Edcamps, Soda Tax & the Case Against Education

Issue 1 of 7Plus, an education news and critical theory bulletin

My work this summer at 12+, an education non-profit based in Philadelphia, involves delivering an internal bulletin which aggregates and discusses education news articles as well as critical education theory. As the bulletin might be beneficial to other individuals and organizations involved with education, I’ve decided to post a modified, public version here.

Local Education News

Philly School District Nearing New Accountability Rules for Charters

June 11, 2018 | Avi Wolfman-Arent | WHYY/The Notebook

Summary The School District of Philadelphia is trying to implement a revamped rubric, the “charter school performance framework”, which details when a charter school should close when its term expires, or remain open for another five years, based on three metrics: organizational compliance, financial health, and academic success. The rubric is meant to address the 33/84 charter schools that are running without valid contracts, as well as to set a clear and high standard for charter schools. Various charter schools are still pushing for lowered standards within the rubric’s point system before signing. An additional concern is the eminent replacement of the SRC by a local school board that could keep or scrap the rubric.

Significance Increased performance accountability for charter schools (coupled with increased financial accountability following the push for legislation to bar charter schools from leasing buildings they own back to themselves) could see more public funds and stranded costs return to improving district schools. However, closure of charter schools could also disrupt the lives of many students, and in the longer term, further impact less privileged students should overall educational resources decline.

Failing Brown v. Board

June 11, 2018 | PHENND | Journey for Justice Alliance

Summary The Journey for Justice Alliance, a national network of community-based organizations in 31 cities, released a report examining course offerings at high schools and illuminating the continued inequity of public education today, largely across race and class. The report paired schools located in the same districts/areas, one serving a majority of Black and/or Brown students and the other serving a larger percentage of white students. It found majority white schools mostly offering more courses in both academic subject areas and the arts.

Significance The research findings can generate issue attention for fundraising, or be marshaled as evidence for grant applications for organizations involved with enriching education at disfranchised schools. It could also inform programming by such organizations, or update or provide additional rationale for existing programs. These organizations might want to look at which courses tend to be lacking and have the most negative impact according to the report, as well as how they could be supplemented in some form through other programs.

Other Relevant News

City Health Dashboard

June 11, 2018 | PHENND | New York University

Summary The City Health Dashboard, which presents data on social, environmental, behavioral, and health variables, was recently updated for Philadelphia. Some statistics relevant to education include:

• 31.3% of public school children are chronically absent, compared to an average of 17.1% across the 500 largest cities
• 81.9% of Philadelphia’s public school students graduated high school on time, compared to an average of 83.4% across the 500 largest cities
• Philadelphia had an income inequality score of -24.2, compared to an average of -7.9 across the 500 largest cities (a lower score reflects more inequality)
• 34.1% of Philadelphia’s public school third-graders scored proficient on tests of reading, compared to an average of 46.2% across the 500 largest cities.

Significance As with the Failing Brown v. Board report, this data can generate issue attention for fundraising, or be marshaled as evidence for grant applications for organizations dealing with education equity. It could also inform programming for students, or help in updating or providing additional rationale for existing programs.

Edcamps: The ‘Unconferences,’ Where Teachers Teach Themselves

June 5, 2018 | Katherine Schulten | New York Times

Summary The article describes Edcamp, an innovative form of professional development training for educators, with no predetermined speakers or sessions, participant driven, and free to attendees. Teachers have generally found Edcamp to be more effective than traditional PD sessions offered by their schools. The first Edcamp took place in Philadelphia in 2010 and in 2013, the Edcamp Foundation was formed to further develop and proliferate it.

Significance Edcamp appears to be an effective means of building community and empowerment among teachers; Educational equity organizations might want to expand into programming for teachers in future, and such workshops can serve as models or evidence for them. What existing organizations can offer would be the connections they can make between teachers and staff across the different school communities they presently serve, and help to facilitate the sharing of best practices and a larger community building.

Kenney Slams Pa. Proposal to Replace Philly Soda Tax with Sales Tax Hike

June 11, 2018 | Dave Davies | WHYY

Summary Opponents of the 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages would like to replace that levy by raising the city sales tax (which goes to the state treasury) from 8 to 8.25 or 8.5 percent; the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has rejected the challenge and it is now before the State Supreme court.

Significance While the beverage tax has been controversial — increasing health outcomes through dissuading purchase of sugar sweetened beverages while also naturally impacting local businesses and workers relying on SSB sales, funds from the beverage tax are funneled into pre-K education, as well as into rebuilding parks, libraries, and recreation centers, which would improve students’ health, environment, and safety. Furthermore, the increased tax might have a bigger impact the lobbyists are claiming is caused by the beverage tax, pushing individuals to go out of the border to purchase goods and services and see the economy stagnate or decline, further exacerbating living and educational conditions for lower-income students.

Examining Education Critically

Competing Politics Behind the Education Problem

Aug 31, 2017 | Jerald Lim | Medium

Summary This piece summarizes a journal article on the conception of the education problem as a political one, with three different education reform goals, democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility, conflicting with each other. It moves on to describe the shifting prominence of these goals across the last few decades, and ends with how and why the social mobility goal is given more weight today, and the issues and solutions that arise from that.

Significance Understanding the perspective of education reform as a political issue can help us more critically analyze and balance overarching goals for students, based on what will benefit them holistically, outside of a narrower social mobility lens.

Economist Bryan Caplan Thinks Education is Mostly Pointless Showing Off. We test the strength of his case.

May 22, 2018 | Robert Wiblin | 80,000 Hours

Summary This interview recap with Bryan Caplan sees his claim in his book The Case Against Education that “education doesn’t teach people much, we use little of what we learn, and college is mostly about trying to seem smarter than other people — so the government should slash education funding” being challenged and defended.

Some thought-provoking quotes include: “If you want to get the best education in the world for free, you can just move to Princeton and start attending classes unofficially. There’s almost no effort made to stop you. You just won’t get a diploma, which makes it near pointless, because college is more about impressing people than learning useful info” and “there’s a big difference between changing the funding for one individual and changing the funding for a generation. Changing the funding for one individual, your intuition is totally fine. But if you change the funding for a whole generation, it changes the meaning of the education itself. And means that there are a lot of opportunities that the poor have lost in the moderate economy that they can have back again”.

For those who want to check out the full interview, it is about 2.5 hours, and might be a good way to spend a few commutes.

Significance While no doubt radical sounding, it can be a useful exercise to at least consider the nature of education, learning, and credentialism today, especially in the context of best helping our students. Given limited resources, looking at how far we can stretch every dollar can lead to more success and for more students.