American nerds in pictures
Michael J. PetrilliWe assiduously avoided putting a nerdy kid on the cover of our high-achieving students report.
The devil's in Deval's details
Michael J. PetrilliGovernor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts unveiled his education reform plan yesterday--sorta.
Schoolchildren
Re Amber's fine post: The mayor of Gloucester, Massachusetts, announced that no evidence exists to support the claim that a group of young girls agreed to get pregnant and raise their babies together (althoug
On Faust and faith-based charter schools
Michael J. PetrilliCharles C. Haynes of the First Amendment Center turns in a strong counter-argument explaining why religious charter schools are a "Faustian bargain" that aren't "worth the spiritual costs":
Re: The devil's in Deval's details
Michael J. PetrilliOnetime Fordham-Ohio staffer Quentin Suffren writes in to say:
A teacher responds
Regarding my review of Hard Times at Douglass High, a teacher (Mr. McDermott) who was featured in the documentary leaves a comment on Flypaper:
Practical consequences
Talk radio is always interesting--it can be hard to get a word in edgewise! But the callers can sometimes bring clarity.
The Wire it's not
Coby LoupOver at National Review Online, Liam reviews the HBO documentary Hard Times at Douglass High, which chronicles the plight of a failing Baltimore high school.
Smoke and mirrors?
Coby LoupMayor Bloomberg will announce today that test scores are way up in New York City. But no one, it seems, thinks the gains are legitimate.
Hard Times at Douglass High
About the short review that Coby kindly mentions: I wrote it for a lay audience, one not tuned in to every shift in k-12 minutiae, and so I didn't dive into the issues as much as perhaps I could have.
Metaphorically speaking
A??reader (a teacher, it seems) writes??to the St. Petersburg Times: Did Jeb Bush really say "our education system is an eight-track system living in an iPod world"?
It's Thatcher's fault
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is going to today??blame Margaret Thatcher for Britain's education woes, the Telegraph reports.
The meaning of "excellence"
Michael J. PetrilliOur friend Greg Forster wrote a post last week about Checker's and my National Review Online essay in which we report on
Of backpacks and diaper bags
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.The story of the 18 pregnant girls who made a pact to become pregnant at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts, has been all over the news in the last several days. Everyone hearing the story has been understandably dismayed.
Indicator overload?
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.A group of charter school organizations including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, issued a report t
If at first you don't succeed...
I hope the College Board catches the flack??it deserves for its decision??to (starting in 2010)??show colleges only the SAT scores that the??students who earn them choose to reveal--i.e., if Johnny takes the test 10 times, Johnny gets to show State U.
Alternative alternative certification
Coby LoupMike and Checker, who were at the Excellence in Education summit in Orlando yesterday, may have more to say about this.
Rhee vs. the status quo
Coby LoupOn Wednesday's NewsHour, John Merrow resumed his series on Michelle Rhee's efforts to revamp the D.C. Public Schools. This installment centers around Hart Middle School, a chronically-failing institution that landed on Rhee's radar as a candidate for dramatic restructuring.
AFT: We love children, too
Michael J. PetrilliIn a long and mostly thoughtful letter to the editor of the
Re: Those tricky charts
Michael J. PetrilliChad Adelman, Education Sector's new policy associate, digs into our
More from the Excellence in Education Summit in steamy, Disney-addled Orlando
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Speaking at lunch today, Secretary Spellings stated that it would be fine with her if NCLB were renamed the "Motherhood And Apple Pie" program. MAAP. Not bad.
Links to start your day off right
Coby LoupChecker and Mike write on National Review Online today about Fordham's latest report, High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind.
Where did those millions go?
Florida school districts have been recently complaining about state budget cuts in education. Financial management of this sort doesn't really bolster their case, though.
Donald Duck and dropout rates
Speaking of Florida, former Governor Jeb Bush is convening at Disney World today his Excellence in Action education summit.
Unions aren't so hot, any way you homeslice it
If I were an anonymous blogger and had to pick a clever moniker with which to sign my pithiest posts, I might actually opt for something similar to that decided upon by this person, who goes by "Dr. Homeslice." I'm edgy and educated, it bespeaks.
Good news for alternate routes to certification
Michael J. PetrilliI got distracted yesterday by the release of our high-achieving students study, but Tuesday's news out of California is still worth celebrating. A federal judge ruled that the U.S.