Three broad categories that the researchers labeled Disheartened, Contented, and Idealistic. The view that teaching is "so demanding, it's a wonder more people don't burn out" is pervasive, particularly among the Disheartened. This group, which accounts for 40 percent of K-12 teachers in the United States, tends to have been teaching longer and be older than the Idealists. More than half teach in low-income schools. By contrast, teachers in the Contented group (37 percent of teachers overall) view teaching as a lifelong career. These teachers tend to be veterans -- 94 percent have been teaching for more than 10 years, the majority have graduate degrees, and about two-thirds are teaching in middle-income or affluent schools. However, it is the Idealists -- 23 percent of teachers overall -- who voice the strongest sense of mission about teaching. More than half are 32 or younger and teach in elementary schools, and 36 percent say that although they intend to stay in education, they do plan to leave classroom teaching for other jobs in the field.



Economics and Education Reform.
What has been the effect, muses Claus von Zastrow of Public School Insights, of all the attention from economists upon public education? "Has all the talk of efficiency, productivity, merit pay, and market incentives poisoned the field?" he asks. It depends on where you're standing. He cites an article in the Harvard Education Letter that references Nobel laureate James Heckman, whose analysis of the financial benefits of early childhood education pushed it to the forefront and secured it significant federal funding. On the other hand, Von Zastrow points to the distinction drawn by Russ Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution, that economists -- governance reformers -- "just don't get" the importance of curriculum, whereas curriculum reformers, while appreciating bright, aspiring teachers, feel novices must learn how to teach and have good materials to be effective. In Russ's words, "being smart is the starting point of becoming a good teacher for a curriculum reformer, whereas it is often the end point of governance reforms." Those who spend all their time on incentives and governance can lose sight of actual effectiveness, von Zastrow writes, "So let's thank the economists for what they have given us, but let's remind them that they shouldn't make a fetish out of a handful of governance and incentive ideas."


RAND Corporation finds that New York City fifth graders held back under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's policy that ended social promotion went on to do better academically, The New York Times reports. Students kept in the fifth grade for an additional year showed significant improvement in standardized tests over the next three years, compared with low-performing students before the policy went into effect. The policy, which requires schools to give extra help to lagging students, yielded some benefit for those who attended special Saturday and summer classes in math, though no benefit was associated with similar classes for English. The study also surveyed teachers and students and found that students said that they had no less confidence after being kept back. While the results were hailed by both the mayor and NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein as a validation of the much criticized policy, the report's authors stressed that further study was needed. "We find these short-term benefits for the students who receive the extra services, as well as those who are retained," said Jennifer Sloan McCombs, a lead author of the report. "The important policy question is whether they go into the long term."


Math not a set of rules, but problem-solving
Getting students to better understand how math works -- and what it's good for -- are fundamental goals for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, according to The Washington Post. The council released new guiding principles for high school mathematics this month, emphasizing that "reasoning" and "sense-making" should be at the center of all lessons. The document, which includes specific tips for teachers, administrators, and parents, will probably influence how textbooks are written, teachers are trained, and lessons crafted in coming years. It arrives three years after the group promoted more tightly focused curricula for elementary and middle school math. Many math teachers say stimulating higher order thinking has long been considered good practice, but the council says a fresh emphasis is necessary after a half-decade of high-stakes testing has taken spontaneity from many math discussions. Textbooks, too, often have a "here's-the-rule-and-here-are-some-examples format," with word problems buried in Section C, said W. Gary Martin, a professor of mathematics education at Auburn University and chair of the committee that drafted the document. While the National Assessment of Educational Progress has charted steady improvement in math performance among nine-year-olds for 30 years, scores for 17-year-olds have been stagnant.


Education Reform in Baltimore vs. DC
The Baltimore Sun calls "indistinguishable" from D.C.'s, the reform climate under Schools Chief Andrés Alonso in the capital of Maryland has been very different from the reform climate in the capital of the nation, the paper writes. What accounts for this? The Sun notes that unlike D.C., Baltimore has an appointed school board and far fewer charter schools, all of which are under the control of its superintendent. The District's City Council also plays a larger part in setting the schools' budget, which adds "political complexity" to Rhee's job. But there is no question, in The Sun's view, that delivery has had as much to do with reception as the message itself. Personalities aside, the most critical question, The Sun says, is this: "Which leadership style is more likely to produce the kind of improvements in student achievement that people in both cities want?" The Sun has its money on Baltimore. "Low-key and calm as things here may seem in comparison to our sister city down the road," The Sun says that Baltimore may be on track to reach the next, and highest, level of achievement sooner than anyone thinks.

D.C. Chancellor 'must stay focused'
With all the furor over recent teacher layoffs in Washington, D.C., "important facts keep getting buried," writes The Washington Post. The paper finds it significant that the district didn't follow the "last hired, first fired" protocol common to most school districts. Good teachers may have been let go, the authors write, just as businesses across the country have lost talent due to financial realities, and they concede the human cost of layoffs. "But shouldn't relative contribution be the rule -- not the exception -- if we are to build high-functioning teams in our schools? Isn't that the way we would expect to make decisions elsewhere in our economy?" The authors point to a steady increase in student scores under Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and to other signs of a turnaround for D.C. Schools. But the high-profile controversy is a damaging distraction: "Rhee needs to stay focused on the job she was hired to do: making D.C. the first high-performing urban school district in the nation. Just imagine what might happen if Rhee continues to erode the black-white achievement gap in Washington. If she maintains the rate of progress of the past two years, the achievement gap in secondary math will close entirely by 2014."


A network of 'public policy laboratories'
At a time when children, families, and the cities in which they live are struggling financially, municipal leaders are trying new approaches to pressing problems. The National League of Cities has released a report that identifies "the nation's 32 most cutting-edge city innovations to help children and families thrive," and features emerging and established trends in municipal leadership that promote child and family well-being. The report describes new directions in after-school programs, community wellness (measures to combat childhood obesity), early childhood care, public education, family anti-poverty efforts, agency effectiveness, and programs surrounding youth civic engagement, violence prevention, and transitional services. Taken together, the work of cities to respond to these needs make up a national network of public policy "laboratories" -- continually testing new hypotheses and experimenting with creative approaches to complex, evolving problems. These city-led efforts often yield positive results, and leaders in other communities frequently replicate and adapt successful models. "This report highlights the broad range of innovations and trends gaining traction at the local level," said Mayor Otis Johnson of Savannah, Ga. "It also provides municipal leaders with a valuable new tool that will strengthen city efforts and accelerate the spread of promising strategies across the nation."


Equity funding, a decade and a half later
In an interview with the National Access Network, Tim Hogan, attorney for the plaintiffs in the 1994 school funding case Roosevelt Elementary School District No. 66 v. Bishop in Arizona, describes the impact and the legacy of the decision 15 years on. It was a victory for students in property-poor districts in Arizona, since it ordered the legislature and governor to move responsibility for funding school construction and other capital items away from local districts to the state, and phased out local property taxes to support these. It also created a School Facilities Board to administer the funding for technology, transportation, facilities, and equipment. The problem, relates Hogan, is that in light of massive state deficits, all facilities are now chronically under-funded, and another suit has had to be brought. His organization (the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest) has moved away from an emphasis on school funding, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court's remanding of Horne v. Flores to the lower court, and Justice Samuel Alito's contention that "increased funding alone does not improve student achievement." There are two cases pending in Arizona around funding equity for charters, which Hogan thinks will be hard to argue. The state constitution guarantees adequacy, he says, not equity, and it was on the basis of inadequacy that he argued and won the funding case 15 years ago.