What money can buy

We've debated in the past whether it's a good idea for schools to reward s

Tell us what you think

As we consider changes and improvements to the Ohio Education Gadfly, we want to know what our readers think. We invite you to take a short survey about the Gadfly (accessible online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=J3kL2UiqJG3CBosslxNEzQ_3d_3d). 

Talking education in the Gem City

On October 29, the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Frank M.

The incredible shrinking Dayton

In the last decade the Dayton Public Schools (DPS) have contracted by more than 10,000 students; seeing enrollment decline from 24,916 students in 2000 to 14,393 students in 2009. During this same period Dayton has become one of the country’s leading charter school markets. 

Thinking outside the quality/quantity box: focusing on strategic use of teachers' time and talent

Teacher quality is arguably the most important variable impacting student achievement. Americans have generally accepted this truism, either through common sense or nostalgia, and policy wonks and politicians (armed with substantive evidence that good teaching matters) are elevating teacher quality as a primary focus of reform and pursuing relevant policy changes.

Timing of funding panel calls its impact into question

Alongside putting in place Governor Strickland’s “evidence-based” model of school funding, House Bill 1 – the state’s biennial budget – called for an advisory panel to issue “recommendations for revisions to the educational adequacy components of the school funding model,” among a slew of other charges.

Making middle schools work

The Columbus Dispatch writes that "the truth about Columbus middle schools is brutal." More than 70 percent of the district’s middle schools are rated "D" or "F" by the state and none of them met federal Adequate Yearly Progress targets.

The fall of the Berlin Wall: Voices from the past

Performance pay in the Lone Star State

The "Differentiated Compensation in Education" conference, hosted by fellow Buckeye Staters Battelle for Kids, in Houston this week reminds me how messy the "nuts and bolts" of policy implementation can get.

SFSF, round two

Yesterday, the US Department of Education released documents related to the second and final batch of funding (~$11 billion) under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

Is New Haven bad for DC?

Much has been made of the new New Haven collective bargaining agreement--by President Obama, Secretary Duncan, AFT President Randi Weingarten, and even reformers in Connecticut, like Alex Johnston of ConnCAN, who sees it as promising.

Snow laughing matter

What child hasn't shrieked with glee upon hearing that it's a "snow day" and school is closed?

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "Charter schools are public schools, and they must be public schools in every sense of the word...Effectively, there will be absolutely no distinction between charter schools and district schools." -Tom Boasberg, Superintendant of Denver Public Schools

Despite extracurricular 'trimming', this one can't be 'cut'

Cool map, interesting report: How educationally innovative is your state?

This cool, interactive map grades all 50 states plus the District of Columbia on educational innovation and accompanies the just-released report Leaders and Laggards: A State by State Report Card on Educational Innovation?.

Jobs over reform

Despite Secretary Duncan's imploring states and districts to use formula-based ARRA funding for reform, it appears that nearly all of it went to job protection.

Quote of the year on RTT

Obviously, I've been playing the lecturing schoolmarm about RTT, warning that we have to increase our skepticism and manage our expectations. I've been looking for a pithy way to summarize my concern that states are much more interested in getting these federal funds than in pursuing the reforms those funds are meant to support.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable:

Another reason to support newspapers

Education Week's Alyson Klein doing some top-notch on-the-ground reporting on Colorado's efforts to get Race to the Top funds.

Education as an issue of national security

You know that it's a stark indicator of the educational readiness of America's youth when even former military leaders publicly admit that too many young people are academically ineligible to be recruited.??

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "I would just hope administrators, as they're looking at the budget, would look first to areas that don't impact student learning." -Kerry Birmingham, media relations specialist for the Michigan Education Association

Interesting tidbit

Informative new report on school choice from Heritage Texas to streamline process for expanding great charters

Read the fine print

The administration chose Wisconsin as the site for the president's Race to the Top speech yesterday, we're told, because that state's legislature is about to get rid of its data firewall.

Education Week on Fordham's standards event...

Great discussion yesterday at our national standards event. Here's an article in Education Week that highlights some of it.

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "[For-profit companies] see public education as a windfall for their bottom line, and they are taking what is an education crisis in Georgia and the nation and trying to make a buck.?? They see children as profit margins."

Contextual literacy

“I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep…Those numbers completely changed my professional life,” says Sarah Fanning, referring to 1999 test scores that revealed a full third of freshmen at Buckhorn High School in New Market, Alabama, where Fanning oversees curriculum and instruction, read at or below the seventh-grade level. In response, Buckhorn became an earl

Digital blunder

Call before you print--that’s the lesson for Linda Vista Elementary School in Yorba Linda, California. That school’s PTA recently made tee-shirts for a student jog-a-thon that featured the school mascot (a lion) and an inspiring seven-letter slogan transformed into a 1-800 number.

High school diplomas go retro

In perhaps the worst decision since the resurrection of the legwarmer, the North Carolina General Assembly has effectively granted retroactive diplomas to scores of high school seniors who failed graduation tests.

Look-a-likes

When the Gates Foundation announced in July that it would give up to $250,000 grants to fifteen states to help them with their Race to the Top applications, it was exercising the right of a private organization to be selective with its funds. But then the neglected 35 cried “unfair.” And the financial floodgates opened.

Mom-and-pop edureform

The Parent Revolution in Los Angeles continues to bring home the bacon, having managed to put organized parents squarely in the center of local education politics.