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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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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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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.
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Dealing with disingenuous teachers unions: There are no shortcuts
After its big referendum victory last week, Ohio teachers union vice president Bill Leibensperger said ?There has always been room to talk. That's what collective bargaining is about. You bring adults around a table to talk about serious issues.?
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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. That?s surely what some education observers might wonder about the notion that Randi Weingarten, former head of New York City?s teacher union and current head of the American Federation of Teachers, should be chancellor of New York City schools.* In fact, Nocera notes that he himself ?nearly fell out of my chair? when Steven Brill told him that Weingarten, who is ?the enemy? of Brill?s new book, Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America?s Schools, threw him a book party.
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Not a g'day
It seems the Outback isn't the only barren locale down under. Test scores, too, have found the Australian environment arid. Faced with an achievement gap of their own--between indigenous and non indigenous students (i.e., aborigines and later immigrants)--the Aussies sought to bring their lagging performers up to par. This went reasonably well.
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Parent involvement activities in school improvement plans in the Northwest Region
Timothy Speth, Steffen Saifer, and Gregory ForehandNorthwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of EducationOctober 2008
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Learning and e-learning
Economic meltdown notwithstanding, sometimes good ideas do leap from the marketplace. Exhibit A? Virtual schools, which are popping up nationwide like hybrids in San Fran. Typically founded under existing charter laws, these online learning arrangements have grown quickly and quietly to fill holes in the education market.
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Doing hard stuff in the Big Easy
Bravo, New Orleans. Having given charter schools room to grow, local and state education officials are now hammering out the details of an oversight system--and not a moment too soon. Since roughly 60 percent of students in New Orleans attend charters, ensuring that these are quality learning venues is an essential next step.
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Measures of success
Diana Anaya came to America to get an education, and she's not doing so well--at least according to the new No Child Left Behind regulations, which base graduation rates on four-year diploma earners. By that metric, Ayana, who should have graduated last year, is lagging.
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Gates 2.0
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation summoned 130 or so education heavies (many of them grantees) to Seattle this week to attend the foundation's gala unveiling of its long-awaited education strategy, the culmination of an intense rethinking process spearheaded by new education director
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Charter Schools
Ed Next Book Club: Sarah Carr on Hope Against Hope
In this installment of the Education Next book club, host Mike Petrilli talks with Sarah Carr about the successes and failures of New Orleans-style reform
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First Bell 6-18-13
A first look at today's education news: The NCTQ issues a scathing review of colleges' teacher-education programs, NYC's graduation rate holds relatively steady after the implementation of tougher diploma requirements, and more
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Join our team: Apply to be Fordham's "school choice czar"
Would you like to work at the forefront of national education policy? Are you passionate about school choice and knowledgeable about education reform? A brilliant writer? Energetic, organized, imaginative, and outgoing? A leader as well as a team player? If so, you might be perfect as the director of Fordham's new program on parental choice.
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Where will the next generation of charter school leaders come from? Find out at "Driving Quality"
Excellent schools require excellent leaders, but as the charter movement expands where will the next generation of charter school leaders come from? Across the country, organizations are recognizing the potential of charter incubators to recruit, train, and support the charter principals and CEOs of the future.
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Quotable & notable
?These reforms must be taken up now; we cannot ask children in failing schools to wait any longer while these reforms sit untouched in Trenton''* ?Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
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Another education mayor for Gotham?
The headline in the Daily News was a shocker: ?New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl? Tisch blasts Mayor Bloomberg's school reforms: Calls some schools `warehouses' for poor-performing students.?
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Curriculum & Instruction
Why track on the sports field, but not in the classroom?
The performance of America's top students was a hot topic on Wisconsin's WSAU radio this morning, as Mike appeared to discuss the findings of Fordham's recent High Flyers study.?