Work in progress

Three speeches in one

U.S. News rankings out today

The annual U.S. News and World Report high school rankings have been released. Thomas Jefferson HS in Alexandria, VA takes number 1 (again).

Where's the game plan?

We've expended many words??on this blog and??other forums on the role of philanthropies in education.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable:

The Promise of Proficiency

J.B. Schramm and E. Kinney ZalesneCenter For American ProgressDecember 2009

Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough

Darrell M. West, Grover J. Russ Whitehurst, and E.J. Dionne, Jr. Brookings Institution December 2009

Exploring the Higher Rates of Teacher Turnover in Charter Schools

David Stuit and Thomas Smith National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University December 2009

Party of Nein

Quick! Somebody translate Tom Loveless’s latest Fordham study, Tracking and Detracking, into German.

Price-free isn't cost-free

If only the health care system were as transparent as the market for yoga classes. Every medical procedure would have a clear and incontrovertible price tag, no patient would be banned from consulting the doctor of his choice (as long as he’s willing and able to pay), and risk would be incorporated rationally into premium prices.

Snooki gets snookered

If you thought a reality TV show like MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” could never be educational, well, you were right.

Gold cross, clenched fist

New York’s Catholic-school parents have had enough. The state is supposed to reimburse these schools for programs mandated by Albany. But the state has not paid up since 2003, and added a new payroll tax last May to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Greedheads' Christmas: The seedy side of entrepreneurial education reform

'Twas the week before Christmas, and Race to the TopWas the vendors’ obsession and focus nonstop.The consultants were drafting proposals for statesWith smug affirmations of positive fates,While chiefs in their gray suits and governors, too,Looked to Arne for dollars—please, more than a few.

Jolting Maryland, take three

The Baltimore Sun editorial board continues its excellent work holding Maryland's feet to the fire on RTT. Tenure, merit pay, charters, alternative certification--it's all there.

i3 on the way?

In its weekly ARRA update, the Department notes that it completed a draft of the final i3 documents, which are now in "internal clearance" (this is the process by which all of the relevant ED offices weigh-in on important matters).

Exhibit A

I've been hand-wringing about states applying for RTT money because they just need cash, not because they care about reform. This would mean their applications would be flashy and promise the moon and stars but that their commitment to reform is doubtful at best.

The End of the Education Debate

"The education-reform debate as we have known it for a generation is creaking to a halt." So begins a??compelling??article by Checker in National Affairs. It's??far too in-depth of a piece to summarize adequately here, but I will try nonetheless.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "Most of the federal grants are organized around concentrations of poverty, we don't really have concentrations." -Rae Ann Knopf, Vermont Deparment of Education

A canard worth torpedoing

One of the great canards in public education is that no one should profit from the public schools.

Defining a 21st century education

Craig D. JeraldThe Center for Public EducationJuly 2009 

The Tab: How Connecticut Can Fix Its Dysfunctional Education Spending System to Reward Success, Incentivize Choice and Boost Student Achievement

Bryan C. Hassel and Daniela DoylePublic Impact In The Tab, ConnCAN (a well-connected Connecticut education advocacy group) and Public Impact (a crackerjack education research organization) make the case for Connecticut’s move to a school funding system that:

The Promise of Proficiency: How College Proficiency Information Can Help High Schools Drive Student Success

By J.B. Schramm & E. Kinney ZalesneDecember 2009 

Changing "value added" terminology

…I’m starting to see a pattern. Merit pay. Performance pay. Value-added. What is so bothersome to teachers (and unions) about these terms is not the words themselves but that they measure merit, performance, and value according to something they don’t like: student test scores.

Cleveland's NAEP math scores draw attention to district's urgent need for reform

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) –also known as the “nation’s report card”—released district-level results last week for 18 urban districts including Cleveland.

Congratulations to Tom Lasley

Congratulations to our good friend Tom Lasley on his retirement from the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Allied Professions. Tom not only spent more than 30-years of distinguished service as an education professor but was also an unrelenting champion for students and schools in the Dayton area.

Kudos to Dayton education innovator Ann Higdon

Dayton is famous for its innovators – the Wright Brothers; John H. Patterson, who founded the National Cash Register Company in the late 1800s; and Charles F. Kettering, who developed the first electric starter for cars, all come to mind. It’s not surprising, then, with such a history that one of the country’s great educational innovators today also comes from Dayton.

2009: Fordham's publications in review

The holiday season is a great time to catch up on these 2009 Fordham-Ohio publications you might have missed during the year:

All-day K mandate brings to light flaws in evidence-based funding model

The first major component of Governor Strickland’s education reform plan, an all-day kindergarten mandate facing Ohio school districts in the 2010-11 school year, is making apparent why the “evidence-based” funding model cannot live up to the lofty expectations the governor and others have set for it.

The dog that didn't bark

The Department released the list of states that have submitted letters indicating their intention to apply in the first RTT round. ??I'm less surprised that there are 36 states (more than some expected) than by some of the names not on the list. Those who haven't sent in letters include:

Why are union contracts the third rail?

The WSJ penned an interesting editorial yesterday on Secretary Duncan and Michelle Rhee, noting that while the secretary supports important reforms, he hasn't helped the chancellor in her donnybrook with the union.