Pot calls kettle black
Michael J. PetrilliCATO's Neil McCluskey, at the end of a long post arguing against my call for national standards and tests, says of the idea that "harsh reality just seems to??eclipse impossible dreams."
Has NCLB generated a new breed of education leader?
Michael J. PetrilliI'm working on a piece about the Bush education legacy, and I'm thinking about the notion that these years have seen a flourishing of reform efforts and leaders.
Final day of the 2008 Education Olympics!
They waited until the last second, but the Americans finally won a medal in this year's games--and a gold, no less. Pandemonium ensued on the set of Education Olympics Today. Get the full story at edolympics.net.
Re: Waterloo sounds rough. Can we just attack the Irish?
Michael J. PetrilliLiam implicitly made a point in his post yesterday that's worth making explicit.
Murray reviewed
Michael J. PetrilliThe Kauffman Foundation's Ben Wildavsky reviews the new Charles Murray book in today's Wall Street Jour
A lesson simply not learned
Stafford PalmieriJust when New York says its cash incentives program for good grades isn't working (original article here), DC decides to go ahead
Naming names: Paternalism, meet political correctness
David Whitman writes about the coverage of his new book, Sweating the Small Stuff.
Day Ten of the 2008 Education Olympics
The Americans didn't win a medal on the penultimate day of the 2008 Education Olympics, leaving them just one more chance for a top-three finish. A special guest joins us, sort of, to size up their chances. Full coverage at edolympics.net.
Getting back to what matters
Coby LoupWith the most glorious moments of the 2008 Summer Olympics for Team USA now mostly behind us, commentators are finally turning their attention to the slightly less sexy, but surely more significant Education Olympics.
George Will: "Paternalistic" is Right
Michael J. PetrilliGeorge Will, the nation's most widely syndicated columnist, weighs in today on
The people want answers
Michael J. PetrilliCATO's Neal McLuskey and Eduwonk Andy Rotherham are strange bedfellows, but they both have the same burning question on their minds: Why would national standards and tests be any better than state
It's Thursday. You know what that means.
This week's Gadfly is now available for all the world to see.
Waterloo sounds rough. Can we just attack the Irish?
The evidence, as always, is mixed. Yesterday, the New York Times noted that the Big Apple's dollars-for-high-test-scores program hasn't worked.
More on Debbie Phelps
Stafford PalmieriWe discovered last week that not only is Debbie Phelps the principal of Windsor Mill Middle School in Maryland, but that Windsor Mill didn't make AYP last year.
Bad career move
Stafford PalmieriSince the blog has taken a more serious turn as of late, I proffer you this: "Ga. Schools superintendent to appear on ???5th grader'"
Big D gets a big F
The Dallas school district has decided it cannot grade students by academic benchmarks because, evaluated thusly, the pupils have a tendency to fail.
State High School Exit Exams: A Move Toward End-of-Course Exams
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Center on Education PolicyAugust 2008
Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality
Charles MurrayCrown Forum2008
Snug as a teacher in tenure
The Associated Press, which has been a little blue of late, tells us that the nation's trepidatious economy is affecting youngsters in the worst ways: "Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks, even wear last year's clothes. Field trips?
Guns 'n' classes
Author Charles Edward Chapel writes in Guns of the Old West, "Considerably cared for and used with skill, a gun would argue loud and persuasively for you against man and nature when both were hell-bent on your immediate personal destruction." Perhaps the chaw-spittin' school board in Harrold, Texas, has recently been reading Chapel--it just voted to allow the town's teachers to carry p
In denial
Washington Post writer George Will is sharp as a tack, which is why he ends today's column, about David Whitman's new book, thusly: "Today's liberals favor paternalism--you cannot eat trans fats; you must buy health insurance--for everyone except children.
Education Olympics: The games in review
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. PetrilliWith the 2008 Summer Olympic Games nearing its endpoint, there's consternation in the air about the likelihood that China will best the United States in the gold medal count, and might catch the U.S. in medals overall.
Just as sweet, by any other name
David Whitman's new book, which George Will wrote about today in his Washington Post column (see above), contains the word paternalism. Whitman uses it to describe a particular type of urban school that succeeds in teaching its poor and minority students largely because it focuses on discipline and hard work (and takes pride in both).
Day Nine of the 2008 Education Olympics
Just weeks after the loss of one if its leading literary lights, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia took two golds and a silver in three PIRLS reading events. Team USA, meanwhile, has two days left to secure its first medal. Can they pull it out? Stay tuned at edolympics.net.
The Washington Post goes bolder though not broader
Michael J. PetrilliThe usually sensible Washington Post editorial board sizes up the presidential candidates' education platforms in
The Democratic Party: Back to its regularly scheduled programming
Michael J. PetrilliEarlier this month I argued that the Democratic Party was no longer a fully-owned subsidiary of the NEA and the AFT.
Of rights and wrongs
The New York City program that pays students for good scores on AP exams yielded "mixed results," according to the New York Times. Education Trust President Kati Haycock, commenting on the program's philosophy,??gets the article's last words: