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What's a college diploma worth?

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "This district can be rightly criticized for the promotion of ineffective teachers over the years. That is about to change. We do not owe poor performers a job." -Ramon C. Cortines, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District

New charter legislation

Charter advocates are pretty excited about just-introduced??legislation that would create a new federal charter school grant program aimed at replications. --Andy Smarick

Klein interview

Jay Mathews does a quick video??interview with superb NYC schools chief Joel Klein for the Post. ??"Systems don't change because you charm them." --Andy Smarick

The Rumble in San Diego

Work in progress

Three speeches in one

U.S. News rankings out today

The annual U.S. News and World Report high school rankings have been released. Thomas Jefferson HS in Alexandria, VA takes number 1 (again).

Where's the game plan?

We've expended many words??on this blog and??other forums on the role of philanthropies in education.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable:

Party of Nein

Quick! Somebody translate Tom Loveless’s latest Fordham study, Tracking and Detracking, into German.

Price-free isn't cost-free

If only the health care system were as transparent as the market for yoga classes. Every medical procedure would have a clear and incontrovertible price tag, no patient would be banned from consulting the doctor of his choice (as long as he’s willing and able to pay), and risk would be incorporated rationally into premium prices.

Snooki gets snookered

If you thought a reality TV show like MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” could never be educational, well, you were right.

Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough

Darrell M. West, Grover J. Russ Whitehurst, and E.J. Dionne, Jr. Brookings Institution December 2009

Exploring the Higher Rates of Teacher Turnover in Charter Schools

David Stuit and Thomas Smith National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University December 2009

The Promise of Proficiency

J.B. Schramm and E. Kinney ZalesneCenter For American ProgressDecember 2009

Gold cross, clenched fist

New York’s Catholic-school parents have had enough. The state is supposed to reimburse these schools for programs mandated by Albany. But the state has not paid up since 2003, and added a new payroll tax last May to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Greedheads' Christmas: The seedy side of entrepreneurial education reform

'Twas the week before Christmas, and Race to the TopWas the vendors’ obsession and focus nonstop.The consultants were drafting proposals for statesWith smug affirmations of positive fates,While chiefs in their gray suits and governors, too,Looked to Arne for dollars—please, more than a few.

Jolting Maryland, take three

The Baltimore Sun editorial board continues its excellent work holding Maryland's feet to the fire on RTT. Tenure, merit pay, charters, alternative certification--it's all there.

i3 on the way?

In its weekly ARRA update, the Department notes that it completed a draft of the final i3 documents, which are now in "internal clearance" (this is the process by which all of the relevant ED offices weigh-in on important matters).

Exhibit A

I've been hand-wringing about states applying for RTT money because they just need cash, not because they care about reform. This would mean their applications would be flashy and promise the moon and stars but that their commitment to reform is doubtful at best.

The End of the Education Debate

"The education-reform debate as we have known it for a generation is creaking to a halt." So begins a??compelling??article by Checker in National Affairs. It's??far too in-depth of a piece to summarize adequately here, but I will try nonetheless.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "Most of the federal grants are organized around concentrations of poverty, we don't really have concentrations." -Rae Ann Knopf, Vermont Deparment of Education

The Promise of Proficiency: How College Proficiency Information Can Help High Schools Drive Student Success

By J.B. Schramm & E. Kinney ZalesneDecember 2009 

All-day K mandate brings to light flaws in evidence-based funding model

The first major component of Governor Strickland’s education reform plan, an all-day kindergarten mandate facing Ohio school districts in the 2010-11 school year, is making apparent why the “evidence-based” funding model cannot live up to the lofty expectations the governor and others have set for it.

2009: Fordham's publications in review

The holiday season is a great time to catch up on these 2009 Fordham-Ohio publications you might have missed during the year:

A canard worth torpedoing

One of the great canards in public education is that no one should profit from the public schools.

Defining a 21st century education

Craig D. JeraldThe Center for Public EducationJuly 2009 

The Tab: How Connecticut Can Fix Its Dysfunctional Education Spending System to Reward Success, Incentivize Choice and Boost Student Achievement

Bryan C. Hassel and Daniela DoylePublic Impact In The Tab, ConnCAN (a well-connected Connecticut education advocacy group) and Public Impact (a crackerjack education research organization) make the case for Connecticut’s move to a school funding system that:

Kudos to Dayton education innovator Ann Higdon

Dayton is famous for its innovators – the Wright Brothers; John H. Patterson, who founded the National Cash Register Company in the late 1800s; and Charles F. Kettering, who developed the first electric starter for cars, all come to mind. It’s not surprising, then, with such a history that one of the country’s great educational innovators today also comes from Dayton.