tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87542972009-07-03T11:03:41.257-05:00Education, public policy and politics, life in the academy.Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-38345461036493635352008-09-16T14:17:00.002-05:002008-09-16T14:52:01.745-05:00

I'm back at work, on a project somewhat different from my dissertation work. I'm working on research about preschool, trying to understand what kinds of things might improve the preschool experience for disadvantaged children. It's well known that kids come to kindergarten more and less prepared for school, and that early childhood interventions can improve the chances that a child will be

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-4504289236396724082008-06-24T13:24:00.002-05:002008-06-24T13:31:43.706-05:00

So here's an example of good research, this from the Consortium for Chicago School Reform which is a top-notch research group studying the effects of reform on teaching, learning, and leadership (among other things.)This study looks at the sample of small high school created by the Chicago Public Schools using money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (mostly). Of the two dozen or so small

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-62472312546889915872008-06-19T14:07:00.002-05:002008-06-19T14:23:00.546-05:00

Why is it that the only research on education that makes it into the blogosphere is the crazy stuff, or the stuff of political rhetoric? Why doesn't the decent reseaarch, the careful studied research, get out to the public much?I confess that what I read today didn't actually yield some "aha!" moment in teaching and learning. No magic bullet, no easy answer. Instead, I read in Educational

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-91224092303062755432008-06-06T11:31:00.005-05:002008-06-06T11:57:09.219-05:00

In honor of RFK on the 40th anniversary of his death, I offer excerpts from the transcripts of the hearings on ESEA in 1965. RFK called for accountability among educators and proposed national testing to make sure that those receiving federal funds were using it improve student learning.He proposed NCLB 35 years before Bush did. To be fair, NCLB is just the reauthorization of ESEA with a new

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-38861164683420695152008-06-05T07:57:00.001-05:002008-06-05T07:59:15.473-05:00

My buddy Eduwonk has an interesting post asking what people would do with $5 billion for education. Lots of thoughtful (and some ridiculous) answers.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-54599916283302992252008-06-02T20:27:00.002-05:002008-06-02T20:35:58.027-05:00

I started my job today as a Research Fellow at the UM School of Ed. I work on several projects involving preschool education, and you can see more here. I'm listed in the Research Team page.A couple other things...in Michigan there's a schools-of-choice program that is voluntary for districts. If you wish to have students come from other districts to yours, you can allow it. This is possible

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-20753689383061274252008-05-15T16:43:00.004-05:002008-05-15T16:47:20.735-05:00

Me and my committe. You know who you are. And me in action.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-61854133416439836062008-05-14T07:49:00.002-05:002008-05-14T07:53:04.956-05:00

The outcome measure is student score on a standardized test. A norm-referenced test. That means that the test scores can be compared from year to year to get a sense of how much a student has learned. There is no "ceiling" on the score, so there is always growth.In my case, I am really interested in the month-by-month rate of growth in achievement, and how much specific kinds of teaching might

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-53271272506726287052008-05-11T11:57:00.001-05:002008-05-11T11:59:23.295-05:00

I'm updating my statistical equations today, in my last revisions on the thesis. Just for fun, I thought I'd share them. Looking at them now, I get kind of queasy. And I know what they mean.[6] Υtij = π0ij + πij(month) + π2ij(month2) + etij[7] π0ij = β00j + β01j(male student) + β02j(minority student) + β03j(chronological age) + β04j(student SES) + rijπ 1ij = β10j + β11j(male student

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-24823585927579113162008-05-06T11:03:00.002-05:002008-05-06T11:05:18.864-05:00

It isn't over. Maybe it's never over. The joy of graduation, the giddiness and silliness that follows is now replaced by more slogging through revisions. Sigh.I have to get the final, final, final document to the powers-that-be on May 21. Maybe then it will be over.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-26218731061992632392008-04-29T06:36:00.002-05:002008-04-29T06:37:12.277-05:00

I am so happy to be done. I need to post another photo.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-91709654411057626982008-04-28T21:32:00.007-05:002008-04-29T14:02:35.246-05:00

Our graduation speaker Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the District of Columbia schools is one smart and controversial woman. Fortunately, she got her speech down to a couple of bullet points so the brain dead doctoral students could follow. (We are seriously burned out.)She found when she took over the DC schools no accountability, and a culture centered around serving the adults in the system, not

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-77329337111825861762008-04-26T12:38:00.006-05:002008-04-26T20:17:33.795-05:00

Today I graduate. I'm going to post some photos. The first one is from today. The second is from my high school graduation several decades ago. I tried to do the same pose....

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-46389879454085886662008-04-25T15:13:00.002-05:002008-04-25T15:15:24.413-05:00

Yes, that was me. I saw a student in a cap, gown and hood today, going to a ceremony for another school, not the Ed School. And I started to cry. Like sobbing as I walked down the street. I can't say why. Maybe I was so happy I would be in a graduation tomorrow. Or maybe I was so sad at realizing I had just spent about seven years of my life to do it.Can't say for sure.But I do know that it is

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-14917651625190982522008-04-24T14:51:00.002-05:002008-04-24T14:55:57.392-05:00

Maybe. I'm starting to feel back to my old self, kind of wanting to write about the work I'm doing and the ideas floating around the Ed World.Things are looking up. I've decided to stay at UMich as a research associate (or some such title) working on this project that is studying and evaluating the effect of various interventions on teaching vocabulary to disadvantaged preschoolers. Also on how

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-66207640917676278002008-04-22T17:13:00.003-05:002008-04-22T17:14:35.257-05:00

Yup. I did it. I defended my dissertation on April 17. I still have a couple of details to iron out, but I will walk in graduation on Saturday.In the next few days/weeks I'll write about what I did. It's complicated and I'm still thinking about it. But not with such dread and fear. I passed through the ring of fire.wow.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-45285066524973909902007-12-05T08:46:00.000-05:002007-12-05T08:59:33.824-05:00

Today, browsing through blogs, I found that Michael Goldstein "Gone Wild" is sitting in for Andy R. at Eduwonk. He's inspired to write this, after doing his own blog browsing.What he linked to is this wonderful post by Teaching in the 408 about the sheer lack of professional knowledge that has been developed and systematically disseminated to teachers. It's poignant and really moved me. 408

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-90307613443372577952007-11-04T16:02:00.000-05:002007-11-04T16:04:28.845-05:00

I'm on the job market, and that means that I may be ending my weblog. My profile says I'm a graduate student, but that's almost over.I can't say for certain when I'm going to sign off, but I think it will be soon. I'm not sure I can be an edu-blogger and do what I have to do next.But this has been one of the best and most informative projects I've ever undertaken. Thank you to everyone who reads.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-26907919329586963412007-10-30T19:56:00.000-05:002007-10-30T20:14:40.400-05:00

I get emails from people suggesting what I should blog about, and it's fun to look them over, but often I don't write about them. But yesterday I got a note that I will write about.The Alliance for Excellent Education just put out a great report on dropouts. But even better than the report, at least for me, is the link to national information about high schools.Go here and check out your state. I

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-67259989316829699922007-10-29T12:13:00.000-05:002007-10-29T12:15:31.694-05:00

I'm putting the dissertation into its final format. Mostly tht means making sure that all the tables and such are in APA format. And then getting everything into the UM dissertation format too. I'm measuring margins, checking labels on tables.But what makes me a little crazy is realizing that I have to defend the substance of this work to a group of pretty seasoned academics. Yikes. I mean, I

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-35618894002188911402007-10-18T18:12:00.000-05:002007-10-18T18:16:16.364-05:00

A journalists' guide to the classroom. I'm in it, with this look at classroom teaching. I'm thrilled to be in here. Wow. What a great group of people to be with inside these pages. And special kudos to Richard Colvin, exec. direction of Hechinger. He brings never-ending vitality to the organization and promises to improve journalists' coverage of education issues.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-80735371546171131402007-10-16T06:37:00.000-05:002007-10-16T13:39:53.400-05:00

The Ed World seems quiet at the moment. Policymakers, talking heads, etc. seemed consumed with the war, the election, other things. Am I wrong? Is there a burning education issue out there that I'm missing?My daughter is taking a course called "Picking the President" that culminates with a trip to New Hampshire to work for the candidate of her choice. Given that we live in a university town, most

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-70152155904872278942007-10-13T19:33:00.000-05:002007-10-13T19:59:27.968-05:00

I have a date for my preorals: December 11. That means I present my dissertation to my committee in a closed meeting and they go after me. It's when I find out just how bad (or maybe how good) it is in their eyes.Then my defense maybe eight weeks later.And then I'm done.I'm starting to look for a job. Write if you have work for me!

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-88831843679091571962007-10-03T13:43:00.001-05:002007-10-03T13:44:55.767-05:00

Hi all. I've been massively preoccupied for the last month or so, but it has passed. No education news today, but I did see that the US State Department has a weblog. Wow. An end run around new media for sure. I wonder of the US Department of Education will follow their lead?

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8754297.post-19282334931064611552007-08-22T11:40:00.000-05:002007-08-22T11:42:01.130-05:00

A website call "Peter Answers." I tried it. It's scary correct.

Jenny D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00387495194556407445noreply@blogger.com0