Education news nuggets
We've all learned from Mel Gibson that recorded racial epithets are very poor for job security. Could a republican controlled Congress save the Obama presidency?
We've all learned from Mel Gibson that recorded racial epithets are very poor for job security. Could a republican controlled Congress save the Obama presidency?
?But the reality is, if we don't do something, all of the important programs, not only public defense but we're talking about children's programs, after-school programs, education, senior programs, everything that we care about as progressives is going to be lost because it's being sucked up by the cost of pensions?
The Common Core is the latest chic accessory for states to adopt. As of today, 29 states and counting have adopted. But look back four years, and national education standards weren't even a twinkle in Arne Duncan's eye. According to a Thomas B.
Attention parents: if you can't get your boys to read, why not try some potty-humor? It might make him more productive.
?[The National Standards are] a beginning point for us all to be on the same page in education.'' ?Dotti Love Wade, Member of the D.C. State Board of Education
Richard Lee Colvin, Betsy Hammond, Dale Mezzacappa, Sarah Garland, and Thomas TochWashington MonthlyJuly/August 2010
Andrew Hacker and Claudia DreifusTimes Books2010
Jacob Vigdor and Helen LaddNational Bureau of Economic ResearchJune 2010
Grover J. Whitehurst and Michelle CroftBrown Center on Education Policy, Brookings InstituteJuly 2010
It was a bit slow on the uptake, but Rhode Island last month finally created its first ever state education funding formula. (It was, in fact, the only state without a formula until now.) These formulae are usually a big muddle that give districts and schools little autonomy, even as they try to even out dollars between property-tax rich suburbs and lower-income urban areas.
Gadfly has generally been skeptical of Wake County, North Carolina’s busing plan, overturned this year by a new school board majority, focused as it was on making schools socioeconomically diverse more than on ensuring that their pupils lear
After votes yesterday in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, twenty-nine states have now embraced the new “Common Core” standards for primary and secondary education.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is on a cost-cutting warpath in the Garden State. His latest bull’s eye: superintendent pay. New Jersey has a whole lot of notoriously small school districts—591 of them—which not only adds up when it translates into paying 591 supes, but also encourages bidding wars between districts that drive up salaries.
This study weighed existing state education standards against the Common Core education standards. The findings? The Common Core standards were clearer and more rigorous than English language arts standards in 37 states and math standards in 39 states.
As you know if you've read the New York Times, Associated Press, Washington P
?It makes sense for us to adopt these standards and move forward? I have confidence that these standards are not going to knock us off course, but would build on the strong legacy of academic excellence that we have in Massachusetts.''
The K-12 academic standards in English?language arts (ELA) and math produced last month by the Common Core State Standards Initiative are clearer and more rigorous than today's ELA standards in 37 states and today's math standards in 39 states, according to the Fordham Institute's newest study.
G. Gage Kingsbury, Allan Olson, John Cronin, Carl Hauser, and Ron Houser, Northwest Evaluation AssociationJanuary, 2004
?[The national standards] represent an advancement over our already strong Massachusetts standards.? ?Robert Antonucci and David Driscoll, both former Massachusetts Education Commissioners
Rep. David Obey has been in the news a lot lately for his volatile comments against Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the NEA, President Obama, and really any old soul who dares disagree with the almighty appropriations committee.?
Earlier this month, the Institute of Education Sciences released a major charter school study, the largest ever to use the ?gold standard? methodology of randomly assigning students to treatment and control schools.
Reason television helps us find the silver lining in education in the aftermath of Katrina.
?So as far as I'm concerned, the secretary of Education should have been happy as hell?He should have taken that deal and smiled like a Cheshire cat. He's got more walking around money than every other cabinet secretary put together.? -David Obey, U.S. House Representative
Mike recently talked with Doug Lemov, author of?Teach Like a Champion, and Steven Farr, author of?Teaching as Leadership, for Education Next about the importance of learning from great teachers. Lemov said at one point:
Yesterday's Gadfly editorial on Harvard and testing appears today, in very slightly modified form, in the National Review Online. We hope it generates some good discussion about accountability in higher education.
Here's a head-scratcher:?Is Obey one of the smartest pols ever?or simply bi-polar?
?Sometimes the most difficult act of leadership is not fighting the enemy; it's telling your friends it's time to change.? ?Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation