We Feel Your Pain -- and Other Good Stories from the Times
The New York Times is on a roll with its education coverage, today reporting on everything from Obama in Boston to Rick Scott in Florida and rich schools in Bronxville.?
The New York Times is on a roll with its education coverage, today reporting on everything from Obama in Boston to Rick Scott in Florida and rich schools in Bronxville.?
That's the title of my new story in Education Next, about an experiment to take a successful religious school education model to the public sector. The subtitle of the story sums it up nicely:? ?How the Christian Brothers came to start two charter schools in Chicago.? Let the walls come tumbling down!
For the second year in a row, all the seniors at the all-male Urban Prep charter school in Chicago have been accepted?by a four-year college or university.?And to its credit, the school isn't just focused on getting its students accepted; it wants to ensure that every one of them earns a bachelor's degree.
In case you missed it?..On February 2 -- Groundhog Day -- we held a terrific (& quite lively) event to discuss the seemingly eternal problem of low-performing schools and what to do about them. We tied it loosely to the cult classic movie Groundhog Day, in which the main character lives the same day over and over.
It's not a new sci-fi movie ? but it's a longstanding issue for charter schools: finding space ? that's not outer!
Referring to the Model T, Henry Ford famously said, ?A customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.? It turns out that Dr. Jerry Weast, the superintendent in Montgomery County, Maryland, where I live, feels the same way about school choice ?
In this volume, a diverse group of experts—scholars, educators, journalists, and entrepreneurs—offer wisdom and advice on how schools and districts can cut costs, eliminate inefficient spending, and better manage their funds in order to free up resources to drive school reform.
This study tackles a key question: Which of thirty major U.S. cities have cultivated a healthy environment for school reform to flourish (and which have not)? Nine reform-friendly locales surged to the front. Read on to learn more.
Checker shared his thoughts in this recent interview, posted on the Economist's blog, Democracy in America.
Most of the Fordham office was over at the AEI-Fordham event yesterday for Diane Ravitch's new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. (If you missed our live tweeting, you can watch the event video here.) The event's moderator, Rick Hess, has (as promised) now posted hi
I've now gone from optimistic to doubtful to disappointed on the LAUSD outsourcing plan. If you recall, the district decided to outsource the management of 12 low-performing schools and 18 new ones. Teachers, parents, charter organizations, and other non-profits were invited to apply.
New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT) recently published a report in which it said the area's charter schools don't serve at least the district-wide average of neediest students, despite serving an overwhelmingly poor population.
A new report from Fordham today, authored by yours truly and our research assistant Janie Scull, identifies some
Our new report, America's Private Public Schools (described below), is meant to pierce the tired rhetoric used by so many defenders of the status quo in education.
Watch our debate on school turnarounds vs. closures, and don't miss insightful and provocative comments from the panelists, including this one from Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools:
That's certainly what the LAUSD vote on which of 30 schools to hand over to outside operators sounds like.
The now famous (or infamous) CREDO charter study from last June generated a ton of hype. (See our analysis here.) The results were largely mixed, seemly putting numbers behind the assertion that putting "charter" in front of (or after) a school name does not guarantee success.
The annual U.S. News and World Report high school rankings have been released. Thomas Jefferson HS in Alexandria, VA takes number 1 (again).
Anybody who thinks charter schools are plateauing or reaching some sort of natural limit had better think again.??The Texas Public Policy Foundation has just released the number of young Texans who were on waiting lists for charter schools in that state during the last scho
As a charter school sponsor (authorizer), Fordham submits an accountability report to the Ohio Department of Education at the end of November each year. The report includes profiles of each Fordham-sponsored school, as well as graphics comparing the achievement data of our schools, their home districts, and statewide averages. You'll also find pertinent information on Ohio charter school spending over the last decade, and in the introduction, a timely analysis of the political and legislative environment impacting Ohio charters in 2008-09 that explains why the title, "Seeking Quality in the Face of Adversity," is befitting.
We commented on the new British Tory plan for education in last week's Gadfly.
Today's Education Gadfly and Wall Street Journal editorial both capture the most important news about Caroline Hoxby's
From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary's Role in American Education examines the role of the courts in modern American K-12 education. From race to speech, from religion to school funding, few aspects of education policy have escaped the courtroom. In this book, experts describe just what the impact of judicial involvement has been. Published jointly by Fordham and Brookings Institution Press.
State Superintendent of??Louisiana??Paul Pastorek says the state will retain control of RSD for at least a few more years--and maybe forever. In a recent poll conducted in New Orleans, schools were found to be the number one improvement area in a pre- and post- Katrina comparison.
The U.S. Open starts on Monday and the opening ceremony will have a special guest: Andre Agassi.
I'm just as outraged as Jamie about the general American populace's ignorance about charters... but I can't say I'm surprised. Take for example this survey of federal spending from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The following is a guest post from Fordham Staff Assistant Mickey Muldoon.
Yesterday was the first day of school in our nation's capital and only 37,000 students showed up for the big day.