Performance pay in the Lone Star State
Jamie Davies O'LearyThe "Differentiated Compensation in Education" conference, hosted by fellow Buckeye Staters Battelle for Kids, in Houston this week reminds me how messy the "nuts and bolts" of policy implementation can get.
Jobs over reform
Despite Secretary Duncan's imploring states and districts to use formula-based ARRA funding for reform, it appears that nearly all of it went to job protection.
Quote of the year on RTT
Obviously, I've been playing the lecturing schoolmarm about RTT, warning that we have to increase our skepticism and manage our expectations. I've been looking for a pithy way to summarize my concern that states are much more interested in getting these federal funds than in pursuing the reforms those funds are meant to support.
Cool map, interesting report: How educationally innovative is your state?
This cool, interactive map grades all 50 states plus the District of Columbia on educational innovation and accompanies the just-released report Leaders and Laggards: A State by State Report Card on Educational Innovation?.
Another reason to support newspapers
Education Week's Alyson Klein doing some top-notch on-the-ground reporting on Colorado's efforts to get Race to the Top funds.
Education as an issue of national security
You know that it's a stark indicator of the educational readiness of America's youth when even former military leaders publicly admit that too many young people are academically ineligible to be recruited.??
Today's Quotable and Notable
Quotable: "I would just hope administrators, as they're looking at the budget, would look first to areas that don't impact student learning." -Kerry Birmingham, media relations specialist for the Michigan Education Association
Interesting tidbit
Informative new report on school choice from Heritage Texas to streamline process for expanding great charters
Read the fine print
The administration chose Wisconsin as the site for the president's Race to the Top speech yesterday, we're told, because that state's legislature is about to get rid of its data firewall.
Education Week on Fordham's standards event...
Great discussion yesterday at our national standards event. Here's an article in Education Week that highlights some of it.
Today's Quotable and Notable
Quotable: "[For-profit companies] see public education as a windfall for their bottom line, and they are taking what is an education crisis in Georgia and the nation and trying to make a buck.?? They see children as profit margins."
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Report: Summary of Programs and State-by-State Data
Janie ScullU.S. Department of EducationNovember 2009
Mapping State Proficiency Standards onto NAEP Scales: 2005-2007
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Victor Bandeira de Mello, Charles Blankenship, and Don McLaughlinNational Center for Education StatisticsOctober 2009
When Schools Close: Effects on Displaced Students in Chicago Public Schools
Consortium on Chicago School ResearchUniversity of Chicago Urban Education InstituteOctober 2009
3X for All: Extending the Reach of Education
Janie ScullEmily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. HasselPublic ImpactOctober 2009550px;height:500px">
Texas two-step
Arne Duncan may continue lambasting teacher preparation programs nation-wide, but Texas could soon give him something to smile about. The State Board for Teacher Certification recently gave initial approval to a proposal authored by veteran state Senator Florence Shapiro that would impose stricter standards on the state’s 177 traditional and alternative teacher prep programs.
High school diplomas go retro
In perhaps the worst decision since the resurrection of the legwarmer, the North Carolina General Assembly has effectively granted retroactive diplomas to scores of high school seniors who failed graduation tests.
Contextual literacy
“I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep…Those numbers completely changed my professional life,” says Sarah Fanning, referring to 1999 test scores that revealed a full third of freshmen at Buckhorn High School in New Market, Alabama, where Fanning oversees curriculum and instruction, read at or below the seventh-grade level. In response, Buckhorn became an earl
Digital blunder
Call before you print--that’s the lesson for Linda Vista Elementary School in Yorba Linda, California. That school’s PTA recently made tee-shirts for a student jog-a-thon that featured the school mascot (a lion) and an inspiring seven-letter slogan transformed into a 1-800 number.
Ed schools, hallowed no more
Stafford PalmieriEducation schools are under attack--yet again. But don’t yawn and assume that this, too, shall pass. For unlike innumerable previous assaults, which these institutions withstood with awesome obstinacy, this one may actually crack their fortified walls. That’s no sure thing, of course, given the history of failed attempts at reform in this area.
Look-a-likes
When the Gates Foundation announced in July that it would give up to $250,000 grants to fifteen states to help them with their Race to the Top applications, it was exercising the right of a private organization to be selective with its funds. But then the neglected 35 cried “unfair.” And the financial floodgates opened.
Mom-and-pop edureform
The Parent Revolution in Los Angeles continues to bring home the bacon, having managed to put organized parents squarely in the center of local education politics.
Upwards, not outwards
Last week’s editorial “Remembering Ted Sizer” misidentified the outreach program at Harvard Graduate School of Education as "Outward Bound," a well-known outdoors program.
Watch the live webcast of our National Education Standards event
You can now watch the live webcast of our event on national education standards . No registration required. The webstream will work on both PCs and Macs.
Turnaround conversation
National Journal's "education experts" are having a discussion about my Ed Next article on turnarounds and the Obama administration's fidelity to this strategy.
Today's Quotable and Notable
Quotable: "I don't see any other state that has thrown the brunt of its budget shortfall onto the laps of our students." - Celia Molina, Hawaii parent