Education news nuggets
From 2am homework panic to boring lectures, today's students appear to have been dealt a bad hand.
From 2am homework panic to boring lectures, today's students appear to have been dealt a bad hand.
Mike volleys with special guest Checker Finn in this week's podcast. The topics they serve up? Education governance, cheating on standardized tests, and the NEA's ?reform? efforts. Amber slams an ace with a new NBER study. And Chris calls a fault on one school's no-pix policy. [powerpress]
I wanted to offer a curricular observation about Mike's Understanding upper-middle-class parents since he raised the issue of whether ?different kids need different schools.??
It would be ironic if America's world-wide cultural domination ? music, fashion, film, technology ? included its dumbed down school ethos. That's what it looks like is happening in South Korea, as the government there announced the country's abandonment of Saturday school.
This morning, Education Next published my latest "what next" column, "All A-Twitter about Education." In it, I report on the Twitter phenomenon and how it's impacting the education "war of ideas."
The June issue of The American Spectator carries a thoughtful--though ultimately unpersuasive--article by Lewis Andrews, "Meet the Suburban Parents." Like legions of activists and analysts before him, he ponders why upper-middle-class parents haven't rallied to the cause of school reform.
?The California Constitution requires that a free education be offered to all California students, so the definition of what exactly is a free education is where I'm a little bit (unsure).? * ?Gerry Blue, Analy High School parent
This is getting to be an old story (see here and here), but it's an important one.
Times are tight for school budgets, which is one reason Fordham and others have dedicated new attention and energy to doing more with less. Being conscious of cost-effectiveness is about more than pinching pennies, however; it also enables schools to get the very best quality for the dollars they spend on services.
?They say, 'You look better,' Every day is fun, and I'm working as hard if not harder than I've ever worked in my life. People see that and go, 'I want to play on that team.? * ?Paul Castro, New KIPP administrator
Democracy Prep is expanding in a novel way next school year ? by taking over a failing charter school at its authorizer's behest. SUNY was set to deny Harlem Day Charter School's charter but instead asked for proposals to turn the school around. Democracy Prep stepped up.
It is hard to read the Declaration of Independence without being moved by the document's plainspoken audacity, especially recalling that it wasn't then a "document," but a rather blunt call to arms.?
"There are not many of you who know much about high-quality standardized tests. I know many of you can agree with me that most of our standardized tests right now are crap." * ?Becky Pringle, NEA Secretary-Treasurer
About two weeks ago, a new Twitter hashtag was born: #povertymatters. For a little over a week, hundreds of people came up with 140-character tweets that were essentially one-line zingers aimed at the policymakers?they believe are ?blaming? teachers for ?low achievement in urban schools, while ignoring the impact poverty has on students' lives and learning. Two examples:
There are no knock-out punches in this fight, but David Brooks comes close with a perspective-setting essay about school reformers and their adversaries.
?I think the message for OEA might be, ?You've got to change the way you lobby?you can't just be against things'''* ?Brian Clem, Oregon State Representative (D-Salem)
Some school districts have reached a funding cliff, while others use their extra cash (or
In a quarterly meeting that took place late last week, the PARCC Assessment Consortium Governing Board has decided to eliminate the previously required "through-course" assessments.
?I think our Legislature could have done it better. It was messy and it really doesn't make Wisconsin look all that great. But in the end, this is what we were given from the state of Wisconsin and we will do everything we can to follow the state's guidance.''*
The following is a guest post from David Hoff, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communication Development at the Department of Education.
After the sweetness-and-nice between New York State Education Department (NYSED) and the New York State United Teachers ?(NYSUT) to win $700 million from the federal Race to the Top fund last year (see my Education Next story), NYSUT yesterday sued the state's Board of Regents and NYSED's acting commissioner J
Only halfway through 2011, a number of states have reformed their laws governing public sector workers' benefits, a few of them in dramatic fashion. The need to close the yawning gap between promises made to workers and the dollars saved for them on states' balances sheets is evident.
Probably not. A tweet from Cool Cat Teacher alerted me to the fact that the advanced Google search can provide results annotated by reading level (basic, intermediary, and advanced). That got me curious, so I plugged in a few websites and noticed that the U.S.
?You have money for lawyers, you have money for hats, but you can't buy my daughter's education''* ?Kathleen Kernivan, New York charter school parent