Check it out: This week's Gadfly
From Checker's Desk "Common Core" education standards: Impressive, balanced, serious (Checker's take on the new draft standards, released this week)
From Checker's Desk "Common Core" education standards: Impressive, balanced, serious (Checker's take on the new draft standards, released this week)
???What is different about mathematics in Maine from California??? I don't believe there is a difference.?? You will see far more states adopt the standards than not.??? ???Susan Gendron, Maine Commissioner of Education
Andrew Campanella and Ashley EhrenreichAlliance for School Choice2010
Kalman R. HettlemanRowman & Littlefield Publishers2010
Natasha Ushomirsky and Daria HallThe Education TrustFebruary 2010
Neal McCluskeyCATOFebruary 2010
Petula Dvorak, a staff writer at the Washington Post, desperately wanted to enroll her sons in a public school outside her up-and-coming D.C. neighborhood. So, like thousands of other parents, she entered the District’s “out-of-boundary” lottery.
Gadfly got bored with the deluge of Michelle Rhee coverage last year. But she’s back, this time (or should we say, again) squaring off against AFT prez Randi Weingarten, in an article that offers some insight into the personalities of two power women.
I haven't closely examined the new draft "Common Core" math standards (and am in any case shy about judging them, having myself forgotten the difference between cosines and tangents), but the draft "reading/language arts/literacy" standards are pretty darned impressive.
What’s the easiest way to cut school spending? To cut schooling, of course--and districts across the land are turning to this boneheaded solution as they contemplate their dismal financial situations.
Good news: Teaching and learning are back in vogue. This brilliant article by GothamSchools’ Elizabeth Green is the latest in a series of prominent pieces that begin to pry open the “black box” of the classroom, a topic that has been largely ignored in the policy sphere in favor of structural reforms.
Aren’t elected officials supposed to represent the interests of their constituents? Not according to Harlem’s State Senator Bill Perkins, who insists that charters are just “hype.” Really?
On Monday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that his department will expand its efforts in civil rights enforcement. Its civil rights division will monitor racial disparities in enrollment in college prep classes, school discipline, and teacher assignment.
We all know about the plans to fire and replace teachers at the struggling Central Falls in Rhode Island. But it turns out this event is part of a bigger and more interesting story.
I haven't closely examined the new draft??"Common Core" math standards (and am??in any case shy about judging them, having myself forgotten the difference between cosines and tangents), but the??draft "reading/language arts/literacy" standards are pretty darned impressive.
"Inclusion does not happen on its own. It is hard work." ??? Alexa E. Posny, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Department of Education
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is seeking to close a troubled charter school sponsor (aka authorizer), blazing new territory for the nation’s charter school program.
Is America’s civil-rights leadership looking out for the essential interests of African-American children? Former education secretary Rod Paige says no.
None of the more than 500 people attending last week’s statewide STEM meeting in Columbus needed to be convinced of the importance of science-and-math education, although many might wonder exactly what it really means for their schools.
Caprice Young, CEO of Distance Learning, has been elected to the board of trustees of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Foundation. Young has been CEO of the California Charter Schools Association and president of the Los Angeles Board of Education.
A Thomas B. Fordham Institute analysis indicates consolidating just a few administrative roles in Ohio school districts with fewer than 1,700 students might save as much as $40 million a year.
Diane Ravitch’s important new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, has already
Do you have a great example of charter schools and traditional district schools working together? Then the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools wants to hear from you!
This week we’d like to start of Editor’s Extras by giving a warm welcome to our newest intern, Dan Woolf, who will be working on reviews, research and creating these wonderful Editor’s Extras. Dan is a graduate from Miami University, where he double-majored in philosophy and American studies. Welcome to TBFI!
I was just starting to write a post reiterating the problems with Arne Duncan's "civil rights" announcement yesterday when the phone rang.
Newsweek's Thomas and Wingert with a very good write-up of the Rhee-Weingarten saga Very good i3 analysis from Tom Vander Ark
I believe the Department's decision to set a low bar for RTT finalists sent precisely the wrong message. Instead of pushing states to continue making big changes to their policies and propose bigger, bolder plans in their applications, the Department's stance lowered states' sense of what is required to compete. From the Lincoln Star Journal:
We may live in a digital world, but that doesn't mean you can have your laptop in class.