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Randi Weingarten says something nice about Obama's ESEA plan
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, gave a mostly robotic interview to NPR's All Things Considered yesterday.
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Fickle on federalism
Education reformers on both sides of the aisle are torn between pressing for their preferred policies from Washington, DC, and acknowledging the federal government is too far removed from classrooms to do good without doing harm, too.
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UFT charter report
James Merriman, the head of the New York City Charter School Center and former chief of SUNY's Charter School Institute (a state authorizer), writes a level-headed assessment of CSI's decision to grant a short-term renewal to the UFT's charter school in NYC.
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Another indictment of "turnarounds"
Anyone interested in what to do about America's most persistently failing schools--and especially those caught up in today's turnaround craze--should consider Part II of this report a must-read. A MUST-read.
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Hawaii and RTT
I just went through the teacher provisions of Hawaii's RTT application, and they rival Connecticut's for placement at the bottom of the list. HI admits that currently tenured teachers get evaluated once every five years (!). It hopes to change that along with its rules governing tenure, performance pay, and the removal of low-performing teachers.
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Don't forget to getcho 'Fly
From Mike's Desk Fickle on federalism (What should we make of the Department's mixed messages on the federal role in education?)
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Poor in spirit
Americans are richer than ever, yet no happier than in the early 1970s. So Richard Bok asserts in The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being. In this longish New Yorker piece, Elizabeth Kolbert reviews the latest research on being happy--and the news is anything but.
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Teaching Talent: A Visionary Framework for Human Capital in Education
Rachel E. Curtis and Judy Wetzel (eds.)Harvard Education PressMarch 2010
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Saving America's Urban Catholic Schools
Stephanie Saroki and Christopher LevenickPhilanthropy RoundtableDecember 2009
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Detroit, the city with a plan
Detroit on the up-and-up? Its leaders have a plan to pick their schools up by their bootstraps--two plans in fact.
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Hail to the Kansas City chief
More right-sizing in the Midwest. Last week, at the urging of its superintendent, John Covington, the Kansas City (Missouri) school board made the gutsy decision to close nearly half its schools.
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Are "common standards" good for American education?
For five good reasons, conservatives should take seriously the potential of the newly released (in draft form) “common” education standards to strengthen U.S. education.
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Big bang theory
There’s a new show in town, and it’s called “Arne Get Your…27 Shotguns.” That’s reportedly what the Education Department is purchasing to replace old firearms used by its Inspector General. Well, well, well. This gives a whole new meaning to “bullet points.” Silver bullets, anyone? And Race to the Top finalists had better bring their armor.
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Quotable and notable
"Right now, we're just focusing on what's easy, what can be developed quickly, because it's going to take a lot of trial and error to find out what is the best practice for doing this." ??? Joy Smith, Chief Development Officer, Florida Virtual School
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Sayonara SES and choice, redux
15 months ago, we proposed dropping the supplemental educational services and public school choice programs from No Child Left Behind.
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Fantastic RTT teacher section from Florida
There are lots of very interesting and very exciting elements in the teacher section of Florida's RTT application. First, this is a startling admission:
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Major concerns raised by Georgia
In this report from several months ago, I predicted, with worry, that some state RTT applications would appear on the surface to be gung-ho reform, but when layers were peeled back, the state's commitment would come into question.
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10 questions for Race to the Top finalists
Race to the Top finalists are starting to make their presentations today. As a service to the U.S.
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Education news nuggets
While some bloggers don't know what to make of the administration's education rhetoric, everyone agrees that NCAA
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Five reasons conservatives should support common education standards
Just why are the Common Core standards good for American education? In today's National Review Online, Checker Finn comes up with five good reasons, starting with this one:
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Quotable and notable
???If you're going to have true accountability, it needs to rest with a single evaluator.??? ???Judith Perez, President, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles
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The Blueprint and Congress
Tomorrow, Secretary Duncan appears before the House Education and Labor Committee to discuss the administration's ESEA reauthorization blueprint.
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Oh-oh
In its RTT application, Delaware misspells its own name: "Deleware." Worse, it's in the section that boasts the state's fantastic system for evaluating teachers based on improving student learning. --Andy Smarick Update: Kudos to the two careful readers who caught my mistake. Serves me right for being snide. I've learned my lesson.
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Maine's opposition to RTT
Maine's legislature recently held hearings on several reform bills that would make the state more competitive in the Race to the Top. Here are some highlights from an article in the Kennebec Journal:
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Quotable and notable
"You can't say we're going to get all kids college ready and ignore 85% of the schools." ??? Amy Wilkins, Vice President, Education Trust
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Goodbye school accountability, hello teacher accountability
The last 36 hours have left me puzzled as to why the teachers unions aren't declaring victory.