Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, we'd like to offer up and oldie but a goodie: last year's Fordham Earth Day video. Enjoy!

Smart voucher program accountability in the Buckeye State

Students who attend a private school through Ohio's EdChoice Scholarship Program still take the state's achievement tests each spring. The results are reported to the state education department, but nothing much else is done with the data. The results aren't reported publicly.

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Our fickle Reform-o-Meter has been trending chilly lately, so this

The more things change, part II

Picking up on Andy's perspicacious observation last week, consider this quote:

Can the stimulus stimulate weighted student funding?

It's well-documented that school funding, generally speaking, is too opaque.

Supreme Court the only group in town talking about NCLB

At least that's how it appears to me. Almost everyone else has moved onto the stimulus and the economy, but not SCOTUS. See this report from Ed Week blogger Mark Walsh??on yesterday's hearing in Flores v. Horne.

Disappearing Catholic schools

Our president, Chester Finn Jr., and our distinguished visiting fellow Andy Smarick have penned a very nice piece in the Washington Post today about the crisis in urban Catholic schools and the need for the Obama administration to step up and help ???

Do as I say...

The Post turns in another great editorial on the DC scholarship program.

Flypaper readers speak, and the verdict is: I'm a squish!

It had been a while since I glanced at our reader polls for recent Reform-o-Meter ratings, so I just took a look.

Haiku-ing on vouchers

A friend just forwarded me this excellent blog, "Serenity Though Haiku." The site has an admittedly particular political bent ("surviving the Obama years," if you were curious), but it straddles all political lines with this fabulous succinct pronouncement on the D

Columbine

The massacre at Columbine High School happened ten years ago, on April 20, 1999. Hard to believe it has been that long.

The prize of true friendship for Catholic schools

Optimism on a Friday!

Over at the Charter Blog, Nelson Smith provides some very interesting color????to the "A System of Schools" report I touched upon<

Good news, great news, no news, true news

Let's break it down: Good news: "NGA, CCSSO Launch Common Standards Drive" Great news: Oklahoma House votes unanimously to approve ABCTE

In defense of voucher opponents

Jay Greene had a lot of smart things to say in this Wall Street Journal op-ed, but I found his opening paragraph unpersuasive:

Good 'flying to you

It's packed this week and quite a read. First up, discover Checker's thoughts on Obama as First Role Model. We know he's commander-in-chief, world leader, international negotiator... but what about First Parent?

Arnold gets a check

Here's some late-in-the-day education news...Apparently, $4 billion in stimulus dollars has been cleared for California. The AP reports.

All the world's a stage...

Back in April 1995, the New York City Partnership, an organization of NYC-based business leaders, released a report on overhauling Gotham's public education system. ????Titled "A System of Schools," the report has held up remarkably well over time, bordering on prescient in places.

Re: Arne's tepid teammates

I've gotten some push-back from some friends about this post from yesterday; they think I went too soft on the newest members of the Obama Administration. (If you click on "view results" under our poll, however, you'll see that Flypaper readers are all over the map on the issue.)

From hot to cold on vouchers

Flypaper readers know we've been all over the saga of the District of Columbia's federally-funded "Opportunity Scholarship Program" in recent weeks, but I've yet to give the latest twists the proper Reform-o-Meter treatment.

Charters facing tough times

Jay P. Greene had??an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.??He talks about the problems that charter schools are facing in New York:

Missed opportunities

The recent saga of the District of Columbia's federally-funded "Opportunity Scholarship Program" is one of opportunities missed or squandered, mostly by the Obama Administration.

School Choice and Home Prices: Evidence from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Marcus WintersSCDP Milwaukee EvaluationMarch 2009

An island of excellence

While the 2004 moratorium on new Rhode Island charters expired last June, it's taken months longer for state dollars to catch up. The Ocean State currently has a paltry 11 charters serving 3,100 students--and the waiting list to get in is almost as long.

A swing and a hiss

Adults, beware this age-old problem: the childhood tendency to take your words literally. That's what's happened to one poor bloke in Palm Harbor, Florida. After a particularly nasty losing streak, the coach of a high school baseball team told his players they were "snake-bitten" and needed to turn themselves around.

Balanced Scorecards and Management Data

Frederick M. Hess and Jon FullertonCenter for Education Policy Research at Harvard UniversityFebruary 2009

Patriotism, education, and the Obamas

Barack and Michele Obama seem to be exemplary parents. They're sending their daughters to a fine D.C. private school (while withdrawing similar options from hundreds of low-income Washingtonians). They left the girls home where they belonged--with Grandma and teachers--instead of carting them off to Europe.

Should principals walk the plank?

No child likes to be sent to the principal's office. Some students in Tucson, Arizona must be thanking their lucky stars. As the district contemplates an 18 percent budget cut, it seems some schools may cut their vice principals, share principals, or even abolish the school-leader position altogether.

NYT on NCLB reauthorization

Sam Dillon from the NYT turns in an????article that speculates on the contours????of an NCLB/ESEA reauthorization. There's no new news to report, and I doubt that we'll see any real movement on legislation this year--ED is too busy with the ARRA and too short-staffed to push this hard themselves.

Former Mayor to mediate

Kurt Schmoke, the former mayor of Baltimore, has been chosen to mediate contract negotiations between Michelle Rhee and the DC teachers union.