Links to start your day off right

Checker and Mike write on National Review Online today about Fordham's latest report, High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind.

It's official

There will be vouchers in Louisiana.

Where did those millions go?

Florida school districts have been recently complaining about state budget cuts in education. Financial management of this sort doesn't really bolster their case, though.

Donald Duck and dropout rates

Speaking of Florida, former Governor Jeb Bush is convening at Disney World today his Excellence in Action education summit.

Unions aren't so hot, any way you homeslice it

If I were an anonymous blogger and had to pick a clever moniker with which to sign my pithiest posts, I might actually opt for something similar to that decided upon by this person, who goes by "Dr. Homeslice." I'm edgy and educated, it bespeaks.

Good news for alternate routes to certification

I got distracted yesterday by the release of our high-achieving students study, but Tuesday's news out of California is still worth celebrating. A federal judge ruled that the U.S.

This week's Gadfly: Worthy of a fist bump

"Outrageous"

That's how Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings just described* the decision by the House Appropriations Committee to defund the Reading First program. And she's right. * Here at the Excellence in Education summit in Orlando.

Leaving the goggles behind

About our new report, a concerned reader writes:

In praise of fathers

E.J. Dionne's column in yesterday's Washington Post reminded me that I had failed to comment on Barack Obama's Father's Day sermon. As Dionne wrote,

A model by any other name...

Over a year ago, when Secretary Spellings invited all states to apply for a new pilot program to use growth models in their accountability systems, she included ??several requirements, one of which was "A growth model proposal must...

Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight

The Asian/ Pacific/ American Institute and Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy at New York University, CARE and College BoardJune 9, 2008

Charter School Performance in Los Angeles Unified School District

California Charter Schools AssociationJune 2008

Evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years

Patrick Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Brian Kisida, Lou Rizzo, Nada EissaU.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencesJune 2008

Diplomas Count 2008

Editorial Projects in Education Research CenterJune 2008

Tempest in a data-pot

There's no sign that reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA, to its friends) has even made it onto Congress's to-do list, but controversy is beginning to dog one key element of it: the part that affords the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its Commissioner (currently Mark Sc

Poor Eleanor

Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, D.C.'s Congressional representative, took to the pages of the Washington Post to explain why she is not--Post editorials and facts aside--intransigent on the issue of vouchers for the capital city's poor kid

Immaculate re-conception

The D.C. Public Charter School Board unanimously approved a proposal to reconstitute next fall seven financially struggling Catholic schools as secular charter schools, thereby increasing the number of D.C. charters by more than 10 percent. The switch will save the schools from closing, but will it save their Catholic character?

In search of Motown's mojo

Detroit's school system is now $400 million in debt. And if its enrollment dips below 100,000, as is likely by autumn, it will no longer be a "Class A" district under Michigan law--which means that charter-school start-ups will be allowed in the city after a several year hiatus. Local politicians aren't thrilled about that possibility.

In the eye of the beholder

Performance-based assessment (PBA) was terminated in Vermont in the 1990s after a RAND study found that "inter-rater reliability" (i.e., the extent of agreement among portfolio graders) was largely AWOL. Now Rhode Island has revived PBA, even making it a graduation requirement.

Can we be equal and excellent too?

That's the question John W. Gardner posed in his seminal 1961 book, Excellence. We've asked it again in 2008. We wondered, in particular, how high-achieving (some say gifted) youngsters are faring academically in the era of No Child Left Behind, the federal law that focuses on boosting the achievement of poor and minority students.

Watch out, Queen Elizabeth

Stylistically, Britain is a country of contrasts unrivaled. On the one hand, the Royal Family and their upper-crust ilk, all classy in their tartans and tweeds.

This just in

Congress looks set to grant D.C.'s voucher program a one-year reprieve. (You have to scroll down a bit to see the story.)

Buckeye sigh

Checker laments in today's Ohio Education Gadfly that policymakers in Fordham's home state have gone soft on education.

This Week's Fordham Factor: High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB

Mike and Christina discuss Fordham's new report on how high-achievers have fared as educators have turned their focus toward closing the achievement gap. httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=ZiORhDhMn50

IKEA Academy?

Nearly missed this article from the latest Economist on Swedish private schools, probably beceause it was in the business section. A bit of background: A 1994 law made it so that

Can we be equal and excellent too?

That's the question posed by Fordham's latest report, High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB.

WSJ: Charter school stonewalling in NY

Find the op-ed here . Ten years ago, New York joined the charter school revolution by passing a law to allow these innovative public schools to open. Today there are nearly 100 charters in the state and dozens more in the pipeline.

High-achieving students: The story in pictures