?Surely schools can deliver more than one message. In addition to ?get a job,' we might add ?get a life.''' ?Jim Haas, Adjunct Professor, Master of Arts in Teaching program at Webster University-Kansas City
I hate to steal Mike's thunder, but he's not the first person to pose this thesis of socioeconomic integration. Indeed, UVA professor Jim Ryan has a whole book about it, one that I reviewed for Gadfly a few weeks back. He traces the history of desegregation in the U.S.
The controversial New York Times education reporter ? see here ?
One of the more important contributions to the culture that movies like Waiting for `Superman' (my beef is the quote marks) make is bringing us back to debating?the?fundamentals.? Whether or not the film cracks the education code or compels people to take up arms, it is sure interesting reading what people read into it.
Education Next's recent article on middle schools (?Stuck in the Middle?) reminds us how difficult it is for middle schools to serve students well.
The Times says that the Mark Zuckerberg donation to the troubled New Jersey city school system is ?good news.?? And Oprah is bringing the Facebook founder on her show today to talk about it.
NYT Columnist Bob Herbert receives a needed tongue-lashing from Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson in this morning's Times. Responding to Herbert's?post-D.C.
The National Academies just released a new report, ?Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5,? which isn't really new at all: its authors are the same people who wrote the 2005?publication ?Rising Above the Gathering Storm?
Lindsay Johns, a writer and ?hip hop intellectual,? turns in a keen article in Britain's Prospect magazine. He writes to defend the Western canon and, more specifically, to make the point that the canon is just as relevant to black students as to white.
?Designing effective incentives for teachers is a mighty complex task, full of many subtle decisions and much uncertainty. This study, like the ones before it, and the ones that will surely follow it, is highly inconclusive.? [Referring to Vanderbilt University merit pay study]
The Nation has a long review of the soon-to-be-released education documentary Waiting for ?Superman.' ?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
As kids, growing up in the wilds of Oregon, one of our favorite sports was King of the Mountain (I warn you, don't go Googling that one). It was a spontaneous thing that started when one of the pack of roaming young ruffians leapt on to some high ground ? a log, a pile of dirt, a mound of rocks ? and declared, ?King of the Mountain!??
Rand Paul, who is running to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, wants to end the federal Department of Education. The Lexington Herald-Leader doesn't like the idea. ?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
Textbooks are in the news this week: in college, kids save money by renting instead of buying, and in Texas, kids?
Note: This editorial, by Checker Finn and me, will run in today's Education Gadfly.
At least that's one interpretation, as their brand-new Pledge to America contains neither the word ?education? nor ?school.? More thoughts on this later, but really guys? How many pollsters need to tell you that just talking about the subject is good for your numbers?
?Visitors see smart, driven, caring teachers in every classroom and ask us all the time: How do you do it? The answer: culture.'' ?Deborah Kenny, Founder and CEO of Harlem Village Academies
As China calls for education innovation, Oprah takes matters into her own hands
Fresh thinking on improving the teaching profession
Charter and district teachers aren't so different, after all
Value-added measures have their place but are no panacea
A little teacher quality info goes a long way
Far be it from me to take on Nicholas Lemann ? former Managing Editor of the Washington Monthly, former staff reporter for the Washington Post, staff writer for The New Yorker, author of The Big Test (about the SATs), and current dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism ? but?.
Whitney Tilson, commenting on yesterday's New York Times story on the plan to close Catholic schools, has it about right:
