Vergara, Harris, and the fate of the teacher unions

The most interesting story coming out of the landmark Vergara and Harris deci

First Bell: July 7, 2014

TEACHER TENUREOn Thursday, an advocacy group filed a lawsuit challenging New York City’s teacher-tenure laws. (New York Times) TEACHER EQUITY

Netflix Academy: The best streaming videos on the Civil War

Note: This post is part of our series, "Netflix Academy: The best educational videos available for streaming." Be sure to check out our previous Netflix Academy posts on 

Why Johnny won’t learn to read

Bad ideas in education are like horror movie monsters. You think you’ve killed them, but they refuse to stay dead.A generation ago, the infamous “reading wars” pitted phonics-based instruction in the early grades against “whole language,” which emphasized reading for meaning instead of spelling, grammar, and sounding words out.

First Bell: July 3, 2014

SPECIAL-EDUCATION FUNDING

A missed opportunity for Common Core

Last week, I had the privilege to speak in front of a group of education journalists convened by the Poynter Institute and the Education Writers Association about identifying strengths and weaknesses in curriculum.

The NCES, NIEER, and spinning preschool data

The early-childhood folks didn’t much like it when I faulted NCES for relying on the Rutgers-based National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) as the source for federal data on “the state of preschool”—and for

First Bell: July 2, 2014

NEW YORK SCHOOLS

Is the Nation’s Report Card ‘college and career ready’?

After nearly a decade of research, the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) released in May the first outcomes of its efforts to use the results of the 2013 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to report on the academic preparedness of U.S. 12th graders for college.

Chester E. Finn, Jr. honored with award from National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Bravo to Fordham’s original gadfly!The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools yesterday inducted Fordham president Chester E. Finn, Jr. into its Charter School Hall of Fame—established to honor pioneers in the development, growth, and innovation of charter schools.

First Bell: July 1, 2014

UNION DUES

Public unionism's 'gravest threat' still looms large

First Bell 6-30-14

NEWARK SCHOOL SUPENew Jersey has renewed the contract of embattled Newark schools superintendent Cami Anderson, whose pro-school choice “One Newark” plan has garnered her the enmity of some union and parent activists. (Star-Ledger)

The one place where school choice and ed reform battles are already over

School choice is a done deal in this one place, and we could learn a lot from it.

The ‘balanced literacy’ hoax

My chief mentor, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, occasionally warned against “semantic infiltration,” which he correctly attributed to the late arms-control expert, Fred Ikle.

Will public unionism’s ‘gravest threat’ materialize?

While education reforms are nearly always won via legislation, rare exceptions do occur—and sometimes they’re significant. The year 2014 has already proven to be a landmark one for education reform thanks to judicial decision. Perhaps the most notable example thus far is Vergara v.

Conscious incompetence: New ed-school grads are unprepared to teach—and we seem fine with that

“Nobody expects new surgeons to be any good. It wasn’t until my fortieth or fiftieth bypass surgery that I started feel like I knew what I was doing.”  “I wish I could go back and retry those cases from my first year. If I knew then what I know now, they’d never have been convicted.”

First Bell: June 26, 2014

VOUCHERS FOR SPECIAL-NEEDS STUDENTS

Pie in the special-ed sky?

The Education Department has been slowly gathering itself together over the past decade to review states’ mandatory annual IDEA “performance plans” on the basis of student outcomes, in addition to bureaucratic compliance with sundry procedural and data-reporting requirements.

Lacking Leaders: The Challenges of Principal Recruitment, Selection, and Placement

Yes, everybody understands that “school leaders matter,” a truism now morphing into a cliché that trips easily from the tongue but typically fails to cause movement anywhere in the worlds of education policy and practice.

First Bell: June 25, 2014

FEDERAL OVERSIGHT OF SPECIAL ED

New Report: Lacking Leaders: The Challenges of Principal Recruitment, Selection, and Placement

School leaders matter enormously. But are districts doing enough to ensure that the best possible candidates end up in these positions?

First Bell: June 24, 2014

TEACHER PAYA new Vanderbilt working paper finds that top Tennessee teachers are more likely to continue working in low-achieving schools when given a substantial pay increase. (Teacher Beat) 

Early readers need content knowledge

Results on the spring test of third graders' reading proficiency are in; we take a look at the data and what it means for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee as a policy and for the students and schools working within its confines.

Ohio’s teacher evaluation system changes midstream

We welcome a guest contributor to take another look at recent legislative changes to Ohio's teacher evaluation protocols.

Latest threat to the Common Core in Ohio

A brash plan by Common Core detractors ignores a number of likely consequences should the standards be repealed in Ohio.

2014 Teacher Prep Review: A Review of the Nation’s Teacher Preparation Programs

Just a handful of teacher prep programs across Ohio are held up as providing high-quality training for future teachers.

First Bell: June 23, 2014

VOUCHER EXPANSIONGovernor Rick Scott signed a bill expanding Florida’s tax-credit scholarship program. (Pensacola News Journal) TEACHER QUALITY