The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, the Educational Service Center of Franklin County, and the Ohio Department of Education are presenting "Charter School Board Governance 101" in Columbus on Friday, November 30.
The Ohio teacher misconduct scandal is moving forward in predictable ways with the governor and the General Assembly scrambling to do something, the state teacher unions asking them not to go too far, and the Ohio Department of Education and various local school boards looking befuddled at best.
The Future of ChildrenPrinceton University and the Brookings Institution Vol. 17, No. 2, Fall 2007
Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007Bryan C. Hassel, Michelle Godard Terrell, Ashley Kain, Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007
William G. HowellAEI Future of American Education Project, Working Paper 2007-01
The Florida Board of Education last week granted the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission the new power to authorize charter schools in almost every district in the state. Bravo. Authorizing in Florida had, until now, been the domain exclusively of local school boards.
At the end of every school year, many parents compare notes about teachers and then start lobbying to get their children into the best instructors' classrooms during the next year. Principals hate it, but a new report by the private consulting firm McKinsey & Co. indicates yet again that parents have the right idea. Great teachers make a difference.
A decade ago, when President Bill Clinton's "voluntary national test" proposal was crashing on the rocky shores of a Republican-controlled Congress, Fordham's Checker Finn quipped that national testing was doomed because "conservatives hate national and liberals hate testing."
A fortnight ago in the Wall Street Journal, the outgoing president of the American Enterprise Institute, Chris Demuth, wrote, "It is a great advantage, when working on practical problems, not to be constantly doubling back to first principles."
In the October 11th Gadfly, Michael Petrilli reviews what he calls a "blockbuster" report. Although quite valuable, the report in question falls well short of blockbuster status.
Center on Education PolicyOctober 2007
There's plenty not to like about No Child Left Behind, and its various loopholes and limits are getting lots of attention as Congress works to reauthorize the law. One issue that has finally moved to the fore is the watering down of the k-12 curriculum--a process that began long ago but has become more acute under NCLB-generated pressures.
If your child's teacher was previously disciplined for inappropriate behavior, you would insist, as a parent, that you had the right to this information. The Ohio Department of Education, however, might disagree. The Columbus Dispatch is running a series of exposés showing that the department has sealed from public disclosure 80 cases of educators who were disciplined.
Most 24-year-olds struggle to pull themselves out of bed in the morning. When Bobby Jindal was 24, he was struggling to reform Louisiana's healthcare system.
Liam Julian's review of my book, Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, offered the kind of dismissive response to libertarian thought that's al
Call Patrick Fitzgerald. We've got a mole in the Government Accountability Office, an anti-voucher mole at that. The Washington Post this week reported on a leaked draft GAO evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which is spending $12.9 million annually to send 1,900 low-income students to private schools.
It was Al Gore who said seven years ago, in a nationally televised debate with George W.
In recent few days, two vital armies in the idea wars announced plans to change generals. First, Chris DeMuth will leave the command of the American Enterprise Institute by the end of 2008, after 22 remarkable years at the helm of this crucial Washington-based think tank and research organization.
Politicians in Ohio, Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, all too often use education and children as pawns for adult interests. Exhibit A is the recent lawsuit brought by Attorney General Marc Dann against three Dayton charter schools.
In Cleveland, last week we were reminded, horrifically--again--that schools can be very scary places.
The Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) is at a critical juncture. There's a levy on the ballot in November and three school board seats to be filled. The district also is searching for a new superintendent.
Media attention of the Fordham Institute and Northwest Evaluation Association's new report, The Proficiency Illusion, had politicians lecturing and education officials in Washington, D.C.
A lot has been written about the fiscal impact of charter schools on traditional districts (see here, here, and
Harry Anthony Patrinos and Shobhana Sosale, eds.September 2007
Innovations in Education SeriesU.S. Department of EducationSeptember 2007Innovations in Education SeriesU.S. Department of EducationJune 2007
Leslie A. Scott, Steven J. Ingels, and Jeffrey A. OwingsNational Center on Education StatisticsSeptember 2007
Yesterday, eight Supremes agreed to disagree, four to four, about a key special education case, allowing a lower court's ruling to stand while setting no precedent whatsoever for the country. That's a shame; U.S. schools could use some clarity about the oft-ambiguous Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Last week, we wrote that Bob Herbert's New York Times columns are "either off-base or banal." He repaid us by referring to our new study, The Proficiency Illusion, in an off-base manner, as part of his banal October 9th piec
Seems that lightning has struck once again in Florida. After making some of largest early-grade NAEP improvements in the nation, the Sunshine State is now attempting to beef up its accountability system for high-school students. And in a shocking display of common sense, politicians in Tallahassee are looking beyond their state's borders for good ideas.
Passed by Congress in late 2001 and signed by President George W. Bush one year after his inauguration, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the most ambitious federal education statute ever.
