Ticking time bomb. America is staring down another major economic threat, akin to the home mortgage crisis, according to a new report from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. The culprit? Student loan debt. Education Sector’s Kevin Carey was talking about this last week, when he testified in front of the Senate education committee on the issue of college affordability. Missed it? You can read and/or watch his testimony here.

Banking on the idea that teachers want to live where they work. Called Teachers Village, a new $150-million mixed-use development project in Newark, N.J., will provide housing, entertainment, and other living essentials in an effort to keep educators, who typically commute long distances, closer to their classrooms. (The Star-Ledger)

Teacher effectiveness. This week’s three-part series takes a closer look at Tennessee’s new teacher evaluation standards, which were borrowed, in part, from the IMPACT system in DC public schools. (Hechinger Report/The Commercial Appeal)

Pay a-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n. A Kansas sixth-grader who won his county’s spelling bee won’t advance to the state competition because his school forgot (er, didn’t know?) to pay the required fee. (Leavenworth Times)

Flickr photo by AlaskaTeacher

Although slightly behind schedule, President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education finally announced the first round of states to receive ESEA waivers today. Ten of the eleven early-bird applicants – Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – will be able to scrap AYP, 100% proficiency targets, and school choice and tutoring requirements this year. Of course, the flexibility deal wasn’t something for nothing. The waivers are contingent on states’ transitioning to college- and career-ready standards and tests, overhauling their accountability systems to provide more differentiated recognition and support for schools, and implementing principal and teacher evaluation and support systems.

While critics have argued that the ESEA waivers can hardly be called “flexibility” given the back-and-forth exchanges between the Department and states as part of the peer review process, it appears that state egos weren’t bruised by the feedback they received. States accepted the constructive criticism and responded accordingly – even states like Massachusetts, which is typically praised for its high standards and student achievement. Given that many of these states were already actively engaged in this kind of reform (as part of implementing Common Core, Race to the Top, or state-led initiatives), I’d say this group of states got a pretty good deal in the end. Most didn’t have far to go to meet the high bar set by the administration.

And even the eleventh state, New Mexico, is not a loser. The administration hopes to continue working with officials in the Land of Enchantment, to refine their proposal. Unlike the President Obama’s trademark Race to the Top competition, everyone can be a winner here. That’s not to say implementation will be easy, especially in terms of building SEA, LEA, and school capacity. States have made a lot of promises, as Education Trust noted in their comments on today’s announcement. But at least the political will to tackle the challenge of reform was already there.

Although things seem rosy now, I still have a lot of questions about what will happen with the next round of requests. 28 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, plan to apply for the second round (applications are due February 21). Many of these states may not be as reform-minded as the first 11. The high bar set by Secretary Duncan will be harder to clear. If the administration wants to continue its “we’re all winners” mentality, will the feedback to states become more heavy-handed – leading to the “flexibility debacle” some have predicted? Or will the Department and peer reviewers lower their standards and water down their feedback to appease states? Neither outcome sounds particularly pleasing.

Despite my skepticism, I still think the waivers offer the best possible way forward. Although reauthorization legislation is now on the table in both the House and Senate, no one seriously believes ESEA will be reauthorized in a presidential election year. Congress will be much more likely to act in 2013 or 2014 – as the deadline for 100% proficiency looms closer. Until we reach that crisis point, the waivers allow states to shed the most-antiquated policies of NCLB and continue moving forward with a college and career readiness agenda – an agenda that emphasizes rigorous standards, high-quality assessments, more nuanced accountability and school improvement, and better feedback for teachers and school leaders. Yes, there are implementation challenges and questions about the quality of states’ proposals – but in this case, something is much better than nothing.

As I wrote last week, President Obama is facing a major uphill battle in persuading Congress to overhaul the inequitable funding formula that the government uses to allocate funds through the federal campus based student aid programs. Lobbyists representing the country’s wealthiest and most prestigious colleges and universities have successfully beaten back all prior efforts to do so, and are gearing up to try and do so again.

But President Obama’s chances appear to be at least somewhat better than those of previous administrations that have tried to reform the campus-based aid programs – Federal Work Study, Perkins Loans, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) – in the past. Here are four reasons why:

• The Influence of New England Senators Over Education Policy has Waned

For more than three decades, the lobbyists and leaders of elite private colleges and public flagship universities have fought off proposals by both Democratic and Republican presidents to phase out colleges’ historical share of campus-based aid funds, or “base guarantees,” and to distribute the funds entirely according to the financial need of the students attending the institutions. Their not-so secret weapon: the New England senators who have long dominated the Senate committee in charge of higher education policy. These senators have been fiercely protective of the traditional colleges in their states – the very same institutions that would likely have the most to lose if the formula is changed.

No senator has fought harder throughout his career to keep the campus-based aid formula in place than did Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who served as either the chairman or the ranking minority member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) for nearly 30 years.

Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is now in charge of the committee and Mike Enzi of Wyoming is the ranking Republican on the panel. Neither of the senators has yet revealed where they stand on this proposal.

• President Obama May Have an Unlikely Ally in this Fight

Eight years ago, House Speaker John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who was the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce at the time, led the charge to overhaul the campus-based aid formula. In legislation he drafted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, Boehner proposed phasing out the base guarantees and shifting the money to colleges that enrolled larger shares of low-income students. “Phasing in a ‘fair share’ formula is a responsible way to restore fairness to these programs by targeting funds based on the financial needs of students,” he said at the time.

It’s unclear, of course, whether Boehner, who failed in this pursuit, will be willing to come behind any of Obama’s budget proposals. But this is a  rare case in which he and the president appear to see eye to eye.

• President Obama is Bringing Money to the Table

Unlike past efforts to reform campus-based aid, the president’s plan calls for a huge expansion in funding for these programs. Under the proposal, spending on the Perkins Loan program would increase from $1 billion to $8 billion a year. The administration is also proposing to double the number of jobs available through the work study program over the next five years.

In addition, the president’s proposal may offer colleges the last, best chance to save the Perkins Loan program, which is set to expire in 2014. Will college lobbyists and leaders fight as hard to block an effort that would not only keep the Perkins Loan program alive but massively expand it?

• Colleges that Don’t Deserve the Money Won’t Get It

The president’s plan has a fundamentally different aim than prior efforts. In the past, policymakers have focused exclusively on trying to make the campus-based aid funding formula more equitable, by shifting funds away from elite private colleges and public flagship universities to institutions that enroll the largest share of low income students. In contrast, President Obama’s proposal would move funds away from colleges that fail to keep their net prices low and toward institutions that keep their prices down, provide good value to students and their families, and do a good job of enrolling and graduating Pell-eligible students. In other words, institutions would not only have to serve low-income students, but serve them well to benefit from this proposed change.

This shift in emphasis is not only good policy, but it takes away one of the most effective lines of attack that supporters of the status quo have used in the past — that a more equitable funding formula would waste campus-based aid dollars on poorly-performing community colleges and unscrupulous for-profit schools. Under Obama’s plan, only institutions that meet the administration’s high standards will qualify for the aid — no matter in which collegiate sector they belong.

For these reasons, President Obama has got a better shot than his predecessors in changing the funding formula. But he still has a major fight ahead of him, and his victory is anything but assured.

What Would Teachers Do? The U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching Ambassador Fellows explain how they’d run things, if they were in charge. (Education Week)

Because there are no state tests in that language. A Wisconsin seventh-grader was reportedly suspended from her basketball team after saying “I love you” in her Native American language, Menominee. (Native News Network)

Let’s talk about sex, ba-by. Yale students have organized a counter event, called True Love Week, to the university’s annual Sex Week, which includes frank workshops on sex and pornography. It’s all about education, right? (NBC News)

Bye bye, lunch bullies. An American teacher abroad provides this handy little trick for kiddos who are dealing with bullies who steal their lunches. (h/t Joanne Jacobs) (Dilemmas of an Expat Tutor)

Maryland's state flag

We’re getting close to a million students—903,000—that now take at least one AP exam while in high school. That’s double the number in less than a decade. And the number scoring a 3 or higher has also almost doubled, from 278,000 to 541,000. That’s good news for AP, and the College Board, which just released its 8^th Report to the Nation.

It’s also good news for Maryland (again), which wins the #1 ranking 28% of graduates scoring 3 or higher (nationwide, it’s 18%). Right below MD in the top 10 is New York, followed by Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, California, Colorado, Vermont and Utah. DC, like everywhere, increased its participation numbers (those taking AP exams) but still less than 7 percent of DCPS graduates score a 3 or higher. Maryland was also the best state for positive trend toward more high AP scorers, going from 14% in 2001 to today’s 28%.

What’s so great about a 3 or higher? A score of 3 won’t necessarily help with college—most colleges look for 4s and 5s to give credit –but it’s essentially a passing grade, or what the College Board defines as “qualified” to receive college credit. The lower scores of 1 and 2 won’t do much for you (and I suppose would reflect negatively). This is important because amidst all the praise for more students getting 3s and higher, the story isn’t the same for all populations of students. Nationally, 14 percent of students scored a 1—this is the same as it was in 2001. But fully half of Black and African American students scored 1 in 2011, up from 37 percent a decade ago. The percentage scoring 3 or higher has gone down by half. The same trend is true for Latinos, 36 percent of whom scored a 1 (up from 24 percent in 2001). See state supplements and national report appendices for more details that might curb our enthusiasm for the overall finding that we now have more AP for all.

What the Dickens? In honor of Charles Dicken’s 200th birthday, we are posting this collection of Dickensian Quick Hits. Add your own faves below.

Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the …” Oh, heck, when you get admitted to MIT, it’s just the best. What prospective MIT students do when they get their acceptance letters. (Hack the Tubes)

“I had seen the harvest but had never thought of the seed.” (David Copperfield) Want to reduce the absence rate in fifth grade? Look at who’s missing school in kindergarten. Just one of the findings of a comprehensive look at who’s absent from school in Oregon. And yes, school absences lead to lower school performance. But you knew that already, didn’t you? (The Children’s Institute, The Chalkboard Project)

“Food, glorious food!” (OK, this one’s from the musical Oliver, but hey…) A study reveals that junk foods are still widely available in elementary schools. (Huffington Post)

“Please, sir, I want some more.” Want to teach more Dickens? Here’s a collection of great resources to bring his work to life. (Guardian)

Can you measure creativity in the classroom? A few states, including Massachusetts, California, and Oklahoma, are trying to find a way. (Education Week)

Bring out the crystal balls. Kindergarten officials in China were offering palm-reading assessments for toddlers to predict their intelligence levels (for a hefty price), but federal officials quashed that practice last week. (h/t Joanne Jacobs) (Reuters)

More NAEP results. Alexander Russo wonders whether participation for the 15 districts that are eligible for, but don’t currently participate in, the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) could be a requirement for the Obama administration’s waiver program. (This Week In Education)

Pension proposals. Virginia lawmakers are considering a proposal that would require teachers to contribute 5 percent of their pay to pension plans, in an effort to curb increasing retirement costs statewide. Perhaps they should take a look at this pension reform guide by Education Sector’s Bill Tucker. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Credit: GothamSchools

This is a guest blog written by Mark Anderson, winner of our $450 Teacher Sector prize in December.

It is well-known that teachers dip into their own pockets each year to furnish their classrooms and meet their students’ needs.  President Obama even made a mention of it in his State of the Union address last month: “Most teachers work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies, just to make a difference.” As a New York City public school teacher, I have been fortunate in the past to receive a “Teacher’s Choice” stipend of $150 to put toward classroom supplies—which was still woefully inadequate. However, in the face of budgetary constraints, even that small stipend has been taken away.

In the last few years, I’ve spent most of my money on the bare necessities of paper, ink, and making copies. These costs alone can run more than $500 throughout the school year. Also, I’ve spent money on food, such as weekly bags of apples, to make sure that my students had enough in them to get through the day. I also buy essential items, like dry erase markers, pencil sharpeners, and pens. Last year, I enlisted DonorsChoose.org to get headphones for my students with exceptional learning needs, so that they could more functionally use laptops and desktops.

I would have thought that receiving the Teacher Sector gift of $450 to spend on classroom supplies—when I have a shortage of nearly any classroom item you can think of—would be a relatively straightforward decision. But it proved to be slightly more thorny.

As this was “extra” money that would extend beyond the basic essentials I normally spend my money on, I wanted to invest in the most essential thing that would be of both immediate and long-term benefit to my students. A rug for meeting time? Book holders that hang off the backs of chairs? A reading intervention program? A book caddy? Desk toppers?

I consulted with my co-teacher about how we might spend the money, and then I asked my class. Overwhelmingly—once we got past the suggestions for video games or tablets—they wanted books. The list of books I received from this, however, was scattered and of questionable literary value.

So I thought about some of the best books I had enjoyed myself as a young reader, and I combined that with what other teachers recommended; I also considered the range of my students’ assessed reading levels. In the end, I decided to buy five copies of most of the books, so that students could gather into book clubs and discuss their books with each other.

The books I ordered multiple copies of were:

• a set of 4 Ramona Quimby books
• an E.B. White set (Trumpet of a Swan, Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little)
• Pippi Longstocking
• Winnie-the-Pooh
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
• Abel’s Island
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
• The Cricket in Times Square
• Mercy Watson to the Rescue
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
• one Roald Dahl 15-book box set

I also bought single copies of Coraline, The Legend of Old Salty (Salt Water Taffy Series), and Mouse Guard Volume I.

When the books arrived last month, you should have seen how excited my students were! They were scrambling to nab a Roald Dahl book as soon as it came out of the box. I can’t wait to see them sitting down in book clubs and having rich conversations about their books together.

This collection might not seem like much to you if you’ve been so lucky to have access to these books in your home or school, but to my students, this is a veritable treasure trove. I hope that these books open the door to the adventure of literacy that my students so desperately need to develop as life-long learners. Thank you, Education Sector, for your generous donation to my classroom.

After a $1 million buyout . . . there will be no $573 weekly unemployment check for former Philadelphia superintendent Arlene Ackerman. The state’s Department of Labor denied her claim. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Parents aren’t just buying playground equipment with that bake sale money. In Baltimore County, Maryland, parents have offered to install air conditioning in a school. District officials said no. Watch for the issue of what parents can–and can’t–fund in schools to grow in importance as school budgets continue to be stretched. (CBS Baltimore.com)

It’s all in the playbook. While there aren’t a lot of similarities between education and the NFL, Deanna Burney says that there are some lessons to be learned–for example, collecting and analyzing data and then collecting best practices in a playbook. (Eduwonk)

Helicopter parenting takes on new meaning. Tom Byrne from NCTQ analyzes the impact of a new New Hampshire law that will let parents request personalized curriculum changes for their child. (PDQ)

Tuition-free degrees that come with a catch. Students at the University of California-Riverside have proposed a fix for increasing tuition costs: get rid of tuition completely. Instead, they say, graduates could re-pay the university by allocating 5 percent of their salaries for their first 20 years of employment. (TIME)

If pizza is a vegetable, could it be considered trans-fat-free? Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban trans-fat in schools, from breakfasts and lunches to vending machines and fundraisers. While some states limit trans-fats at lunchtime, no state has passed an outright ban. (Associated Press)

Taking one for the team. This story profiles a few superintendents who have willingly moved to part-time status in an effort to cut district costs. In one case, the decision saved the district’s arts and music programs. (Education Week)

What happens when a college student doesn’t have Internet access for an hour? A Yale professor moved his popular art course from a large law school auditorium to a much smaller one, cutting the number of students in half to 270. Why? There’s no Wi-Fi, so students can’t email or check Facebook. (Yale Daily News)