Party of Nein
Quick! Somebody translate Tom Loveless’s latest Fordham study, Tracking and Detracking, into German.
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.
Quotable: "Most of the federal grants are organized around concentrations of poverty, we don't really have concentrations." -Rae Ann Knopf, Vermont Deparment of Education
One of the great canards in public education is that no one should profit from the public schools.
Craig D. JeraldThe Center for Public EducationJuly 2009
Bryan C. Hassel and Daniela DoylePublic Impact In The Tab, ConnCAN (a well-connected Connecticut education advocacy group) and Public Impact (a crackerjack education research organization) make the case for Connecticut’s move to a school funding system that:
By J.B. Schramm & E. Kinney ZalesneDecember 2009
…I’m starting to see a pattern. Merit pay. Performance pay. Value-added. What is so bothersome to teachers (and unions) about these terms is not the words themselves but that they measure merit, performance, and value according to something they don’t like: student test scores.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) –also known as the “nation’s report card”—released district-level results last week for 18 urban districts including Cleveland.
Congratulations to our good friend Tom Lasley on his retirement from the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Allied Professions. Tom not only spent more than 30-years of distinguished service as an education professor but was also an unrelenting champion for students and schools in the Dayton area.
Dayton is famous for its innovators – the Wright Brothers; John H. Patterson, who founded the National Cash Register Company in the late 1800s; and Charles F. Kettering, who developed the first electric starter for cars, all come to mind. It’s not surprising, then, with such a history that one of the country’s great educational innovators today also comes from Dayton.
The holiday season is a great time to catch up on these 2009 Fordham-Ohio publications you might have missed during the year:
The first major component of Governor Strickland’s education reform plan, an all-day kindergarten mandate facing Ohio school districts in the 2010-11 school year, is making apparent why the “evidence-based” funding model cannot live up to the lofty expectations the governor and others have set for it.
The Department released the list of states that have submitted letters indicating their intention to apply in the first RTT round. ??I'm less surprised that there are 36 states (more than some expected) than by some of the names not on the list. Those who haven't sent in letters include:
The WSJ penned an interesting editorial yesterday on Secretary Duncan and Michelle Rhee, noting that while the secretary supports important reforms, he hasn't helped the chancellor in her donnybrook with the union.
Quotable: "If you say the next person who talks in class will be set on fire and rolled down the hallway, you're in trouble if someone talks and you don't set them on fire and roll them down the hallway."
I'll admit that it's a little off-topic (OK, a lot off-topic) but I have a piece by that name in today's Wall Street Journal. -Mike Petrilli
Eduwonk uncovers how FL is getting tough and specific about collective bargaining agreements in its push for RTT funds.
Student data to be 50% of teacher evaluations under LA's RTT application Big merit pay component of FL's RTT application
In his recent blog post, Mike rightly noted that in the tracking debate, "to track or not to track" is NOT the question.
Fordham's??new report (about tracking/detracking in middle school) is causing some buzz.
Quotable: "They could have took this test in French and done just as bad...No other city in the history of [NAEP] has done this bad." -Tonya Allen, Founding Member of the Detroit Parent Network
With 2010 fast approaching, I've been hearing from several reporters asking about the best or worst education ideas of this decade. (A decade that never really had a name, did it?) No Child Left Behind will no doubt be on both lists, depending on who you ask, and it surely qualifies as A Big Deal. But was it really the most significant education idea, for good or ill?