Just jealous

“Why you should hate this school.” That’s the sub-head for an article in September’s Washingtonian on what some say is America’s best high school: Thomas Jefferson in Northern Virginia.

Blinded by the (green) light

The education bill that made it through the Massachusetts state senate, replete with a whopping 95 amendments, late Tuesday is being lauded as the biggest reform bill since

Bookish homecoming

In a story that would make Detective Bookman proud, Arizona’s Camelback High School received a package this month containing two half-century-overdue library books. Though neither was by Seinfeld’s favorite Henry Miller, the school was glad if a bit baffled to retrieve its aged copie

Unrest about a national test

If statewide content standards are political sausage, and voluntary national standards are political foot-longs, then national tests are probably a political 250-foot “Monterrey monster dog.” As we and others have pointed out, standards are only as good

Dusk

I, too, will be celebrating and giving thanks for America next week. The backward look is pretty darn impressive. But I worry when I look ahead.

Are High Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Harlem

Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer, JrNational Bureau of Economic ResearchNovember 2009

Short-Run Effects of Parental Job Loss on Children

Ann Huff Stevens and Jessamyn SchallerNational Bureau of Economic ResearchNovember 2009

Racing to the Top in a time of fiscal peril

I've just finished reading the Race to the Top program executive summary released by the U.S.

Duncan's Maryland mistake

Late last week, Secretary Duncan (and his able team) acted on what I have every reason to believe were noble intentions. Unfortunately, the secretary missed a golden opportunity and possibly did more harm than good for reform in my beloved Maryland.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "There is no way in the world [New Jersey Governor Elect Chris Christie] can do all of that. The money is not there to pay the bills...Before it's all over, he's going to wish he had asked for a recount." - Shirley K. Turner, Democratic chair of the New Jersey Senate education committee

Mathews on closing schools

Interesting new column here by Jay Mathews. In it, he writes that??striving to turn around chronically low-achieving schools is "a noble quest I have long supported. But I have come to wonder if it might be a big waste of time and money. Most efforts to save such places have been failures.

Putting money where our education is

One of the main criticisms of individual-teacher merit pay is that it will undermine teacher collaboration. This same argument is also leveled at teachers who choose to sell their lesson plans online.

Teaching English in Chile

Guest blogger Katie Wilczak is a former Fordham intern.?? She is now teaching teaching English at a rural municipal high school in Chile through a program launched in 2003 by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the United Nations Development Programme called English Opens Doors .

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "M&M sorting is not a new concept...I made it easier for teachers to do. They just have to click and print." -Erica Bohrer, a Long Island elementary school teacher who sells lesson plans online

Carey embraces government waste, featherbedding, swelling debt

At "The Quick and the Ed,"??Kevin Carey??has offered an intriguing if somewhat??peculiar response to my and Rick Hess's piece in the Education Gadfly and the

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "This is not about getting in the game, this is about winning. There will be a lot more losers than winners." -Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, on Race to the Top awards

Charter-challenged

According to the Superintendent of Denver, Tom Boasberg, "Charter schools are public schools, and they must be public schools in every sense of the word." That's why he wants Denver's charters to accept all students within their geographic boundaries. The idea isn't really new, surprising, or troublesome; most charters must take all students who apply and some even abide by boundary rules.

Witness protection

Iowa is also dealing with confidentiality issues--for the accusers of teachers. For the last nine years, the state attorney general’s office has been violating a law that protects investigatory documents by sharing filed complaints (for fraud, sexual misconduct, gross incompetence, and abuse) with teachers, including the identity of the complainant.

Predictable "poverty"

What’s something that’s happened nearly every year for the last 100? (No, we’re not talking about the dashed hopes of Chicago Cubs’ fans.) School budgets have grown.

Race to the Top: Stepping away from reform?

They say you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. That just about sums up the difference between the Race to the Top’s “proposed priorities” and the final versions released today.

Teacher cover-up?

Based on the reaction of the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Education Association, you’d think recent state legislation that loosens teacher confidentiality laws was going to unleash Enron II.

Union jobs or education reforms?

The Department of Education reported the other day that, of the $97.4 billion in economic-stimulus funding that Congress steered its way, 69 percent was “obligated” by September 30th. (The balance--including Secretary Arne Duncan’s much-discussed “Race to the Top” money--must get out the door by September 2010.)

Follow the leader

At least four states have halted, and three others have slowed, their standards-revision processes in anticipation of the Common Core version.

The Essential School Board Book

Nancy WalserHarvard Education PressOctober 2009

??Qu?? Pasa? Are ELL Students Remaining in English Learning Classes Too Long?

Edward Flores, Gary Painter, and Harry PachonTomás Rivera Policy Institute, University of Southern CaliforniaNovember 2009

Everyone Wins: How Charter Schools Benefit All New York Public School Students

Marcus A. WintersManhattan Institute for Policy ResearchOctober 2009

Reminders about the efficacy of closures

Some folks are worried about the efficacy of closing persistently failing schools because of a recent study out of Chicago.

Concern coming to fruition?

Regarding the RTT's ability to drive change, I wrote this not too long ago (emphasis added):

Evaluating the Race to the Top final criteria

Re: Education as an issue of national security