You don't want to miss this spectacular issue (and enjoy it too, since Gadfly's taking his spring break--woo hoo! Cancun!--next week and will return to your inboxes on March 19). First up, Checker contemplates the seven potential problems with national standards. Most troubling, he finds, is our national lack of an institutional home for these standards and the accompanying tests. The federal Department of Education is certainly not at the top of anyone's list so what's left? Find out what else he's fretting over. Next up, Mike considers the redefinition of vouchers from "radical" to "moderate." Thank you, Arne Duncan, he says. But what's to become of DC's Opportunity Scholarship Program?
Then learn about the woes of Fresno's KIPP Academy, the renaissance of New Jersey's vocational education (stem-cell labs!), the unfair condemnation of cheese sandwiches in Arizona, and the restyling of Pilates stability balls as a classroom necessity.??Then get the 411 on Robin Chait and Michelle McLaughlin's new paper on alternative certification and a math curricula study from IES. It may not end the math wars but it does seem to imply that traditional curricula still trump fuzzy math. Don't forget the podcast wherein Mike and Rick discuss Massachusetts' governor Deval Patrick's appointment to the board of Achieve, ELL students impressive gains in Maryland and Virginia, and, of course, the cheese sandwich hoopla (we thought this story so nice, we talked about it twice). All of this and so much more right here.
