An analysis released in today's Education Gadfly finds that new charter schools in disadvantaged communities are almost four times as likely to reach above-average rates of student achievement as the closest district school.
If you want to get re-elected, whatever you do, don't follow Rick's advice
One Cristo Rey student explains her peers' views on solid teaching
Join us on June 15 for a discussion of Uncle Sam???s future role in edu-accountability
Stubbornly resistant to significant change
After some good old-fashioned low-brow fun, Mike and Rick launch into an erudite conversation on teacher evaluations and Race to the Top, the political perils of tough-love school reform, and the correct role of education philanthropies. Amber finds benefit in gifted-education programs, and Chris tells overbearing parents to get off Facebook?and get a life. [powerpress]
?I can't imagine in America where you're going to have a White House, Republican or Democrat, or a Congress, a Republican or a Democrat, laying out what our kids have to be taught. That is unacceptable.'' ?Mitt Romney, Former Massachusetts Governor
Come September, Celerity Educational Group will start a new K-5 charter school, to be christened Celerity Sirius, in a neighborhood church in Compton, CA. It will open its doors just a few blocks from McKinley Elementary, a K-5 school, famous for being ground-zero in the “parent trigger” wars.
Laying out some "stretch" goals - those that are challenging but attainable
Across metro Detroit (from the wealthy Grosse Pointe School District to the perennially struggling Detroit Public Schools), school systems are having to dip further into their general-education budgets to cover their unfunded special-education costs. This predicament has an extensive root structure, starting with Michigan’s unique special-ed funding set-up.
Forget Finland, look at Ontario's governance structure
Putting the "career" back in "college and career" readiness
The new report from the National Research Council (with its come-hither title, Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education) is sure to add fuel to the anti-accountability fires. It concludes, pretty shockingly, that all these tests haven't made kids any smarter.?
It goes without saying that school officials are doing everything in their power to cope with the quickly dwindling budgets of their districts. But a certain policy enacted by the New York City DOE leaves me scratching my head.
?When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.'' ?Albert Shanker, Former Teachers Union Leader
Diane Ravitch's New York Times op-ed seems to have stuck in the craw of many a reformer, including Arne Duncan himself.
The Harmony Charter school opus in today's Times is a great read.? It's very long, over 4,000 words, starting on the front page and covering two full pages on the inside of the paper.
?It used to be the idea that if everybody completed preschool, they were going to be fine. But that may not cut it. It's like a 30-cylinder engine. All the parts have to work.'' ?Paul Cordero, Carpenteria, CA superintendent
The New York Times' education columnist Michael Winerip spoils another good story today.?
?I can honestly say my high school didn't prepare me for college. I was getting my butt kicked in college. I didn't have a proper background.'' ?Richard Mohammed, Recent Graduate of Bucks County Community College
Though American education has taken few actual steps to pattern itself on other countries, in recent years we've displayed a near-obsessive interest in how we're doing in relation to them (e.g. on TIMSS and PISA results), and in what they're doing and how they do it.
