Quotable and Notable
?The reform train is moving. Districts aren't afraid of unions anymore.'' ?Emily Cohen, District Policy Director, National Council of Teacher Quality
?The reform train is moving. Districts aren't afraid of unions anymore.'' ?Emily Cohen, District Policy Director, National Council of Teacher Quality
Finland gets high praise for doing well on PISA but apparently Finnish mathematicians don't think too highly of the test. Here's what they have to say:
The teachers union in a suburban Columbus district has pulled out of Race to the Top, putting the district at risk of forfeiting almost a million dollars ($960,000) in RttT grant funding and many of the reforms that would come with it.??
In a word: no
Is Baltimore's approach to performance pay and teacher professionalism worth cheering?
Social studies teachers love their country, too
Charter skeptics find the evidence mixed
The clash between the public and private aims of education
A problematic argument for "local control," big bucks for charters, and more
The Head Start program has needed a radical overhaul for the past forty-five years, i.e. ever since its founding and its near-immediate demonstration that it doesn't do much lasting good by way of readying poor kids to succeed in school.
If ratified by?union members on October 14, Baltimore's new?teacher contract will move the ?Charm City?
The old saying ?D=Diploma? looks to be a thing of the past for these New Jersey students.
?But even as heavyweight policy folks talked about improving community college outcomes yesterday, high school reforms that could help with that?such as increasing rigor and smoothing the transition to higher ed?didn't even make the radar.? ?Catherine Gewertz, Assistant Editor for Education Week
Over on National Journal's Education Experts Blog, this week's?discussion?focused on the goals of education professionals and, among other things, cited Fordham Institute's latest study,
Last week, our friends at the American Enterprise Institute released an interesting new report, High Schools, Civics and Citizenship, which surveyed public high school social studies teachers across the country.?We at Fordham also released a report recently,
While I'm still fielding suggestions on how to spend $55,000 (I'm learning that it's probably best to call it $220,000 over four years), the NY Times is soliciting suggestions about how Cory Booker and Newark schools should spend $100 million.?
What doesn't work when you're trying to save your schools from a budget crisis: buying golf courses and paying for
?Movements need heroes and villains, and Weingarten has become an easy target for school reformers who seek to blame public school teachers for the ills of urban education and attack their unions.'' -Valerie Strauss, Correspondent, Washington Post
Everybody's making cuts. Tight finances are forcing states and districts to reconsider which items belong in the ?vital? category on the budget sheet and which ones can be pared away with little collateral damage. Among the emerging holdouts in the ?vital? column is small class size (in no small part because state law often mandates maximum class sizes).
One of things New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner said yesterday in his RttT discussion was that ?we've never had so much money being devoted to innovation and so little money being available for basic services,?
During an interesting state-wide Public Television teleconference (and, if you click here, you can find it on the world wide web) yesterday, New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner and his Deputy John King offer an interesting preview?of the mechanics of Race to the Top.
Well, not quite, but what he did say (in this excellent Columbus Dispatch article on school turnarounds) was almost as preposterous:
Kids have lots of opinions about where they go to school these days (especially when there's a chance they could have Tony Danza as their teacher)?but if the current crop i
There are some great suggestions coming in about my September 29 challenge to guess how my little district would (should?) spend $55,000 in RttT funds.? Keep ?em coming. ?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
Having a boring Friday? Ready for the weekend? Well, you're probably not as bored as this kid.
?Educational reform is one of the few issues in the galaxy that can bring the political agendas of President Obama, Gov. Chris Christie, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker into near-perfect alignment.? ?Star Ledger Editorial Board, New Jersey Star-Ledger
I have been stewing for more than a week about diversity and excellence?ever since Mike issued his Hubris alert!, warning those who claim they've ?cracked the code?
The New York Times is highlighting the hugely successful math program developed in faraway Singapore?whose students consistently score at the top of international math exams.?The program, as the T