schools, they certainly have been at the front lines of the reform debate. SEED charter school was positively profiled in Waiting for Superman (check out right hand side of the page linked). John Philip Sousa middle school was taken to task in the film, but their students took that as a teachable moment. The KIPP network of charter schools in DC remains a national network with great market penetration in DC. Most conspicuous, of course, is Michelle Rhee, the former superintendent of schools who is now spearheading change with a nonprofit of her own. What do the DC candidates say about education and what are their qualifications?

View snapshots of their educational platforms after the jump:

Blessings and Welcome. Enjoy your stay.

Educational issues are close to my heart. I've been an educator for awhile in so many roles. Now, though, I see a profession under attack. I'm not sure whether the reformers hearts are in the right place. They may be. They wish to reinvent a broken system. If it's not all the way broken, it sure is broken for the least and the lost and the greatest: those students in rural districts and urban districts; those students who are gifted and those students who are "special education"; those students seduced and transfixed by an omnipresent technological society; those students who have just given up on the system and do the absolute minimum to get by.

First and foremost, this blog is for those families that don't know what to do. While I hope to engage with the education intellectuals and decision makers, I always strive to write in a readable fashion, no matter if I occasionally drop in the "cheese and chalk" of the occasional homespun phrase or one of that plethora of arduous vocabulary some parents hope their SAT students and GRE students imbibe. I hope to see the rare curious student of any age who wants to try to know a bit more as well.

Second, this blog is for those on the ground. Those on the ground are the school leaders with integrity, the teachers that work their hardest until the students they love get it, and those support personnel and good old fashioned working class invisible folks who clean up the classroom or manage the office or patrol the halls and want to know what's going on in those classrooms. And sometimes those on the ground are just the innocent bystanders watching the show who vote and care about the issues I discuss.

Third, this blog is for the decision makers. We, the believers in education, want to be heard. We do not want to be dictated to. If your reforms support our values, we will be your greatest cheerleaders and your vanguard of support. But if you oppose our values, expect powerful and determined resistance with mind, body, heart and spirit.

Lastly, I'm a selfish dude. This blog is my woodshed. Here's where I am going to hash out some ideas that I hope will lead to students who succeed, colleagues who care, and a position of responsibility to articulate my viewpoints and beliefs. I hope and pray that this woodshed leads somebody who is one of those decision makers to support my efforts. I hope and pray that this woodshed makes me the best educator and man I can be to rally support to the causes that I care about.

Thank you for stopping by dear reader. I hope that we all grow and laugh along the way.

Edit 4/25: 11:30AM: Don't be fooled by the new picture. That's not me! But take a guess on twitter, comments, or email and I'll reveal who it actually is.