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Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development
Christine Campbell and Brock J. GrubbNational Charter School Research ProjectJune 2008
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Learning Accountability from Bologna: A Higher Education Policy Primer
Clifford AdelmanInstitute for Higher Education PolicyJuly 2008
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Racy and classy, in a bad way
Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine included a piece titled The Next Kind of Integration, which was about school districts that have, since the Supreme Court's ruling l
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Randi Weingarten responds to Checker (and Mike)
Mike Petrilli is spot-on in this sense: Clearly, a good education is much more than test scores. He's right about the importance of extracurricular activities in providing that education--and I hope he'll agree that we should find ways to make sure kids in our highest-poverty schools have access to those kinds of activities.
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Rock 'n' fail
No good can come of this. In recent years, ever since the Beastie Boys slung their anti-school rhetoric on the airwaves, pop singers' lyrics have attacked educational institutions with alarming frequency and ferocity.
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Short and sweet
Maryland students were said to have made impressive gains this year on their state test. Naturally, our first reaction was to wonder how that happened when the state's NAEP scores are stagnant.
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In which I differ with a friend
My longtime friend Checker Finn wrote a critique of Randi Weingarten's inaugural speech as President of the American Federation of Teachers. Checker chastised her for endorsing the idea that schools should help the neediest kids by offering health services and social services in addition to their customary academic fare.
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Can he?
Jonathan Alter offered Barack Obama, free of charge, some darn good advice in the July 21st Newsweek. Will the senator from Illinois take it? "Now Obama needs to embrace a Grand Education Bargain--much higher pay for teachers in exchange for much more accountability for performance in the classroom," writes Alter.
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Checker responds to Diane
It's never easy to disagree with Diane--not only is she a friend and colleague of long-standing, as well as a Fordham trustee, but also she's so often right about education. I've found over the years that when she and I work at a difference of opinion for a while, we usually discover that the domain of true disagreement is small.
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Checker responds to Randi
Because I'm mostly home playing grandpa to a four-year-old this week (and doing my small part to assure that at least one small child is ready to succeed in school and beyond), this must be very brief. To my eye, Randi's explanation is clearer and better balanced than her speech was, maybe because it lacks some of the crowd-pleasing anti-NCLB rhetoric.
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What's in a revision?
"Please revise," indicates your editor, his note scrawled in red ink atop your latest submission. So you do. You rework the major points, you tighten where needed, you revamp and polish and tweak and shift around. That is, after all, how revision is done. Not, it appears, in Saudi Arabia.
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Competition works
On tonight's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, John Merrow interviews George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union. Here's a teaser from the transcript:
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Reading this post will make you stupid
Here's more on how Google, blogs, etc. supposedly turn our brains into grape Jell-o. (Previous post here.)
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Rheedacted?
Whew, that last post was a long one, and a bit heavy for these hot summer days. Nonetheless, sometimes we must wade into the tall grass, scythes in hand, and clear away the overgrowth. Bad arguments, like snakes, fester if such periodic maintenance is neglected.
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The kids are alright
When we at the office have our tippling time, Coby tends to hang back, uncomfortable, no doubt, with all the "these young kids" bashing that transpires.
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Someone needs a hug
I hope someone over at Education Sector gives a big hug to Kevin Carey, who is, judging by this post, in a foul mood, perhaps because he's trying unsuccessfully to make the case that one program at FSU (with which I was, as an undergraduate,??quite involved) successfully refutes affirmative action's pr
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The ticking pension bomb
While America Aged: How Pension Debt Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial CrisisRoger LowensteinThe Penguin Press2008
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Delaware-Union and Franklin ESC merger set for New Year
The Delaware-Union County Educational Service Center (ESC) and the ESC of Franklin County will merge in January (see here), creating a multi-county agency that will serve more than 11 percent of Ohio's public-school students.
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Two top-flight charters set to open in Columbus
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (our sister organization) is excited to be sponsoring two new charter schools opening in August in Columbus.
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International comparisons
Japan's famously demanding education system figures significantly in Natsuo Kirino's new novel Real World, reviewed in Sunday's New York Times books section:
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No, I'm not Randi's dandy
I've gotten lots of feedback about my Education Gadfly column on extra-curricular activities; several friends have written gleefully to make the connection between my piece
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Political musings
I heard this morning on NPR that murmers have it that Senator John McCain, in order to distract from Senator Barack Obama's European travels, will perhaps announce this week??his running mate.
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I.Q. -> Q.E.D.?, and whatnot
I wouldn't link so often to pieces on NRO if a) such pieces weren't so interesting and b) weren't so well written. Even that outlet's??more langorous languorous libations manage to refresh.
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New feature! The blobbiest quote of the week
Over twenty years ago, Bill Bennett popularized the term, "The Education Blob." The Blob is the seemingly infinite ocean of alphabet-soup organizations that lobby on behalf of educators and in opposition to any reforms that might upset the status quo.
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Get outraged!
If you live in Seattle and you just can't seem to slake your thirst for discussions about school diversity, I'll be on the David Boze talk-radio show today, chatting about the direction that some districts (including, perhaps, Seattle) are taking their school-assignment plans. Much auditory??hand wringing and finger wagging??promises to??go down.
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