Special education, back in the spotlight
The twin pressures of budget cuts and accountability are spurring calls for change
How the World's Most Improved Systems Keep Getting Better
Daniela FairchildContext matters--but so does getting the fundamentals right
Quotable & Notable
?These days it seems anyone with any degree of managerial success is qualified to run whole school systems. But only school systems. I'd love to see someone make the argument that private sector managerial experience entitles you to run the NYPD.'' * Ta-Nehisi Coates, Senior Editor, The Atlantic
WEBCAST: Are Education Schools Amenable to Reform?
Many reformers and funders have written off schools of education as beyond repair, and much of the current energy for teacher preparation is centered on non-traditional programs like Teach For America. But are schools of education more ready for reform than the conventional wisdom supposes? The event is LIVE on December 2 at 3:30pm.
Arne Duncan Talks Tough
Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Rick Hess have penned a thoughtful piece that you can find on <
The dadgum unions are in their sights
?There is no way in our state right now that the dadgum unions are going to agree with this kind of stuff.?
Jump rope and judges
The?California Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 yesterday that a parent can sue a school in order to compel it to provide the physical education that state law mandates?viz., 200 minutes of kinetic exertion every ten days in elementary schools, and 400 minutes in middle and high schools.
New Fordham report about charter authorizing work
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has been authorizing (aka sponsoring) charter schools in Ohio since 2005, and each year we submit an ?accountability report? to the state that documents our authorizing work, our schools' performance, and more. Sharing lessons from our charter authorizing work is important and so we spend a lot of time and energy on it.
Yale Program Bites Dust
Peter MeyerIt's just a brief news item in Education Week, but it caught my eye:? Yale is ending its masters degree program in urban education.
Digital learning's skeletons in the closet
Daniela FairchildOver the past decade, digital learning at the K-12 level has exploded?from a national enrollment of 40,000 to 50,000 in 2000 to an estimated 3 million in 2010. And this mushrooming isn't likely to slacken any time soon. Forgive the melodrama and trite adages.