Mark this as a milestone. According to the Associated Press, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday to abolish tenure for new teachers and introduce merit pay on a ?largely party line vote? of 64-55.
In our latest podcast episode, usual co-host Rick Hess skips town to attend the NCAA finals in Indianapolis.
Guest blogger Peter Meyer wrote this in response to Checker Finn's recent Gadfly editorial, "The 'buy-in' paradox". Meyer is a Contributing Editor of Education Next and member of a New York State school board.
The education policy community is abuzz about the scoring irregularities that surfaced in the Race to the Top competition.
I'm going to say more about The New Teacher Project's very useful report in a bit (see Andy's take here), but let me lodge one complaint.
Over at the NewSchools Summit blog, Kevin Huffman defends Teach For America's annual federal appropriation. I'm still not crazy about it. -Mike Petrilli
The education policy community is abuzz about the scoring irregularities that surfaced in the Race to the Top competition.
I'm a sucker for charter schools, scatter plots, Google docs, and good Race to the Top??analysis, so this post by Nelson Smith over at NAPCS was right up my alley. If any of these things strike your fancy, you ought to check it out too.
The New Teacher Project has been following the RTT process closely. It was one of the first organizations to handicap the race, providing valuable analysis of state laws in light of RTT priorities.
The New Teacher Project has been following the RTT process closely. It was one of the first organizations to handicap the race, providing valuable analysis of state laws in light of RTT priorities.
I'm a sucker for charter schools, scatter plots, Google docs, and good Race to the Top?analysis, so this post by Nelson Smith over at NAPCS was right up my alley. If any of these things strike your fancy, you ought to check it out too.
California loses 163 points, blames lack of stakeholder support. --Andy Smarick
This month Center on Education Policy came out with a report on achievement gaps between boys and girls (see Janie's review of it here).
This month Center on Education Policy came out with a report on achievement gaps between boys and girls (see Janie's review of it here).
The Harambee Institute of Science and Technology, a charter school in West Philadelphia, has forever changed the meaning of the phrase “School is Cool.” Until last week, the K-8 school’s cafeteria doubled on weekends as Club Damani, a nightclub and lounge serving alcohol off an expired liquor license.
???You just don't need this sophisticated assessment stuff. What you need is excellent teachers who stay in contact with their kids and work with them day after day. We've just gone test crazy.??? ???Dr. Nel Noddings, Stanford University education professor emerita
?You just don't need this sophisticated assessment stuff. What you need is excellent teachers who stay in contact with their kids and work with them day after day. We've just gone test crazy.? ?Dr. Nel Noddings, Stanford University education professor emerita
The most dangerous word in the education-reform lexicon is “stakeholder” and the most problematic among the infinite theories that reformers espouse is that widespread “stakeholder buy-in” is essential if anything is actually to change.
The Florida education-reform spotlight is about to shift from the legislature to the governor's office, where Charlie Crist is probably going to have to decide, perhaps as early as tonight, whether to sign or veto the major "teacher reform" bill.
The land of 10,000 lakes is not keen on letting 1,000 flowers bloom. Nearly a year ago, the Minnesota legislature decided to ramp up expectations for charter school authorizers. It put in place a more rigorous process to qualify as an authorizer and required more direct contact between authorizer and school.
With the ink still damp on Race to the Top’s first round winners’ checks, the Education Department has launched its next stimulus-funded competition: $350 million to “consortia” of states to develop “common assessments” in alignment with “common standards.” These funds are a portion of Duncan’s discretionary kitty, which he announced in Febr
Manyee Wong, Thomas D. Cook, and Peter M. Steiner Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University January 2010
Mary Cullinane and Frederick M. Hess, eds.Harvard Education Press2010
So why did Tennessee and Delaware win in the first round of Race to the Top? The growing consensus is that the crucial factor was “stakeholder support” (buy-in from unions, districts, etc.).
