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Quotable & Notable
?Designing effective incentives for teachers is a mighty complex task, full of many subtle decisions and much uncertainty. This study, like the ones before it, and the ones that will surely follow it, is highly inconclusive.? [Referring to Vanderbilt University merit pay study]
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Still gathering
The National Academies just released a new report, ?Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5,? which isn't really new at all: its authors are the same people who wrote the 2005?publication ?Rising Above the Gathering Storm?
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Don't fire the canon
Lindsay Johns, a writer and ?hip hop intellectual,? turns in a keen article in Britain's Prospect magazine. He writes to defend the Western canon and, more specifically, to make the point that the canon is just as relevant to black students as to white.
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Would a Republican Congress be good for school reform?
Note: This editorial, by Checker Finn and me, will run in today's Education Gadfly.
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Republicans pledge to ignore education
At least that's one interpretation, as their brand-new Pledge to America contains neither the word ?education? nor ?school.? More thoughts on this later, but really guys? How many pollsters need to tell you that just talking about the subject is good for your numbers?
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King of the Mountain!
As kids, growing up in the wilds of Oregon, one of our favorite sports was King of the Mountain (I warn you, don't go Googling that one). It was a spontaneous thing that started when one of the pack of roaming young ruffians leapt on to some high ground ? a log, a pile of dirt, a mound of rocks ? and declared, ?King of the Mountain!??
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Education News Nuggets
Textbooks are in the news this week: in college, kids save money by renting instead of buying, and in Texas, kids?
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Quotable & Notable
?Visitors see smart, driven, caring teachers in every classroom and ask us all the time: How do you do it? The answer: culture.'' ?Deborah Kenny, Founder and CEO of Harlem Village Academies
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Haven't we heard this before?
Rand Paul, who is running to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, wants to end the federal Department of Education. The Lexington Herald-Leader doesn't like the idea. ?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
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Kryptonite?
The Nation has a long review of the soon-to-be-released education documentary Waiting for ?Superman.' ?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
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Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and Retaining Top-Third Graduates to Careers in Teaching
Fresh thinking on improving the teaching profession
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Parallel Patterns: Teacher Attrition in Charter vs. District Schools
Charter and district teachers aren't so different, after all
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Is it Just a Bad Class? Assessing the Stability of Measured Teacher Performance
Value-added measures have their place but are no panacea
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Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information
A little teacher quality info goes a long way
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An angel on charter schools' shoulders
As China calls for education innovation, Oprah takes matters into her own hands
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Just because the sky's not falling doesn't mean your school is good
Far be it from me to take on Nicholas Lemann ? former Managing Editor of the Washington Monthly, former staff reporter for the Washington Post, staff writer for The New Yorker, author of The Big Test (about the SATs), and current dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism ? but?.
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A Sensible Idea: Vouchers for Catholic Schools
Whitney Tilson, commenting on yesterday's New York Times story on the plan to close Catholic schools, has it about right:
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Education News Nuggets
Want to mentor a child? Plan on sticking around for awhile. At least ?till they make it to college.
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Quotable & Notable
?Suppose for a minute that the child care industry were as well organized as the teacher's union, do you think that preschool would be considered such an unquestionably good public investment?? ?Rob Manwaring, Senior Policy Analyst at Education Sector
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Another gap
?Closing the Talent Gap,? a new report from McKinsey & Company, uses data to usefully describe ideas we already know, specifically that:
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?Cracking the code,? or ed reformers on crack?
Hubris alert! My friends in the education reform community are feeling triumphant, now that Waiting for Superman is about to hit the theaters with its ?to the barricades? message. Count me as worried; just consider what happened to Adrian Fenty when he got over-confident and morally righteous.
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McKinsey's "Closing the Talent Gap"
McKinsey just released its much-awaited report, Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top third graduates to a career in teaching. To those of us in the education world the findings aren't a total surprise?
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?Dominick, Go Frisk ?em?**
Catholic schools are back in the news as the New York Diocese prepares for what the Times is calling an ?aggressive effort to close or consolidate elementary schools?? ? as many as 30 of the 216 in the system, reports the Times.
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Education News Nuggets
?The nation's approach to teaching reading is analogous to a builder laying the foundation of a house, but not following through to assist with the walls, windows, doors, and roof.? ?Bob Wise, President of Alliance for Excellent Education
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Quotable & Notable
To grab your attention: maybe we don't really live in a left brain/right brain world.