"Education as a Civil Rights Issue"

The New York Times editors say to Congress: Don't??gut No Child Left Behind.

Teacher to candidates: Don't blame me

Here's some pessimistic reading for your Friday morning, from California teacher Kate Applebee. Her thesis:

"Professor, Do Your Job"

So??commands Stanley Fish in this Policy Review article, which is based on his new book.

The Education Olympics: The anticipation builds

Quality comments

Mike's Gadfly editorial about teacher quality is attracting comments like ... like .... Oh, whatever,??it's Friday afternoon.

Oh no they didn't

For those who care about D.C. gossip and/or mindless television.

In the land of sprawl

A few weeks ago we commented on L.A.'s less-than-tactful capital expansion plan . It's only getting worse.

Bay area beef

The parents of San Francisco kindergarteners are fed up with a school choice system that doesn't really let them choose and they're speaking up.

Something's Fishy

While I usually agree with Liam's witty pronouncements on the reasoning of others (and you must agree that Liam doesn't just express his opinion, he passes judgment with a swift blow of verbal acrobatics--Kevin Carey, I'm sure, would agree) I must take issue with

It's about time 2

And Liam has been pushing for more of this. (That's not some weak attempt at a joke; he really has.)

Consequences of narrowing the curriculum

I wasn't around in the salad days of American public schooling, but if The Wonder Years or Archie comics are any indication, most high schools used to offer auto shop classes. Not many do these days, unfortunately, which allows things like this to happen.

Vouching for housing vouchers

I found on Matt Yglesias's blog a link to this article,??which argues that housing vouchers have not??increased urban crime rates.

It's about time

Checker has been pushing for this for over 20 years.

Maybe academic achievement isn't everything

The Japanese score well on international exams, but perhap

The broader, bolder Susan Neuman

Former Assistant Secretary of Education (and onetime colleague of mine) Susan Neuman

Gadfly's gimlet giblets

"What if ???improving teacher quality' isn't THE answer?," wonders Mike, who does not generally capitalize definite articles, so you know he's serious about THIS. In the newest Gadfly, just out, he writes:

A podcast less puerile

With Rick Hess on vacation, sunning himself on some Chesapeake beach, we recruited Kevin Carey, he of the Quick and the Ed fame, to fill Rick's customary spot as Mike's podcast interlocutor. Sense must waft upon the air currents in Fordham's offices because Carey managed to make it through the recording session with nary a wholly preposterous remark escaping his lips.

Not another teen movie

Or perhaps it is. American Teen, a documentary about five high school seniors who live in Indiana, opens tomorrow. It picked up an award and a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, and the reviews have so far been pretty positive.

National standards, pipe dream no longer

That's the upshot of this new Achieve report.

Predicting Success, Preventing Failure: An Investigation of the California High School Exit Exam

Andrew C. Zau and Julian R. BettsPublic Policy Institute of California2008

Gender Similarities Characterize Math Performance

Janet Hyde, Sara Lindberg, Marcia Linn, Amy Ellis, Caroline WilliamsNational Science FoundationJuly 2008

Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining Agreements: Why Key Issues Are Not Addressed

Emily Cohen, Kate Walsh, and RiShawn BiddleNational Center on Teacher QualityJuly 2008

Control freak

Mayoral control of schools is surely no silver bullet, but in the case of Baltimore, where Mayor Sheila Dixon is, according to the Baltimore Sun, "floating the idea" of taking over the schools, it would be a leaden musket ball.

Denver's honeymoon: Over

All hail ProComp!, we once were impelled, for it hath shown that teachers' unions and reformers can work together for good. Not so fast.

What if "improving teacher quality" isn't THE answer?

Is this the summer of school reform discontent, when the core assumptions of the past decade are reexamined? Are assumptions such as those that gave birth to the "Washington Consensus," which in turn created No Child Left Behind, being questioned anew? So it appears.

Another headache for Klein

Gary Babad creates satirical news about New York City's public schools.

Wanna help states help schools?

Every four years, it seems, enterprising campaign staff put out talking points about how their candidate wants to "help" failing schools improve, not just batter them for their poor performance. And this year's rhetoric is no different.

Quick and the Ed Watch #3

This one's from the Cato Institute's Neal McCluskey:

From the economist (not the magazine)

Over at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabbarok writes about females and math.

Learn to earn?

George Leef is no fan of David Brooks's column??in yesterday's New York Times (which we we