Topics

Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap

Steven Farr, Teach For AmericaFebruary 2010 

Fordham's charter school sponsorship contract 2.0

Next school year marks the Fordham Foundation’s fifth year as a charter school sponsor in Ohio. We currently have four schools up for renewal of their original sponsorship agreements (aka, charters).

Cincinnati: We'll sell you a school building, just don't use it for a school

Can a school district sell a school building and prohibit the buyer from opening a school in that building?

Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education

The Brookings InstitutionFebruary 2010 

When there is less of it, school funding should encourage innovation

No one denies that Ohio’s economy is in crisis. The state’s current $50.5 billion biennial budget was made whole in 2009 by $8 billion in one-time federal Reinvestment and Recovery Act dollars and $2.4 billion in budget cuts. It is estimated that the state will face at least an $8 billion deficit in 2011 ($3.9 billion in FY2012 and $4 billion in FY2013).

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Cleveland teachers union wants to organize charter schools

Speaking to reporters last month about the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Academic Transformation Plan, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten warned that teachers need to be full partners

Weighing NY charter school and district school demographics

New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT) recently published a report in which it said the area's charter schools don't serve at least the district-wide average of neediest students, despite serving an overwhelmingly poor population.

Will the Common Core Standards prove safe and effective?

Even though they still haven't seen the light of day in draft form, much less been joined by any assessments, the evolving "common core" standards project of the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State Scho

The miniaturization of education reform

Once upon a time, education reform concerned itself with fixing "the system." Then we moved into our current fascination with fixing (and creating) individual schools.

School data's date with destiny

One of the reasons that ???data quality??? can be so elusive is that bad data can just sit there, in a drawer in someone's desk, never getting discovered. It's an old axiom: data that never see the light of day tend not to be as reliable as data that are viewed and used. With more visibility comes more accountability for data quality.

Education news nuggets

Start the week off right. Check out this NYT debate on early graduation.

RTT finalists announced soon?

This Post article about Duncan's speech to the nation's governors focusses primarily on potential teacher layoffs (giving more reason to suspect we're about to see a second stimulus, at least for school

Common standards

Dillon writes in the NYT this morning that the president, in a speech to the governors today, will announce that the administration's NCLB proposal will require states to adopt "college- and career-ready standards" in order to receive Title I funds.

Big charter hearing

The House is holding a hearing this Wednesday on the All Students Achieving through Reform (All-STAR) Act, which would create a new competitive grant program designed to help replicate and expand high-performing charters.

Orchid kids

Worth your attention

Two things you might want to check out. A flyer from the Los Angeles teachers union. Tomorrow, they are holding a candlelight vigil to protest district reform efforts.

Mike Petrilli on ABC News

Quotable and notable

"I've learned as an author over the years that I am not perfect. So, if somebody in Iowa sees something in my book that they perceive is wrong, I am absolutely willing to give them the benefit of the doubt." ??? Neil F. Comins, Author, "Discovering the Universe"

New! Find "private public schools" nationwide!

Cleveland teachers union: If you can't beat ???????em, join ???????em

The Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) has launched a campaign to unionize the city's charter schools. The union made public records requests to area charter schools asking for teachers' names, years of experience, current salary, and other information, presumably in preparation for reaching out to the teachers about joining the union.

Quotable and notable

???I think anything that offers parents more choice is positive.?? One size doesn't fit all.??? ???Nina Gilbert, Principal of Ivy Preparatory Academy

'Public' schools in name only

A new report from Fordham today, authored by yours truly and our research assistant Janie Scull, identifies some

Did YOU attend a "private public school"?

Our new report, America's Private Public Schools (described below), is meant to pierce the tired rhetoric used by so many defenders of the status quo in education.

Is NCLB reauthorization moving?

The Post is reporting that a bipartisan group of House members is going to begin work on an NCLB reauthorization bill.

Very good job opportunity

I'm sure many of you skipped over this job opening mentioned in this week's Gadfly. The bureaucratically named federal Office of Management and Budget may not sound like the hottest place to work. But if you or anyone you know is looking for a great edu-job, definitely give it some attention.

Quotable and notable

???This is the best opportunity we have had to have really substantial change in how we meet the educational needs of our kids. Congress would love to go home and say, ???We fixed No Child Left Behind.'??? ???Rep. George Miller, D-California

The Chinese muzzle

Tan Zuoren will spend the next five years in a Chinese state jail.

Adding value, subtracting teachers

Houston Superintendent Terry Grier’s plan to link value-added student test scores to teacher evaluation and dismissal decisions drew attention when he proposed it early this year. Now, the school board has unanimously agreed.

Pay to play

Moving to Michigan? You might want to check out the website BestSchoolsinMichigan.com to pick a promising school district--or you might not. The nine districts featured on that site, and highlighted in a special half-hour TV segment recently aired in the Detroit area, paid $25,000 each for the honor.

Will political winds cause Duncan's sails to droop?

It’s hard not to get the sense right now that the Democrats are in free fall.