Stimulus stuff
Though Flypaper is my beloved blogging home and gets all of my music-related musings, I write about the education components of the stimulus over at AEI's
Though Flypaper is my beloved blogging home and gets all of my music-related musings, I write about the education components of the stimulus over at AEI's
Obama's back-to-school speech set for Tuesday is causing quite the hub-bub!
William J. Bushaw and John A. McNeePhi Delta KappanSeptember 2009
In the world of education policy and education reform, recent months have seen the relationship between government and private philanthropy grow entirely too intimate.
As the school year starts, many an urban district has been disappointed by slack first-day enrollments.
While many school districts have experienced temporary state takeover--Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland come to mind--New Orleans may be the first to permanently remain under state control.
"Should a thousand bad teachers stay put so that one innocent teacher is protected?" That's what Steven Brill would like to know in his excellent New Yorker piece. The issue is due process: How much is too much and how little too little for the incompetent, miscreant, and excessed educators who remain on the payroll but not in a classroom?
Imagination. Statesmanship. Courage. Adaptation. This is the call of Checker Finn, and it is directed right at the United States Department of Education.
Bart Sutherin is a total helicopter parent. Really. He flew his son, ninth grader Joseph Sutherin, to his first day of school this year in a rented bird. Unfortunately, neither Joseph nor his father thought to alert school district officials or the local sheriff's office to their plan. And the unexpected chopper was reported to the FAA, which is now investigating the incident.
Much has been said and written in memoriam about the Lion of the Senate. Since education policy was one of Senator Ted Kennedy's primary interests, we will add our voices to that chorus.
Checker is a regular contributor to the National Journal education experts blog. The question asked this week is about turnarounds, so he was nice enough to give me the floor. Check out my brief thoughts here. There are also comments from Secretary Duncan, the NEA president, Deborah Meier, and more.
NACSA has produced a very helpful and brief report on the state of charter school authorizing. It has lots of interesting descriptive statistics on the field of authorizing, just basic data that had never been collected before.
The Q&N took a little break but it's back--with a whopper. Quotable:
Last week was the first official week of classes at Columbus Collegiate Academy, a charter school authorized by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. CCA students notched gains on reading and math proficiency exams last year and everyone's ready for another excellent, energizing academic year.
The Fordham Institute is pleased to welcome Eric Ulas as a Policy and Research Associate working in our Columbus office. A Cleveland native and graduate of Bowling Green State University, Eric previously taught middle- and high-school visual arts and photography in Clark County, Nevada, and in Ohio.
Following last week's release of local report card data by the state education department, the Fordham Institute conducted our sixth annual analysis of school performance in Ohio's major urban cities (see here).
For all the alarming statistics illustrating that public education in America is in trouble (see Fordham President Chester E.
Two years in the making, it will probably take local school officials at least two years to figure out all the changes in the state's new "evidence-based" education model.
Judging schools based on student academic performance is more art than science.
On Friday, Tom Loveless and I published an??op-ed in the New York Times that argued that our nation's highest-achieving students are only making minimal gains in the era of NCLB, while low-achieving students have made huge strides since 2000.
AEI's Hess and Squire turn in an interesting study of Hawaii's approach to school restructuring under NCLB. Though the state's strategy isn't exactly aggressive, it does make use of diverse providers, an issue in the news of late.
The terrific trio of Hall, West, and Peterson have put together a very interesting Education Next article on public opinion and education policy. ????(While you're reading this piece, take the time to go through Ed Next's new and much-improved website.)
Education Week posted a blog recently with a link to the slew of comments offered up by folks in res
Those celebrating the LA school board's decision to allow outside providers to run 1/3 of the district's schools????(200 existing failing schools and 50 new schools)????ought to manage their expectations.
State Superintendent of??Louisiana??Paul Pastorek says the state will retain control of RSD for at least a few more years--and maybe forever. In a recent poll conducted in New Orleans, schools were found to be the number one improvement area in a pre- and post- Katrina comparison.
Check out the??Washington Post's new education page. All education, all in one place.
For the last week or so I was off-line, and you may have been too. ????Here are some things we missed. --Very good Education Next article about getting the teachers we want by Rick Hess
Things have been set aright regarding GNR-gate. ????Thank goodness it didn't taken nearly long as Chinese Democracy.
The U.S. Open starts on Monday and the opening ceremony will have a special guest: Andre Agassi.