Early college academies form lobby group

Ohio’s public early college academies are combining forces to lobby the Ohio General Assembly for more cash to keep their innovative high-school programs afloat.

Education secretary makes case for STEM education

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Friday that the nation needs a national policy to boost science education, especially in promoting the best ways to teach science, engineering, and math.

The Turnaround Fallacy

RTT minutiae

The Department's latest weekly update on the ARRA (released on 10/21) included the following: The Department submitted to OMB and internal clearance the notice of final priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria; the notice inviting applications; and the application for the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competitive grant program.

EdNext video: Why school turnarounds don't work

If you enjoyed Andy Smarick's article on the fallacy of school turnarounds then you'll want to watch this Education Next video in which he and Mike Petrilli discuss the issue.

Remembering Ted Sizer

Theodore R. (Ted) Sizer, who passed away last week after a long and valiant battle with cancer, was a towering figure in American education-and a wonderful guy.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable:

Teaser!

Tomorrow, Education Next is releasing my article that makes the case against the current turnaround craze. Stay tuned for more.

Holes in the "No Washington Meddling Doctrine"

Ten days ago, I wrote at length??here about the Department's shifting/uncertain position on federalism in education.

Arne Duncan and the E.D. Hirsch imperative

Whew, I just finished reading Secretary Duncan's??meaty address to the faculty and students at Teachers College at Columbia University.

National Association of Scholars praises Smarick's ARRA analysis

The National Association of Scholars has??posted an article that highlights the work Andy Smarick has done tracking the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, the economic stimulus).

Panic in Detroit?*

John Merrow of Learning Matters has an interview here with Robert Bobb, Detroit Public School's "Emergency Financial Manager," who was brought in to help right a school district with a $259 million deficit that's hemorrhaging students.

New Haven teacher contract promising

The New Haven, Connecticut school district has not failed to disappoint lately in grabbing our attention and is back in the news again- This time for

Charmed by Baltimore

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "The psychological impact of no longer being at the bottom has been powerful here. For so long, people believed Baltimore would always be last, no matter how hard they worked."

No Time to Lose: Why America Needs an Education Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Improve Public Education

Southern Education FoundationSeptember 2009

The Case for Special Education Vouchers

Stuart Buck and Jay P. GreeneEducation Next

Portfolio School Districts for Big Cities: An Interim Report

Paul Hill, Christine Campbell, David Menefee-Libey, Brianna Dusseault, Michael DeArmond, and Betheny GrossCenter on Reinventing Public EducationOctober 2009

A wing and a prayer

It’s no broom-bedecked cover, but TIME coverage is still TIME coverage. In his recent article for that magazine, Gilbert Cruz reports that America's urban Catholic schools are facing a serious identity crisis--not to mention financial catastrophe.

Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction: Results from the Second Year of a Randomized Controlled Study

Eric Isenberg, Steven Glazerman, Martha Bleeker, Amy Johnson, Julieta Lugo-Gil, Mary Grider, Sarah Dolfin, Edward Britton, and Melanie Ali Mathematica Policy Research August 2009

The dismal science's promise for education

Education research is slowly developing towards a cold hard science. So argues the latest edition of the Harvard Education Letter, which explores the role of economic research in education policy.

Seat time or hard time

Here’s an idea to curb the dropout problem: Make it illegal. Heretofore, the legal school-leaving age in many states was 16, two years younger, typically, than that of a graduating senior. But now states are amending their statutes to raise that bar to 18, meaning that nonattendance prior to that age would be truancy--and against the law.

Disappearing ink

If you haven’t heard the news that the newspaper industry is dying, you must not be reading the newspaper anymore. Which is entirely possible. According to the Pew Research Center, newspaper readership fell 5 percent in just the past year, and advertising revenues are down 23 percent over the past two years.

When the money runs out

There’ll probably be more stories like this one: Chicago Public Schools is ending its version of Roland Fryer’s paying-students experiment. A number of cities, Chicago included, started pilot versions of programs that paid low-performing low-income students for good attendance, good behavior, and good grades.

Apply yourself

I'll be away from Flypaper for the next two days at the annual meeting of the White House Fellows Association, but before departing I wanted to use this opportunity to encourage our talented readers to consider applying for this astonishingly valuable program.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "They [states] were told to focus on one-time investments as much as possible. At the same time, the Department of Education sold this as a job and reform package...They say on one hand, preserve and create jobs. On the other hand, they talk about education reform."

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "We're getting a bit more particular...We are learning more about what it means to be prepared to open a school, and these schools just didn't live up to expectations." -Brian Allen, chairman of the Utah State Charter School Board

A dose of humility

I just finished reading Diane Ravitch's 2000 book??Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms. I recommend it strongly.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "Why would you sign a memorandum of understanding with a country that's so far behind us on average results and on dealing with low socio-economic students and minority students?" -Trevor Cobbold, spokesman for Save Our Schools, an Aussie public education advocacy group

Fighting social promotion in New York City

Today's New York Times reports on a new RAND study evaluating the Big Apple's attempts to end "social promotion," the egregious practice of simply passing students on to the next gr