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Education News Nuggets
After much anticipation, Election Day is finally here—and we've got the photos to prove it. If you're in NYC, you can share your election day experience
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Rhee's political mind
Politico has a long-ish (for Politico, at least) story on Michelle Rhee. Before the electoral defeat of Rhee's former boss and Washington, D.C.'s former mayor, Adrian Fenty?a defeat that, the writers note, ?surprised?
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The information gap: Serious policy implications
I awoke this morning thinking about test scores ? New York State releases it's 4th- and 8th-grade reading and math scores tomorrow and our little district ? 50 percent poor, 30% black ? rarely hits the 50 proficient rate.?
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What the Feds should and shouldn't do
Just when academic excellence ?seemed to be making a comeback with our educators and policymakers we face the challenge of another wave of education tool and die makers whose products are confused with, er, knowledge.?
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What money can't buy: Facebook happiness in Newark?
Reading ?the New York Times update on the progress of the $100 million Mark ?Facebook?
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Steve Brill's Diane Ravitch moment
It's hard to tell whether Joe Nocera's op-ed essay in the New York Times last week, ?Teaching With The Enemy,? is wonderfully nuanced or just silly.?
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Solomon "Walcott" Grundy
Solomon ?Walcott? Grundy Appointed on Thursday Choir Singing, Ballroom dancing and Skydiving on Friday
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Today's Times: The good, the bad, and the outrageous
It's great to have Saturday morning education stories to mull, but the New York Times may be?pushing the envelope with this line-up.
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When and where will the buck stop?
The New York Times editorial page has been a fairly consistent supporter of education reform over the last ten years, including a courageous and early backing of No Child Left Behind.?
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Stop the anti-bullying bus; I want to get off.
In the hell of good intentions, the anti-bullying campaign has got to be on one of the lower rings. (The self-esteem movement is?pretty far down.)?
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The next frontier (abyss?): Testing and its kissin' cousin, cheating
Yesterday, at the end of a bang-up Education Writers Association conference on improving teaching quality, at the Carnegie Corporation?in New York City, I was approached by a newspaper education editor who asked whether I thought charter school test results were real.?
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Running on in the ed secretary race
True, Arne Duncan's lead seems to have quieted other bids for the top spot, but the race is not over yet. Linda Darling-Hammond is army crawling her way to the top with her eyes set on Kathleen Sebelius. Joel Klein and Colin Powell are holding steady.
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Responding to Diane Ravitch, Randi Weingarten, & others on education, democracy, and unions
Monday?s post, ?Dealing with disingenuous teachers unions: There are no shortcuts,? sparked a wave of discussion and criticism?which, let?s face it, is every writer?s hope. But I wasn?t just trying to be provocative; we at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute strongly believe that issues of governance and politics have been too often ignored in the education reform debate. We?re happy to help put these issues at the top of the policy agenda. In fact, we?ve teamed up with the Center for American Progress on a three-year project to do exactly that. (Join us on December 1st in Washington, D.C.?or online?for a groundbreaking conference on the topic.)
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The local control debate is just beginning
Mike's post yesterday didn't just ask whether unions have made local control untenable--it also sparked some fascinating and spirited responses in the comments section, with Randi Weingarten, Diane Ravitch, Grant Wiggins, and many others weighing in.