At the recent Washington, D.C., educational forum hosted by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, gave the keynote address. Speaking about his state's teachers' unions, Christie said, ?It is an obscenity?an obscenity?that those who claim to be involved in public education for kids aren't just as offended and just as impatient as I am.?
?Evidence has shown that special ed is one of the academic ghettos of American public education.'' * -RiShawn Biddle, Editor of Dropout Nation
Context matters--but so does getting the fundamentals right
The twin pressures of budget cuts and accountability are spurring calls for change
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has been authorizing (aka sponsoring) charter schools in Ohio since 2005, and each year we submit an ?accountability report? to the state that documents our authorizing work, our schools' performance, and more. Sharing lessons from our charter authorizing work is important and so we spend a lot of time and energy on it.
It's just a brief news item in Education Week, but it caught my eye:? Yale is ending its masters degree program in urban education.
Over the past decade, digital learning at the K-12 level has exploded?from a national enrollment of 40,000 to 50,000 in 2000 to an estimated 3 million in 2010. And this mushrooming isn't likely to slacken any time soon. Forgive the melodrama and trite adages.
?There is no way in our state right now that the dadgum unions are going to agree with this kind of stuff.?
The?California Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 yesterday that a parent can sue a school in order to compel it to provide the physical education that state law mandates?viz., 200 minutes of kinetic exertion every ten days in elementary schools, and 400 minutes in middle and high schools.
?These days it seems anyone with any degree of managerial success is qualified to run whole school systems. But only school systems. I'd love to see someone make the argument that private sector managerial experience entitles you to run the NYPD.'' * Ta-Nehisi Coates, Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Many reformers and funders have written off schools of education as beyond repair, and much of the current energy for teacher preparation is centered on non-traditional programs like Teach For America. But are schools of education more ready for reform than the conventional wisdom supposes? The event is LIVE on December 2 at 3:30pm.
Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Rick Hess have penned a thoughtful piece that you can find on <
A week ago, upon hearing that the Ohio Department of Education rejected the majority of districts' and charter schools' Race to the Top proposals, we pondered whether this would instigate a dropping-out effect among
Center for Reinventing Public EducationChristine CampbellNovember 2010
Taxpayers invest a lot in their teachers, and good ones are worth every penny. Nothing affects student performance more than great teachers. Conversely, weak teachers can do irreparable damage to children and their learning. This alone should prompt Ohio to glean as much information as possible about teacher effectiveness.
Want to learn more about the schools Fordham authorizes? Check out these video profiles of each school.
Much has been made lately of the idea of lengthening school days, but one school district in Marysville, Ohio, is thinking about shortening them.
Public ImpactJulie Kowal and Emily Ayscue HasselNovember 2010
Cassandra M.D. Hart & David FiglioEducation NextWinter 2010
Many reformers and funders have written off schools of education as beyond repair, and much of the current energy for teacher preparation is centered on non-traditional programs like Teach For America. But are schools of education more ready for reform than the conventional wisdom supposes?
American Institutes for Research (AIR)Gary W. PhillipsOctober 2010
Need a new way to advertise your business? Looks like school buses may soon be a viable option.
