Once upon a time, centrist school reform had a single, overriding theme: accountability for results. This was apparent in the standards movement, with its focus on delineating clear expectations for all students, the achievement of which was to be measured by rigorous tests and linked to real consequences for adults.
New York City's public schools have a problem on their hands, and in their carpets and chairs: bedbugs.
The New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, is not pleased: Acting Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks has ?respectfully? declined to address its members at the group's annual convention.
?Those who aggressively wish to start firing larger numbers of teachers every year rely on an obvious but critical assumption (often unstated): that schools and districts can find better replacements? Matthew Di Carlo, Staff Writer, Shanker Blog
What's a school to do? Virginia's ultra-selective Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology?the best high school in the land, says U.S.
Are tax credit scholarship programs constitutional when the state tuition organization overseeing the donations funnels them to private schools of a particular religion?
?Will Andrew Cuomo defy the special interests that have long controlled Albany ? starting with the public-sector labor unions whose political arm endorsed him ? to deliver the kind of change he promised in his successful campaign for governor of New York??
Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat's democrat, bucked the nation's rightward drift and swept into New? York's governor's mansion (where he spent a good deal of his youth) with 62 percent of the votes on Tuesday.
What do Tuesday's election results portend for education? After much palaver in many quarters, I conclude that it's pretty simple: less money, and less reform from Washington. More responsibility shouldered by states and, perhaps, districts. And that equation isn't as bad as it may sound.
Andrew Rotherham of Bellwether Education makes some predictions about Tuesday's implications for education in a new School of Thought column for Time:
The head of the White House Domestic Policy Council believes education is the issue that will unite the country. So, too, does the nation's secretary of education, Arne Duncan.
?If we can do that work together through education, it actually might help to lessen some of those tensions in other areas as well.'' [in reference to overhauling the nation's public education system in the post-election political landscape] Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
I realize this is a bit last minute, but tonight, our research director, Amber Winkler, is going to be a panelist at an interesting event that I wanted to flag. The topic is: ?Re-Imagining Urban Education:?How Do We Improve Our Schools??
EducationNews.org?interviewed Kathleen Porter-Magee, who of course, heads up our High Quality Standards Program here at Fordham. Among other things, Kathleen says that there are a lot of interventions that, when implemented properly, will improve student achievement.
Heads up, ESEA reauthorizers!
The low-down on teacher pensions
The murkiness of religious charter schools
Review: Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching
I've already explained what last night's election results will mean for federal education policy. But what about education writ large? It's pretty simple: a new era of budget austerity is upon us, and it won't be popular at all. Republicans: congratulations?
Leadership of the House of Representatives is tendered to the Republicans, and Capitol Hill soothsayers foretell gridlock galore.
Election Day has come and gone, but there's still plenty up in the air?and some states will be waiting for absentee ballots and
?What is fairly clear at this point is that the next Congress will be interested in a more humble approach to federal policy. What's less well understood is that Obama's Blueprint for ESEA Reauthorization suits the current political climate remarkably well.'' Chad Aldeman, Policy Analyst, Education Sector
There were a number of education-related ballot initiatives that either?survived or went down in defeat?yesterday (not many survivors, actually). A few are described below and Education Week did a roundup story.
You may have seen today's piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer about proposed salary caps for school district administrators in New Jersey.
