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Flypaper

First Bell 12-20-12

Pamela Tatz
12.20.2012

A first look at today's most important education news:

Fordham's latest

"Sandy Hook and school reform," by Michael J. Petrilli, Flypaper

"The Helmsley Charitable Trust grants $11 million for Common Core materials," by Kathleen Porter-Magee, Common Core Watch

NYC school officials backtrack from an earlier plan to overhaul the city’s gifted-and-talented programs, deciding instead to continue their policy of sibling preference. (New York Times)

According to the Huffington Post, although no New Orleans schools currently teach creationism, “outgoing Orleans Parish School Board President Thomas Robichaux is making sure they never will” by banning the teaching of intelligent design as science.

The Hechinger Report reviews the lessons we can learn from teacher-evaluation pilot programs.

Parents are at odds over a new Brooklyn charter school, which plans to emphasize diversity.

On Wednesday, a federal judge concluded a 17-year lawsuit over D.C. special-education transportation, deciding that the city should have control over its own school buses. (Washington Post)

A “secret document” obtained by the Chicago Tribune, which supposedly proves that they mayor’s administration has had a detailed school-closing plan for some time, has added fuel to the fire in a debate over closures and charters. CPS officials deny that such a list exists. (Huffington Post and Chicago Tribune)

Tags: Brooklyn Chicago Tribune Common Core New Orleans New York

Pamela Tatz is the Fordham Institute’s editorial associate, which affords her the dual privileges of managing the Education Gadfly publication and being the resident grammar czar; she has also worked as one of the office's hard-working research interns. Before joining Fordham, she studied political science and economics at Wayne State University, where her academic interests included…

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