Commentary
They're not going to take it
The kids are rioting in Italy (the Italian protesters are calling today ?Block Everything Day?) and the UK, their fury fanned by cuts and changes to education.
Commentary
?A' for obsequiousness
An article in the New York Times Week in Review section tells the story of Ellis Middle School, where the teachers, after examining four years of data, discovered that the pupils earning As and Bs often did worse on end-of-year tests than those who habitually received Ds and
Commentary
A new voice
This morning the interim chancellor of Washington, D.C.'s public schools gave her first interview to National Public Radio's D.C. affiliate, WAMU.
Commentary
Quotable & Notable
?Three in four students graduating from high school is nothing to celebrate in a country like ours.? * Andrew Rotherham, Co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education
Commentary
Education News Nuggets
Need a new way to advertise your business? Looks like school buses may soon be a viable option.
Commentary
Quotable & Notable
?[But] political winds are shifting, with the growing likelihood that policy and procedures will change so as to catalyze more school choice.'' Bruno V. Manno, Senior Adviser for K-12 education, Walton Family Foundation
Commentary
Rahm Emmanuel: The education mayor?
The former White House Chief of Staff and current candidate for mayor of the Windy City announced last week that he wanted Chicago to be the first city to adopt the ?Common Core standards.??
Commentary
Act I ends in NYC: Steiner can get some rest
The official announcement comes on Monday, but this being New York, word had ?leaked? out on Friday.? ?Mayor and State Reach Deal on a Schools Chief,? is the front-page headline in this morning's Times.
Commentary
To sleep, perchance to dream: Ay, that's the rub for David Steiner
If the NY Times has it right,?the Commissioner of Education for New York State ?may not have had a great Thanksgiving.
Commentary
Tilson v. Ravitch: No turkey trot this one
Whitney Tilson unveiled his new website today. ?It's still a work in process,? he says in his Thanksgiving email message announcing the debut, ?but I want to go public with it because the first major content on the site is my rebuttal of Diane Ravitch?
Commentary
Nonracialism, neoracialism, and the question of affirmative action
Monday's New York Times offered one of the more stimulating and thought-provoking articles to be found this holiday week.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Quotable & Notable
?We already know that social acceptance is one of the primary concerns of adolescence. If achievement comes at a social cost, there are obviously going to be differences in teenagers' motivation to achieve.'' * Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell, Institute for Social Research Fellow at the University of Michigan
Commentary
Education News Nuggets
Parents, there's finally a way to get your kids to eat their veggies: just have Michelle Obama over for dinner.?
Commentary
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Now drop it.)
Listen up, Ohio, especially all you Debbie Downers/Negative Nancys/Chicken Littles who have paid rapt attention to the ongoing public drama between outgoing Governor Strickland, and well ? Governor Strickland's office telephone.
Commentary
Could it be worse than we thought?
Review: A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools
Commentary
Quotable & Notable
?I think it's opened a whole new chapter on analyzing school performance.'' Texas State Representative Rob Eissler, on a new statistical model developed by the Education Resources Group
Commentary
Commentary
Checker in NY Post
Checker has an op-ed in today's NY Post?it's entitled, Senseless ?certificate,' silly hurdle for schools boss. In it, he criticizes the NY state law requiring that school-system heads possess a ?superintendent's certificate.?
Commentary
Education News Nuggets
The panel of experts to help Commissioner Steiner with his big decision has been convened; if Cathie Black doesn't get her waiver, mayoral control
Commentary
Field notes: Through the special ed looking glass
While Mike was reporting that special education spending was ?heading toward one-third?
Commentary
Rep. guvs: "the public is on our side" (in taking on public employee & teacher unions)
For several years, Fordham-Ohio has been pointing to red flags when it comes to the sustainability of the state teachers' retirement system (STRS).
Commentary
Who's protecting teacher privacy?
In an odd twist on the issue of teacher privacy, Peter Murphy of the New York State Charter Schools Association is reporting that charters in New York won another?judicial victory last week when state's highest court rejected an attempt by the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) to obtain payroll records showing the full names, titles, cor
Commentary
Stretching the special ed dollar is desperately needed, too
Today Rick Hess takes up the issue of special education spending on his blog, and gives Arne Duncan a fair bit of grief for delivering a
Commentary
Quotable & Notable
?Restructuring pay systems is like kicking a beehive.'' * Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Commentary
Commentary
Historically speaking, we're in a rut
Our prolific friend and colleague, AEI's Rick Hess, publishes more books than Borders stocks, and it would be exaggerated to say that every single one of them is a seminal contribution. But this one is genuinely important.
Commentary
The power of the (small) press
I knew where I was as soon as the Ukranian cabbie pronounced the city a dictatorship and a teachers union leader told a room full of education reformers how good it was to be back in a town ?where you can use your hands when you talk?and swear.? ?Bulls?t!? someone shouted.
Commentary
Here today, Gove tomorrow
Britain's Education Secretary Michael Gove hasn't wasted any time since assuming his post in May. In these short six months, he's implemented a new ?free schools? initiative, which takes a page out of America's charter-school book by allowing groups (mostly charities or parents) to establish privately-run, publicly-funded schools. He's also sought to increase the number of ?academies?