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Another state out of RTT
Today, Vermont announced that it will not compete in round two of the Race to the Top. It was one of ten states to not apply in the first round. State leaders said the program has distracted attention from its own reform initiatives.
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Quotable and notable
?As you add all this stuff on, you're going to have to add more people, mentors, librarians?How do we do that?? ?Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa ?Needs of ?Whole Child' May Factor in ESEA Renewal,? Education Week
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Invaluable direction from Secretary Duncan
In a single sentence, Secretary Duncan has multiplied the chances of getting major reforms out of round two of the Race to the Top.
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Send Obama back to Denver
Candidate Obama gave one heckuva speech in the Mile High City once upon a time; ask him to deliver another one as President Obama this coming June.
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Quotable and notable
?You want to keep a rookie who looks good relative to other rookies, even if it's not that great relative to all other teachers.? ? Douglas O. Staiger, Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College
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What goes up must come down
I've been receiving angry emails from teachers who heard my sound-bytes on NBC Nightly News and Today earlier this week. I said that ?our schools don't just need to go on a diet, they need to adapt a whole new way of life.
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Gadfly, gadfly!
You won't want to miss this week's edition of the Gadfly. On deck? Checker's take on ED's assessment competition, turnaround shenanigans in Iowa (HT to Eduwonk, btw), and a fascinating study that finds that great teachers typically make more money than so-so ones when they leave the classroom! The full shebang is below.
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Understanding the Common Core State Standards
Our event on Thursday (by the above name) went very well and was quite informative. Panelists Jason Zimba and David Coleman did a great job of digging into the proposed Common Core State Standards and answering questions that Checker (and later, the audience) posed to them.
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Becoming charters could save Cleveland's most promising schools
The school board of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District voted this week to lay off 10 percent of its 8,000 employees, including 545 teachers.?? Particularly hard hit will be the district's ten ???innovation schools.????? Reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
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Re: Re: Maybe there's no 'teacher quality gap'? after all
Here's more (a lot more) from Whitney Tilson, continuing our ongoing debate about the Education Next forum on teacher equity.
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Education news nuggets
Will pretty bulletin boards be the death of education? Let's get some teachers trained like doctors to revive the patient.
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Indiana out
Huge breaking news out of Indiana. Because of the state teacher union's unwillingness to negotiate on reform, Indiana will NOT apply in round two of RTT. ?Andy Smarick
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Re: Maybe there's no ?teacher quality gap? after all
Uber-reformer (and hedge fund manager) Whitney Tilson had this to say about my earlier post:
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Gadfly wishes you a Happy Earth Day
As our loyal Gadfly readers know, we closed the Gadfly survey at midnight yesterday. Thank you?really?to everyone who took the time to speak up. All 667 of you. We really appreciate it and you should look forward to an AWESOME redesigned Gadfly coming soon.
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Mike Petrilli's all over NBC
Mike appeared in two similar news stories on NBC Nightly News last night and on the Today show this morning. Watch the clips below.
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Musical chairs
The feds want serious change for their “School Improvement Grants” bucks, but several of Iowa’s thirty-five lowest-rated schools aren’t buying it. The state received $18.7 million in turnaround funds to help the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, which could win $50,000 to $2 million each.
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Avoid fruit salad
What will the Education Department’s current $350 million competition to develop new multi-state assessments actually yield? One new “national test”? Two? A bunch? Will they be any good?
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Teacher re-recall
What do you do when you’ve got a surplus in one area, and a shortage in another? California’s got an answer. Forced to pink-slip 23,000 regular education teachers this year due to budget shortfalls, the state plans on retraining some of them to help ease the shortage in special education classrooms.
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Earning its name at last
Will alternative certification finally be alternative? In New York State, at least, the answer is yes.
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Act your age, not your shoe size
Bullies have been stealing other students’ lunch money for years. But students at one New York elementary school face a new adversary: their teacher.
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An Analysis of Academic Performance of Students Affected by Hurricane Katrina
Student Assessment Division, Department of Assessment, Accountability, and Data QualityTexas Education AgencyMarch/April 2010
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Do more effective teachers earn more outside of the classroom?
Matthew Chingos and Martin West Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University March 2010
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Will the timing of Race to the Top force compromises?
Ohio has pledged a minimum funding level to districts and charter schools that sign onto the state's round-two RttT application in an effort to increase buy in from LEAs.
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Education news nuggets
We've got to do more than simply have the illusion of good teaching (and this is something we can't outsource).
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How to trim the fat in more ways than one
Like districts nationwide, our hometown Dayton Public Schools is making tough decisions in order to close a yawning budget gap. And it's hit upon a smart idea that's a two-fer: it will save almost $1 million a year, and it addresses the childhood obesity epidemic.