More than anyone else who comes to mind in American public life, Edward M. Kennedy ascended from reprobate to icon, from an object of criticism, even ridicule, to statesman. He made many lasting marks on our policies and politics and just about everyone came to admire and like him. Generations of devoted and able staffers.
The worst education idea of the year turns out not to be a new idea at all. "Unschooling" has roots in Rousseau, in Summerhill, in John Holt and Ivan Illich and any number of other progressive/romantic/libertarian nihilists.
"Finally. At long last. A group of serious analysts, commissioned by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, has concluded that NBPTS needs to include student learning gains in its evaluation of teacher quality!..." Read it here.
Earlier this summer, Terry wrote about the disconnect between DC and the states when it comes to education policy. 
Last week, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eugene Sanders unveiled a major plan to transform the district, Ohio’s second-largest and one in dire need 
A central Ohio church has appealed the Ohio Department of Education’s denial of its application to become a charter school authorizer…It is true that no churches serve as authorizers in Ohio, but church-related organizations are certainly active in the charter sector with the knowledge and approval of the state….Read it
The Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) has launched a campaign to unionize the city’s charter schools....What benefit would a district have in encouraging students to leave the public school system and let a charter school operator educate the district’s children? What is in it for CMSD? For starters, how about better-educated students?
Ohio's congressional delegation has been boasting about the infusion of money the Buckeye State's public schools would receive from the federal stimulus package.
Yesterday in the Ohio Senate Education Committee, school funding expert and Buckeye (OSU class of '66 and '72) Paul Hill offered testimony about how Ohio can go about reforming its system of school funding while at the same time raising studen
In the midst of the school-funding battle here in the Buckeye State, it is easy to lose sight of the other major education reforms on
In today's State of the State address, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland clarified his position on charter schools: "For those who may have misunderstood my position on charter schools, I want to be very clear.
School-choice foes in the Buckeye State are getting smarter about the strategies they employ to undermine the choice movement. Since the birth of charters here in 1998 and vouchers in 2005, opponents--namely Democrats, teacher unions, and the education establishment--have fought a "districts = good, choice = bad" fight. But with Democrats, including the President, across the country
Mike wonders what President Obama's call for a new "era of responsibility" will mean for education, but I'm more curious about the impact of his call for Americans to "set aside ch
Ohio's charter school sector is a bit like Night of the Living Dead, or so says Fordham's Terry Ryan in this Dayton Daily News
Yesterday Fordham’s hometown paper, the Dayton Daily News, ran a piece about Teach For America, as did the New York Times on Sunday.
Reading results from NAEP’s Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) have been released, and the news for Cleveland fourth and eighth graders isn’t much better than when
Here’s an interesting article about Harlem Success Academy, a New York City charter school whose kindergarten field trip to a farm is more than a cute story about pumpkins and cows. “The schools haul their students to a farm each year, hoping to expose them to rural life and lift thei
Forget accusations of terrorism, it seems wise to shy away from involvement with Bill Ayers if only because his ideas on public education reform are, well…pretty awful. Last weekend I went to Midtown Scholar, a used bookstore in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in search of chai tea.
Monday’s EIA Communiqué linked to a lecture Scott McLeod gave to the NEA entitled, “Teaching and learning in an era of disruptive innovation.” McLeod’s lecture is
There’s a debate brewing about how much--if at all--great standards contribute to education reform. This week, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial saying that they are not as important to student achievement as universal choice.
New York Magazine has a cover story entitled “The Junior Meritocracy.” The crux of the article is that administering standardized admissions and IQ tests to 4-year-olds--a common practice for entry into top public and private NYC kindergartens--is pointless.
"Clay Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma and a Harvard business professor, is coming out with a new book that's sure to create a buzz in the K-12 space, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.
"E.J. Dionne's column in yesterday's Washington Post reminded me that I had failed to comment on Barack Obama's Father's Day sermon...." Read it here.
I’ve been out of town the last two weeks so I missed the Chairman Obey-edudrama…I know, from the dozens of emails clogging my in-box, that, as an education reformer, I’m supposed to scream bloody murder and view this budget scrum as the climax in an&nbs
Conventional wisdom around Washington says that the No Child Left Behind act (oops, I mean the Elementary and Secondary Education act) won’t be reauthorized again next year. (Its update has been overdue since 2007.) That’s for several reasons.
That's one of the great points in this strong U.S. News and World Report piece by Eduwonk Andy Rotherham.
Several of us at Fordham (and some of our friends and associates in the larger ed policy world) have heard recently from James Garner, the former director of Research and Training Associates in Belleville, New Jersey.
Regular Flypaper readers know that I've been skeptical of the stimulus package moving through Congress, at least as it relates to education.
"Campaign K-12 astutely points out that the number of 'surrogates' representing the Obama campaign appears to be expanding infinitely.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page has already taken the Administration to task for backing away from some of its tougher “Race to the Top” provisions around teacher evaluations and charter schools in the program’s
