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The fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods in the United States
What communities have changed the most demographically from 2000 to 2010?
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Eli Broad, conservative hero?
You might not agree with Eli Broad’s views on education. But it would be foolish to take him as naïve. His unreasonableness has led to tremendous success for sixty years. And he’s not done with America’s schools yet.
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Pricing the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost States and Districts?
The Common Core is coming, with forty-five states and the District of Columbia challenged to implement these new standards. Yet mystery surrounds how much this will cost states (and districts)—and whether the payoff will justify the price. On May 30, the Fordham Institute peeked behind that curtain with a lively panel discussion of "Pricing the Common Core." Taking part will be former Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith, Achieve President Mike Cohen, former Department of Education official Ze'ev Wurman, and University of San Francisco professor Patrick J. Murphy, who will present the findings of a new Fordham study that he co-authored. It estimates the dollar cost of the implementation process for each participating state—and shows how the pricetag varies depending on the approach a state selects.
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The Price of the Common Core
The Common Core State Standards will soon be driving instruction in forty-five states and the District of Columbia. While the standards are high quality, getting their implementation right is a real challenge—and it won't be free, a serious concern given the tight budgets of many districts and states. But while critics have warned of a hefty price tag, the reality is more complicated.
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Charter Schools
“Voucherizing Title I” is worth a shot
Why not try strapping Title I dollars to the backs of needy kids and letting them take it to the schools of their choice?
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Charter Schools
Your guide to the Romney education plan
Mike analyzes Governor Romney's education proposal on WSJ.com.
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Digital Learning: The Future of Schooling? Session 1
Join us for this important, nonpartisan event about digital learning and where it will take education in Ohio -- and the nation -- in the years to come. National and state-based education experts and policymakers will debate and discuss digital learning in the context of the Common Core academic standards initiatives, teacher evaluations and school accountability, governance challenges and opportunities, and school funding and spending.
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School Finance, Governance
Putting a Price Tag on the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost?
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts and mathematics represent a sea change in standards-based reform and their implementation is the movement’s next—and greatest—challenge. Yet, while most states have now set forth implementation plans, these tomes seldom address the crucial matter of cost. This report estimates the implementation cost for each of the forty-five states (and the District of Columbia) that have adopted the Common Core State Standards and shows that costs naturally depend on how states approach implementation.
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The Romney education plan: Replacing federal overreach on accountability with federal overreach on school choice
Portable funding is a worthy idea; just make it voluntary
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The Gadfly Daily’s week in review
A look back at wit and wisdom from the Fordham Institute’s blogs from the week of May 14, 2012.
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The Gadfly Daily's week in review
A look back at commentary from the Fordham Institute's blogs for the week of May 7, 2012
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Common Core critics want ALEC to tell states what to do
The problem with the idea that tomorrow’s ALEC vote is part of a “growing movement” against federal intrusion vis-à-vis the Common Core standards? ALEC is already on record against federal intrusion into education vis-à-vis the Common Core standards.
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Charter Schools
Fordham volunteers to pilot vetting process in Cleveland
Terry Ryan's writes today that Fordham would be willing to lead the way in going through a vetting process led by the Transformation Alliance in Cleveland.
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Political correctness triumphs again
Naomi Schaefer Riley's termination is a sad sign that the Chronicle of Higher Education has replaced vibrancy with political correctness and intimidation.
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A states’ rights insurrection led by…California?
Three cheers for California’s governor, state superintendent, and state board chair, for applying for a waiver from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind) that doesn’t kowtow to Washington.
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The Gadfly Daily’s week in review
A look at commentary from the Fordham Institute's blogs for the week of April 30, 2012.
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The Gadfly Daily’s week in review
A look around at wit and wisdom from the Fordham Institute's blogs for the week April 23, 2012.
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Fostering innovation in online learning
Guest blogger Eleanor Laurans, co-author of “The Costs of Online Learning,” asks, Can online learning be less expensive and better for students?
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Have increased graduation rates artificially depressed America's 12th-grade performance?
Mike tries to explain why we’re seeing such strong progress (in math at least, especially among our lowest-performing students) at the elementary and middle school levels, but not in high school.