Of note
Michigan passes major reform law to compete for RTT (big win for kids and Duncan's strategy too) Los Angeles union sues to stop charter conversions Louisiana unions torn on RTT
Michigan passes major reform law to compete for RTT (big win for kids and Duncan's strategy too) Los Angeles union sues to stop charter conversions Louisiana unions torn on RTT
I wondered in October whether Robert Bobb, Detroit Public School's Emergency Financial Manager, would be able to deliver on this goals for a transformative new union contract, in which the problems with tenure and teacher seniority are addressed.
Quotable: "[Special Ed parents] are not a group that needs the district to wake up one day and decide that the time is right for inclusion, with experts guiding the process down a path of destruction of the one place we have found where our kids are receiving what they need."
It's hard to imagine that there's much educating--or education policymaking--going on along the Eastern seaboard today, as those of us in the Northeast dig out from the Great Blizzard.
The latest Education Next includes a shortened version of a chapter Checker wrote last year for Fordham's A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCL
Editors over at the New York Times have spurred an interesting discussion about Advanced Placement classes on one of their??blogs, Room for Debate.
Kevin Huffman (a VP at Teach For America) wants hugs for Christmas. -Mike Petrilli
What else to make of the announcement that the 2010??NewSchools Venture Fund annual summit will once again be held in Washington, DC, just as in 2008? I felt better about the education innovation crowd when it met every year in Silicon Valley. -Mike Petrilli
Quotable: "This district can be rightly criticized for the promotion of ineffective teachers over the years. That is about to change. We do not owe poor performers a job." -Ramon C. Cortines, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District
Charter advocates are pretty excited about just-introduced??legislation that would create a new federal charter school grant program aimed at replications. --Andy Smarick
Jay Mathews does a quick video??interview with superb NYC schools chief Joel Klein for the Post. ??"Systems don't change because you charm them." --Andy Smarick
The annual U.S. News and World Report high school rankings have been released. Thomas Jefferson HS in Alexandria, VA takes number 1 (again).
We've expended many words??on this blog and??other forums on the role of philanthropies in education.
J.B. Schramm and E. Kinney ZalesneCenter For American ProgressDecember 2009
Darrell M. West, Grover J. Russ Whitehurst, and E.J. Dionne, Jr. Brookings Institution December 2009
David Stuit and Thomas Smith National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University December 2009
Quick! Somebody translate Tom Loveless’s latest Fordham study, Tracking and Detracking, into German.
If only the health care system were as transparent as the market for yoga classes. Every medical procedure would have a clear and incontrovertible price tag, no patient would be banned from consulting the doctor of his choice (as long as he’s willing and able to pay), and risk would be incorporated rationally into premium prices.
If you thought a reality TV show like MTV’s new “Jersey Shore” could never be educational, well, you were right.
New York’s Catholic-school parents have had enough. The state is supposed to reimburse these schools for programs mandated by Albany. But the state has not paid up since 2003, and added a new payroll tax last May to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
'Twas the week before Christmas, and Race to the TopWas the vendors’ obsession and focus nonstop.The consultants were drafting proposals for statesWith smug affirmations of positive fates,While chiefs in their gray suits and governors, too,Looked to Arne for dollars—please, more than a few.
The Baltimore Sun editorial board continues its excellent work holding Maryland's feet to the fire on RTT. Tenure, merit pay, charters, alternative certification--it's all there.
In its weekly ARRA update, the Department notes that it completed a draft of the final i3 documents, which are now in "internal clearance" (this is the process by which all of the relevant ED offices weigh-in on important matters).
I've been hand-wringing about states applying for RTT money because they just need cash, not because they care about reform. This would mean their applications would be flashy and promise the moon and stars but that their commitment to reform is doubtful at best.
"The education-reform debate as we have known it for a generation is creaking to a halt." So begins a??compelling??article by Checker in National Affairs. It's??far too in-depth of a piece to summarize adequately here, but I will try nonetheless.