Commentary
King of the jungle
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.
Topics
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Cleaning house
"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?
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Continuing the constitutional conversation
Imagination. Statesmanship. Courage. Adaptation. This is the call of Checker Finn, and it is directed right at the United States Department of Education.
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Americans Speak Out: Are Educators and Policy Makers Listening?--The 41st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward Public Schools
William J. Bushaw and John A. McNeePhi Delta KappanSeptember 2009
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National Journal blog considers school improvement
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.
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Authorizer data
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.
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Today's ???Quotable and Notable'
The Q&N took a little break but it's back--with a whopper. Quotable:
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Time to re-think report card ratings
Judging schools based on student academic performance is more art than science.
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Back to school
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.
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Our growing team
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.
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Report card round-up
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).
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"School of One" pilot program uses technology to differentiate instruction
For all the alarming statistics illustrating that public education in America is in trouble (see Fordham President Chester E.
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Schools scratching heads, crossing fingers over new ed. plan costs
Two years in the making, it will probably take local school officials at least two years to figure out all the changes in the state's new "evidence-based" education model.
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High achieving kids need options, too
On Friday, Tom Loveless and I published an??op-ed in the New York Times that argued that our nation's highest-achieving students are only making minimal gains in the era of NCLB, while low-achieving students have made huge strides since 2000.
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Restructuring in Hawaii
AEI's Hess and Squire turn in an interesting study of Hawaii's approach to school restructuring under NCLB. Though the state's strategy isn't exactly aggressive, it does make use of diverse providers, an issue in the news of late.
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Public opinion and ed reform
The terrific trio of Hall, West, and Peterson have put together a very interesting Education Next article on public opinion and education policy. ????(While you're reading this piece, take the time to go through Ed Next's new and much-improved website.)
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Big dogs and little dogs alike give their 2 cents on RTTT criteria
Education Week posted a blog recently with a link to the slew of comments offered up by folks in res
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Careful...
Those celebrating the LA school board's decision to allow outside providers to run 1/3 of the district's schools????(200 existing failing schools and 50 new schools)????ought to manage their expectations.
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Charter Schools
RSD for a few more years, at least
State Superintendent of??Louisiana??Paul Pastorek says the state will retain control of RSD for at least a few more years--and maybe forever. In a recent poll conducted in New Orleans, schools were found to be the number one improvement area in a pre- and post- Katrina comparison.
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WaPo education page
Check out the??Washington Post's new education page. All education, all in one place.
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Catching up
For the last week or so I was off-line, and you may have been too. ????Here are some things we missed. --Very good Education Next article about getting the teachers we want by Rick Hess
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It works itself out fine
Things have been set aright regarding GNR-gate. ????Thank goodness it didn't taken nearly long as Chinese Democracy.
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Video: Back to school
This past week was the first official week of classes at Columbus Collegiate Academy, a charter school sponsored by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Ohio. CCA students notched gains on reading and math proficiency exams last year and everyone's ready for another excellent, energizing academic year.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Recognizing Agassi
The U.S. Open starts on Monday and the opening ceremony will have a special guest: Andre Agassi.
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Charter Schools
RE: Majority of Americans misinformed about charters
I'm just as outraged as Jamie about the general American populace's ignorance about charters... but I can't say I'm surprised. Take for example this survey of federal spending from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Fordham in the news
Here are just a few recent pieces where Fordham experts share their thoughts and insights....
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Take a look, it's in a book
I'm not a particularly opinionated blogger, but when I ran across this NPR article, I just had to say something. The piece is about my absolutely favorite television show when I was a small child: Reading Rainbow.
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Arnold urges state to say "hasta la vista, baby" to a certain prohibition
Here's an interesting piece about how the federal Race to the Top money may be impacting states. Apparently, Gov.
Report
Standards
International Lessons about National Standards
Whether the United States should embrace national standards and tests is perhaps today's hottest education issue. For guidance in addressing it, this report looks beyond our borders. How have other countries navigated these turbid waters? What can we learn from them? Expert analysts examined national standards and testing in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and South Korea.
