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Our schools' secret success
Here's a new problem facing American education policy: Something we're doing seems to be working.
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Professional culture and teaching to the test
Dan Ariely has a provocative but mostly wrong-headed article in today's Washington Post roundtable on the Atlanta testing scandal.
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Education news nuggets
It's been four years since the last book came out, but it feels good to be obses
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Quotable & notable
?It's like pouring buckets into the sea. The only way to make change with private money is to dig a new canal, build dams, reshape the public school system.'' * ?Jay P. Greene, head of Department of Education Reform at University of Arkansas
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Short term waste, long term pain
New York City is closing down its ineffective and poorly designed merit pay system in light of a RAND report published yesterday.
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Charter Schools
The myth of the "good" school
Matthew Stewart, a stay-at-home dad in a wealthy New Jersey suburb, is leading a battle against the "boutique" charter schools that are being planned for his community.
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Quotable & notable
?With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ?I want a custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my neighbor, to pay for it.''' * ?Matthew Stewart, Parent
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Money is not the problem, Nick
It's funny that Nicholas Kristof compares the education system to an escalator in his column in this weekend's New York Times. We know a great deal about broken escalators here in DC ? our subway system is full of them ?
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Education news nuggets
What grade would Harry Potter have been more likely to receive if he'd attended American public schools, an ?A?
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Curriculum & Instruction
Reading is NOT fundamental: Knowledge is
It is encouraging news, from Sol Stern of the Manhattan Institute, that New York City's three-year-old pilot project testing the content rich Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum in ten low-income schools has proved so far, as the D
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Education news nuggets
You can do a lot of things with computers nowadays: Do your homework, balance the budget, unlock the
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Quotable & notable
?There is no room for discrimination of any kind in our classrooms, our communities or our state."?* ?Dean Vogel, President of the California Teachers Association
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A reformer's reformer: Vander Ark stumbles
If there's a better bigger-you-are-harder-you-fall story of late (not counting Atlanta, of course), I don't know if it will top the account in the New York Times, at least for intrigue, of one-time Gates Foundation education director Tom Vander Ark
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Quotable & notable
"I don't want to be just a great educator and superintendent. I want to be a great man and father and husband.'' * ?Mike Feinberg, KIPP founder
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Education news nuggets
The results of the Wisconsin recall primaries are in, but Republicans have other reasons to be angry.
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Don't break out the champagne yet
The Rockefeller Institute has some good news to share: state tax revenue collections were up 9.3% in the first quarter of 2011, recovering nearly to the level they were at in early 2008, prior to the financial crisis. The news is not all good, however.
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Education news nuggets
Whether you're in a small class or a large class, it doesn't take a Google science fair winner to see that
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Quotable & notable
?[Education has been] hijacked by a group of self-styled 'reformers' who believe that public education in America should consist of islands of excellence staffed by passers-through, instead of dynamic school systems staffed by professionals.'' * ?Randi Weingarten, leader of AFT
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Finn on the ATL cheating scandal
Fordham Institute President Chester Finn discusses the Atlanta cheating scandal in an op-ed posted today on CNN.com.
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New criteria to guide CCSS-aligned curriculum released
Within weeks of the release of the Common Core State ELA and math standards, textbook publishers had already launched marketing campaigns for their ?CCSS-aligned? curriculum materials. What that label really meant, exactly, was open for much debate.
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CCSS implementation: Pretty good Gatsby is not good enough
Film critic Roger Ebert penned a damning critique of the too-often-used practice of giving struggling students a retold version of a more complex literary classic. He talks in particular about The Great Gatsby. The entire article is worth reading, but his most salient point is this
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The problems with never being able to say 'I was wrong'
Here's one for you: Rosa Parks : Civil Rights Movement ::? _________ : Current Education Reform Movement [caption id="" align="alignright" width="203" caption="Photo by ElvertBarnes"][/caption]
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Quotable & notable
?I've never been a fan of merit pay. I don't believe in it.? * ?Stephen Sweeney, New Jersey Senate President (D-Gloucester)
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Education news nuggets
As of Saturday, it's been 800 days since the senate passed a budget. Who is willing to step up to the plate and get things done??
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"I, Pencil"
There is another wonderful essay about the free market by economics professor Sandy Ikeda over at the Foundation for Economic Education.
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Quotable & notable
"When we look at our cases where children are sent away from schools because of disabilities, there are a disproportionate number of calls about charter schools.? * ?Kim Sweet, Director of Advocates for Children of New York
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Finn and Petrilli on GOP presidential candidates and education
Chester Finn and Mike Petrilli have a new piece in The Weekly Standard. In it, they sug
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