Flypaper readers speak, and the verdict is: I'm a squish!

It had been a while since I glanced at our reader polls for recent Reform-o-Meter ratings, so I just took a look.

Do as I say...

The Post turns in another great editorial on the DC scholarship program.

Haiku-ing on vouchers

A friend just forwarded me this excellent blog, "Serenity Though Haiku." The site has an admittedly particular political bent ("surviving the Obama years," if you were curious), but it straddles all political lines with this fabulous succinct pronouncement on the D

Columbine

The massacre at Columbine High School happened ten years ago, on April 20, 1999. Hard to believe it has been that long.

The prize of true friendship for Catholic schools

Good news, great news, no news, true news

Let's break it down: Good news: "NGA, CCSSO Launch Common Standards Drive" Great news: Oklahoma House votes unanimously to approve ABCTE

In defense of voucher opponents

Jay Greene had a lot of smart things to say in this Wall Street Journal op-ed, but I found his opening paragraph unpersuasive:

Optimism on a Friday!

Over at the Charter Blog, Nelson Smith provides some very interesting color????to the "A System of Schools" report I touched upon<

Good 'flying to you

It's packed this week and quite a read. First up, discover Checker's thoughts on Obama as First Role Model. We know he's commander-in-chief, world leader, international negotiator... but what about First Parent?

Arnold gets a check

Here's some late-in-the-day education news...Apparently, $4 billion in stimulus dollars has been cleared for California. The AP reports.

Re: Arne's tepid teammates

I've gotten some push-back from some friends about this post from yesterday; they think I went too soft on the newest members of the Obama Administration. (If you click on "view results" under our poll, however, you'll see that Flypaper readers are all over the map on the issue.)

From hot to cold on vouchers

Flypaper readers know we've been all over the saga of the District of Columbia's federally-funded "Opportunity Scholarship Program" in recent weeks, but I've yet to give the latest twists the proper Reform-o-Meter treatment.

All the world's a stage...

Back in April 1995, the New York City Partnership, an organization of NYC-based business leaders, released a report on overhauling Gotham's public education system. ????Titled "A System of Schools," the report has held up remarkably well over time, bordering on prescient in places.

Charters facing tough times

Jay P. Greene had??an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.??He talks about the problems that charter schools are facing in New York:

School Choice and Home Prices: Evidence from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Marcus WintersSCDP Milwaukee EvaluationMarch 2009

Balanced Scorecards and Management Data

Frederick M. Hess and Jon FullertonCenter for Education Policy Research at Harvard UniversityFebruary 2009

Patriotism, education, and the Obamas

Barack and Michele Obama seem to be exemplary parents. They're sending their daughters to a fine D.C. private school (while withdrawing similar options from hundreds of low-income Washingtonians). They left the girls home where they belonged--with Grandma and teachers--instead of carting them off to Europe.

Should principals walk the plank?

No child likes to be sent to the principal's office. Some students in Tucson, Arizona must be thanking their lucky stars. As the district contemplates an 18 percent budget cut, it seems some schools may cut their vice principals, share principals, or even abolish the school-leader position altogether.

Missed opportunities

The recent saga of the District of Columbia's federally-funded "Opportunity Scholarship Program" is one of opportunities missed or squandered, mostly by the Obama Administration.

An island of excellence

While the 2004 moratorium on new Rhode Island charters expired last June, it's taken months longer for state dollars to catch up. The Ocean State currently has a paltry 11 charters serving 3,100 students--and the waiting list to get in is almost as long.

A swing and a hiss

Adults, beware this age-old problem: the childhood tendency to take your words literally. That's what's happened to one poor bloke in Palm Harbor, Florida. After a particularly nasty losing streak, the coach of a high school baseball team told his players they were "snake-bitten" and needed to turn themselves around.

"From an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest"

That's where President Barack Obama says??he wants to take us. But does anyone else find this statement a little bit ironic, as we've just borrowed $100 billion from future taxpayers and spent it on bailing out today's education system?

Arne's tepid teammates

The hiring machine is finally cranking up over there at 400 Maryland Avenue, in fact outpacing the Reform-o-Meter's ability to keep up. (Well, I shouldn't blame the Reform-o-Meter. It is always willing. I'm the one who has fallen behind!)

NYT on NCLB reauthorization

Sam Dillon from the NYT turns in an????article that speculates on the contours????of an NCLB/ESEA reauthorization. There's no new news to report, and I doubt that we'll see any real movement on legislation this year--ED is too busy with the ARRA and too short-staffed to push this hard themselves.

Former Mayor to mediate

Kurt Schmoke, the former mayor of Baltimore, has been chosen to mediate contract negotiations between Michelle Rhee and the DC teachers union.

What charter lotteries have taught us

NYC has been going through the tragic annual ritual of charter school lotteries, during which thousands of parents hope to beat the odds and get their kids into much-demanded, high-performing charters.

Reassessing NCTAF's apocalypse

Hey, that's no howler monkey....it's Blago!

19th Century Skills

Will Fitzhugh, founder of The Concord Review, has an interesting column in EducationNews.org today. He, like many others, bemoans the fact that so many students are ill-prepared and forced to take remedial college courses.

The Accountability Illusion policy brief now available

Would a school deemed "healthy" under the No Child Left Behind Act remain so if it were plopped down in another state? That was the basic premise of our major report, The Accountability Illusion, released earlier this year.