Here's a quandary. All four elementary schools in New London, CT have failed to make adequate yearly progress for two or more consecutive years. Unable to offer intra-district school choice, the school system is required under NCLB to ask neighboring districts to offer inter-district choice. And so New London did--and got "no takers" from any of its eighteen surrounding districts.
Our favorite national initiative may be history, but education is alive and kicking in the good ole states. A whopping fifteen of them will have an array of legislative referendums, constitutional amendments, and citizen initiatives on their ballots this November.
Back in April, a trinity of events called attention to the worsening plight of America's faith-based urban schools: Pope Benedict's visit, particularly his Catholic University address; the White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-based Schools; and, of course, the Fordham Institute's stellar publication,
The "judgment" of the presidential candidates has become a major issue in this year's campaign, perhaps because citizens are worried about the dearth of judgment on display in American society. Case in point: a Kansas City charter school teacher who recently posted a video to YouTube featuring his fatigues-clad students chanting in support of presidential candidate Barack Obama.
M.J. Bryant, K.A. Hammond, M.M. Bocian, M.F. Rettig, C.A. Miller, R.A. CardulloScience MagazineSeptember 2008
Paula J. Carreiro and Eileen Shields-West, eds.Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.2008
Video games might help kids develop more than overgrown thumb muscles, reports the New York Times. Increasingly, publishers and educators are using video games to bait students into opening that ancient relic known as a book. This is, to an extent, laudable: schools should prepare students for the (digital) future, and teachers should strive to make learning relevant and engaging.
Brian L. CarpenterNational Charter Schools Institute2008
School reform is hard-as those working to improve Dayton's (and other urban centers') schools know all too well. By now, reformers know the challenges: high levels of poverty, children from broken homes, rapid student turnover, stubborn bureaucracies, unsettled leadership, financial challenges, and obdurate teacher unions.
Before the local report cards for Ohio public schools had even been released last summer, districts were crying foul over one particular component, AYP (adequate yearly progress).
Carl Wick, a member of the Ohio State Board of Education, took issue with a Sept. 24 Capital Matters piece concerning state education budget cuts.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and University of Dayton, School of Education and Allied Professions are hosting a reception and discussion of the new book Sweating the Small Stuff (see here) by former U.S. News and World Report senior writer David Whitman.
The Aspen Institute's National Education Summit: An Urgent CallWashington, D.C., Sept. 15, 2008British education consultant (and long-time student and friend of the United States) Sir Michael Barber believes too many Americans still aren't worried enough about the dire state of education in America.
That's about the extent of my Latin, unfortunately, despite my taking it from 7th-9th grades. But it has served me well in mastering a host of living languages, including English.
Mark Walsh over at EdWeek reports on four cases related to education coming before the Supreme Court in the next few months. Stay tuned.
Seems the election is really heating up. Check out this story about a Kansas City charter school teacher who was suspended Monday after a video of his students chanting pro-Obama cheers in fatigues became a sensation on YouTube.
Those were the words that caught my attention as I walked through the Takoma Park Street Festival yesterday, blue skies beaming, my son Nico strapped to my chest, my wife Meghan at my side, rays of sun bouncing off approximately 517 "Obama for President" buttons (not to mention a "Farmer for Obama," button, a "Labor for Obama
A new poll finds that 60% of Americans think a depression is "likely." I'm not one of them, though I do think we're looking at a long-lasting recession. Will this be a disaster for public education?
Over the weekend, Peggy Noonan wrote a characteristically compelling article about current events that, among other points, decried President Bush's lack of political capital to deal with the current financial crisis.
I just heaved a big sigh reading Jay Mathews headline today: "Merit Pay Could Ruin Teacher Teamwork." As a former evaluator of a Teacher Incentive Fund state program, I spent quite a bit of time researching PBPs, including how th
Education??may not??be making the national political scene (whatever??Palin's personal opinions) but it's far from off the
Let's face it--the college application process is competitive. From extracurricular activities and volunteer work to AP courses and SAT scores, students have a lot to think about as they try to convince college admissions officers to say "yes." Now, there's a new wrinkle. It seems some schools will leave it up to??students to report their own high school grades.
What can it be called other than an October surprise? As last night's vice presidential debate was nearing its close, none other than Governor Sarah Palin steered an unrelated question??to education--and even managed to mention No Child Left Behind in the process.
In public education today, individual schools are accountable under the federal No Child Left Behind Act as well as myriad state and local policy regimens for their students achievement and other vital outcomes. Increasingly, school leaders find their own job tenure and compensation tied to those outcomes as well. But do they possess the authority they need to lead their schools to heightened performance? Numerous surveys (conducted by Public Agenda, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and others) suggest that many school leaders feel they do not. Thus an important public policy question arises: what factors help or hinder school leaders in exercising their authority and in which areas?
To:?????????????????????? Andrew Rotherham, Jonathan Schnur, Michael Johnston, ???????????????????????????????? Robert Gordon From:?????????????? Mike Petrilli Re:????????????????????????David Axelrod's statements about Reading First
"Pupils 'distressed over spelling'" Whitminster Endowed Church of England Primary, near Stroud, no longer gives children spelling lists for homework. Parents found out about the plan in a letter, saying many pupils found the activity "unnecessarily distressing".
So the Washington Post reports . (Thanks to Fordham Fellow Ben Hoffman for the HT .
