My "Klout" and how it went up even more, yesterday; how should I use it?

To my shock and surprise, as of late June, I was 11th on the  list of most influential education policy tweeters in the country, ahead of the NEA & Randi Weingarten, according to Mike Petrilli at the journal EducationNext. (see list to the right.)

This is measured according to something called “Klout” which analyzes “more than 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score” (whatever that means.)  

 Though the list had my Klout at 59, today it is "steady" at 64; which I suppose is a result of the article.  That puts me on a par with Michelle Rhee (if her score did not go up.)  And guess what?  Michelle Rhee started following me yesterday, among several others  on the list.

Diane Ravitch is #1 of course, as she should be. Apparently Petrilli left out some other prominent tweeters with high scores, like the SOS march and Rita Solnit of Parents Across America, among others.  But still!

I only signed up for twitter in March 2010, originally to follow Diane Ravitch, and soon found that I had several people following me, so I felt compelled to tweet to them. 

It soon became an addiction but obviously a useful one, since my tweeting has driven  people to the blogs, websites, and articles I think they should read, primarily those that serve as an important counterweight to the dominant education reform myth of our time, as promulgated by  #3,5,6, 8, 17, 20 and others on the list: that privatization and high stakes testing is the best way to improve our schools.

I seem to be the only real-life public school parent activist on the list; we need to get more parents tweeting to join me.  Let’s go gang!  Sign up to twitter, it’s easy at twitter.com, and then follow me at @leoniehaimson; you'll be able to check out many interesting news stories, commentary, and blogs; and you will soon find that you have followers (and "Klout") of your own.

So, readers, I ask you: how should I use my newly discovered Klout?  Influence is related to perception, so even if I landed on the list by mistake, I feel as though I should try to leverage my good fortune somehow.  Please give your suggestions, and help me to figure it out.

More about this list and how it was derived here.

Why I resigned by Diane Ravitch

An article in the NY Sun reported on Wednesday that Diane Ravitch, eminent education historian and contributor to this blog, resigned from the board of Education Next, a journal that covers education research and policy.

Today, Diane herself explains in her own words in an Sun oped, Why I resigned. Excerpt:

…. I resigned because Education Next published a deeply flawed account of Mayor Bloomberg's school reforms. I resigned with regret because I admire Education Next. I have found it to be the most consistently interesting and lively publication about American education currently available.

That is all the more reason why I was surprised to read Peter Meyer's article, "New York City's Education Battles," which is a thinly veiled puff piece for reforms that have been both costly and ineffectual. As a member of the editorial board of Education Next and as someone who has written extensively about education in New York City, I was stunned that I did not see the article until after it was published.

The article treats school reform in New York City as a matter of conflicting opinions, of "he-said, she-said," rather than as a matter of verifiable fact, even when facts are available.

For example, Mr. Meyer says that the New York Times reported "no significant progress in reading and math" between 2003 and 2007 for city students on the federal test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress and "little narrowing of the achievement gap." Mr. Meyer then quotes a hedge fund manager and blogger, Whitney Tilson, who said that the Times' story was "lousy" and that city students actually made gains in three of the four measures.

But the NAEP scores are not a matter of opinion; the facts can be easily checked — google NAEP TUDA 2007 and look at pages 50-51. Anyone who does check will learn quickly that New York City students made no statistically significant gains between 2003 and 2007 in fourth-grade reading, eighth-grade reading, or eighth-grade math. There were no significant gains for black students, white students, Hispanic students, Asian students, or lower-income students. New York City was the only city (of eleven tested) where eighth-grade reading scores declined for black, Hispanic, and lower-income students, and the achievement gap grew. Only in fourth-grade math did city students make statistically significant gains. If facts matter, Mr. Tilson's opinion is wrong.

…..I admire Mayor Bloomberg but I do not admire what he has done to the public schools. I hope that the state Legislature, when it reconsiders public school governance next year, abolishes the bumbling, tyrannical Department of Education and restores an independent Board of Education, appointed by the mayor.

The school system needs checks and balances. It needs a regular, independent audit of graduation rates and test scores. It needs a leadership in which education decisions are made by educators. Such changes won't solve all of our schools' problems, but they will end the pointless turmoil of the past five years, provide honest information about academic progress, and reestablish the role of the public in public education.

The article in Education Next by Peter Meyer that Diane refers to is here.