Detroit, the city with a plan
Detroit on the up-and-up? Its leaders have a plan to pick their schools up by their bootstraps--two plans in fact.
Detroit on the up-and-up? Its leaders have a plan to pick their schools up by their bootstraps--two plans in fact.
For five good reasons, conservatives should take seriously the potential of the newly released (in draft form) “common” education standards to strengthen U.S. education.
15 months ago, we proposed dropping the supplemental educational services and public school choice programs from No Child Left Behind.
There are lots of very interesting and very exciting elements in the teacher section of Florida's RTT application. First, this is a startling admission:
In this report from several months ago, I predicted, with worry, that some state RTT applications would appear on the surface to be gung-ho reform, but when layers were peeled back, the state's commitment would come into question.
"Right now, we're just focusing on what's easy, what can be developed quickly, because it's going to take a lot of trial and error to find out what is the best practice for doing this." ??? Joy Smith, Chief Development Officer, Florida Virtual School
Tomorrow, Secretary Duncan appears before the House Education and Labor Committee to discuss the administration's ESEA reauthorization blueprint.
In its RTT application, Delaware misspells its own name: "Deleware." Worse, it's in the section that boasts the state's fantastic system for evaluating teachers based on improving student learning. --Andy Smarick Update: Kudos to the two careful readers who caught my mistake. Serves me right for being snide. I've learned my lesson.
Maine's legislature recently held hearings on several reform bills that would make the state more competitive in the Race to the Top. Here are some highlights from an article in the Kennebec Journal:
Race to the Top finalists are starting to make their presentations today. As a service to the U.S.
While some bloggers don't know what to make of the administration's education rhetoric, everyone agrees that NCAA
Just why are the Common Core standards good for American education? In today's National Review Online, Checker Finn comes up with five good reasons, starting with this one:
???If you're going to have true accountability, it needs to rest with a single evaluator.??? ???Judith Perez, President, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles
The last 36 hours have left me puzzled as to why the teachers unions aren't declaring victory.
"You can't say we're going to get all kids college ready and ignore 85% of the schools." ??? Amy Wilkins, Vice President, Education Trust
It's official: Arne Duncan has fulfilled his promise to propose a reauthorized No Child Left Behind law that is "tight" about the results expected while "loose" on the means.
Today's David Brooks column is worth reading; he sizes up President Obama and argues that he's "a center-left pragmatic reformer."
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="469" caption="Caption: Too tight - like some recent education reform proposals."][/caption]
The last time I wrote about "sector agnosticism" (in a post about Denver), I got lots of supportive emails. The concept is simple and seems to resonate with people: stop focusing on and fighting about who runs a school (i.e.
???I think we need to challenge Chancellor Rhee and say, ???What are you thinking?'??? ???Tommy Wells, D.C. Council Member (D-Ward 6)
Several governors are signaling that their states like their own academic standards better than the Common Core drafts and aren't going to make the change. This, actually, is a good thing, at least for now.
In the Buckeye State there is serious worry about the state's health and future well-being???? ????????
As Checker wrote yesterday, the Common Core folks did a heckuva job with the draft K-12 standards in reading and math. But that doesn't mean they are perfect.
"Education Department buying 27 shotguns"
Over the last year, as I've been following the RTT and other big issues affecting states and districts, I've read literally thousands of articles from magazines, blogs, and local, state, regional, and national newspapers.