Cognitive Science, Education, Technology, etc.

The Department of Education has decided to make an exception for Chicago in its rules about tutoring. Basically, the "Supplemental Education Services" part of the law requires failing schools to offer to reimburse parents for tutoring services. The schools aren't normally allowed to provide the tutoring themselves, since, presumably, they won't do any better in their tutoring role as they did in their regular teaching.

Chicago made the case that they could provide tutoring much cheaper than the private sector. They're probably also able to make the case that the private tutoring firms weren't educationally effective, either.

Although this does appear to pull some teeth out of NCLB, the SES provisions were always pretty weak. Its difficult to hold these providers to high standards of effectiveness, so we shouldn't be surprised to find private companies charging $2000 to show the kids Garfield the Movie.

I don't know what to do about this mess, but I do know that the the Hoover Institution's recommendations will only make it worse. They propose strengthening the SES law, the better to use it as punishment for failing schools. They're right that the schools have a disincentive to give their money away to private firms, but they're wrong if they think that invisible-hand magic will automatically produce better instruction in the private sector than students were getting in the public. They say:

education providers have strong incentives — and few impediments — to make these moments educationally rewarding. Unlike the regular school day, the afterschool program is voluntary, not compulsory. Education providers, to secure their revenue flow, must find ways to persuade students to attend.

Call me a skeptic (please), but l doubt that "persuading students to attend" has much to do with providing students with effective instruction. Look at what Platform Learning did in response to their Garfield scandal: they hooked up with Russell Simmons. Does that sound like they're focusing on effective education or on "persuading students to attend"?

The SES law won't work unless there is clear accountability for the tutoring firms. Throwing up $2.5 billion to anyone in the private sector who says they can teach kids isn't going to work.

Thanks to Susan Ohanian for pointing me to the Education Next article, which is really a good summary of what's going on in SES, even though their recommendations are all wrong.