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Finn on the ATL cheating scandal
Fordham Institute President Chester Finn discusses the Atlanta cheating scandal in an op-ed posted today on CNN.com.
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Quotable & notable
?[Education has been] hijacked by a group of self-styled 'reformers' who believe that public education in America should consist of islands of excellence staffed by passers-through, instead of dynamic school systems staffed by professionals.'' * ?Randi Weingarten, leader of AFT
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Education news nuggets
Whether you're in a small class or a large class, it doesn't take a Google science fair winner to see that
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"I, Pencil"
There is another wonderful essay about the free market by economics professor Sandy Ikeda over at the Foundation for Economic Education.
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Education news nuggets
As of Saturday, it's been 800 days since the senate passed a budget. Who is willing to step up to the plate and get things done??
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Quotable & notable
?I've never been a fan of merit pay. I don't believe in it.? * ?Stephen Sweeney, New Jersey Senate President (D-Gloucester)
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Commentary
An immodest proposal
Over the past decade, Detroit's population has declined by 25 percent. Since its heyday in 1950, the city has contracted by about 40 percent.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Let's talk about education reform
The Republican presidential field is beginning to take shape, and candidates and maybe-candidates are figuring out where they stand and what to say. Sooner or later, they will need to say something about education. May we suggest a few talking points? Or, better yet, a potential speech for a GOP candidate? ***
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Finn and Petrilli on GOP presidential candidates and education
Chester Finn and Mike Petrilli have a new piece in The Weekly Standard. In it, they sug
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Quotable & notable
"When we look at our cases where children are sent away from schools because of disabilities, there are a disproportionate number of calls about charter schools.? * ?Kim Sweet, Director of Advocates for Children of New York
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Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Tech school, private school, and those damn reformers
Today's Times (unless you read it online yesterday or the day before), covers some fertile educational ground in three important arenas.
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Education news nuggets
Through the ages, intellectually engaged man has asked, ?Is there life after collective bargaining???a question that may gain newfound relevance if you suddenly find yourself close to <
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Advice for Chairman Kline on "Flexibility": Call Democrats' bluff
House education chairman John Kline released a bill yesterday that would provide "unprecedented" flexibility for states and local school districts around how they spend their federal ed
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Beware of rankings
Over at The American Interest, Walter Russell Mead asserted a few weeks back that ?when it comes to education, red states rule.? He bases this finding on data collected for Newsweek's recently released high school rankings.?
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Curriculum & Instruction
Salamat at Paalam*
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Photo by The Mechanical Turk"][/caption]
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Finn discusses ATL cheating scandal
Chester Finn, president of the Fordham Institute, was a guest on the Willis Report on Fox Business last night. The topic? The cheating scandal in Atlanta.
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Quotable & notable
?Now where do we go? Where do we go?? * ?Maria Ariston, Former Teacher at Apple Grove Elementary in Prince George's County, Maryland
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Understanding upper-middle-class parents
The June issue of The American Spectator carries a thoughtful--though ultimately unpersuasive--article by Lewis Andrews, "Meet the Suburban Parents." Like legions of activists and analysts before him, he ponders why upper-middle-class parents haven't rallied to the cause of school reform. [quote]
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Poor little rich student: Different schools for different kids?
I wanted to offer a curricular observation about Mike's Understanding upper-middle-class parents since he raised the issue of whether ?different kids need different schools.??
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Tiger Moms Anger: South Korea Tries to End Saturday School.
It would be ironic if America's world-wide cultural domination ? music, fashion, film, technology ? included its dumbed down school ethos. That's what it looks like is happening in South Korea, as the government there announced the country's abandonment of Saturday school.
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Education news nuggets
From 2am homework panic to boring lectures, today's students appear to have been dealt a bad hand.
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Podcast: Speaking Latin and Pig Latin
Mike volleys with special guest Checker Finn in this week's podcast. The topics they serve up? Education governance, cheating on standardized tests, and the NEA's ?reform? efforts. Amber slams an ace with a new NBER study. And Chris calls a fault on one school's no-pix policy. [powerpress]
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Quotable & notable
?While the days when students had to write ?I must not cheat? 300 times on the blackboard are gone, their teachers now have to do the equivalent so that the New York State Education Department can monitor how they score student answers.? *
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Meet those who tweet
This morning, Education Next published my latest "what next" column, "All A-Twitter about Education." In it, I report on the Twitter phenomenon and how it's impacting the education "war of ideas."
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Understanding the upper-middle-class
The June issue of The American Spectator carries a thoughtful--though ultimately unpersuasive--article by Lewis Andrews, "Meet the Suburban Parents." Like legions of activists and analysts before him, he ponders why upper-middle-class parents haven't rallied to the cause of school reform.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Atlanta, still burning: The cheating scandal continues
This is getting to be an old story (see here and here), but it's an important one.
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More quality for the money
Times are tight for school budgets, which is one reason Fordham and others have dedicated new attention and energy to doing more with less. Being conscious of cost-effectiveness is about more than pinching pennies, however; it also enables schools to get the very best quality for the dollars they spend on services.
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Quotable & notable
?The California Constitution requires that a free education be offered to all California students, so the definition of what exactly is a free education is where I'm a little bit (unsure).? * ?Gerry Blue, Analy High School parent