Issue Brief: Common Standards: The Time is Now

Alliance For Excellent EducationBob RothmanDecember 2009

Keeping Cleveland from going the way of Detroit

Last week Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eugene Sanders released his long-awaited district transformation plan. It is an ambitious proposal that seeks a substantial reorganization of CMSD and looks to spur innovation for the long-suffering urban district.

This week's extras

Welcome to Ohio Education Gadfly’s newest section, “Editor’s Extras,” where you can catch up on important education news that you might have missed over the past two weeks. Editor’s Extras

Charter School Performance in New York City

Center for Research on Education OutcomesJanuary 2010 This brief report supplements CREDO’s June 2009 national study on charter performance in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The January 2010 report focuses on the school years 2003-04 through 2008-09, and looks at roughly 20,000 students in grades 3-8 across 49 New York City charter schools.

Negative correlation

This post by my Ohio colleagues is very important. It forecasts a major challenge for Race to the Top (RTT) scoring.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "To maintain the union and the trade, we need young men and women. So we thought maybe we should start our own charter school." - Armand E. Sabitoni, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Laborers' International Union of North America

Margaret Spellings, still defending No Child Left Behind

Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings gave a speech at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club last week and -- no surprise here -- she is still defending No Child Left Behind. According to this Naples Daily News story, she told a luncheon crowd of 300 people that:

Time to think bigger on teacher prep

If you haven't seen it already, this article in this month's??Atlantic is well worth a read, and will certainly get a lot of attention from people on all sides of the education debate.

A Penny Saved conference

The Fordham/AEI "Penny Saved" conference has been great so far! (A Penny Saved: How Schools and Districts Can Tighten Their Belts While Serving Students Better).

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "Everybody's trying to teach preschoolers how to read and nobody is trying to teach them how to do math." - Cyma Zarghami, President of Nichelodeon

The real RTT battles

The complexities and challenges of ensuring the Race to the Top's success are expanding rapidly, and I'm hoping the Department is prepared for what lies ahead. I'm concerned that, because so many of us have been focussed on the policy changes states have been adopting, two entirely more pressing issues have been given insufficient attention.

Buckeye Education in Review: 1999 to 2009

When the new millennium rang in on January 1, 2000, Ohio was marching down the path of education reform. The state was seeking improvements to its K-12 education system particularly in the areas of school funding, academic content standards, school choice, and accountability.

More articles

I'l be back to regular blogging soon. This battle between unions and the Race to the Top is heating up. Very interesting article and map on racial diversity among students by states

Understanding homeschooling: A better approach to regulation

This sane and constructive piece by Indiana University education professor Robert Kunzman says that many states are following the wrong approach when it comes to "regulating" home-schoolers, trying to control the "credentials" of home-schooling parents, to decree what curriculum they should teach and more. This doesn't work, he says, and fosters unnecessary controversy and political conflict.

The hype, the reality

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert C. Bobb has garnered much national publicity as he struggles to save what is arguably the most troubled big-city school system in America from both financial bankruptcy and academic ruin.

More catch-up!

The article deluge continues. CA's RTT chances are improving Ed Week on NCLB and Dodd's retirement

STOP THE PRESSES Watch

Per #8 on this list, this year, I'm keeping track of the prolific ed reformer Whitney Tilson's use of the uber-emphatic "STOP THE PRESSES!!!" in his mass emails.

How different should 21st century learning be?

Another gold star for NYC charters

The now famous (or infamous) CREDO charter study from last June generated a ton of hype. (See our analysis here.) The results were largely mixed, seemly putting numbers behind the assertion that putting "charter" in front of (or after) a school name does not guarantee success.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "There is a recognition we can't do everything. We really need all hands on deck from the private sector and the philanthropic sector because the government can't foot the whole bill for this." - John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Catching up

If you're like me, you're still trying to dig out of the massive article pile that Google Reader collected over the holidays. Ugh. So apologies in advance if these stories are old hat by now.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable "New York's charter school experiment has led to some promising innovations, but as a group New York City charter schools have become a separate and unequal branch of public education." -Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers

Racing to the top, every year?

Kevin Huffman, winner of the WaPo's America's Next Great Pundit contest and a VP at TFA, has a looking-ahead themed piece on Saturday's opinion page. One part stuck out in particular (my emphasis):

Expanding choice in Baltimore

If you're interested in the expansion and development of the portfolio approach in urban districts, check out this great article about Baltimore. Lots of choices within the system and a growing number of charters. --Andy Smarick

Top tens of 2010

Tom Vander Ark, former head of the Gates Foundation's education efforts and now leader of innumerable intriguing initiatives, has put together two interesting and compelling education reform top ten lists for 2010--one on the individuals likeliest to have a big impact and one on reformers to watch.

RE: 2010: The Year of the Tiger, and the Year of the Reauthorization?

I can't help but point out the hilarity of this statement in Mike's post from yesterday: "Go ahead, Mr. President???be a tiger." I know this expression dates way back before the rise of infamous Mr. Woods, but it certainly has been hijacked by him.

Fordham's New Year's Resolutions 2010

The Gadfly is currently speeding through cyber space to your inboxes, but in the meantime, take a gander at Fordham's 2010 resolutions. Sure, they're mostly for other people (after all, the role of a Gadfly is to stick its nose in other people's business!) but don't miss number 10, which is surely the most exciting resolution of all. (And, p.s.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "We're in for a showdown. The unions aren't going to give in most cases, and I think the [Obama] administration is going to have to see what it's got in front of it." -Charles Baron, Director of Federal Policy for Democrats for Education Reform

Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert BjorkPsychological Science in the Public InterestDecember 2009

Universal Access to a Quality Education: Research and Recommendations for the Elimination of Curricular Stratification

Carol C. Burris, Kevin G. Welner, and Jennifer W. Bezoza The Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice  December 2009