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Political beat
Sharron Angle is a Nevadan running for the U.S. Senate. And according to the Think Progress blog, she is not in favor of funding public schools. ?Liam Julian
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Latest why-we-didn't-sign-up-for-Race-to-the-Top excuse? The Bible
Since Ohio won Race to the Top money last week, districts that didn't sign on to the state's proposal (nearly half of them) have gone on the defensive about why they didn't accept the federal dollars.??
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Anemic urban academic performance data show little reason for cheer
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has analyzed the academic performance of schools in Ohio’s Big 8 cities annually since 2003.
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Are these the top education policy books of the decade?
Education Next, where I'm an executive editor, is running an online poll to determine the top books of the past decade. (We're celebrating our tenth anniversary this coming winter.) Here are the 41 nominees in chronological order; did we leave anything important out?
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The Albany file, cont.
Some great pictures of Arne's visit with the New York State United Teachers union people in Albany, courtesy of
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Albany (cont. again): doveryai, no proveryai
Okay, so the Albany Times Union search engine is not perfect ? it did not turn up Rick Karlin's story on Arne Duncan's odd visit to one of the nation's premiere charter school cities?
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Fire teachers, save bocce
Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of reason.com, wonders just how much money high-school sports actually cost and why no one seems willing, in our time of financial agony, to even consider cutting them. ?Liam Julian
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Interactive explanation
The Chronicle of Higher Education shows how the college raters do their rating. ?Liam Julian
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What's the evidence on stakeholder support?
If you're looking for an answer to that question, this post is sure to disappoint. I'm really just wondering myself. Is there any evidence that reforms are more likely to take root if stakeholders are on board?
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Education news nuggets
Attention all fashionistas: last night's red carpet at the Emmys has nothing on high fashion in the homeroom.
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Quotable and notable
?No one is ever really singled out, neither good nor bad. The culture of the union is: Everyone is the same. You can't single out anyone for doing badly. So as a result, we don't point out the good either.'' ?Aldo Pinto, teacher at Los Angeles Unified School District's Gridley Street Elementary School
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The half-broken promise of charter school autonomy
Those of us at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute are hawks when it comes to charter school accountability. We fervently believe that bad charter schools should be shuttered and that authorizers should be choosy when granting charters in the first place. This wasn't always so; when the charter movement started we, like many other enthusiasts, believed in letting a thousand flowers bloom.
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No Garden Party in the Garden State
The meltdown in New Jersey over its 11th-place showing in the Race to the Top competition ? one place out of the money ? can not be good for education reform.
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Accountability & Testing
2009-10 Ohio Report Card Analysis
Each year the Thomas B. Fordham Institute conducts an analysis of urban school performance in Ohio. We found that in 2009-10, 26 percent of public school students (district and charter) in Ohio's Big 8 urban communities attended a school rated A or B by the state, 28 percent attend a C-rated school, and 47 percent attended a school rated D or F.
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The Communications Gap: Newspapers in Education
Scanning my local newspaper the other morning ? it usually takes about ten minutes, including Police Blotter ? I stopped at the editorial headline, ?You can help support Newspapers in Education? and immediately thought, How about a little education in the newspapers?
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Why We Need a Free Press ? in Public Education
Sorry to?interrupt?Mike's slow Friday contest, but ?I need to tell?a couple of quick?stories about the power of the press (The PoP!) ?
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Education news nuggets
It's Friday, so don't be depressed. Besides, today's EdNews is striking, if I do say so myself.
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Quotable and notable
?We used Katrina as an opportunity to build?not rebuild, but build?a new school system.'' ?Paul Vallas, Superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans
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Arne yarn
In this Sunday's Washington Post Magazine, Education Secretary Arne Duncan stars in the ?First Person Singular? column. ?Liam Julian
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Sympathy for Secretary Duncan
I've gotten a lot of push-back for calling the Race to the Top results ?disastrous? for the Administration, and for arguing that Secretary Duncan should have overruled his peer reviewers and awarded grants to Louisiana and Colorado.
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Flat World, Part 2
Since Liam has taken the fight overseas (here), I'll add to the flat world discussion by mentioning another international story in today's
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LAUSD, Round 2 (or is it 3?)
The AP is reporting that Los Angeles Unified's lame-duck superintendent, Ramon Cortines, who says he's retiring next year, supports a teacher evaluation system that counts student test scores for 30 percent of the grade. ?Peter Meyer
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Quotable and notable
?We know that the hard work is ahead of us.'' ?Merryl Tisch, chancellor of New York's Board of Regents
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Amber Winkler discusses cultural awareness training for teachers (Fox News)
Fordham's Research Director Amber Winkler made a guest appearance on Fox & Friends this morning. The topic was whether teachers should receive cultural awareness training, to make them more sensitive to their students' backgrounds. Check out the segment here. And if you missed it, Amber should be back on the show Sunday, discussing the same topic!
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Race to the Top: Who cares?
The education news websites and blogs are crackling. Race to the Top! The winners! The losers! The behind-the-scenes intrigue! But outside the borders of education nation, few people know, and even fewer care, about Race to the Top. Hard to blame them.
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ACT: The Condition of College and Career Readiness
A woefully low percentage of high school seniors are primed to succeed