Dawn?
Checker's now few-week-old editorial "Dusk" sparked a debate amongst our ranks. Is America in decline? Or are we really on the upswing, despite our economic woes?
Checker's now few-week-old editorial "Dusk" sparked a debate amongst our ranks. Is America in decline? Or are we really on the upswing, despite our economic woes?
Quotable: "This is a very inward-looking social studies curriculum--a lot of gazing at the Texas navel and a very spare looking outward at the world." -Gary Nash, Professor at UCLA and Director of the National Center for History in Schools
A little more than a year ago, President Obama ended our "name the next education secretary tracking poll" contest by nominating Arne Duncan to head the U.S. Department of Education.
Andy Rotherham turns in a strong op-ed on Detroit's new union contract. If you're following "reform" collective bargaining agreements or the Motor City's reform efforts, you ought to give it a read.
Quotable: "The profession for 150 years was grounded in management, organization, government, politics, and finance. Those things are important, but they are secondary to learning and teaching." - Joseph F. Murphy, developer of the VAL-ED system for evaluating principals
Many of us complained that the final RTT application was not as strong as the draft version. One area of concern was charter caps. Originally, caps were a nonstarter but in the final regulations, this was eased and only certain types of caps became verboten. So did this small change have any real impact? Yes, absolutely.
Michigan passes major reform law to compete for RTT (big win for kids and Duncan's strategy too) Los Angeles union sues to stop charter conversions Louisiana unions torn on RTT
I wondered in October whether Robert Bobb, Detroit Public School's Emergency Financial Manager, would be able to deliver on this goals for a transformative new union contract, in which the problems with tenure and teacher seniority are addressed.
Quotable: "[Special Ed parents] are not a group that needs the district to wake up one day and decide that the time is right for inclusion, with experts guiding the process down a path of destruction of the one place we have found where our kids are receiving what they need."
It's hard to imagine that there's much educating--or education policymaking--going on along the Eastern seaboard today, as those of us in the Northeast dig out from the Great Blizzard.
The latest Education Next includes a shortened version of a chapter Checker wrote last year for Fordham's A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCL
Editors over at the New York Times have spurred an interesting discussion about Advanced Placement classes on one of their??blogs, Room for Debate.
Kevin Huffman (a VP at Teach For America) wants hugs for Christmas. -Mike Petrilli
What else to make of the announcement that the 2010??NewSchools Venture Fund annual summit will once again be held in Washington, DC, just as in 2008? I felt better about the education innovation crowd when it met every year in Silicon Valley. -Mike Petrilli
Quotable: "This district can be rightly criticized for the promotion of ineffective teachers over the years. That is about to change. We do not owe poor performers a job." -Ramon C. Cortines, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District
Charter advocates are pretty excited about just-introduced??legislation that would create a new federal charter school grant program aimed at replications. --Andy Smarick
Jay Mathews does a quick video??interview with superb NYC schools chief Joel Klein for the Post. ??"Systems don't change because you charm them." --Andy Smarick
The annual U.S. News and World Report high school rankings have been released. Thomas Jefferson HS in Alexandria, VA takes number 1 (again).
We've expended many words??on this blog and??other forums on the role of philanthropies in education.
J.B. Schramm and E. Kinney ZalesneCenter For American ProgressDecember 2009
Darrell M. West, Grover J. Russ Whitehurst, and E.J. Dionne, Jr. Brookings Institution December 2009
David Stuit and Thomas Smith National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University December 2009
Quick! Somebody translate Tom Loveless’s latest Fordham study, Tracking and Detracking, into German.
If only the health care system were as transparent as the market for yoga classes. Every medical procedure would have a clear and incontrovertible price tag, no patient would be banned from consulting the doctor of his choice (as long as he’s willing and able to pay), and risk would be incorporated rationally into premium prices.
If you thought a reality TV show like MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” could never be educational, well, you were right.