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Gadfly's gimlet giblets
"What if ???improving teacher quality' isn't THE answer?," wonders Mike, who does not generally capitalize definite articles, so you know he's serious about THIS. In the newest Gadfly, just out, he writes:
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It's about time 2
And Liam has been pushing for more of this. (That's not some weak attempt at a joke; he really has.)
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Consequences of narrowing the curriculum
I wasn't around in the salad days of American public schooling, but if The Wonder Years or Archie comics are any indication, most high schools used to offer auto shop classes. Not many do these days, unfortunately, which allows things like this to happen.
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Vouching for housing vouchers
I found on Matt Yglesias's blog a link to this article,??which argues that housing vouchers have not??increased urban crime rates.
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Maybe academic achievement isn't everything
The Japanese score well on international exams, but perhap
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The broader, bolder Susan Neuman
Former Assistant Secretary of Education (and onetime colleague of mine) Susan Neuman
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A podcast less puerile
With Rick Hess on vacation, sunning himself on some Chesapeake beach, we recruited Kevin Carey, he of the Quick and the Ed fame, to fill Rick's customary spot as Mike's podcast interlocutor. Sense must waft upon the air currents in Fordham's offices because Carey managed to make it through the recording session with nary a wholly preposterous remark escaping his lips.
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Not another teen movie
Or perhaps it is. American Teen, a documentary about five high school seniors who live in Indiana, opens tomorrow. It picked up an award and a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, and the reviews have so far been pretty positive.
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Control freak
Mayoral control of schools is surely no silver bullet, but in the case of Baltimore, where Mayor Sheila Dixon is, according to the Baltimore Sun, "floating the idea" of taking over the schools, it would be a leaden musket ball.
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Denver's honeymoon: Over
All hail ProComp!, we once were impelled, for it hath shown that teachers' unions and reformers can work together for good. Not so fast.
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Gender Similarities Characterize Math Performance
Janet Hyde, Sara Lindberg, Marcia Linn, Amy Ellis, Caroline WilliamsNational Science FoundationJuly 2008
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Predicting Success, Preventing Failure: An Investigation of the California High School Exit Exam
Andrew C. Zau and Julian R. BettsPublic Policy Institute of California2008
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Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining Agreements: Why Key Issues Are Not Addressed
Emily Cohen, Kate Walsh, and RiShawn BiddleNational Center on Teacher QualityJuly 2008
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What if "improving teacher quality" isn't THE answer?
Is this the summer of school reform discontent, when the core assumptions of the past decade are reexamined? Are assumptions such as those that gave birth to the "Washington Consensus," which in turn created No Child Left Behind, being questioned anew? So it appears.
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The cure for urban schools
It wouldn't surprise me if appreciable, overarching??positive changes in most big-city school districts??occur??only if and when the demographics of??the??big cities in question naturally shift??(emphasis on the word naturally).??Certainly it would be interesting if someone could observe a??met
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Wanna help states help schools?
Every four years, it seems, enterprising campaign staff put out talking points about how their candidate wants to "help" failing schools improve, not just batter them for their poor performance. And this year's rhetoric is no different.
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From the economist (not the magazine)
Over at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabbarok writes about females and math.
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Learn to earn?
George Leef is no fan of David Brooks's column??in yesterday's New York Times (which we we
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An opportunity for Texas
Long plagued by high dropout rates amongst Latino students, the Texas Education Agency has been ordered by the U.S.
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That's the ticket!
"Community leaders on Monday called on students from poorer parts of Chicago to protest inequalities in school funding by skipping the first day of classes." Article here.
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Even Eduwonkette has a bad day every once in a while
I've come to admire the anonymous edu-blogger Eduwonkette, what with her skillful use of Photoshop,
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Death by browser
If any district is thinking about setting up a career and technical education program for aspiring bike messengers, it should think again. The internet is apparently killing that occupation.
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How to be the best
Want to be the best public school in the nation? Banish all those??who do not hold??at least a B average.