The study is in the mail...

We are pretty good at generating buzz for upcoming reports at Fordham (doesn't hurt that those reports are typically buzzworthy) but this

Pass around the tithing basket

The conversion of seven Catholic schools in Washington, D.C., to charter schools is off to a rough start, as the Washington Post reports today that the city's budget failed to provide funding for these schools, and they won't get their first payments in July.

Privatization politics

Gadfly wasn't pleased with the Philadelphia Inquirer last week, as the paper saw only bad news in the Philadelphia School District's decision to take back six of the 38 schools that have been managed by private op

"Update" of the year

If you're the type of Flypaper reader who only has time for the latest postings, not those published a whole two hours ago and invisible without scrolling, I commend to you Liam's update to this post; after reading it, I think you'll agree, you'll be better informed about blogging etiquette a

Hard times for this blogger

Speaking of obscenities and ignorance...

This news item out of the U.K. truly confounds.

Let's get ready to rumble

The forthcoming debate between Sol Stern and Chris Cerf, over at Eduwonk, should be must-see blogging.

English education

If you're looking for a solid primer on schools in the U.K., you could do worse than this article from the London Review of Books, which breaks down nicely that country's educational evolution. Britain is a famously class-oriented society, and until 1944, its educational system was class-based, too.

Burnout

At first glance, this New York Times article on Brooklyn's Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice looks to be another feel-good story about the small schools initiative.

More Buckeye blues

Checker takes to the Wall Street Journal's op-ed pages to communicate to Ohioans this message: Wake up.

Moving pictures of our latest panel event

Video footage from the panel discussion of Fordham's recent report, High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind, is now online for your viewing pleasure:

A Stern denunciation

Does anyone out there believe that the dramatic test-score increases coming out of the Empire State are legitimate? Sol Stern, for one, highly-knowledgeable on all educational goings on in New York, is with the naysayers.

Beyond compare

The newest issue of The Economist has a piece on international comparisons that offers a couple interesting lessons. The first is to be wary of them.

BoardBuzz swats and misses

As a fellow insect-themed edu-blog, we feel a certain kinship with our friends at BoardBuzz, produced by the National School Boards Association.

Pay problems

Performance-based pay (PBP) programs for teachers have been??growing, especially since the advent of the federal Teacher Incentive Fund program a couple years ago. ProComp out of Denver is probably the best known PBP and rather unique since it's being funded by a $25-million mill levy approved by taxpayers.

Checking in with Americans

A new AP poll out today spends some time asking respondents about the state of public schools.

Math teachers that matter

Don't miss this important new study by the National Council on Teacher Quality regarding the preparation of competent elementary-school math teachers. Titled No Common Denominator, it finds, after reviewing a national sample of ed-school-based undergraduate teacher prep programs, that fewer than 15 percent of them require enough of the right kinds of courses. It names names, too!

The real talent crisis

I'd wager that stupid immigration policies, which George Will assails in today's Washington Post, pose a much greater threat to long-term American competitiveness than sub-par

Still waiting for an Education X Prize

The X Prize Foundation is teaming up with British telecoms giant BT to expand its offerings. The Financial Times says

The public schools' crisis of confidence

Gadfly: 100 percent privately financed

The newest Gadfly is up. Amber's editorial is a fair-minded evaluation of the relevant research that seeks to clarify whether school-based childcare centers are a smart idea. She finds in favor of common sense.

Did you know

...that William F. Buckley, Jr., spoke no English until he was seven years old? Spanish was his first language, French his second. We read volumes about the need to offer pre-K in large part to ensure that a pupil begins Kindergarten??in possession of words the number of which does not substantially trail that of those at the beck and call of most of his classmates.

Re: Propaganda

Too little too late

From: U.S. Department of Education [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 5:06 PM To: U.S. Department of Education Subject: FYI - Reading First Letter from Secretary Spellings

We interrupt your regularly scheduled propaganda...

We were pretty busy yesterday with our event, so I didn't get the chance to comment on a surprising advertising supplement in Wednesday's Washi

Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Education: How Local School District Funding Practices Hurt Disadvantaged Students and What Federal Policy Can Do About It

Center for American ProgressJune 2008

Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card

Directed by Alan Raymond and Susan RaymondHome Box OfficeJune 2008

Texas for excellence

Perhaps a few Texans have been reading our report on the flaccidity of most alternative-certification programs for teachers.

The broader and bolder Deval Patrick

This is school-reform week in the Bay State, where Governor Deval Patrick is finally announcing a series of policy proposals that would amount to the biggest changes in state education law in fifteen years. What's not clear is whether these will be, ahem, changes we can believe in, or whether the legislature will even find the money to fund any of them.

Onward, charter soldiers

New Orleans, June 25, 2008: In all the obvious ways, this week's National Charter Schools Conference resembled other major conclaves in big-city convention centers: thousands of people being beckoned by hundreds of "exhibitors" with their stands, stalls, slick pitches, and free samples, as well as by dozens and dozens of "break out" sessions on every imaginable topic.