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Bing, bang, boom, ca-ching
It was a long time coming, but education reformers have realized a new political necessity: bucks to back their bang. And the bucks seem willing and able.
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Chinese alarm bells
In this new section, which will appear occasionally, we will present two points of view on the same topic. In our inaugural edition, Fordham's own Chester Finn and Asia Society's Chris Livaccari debate Confucius Classrooms, a K-12 Chinese language program for American schools subsidized by the Chinese government.
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Effectiveness of Selected Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions: Findings from Two Student Cohorts
Institute of Education SciencesMay 2010
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The State of Charter School Authorizing 2009: 2nd Annual Report on NACSA's Authorizer Survey
Sean Conlan, Alex Medler, and Suzanne WeissNational Association of Charter School AuthorizersMay 2010
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Mark Schneider: Don't lean so much on PISA
The former commissioner of the National Center on Education Statistics (a.k.a.
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Needle in a Haystack: McGregor Elementary
As we've mentioned before, McGregor Elementary in Canton stands out for consistently delivering academic results despite serving an area that's been particularly hard hit by Ohio's industrial decline.
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Dayton student debate inspires optimism
One of the best things about my job is that I get to spend time with real teachers and real students learning about their challenges, their opportunities, their worries, and their good work. Last night I was asked to be a judge for the second annual Richard Allen Schools' student debate in Dayton.
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Quotable and notable
?I can't tell you how much I wish Race to the Top would have created a firestorm. The reality is, it didn't.? ? Jeanne Allen, President and Founder, Center for Education Reform
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Fordham plans to merge its sponsorship effort
As most of you know, Fordham has been a charter school sponsor (aka, ???authorizer???) in Ohio since 2005. Along the way we've learned a lot about the importance of charter sponsors holding schools accountable for results, and about how the a sponsor's size and economy of scale (or lack thereof) factors into this.
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What do lotteries and cartels have to do with education?
Word has it (here, too) Cleveland will be among the cities in which the new Common Core national standards will be piloted. The timeline is
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Public preschool findings a mixed bag
Should Ohioans worry that recent cuts to early childhood education might widen the preschool access gap between Ohio and other states? Yes, according to a new report by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. But state leaders can remedy this problem by enacting smart changes to early learning programs in the next budget.
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Seeing all sides of the state's new science standards
The State Board of Education is slated to adopt new academic content standards in science at its June meeting. Lynn Elfner, executive director of the Ohio Academy of Science, and Stan W.
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Nationally, tide is turning toward smart teacher personnel policies
The D.C. Public Schools and the Washington Teachers Union just reached an agreement on a new teacher contract. Reformers are calling it the boldest of its kind.
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You call that a ?sacrifice??
My post yesterday, arguing that we have too many veteran teachers who cost too much and add too little value, stirred up quite a bit of controversy, both here on Flypaper and over at
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UK update: Cameron new PM
I opined last week on the fate of the British education system in light of Thursday's confusing election results.
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Movie review: The Cartel
Heard about the new movie The Cartel? It's the story of the mafia-esque education establishment in New Jersey and it's quite a whopper. It came out last summer when it played at a number of independent film festival screenings in the Garden State?and at which point Gadfly caught wind of it.
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Senioritis
As a few smart guys predicted fifteen months ago, the budget crisis is putting serious pressure on teacher se
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Education news nuggets
We might not have a K-12 master plan, but that doesn't mean we can't still learn a lot from the military ?
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Quotable and notable
?This is an incredibly special moment in American history, where you have Republicans in New Jersey agreeing with a Democratic president on how to get reform.? ? New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
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British election remains unclear
We've been ruminating about education reform in the motherland recently, especially the ideas of the resurgent Tories and their plan for state-funded ?independent? schools. But as of this morning, the situation in Britain remains unclear.
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Quotable and notable
?If we're going to go to national standards, which I'm very supportive of, I'd rather be at the table deciding what they're going to be than be on the sidelines having them done to us.? ?Winston Brooks, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent
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School Choice: A Hot Topic
Charles Murray's New York Times op-ed on the merits and limitations of charter schooling coincided quite well with Fordham's event yesterday on the very same topic.
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Likely round 2 RTT applicants
The Department has released the list of states intending to apply in round 2 of RTT.
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RTT legislation in CT
Reform legislation is on its way to the governors desk in CT. It wouldn't have happened with the outstanding reform organization ConnCan.
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5, 6, 7, 8, reformers learn to advocate
It wasn’t so long ago that reformers were regularly out-hustled by the education establishment. While we were mostly putting out white papers and writing op-eds, they were making campaign donations and marching on statehouses. Unfortunately, our compelling ideas were no match for their raw political power.