So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools??

Charles M. PayneHarvard Education Press2008

A drag on standards Down Under

The drive to lower standards can take on ridiculous guises. See, for example, the case of 18-year-old Australian Nicholas Benjamin Siiankoski, who recently pleaded guilty to possession of Ecstasy. Justice George Fryberg sentenced him to three years' probation and 100 hours of community service. But the judge also added an interesting twist to the punishment.

Obama on offense

Yesterday, Barack Obama decided to capitalize on John McCain's total, no-caveats embrace of No Child Left Behind. The Illinois Senator, speaking at the Mapleton Expeditionary School for the Arts: "I believe it's time to lead a new era of mutual responsibility in education...

Rheewind on school funding

Why is District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, the darling of education reformers (usually including us), eliminating one of the few promising features that greeted her in the D.C. public school system? Is she a control freak, even when she shouldn't be?

OutMATCHed

This over-the-top, the sky-is-falling article from the Boston Globe is yet more evidence that the concept of "standards" has taken a beating in public discourse.

Lampkin vs. McCluskey

Mark Lampkin, executive director of ED in '08, responds here to an earlier attack, launched by the Cato Institute's Neal McCluskey,??on ED in '08's priorities.

Dumbest generation also lazy/unchallenged

Mark Bauerlein, author of this book about dumb people and the harm they do, has the numbers.

???No Child,' No Problem, No Standards

On the front page of today's Washington Post is a feel-good story about Ocean City Elementary, a Maryland school in which 100 percent of the students passed the state's math and reading tests.

It's official: Zelman's out

A post from guest blogger and Fordham Vice President for Ohio Programs & Policy Terry Ryan.

Degrees of inflation

"Can too much education hurt your chances of getting hired?" Yes.

What about the gifted?

Anecdotal gripes that gifted children are not getting their needs met abound.

The education issue: Not dead yet

Or so reports Politico in an article that has Ed in ???08's fingerprints all over it:

Social networks and education reform

Wishful thinking

Tough to miss over the weekend were two pieces--one in the New York Times, the other in the Wall Street Journal--about high-achieving high school students and their struggles.

IgnorED in '08

Roy Romer, chairman of ED in '08, tells NPR why education is not a big issue in this year's presidential election.

Kindergarten cop

Thanks to a friend for sending this mind-boggling Palm Beach Post article:

Randi's (partly) right this time

The United Federation of Teachers is protesting a teacher's removal to one of New York City's famed "rubber rooms."

The benefit of the doubt

The editorial board of the Washington Post looks back on Mayor Fenty's first year after taking control of the D.C. public schools and is pleased so far.

The recognition they deserve, part II

This Memorial Day Weekend also brought a great piece in the Washington Post about the Washington Middle School for Girls.

The recognition they deserve, part I

Of course our fallen soldiers deserve the recognition they receive this special day (deserve much more than that, for sure), but this Memorial Day Weekend brought some recognition for a few living heroes, too.

Rhee turns back reform in D.C.

School reformers have been infatuated with D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee since she took office last fall. But for me, that ended today when I read that Rhee has ???scrapped???

Catching waves

Mike Antonucci tracks the latest media wave, about teachers who don't teach.

Flypaper, delivered

Get the latest Flypaper posts delivered to you via email! You can sign up for this handy feature??on the right side of this page (just below the "About" section).

Dress for success

So, after posting this, Mike drops me an email asking if I've got his back... I, of course, ask if he is insinuating that my blond highlights are not completely au naturelle.??

More on Mexico

Calexico (a U.S. border town) is kicking out of its schools Mexican students, who bring down test scores.

Boy, oh boy

Over at NRO, two writers, Carrie Lukas and Kathleen Parker, are displeased about the recent American Association of University Women report that finds education's so-called "boys crisis" to be fiction.

Red scare

No, I'm not referring to my supposed McCarthyite tendencies, but this: "Girl barred from school over red highlights." (More

Refinnished

Psst.... Checker's had work done. (Via Russo.)

Paul Peterson gives props to Jeff Kuhner!

Wait, it's not this Paul Peterson, it's this Paul Peterson.

Because schools don't have any real teaching to do

The other day it was solving the childhood obesity epidemic; today it's improving the state of family life: "