Education, welcome to the party; Wall Street is over by the bar and Detroit is shaking it on the dance floor. Indeed, with Uncle Sam handing out money like education professors hand out As, it was only a matter of time before schools got in line for a piece of the pie.
Gadfly has previously noted the flaws and weaknesses inherent in "21st Century Skills" (here, here and here, for example) and
If it weren't enough that the "21st century skills" crowd is bent on distracting American educators, they've made a splash on the other side of the pond, too. Faced with complaints that the British primary school curriculum is too traditional (20th century if you will), the government has decided to give it a facelift.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's announcement that he won't run for the U.S.
Reading this Wall Street Journal editorial about Florida Governor Charlie Crist's unwillingness to defend the state's alternative charter authorizer, which was created under Jeb Bush but recently declared unconstitutional, I couldn't help but wish Bush were still governor. As the Journal explains:
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) ended the year down $157.5 million after a third round of spending cuts announced in December lopped another $30.4 million from its budget (see here). Ohio Gov.
Todd Jones is president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (see here), which represents 49 private Ohio institutions of higher learning. Before coming to Ohio, Jones was associate deputy secretary for budget and strategic accountability in the U.S.
Ohio educated 1.7 million public school students in 2008, a year marked by the continued decline in urban enrollment (falling 19 percent from 2003 to 2008). The state's ailing economy also continued to show its fangs with 37 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, up from 31 percent five years ago. Students with limited English ability have doubled since 2003.
Like many of you, I'm still getting back into the swing of things after a nice??New Year's??break. One of the joys of this holiday season was visiting good friends and??their kids--and watching my son Nico (14 months old, adorable, brilliant, did I mention adorable?) play with them too.
Fordham experts (and our many studies) continue to garner excellent media hits. As previously mentioned, many journalists turned to Checker and Mike for comment on the nomination of Arne Duncan to be Ed Sec.
Visiting the LBJ Ranch in the Texas hill country this weekend, our ad hoc tour group included a gaggle of high-school students from??"south of Houston." They generally seemed pleasant, self-conscious, goofy and teenager-is
"School" is out in Sheffield, England. The singular term has so many negative connotations that a new school there has dropped the offending noun from its name, according to a report in The Guardian. Instead, the institution will be called a "place for learning," said headteacher Linda Kingdon.
Seemingly upholding her "mom-in-chief" moniker, Michelle Obama took her two daughters to their first day at Sidwell Friends this morning.
With contract negotiations still stalled, Michelle Rhee has revealed the other prong of her DCPS overhaul: professional development.
The ranks of home-schooled children seem to be growing, according to a USA Today story that examines numbers from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
