Skip to main content

Mobile Navigation

  • National
    • Policy
      • High Expectations
      • Quality Choices
      • Personalized Pathways
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Gadfly Newsletter
      • Flypaper Blog
    • Events
    • Scholars Program
  • Ohio
    • Policy
      • Priorities
      • Media & Testimony
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Ohio Education Gadfly Biweekly
      • Ohio Gadfly Daily
  • Charter Authorizing
    • Application
    • Sponsored Schools
    • Resources
  • About
    • Mission
    • Board
    • Staff
    • Career
Home
Home
Advancing Educational Excellence

Main Navigation

  • National
  • Ohio
  • Charter Authorizing
  • About

National Menu

  • Topics
    • Accountability & Testing
    • Advanced Education
    • Career & Technical Education
    • Charter Schools
    • Curriculum & Instruction
    • ESSA
    • Evidence-Based Learning
    • Facilities
    • Governance
    • Personalized Learning
    • Private School Choice
    • School Finance
    • Standards
    • Teachers & School Leaders
    • Think Again
  • Research
  • Commentary
    • Gadfly Newsletter
    • Flypaper Blog
    • Gadfly Podcast
  • Events
  • Scholars Program
Flypaper

First Bell 2-11-13

Pamela Tatz
2.11.2013

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

Fordham's latest

"Closing bad charters isn’t the only challenge," by Adam Emerson, Choice Words

"Common Core v. the false promise of leveled literacy programs," by Kathleen Porter-Magee, Common Core Watch

Since 2007, school districts and community colleges have spent $7 billion in “capital-appreciation” bonds to finance various construction projects…a type of bond that puts future taxpayers on the hook for huge interest payments, “sometimes more than ten times the amount borrowed over as much as forty years.” (New York Times)

During a hearing on NCLB waivers, lawmakers clash over the federal role in holding states accountable for students’ academic progress; this is one of the five questions Politics K–12 was left mulling over after the debate. (New York Times and Politics K–12)

The Wall Street Journal analyzes the power of various actors in the world of New York City’s education politics.

A new study calls for a special-education program that focuses on “finding and leveraging students’ strengths,” rather than just focusing on symptoms and disease. (Inside School Research)

A professor of education profiles the quiet education reforms of Union City, New Jersey. (New York City)

Tags: Common Core New Jersey New York No Child Left Behind Act

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…

View Full Bio
Fordham Logo

© 2026 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Privacy Policy
Usage Agreement

National

P.O. Box 110
Burke, VA 22009

202.223.5452

[email protected]

Ohio

P.O. Box 82291
Columbus, OH 43202

614.223.1580

[email protected]

Sponsorship

130 West Second Street, Suite 410
Dayton, Ohio 45402

937.227.3368

[email protected]