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Still Left Behind: Student learning in Chicago
Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of ChicagoJune 2009
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The Big Four?
With the Big Three in and out of the red, it seems bankruptcy is the new black in Detroit. Who's got the bug?
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Prime time for Kline
The Republican Party's adventures with Big Government Conservatism might be coming to an end, at least with respect to education policymaking. Representative John Kline of Minnesota is now the ranking minority member of the House Education and Labor committee, and seems eager to rethink NCLB from top to bottom.
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Sarah Palin, anti-intellectualism, and the plight of the liberal arts
"She was hungry, loved politics, had charm and energy, loved walking onto the stage, waving and doing the stump speech. All good. But she was not thoughtful.
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Drafting the best teachers
And then there was meritocracy. When then-State Education Commissioner Peter McWalters ordered Providence, Rhode Island to abandon seniority hiring and firing practices in that city's schools, we applauded. Now, his replacement, Deborah Gist, has completed the policy's pass to Providence supe, Tom Brady.
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Jay Greene, jumping to conclusions
Jay Greene says we are "obsessed with the latest policy fashions" and switching our "policy focus so that it is in line with the current administration and congressional majority."
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Oh God
The Wall Street Journal sounds the alarms about the Christianity-in-American-history battle brewing in Texas.
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ARRA and the urban faith-based schools crisis
The federal stimulus legislation is pumping lots of money into the nation's public education system, but what about private schools, particularly the invaluable subset of inner-city faith-based, including
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Fiddling in Sacramento
Guest blogger Ron Reynolds is executive director of the California Association of Private School Organizations (CAPSO), the California state affiliate of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE).
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Giving credit where credit is due
Ohio's legislature agreed this week to a $50.5 billion biennial state budget and Governor Strickland is expected to sign the bill by week's e
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A suggestion for Michelle Rhee: Leave hyperbole behind
Brand-new test score results for the District of Columbia Public Schools show big gains. The Post reports:
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Nature, and the AFT, abhor a vacuum
When we decided to give the Obama Administration Reform-o-Meter an extended vacation, we never thought it would leave a hole that would be filled by the AFT!
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Morning news
Secretary Duncan speaks to AFT conference; continues "with you, not to you" pitch, calls the labeling of failing schools "demoralizing" for faculty.
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Education Change Agent: Alex Johnston, CEO, ConnCAN
Editor's Note: This week we launch the first in a biweekly series highlighting education reformers. Every two weeks we'll pose the same questions to people working to bring about meaningful education reform--most of them from outside the Beltway.
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Charter Schools
DC voucher program saga turns into DC rights issue
As Andy reported last Friday, the DC Council has sent a letter to Secretary Duncan urging him to reconsider the fate of the DC Opportunity Scholarship program.
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"Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut" book review
Checker's book, Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut, is reviewed in this Washington Times piece.
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The price of reform
It looks like some states are moving in the right direction on reform in order to access Race to the Top funds. But we have to remember that these reforms, though important, aren't free; they cost $100 billion. So the question is: Are we getting enough in return for this investment?
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McKeon's replacement wants to overhaul NCLB
Though this WaPo headline says that the "GOP [is] Leaving ???No Child' Behind," the rise of Representative John P. Kline to ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee might be more nuanced.
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PSA: National Council on Teacher Quality looking to pay you money
We heard through the grapevine that the The??National Council on Teacher Quality,??a national research and advocacy organization based in??Washington,??D.C., is hiring! They're on the prowl for a??project manager and multiple research analysts to work on teacher preparartion studies.
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Of interest...
Very interesting article about Judge Sotomayor's Princeton education. I appreciate her hard work.
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Appropriations action on TIF
According to the good folks at Ed Week, there are some interesting happenings on the Hill today. The House subcommittee in charge of education appropriations decided to provide a big boost to the Teacher Incentive Fund (a program that supports innovative teacher compensation systems).
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Potential charter hit has big implications
When I read this appropriations article earlier, I assumed that the number listed at the bottom for the federal charter schools program was a typo. But maybe not. I'm hearing the????same thing from other sources: an approximately $100 million reduction for charters.
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Good personnel news
Barrett Karr has been named staff director to the new GOP leader of the Labor/Ed committee.
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Read your Gadfly
Gadfly is here and it's great! First, Checker considers the speech topics of Secretary Duncan.
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An opportunity to learn from Australia's example
A plan unveiled today in Australia tackles a popular suggestion that's been thrown around in the US: putting "super teachers" (as the Aussies call them) in the worst schools, and compensating them with higher pay, a smaller class load, and the opportunity to mentor other teachers.
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How does Wendy Kopp choose her staff?
Find out in this NYT interview with the founder of TFA: "Corner Office: Charisma? To Her, It's Overrated."
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Go to the principal's office!
Overheard in DC is a feature of DCist.com, a blog about all things happening in our nation's capital. Each week, readers email in snippets of funny conversations they "overheard in DC" and every Friday, DCist picks a few they think take the cake. Take a look at one of this week's winning entries: