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Don't miss: This week's Education Gadfly
Introducing the latest Education Gadfly, now on Flypaper in a new format: From Checker's Desk
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Quotable and notable
???We clearly could have gone with a smaller number???we wanted it to be as inclusive as possible.?? I thought it was the right thing to do.??? ???Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education
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Scandal at Churchill High!
Is there something about "private public schools" that breeds this sort of behavior? -Mike Petrilli
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Sweet sixteen?
The news that 15 states plus the District of Columbia qualified as finalists in the first round of the "Race to the Top" is sure to anger many reformers, and for good reas
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The Gates conspiracy
A perceptive reader pointed this out to me. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation originally provided 15 states with $250,000 planning grants to help them prepare their Race to the Top applications. After a firestorm of controversy, Gates made similar grants available to the other states. But note this: Original Gates States:
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Continued RTT underperformance from MD
I've written previously about Maryland's curiously disappointing participation in the Race to the Top.
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More Catholic closures
The news is worse than I expected. The Archdiocese of Baltimore is closing 13 schools, including 10 in the city of Baltimore. That represents more than 20 percent of the system's schools.
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Major disappointment
The US Department of Education had the opportunity today to send a clear signal--that the Race to the Top is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that very good wouldn't be good enough, that only the biggest and boldest plans would merit consideration. Instead, the administration accepted 15 states and Washington, DC--nearly 1/3 of all applicants--as finalists.
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In case you're not convinced
If you're not sold that Duncan's RTTT "high high bar" wasn't so mountainous after all, here's NEA prez Dennis Van Roekel's take on the announcement:
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Quotable and notable
???In a way, UTLA is the dog that caught the car.?? I think they are going to be under tremendous pressure both from t heir own members who came up with these plans, and from the district, to follow through on this.??? ???Charles Kerchner, Claremont Graduate University professor
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The new politics of education
Gadfly occasionally grumbles about the Obama Administration’s policies and actions, but it’s hard to find fault with the
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Vampire of Nazareth?
An unnamed communications “staffer” in Utah’s Alpine School District is hoping a fire he (she?) ignited is soon extinguished by the nearby Great Salt Lake. The luckless employee posted a link to an essay which presumably elaborated on the district’s mission to “educate all students to ensure the future of our democracy.” So, what’s the problem?
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Wake me up before you go, go
On Tuesday, North Carolina’s Wake County school board narrowly (5-4) decided to replace its four-decade-old policy of integrating schools via busing. The latest iteration of that policy, now one decade old, aimed to ensure a middle-class majority at each school in the system; the district was able to do this because it was big and relatively affluent.
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Teaching as leadership
Though viewpoints on how to reform American public education are numerous and discordant, they tend to converge on one key premise: teachers matter. A lot.
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Finn on Ravitch
Diane Ravitch’s important new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, has already
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Sharing is improving
New teamwork is visible in New Orleans and it’s not on the football field. Ten NOLA charter schools will participate in a collaborative effort led by the Achievement Network (ANet).
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Closing the Expectations Gap 2010: Fifth Annual 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Careers
Achieve, Inc.American Diploma Project NetworkFebruary 2010
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Marie Antoinette goes to CPAC
How to eat your cake while claiming it’s disgusting, unhealthy, and philosophically bankrupt, too? Republican governors are quickly becoming savvy gourmands, as they attempt to balance their rhetorical opposition to federal stimulus funding with their growing reliance on it to fill gaping budget holes, a.k.a.
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Why Race to the Middle? First-Class State Standards are Better than Third-Class National Standards
Ze'Ev Wurman and Sandra StotskyPioneer Institute and Pacific Research InstituteFebruary 2010
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Checker and Diane: Same diagnosis, different prescription
In today's thoughtful article on Diane Ravitch's "school reform u-turn," the New York Times' Sam Dillon writes about her longtime (and continuing) friendship with Checker
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Quotable and notable
"It's a bill that actually finally for the first time will reward teachers who actually demonstrate they are achieving student achievement in the classroom." ??? Sen. John Thrasher, merit pay bill sponsor
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The agony of victory
We're days away from learning the names of the Race to the Top finalists. Most governors will be thrilled if they make it through the first round. But what about Charlie Crist of Florida and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana? [quote]
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3 more RTT predictions
Here are three more predictions I have about RTT finalists: No Rural States: Some of the weakest applications I've seen are from rural states. They way they are thinking about reform doesn't mix so well with RTT priorities. Whether that implicates the RTT application or the rural-state mindset is an open question.
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Marc Madness
Marc Porter Magee, top-notch education reformer from ConnCan, all-around good guy, and husband of Fordhamite Kathleen Porter Magee, is producing some short, fun??videos
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Weak interventions
In this Gadfly piece where I criticized the School Improvement Fund, I predicted with sadness that most states and districts would take the easy way out and (instead of closing and replacing failing schools) use the weakest intervention model possible, the "transformation" option.
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Quotable and notable
???If a school continues to fail its students year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability.??? ???President Barack Obama