Degrees of separation

Got a really interesting note from an excellent program officer at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

The sky is falling. Seriously.

Collectively, we should be increasingly alarmed about the education portion of the ARRA. ????States have begun to file their applications for the first big batch (~$33 billion) of stabilization funds.

???????Checked Out??????? still worth checking out

Last week's Fordham Institute and Catalyst Ohio report, Checked Out: Ohioans' Views on Education 2009, still has people talking in the Buckeye State.????

The students behind the education policy talk

Students at Dayton View Academy walk silently through the school halls.

Catching the bribe vibe

While Andy grows increasingly pessimistic about the education stimulus, I am starting to see some more reasons for hope.

Obama endorses education industry's goal to rein in costs

From the Washington Post: In his quest to transform American education, President Obama appeared yesterday to put his faith in pledges from some of the interest groups that helped scuttle reform in years past, but the industry's promises fell well short of the White House's expansive claims.

The David Brooks book club

No turnarounds; close and start new

As I've alluded to a number of times, I'm convinced that turnarounds are not a scalable strategy for fixing America's struggling urban school systems.

What a debate

Long-time antagonists????Eva Moskowitz????(former NYC education committee chair and founder of Harlem Success Academy charter schools) and Randi Weingarten (AFT and UFT president) debated on NYC television. ????It's gripping in parts.

Do what works

Nice editorial from the Post about the funding troubles faced by DC charters.

Are things better in NYC?

New state????test scores from NY show gains for kids in the Big Apple! Or do they? ????Read to the bottom of the article and you'll see that Mike P, among others, is skeptical.

Are things better overall?

The debate over progress in NYC is a microcosm of a much bigger discussion in ed reform circles: For all of the money and effort expended, have America's schools really gotten any better?

Obama's 2010 budget proposal

The administration released its 2010 budget proposal yesterday.????Check out the specifics here. Just a few highlights???????

Which star would make the best Steve Barr?

Yesterday I reported on the New Yorker profile of Green Dot founder Steve Barr, and speculated that it might inspire a movie version.

Video: National standards in other nations

L.A. story

Hollywood loves to glamorize the heroic inner-city teacher, and occasionally celebrates the heroic inner-city principal .

Video: Jim Shelton at our common education standards event

Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on Student Persistence, Achievement, and Graduation

Sean F. Reardon, Allison Atteberry, Nicole Arshan, and Michal KurlaenderInstitute for Research on Education Policy and Practice at Stanford UniversityApril 2009

Gentleman pranksters

Some high-school senior pranks leave lasting damage and result in criminal charges for the perpetrators. Other antics live in memoriam after the cow has been coaxed off the school roof.

Education foxes and hens

I'm reminded again and again of America's need for independent education-achievement testing-and-audit bureaus to track and report student performance and school achievement and to sort out the claims and counterclaims regarding when these indicators have risen and when not--and perhaps also to explain why.

International lessons about national standards

The 1997 release of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results was a wake-up call for the United States--and for Germany.

NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress

Bobby Rampey, Gloria Dion, and Patricia DonahueNational Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education SciencesApril 2009

All smoke and no fire

Speaking of Los Angeles, over the past fifteen years, the LA Unified School District boasts a total of 159 review cases for firing tenured teachers--159 in fifteen years.

Raising the Barr

Steve Barr has an "'Oh shucks, you know me--I can't control my mouth' persona," explains President of the California State Board of Education Ted Mitchell. It comes in handy as the Founder and Chairman of Green Dot, a charter school organization based in the Sunshine State. "He's a public curmudgeon and a private negotiator," continues Mitchell.

Bing wins in comeback

Disappointing DC voucher development

Disappointing news from the Obama administration today. While the President's budget will include funding for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, it will formalize the Department's recent decision to not allow any new students to join.

Most wonderful time of the year

It's National Charter Schools Week, and the Alliance has all kinds of activities planned and news to share. Here are a couple highlights:

More from the to-read pile

If you've ever hired anyone, you know that that colleague you get is nearly always quite different than the candidate you interviewed--sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always different.

Twitter

If you're like me, you're generally skeptical of this Twitter business. ????It seems kind of like LoJack but for people. ????But I've come around lately, thanks in part to my colleagues here at TBFI.

Kidding ourselves

In the midst of the school-funding battle here in the Buckeye State, it is easy to lose sight of the other major education reforms on Governor Strickland'