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Politics of the classroom
Andrew Rotherham, a partner at Bellwether Education, explained the politics of D.C. schools in this past Sunday's Washington Post. ?Liam Julian
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For Labor Day: School Should Be a Child's First Job
I've seen poverty in many places around the world, on several different continents, which is why the debate about American education and poverty has always struck me as a little silly.? I mean, how is it possible to throw so much money at our schools and get so little education?
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Randi, Pass the Kryptonite!
Thanks to Whitney Tilson for the alert about New York Magazine's Schools: The Disaster Movie, about the new documentary Waiting for ?Superman.? The?lead picture?is a must-see, if only to read the caption, which?says the movie ?is a paean to reformers like Washington, D.C.
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The Temple of atal'hakkar or a new Plot by the Masons?
I don't know where they get these things, but I was told that it was prepared by a school district's ??Administrators Team? during a two-day retreat. As a one-time seminarian and veteran of many retreats (as well as a fan of St. John of the Cross, Bob Dylan, and the Marrakesh Express), I would say it's authentic. ?Peter Meyer
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Education news nuggets
Dear Education news nuggets readers: Thanks for letting me have a say in your daily education news nuggets.
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Quotable and notable
?On whose behalf do you want to make the mistake ? the kids or the teachers? We've always erred on behalf of the adults before.'' ? Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust
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Herewith, I advocate for the devil
Mike hopes that education-types will not be ?distracted by the [achievement] gap.? The ?real goal,? he says, is ?improvements for all groups of kids.? But is that so?
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Finally, some straight talk on the achievement gap
Summers past have brought us front-page firestorms and inane back-to-school stories.
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Edujobs to pay for teachers' vacations? (Just kidding - but almost.)
There's a lot to be said about the $10 billion federal jobs bill (?Edujobs?) which will purportedly save 160,000 teachers' jobs nationally, 5,500 of which were/are/could be? at stake in the Buckeye State. You can choose what part of Edujobs makes you most concerned:
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Field Notes: My Piece of Kafka
I was sorry not to make Education Next's top 40 education books of the decade.? (The polls are still open; vote for three.)? That could be because I haven't written it yet!? Details, details.
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Education news nuggets
September's already here (how shocking!), so get ready for National Punctuation Day by submitting your own punctuation haiku here.
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Quotable and notable
?Public school employment has risen 10 times faster than enrollment. There are only 9 percent more students today, but nearly twice as many public school employees.'' ? Andrew Coulson, director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom
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Great to be a Florida Gator
The University of Florida ?cuts faculty and budgets? but manages to spend, spend, spend on the important things. ?Liam Julian
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Turnarounds in the UK
The UK's least-productive primary schools will be converted into ?academies? (basically, charter schools), says the country's secretary of state for education, Michael Gove.
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Breaking
Standardized tests are biased against students who don't care. (If rough language offends you, don't click the link. And don't leave your house.) ?Liam Julian
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National tests
The U.S. Department of Education just announced ?that a consortium of states led by Massachusetts will receive a $170 million federal grant to come up with a standardized testing system that would replace a patchwork of tests used by individual states.? ?Liam Julian
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Half full
Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, writes in today's Wall Street Journal that she is optimistic about the future of K-12 education. ?Liam Julian
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Even teachers unions have union trouble
Yesterday, the Professional Staff Union of the Ohio Education Association went on strike.??
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A Time for Change: The 42nd Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public Schools
The questions change but one key finding stays the same
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More Trouble for Middle Schools
See Martin West's blog this morning at Education Next about the new research from Jonah Rockoff and Benjamin Lockwood (Columbia Business School) showing serious negative side effects fr
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A Valuable Value-Added Story
Not a lot of new ground is broken here, but Sam Dillon of the New York Times does a good job summarizing the issues ? including the hot-button topic?of naming names ? surrounding value-added assessments. ?Peter Meyer
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Poll: Who should win our New Yorker-style caption contest?
Last Friday, we laid down a challenge of great intellectual might.? We asked you, our intrepid readers, to give a caption to the following picture:
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Quotable & Notable
?We've gotten out and told our members, if you don't get involved in this election, the alternative is much worse.? ?David A. Sanchez, President of the California Teachers Association
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Worse than banal
The commandant of the Rick Hess Straight Up blog was?deflated by what?he heard from Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, on ABC's Sunday-morning, political talk show, This W
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Defamation!
New Jersey's former education commissioner, Bret Schundler, is now claiming that the state's governor ?defamed? him. ?I will not accept being defamed by the governor for something he knows I did not do,? Schundler wrote. ?Liam Julian
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On books
The critic Carlin Romano, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, wonders if ten years hence books will be largely vestigial: