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From the op-ed pages

The Wall Street Journal reviews Mark Bauerlein's new book, The Dumbest Generation, and Marion Barry defends vouchers for D.C.

The dog that doesn't bark--or bite

"No Child Left Behind Lacks Bite." This is not exactly news to Flypaper readers, but it's great that the Wall Street Journal is spreading the word:

Willful blindness at Quick and the Ed

Flypaper does not relish the role of policing The Quick and the Ed, but that blog's latest item simply demands rebutting.

Crack in the voucher movement

Parental choice advocates might think that Sol Stern's critique of school vouchers has harmed the cause, but surely

Teaching: Just as screwed up as sports

Malcolm Gladwell, kicking-off last week's New Yorker Conference, spoke about the mismatch problem--i.e., the hiring of people based on qualities or characteristics that have little or nothing to do with what delivers success in the position being filled.

Roy Romer endorses Obama

The Ed in '08 chairman told ABC News:

Quizzing for reading data

I started my career teaching British, American, and world literature to high school kids.

A thought-provoking analogy

Megan McArdle reflects thoughtfully on teachers unions today at Atlantic.com. I found this bit especially interesting:

Welcome, Amber Winkler, Ph.D.

Fordham is thrilled to welcome Amber Winkler to our ranks.

The dental hygiene gap

Today at a big wing-ding on federal education research sponsored by Education Sector and several other groups , former Deputy Secretary of Education Marshall (Mike) Smith agreed that it was probably a mistake to have carved the Education Department (ED) out of the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

Two enterprising gentlemen

Social promotion exposed

Standards and accountability hawks (Fordham??swirls among them) have never adequately explained how top-down accountability systems avoid situations such as this. After an exhaustive investigation of Tucson's schools, the Arizona Daily Star reports:

Memo to the AERA: Breaking up with Bill Ayers isn't hard to do

Anyone who's been following politics lately knows that Senator Barack Obama's relationship with unrepentant bomber and former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers has become a matter of debate in the 2008 campaign.

In defense of education

You might not agree with this column's political bent, but Stanley Crouch is right to blast away at anti-intellectualism in American life:

You don't say

"Revenge killing negatively impacts education system"

Florida Dems warming to vouchers

So reports Ron Matus in the St. Petersburg Times.

Soft bigotry further hardens

We know that the best schools "sweat the small stuff"; they do not overlook untucked shirts, they do not permit poor posture, they do not deign to??hold different students??to different standards of discipline.

Sagging state standards

Rick Hess and Paul Peterson's annual look at state proficiency standards is out in the latest issu

Hot off the press

The newest issue of Education Next is now on newsstands--or on the internet, at least. Check out Mike's piece, which is a unique look at how the editorial boards of major newspapers present charter schools and No Child Left Behind.

Many ed boards are ed reformers, too

As

Put down the Xbox and pick up a ball

I was especially disappointed Saturday morning when my two-year-old daughter's "sports class" was canceled because I had just read in T

The big one

TO: [email protected] FROM: [email protected] SUBJECT: The Big One Roy! Guv-nor! How's it going? Eli driving you crazy yet?

What happens when everyone attends college

Charter schools in The Economist

Two articles about charter schools in this week's Economist are online here (Chicago) and here (New York).

Carey strikes back

Kevin Carey mercifully closes our debate, not by addressing ideas but by instead calling my specific impugning of unions "vague" and concluding that I suffer from an incurable anti-union ailment. (Alas, my doctor prescribed Zithromax, but it hasn't worked.)

Keep this bad idea in New York

John Merrow, writing in today's Wall Street Journal, explains that "public education lives in an upside-down universe where student out

What schools need

How about Halo 3 in the classroom?

Grading writing

From The Tallahassee Democrat: "According to the Florida Department of Education, more students statewide are writing at or above grade level." (The results are here.)

Who's next?

One wonders: To laugh or to cry? Break down test-score data by the ethnicity of Asian students?

Double standard?

Backed against the wall by recent labor controversies, the United Federation of Teachers has launched a counter-offensive: