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Reverse commute
Usually bad ideas flow from academia into our K-12 system. (Think moral relativism, the decline of the core curriculum, dubious pedagogical approaches.) But now one of public education's worst features--its hyper-unionized workforce--is finding its way into higher ed.
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Mein textbook?
The Discovery Institute's David Klinghoffer defends the link--made by the new Ben Stein movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed--between Nazis and Darwinism. I wish I could write on this with more authority, but the D.C.
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A Methodist on Catholic schools
President Bush weighed in on the crisis of Catholic school closures at this morning's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
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It's a question of quality, not preference
Herewith an argument from the The Pour (yes, the New York Times wine blog) about why rigid standards--and not popularity--is the adequate gauge of quality.
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Quality debate
Coby informs us (directly below): I find a flaw in Liam's reasoning. First of all, the point of the Times blog post is not that the market does a poor job of gauging wine quality, but that there are a lot of shoppers in the market who don't care about the quality of the wine they're swilling.
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A wise move
Colorado lawmakers voted put forward a plan yesterday to align state academic standards with the ACT exam.
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Mike takes his Catholic schools act to cable
Fox Business channel must have seen Mike discussing the Catholic schools crisis on the latest episodes of Fordham Factor (here and
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This Week's Fordham Factor: Pope Benedict visits D.C.
Mike and Christina discuss Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States and what he had to say about Catholic schools. httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=xOJnxYJ1U_0
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Re: It's a question of quality, not preference
Liam argues that Fordham is "not content to let the market decide which schools are great and which aren't, because when quality counts, the market is often wrong." This po
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Little intelligence found
The Los Angeles Times featured some debate about Ben Stein's new documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which seeks to expose how a cult of Darwinism has overtaken our public-school science classes.
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Alonso asks for help
Bravo to Andres Alonso, Baltimore's schools superintendent, for launching a campaign to recruit 500 volunteers to work in the city's schools.
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Brown's in town
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is an expert at being overshadowed, first by Tony Blair and now by the pope. Brown is in D.C. today, and he's scheduled to meet with President Bush and presidential candidates Clinton, McCain, and Obama.
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Maggie and Teddy
An anonymous source tells Flypaper that Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Senator Edward Kennedy were yacking it up at Nationals Field Park this morning while waiting for Pope Benedict XVI to arrive. We're praying that they were discussing how to salvage the D.C.
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Obama's shameful ed school friend
No, I'm not referring to Linda Darling-Hammond, but to William Ayers, the "distinguished professor" at the
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Hot off the press
1) This week's Education Gadfly. It's chock full of good stuff, including a guest editorial from the Rodel Foundation about how to train the education spotlight on states, "which are these days the wallflower at the school-reform dance." The article recommends spiking the school-reform punch.
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Ready for work?
The New York Times, one understands, seeks to reach its audience, and those who casually turn the pages of Thursday Styles are of a sort that enjoys and relates to articles such as this.
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The Pope answers our prayers
The pontiff is still in the middle of his speech to Catholic educators (which, as predicted, is mostly a soft-spoken smack down of Catholic colleges and universities gone astray).
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The Pope on inner-city Catholic schools
Last week we asked, ???Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools????
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Parsing the Pope's words
What to make of Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Catholic schools? Here are a few thoughts.
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Wilcox resigns
Clayton Wilcox, superintendent of Pinellas County Schools (Florida), the 22nd largest district in the country,?? today??announced his resignation.
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The rubber room
A year ago today the Village Voice published a lengthy article on the New York City public schools' so-called "rubber rooms," where teachers accused of misconduct are held while their cases are pending. The story is so outrageous it seemed worth revisiting.
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Asleep in Seattle
If you're a school administrator and you want to purchase HDTVs, home-theater equipment, iPods, camcorders (you name it) for personal use on the taxpayer's dime, then I've got a place for you: The Northshore School District in Seattle.
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The next decisive step: A multi-state strategy for global competitiveness
Pop quiz. Which level of public school governance is most responsible for funding, standards, student assessment, teacher and principal quality, and data management systems?If you guessed "states," you win. But why, then, does the spotlight so neglect states, which are these days the wallflower at the school-reform dance?
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Two wings down
Ally, a middle-school drama queen, starts tormenting her friend Selena after catty Holly and Chrissy (teeny-bopper Iagos, both) conspire to charge Selena with a crime against Ally that Selena did not commit.
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Failing schools usually are
Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews has performed a useful service for folks dissatisfied with NCLB's accountability system, which often penalizes schools that enroll significant numbers of disadvantaged students even if those students are making academic progress. He has located and highlighted Barcroft Elementary in Northern Virginia.
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A helpful addition
I am just now beginning to read your recent report, Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic schools? I'm finding many of the ideas, results, and recommendations a great resource for us here at the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania.