Politics, data and other CMS updates

Let's see ... CMS has scrapped some of its most cherished data, politics are getting personal and there's more good information popping up online than I can keep up with. Yes, folks, it's time to mop up after another week on the education beat.

On political elbow-throwing ...
Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, has been e-mailing the suggestion that school board Chair Eric Davis's vote to delay a decision on Bright Beginnings prekindergarten cuts was influenced by his connections to the Babb family. Julie Babb is CMS's director of prekindergarten services. James claims that "her mommy"  is "a big time Democrat and Eric’s campaign manager so instead of taking the heat themselves the School Board wants to punt and throw the heat to the County Commission for the next several weeks."

Actually, Davis's campaign manager in 2007 was Nancy Babb Falls, a Democrat who is Julie Babb's sister. "I'm not ashamed one bit that she helped me run," said Davis, who is an unaffiliated voter. He says his vote was based on following Superintendent Peter Gorman's recommendation.

"I think Mr. James might be feeling the pressure from the community," Davis said. "When you feel the pressure, you reach out and attack through some personal issues."

On data wars ...
Superintendent Pete Gorman says there isn't any Bright Beginnings data good enough to use in decision-making.

Brett Loftis of the Council for Children's Rights says there's more data on BB than 90 percent of what CMS does.

What does Gorman say to that? "He's probably right."

In other words, there's little to no solid data to show that any of CMS's reform efforts, from strategic staffing to teacher effectiveness ratings, makes a difference.

With a research and evaluation staff of 3.5 people, Gorman said this week it's not realistic to expect rigorous academic evaluations of everything the district does (and I'd add that such results never come quickly).

Instead, he says local officials use national research on what works -- for instance, the value of effective teachers -- and figure out strategies they hope will translate to gains for CMS kids.

One of the things that had puzzled me was that Gorman and Chief Accountability Officer Robert Avossa were rejecting an ERS study on Bright Beginnings while continuing to use ERS as a consultant. Turns out they're different ERSs: Virginia-based Educational Research Service did the 2003 BB report; while  Education Resource Strategies of Watertown, Mass., is working with CMS now.

On Web info ...
CMS has posted answers to a long list of budget questions the staff has been getting.

The district has also posted a new batch of School Quality Reviews. These in-depth reports can be a great source of insight into what's working and what's not. Check the dates; some reviews are recent, some older. A few schools still haven't been reviewed, but CMS expects to have them all done by the end of this year.

As one of you noticed, I've taken down the Observer's School House collection of data on CMS schools because I wasn't able to keep it fresh while meeting other demands on my time. CMS keeps a lot of info at its "data dashboard." I've never found that particularly easy to use, but it's probably your best bet for now.

And here's a new one y'all should find interesting: The Center for Education Reform, a group that promotes charters and school choice, has launched The Media Bullpen, an attempt to rate the quality of education coverage across the country. Among education reporters, the early buzz was over how much it would focus on accuracy/fairness/quality vs. simply rating coverage on how well it promotes the center's views. At first very quick glance, I just can't tell. The "bullpen" baseball theme may be more accessible to sports fans; I found it difficult to follow (best I can tell, they haven't "umpired" any Observer articles yet). Some of you may have more time and sports knowledge than I do; if you sort it out, let me know what you think.