Retooled - a dispatch from Dayton

Who likes Jerry Weast the least?

I'm starting to think we should have a reader contest by that name. Last week I printed a letter from Joe Hawkins, a former Montgomery County official, explaining the underbelly of Weast's tenure.

Morning brief

My take on the Department's supposed pushiness, the states' need for cash, and the RTTT. MATCH's Goldstein, filling in at Eduwonk, on drafting off TFA.

Looking for the Liam Julian I once knew

He's not exactly the prodigal son , for he hasn't returned, and, well, he's not my son. But he's lost, gone "rogue" as one colleague put it, off the reservation.

Charter school quality

I'm on Chapter 7 of my book (of 12). ????This one recommends a new way to look at the value of charter schooling (teaser: it's not about looking at the quality of individual schools). ????So I've been swimming in the previous research and writing on this subject. ????If you're interested in this subject, here are a few things you might want to check out:

Proof of the poor state of the U.S. education system

This will make you laugh. And then it will make you cry at the poor state of the U.S. education system.

Make up your mind, please, Gov. Strickland

Gov. Strickland needs to make up his mind about what to do with persistently failing schools in Ohio.

Fun Fact Friday! - Waiting....

The sixth video in our Fun Fact Friday! video series looks at students and the attention they receive at school. ----- Video fact source:

Jerry Weast and his many detractors

Often it's hard as a writer to know if you are having any impact, in fact to know if anyone is even reading your stuff.

The South and gentrification, two key drivers for school reform

So I argue in today's Education Gadfly. Read it here.

Assessing students

Today at a conference hosted by the Alliance for Excellent Education, titled Teachers'??

A truce in the voucher wars?

There's encouraging news out of Hillsborough County, Florida this morning, the home of Tampa and the eighth largest school district in the country.??The headline from the??St.

Morning news

Not too much breaking news in the education world during these quiet August days. Secretary Duncan has even????decamped to the Last Frontier state.

Meta-errata

As always you should read this week's????Gadfly (and listen to the????podcast while you're at it, though I've been

Greener pastures

Refuting the widely-held notion that charter schools cater almost exclusively to urban communities and minority students, the Columbus Dispatch reports that suburban and rural students are making up an increasing percentage of charter school rolls in the Buckeye State.

Skipping class or class skipping

Here's one way school districts can cut costs and increase student learning: embrace "grade skipping" for their most advanced pupils. So argue Laura Vanderkam and Richard Whitmire in a recent Ed Week commentary.

A first-rate education for all

If America's elementary and high schools laid a sounder educational foundation for more of their students, America's colleges would be far more successful at constructing a solid and artful edifice atop it.

No more shortcuts

Echoing last week's Texan attempt to keep dropouts in school, currently-enrolled Florida students might think twice before taking that state's GED early exit.

Power check

After much squabbling and power grabbing, the New York state legislature has given mayoral control of New York City's schools back to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, thirty-eight days after the six-year old measure expired.

Rhode Island gets the Gist

We predicted that Deborah Gist would bring her hard-knock reformer skills to Rhode Island, possibly manifesting in an overhaul of that state's timeworn, ineffectual teacher evaluation system. This seems to be exactly what she plans to do.

Tongue-twister

Gadfly was beset with a startling case of G 'n R letter confusion in last week's Recommended Reading, "A conflict of interest." The last name of the mayor of Los Angeles is Villaraigosa, not Villagairosa.

For progressive school reform, look South

If you ask education experts to name cutting-edge spots for reform, they are likely to list Washington; New York; New Orleans; and maybe Denver. These are certainly the cities whose systems and superintendents have gotten the lion's share of press attention recently.

The Tradeoff Between Teacher Wages and Layoffs to Meet Budget Cuts

Marguerite RozaCenter on Reinventing Public Education, University of WashingtonJuly 2009

Progress in the rust belt and charters

Excellent Ed Week article on Detroit schools Baltimore schools CEO thinks his district can become a national model

Re: The placid world of American education

The debate in education at the local and state level is far from placid (as Mike recently described it), and is sometimes incredibly toxic because the issues affect our children and our collective future.

Plagiarism!

Everyone knows that Internet plagiarism is a big problem, but now it looks like it has infected the education policy world. To what do I refer? The Alliance for Excellent Education, which is always trying to rip off Fordham's best ideas!

Interesting state news

Inflated graduation rates in AL More on the CA firewall issue

Debunking the demonizers of student testing

An op-ed by Cleveland State University education professor Karl Wheatley in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer argues that the pursuit of improved student achievement in our public schools is l

The placid world of American education

I'm just back from vacation, and while Checker spent his holiday reading about how the founders brought our country together, I dug into how "The Big Sort

Today's 'Quotable and Notable'

Quotable: