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A generation of ahistorical (but devout) morons?
Visiting the LBJ Ranch in the Texas hill country this weekend, our ad hoc tour group included a gaggle of high-school students from??"south of Houston." They generally seemed pleasant, self-conscious, goofy and teenager-is
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Malia and Sasha's first day of school
Seemingly upholding her "mom-in-chief" moniker, Michelle Obama took her two daughters to their first day at Sidwell Friends this morning.
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Rhee unveils new DC professional development program
With contract negotiations still stalled, Michelle Rhee has revealed the other prong of her DCPS overhaul: professional development.
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Very private school
The ranks of home-schooled children seem to be growing, according to a USA Today story that examines numbers from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
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Is a "school" by any other name just as sweet?
"School" is out in Sheffield, England. The singular term has so many negative connotations that a new school there has dropped the offending noun from its name, according to a report in The Guardian. Instead, the institution will be called a "place for learning," said headteacher Linda Kingdon.
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Weighted student funding in Indiana?
An op-ed in today's Indianapolis Star??argues for a statewide weighted student funding (WSF) system to deal with the state's budget challenges.
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Last post of 2008 - Happy New Year!
In case you're perusing Flypaper to gather some interesting, timely info with which to wow fellow party-goers tonight?????? here are two interesting AP stories involving funding and schools:
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More support for D.C. charter schools
In response to the Washington Post's unfair article about a pseudo-scandal at the D.C.
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NY: overfunding schools about to close
I feel like we've turned reporting on the shenanigans in the Big Apple into a weekly event. The latest? Overfunding schools that are slated to close in 2010.
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Bennett interviews Checker
Fordham President Checker Finn discusses Fordham's Open Letter,??new research, school funding, and more Bill Bennett's Morning in America??radio show this morning, December 30.
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President Bush, the hall monitor for the civil rights lobby
Rick Hess and I have a piece on National Review Online today about President Bush's education legacy. I guess you might say it's not really in the Christmas spirit. We argue that Bush??sold out??his principles when negotiating the No Child Left Behind act:
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Eduwonk Andy misses a chance to claim victory
Andy Rotherham, the go-to New Dem on education for the better part of the last decade, doesn't seem to grasp the opportunity at his fingertips.
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Re: The Post makes amends
This weekend the Post also published a letter of support from D.C. Public Charter School Board member Will Marshall, whose day job is president of the Progressive Policy Institute.
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PA's teacher strike problem
According to an op-ed in this morning's Wall Street Journal, Pennsylvania has the highest incidence of teacher strikes in the country.
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NOLA--50% charter and growing?
Usually school districts see themselves as competing with charter schools for students. Not the Recovery School District. Superintendent Paul Vallas plans on increasing the market share of charters in New Orleans by converting more schools to charter schools.
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The Post makes amends
We lambasted WaPo last week for its inappropriate and overly harsh treatment of DC Charter School Board Chairman Tom N
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Reading Arne Duncan's tea leaves
What's the cosmic significance of the Arne Duncan pick???The Wall Street??Journal's Gerald Seib, channeling Checker, says that it proves President-Elect Obama's pragmatism:
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Today's announcement about "common state standards" an important milestone
They said it was an impossible dream.
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Common standards a laudable goal, but watch for perils
Leaders here at Fordham praised the report Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education, released today by The National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers and Achieve, Inc.
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NY may cut funds for private schools
Governor Patterson has proposed cutting nearly $88 million over two years in aid to private independent and parochial schools.
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Governance
An Open Letter to President Obama, Secretary Duncan and the 111th Congress
In this exciting, unique and challenging time, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute wants to congratulate President-Elect Obama and other new federal leaders. The federal government has a key role to play in creating a world-class education system in America but it's challenging to get that role right. This letter provides some guidance. Fordham experts review the current education policy landscape and its main players and offer their view of the ideal K-12 federal role. They also address the ten big policy battles looming on the horizon. The hope is that the letter will provide critical advice, insights and ideas for the new federal education leaders who are about to take on a big job.
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21st century skills have been around for at least 21 centuries
That's one of the great points in this strong U.S. News and World Report piece by Eduwonk Andy Rotherham.
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Introducing "Reform Realism"
Now that there's a Secretary-Designate for the Department of Education, we at Fordham are ready with some advice for him.
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Holiday gifts for astute Flypaper readers
Surely you already know that Bethany Little was the uber-insider that first put bi
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Sayonara SES and choice?
The one part of our "open letter" to the incoming Administration and Congress that seems to be surprising folks the most is our call to eliminate No Child Left Behind's public school choice and supplemental educational services (tutoring) provisions. Yes, this proposal is counter-intuitive.