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Education new nuggets
Reason television helps us find the silver lining in education in the aftermath of Katrina.
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Quotable and notable
?So as far as I'm concerned, the secretary of Education should have been happy as hell?He should have taken that deal and smiled like a Cheshire cat. He's got more walking around money than every other cabinet secretary put together.? -David Obey, U.S. House Representative
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Mike talks with Doug Lemov and Steven Farr about great teachers
Mike recently talked with Doug Lemov, author of?Teach Like a Champion, and Steven Farr, author of?Teaching as Leadership, for Education Next about the importance of learning from great teachers. Lemov said at one point:
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Fordham in NRO
Yesterday's Gadfly editorial on Harvard and testing appears today, in very slightly modified form, in the National Review Online. We hope it generates some good discussion about accountability in higher education.
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Race to the Top, SIF, and Congress
Ed Week's Klein turns in a good article on the growing congressional skepticism of two top administration priorities: Race to the Top and the School Improvement Fund.
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The Obey compromise?
Here's a head-scratcher:?Is Obey one of the smartest pols ever?or simply bi-polar?
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Quotable and notable
?Sometimes the most difficult act of leadership is not fighting the enemy; it's telling your friends it's time to change.? ?Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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Education news nuggets
As the summer drags on South Carolina is jumping on the newest hot trend; the common core. Making SC the 25th state to adopt.?
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What the media ought to say about Teach For America
Yesterday Fordham's hometown paper, the Dayton Daily News, ran a piece about Teach For America, as did the New York Times
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Great new opportunity for educational entrepreneurs
Eduwonk has already linked to the brand-new Kauffman Labs Education Ventures Program, but we also wanted to chime in and show our enthusiasm for what looks like a great new chance for people with big ideas in education to bring their ideas to life.
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Quotable and notable
?Creativity has always been prized in American society, but it's never really been understood. While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses.?
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Robotic learning
WALL-E becomes a teacher? Robotics labs around the world are experimenting with a new role for robots: educator. The concept behind it is simple, namely that interactive teaching is much more effective than the passive kind.
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Philadelphia's Changing Schools and What Parents Want From Them
Tom Ferrick, Jr. and Laura HorwitzPhiladelphia Research Initiative, Pew Charitable TrustJune 2010
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Evolution of the Impact of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report
Patrick Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Brian Kisida, Lou Rizzo, Nada Eissa, and Matthew CarrInstitute of Education SciencesJune 2010
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If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?
Minnesota, birthplace of charter schools, may soon claim another frontier: becoming the first state to allow a teachers' union to be a charter authorizer. Antithetical, you say? One of the hallmarks of most charter schools is their lack of unionization, which allows more flexibility to hire, fire, and assign staff, and to structure the school day differently.
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Neo-colonialism meets neo-paternalism
If we were to list the lessons learned from charter schools, it would probably look like this: By breaking down bureaucratic and procedural barriers, these schools have opened the education market to innovators, fresh thinking, and experimentation. But simply unlocking the gates didn’t necessarily produce quality—good rules are different from no rules.
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Harvard wimps out on testing
To oppose “results-based accountability” in education is close to a taboo nowadays, a position so antithetical to the spirit of the age that few dare mention it. Let us, therefore, declare ourselves shocked and saddened that Harvard University, in so many ways a pacesetter in education, is embracing that very position.
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Quotable and notable
?There are a lot of folks on both sides who are pretty committed to keeping the debate alive on these terms, but I think on the overall balance scale, this study adds weight to the side that is suggesting that simply talking about charters versus noncharters is a distraction. There needs to be much more nuance.?
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More of the same in Cleveland
Anyone from Cleveland has definitely been feeling down in the dumps lately, but this recent article from the Los Angeles Times has me feeling particul
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Dayton Daily News appreciates ?Fordham's honesty? in new book
Today's Dayton Daily News lifts up Fordham's latest book, Ohio's Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Front Lines, which describes our history in the charter school movement in Dayton and what
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Quotable and notable
?Calling this a ?burden? on the district is irresponsible and just distracts people from the true and large areas of waste burdening the school systems.? - Jay P. Greene, professor of education reform, Arkansas University
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Lessons at the close of World Cup 2010
Yesterday Spain beat Netherlands to secure its first World Cup win in history. There is much to be said about the match, and the entire 2010 games, really ? like the fact that yesterday's?
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NACSA asks ?who's in charge??
Greg Richmond, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, penned a?thoughtful op-ed in Education Week about what constitutes ?quality? when it comes to charter school governing boards. Richmond's piece couldn't be more timely.
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On cue
Back in February, I made this dire prediction about how the School Improvement Fund would play out.
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Quotable and notable
?We're excited about it because it's the same benchmarks for students regardless of where you live. The standards are so much more clear and understandable, more consistent, more rigorous and aligned a lot more with college and beyond when kids graduate.?