Our new report, America's Private Public Schools (described below), is meant to pierce the tired rhetoric used by so many defenders of the status quo in education.
???This is the best opportunity we have had to have really substantial change in how we meet the educational needs of our kids. Congress would love to go home and say, ???We fixed No Child Left Behind.'??? ???Rep. George Miller, D-California
This book recounts the author's experiences in the for-profit education industry. It starts out at the Harvard Kennedy School, winds its way through New American Schools and the Edison Project, and ends with Sandler’s development of an education consulting firm named EduVentures.
Building on previous work of The New Teacher Project, data from the National Council for Teacher Quality, and other research, this overview of teacher tenure policies asserts that the tenure bar is set too low, that student achievement has nothing
Did you know that a group of fifteen people basically control your child’s curricula?
This collection of papers and “toolkits” is meant to help districts and charter management organizations navigate through some of the most complicated issues facing school systems. These papers distill “best practices” from 10 urban districts and are supposed to serve as set of guidebooks that school leaders can adapt to fit their particular needs.
Already the subject of much consternation in the blogosphere, this report investigates the current state of charter school demographics and chastises the charter movement for the proliferation of racially-isolated schools.
Houston Superintendent Terry Grier’s plan to link value-added student test scores to teacher evaluation and dismissal decisions drew attention when he proposed it early this year. Now, the school board has unanimously agreed.
It’s hard not to get the sense right now that the Democrats are in free fall.
Moving to Michigan? You might want to check out the website BestSchoolsinMichigan.com to pick a promising school district--or you might not. The nine districts featured on that site, and highlighted in a special half-hour TV segment recently aired in the Detroit area, paid $25,000 each for the honor.
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"I am saddened and shaken at the core by the enormous ramifications of my responsibilities. The only solace I have is that I know I provided every opportunity possible, in fully public and transparent ways, the means to avoid this."
In 2004, after realizing that the Charter School Leadership Council, a loose coalition of pro-charter school organizations, couldn't meet the needs of the burgeoning charter school sector, a number of the nation's top charter leaders created the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Watch out edusphere, here comes Hess. Our good friend (and Gadfly show co-host) Rick Hess has launched a new blog, Rick Hess Straight Up on the coveted real estate of edweek.org.
???We've gotten all of these accolades, and our schools are showing such success, so do we change policies to go after ones that we're not even guaranteed to get???? ???Paul Pinksy, Maryland State Senator
This new report from NCTQ about state policies on teachers deserves attention for lots of reason (Daniela writes it up here.)
In this week's Gadfly, I take a look at the massive School Improvement Fund, the federal government's primary tool for funding and directing school turnarounds.
The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference is under way in California this week and today's speakers include Bill Gates, who we all know has invested billions of dollars in U.S. education via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
???The solution to underperforming schools is much more complex than who's in charge.?? To suggest that this is a silver bullet is na??ve at best.??? -Tom Madden, Minneapolis School Board Chairman
MD with some impressive AP results But nationally more students failing AP tests AL House??rejects charter school bill, but MS senate passes one
Gary Orfield, the head of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, has faced a barrage of attacks from charter school supporters in recent days, after his center published a study looking at the high inc
???It's changing the concept of school from ???here's what you have to know, you get it or you don't get it and we're moving on anyway.??? -Susanne Daggett, education specialist with the Oregon Department of Education
"It requires a lot of wraparound services. It's not easy; but we have to do it. You can't just write-off one-third of your high school graduates. You can't do that in this economy." ??? Nancy McCallin, President, Colorado Community College System
Learning Point Associates & Public AgendaJane Goggshall, Amber Ott, & Molly LasagnaJanuary 2010
Alliance for Excellent EducationJanuary 2010 The commonly cited phrase that an investment in kids is an investment in our collective future is no understatement. This report by the Alliance for Excellent Education examines the potential impact of increased high school graduation rates on local economies, individual earnings, and home sales.
Curious as to how Fordham manages to churn out so much terrific education news and analysis in such a timely fashion? We employ a Gadfly of course. Watch this video to learn more.
Robin Lake, Ed.Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington at BothellJanuary 2010
