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Duncan at NPC
During his speech Friday at the National Press Club,????Secretary Duncan again talked passionately about the opportunity for reform and improvement.
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American Indian Public Charter
This LA Times piece tells the story of American Indian Public Charter (and its two sibling schools) in the "hardscrabble flats of Oakland;" schools that are--according to the story's provocative title--"spitting in the eye of mainstream education." At the "small, n
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Event: What top nations teach their students but we don't
Common Core is out with a new report that excerpts national curricula, standards, and assessments from nine nations that consistently outrank the United States on international comparison tests.
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Reading First's revenge
Arne Duncan was at the National Press Club (and on C-SPAN ) this morning, being his usual amiable, cheerful, and optimistic self.
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The black box of teaching
I just sat through a very interesting presentation by Teach For America on the way they are using data to figure out which applicants have a better chance of success in the classroom. So this is being put to very good use.
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Did ED get to read this first?
To his great credit, Secretary Duncan has spent the last several months imploring the education world to spend stimulus money on reform-oriented projects. He has been explicit that states and districts should not use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to merely protect jobs.
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The Gadfly is here, we promise
It came to our attention that many of our loyal readers never received their Gadflies yesterday. We are so sorry to have deprived you of your weekly Thursday reading material!
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Parent vs. public figure--hypocrisy?
These kinds of allegations really get under my skin. Why do all politicians who have anything remotely to do with public schools have to send their kids to public school? Isn't the reason that we all work so hard to reform the public school system because we think it doesn't quite work right?
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Abbott is overturned, finally
A few months ago, we reported that the NJ Supreme Court refused to kill off the half-dead and long-damaging Abbott v. Burke. Corzine, backed by the New Jersey legislature, had come up with a new funding formula that would no longer favor the 31 poor districts ("Abbott" districts) singled out by the case.
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Jay Mathews on Finn
The Washington Post's Jay Mathews dedicates his column today to discussing Checker's new book "Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut," in which Checker takes strong issue with the idea of universal preschool.
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A victory for the School Bankruptcy Theory of Education Reform!
Back in early January, when the full scope of the Great Recession was just starting to become clear, and the stimulus bill was but a glimmer in President Obama's eye, Checker Finn, Rick Hess, and I argu
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Re: A victory for the School Bankruptcy Theory of Education Reform!
Regarding Mike's post below, I'm sure it depends on the type of reform. Firing practices certainly become more relevant in hard economic times, but on the other hand, standards-based reforms may fare better when there's money to pay for them.
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More odds and ends
Ed Week's Michele on why some states haven't yet applied for SFSF dollars. This is a very interesting example of why federal policy-making is such uncertain business. Given that stimulus was goal number 1 of the ARRA, why didn't Congress take these state budget issues into account?
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Condition of Education
The Power Point presentation during the release event of the Condition of Education this morning certainly wasn't dramatic--NCES prides itself of just presenting the data, not analyzing it. But don't be fooled; there's very interesting stuff in there.
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Fordham talks Pre-K education
Don't forget to register for Fordham's upcoming event, "The Cons and Pros of Universal Pre-K", coming up on Thursday, June 4 from 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM.
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Some American kids need more and better preschooling
The new "Condition of Education" report released today by the National Center for Education Statistics offers fresh evidence as to why some American kids need more and better preschooling but the "universal" approach is wrong.
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The teacher workforce: Bigger vs. better
All the gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts--and manifestos, studies, reports, and exhortations beyond enumeration--involving teacher recruitment, teacher quality, teacher compensation, and teacher retention miss the fundamental demographic reality at the core of almost all our teacher-related challenges: their sheer numbers.
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The Condition of Education 2009
National Center for Education Statistics, Institute for Education SciencesJune 2009
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Baltimore bests Boston
While cities like Boston and New York are jumping from the Teach For America ship crying poverty, Baltimore wants to double its number of passengers.
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Puffed up PD
Dying to learn how to make balloon animals? Tie-dye a tee-shirt? Cut out the perfect construction-paper snowflake? If you're a teacher in Massachusetts, you're in luck.
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Ranking the States: Federal Education Stimulus Money and Prospects for Reform
Marguerite RozaCenter for Reinventing Public Education, University of WashingtonMay 2009
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Leadership woes
"A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice," Sunny Jim once said (for those rusty on their modern European history, that's James Callaghan, PM of the UK in the late 70s.) Perhaps a lesson for Joel Klein, who's now taking heat from experts on his 14-month principal training boot camp, the Leadership Academy.
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Chart(er)ing their own course
Should charter-school autonomy mean outsourcing services however a school sees fit? Ten schools in the San Diego area say aye. Heretofore, the charters in question were charged per pupil rates (a projected $763 next year) for district-provided special education services.
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Investing in Charter Schools: A Guide for Donors
Bryan C. Hassel, Julie Kowal, and Sarah CrittendonThe Philanthropy RoundtableApril 2009
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Staffing up
Here's some background info on some recent ED appointees. ????Russo weighs in, including a blog critique.
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Ed-Op Round-Up: Debate about and commentary on teachers
If you read your hometown's newspaper regularly, you're bound to see an op-ed or editorial every so often on an educational topic. Today, your odds were much higher--many dailies featured guest opinion pieces on teachers from superintendents, mayors, and wonks, and a few regular columnists chimed in as well. Let's dig in for this first installment of the Ed-Op Round-Up.
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