The Tab: How Connecticut Can Fix Its Dysfunctional Education Spending System to Reward Success, Incentivize Choice and Boost Student Achievement
Terry RyanBryan C. Hassel and Daniela DoylePublic Impact In The Tab, ConnCAN (a well-connected Connecticut education advocacy group) and Public Impact (a crackerjack education research organization) make the case for Connecticut’s move to a school funding system that:
The Promise of Proficiency: How College Proficiency Information Can Help High Schools Drive Student Success
Jamie Davies O'LearyBy J.B. Schramm & E. Kinney ZalesneDecember 2009
Changing "value added" terminology
Jamie Davies O'Leary…I’m starting to see a pattern. Merit pay. Performance pay. Value-added. What is so bothersome to teachers (and unions) about these terms is not the words themselves but that they measure merit, performance, and value according to something they don’t like: student test scores.
Cleveland's NAEP math scores draw attention to district's urgent need for reform
Emmy L. PartinThe National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) –also known as the “nation’s report card”—released district-level results last week for 18 urban districts including Cleveland.
Congratulations to Tom Lasley
Congratulations to our good friend Tom Lasley on his retirement from the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Allied Professions. Tom not only spent more than 30-years of distinguished service as an education professor but was also an unrelenting champion for students and schools in the Dayton area.
Kudos to Dayton education innovator Ann Higdon
Terry RyanDayton is famous for its innovators – the Wright Brothers; John H. Patterson, who founded the National Cash Register Company in the late 1800s; and Charles F. Kettering, who developed the first electric starter for cars, all come to mind. It’s not surprising, then, with such a history that one of the country’s great educational innovators today also comes from Dayton.
2009: Fordham's publications in review
The holiday season is a great time to catch up on these 2009 Fordham-Ohio publications you might have missed during the year:
All-day K mandate brings to light flaws in evidence-based funding model
Jack M. FletcherThe first major component of Governor Strickland’s education reform plan, an all-day kindergarten mandate facing Ohio school districts in the 2010-11 school year, is making apparent why the “evidence-based” funding model cannot live up to the lofty expectations the governor and others have set for it.
The dog that didn't bark
The Department released the list of states that have submitted letters indicating their intention to apply in the first RTT round. ??I'm less surprised that there are 36 states (more than some expected) than by some of the names not on the list. Those who haven't sent in letters include:
Why are union contracts the third rail?
The WSJ penned an interesting editorial yesterday on Secretary Duncan and Michelle Rhee, noting that while the secretary supports important reforms, he hasn't helped the chancellor in her donnybrook with the union.
Today's Quotable and Notable
Quotable: "If you say the next person who talks in class will be set on fire and rolled down the hallway, you're in trouble if someone talks and you don't set them on fire and roll them down the hallway."
Whole Foods Republicans
Michael J. PetrilliI'll admit that it's a little off-topic (OK, a lot off-topic) but I have a piece by that name in today's Wall Street Journal. -Mike Petrilli
FL extends its RTT lead
Eduwonk uncovers how FL is getting tough and specific about collective bargaining agreements in its push for RTT funds.
RTT all the time!
Student data to be 50% of teacher evaluations under LA's RTT application Big merit pay component of FL's RTT application
Ability grouping: The devil is in the details
Kathleen Porter-MageeIn his recent blog post, Mike rightly noted that in the tracking debate, "to track or not to track" is NOT the question.
Newest Fordham report receives attention
Fordham's??new report (about tracking/detracking in middle school) is causing some buzz.
Today's Quotable and Notable
Quotable: "They could have took this test in French and done just as bad...No other city in the history of [NAEP] has done this bad." -Tonya Allen, Founding Member of the Detroit Parent Network
To track or not to track? That's not the question
Michael J. PetrilliWith 2010 fast approaching, I've been hearing from several reporters asking about the best or worst education ideas of this decade. (A decade that never really had a name, did it?) No Child Left Behind will no doubt be on both lists, depending on who you ask, and it surely qualifies as A Big Deal. But was it really the most significant education idea, for good or ill?
Movement in Maryland
Yesterday, I called Maryland the nation's greatest Race to the Top disappointment. But the state superintendent appears to be trying to do something about that.
"We will look at your union contracts."
The role of teachers unions in education reform has been on my mind a great deal lately. The issue was front and center when I talked to school board members in California.
Strong charter school demand in Texas
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Anybody who thinks charter schools are plateauing or reaching some sort of natural limit had better think again.??The Texas Public Policy Foundation has just released the number of young Texans who were on waiting lists for charter schools in that state during the last scho
Tracking and Detracking: High Achievers in Massachusetts Middle Schools
Tom LovelessBrookings scholar Tom Loveless examines tracking and detracking in Massachusetts middle schools, focusing on changes that have occurred and the implications for high-achieving students. Among the findings: detracked schools have fewer advanced students in math than tracked schools and detracking is more popular in schools serving disadvantaged populations.
Nation's biggest RTT disappointment
Maryland may be the biggest disappointment in the nation when it comes to the Race to the Top. It hasn't lifted a finger to change laws or policies, as perfectly noted in this scathing editorial.
The implications of tracking and detracking
Our latest report, "Tracking and Detracking: High Achievers in Massachusetts Middle Schools ," analyzes the implications of tracking, or grouping students i
Changing "value added" terminology
Jamie Davies O'LearyWhen Emmy returned from a Midwest REL conference on educator compensation in October, she brought with her a Center on Education Reform report on "alternative compensation terminology." Not the most scintillating title, but the paper had some persuasive takeaways.
Fixing Special Education: 12 Steps to Transform a Broken System
Miriam Kutzig FreedmanSchool Law Pro and Park Place Publications2009
The Nothing Curriculum
Just when you thought reality-TV had sucked the life out of your every brain cell, the creators of the TV show “Lost” figure out a way to wring out the last drop. They think of it as a way to keep the show’s cult following intellectually engaged.