Canada lights up a room. His voice is booming and distinctive (and not just because you remember it from a Waiting for Superman or The Lottery interview), but mostly because when he talks about the children of Harlem, you sense how much he loves his life's work.
A few months ago, chatting with my brother-in-law, a former executive at the National School Boards Association, I suggested we collaborate on a book called Saving School Boards. There was a pause. ?Do they need saving?? he asked. Head spin.
For all of you test faithful, so long cowering in the shadows of ?critical thinking skills? and free range blah-blah, ?you can come out now.
I've just finished up a report for Education Next on New York's successful bid for Race to the Top funds. And though I interviewed dozens of people and learned a great deal, one question I was unable to answer with any certainty was who had actually coined the term.
David Brooks is a New York Times columnist, and boy does he know how to write 750 words that will rocket to the top of his paper's most-e-mailed list. Here's his basic recipe. First, pick a topic in the sociology realm, preferably something sort of vague, with Malcolm-Gladwell-ish overtones (or, better yet, apply explanatory social science to some newsy situation).
?There should be a way to weigh what the county has done to promote excellence in your school system, and you should be given credit for that.'' * ?Valerie Ervin, Montgomery County, Maryland Council President
It's been an open secret for at least a year, but now the National Council on Teacher Quality is making it official: they are at work on a review of all 1,400 of the nation's schools of education; the results will be published in a special edition of U.S. News and World Report. Kudos to NCTQ for taking on this Herculean task.
We wanted to help get the word out ? this Sunday (January 23) kicks off National School Choice Week. It's a week of events and discussion across the country, aimed highlighting the need for effective education options for all children. You can read about it here ?
The nation's education secretary has lately been ventilating his thoughts on local issues.
The Atlantic's Derek Thompson spoke with Jonah Edelman, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children, about the prospects for a 2011 No Child Left Behind rewrite. Is Edelman optimistic that 2011 is the year? ?I am,?
RiShawn Biddle appreciates measured analysis but thinks?the K-12 realm?could also stand some ?bomb-throwing, bombast, even plain and blunt talk.? I agree, which is why every week I try to toss at least few grenades into the ed-policy echo chamber. But I am a writer, not a public official.
School Controversies abound. From challenging school plays to removing ?college' from school discourse, no one seems to agree.
During Ohio's gubernatorial race former Governor Ted Strickland's campaign placed Race to the Top funding in the spotlight.? Strickland asserted that Ohio's $400 million in RttT winnings could fall into jeopardy if John Kasich scrapped the ?evidence-based? model of school funding.
?They need the arts.?When I hear music called an ?extracurricular activity,' it makes me cringe because it's part of becoming a well-rounded human being.''* ?Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State
Our next event will quite appropriately take place on Groundhog Day and it's getting some buzz out there in the blogosphere this week.
This article, written by an insane Chinese woman who is merely ginning up publicity for her just-published book, has sparked much debate. I have no idea why.
The one question on everyone's mind: Will 2011 be the year that Congress revises No Child Left Behind? Arne Duncan says yes. ?The president is ready to move on this,? he told the Washington Post.
Did you notice Flypaper's ?quotable? bit from yesterday? It comes from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: ?Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform.? I get it. Christie is a politician, and making broad, charged statements is what politicians do (when they aren't making narrow, vapid ones).
?The best way to assess what students encounter is regular surveys of teachers and students. But like all true school improvements, that requires school leaders strong enough to listen and react intelligently to bad news. Such people are in short supply.''
Twenty-six Catholic schools?all but one of which are elementary-level?in New York City are slated for closure. That may not seem like a big number, but the closures will affect some 4,700 students in the Big Apple, and represents the largest school consolidation in the history of the state's archdiocese.
Kevin Carey of Education Sector has a great post out today looking at the use of teacher quality data in personnel decisions. He's writing about higher education, but the point applies to K-12 as well:
The Los Angeles Times wants a change to California's Constitution, which, through its division of educational powers?an elected superintendent of public instruction, and an appointed secretary of education and Board of Education?has contributed to the bureaucratic clog
We have no answers as to whether textbook errors ought to be considered teachable moments or if
?Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform'' * ?Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor
You?may have already seen this, but there was a bit of a development earlier this week in the ongoing fight over New York City releasing the names and rankings of thousands of teachers. On Monday, a Manhattan judge ruled that the city can indeed publicly release the names/rankings of the teachers.
Liam calls the ???chance for success??? index in Education Week's ???Quality Counts??? rating of state school systems misleading.
On Friday, Rutgers education professor Bruce Baker issued a 4,600 word rebuttal to a 4,000 word policy brief released by Marguerite Roza and me the da
