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Hard to believe*
"Per pupil spending down " * Until you realize the article's about charter schools.
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When pupils attack
Apparently, it's the teacher's fault when students assault them in the classroom--that's how it is, at least, at Reginald F. Lewis High School in Baltimore.
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Who's the boss?
Fordham has argued that principals need to function more like CEOs, handling not just a school's academic mission but also the many complexities of running a small organization.
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The myth of Barcroft Elementary
Over the weekend, the Washington Post Magazine ran a provocative piece by Jay Mathews about an excellent elementary school in Northern Virginia that has failed to make "adequate yearly progress"
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Let them eat gruel?
Schools are turning to unhealthier cafeteria-food options because of rising food prices, reports the Washington Post. Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee seems to have the right idea: allow private contractors to supply lunches.
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Time for Liam to eat some humble pie
Just last week, Liam expressed skepticism about a scrupulous research study that found that serving kids healthier food and drink led to fewer of them getting fat:
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Is it low-fat humble pie?
Mike wants me to eat humble pie. I'd like??to, but his arguments haven't convinced me. He writes: In a field where few research studies ever make any conclusions with real-world value, this particular study deserves praise, not pique.
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"Christian kids are doing it. Jewish kids are doing it."
I thought this stuff only happened in American Pie movies.
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Dyscalculia
I had??never heard of it.??But I predict a pandemic as soon as it makes the New York Times style section.
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No happy talk in the hinterlands
As a national education player, the American Federation of Teachers has been careful not to bash No Child Left Behind too overtly. It even calls its NCLB site "Let's Get It Right" (not, say, "Throw NCLB Under the Bus").
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Help wanted
The logistical problems with the "Academic Freedom Act," which is traipsing merrily through the Florida legislature, are legion. The pope's U.S.
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Mao was 30 percent wrong
In Sunday's New York Times, Matthew Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time, seeks to correct what he thinks may be a popularly-held hunch that China's growing class of educated urbanites will soon pressure the Chinese government to reform.
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Vouching for Wikipedia
National Review's John J. Miller recently wrote a portion of our Catholic schools report.
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Johnny-come-lately
For months we've observed John McCain's general lack of interest in education. That appears to be starting to change.
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Belt tightening
In Florida, where a state income tax is verboten, the housing crisis has had a particularly damaging effect on state revenues. Education is being hit hard. Piling on, today the St. Petersburg Times reports that "lackluster lottery sales" will hurt school budgets even more.
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Urban catholic schools face a crisis, not extinction
There's more coverage of Fordham's Catholic schools report today, including a front-page
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Priority number 11
No, it's not good that the "financial know-how" of American high school seniors has "gone from bad to worse." Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is fired up about it:
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Fifth-grade economists
Mike is right: financial literacy is important, but schools can't teach everything. In fact, we wrote as much several months ago in The Gadfly.
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Back to the Bedouins
This week's Economist contains a special report on "digital nomadism," the ability to work, and to connect to family or friends, from just about anywhere.
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Best ed headline of the day
"Carney releases education plan for Del." Step right up and get??your new??education plan! Public schools, private schools--everyone's a winner!
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More on financial literacy
Mike has a fair point that schools can't do everything. He might have added that it's hard to picture most high school teachers being able to confidently explain variable interest rates or balloon payments, or any students bothering to listen.
Report
Private School Choice
Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools?
America's urban Catholic schools are in crisis. Over 1,300 of them have shut down since 1990, mostly in our cities. As a result, some 300,000 students have been displaced--double the number affected by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. This report, which includes a comprehensive survey of the attitudes of U.S. Catholics and the broader public towards inner-city Catholic schools, examines this crisis and offers several suggestions for arresting and perhaps reversing this trend in the interests of better education.
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Discipline in black and white
Why is it necessary to measure student behavior by race? Test scores are in this way disaggregated to prevent schools from ignoring struggling low-income and minority students, who in the past were often written-off as beyond hope.
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Saving Catholic schools
Fordham's new Catholic schools report, released today, is here. USA Today covers it here.
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Re: More dented cars
Coby writes: Many KIPP schools are better than most urban schools because they alleviate more of the burdens of poverty. There should be more such schools.