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The Obamas' visit to a charter school: Red Hot!
Get out that trusty Reform-o-Meter because Team Obama is finally showing some heat.
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The problem with "school boards are the problem"
For two weeks now I’ve been meaning to write about this provocative Washington Post column by Montgomery County (MD) school board member Laura Berthiaume.
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Community development corporation needs finance director
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a New York City community development group, seeks a director to get its new Educational Facilities Finance Center off the ground. Duties include public policy work, project financing, training, consulting, fundraising and management. Candidates should be self-starters with expertise in education policy and financing; master's degree preferred.
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Competition, the universal motivator
We’ve been covering the Los Angeles school-outsourcing plan for a while and it’s no surprise that teachers are among the groups vying for control of various schools.
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Concessions
This week, Mike and NCTQ President Kate Walsh chat about Obama, Edwards, and Bloomberg. Kate tells us all about her organization's recently released Yearbook, and Education News of the Weird is a Turkish delight.
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Conference video available
In case you missed Tuesday's conference on international lessons about national standards, you can watch the keynote speech by Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, here.
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Confessions of a battered idealist school reformer
In reading Liam’s post about idealists being chewed up by the DC culture of inertia and status quo I couldn’t help but think of the brilliant Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” For any earnest school reformer this quote
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Congrats to Carnegie
Gadfly congratulates The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching on its perspicacity and judgment in naming Fordham prize winner Anthony Bryk to succeed Lee Schulman as president of that century-old organization.
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Congrats to KIPP
Three cheers for KIPP, which received $65 million to create 42 schools in Houston. Read more about it here.
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Congress comes to K Street
They're out of favor but not out of ideas--the GOP, that is. Want to know what they're thinking?
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Congress + K Street = Kongress?
It's not too late to RSVP for our much anticipated April 27 Great Debate: "Resolved: What should Republicans seek in education (with a focus on the federal role)?" Our panelists include three Congressmen who can shed some light on this important (but perhaps neglected) issue: Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) and Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jim DeMint (R-SC).
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COO wanted
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is looking for a chief operating officer. Learn more about the position here.
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Core Knowledge Foundation seeks director of educational materials
The Core Knowledge Foundation is seeking a director of educational materials to supervise the development of high-quality educational materials to promote and support the teaching of the Core Knowledge PreK-8 curriculum. For more details, click here.
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Core strength (Upcoming Core Knowledge conference)
If you missed our Beyond the Basics conference, or just want to learn more about the value of teaching the liberal arts, then check out Championing the Case for a Rigorous Liberal Arts Curriculum for All Children on Thursday, February 22, 2007, 1:00 p.m.
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Craig Kennedy--philanthropist
Craig Kennedy, the president of the German Marshall Fund, and a Fordham trustee, is interviewed in the January/February issue of Philanthropy Magazine. It's mostly about foreign policy and it's a terrific exchange. Check it out here.
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Crumpets, coffee, and charter school funding
Washington-area education reformers ought not let October 14th pass by without attending the Progressive Policy Institute's Charter School Funding Gap forum. Starting at 9:30 am (breakfast will be served), the event features a glittering panel including Bryan C. Hassel, co-author of the Fordham Institute report, Charter School Funding: Inequity's Next Frontier.
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Cyber-learning lessons from Georgia
Like every state, Ohio has been hard hit by the Great Recession. It has been well chronicled (see article below) that the state’s current $50.5 billion biennial budget was made whole in 2009 by one-time federal stimulus dollars, billions in budget cuts, and clever accounting maneuvers. It is estimated that the state will face an $8 billion deficit in its next two-year budget.
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Data-based fellowship opportunity
Do you believe that data can make a difference in education reform? The Strategic Data Project Fellowship at Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research is a unique opportunity to use your analytic, leadership, and education sector experience to change the way leaders in education make decisions about teaching and learning.
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David Driscoll joins Fordham's boards
The boards of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Fordham Institute voted unanimously this week to elect former Massachusetts Education Commissioner David Driscoll as a trustee. Read about it here.
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Dayton organization seeks director of education programs
Keys to Improving Dayton Schools, Inc. (k.i.d.s.), a non-profit organization based in Dayton, Ohio, seeks an exceptional educator to work closely in partnership with area charter schools to guide, assist and strengthen their academic improvement efforts.
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Dear Checker (advice for life from Chester E. Finn, Jr.)
This week, Gladfly presents a reprise of the popular lonely-hearts column, "Dear Checker," by renowned relationship expert Dr. Chester E.
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(D)ED in '08, the kitchen sink version
Gladfly hasn't been shy about his skepticism regarding the well-funded and well-intended but hapless (D)ED in '08 campaign. This video, for example, smacks of something like desperation:
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Denver school district seeks chief academic officer
The chief academic officer of the Denver school system reports directly to the Superintendent and is responsible for leadership, supervision, administration, coordination, and the implementation of all district academic programs and services.
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Design data at HGSE
The Harvard Graduate School of Education is on the search for a Data Architect and Manager. There are no building plans involved, but you would be responsible for the technical side of the Center for Education Policy Research’s Strategic Data Project, an HGSE initiative launched in July 2009.
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Developing our relations
Do you have development experience and seek an opportunity to lead a dynamic organization’s fundraising efforts? Are you interested in education reform, goal-driven, cheerful, bright, hard-working, enterprising, flexible, ambitious and glad to keep pace with a lively and sometimes demanding work environment? We might be fundraising soul mates.
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Diane Ravitch enters the "sphere..."
...the blogosphere, that is. Check out her (and Deborah Meier's) new forum here.
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Diane Ravitch presents...
You won’t want to miss a joint Fordham-AEI discussion with renowned education historian Diane Ravitch, occasioned by publication of her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. It will take place on Wednesday, March 10, in AEI’s top-deck Wohlstetter Conference Center from 4 to 5:30pm. Panelists include William A.
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Didactic doldrums
This week, Mike and guest host Liam Julian contemplate whether states can be trusted to guarantee rigorous curricula and standards, if Omaha is doing the right thing by segregating its districts, and why Joel Klein won’t give principals more bonus money. We’ve got an interview with Arizona education reformer Matt Ladner, and Education News of the Weird is, well, boring.