“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
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.
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.
Consortium on Chicago School ResearchUniversity of Chicago Urban Education InstituteOctober 2009
Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan C. HasselPublic ImpactOctober 2009550px;height:500px">
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.
Education schools are under attack--yet again. But don’t yawn and assume that this, too, shall pass. For unlike innumerable previous assaults, which these institutions withstood with awesome obstinacy, this one may actually crack their fortified walls. That’s no sure thing, of course, given the history of failed attempts at reform in this area.
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.
You can now watch the live webcast of our event on national education standards . No registration required. The webstream will work on both PCs and Macs.
National Journal's "education experts" are having a discussion about my Ed Next article on turnarounds and the Obama administration's fidelity to this strategy.
Quotable: "I don't see any other state that has thrown the brunt of its budget shortfall onto the laps of our students." - Celia Molina, Hawaii parent
Quotable: "I'm talking about the law. Why bother to have a legislative body if the people in the executive branch do whatever they choose because they don't like the decision of the legislative body?" -D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D)
A week ago, I posted this in response to Secretary Duncan's speech about education schools at Teachers College. Over the course of several days, there were 11 comments posted that, when printed out, clocked in at 20 pages (single spaced, mind you).
Just in time for Halloween, schools around the country sent letters home to parents about what constitutes an "appropriate" costume. Out are masks, fake weapons, and gory make up. In are innocuous food items (carrots! pumpkins!) and cute furry animals.
A new study on school closures in Chicago reports an unsurprising but important finding: the quality of the school a student attends after he/she is displaced by a closure is extremely important.
The 2009 edition of my favorite annual report has just been released.
Quotable: "There are places in America where if you really saw what was going on, as Americans, we would be totally embarrassed. It's Katrina happening without the floods....It's so ugly we have decided not to look at it." -Geoff Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone
As Amy indicates, the latest findings from the just-released National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report contain few surprises, especially since we're well
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is out with a new report today that looks at state achievement levels using the common yardstick of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Not great news. According to the AP story:
Having touted teacher quality as an important spoke of his reform wheel, it was only a matter of time before Education Secretary Arne Duncan took on the largest purveyor of teacher training: education schools.
In this excellent biographical article in City Journal, Sol Stern takes a closer look at the life and works of E. D. Hirsch, Jr. Father of the Core Knowledge movement (and foundation by the same name), Hirsch started as a scholar of English.
Theodore R. (Ted) Sizer, who passed away last week after a long and valiant battle with cancer, was a towering figure in American education--and a wonderful guy.
Susan Moore Johnson and John P. PapayEconomic Policy Institute2009
Thomas Toch and Chad AldemanEducation SectorSeptember 2009
Last week, you may have read about Rhode Island State Superintendent Deborah Gist’s move to abolish seniority bumping rights for teachers. But what you might not have seen was another move just as important: Raising cut scores for Rhode Island teacher candidates on the Praxis I exam.
Jean Johnson, Andrew Yarrow, Jonathan Rochkind, and Amber OttPublic AgendaOctober 2009
After the pomp, circumstance, and hope we can believe in of 2008, you may have an election hangover. And if you don’t live in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, or Boston, you may not have even realized that next Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day. But of four big races (and a few ballot initiatives) due next week, education is a common theme in all of them.
Forget sleeping in class. Try sleeping on the way to class. At night! On a Sunday! Last weekend, sheriff’s deputies in St. Charles, Illinois, discovered a 5 year-old boy at his elementary school way past his bedtime. Seems the little guy had sleepwalked to school, managing to escape the house without waking his parents.
