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Back to the education future: National assessments
With the common core standards seemingly on their way to mass adoption it's time for us to turn our eyes to the next step of the Common Core: nati
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Mike on ABC News
Mike appeared on ABC News on Saturday, discussing the North Carolina school busing fray. If you haven't heard, the Wake County school board recently decided to stop busing students, thus prompting accusations of school resegregation. Watch the video for more.
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Quotable and notable
?Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher ? in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in this City. That is our commitment. Today . . . we take another step toward making that commitment a reality.''
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The long-term outlook for common education standards
The??common core? state standards for grades K-12?have been released. Much will need to happen if these standards and related assessments are to get traction in American education over the next few years. But we at the?Fordham Institute are looking even further ahead: we're considering the issues that will determine the long-term viability of this endeavor.
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District of Columbia, school choice mecca
I was on a panel yesterday with Josh Edelman, the director of the Office of School Innovation at the District of Columbia Public Schools. Just 20 percent of DC students attend their neighborhood public school. I asked him how many DCPS students attend school ?out-of-boundary.? His answer? 70 percent.
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Back to the education future: College crisis
Today in the New York Times, reporter Tamar Lewin wrote about the growing college-completion rate gap between the U.S. and other countries. The US previously led the world in 25-34 year olds with college degrees, but now ranks 12th out of 36 developed nations.
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Education news nuggets
We've all learned from Mel Gibson that recorded racial epithets are very poor for job security. Could a republican controlled Congress save the Obama presidency?
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Quotable and notable
?But the reality is, if we don't do something, all of the important programs, not only public defense but we're talking about children's programs, after-school programs, education, senior programs, everything that we care about as progressives is going to be lost because it's being sucked up by the cost of pensions?
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Back to the education future: National education standards
The Common Core is the latest chic accessory for states to adopt. As of today, 29 states and counting have adopted. But look back four years, and national education standards weren't even a twinkle in Arne Duncan's eye. According to a Thomas B.
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Education news nuggets
Attention parents: if you can't get your boys to read, why not try some potty-humor? It might make him more productive.
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Quotable and notable
?[The National Standards are] a beginning point for us all to be on the same page in education.'' ?Dotti Love Wade, Member of the D.C. State Board of Education
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Earthquake in Wake
Gadfly has generally been skeptical of Wake County, North Carolina’s busing plan, overturned this year by a new school board majority, focused as it was on making schools socioeconomically diverse more than on ensuring that their pupils lear
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A heady dose of realism
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is on a cost-cutting warpath in the Garden State. His latest bull’s eye: superintendent pay. New Jersey has a whole lot of notoriously small school districts—591 of them—which not only adds up when it translates into paying 591 supes, but also encourages bidding wars between districts that drive up salaries.
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Pass central office; go straight to kids
It was a bit slow on the uptake, but Rhode Island last month finally created its first ever state education funding formula. (It was, in fact, the only state without a formula until now.) These formulae are usually a big muddle that give districts and schools little autonomy, even as they try to even out dollars between property-tax rich suburbs and lower-income urban areas.
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Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
Jacob Vigdor and Helen LaddNational Bureau of Economic ResearchJune 2010
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The Harlem Children's Zone, Promise Neighborhoods, and the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education
Grover J. Whitehurst and Michelle CroftBrown Center on Education Policy, Brookings InstituteJuly 2010
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Special Report: Fighting the Dropout Crisis
Richard Lee Colvin, Betsy Hammond, Dale Mezzacappa, Sarah Garland, and Thomas TochWashington MonthlyJuly/August 2010
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Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids--and What We Can Do About It
Andrew Hacker and Claudia DreifusTimes Books2010
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National education standards that even conservatives can love
After votes yesterday in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, twenty-nine states have now embraced the new “Common Core” standards for primary and secondary education.
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Standards
The State of State Standards—and the Common Core—in 2010
This study weighed existing state education standards against the Common Core education standards. The findings? The Common Core standards were clearer and more rigorous than English language arts standards in 37 states and math standards in 39 states.
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?Common Core' Adoption: Raising the bar
As you know if you've read the New York Times, Associated Press, Washington P
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Quotable and notable
?It makes sense for us to adopt these standards and move forward? I have confidence that these standards are not going to knock us off course, but would build on the strong legacy of academic excellence that we have in Massachusetts.''
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The State of State Standards?and the Common Core?in 2010
The K-12 academic standards in English?language arts (ELA) and math produced last month by the Common Core State Standards Initiative are clearer and more rigorous than today's ELA standards in 37 states and today's math standards in 39 states, according to the Fordham Institute's newest study.
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The State of State Standards
G. Gage Kingsbury, Allan Olson, John Cronin, Carl Hauser, and Ron Houser, Northwest Evaluation AssociationJanuary, 2004
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Quotable and notable
?[The national standards] represent an advancement over our already strong Massachusetts standards.? ?Robert Antonucci and David Driscoll, both former Massachusetts Education Commissioners
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Back to the education future
Rep. David Obey has been in the news a lot lately for his volatile comments against Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the NEA, President Obama, and really any old soul who dares disagree with the almighty appropriations committee.?
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Race, class, and charter schools
Earlier this month, the Institute of Education Sciences released a major charter school study, the largest ever to use the ?gold standard? methodology of randomly assigning students to treatment and control schools.