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This week's Gadfly: Patriotic and evolved

This week's Gadfly is now out.

Department of misleading headlines*

Kindergarteners urged to learn key languages WASHINGTON, DC (A.P.) -- Speaking to the National Association of Kindergarten Students (NAKS) today, presidential hopeful Barack Obama called on five-year-olds to embrace change and challenge themselves with languages from around the world. "Si se puede," said Obama. "Si se puede."

Reading First death match

Check out the war of words happening at USAToday.com in response to its editorial (and a ridiculous

Why math matters

Chinese students are, overall, far more advanced in mathematics than their American peers. Which is probably why they can create Segway armies.

Holy unions

Great article in today's Wall Street Journal about the Catholic church vs. Catholic school unions.

Adult beverages

Eduwonkette introduced her readers to some new blogs yesterday, including one chronicling the day-to-day life of "Mimi" the teacher. I know we've had some contentious back-and-forths about teachers on this site, but I think everyone can find some humor in this story from Mimi's site.

No-school school

We love charters. They're a great idea. But even great ideas can go wrong, and when I read this great idea gone wrong, I thought it was a joke.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Recently chastened, I offer this less controversial fare:

Advances in technology

A new video game for the Nintendo Wii gives new meaning to "college prep."

Welcome, Melody

According to New York Sun reporter Elizabeth Green, Flypaper is among two-dozen education blogs being monitored by the city ed department's new "Truth Squad," composed of press secretary David Cantor, five of his deputies, and a deputy communications director, Melody Meyer. Ms.

No, they didn't pay me to write this

While we're on the topic, Checker had this to say of the New York City ed department's new Truth Squad (from the same New York Sun article):

Details, details

Karl Priest comments on Liam's recent post: If you thing evolution is "modern science" you need a healthy dose of reality?

Tidying up around the office

Some days our blog exhausts me. Not writing for it--I'm usually too busy--just reading it and thinking how I would have said something differently myself or would have bitten my tongue and said nothing at all.

WSF: Grand idea?

Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, referred to always as "young conservatives," have written a much ballyhooed book, Grand New Party, which purports to show Republicans how they can win in November and beyond. The key, say the authors, is to appeal to Sam's Club voters--i.e., working people without college degrees.

WWTJD?

Must've been a slow day at the G-8 Summit. The Washington Post reports, on A1, that "Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time" at Thomas Jefferson High School (colloquially known as T.J.) in Fairfax County, Virginia. Some fret that the highly selective school, which garnered the top spot in U.S.

No se puede!

That's the message South Carolina is sending to undocumented students now that it's become the first state in the nation to bar illegal immigrants from attending its public colleges and universities.

One nation, indivisible?

Watching the "Capitol Fourth" concert and ensuing fireworks on TV the other evening, four-year-old granddaughter in my arms, I grew as misty, sentimental, and patriotic as I usually do on America's birthday (which happens also be be little Emma's "half-birthday"). The next morning, however, I awoke with my ever-more-frequent sense of foreboding about the nation's future.

Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?: State Test Score Trends Through 2006-2007

Nancy Kober, Naomi Chudowsky, Victor ChudowskyCenter on Education PolicyJune 2008

Flunked

February 2008EFF Films

Discovering "academic freedom"

By all means spare yourself the burden of reading, as I did this week in the esteemed National Review Online, that criticizing sneaky attempts to undermine evolution in k-12 science class is somehow akin to promoting eugenics.

Green means go

Michelle Rhee wants to pay teachers in Washington, D.C., close to $131,000 a year--but there's a catch. To make the big bucks, educators will have to sacrifice job security. The D.C. schools chancellor has proposed to establish two pay tiers, red and green.

TJ

Here's more on TJ, i.e, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Fairfax County, Virginia.

McCain to talk schools

AP reports that he'll do it next week when he speaks at the NAACP convention. Update: More from Campaign K-12.

Reg is no Lech

Here's a fine wrap-up, from Ed Week (subscription required, but

From the Dept. of Odd Headlines

"Gambling addict gets 18 months for embezzling schools" It started with small stuff, like overhead projectors. But when she bet the library in a game of high-stakes hold???em, the clinic on red, and the playground on Federer, and lost them all, administrators suspected something was amiss.

Priorities

Yesterday, he who is the Democrat presumed nominated, Barack Obama, said this: You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English-only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

More on Louisiana

Good study, bad spin

That's my take on the new Marcus Winters/Jay Greene/Julie Trivitt study on the impact of high-stakes testing on low-stakes subjects in Florida.

Re: Hands-on demonstration

Didn't we come out in favor of burning crosses into students' flesh??in our recent report, Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools???Or am??I confusing??cross-branding with another of our??recommendations,

From the Dept. of "Say Wha?"

Eduwonkette provides a fine example of the??educational gobbledygook that we must??hack away in order to find some clarity. Here's a snippet: