Alex Johnston is Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN). As ConnCAN's first employee, Alex launched what is now regarded as one of the nation's leading state-level education reform organizations.
Bill Jackson is the founder and CEO of GreatSchools, an independent, nonprofit organization that improves education by inspiring parents to get involved. GreatSchools provides parents with information and tools so they can choose the best school for their children, support their children's education, and improve schools in their communities.
For those of you who pegged me as the Nasonex bee, Charlotte the spider, or Gregor Samsa, what can I say? You were a tad off. Flyspecking is written by Checker's aunt's cousin's pet tarantula, who happens to be a ninth year PhD student in the social commentary department at the University of Entomology.
Education Week posted a blog recently with a link to the slew of comments offered up by folks in response the U.S.
I am in no way keen on the “research” produced by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) but I have to admit that they have raised an important issue in their latest report that merits attention--that is, if you can stomach the rhetoric it’s clothed in.
There's a lot of political lip-service of late given to ridding schools of bad teachers. But be aware if you're looking to do so in Dallas.
I had the pleasure of attending Fordham-Ohio’s conference on standards on Monday.
I just heaved a big sigh reading Jay Mathews headline today: "Merit Pay Could Ruin Teacher Teamwork." As a former evaluator of a Teacher Incentive Fund state program, I spent quite a bit of time researching PBPs, including how th
Educators, researchers, and policy types around the world admire (and envy) Finland's students, who repeatedly demonstrate remarkable academic prowess on international assessments.
Visiting the LBJ Ranch in the Texas hill country this weekend, our ad hoc tour group included a gaggle of high-school students from "south of Houston." They generally seemed pleasant, self-conscious, goofy and teenager-ish.
Yes, indeed, there are rifts nowadays, rifts almost as wide as the Great Rift Valley within both political parties when it comes to education policy, particularly at the national level. That's probably necessary, as both parties go through some soul-searching and repurposing.
Eight months into the Obama administration, the White House has been mute on its intentions regarding the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, George W.
At “The Quick and the Ed,” Kevin Carey has offered an intriguing if somewhat peculiar response to my and Rick Hess’s piece in the Education G
How do you feel about the government of China paying for American public schools to teach our kids Mandarin? And sending teachers from China to the U.S.
How do you feel about the government of China paying for American public schools to teach our kids Mandarin? And sending teachers from China to the U.S.
I deny that I’m in denial. But I don’t deny that Neal McCluskey is paranoid, along with Jay Greene and a few other ardent blogsters and op-edsters.
Ever since The Education Gadfly critically reviewed NYC Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein: What Parents, Teachers, and Policymakers Need to Know, we've been bombarded with messages from aggrieved contributors and editors of that 172-page volume (which you can find
The public draft of the Common Core State Standards is considerably improved from the version that was circulated two months back and it’s evident that the drafters are trying to incorporate responsible feedback. I trust they will continue to.
Bees really dislike having their hive disturbed and that's obviously true of universal-pre-school advocates, too. The Pew-backed advocacy squad has picked Steve Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) as their designated hit-man to go after me and my new book.
"A lot of normally smart and generally sincere people have just made the dreadful blunder of affiliating themselves with Al Sharpton, one of America's more unlovable figures, whose fingerprints can be found on an appalling list of divisive, racist, anti-Semitic, violent, and often bloody episodes over the past quarter century...." Read it
More than anyone else who comes to mind in American public life, Edward M. Kennedy ascended from reprobate to icon, from an object of criticism, even ridicule, to statesman. He made many lasting marks on our policies and politics and just about everyone came to admire and like him. Generations of devoted and able staffers.
The worst education idea of the year turns out not to be a new idea at all. "Unschooling" has roots in Rousseau, in Summerhill, in John Holt and Ivan Illich and any number of other progressive/romantic/libertarian nihilists.
"Finally. At long last. A group of serious analysts, commissioned by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, has concluded that NBPTS needs to include student learning gains in its evaluation of teacher quality!..." Read it here.
Earlier this summer, Terry wrote about the disconnect between DC and the states when it comes to education policy. 
Last week, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eugene Sanders unveiled a major plan to transform the district, Ohio’s second-largest and one in dire need 
A central Ohio church has appealed the Ohio Department of Education’s denial of its application to become a charter school authorizer…It is true that no churches serve as authorizers in Ohio, but church-related organizations are certainly active in the charter sector with the knowledge and approval of the state….Read it
The Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) has launched a campaign to unionize the city’s charter schools....What benefit would a district have in encouraging students to leave the public school system and let a charter school operator educate the district’s children? What is in it for CMSD? For starters, how about better-educated students?
Ohio's congressional delegation has been boasting about the infusion of money the Buckeye State's public schools would receive from the federal stimulus package.
Yesterday in the Ohio Senate Education Committee, school funding expert and Buckeye (OSU class of '66 and '72) Paul Hill offered testimony about how Ohio can go about reforming its system of school funding while at the same time raising studen
In the midst of the school-funding battle here in the Buckeye State, it is easy to lose sight of the other major education reforms on
