The think tank event of the century
The verdict is in--this is the big one! Where, may you ask, must you be "seen" in your latest Jimmy Choos--err respectable think tanker loafers?
The verdict is in--this is the big one! Where, may you ask, must you be "seen" in your latest Jimmy Choos--err respectable think tanker loafers?
That's the January 29, 1986 headline I imagined as I observed the ruckus over Barack Obama's innocuous, well-meaning and mildly uplifting address to U.S. schoolkids today. I refer, of course, to the Challenger space shuttle catastrophe, observed on television by millions of American children from their classrooms in part because schoolteacher Christa McCauliffe was part of the crew.
As the Washington Post is reporting, the draft K-11 "common core" standards are due to be published any moment. Our own Checker Finn has studied the reading standards and is impressed.
The NGA has asked us to clarify that it doesn't view PISA as the "holy grail of international standards and assessments" ("The 2008 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are American Students Learning?," February 26, 2009). PISA was mentioned in its recent benchmarking report as one of several
This week, Mike and Rick chat about the suburbs, the College Board, and Raleigh. We've got an interview with Liam Julian, who tells us about the newly launched Fordham Fellows program, and Education News of the Weird is less education, less news, less weird, more jokes!
Patriciorum numerum auxi consul quintum iussu populi et senatus. Senatum ter legi, et in consulatu sexto censum populi conlega M. Agrippa egi. Lustrum post annum alterum et quadragensimum feci, quo lustro civium Romanorum censa sunt capita quadragiens centum millia et sexaginta tria millia. Tum iterum consulari cum imperio lustrum solus feci C. Censonno et C.
Have you bought your copy of Troublemaker, by Gadfly-in-Chief Chester E. Finn, Jr.? If not, here's some motivation.
Are you fed up with the status quo in education? Do you have an idea for an innovative new venture, but lack the guidance and funds to operationalize it? Then you might be the perfect candidate for Mind Trust’s Education Entrepreneur Fellowship.
Here’s what we know about previous attempts to fix America’s most persistently failing schools. Turnarounds in other fields seldom work. Turnarounds in education have even lower success rates. Despite decades of effort, we still don’t have a reliable playbook for turning a very low-performing school into a good school, much less a great school.
LOL, txting is tot. nbd, so says the prelim fndings of a nu stdy from Coventry University. In fact, students who used the most phonologically-based text abbreviations--such as “nite” instead of night--were the best spellers.
A New York Times bestseller currently declares “free” to be a “radical price,” and incomparably better than “inexpensive.” Perhaps said book was on E.D.
Don't forget. Next Monday, February 23, from 4:30 to 5:45 pm we'll be hosting a "team of rivals"--i.e., four Fordham board members--to discuss our new report, The Accountability Illusion.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is looking for a new Assistant Director-General for Education. That's the highest ranking education job within the organization and is responsible for the overall formulation, planning and coordination of UNESCO's strategy, programs, and plans of action in education.
The House Committee Formerly Known as Education and Labor issued this week a scathing report that tied 32 KIPP and Achievement First schools to the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.
This week’s National Journal online discussion features Fordham’s latest report: Cracks in the Ivory Tower? The Views of Education Professors Circa 2010.
Ohio’s impending budget crisis has been danced around by the state’s politicians during this election season, but there is no doubt that no matter the outcome on Tuesday education faces some tough cuts. Ohioans are finally coming to realize that unmitigated increases in school spending like we’ve seen in years past are no longer an option going forward.
When 17-year-old Brandon Frost wore his Indianapolis Colts jersey last Friday to support his hometown football team, his school’s principal was less than receptive. See, Frost had moved three years ago from Indiana to rural Louisiana, where Maurepas High School principal Steve Vampran had relaxed the student dress code for Black-and-Gold Day in honor of the New Orleans Saints.
This week, Mike and Stafford discuss the fate of Catholic schools (again), Russ Whitehurst’s call to the Obama Administration to stop ignoring curriculum, and the future of school boards. Then Amber tells us about a new RAND study on social promotion and Rate that Reform gets S.A.D.
Almost since the contest was announced, those of us working in Ohio have wondered whether Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top decisions could really be politics-free.
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and in conjunction with the National Charter School Conference in Miami the following week, USCharterSchools.org invites you to join a web dialogue, June 7-10.
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education and in conjunction with the National Charter School Conference in Miami the following week, USCharterSchools.org invites you to join a web dialogue, June 7-10.
The U.S. Department of Education is looking for individuals to review grants for the Transition to Teaching program (which will support alternative routes to licensure) and the Voluntary Public School Choice program (which will support local choice initiatives). Reviewers will spend 5 days in Washington and be paid a small stipend and travel costs.
The Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education is looking to hire an education program specialist (GS-13, salary range $69,054- 89,774) for the Public Charter Schools program.
This week, Mike and Rick talk about marketplaces, attorneys general, and Denver. Checker Finn pays us a visit and chats about the Broad Prize, and Education News of the Weird is: Got Milk? Click here to listen through our website and peruse past editions.
In response to Martin Davis's article ("Ed reform, born again?" May 11), I want to know if he's read the think-piece, "Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority Over Education," by Robert Reich. He quotes Justice White in Wisconsin v.
The private sector is reclaiming Friend-of-Gadfly Vic Klatt, who has served Howard "Buck" McKeon, the House Education and Labor Committee's Senior Republican, as his top staffer for the past two years (Vic's second tour on the Hill). Replacing him is the eminently capable Sally Stroup, a former assistant secretary for postsecondary education.
Chomp at the bit no longer. The video from our event, Are Education Schools Amenable to Reform?, is now available. Watch it here.
Watch last week’s frank discussion about the lessons Fordham has learned as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, culled from our new book, Ohio’s Education Reform Challenges: Lessons From the Frontline.
The Village Academies - a network of college preparatory public charter schools based in Harlem that strives to develop students of fine character who graduate from college and make a positive contribution to society - seeks a new controller.