Mike and Stafford tackle the edu-bailout—should the Administration’s pet projects be spared a haircut when everyone else has gotten clipped?—and cyber bullies. Amber gives us the final report on D.C.’s voucher program and Janie wants just one valedictorian.
There’s been much talk about the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Citizens United v.
This week, the Democratic Convention adopted a platform containing an education plank that offers something for everybody but nothing in particular.
Remember that top-notch conference that we hosted with AEI last year on the courts and education? Well that material has now been compiled into a stellar new book, From Schoolhouse to Courthouse, to be published jointly by Fordham and Brookings Institution Press on September 8.
The Education Leaders Council's (ELC) is hosting its 9th annual conference, which it says will be the first major post-election education reform conference focused on both policy and practice - in Orlando, FL, on December 3-4. For details, click here.
Education Next: A Journal of Opinion and Research seeks a manuscript editor. The ideal candidate would have excellent writing, editing, communication, and organizational skills and a substantial knowledge of education policy and research. Openness to school reform and an appreciation for the journal's mission is necessary.
This week, Mike and Rick light up California for its half-baked jurisprudence, smoke out why Tampa Bay-area teachers are so sullen, and have an enlightened conversation about whether students caught with drugs should lose their federal student aid. Tom Loveless talks arithmetic, and News of the Weird is a scream. Whoop there it is, all in 15 minutes!
Fresh off the plane from AERA, Rick takes on Mike over The New York Time’s front page charter story, the new philanthropic overtures to the Department of Education, and the Arizona immigration law’s implications for schools. Then Amber tells us about math teachers around the world and Rate that Reform hates on T.I.
For those tracking Washington's handling of federal education research, statistics and assessment (you can find previous Gadfly commentaries on this subject at http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=66#983 and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/
So, my tiny school district (1,950 students, $43 million budget) just got word that we will be getting over $580,000 from the Education Jobs Fund (Ed Jobs) program (otherwise known as Public Law No.
How do we know if education policy is actually based on good research, or if it's stemming from shoddy data? How do we use (and misuse) education reports, publications, and statistics? A daylong discussion at the American Enterprise Institute on Monday, May 21st, will seek to answer such questions.
This week, Mike and Rick talk Georgia social studies exams, Texas English standards, and art and P.E. in Washington, D.C. Jeff Kuhner is outraged about madrassas in Fairfax County and Education News of the Weird is off the island. Click here to listen through our website and peruse past editions.
…In my own education circles here in Connecticut, I once heard someone describe the results achieved by places like Achievement First and KIPP as the education equivalent of discovering penicillin—that these schools had discovered what works, and all we had to do now was implement it across the country and weren’t we all being so silly and selfish to keep this magic elixir fr
This week, Mike and Rick chat about reform in Massachusetts, alt-cert in Texas, and eighth-grade bacchanalia. Today, Jeff Kuhner considers himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, and Education News of the Weird is tainted.
New Leaders for New Schools seeks entrepreneurial leaders in the Washington, D.C. area who yearn to become principals of urban schools. Applications are due April 9. For details, see www.nlns.org.
The new Education Quality Institute (EQI), launched in 2001 to put research on successful education programs into the hands of consumers, has merged with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a DC-based research firm specializing in education and health policy. EQI is now a subsidiary of AIR; both are partners in the What Works Clearinghouse.
Gadfly, like the New York Times, occasionally makes a mistake. Unlike the Times, however, we will not bore you with a four-page analysis of said errors. So: in a recent item on H.R.
"Doesn't it make sense to link teacher evaluation and measures of student learning?" ask Pamela Tucker and James Strong in an article in the September 2001 issue of the American School Board Journal. Hardly a radical idea, though the NEA is officially opposed.
Two fantastic events at the American Enterprise Institute are worth attending. On September 29th, from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m., Mark Bauerlein (author of The Dumbest Generation) and Neil Howe (author of Millennials Rising) will debate whether 20-somethings are dumbest or whether they're rising.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is searching for a vice president for quality and growth. It sounds like a fine opportunity, about which more information can be gleaned by clicking here.
When it comes to Race to the Top, most states have put on their Sunday best, bought new ties, and submitted their applications. Others refused or showed up in pajamas. Then there are those who didn’t even have the chance to participate.
Mike is back but, alas, without any Argentinean headphones. This week, he and Rick discuss the troubles with teaching ELL students, the strength (or lack thereof) of federal levers in education, and KIPP's flirtation with turnaround schools in Philadelphia. Then Amber tells us about the effectiveness of educational software and Rate that Reform reviews Ebay basics.
Coming off his recent Oscar-night adulation and triumphal return visit to Capitol Hill, the ever-expanding Al Gore has disclosed plans to start work on a new documentary film, this one about U.S. schools.
On May 5, we’ll be talking about school choice, a perfect opportunity for you to choose to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (not to mention National Charter School Week!).
Listen up, Ohio, especially all you Debbie Downers/Negative Nancys/Chicken Littles who have paid rapt attention to the ongoing public drama between outgoing Governor Strickland, and well … Governor Strickland’s office telephone….
After finally wrapping up its infamous "Bong Hits 4 School Library Media Specialist" lawsuit, Iowa's Oskaloosa Community School District is taking pains to avoid any further litigation. So beginning last month, all its gym classes have been conducted virtually, through Facebook.
This week, Mike and Rick chat about how to walk, chew gum, and teach science at the same time; the D.C. teachers' union's sea change; and the language of love. Paul Peterson (not the butterfly collector) grants us an interview, and Education News of the Weird is a distant hum. All in under 20 minutes-it's a celebration!
Editor's note: Shortly before his untimely death in February, we commissioned an article from Hunter S. Thompson, famed gonzo journalist and little-known charter school supporter. Unfortunately, all we received were notes written on cocktail napkin scraps. To the careful reader they revealed a certain theme, however, as well as Thompson's distinctive verve.
