Commentary
Ms. Harvard is so picky
Kevin Carey calls a recent Daily Caller article by Kay Hymowitz ?generally silly? and ?an alarmed reaction to female college attainment.? No, the piece is none of those things.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Opinion: On pushing the ESEA boulder up the hill
This article originally appeared in the April 21 edition of The Education Gadfly newsletter.
Commentary
Fordham's ESEA Briefing Book: ?Reform realism? explained
Mike and Checker explain how NCLB got it backwards, and what ?reform realism? would look like in practice.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?We're talking about questions of fundamental fairness ? issues that have always played out in our schools. Our kids can't succeed if we don't give them the tools they need. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, how could we not?''*
Commentary
Podcast: We heart jargon?and J.C.
Mike and Rick conjure up some crazy weather this week during Pardon the Gadfly: a hailstorm of ideas from Fordham's new ESEA briefing book, the landfall of Hurricane Winerip, and the epic J.C. Brizard-snowpocalypse. Amber heats things up with an NBER paper on teacher evals, and Chris, well, he just thinks Canada is crazy. [powerpress]
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Students come to the rescue in response to the smackdown of those ?spoiled teachers." Thank goodness
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
And furthermore: David Steiner on curriculum
In my interview with outgoing New York education commissioner David Steiner, whose passion for curriculum has been no secret, I asked about curriculum and the common core and I think it is worth excerpting some of our conversation:
Commentary
Charter Schools
How Tonya and Kelley differ
Kelley Williams-Bolar made national headlines back in January when she was caught sending her two daughters across district lines from the woeful Akron Public Schools to the plusher Copley-Fairlawn School District.
Commentary
Fact-checking Sandy Kress
Former Bush White House adviser (and NCLB drafter) Sandy Kress turned in a very compelling New York Daily News op-ed on Monday arguing that President Obama has gone "wobbly" on education accountability.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?The funding available for performance pay represents an opportunity to provide meaningful incentives and rewards for exemplary teachers in a significant number of Virginia schools.'' * ?Robert McDonnell, Governor or Virginia
Report
Accountability & Testing, Governance
ESEA Briefing Book
Political leaders hope to act soon to renew and fix the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, also known as No Child Left Behind). In this important paper, Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Executive Vice President Michael J. Petrilli identify 10 big issues that must be resolved in order to get a bill across the finish line, and explore the major options under consideration for each one. Should states be required to adopt academic standards tied to college and career readiness? Should the new law provide greater flexibility to states and districts? These are just a few of the areas discussed. Finn and Petrilli also present their own bold yet "reform realist" solutions for ESEA. Read on to learn more.
Commentary
Commentary
This Bud's for Jay; or, Just Fly Me There
The other day Jay Greene unveiled his Tight-Loose Travel Agency, as a followup to his Fordham Report Drinking Game.?
Commentary
The Feds can't fix district finances
We at Fordham strongly believe school districts can and should learn to spend their dollars more effectively. That said, I can't agree with Kristi Bowman's idea that Congress should mandate "fiscal accountability measures" in its reauthorization of ESEA:
Commentary
Winerip asks a question
If Michael Winerip is to be taken at his word, then his latest New York Times piece, published Sunday, is meant merely to make the reader ask?himself?whether the fact that?lots of?so-called ?education reformers?
Commentary
Commentary
Public or private school?
Michael Winerip has released the flood gates with his Sunday column in this week's New York Times. In it, he calls into question the resolve, capacity, and genuineness of education reformers (Fordham's own Checker Finn included) who attended private high schools.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?We will never get a new paradigm of learning in our schools unless we change our assessment system.'' * ?James Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University
Commentary
Testing, stress and achievement: finding balance in the face of international competition
Sean Cavanagh's recent blog in Education Week depicts cautionary warnings from Byong Man Ahn, the former South Korean Minister of Education.
Commentary
Commentary
Is it time for ?controlled choice? in Washington, DC?
The District of Columbia's rapid gentrification provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create racially and socio-economically integrated public schools. But misguided public policies might be allowing this moment to slip through our hands.
Commentary
The Big Ten (ESEA Issues)
Unlike Fat Tuesday or St. Patrick's Day, April 19th may not strike you as an unofficial drinking holiday. But then you haven't been reading Jay Greene lately, who has created a nifty little drinking game to accompany Fordham's ESEA reauthorization proposal to be released tomorrow.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?The success of our society depends largely on the amount of confidence its citizens have in it... But too often, inequities in our tax system erode that confidence.''' *
Commentary
Commentary
Steiner wins Race to the Top but won't be going to the Promised Land
No one ever said that education reform was easy.? And no one said that Race to the Top, the Obama administration's signature education law, was perfect.? But when David Steiner, a reformer's reformer, announced last week that he was giving up the reins as New York state's Commissioner of Education, the education world seemed to take a collective deep breath.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Why are we surprised?
A New York Times-Chronicle of Higher Education collaboration yields a story about the lowly undergraduate business department, where slackers slack with impunity.
Commentary
Quotable & notable
?There is something about the authenticity of the real thing?a letter, an ordinance, a battlefield, or photograph?that moves people and often makes them want to come back for more.''' *
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Feeling fed up with bans on packed lunches, potential bans on breast cancer bracelets,
Commentary
Does Kevin Carey think that Jim Hunt, Tim Kaine, and Mark Warner are teacher-bashers too?
In a post on Tuesday, I quarreled with Kevin Carey's argument, in The New Republic, that Republican lawmakers are wrong to embrace federalism when it comes t
Commentary
Education news nuggets
Ah, the trouble with teacher quality: While some hold grade-ins, others hold mock slave auctions.