It's been awhile since I outright fawned over President Obama, so I'm going to let this one fly without any restraint or reserve: His speech to the NAACP last week kicked butt. It was transcendent. It was inspirational.
"Now you know the thesis of this Education Week commentary by USA Today editorial page writer Richard Whitmire; here are the key paragraphs...." Read it here.
Let's assume for a moment that the current trajectory of the presidential election remains the same and Obama wins by a significant margin, maybe even a landslide.
For the better part of a week, Washington has been consumed by the Shirley Sherrod pseudo-scandal, leading many pundits to ponder race relations in America circa 2010.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction just released the state's preliminary school ratings under the No Child Left Behind act, and a mere 79 schools were found to be "needing improvement." That's about three percent of all public schools in Wisconsin--practically a rounding error! Wisconsin has figured it out.
"That's my take on the new Marcus Winters/Jay Greene/Julie Trivitt study on the impact of high-stakes testing on low-stakes subjects in Florida...." Read it here.
There’s a movement afoot in Hawaii to do away with the elected school board…The source of frustration, according to the group leading the anti-Board charge, Children First, are Furlough Fridays, a cost-cutting measure that the Board of Ed said would save over $400 m
Among the various hats I wear (though please don’t tell Checker “School boards are an aberration, an anachronism, an educational sinkhole. Put this dysfunctional arrangement out of its misery” Finn) is that of member of the Board of Education.
School reformers in Ohio have been struggling for more than a decade to make Ohio welcoming for charter schools. Charters have had to fight in the legislature, at the courthouse, and in the court of public opinion to protect and defend their mere existence…However, all operators must be held accountable, as they work for the children, communities, and taxpayers where they run schools.
Ohio's charter school program dodged a bullet this recent budget cycle (here).
In 2007 we commissioned the well-respected economists Robert Costrell and Michael Podgursky to analyze Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System.
In March, President Obama told a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter that "the number of children going to the Cleveland Public Schools who are actually prepared to go to college (is) probably one out of seven or eight or ten. And that's just not acceptable.
The debate in education at the local and state level is far from placid (as Mike recently described it), and is sometimes incredibly toxic because the issues affect our children and our collective future.
The Fordham Institute is unique in the school reform sector in that we have offices in both Washington, DC and Ohio. From the Buckeye State vantage point, we see a growing disconnect between reformers inside the Beltway and those toiling in the states.
During last night's prime-time press conference, President Obama was asked about shared sacrifices during these tough times. The president noted that these are indeed difficult times for many Americans.
Charter schools are different from traditional district schools in that they are free of many regulations and operating constraints, but in return for their freedoms they are held accountable for their results. Those charter schools that fail to deliver results over time are closed, the theory holds.
In the news business, reporters have a saying for a boiler plate quote an editor can remove to tighten a story. It's "throw-away" and that's exactly what the governor's response to the Fordham/Paul Hill study deserves.
As today is the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I wanted to share some text from a series of interviews I conducted with Wiktor Kulerski in the late 1990s.
Can Gloria Estefan save Miami's schools? In case you haven't heard, despite its subtropical location, the Miami-Dade County school district isn't doing so hot. First, its school board meetings, which resemble certain scenes from the movie Animal House, became public-television sensations.
The Heinz Endowments seeks a new education program director. All the information is here.
The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is looking for a Teach & Inspire Program Coordinator. Everything you want to know about it can be found here.
Rick relocates to snowy locales, while Andy sits in. This week, he and Mike discuss Fordham’s new paper on “private public schools,” Obama’s announcement to tie Title I to “career-and college-ready” standards, and Tim Pawlenty’s metaphorical use of the nine-iron, all while listening to Nico Petrilli (that’s Mike’s son) rap.
The Broad Center for Superintendents is currently accepting applications and nominations for the 2003 Urban Superintendents Academy. This executive leadership development program is designed to prepare the next generation of public education CEOs. All expenses are fully covered by The Broad Foundation.
Achieve, Inc., a nonprofit education policy organization, is seeking a research analyst for its Public Leadership Initiative to assist with research, data collection and analysis, conferences, reports, and web work. Applicants must have an advanced degree, 3-4 years of public policy experience and strong quantitative, analytic and communication skills.
Are you highly motivated, smart, and passionate about reading and writing? Want to work with other highly motivated smarties who are too? Then this position might be for you.
As explained in our review of state standards and the Common Core, standards are just the “cookbook” not the “dish.” Enter Common Core (no relation to the standards), which has gone grocery shopping and spent some prep time in the kitchen.
If you're in town on October 3, and you're not at the American Enterprise Institute at 9 a.m. for a book forum and panel discussion about Albert Shanker, to include Senator Lamar Alexander, John Podesta, John Cole, and Checker Finn--then, well, we hope your wedding was lovely.
