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Keillor to Obey: Shame on you
Garrison Keillor, he of soothing baritone and dyed-in-the-wool liberal sensibilities, writes that it is not "Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats" who are failing the nation's public-school children. No. "Nice people are failing these kids, but when they are called on it, they get very huffy," he writes.
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Kozol review
Gadfly was still a bit groggy from the holidays when this fine piece about Jonathan Kozol appeared in the Weekly Standard. The article traces Kozol's development, from failed novelist (an excerpt of his book Fume of Poppies: "The white of her belly was lovely and gay.
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Massachusetts school reform: If it ain't broke...
By almost every relevant measure, Massachusetts has the highest-performing public education system in the land, with praiseworthy NAEP results (at least compared to everywhere else), solid academic standards, an effective testing and accountability system, a well-regarded (if puny) charter-school sector, intelligent approaches to teacher licensure, and more.
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Charterat emptor
If the charter school movement has learned anything in the last fifteen-plus years, it's that passionate folks with good intentions often underestimate the challenges of starting and leading a school. A recent Salt Lake Tribune article drives this lesson home.
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Chocolate-shake paper chase?
"Welcome to McQualifications." Thus read a Financial Times headline after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that McDonald's--the burger and fries joint--will have the power to bestow upon their employees nationally recognized diplomas (see here).
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ComPelling proposal
The President wasn't wrong when he said on Monday evening that the No Child Left Behind Act is "succeeding," though he cherry-picked the available evidence to document his claim.
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An Empire State illusion?
Rumors that New York's state assessments are getting easier in the era of No Child Left Behind have repeatedly surfaced (see here and
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New York values
Randi Weingarten--UFT president, AFT heir-apparent--must enjoy fighting losing battles. Her latest hopeless quest is to keep New York City schools from using "value-added" achievement data to evaluate teachers. "If one permitted this, it would be one of the worst decisions of my professional life," she told the New York Times.
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Comfort's in
At first I wasn't going to buy Liam Julian's latest article, ("How's your drink?"), but I think he makes a good point. On some level, what people want in education is not exclusively about learning.
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Subcontinental divide
Thomas Friedman decided in 2005 to overturn two millennia of astronomical wisdom by releasing a book called The World Is Flat, the crux of which is that the United States faces growing economic competition from countries such as China and India. The tome's title is cliché, but its omnipresence defies disregard.
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Headmaster of Business Administration
What type of formal education makes great CEOs? According to Forbes magazine, chief executives earn shareholders similar returns whether they have a Ph.D., MBA, J.D., master's degree, or even just a bachelor's degree. What type of formal education makes great principals?
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Tastes bad, less filling
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver caused a stir recently when he offed a chicken in front of a live, studio audience. The demonstration's point (buy ethically reared fowl), and perhaps the demonstration itself, would be right at home in the U.K.'s new curriculum.
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Fair Trade: Five Deals to Expand and Improve Charter Schooling
Andrew J. RotherhamEducation SectorJanuary 2008
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What's in a diploma?
When 45 percent of Pennsylvania's 127,000 high-school seniors fail basic reading and math exams, when close to 75 percent of Philadelphia's 2006 graduates don't pass them, what is to be done? The state's education secretary, Gerald Zahorchak, has an answer.
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Now that's bonus pay
Paying teachers extra for serving in high-needs schools is one of the few ideas embraced by presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle this election year. And even lots of teachers like the notion, at least in theory.
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Split the difference
"Please," cry the teachers of Dallas, who are currently disallowed from giving their students any grade lower than a 50 percent, "let us bestow upon our pupils the grades that they in reality earn." Superintendent Michael Hinojosa scoffs at such pleas.
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General Assembly gets in gear
The Statehouse is bustling with activity as the legislature ramps up for 2008. A slew of bills are being debated in the education committees. One proposes doing away with paddling, a longstanding tradition in some schools. Another bill would ban teacher strikes and a third would curtail some teacher collective-bargaining rights.
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Good work in Cincinnati but reform has only just begun
The spotlight has been shining brightly on the Cincinnati Public Schools' (CPS) reform efforts, including a segment January 15 on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight that highlighted the changes at Withrow University High School.
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The Education Mayor: Improving America's Schools
Kenneth K. Wong, Francis X. Shen, Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, Stacey RutledgeGeorgetown University Press2007
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Five essential lessons for creating high-quality new schools
Bringing long-term positive change to the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) and reversing the district's decades-long slide means not only beefing up test scores but also closing poorly performing schools while opening innovative new ones that will give the district the edge in pushing change.
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Selected comments from our readers
Jane Shaw, of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, writes to let us know of a new report:
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Two school districts decide to tango with one superintendent
Two Wayne County school districts that have decided to stretch budgets by sharing a superintendent. Orrville City Schools and the neighboring Rittman Exempted Villiage Schools estimate that both districts will each save about $100,000 now and even more down the road by sharing Orrville Superintendent John Ritchie and several other officials.
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It's not just the economy, stupid
Conventional wisdom tells us that the U.S. economy demands gobs more workers with bachelor's degrees. Veteran analyst and all-around-smart-guy Paul Barton thinks that this conventional wisdom is wrong and that the demand for college graduates is overstated.
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How's your drink?
The market's ability to improve school quality has faced growing skepticism lately (see below). And now this.
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Endorsements aren't everything
Don't get me wrong. Mike Petrilli's much-needed analysis of teacher characteristics ("Why teachers like Mike") is on the mark. Teachers' political preferences reflect the make-up of their workforce (mostly white, middle-aged females).
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Enough
Sol Stern no longer walks hand-in-hand with the invisible hand. In an article in the Winter 2008 City Journal, he reconsiders his once staunch belief that educational choice will cure ailing public-school systems.
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Winds of change from Wyoming
It's official. Wyoming is adequate--or at least it adequately funds its public schools. The Cowboy State's Supreme Court ruled last week that the state's method of paying school districts is constitutional, thus putting an end to 14 years of judicial oversight of how primary-secondary education in Wyoming is financed.