From the Department of Bad Ideas

Let kids run their own schools. This is the reduced-to-essence message of author Susan Engel's?contribution to?today's New York Times.

Quotable & notable

??children don't need another reform imposed on them. Instead, they need to be the authors of their own education.'' ' * -Susan Engle, Author of Red Flags or Red Herrings: Predicting Who Your Child Will Become

A new 'No Child'

The president said today he wants a No Child Left Behind rewrite before students' summer vacations end this September. And he wants other things, too.

Teachers unions here and there

I don't always agree with Marc Tucker but he knows a heckuva lot about how other countries organize their education systems; and it turns out that knowledge extends to how their teacher unions have evolved, what roles the unions play, and how their bargaining processes work. The differences set forth in his exceptionally interesting new paper?between the U.S.

Education Next Book Club Podcast with Dan Willingham

The Ed Next book club podcast is back for round two.

Quotable & notable

?[Teachers] are America's heroes, and they should be recognized as such. Sadly, they aren't.'' * -Joel Klein, Former Chancellor of New York public schools

Pay teachers more!

I almost didn't get past the second sentence of Nicholas Kristof's brilliant NY Times essay this morning, as he opened with mention of Wisconsin and the ?pernicious fallacy? he?said the fracas there had generated: that teachers are over-paid.

Rational thinking on common curricula

Over in the more feverish corners of the blogosphere, and sometimes even in saner locales, the Shanker Institute's call for "common content" curriculum to accompany the Common Core standards has triggered a panic attack.

Education news nuggets

Here's to hoping we can learn from other countries at the world education summit next week. Not only are more foreign-born men and women leading U.S.

School funding: Do we have to be as poor as our neighbor?

In a provocative new school funding case, a federal court judge in Kansas City ruled against parents from the suburban Shawnee Mission school district who had wanted to increase property taxes above the state mandated limit

The $125,000 Teacher: Why Not!

Don't miss Katie Couric's 60 Minutes report this Sunday on a New York City charter school that pays teachers lots of money but gives them no tenure.

Stop seeking curricular solutions to instructional problems

There continues to be a lot of discussion around the idea of creating a ?common? curriculum to supplement the Common Core State Standards. Robert Pondiscio over at Core Knowledge applauds the move, arguing that, while the CCSS are ?praiseworthy,?

Education news nuggets

Even if you can spell i-o-n-i-z-e, you might be attending a high school that is failing under NCLB.

Quotable & notable

?It's not enough to teach kids how to "read hard stuff." You have to show them how reading hard stuff in AP Literature is different than reading hard stuff in biology, European history, or trigonometry.'' * -Catherine Gewertz, Writer for Education Week

Duncan says 82 percent of schools are failing

So what else is new?? Isn't this just the statistic that confirms the message of Nation at Risk or the flat NAEP scores for the last forty years?

Education news nuggets

Dogs, horses & Iguanas. Oh My!

The rebirth of the education governor

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="359" caption="Photo courtesy of the National Governors Association"][/caption]

PODCAST: Mike throws rock, Rick throws paper

Mike and Rick get a verbal boxing wo

Chris Irvine's What's Up With That? The ultimate game of rock, paper, scissors

Quotable & notable

?Taking on the status quo is no easy task.'' * -Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin

We Feel Your Pain -- and Other Good Stories from the Times

The New York Times is on a roll with its education coverage, today reporting on everything from Obama in Boston to Rick Scott in Florida and rich schools in Bronxville.?

Looking two steps ahead

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="307" caption="Photo by Stacy"][/caption]

The case for paying most teachers the same

I know it's an article of faith in the school-reform community that we should "differentiate" among teachers and pay them "differentially" too.

Education news nuggets

What is the world coming to?

Quotable & notable

?[Common academic standards] will end the practice of lying to children and adults that dummied down standards will prepare students for success" * -Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education

Education news nuggets

Food Fight! End Result: Hairnets- Yes, Fried food- no!

A Times torrent on teachers

It is encouraging to see the New York Times continue its blanket coverage of education issues and events, even if the nation's putative paper of record sometimes misses the mark (see my Inside the Bubble) and even though it insists on giving reform nemesis Michael Winerip full rein.

Retirement status quo hurts most teachers

Take a look at this graph from Robert Costrell and Mike Podgursky's new report on pensions for the TIAA-CREF Institute:

Hey schools: Don't charge extra for extra-curriculars

Of the many dumb ways to close budget holes, perhaps the one most worthy of the title "self-inflicted wound" is the move to reduce the number of extra-curricular activities offered to students (or to pass along the costs to families in the form of fees).

Get yer intellectual cotton candy here!

I don't relish piling on, but David Brooks's column today, ?The New Humanism,? timed to coincide with the release of his new book The Social Animal, is intellectual cotton candy. ?Over the course of my career,? he begins, ?I've covered a number of policy failures.?