While you're waiting for the Gadfly to appear in your inboxes (who isn't, honestly?) next Thursday (February 26), you could attend this neat event at AEI: Jim Cibulka, recently elected president of NCATE, the National Council for Accreditation o
In this study of the No Child Left Behind Act system and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rules for 28 states, we selected 36 real schools that vary by size, achievement, diversity, etc. and determined which ones would or would not make AYP when evaluated under each state's accountability rules. If a school that made AYP in Washington were relocated to Ohio, would it still make AYP?
Ohio's governor is being assailed, and rightly so, for his education plan, with its preference for creating adult jobs over ensuring that students learn.
I spent the morning doing a "radio tour" of talk shows around the country, explaining our new Accountability Illusion report. A common question is why it matters that states are implementing NCLB so differently. After all, states had very different accountability systems before NCLB.
This just in, from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's office:
Take away all the jargon, emotion, envy, confusion, and embarrassment and much of the No Child Left Behind debate comes down to this: Which schools are good, which are bad, and does NCLB do a decent job of telling the difference?
Just last week, we learned that Michael "Noah" Bloomberg would pack his ark with four charter-converted Brooklyn Catholic schools. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the seas for this journey are already proving stormy.
Achieve, Inc.American Diploma Project NetworkFebruary 2009
Jill Constantine, Daniel Player, Tim Silva, Kristin Hallgren, Mary Grider, and John DekeMathematica Policy ResearchInstitute of Education SciencesFebruary 2009
Paul E. Peterson and Matthew M. ChingosJohn F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard UniversitySpring 2009
To the editor:I continue to be both surprised and disappointed by the response ("Hurricane Wagner," February 5, 2009) by some conservatives to my book, The Global Achievement Gap, and their claims that I don't believe in testing, don't value academic content knowledge, and lack skills as a researcher.
At last, veritable proof that test prep pays real-life dividends. Seventeen-year old Geoffrey Stanford approached the Kansas state test just like his teachers told him to: "Every sentence. Every word.
Gadfly tends to give AFT President Randi Weingarten a (deserved) hard time, so when she does something praiseworthy his antennae perk up. So it was this week, when she took a strong stand for national standards in the Washington Post. "[E]very child attending U.S. public schools should be taught to high standards, regardless of where he or she lives," she opined.
The Brits have taken voc ed to new lows. In an effort to encourage teens to sign up for courses more suited to their abilities, education officials have expanded the number of courses that count toward "league tables," i.e. how schools are evaluated and compared.
I've been running a bit behind all week (we're getting ready for a MAJOR report release tomorrow...stay tuned) but this weekend's New York Times column by Nicholas
Democrats for Education Reform appears to be playing a big role staffing the Obama Administration because another one of its picks is getting a key job.
Join Fordham's Checker Finn, Ed Sector's Tom Toch, and CCSSO's Gene Wilhoit tomorrow at 3 pm for a live online chat of Obama's education plan. The chat is sponsored by Education Week??and coincides with the release of Ed Week's latest book, The Obama Education Plan: An Education Week Guide.
Hear Fordham's Checker Finn explain The Accountability Illusion.
In the news business, reporters have a saying for a boiler plate quote an editor can remove to tighten a story. It's "throw-away" and that's exactly what the governor's response to the Fordham/Paul Hill study deserves.
Marguerite RozaCenter on Reinventing Public EducationFebruary 2009
The State Board of Education passed a resolution last week (15-2, with two members absent) commending Gov. Strickland's education reform plan (see here).
More schools in the Cincinnati archdiocese, the nation's eighth-largest Catholic school system, are touting test scores to encourage enrollment.
California Charter Schools AssociationJanuary 2009A new report from the California Charter School Association indicates Oakland-area charter schools are out-performing their public district-school peers (see here).
Randi (Weingarten) turned in a dandy (op-ed) yesterday in the Washington Post making the case for national standards in education:
Amidst much of the haggling over 21st century skills, we often forget why the two sides disagree. It's not that those thought of as "against" 21st century skills don't think they're of any value. Quite to the contrary. 21st century skills--adaptability, critical thinking skills, ability to manipulate new media--are all good things for students to learn.
The details are starting to emerge from the stimulus bill (which the House has already approved, so you'd hope the details would be out).
