My final thoughts on President Obama's speech
By this point everyone has weighed in on President Obama's speech to America's students (the Fordham team included; see????here, here,
By this point everyone has weighed in on President Obama's speech to America's students (the Fordham team included; see????here, here,
Ohioans of every background and political inclination agree that our state needs a system of public education that attains three critical goals: 1) maximizes the talent of every child; 2) is as strong as any in the world in overall achievement; and 3) closes the persistent performance gaps between rich and poor, black and white and brown.
Ok, so I just finished listening to President Obama's address to the nation's schoolchildren and found it--despite all of the??hoopla--to be pretty harmless. Mind you, I did not take the time to glance at the accompanying lesson plans (Rick did, though).
Fordham's Andy Smarick will be a guest this morning, from 10am to 11am (EST), on Minnesota Public Radio. He'll be discussing President Obama's speech to America's students. Ed Week's Dakarai Aarons is scheduled to be a guest on the show as well.
It's here! From Schoolhouse to Courthouse is a new book from Brookings Institution Press and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. It examines the role of the courts in modern American K-12 education - from race to speech, from religion to school funding, from discipline to special education. It's all in there.
Quotable: "It's unfair to require a public school, regardless what kind, to have to rely only on philanthropy or alternative financing to create a building that is adequate for kids."-Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform
The worst education idea of the year turns out not to be a new idea at all. "Unschooling" has roots in Rousseau, in Summerhill, in John Holt and Ivan Illich and any number of other progressive/romantic/libertarian nihilists.
As Amy noted, the upcoming White House speech to America's students has caused quite a furor. ????Two of the harder hitting (but still reasonable) criticisms can be found here and here.
Amy wrote yesterday of the hubbub surrounding President Obama's back-to-school speech on September 8. Out of all the ways Obama could use his bully pulpit, telling kids to stay in school and work hard is one of the best.
On Monday, when the full Obama back-to-school speech is posted in advance on whitehouse.gov. I think this whole discussion has gotten out of control, but hey it's Friday so here's one more conspiracy theory to stir this already-boiling pot: Releasing the speech on a holiday? Not a coincidence...
Quotable: "The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child...I don't want our schools turned over to some socialist movement."-??Brett Curtiss, parent
Are you young? Involved in education? A professional? That makes you a Young Education Professional (YEP)! And you're invited to an event next week, featuring a few of us middle-aged education professionals; information below. WHAT: The Original YEP Generation Panel: Ten Years Later
Though Flypaper is my beloved blogging home and gets all of my music-related musings, I write about the education components of the stimulus over at AEI's
Obama's back-to-school speech set for Tuesday is causing quite the hub-bub!
William J. Bushaw and John A. McNeePhi Delta KappanSeptember 2009
In the world of education policy and education reform, recent months have seen the relationship between government and private philanthropy grow entirely too intimate.
As the school year starts, many an urban district has been disappointed by slack first-day enrollments.
While many school districts have experienced temporary state takeover--Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland come to mind--New Orleans may be the first to permanently remain under state control.
"Should a thousand bad teachers stay put so that one innocent teacher is protected?" That's what Steven Brill would like to know in his excellent New Yorker piece. The issue is due process: How much is too much and how little too little for the incompetent, miscreant, and excessed educators who remain on the payroll but not in a classroom?
Imagination. Statesmanship. Courage. Adaptation. This is the call of Checker Finn, and it is directed right at the United States Department of Education.
Bart Sutherin is a total helicopter parent. Really. He flew his son, ninth grader Joseph Sutherin, to his first day of school this year in a rented bird. Unfortunately, neither Joseph nor his father thought to alert school district officials or the local sheriff's office to their plan. And the unexpected chopper was reported to the FAA, which is now investigating the incident.
Much has been said and written in memoriam about the Lion of the Senate. Since education policy was one of Senator Ted Kennedy's primary interests, we will add our voices to that chorus.
Checker is a regular contributor to the National Journal education experts blog. The question asked this week is about turnarounds, so he was nice enough to give me the floor. Check out my brief thoughts here. There are also comments from Secretary Duncan, the NEA president, Deborah Meier, and more.
NACSA has produced a very helpful and brief report on the state of charter school authorizing. It has lots of interesting descriptive statistics on the field of authorizing, just basic data that had never been collected before.
The Q&N took a little break but it's back--with a whopper. Quotable:
Last week was the first official week of classes at Columbus Collegiate Academy, a charter school authorized by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. CCA students notched gains on reading and math proficiency exams last year and everyone's ready for another excellent, energizing academic year.
The Fordham Institute is pleased to welcome Eric Ulas as a Policy and Research Associate working in our Columbus office. A Cleveland native and graduate of Bowling Green State University, Eric previously taught middle- and high-school visual arts and photography in Clark County, Nevada, and in Ohio.
Following last week's release of local report card data by the state education department, the Fordham Institute conducted our sixth annual analysis of school performance in Ohio's major urban cities (see here).
For all the alarming statistics illustrating that public education in America is in trouble (see Fordham President Chester E.