Freakonomics' Levitt Praises Obama Education Choice

Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, offers Arne Duncan, President-Elect Barack Obama's pick for Secretary of Education, his endorsement this morning on the New York Times Freakonomics blog. Duncan assisted Levitt on the original Freakonomics book, and their interactions left Levitt convinced of Duncan's fair-mindedness and commitment to reform:

Freakonomics readers will remember Arne as the hero of our chapter on teacher cheating. He was head of the Chicago Public Schools when Brian Jacob and I were investigating how teachers and administrators were doctoring standardized test sheets.

With seemingly nothing to gain and much to lose, Arne embraced our results, even allowing us to do audit testing to confirm our hypotheses. Eventually, a handful of teachers were fired.

Levitt goes on to say, "If you wanted to start from scratch and build a public servant, Arne would be the end product."

He also points out that Duncan is another Obama pick with a basketball past. Duncan was co-captain of the Harvard basketball team and played professionally in Australia. Along with General James Jones, Tim Geithner, Susan Rice, and Eric Holder, it appears that Obama's hoops team now has a bench.

Comments

[OliverTwist]

We hear Obama talking about improvements in the test scores of students who are kept on in the test taking pool while others are calculatingly "left behind."

We hear Obama talking about school reform which has more to do with teacher busting and student exclusion than education improvement.

It's good to demand that math teachers have math degrees and history teachers history degrees, but it is also important to insist that all students are taught according to their ability rather than their parent's income and that all clasrooms are kept orderly - even if that requires a freakin police officer in every class.

Obama needs to get real about education.

The people who care most about education are byu and large the teachers - even more than the parents. That would be a good place to start getting input rather than giving it.

He could do better.

Not impressive at all.

[tbone99]

" It is also important to insist that all students are taught according to their ability "

So true . Lets say in a classroom there are 10%of children wth genuis IQS ,50 % average, and 40% divided between very low , low , high etc.
( altho' I know IQ trests are not indicitive of much,I am using them to make a point.)

Does it make sense to teach to a one size fits all test?

The genuis kids and highly intelligent kids will be bored to death and may fall nto depression and mischief, ( not to mention disillusion with education) the borderline kids may never get it and are deprived of something they could be taught and the "average" kids are not really so average anyway , if you really know kids. Most of them wll have interests and personal motiviton that could be used to fire up their learning.

To punish teachers and schools for not turning every child into a mass produced product is both wrong to the child and wrong to the teacher.

Schools should not be assembly lines!

[OliverTwist]

See below for the start. Here is more:

3. Testing the population of students in public schools is not the same as testing the population of children who are of age to be in public schools. Some school systems literally leave children with low skills behind and out of the testing pool - by encouraging them to drop out or enter a high school equivalency program or enter some untested subset of the school population. It would be better to test or score performance based on all children in the school district whatever they are doing - perhaps based on the results of the census in conjuction with other samples.

4. Teachers are blamed for the performance of public education systems - despite the evidence that less qualified teachers working in better managed private schools produce reasonable educational performace. The fact is that the working conditions of teachers are criminal. Firing the teachers and keeping the same corrupt managers is not the answer.

There is more but that should be enough to go ahead on.

[OliverTwist]

I am not enthusiastic about Arne Duncan, President-Elect Barack Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.

I was not particularly impressed with the speech that Obama gave when announcing his selection of Duncan.

There are several consistent problems with the ways in which public education is handled. Obama's speech incorporated some of those problems. Here are a few:

1. Public schools in the US are often funded as local schools with largly local funding. Some states fund schools from property taxes. Since communities in the US are economically segregated this leads to economically segregated public schools and variations in the quality of public education that reflect these economic differences. This also usually leads to racially segregated schools as well. New Jersey is a good example.

2. Poor communities tend to have corrupt leadership and corrupt leadership generally seeks to emphasize quid pro quo patronage over impersonal public services. Some may imagine that handing public services over to religious leadership might improve matters in these communities, but there is ample evidence that quid pro quo patronage is a frequent feature of religious leadership as well. It matters not that, in the religious context, such behaviors may not always be seen as corrupt.

More.

[tbone99]

Putting someone like Arne Duncan in as secretary of Ed is just like making John Bolton our UN representative.Both are dedicated to destroying the very instittions they are placed in charge of.

[bascombe]

source that or prove it somehow.

[joyfulnoyz]

One can learn more about the public education issue in Illinois at the Chicago Urban League www.thechicagourbanleague.org/72321082013250413/site/default.aspp), Schott Foundation for Public Education www.aplusillinois.org/media/articles.asp?pressReleaseID=4677) and Community Renewal Society http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/assets/assets/extra/catalyst_1_pager_final.docc) websites. Funding matters, despite Arne Duncan!

[joyfulnoyz]

I was born/raised in Chgo. I grew up in Hyde Pk, home of Univ of Chgo (and the Obamas). I went to Bret Harte, a CPS. Our valedictorian went on to Princeton & Yale. I also went to Whitney Young Magnet HS, like Michelle Obama. She attended Ivy League schools also. The Chicago Urban League has filed a lawsuit against the State of IL and the IL State Board of Ed. claiming civil rights violations. Chgo remains one of the most segregated cities. IL education funding is more reliant on property taxes than most other states. This funding decreased as more White students moved to the suburbs and/or private schools. Like most large urban cities in the U.S., education issues are largely a matter of funding. IL ranks 49th in funding education. The natl avg for educating a student is 50%; in IL it is

[Wonderwheel]

What can you say? Another centrist "liberal" praising another bad choice by Obama.

[HARVIN]

No one save Huffpost Censorhands cares what a non-entity like Steve Levitt thinks.

[research]

Some people don't like change.

“In just seven years, he’s boosted elementary test scores here in Chicago from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent,” Obama said. “The dropout rate has gone down every year he’s been in charge."

[TopProf]

Well, if I wasn't against him before, I am now.
Chicago Public Schools is a big mess, and standardized testing is one of the reasons. Another good reason was the creation of boutique schools for the new gentrified areas, where local kids could not attend. Thus the huge discrepancy in support for schools.
When economists study education it's time to lock up the silver.

[2lib4oh]

Cincinnati Public Schools tried this with alternative programs to draw parents back to public schools.It worked until the 7th grade when parents pulled their kids out for private schools.The exception was the Montesorri programs that have been a success but they are closed enrollment A disproportionate amount of money was spent on the alternative programs.The regular schools were robbed. It was done to please white parents who deserted them in the end. This what bankrupted the Kansas City schools as well. Why can't we just try to teach all the kids and give them what they need?

[tbone99]

The CPS district has also stalled out on its attempt to revamp budgeting practices that create inequities across schools. More progressive budgeting models—often called “student-based budgeting” or “weighted student funding”—are used in districts like Oakland, San Francisco and New York to link funds to students and their individual needs.

In other words rich kids continue to have better schools than poor kids.
Is that change?

[Jonni Rae]

I agree. How about a pledge from him for equal funding for all schools and a pledge to reduce the drop out rate among blacks and hispanics (50 and 65 percent respectively) in four years????

[ohpuhleezee]

Educators can only do so much. That pledge needs to come from the students and their parents. All the money in the world won't make a kid learn.

[TopProf]

Jonni Rae; exactly, but don't hold your breath. And yes, dropping out is in part accounted for by individual volition but polices have had a major role. CPS adopted one of the harshest test-based retention policies in the country and the drop-out rate soared. Kids were repeating not once but two or three times. There are ways to fix this problem but CPS just continued their policy. The new Sec. didn't initiate that policy, but he sure didn't fix it either.
Finally, this note from the vast frontier of rigorous research: The biggest single correlate of dropping out of high school is having been retained in grade somewhere along the way. This makes the drop out rate entirely predictable. But CPS doesn't care.

[nextjen]

The 'student-based budgeting' isn't all it's cracked up to be. It seems the most equitable, but the problem goes way beyond money. I grew up a stone's throw from Oakland, and went to school in a much smaller district, so we had way less government money, and fewer allotments overall. But my district's one of the best in the entire state. There are strong arts and music programs with tons of AP classes available. And we all go to college.

The reason is because whenever the state cuts back funding, the parents voluntarily raise their property taxes to compensate for the losses. Our families can afford to pour thousands into the schools every year, and pay for services, private tutors, and extracurriculars. And those parents volunteer countless hours to the schools.

Even the details matter. We have grass on our fields. Windows don't get broken. People aren't afraid to go to school. Even with the teaching shortage, people are lined up around the block to work in the district. Abusive teachers get chased out of town by the parents.

It's frustrating when everyone just thinks throwing money at the school will get kids through. Money's at the root of it, yes - but before a school can thrive, the government needs to invest in everyone in that district, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, employees. Oakland's actually a fairly wealthy school district. They just can't keep up with so much need.

[ReesieKitty]

BSERIUS - You don't seem to know what you're talking about. I think some people choose to send their kids to a religious based private school- but that's more for family tradition or because of strong religious beliefs. A lot of the families doing that really struggle to pay for it. As for the Lab School of Chicago, the Obama kids probably go there because A. It's a really great school, yes. Obviously education is important to them as parents and why shouldn't it be? but also B. because as someone employed by the U of C, Obama gets to send his kids there at a discounted tuition. So it probably isn't quite as expensive for them as for people who don't work at U of C. I used to live in the neighborhood and a lot of kids from different income levels go to school there. Anyway, you're obviously just spouting something you read somewhere and you can't spell- so read up and learn to love Spellcheck!

[tbone99]

A hero for free markets everywhere.Children's minds the new "product" to be bought and sold by the investment class. We'llmake sure they can pronunce and spell clearly the top 100 corporate product names by the age of 3 .

Because we need even mindless consumers who spit out what is drilled into them

[BSERIUS]

Three points ... Why do the Children of virually every Fire Fighter ,Police Officer and all those required by residency send their kids to private schools... Why to Arne's kids and Baracks kids go to private schools..why do only 6% of graduating seniors go on and receive bachelors degrees.....And tragically , the shootings/murder rates /gang activity in the CPS would do a radical Islamo community proud

[Grunty1]

You've been spamming that crap all day. Which talking head told ya that stuff?

[research]

Prove it.

[Mayoyo]

Come on guys, this one is for the upcoming WH basketball team......Susan Rice is in trouble. Between Jim and Arne...wow!!!!!she is what 5'4"...lol