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.
International Lessons about National Standards Conference live
Stafford PalmieriIt started at 9 am this morning and Jim Shelton is currently giving his remarks. Watch it live via webcast here.* *The webcast is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Stay tuned for more information. A video of the event will also be available later this week.
Discussing education standards
What would help Jim Shelton--at the Education Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement--do his job better? Clearer standards in this country.
And the common standards discussion continues
This afternoon, Dane Linn , director of the education division for the National Governors Association and Gene Wilhoit , executive director of the Council of Chief State School O
Buzzzzzz about our conference
Our conference today--on national education standards and the lessons that might be learned from other countries--is spurring some discussion.
Checked out, or never checked in?
Emmy L. PartinOhio's governor and House of Representatives are supporting a state budget bill that would add billions of dollars in state spending on public education over the next decade and would mandate more decisions about public education at the state level.
America needs independent education achievement "audit agency"
Chester E. Finn, Jr.I'm reminded again and again of America's need for an independent education-achievement "audit agency" to sort out the claims and counterclaims about student performance and school achievement and when it has risen and when it has flat-lined or fallen--and why.
Schnur leaving ED
According to Gotham Schools, ED Senior Advisor Jon Schnur will NOT be joining the Obama administration despite his leading education role during the campaign, transition, and early days of the Duncan regime.
Advanced Placement report in the news
Our Advanced Placement report has garnered quite a bit of national attention in the past two days as it addresses the question of whether the program's expansion is affecting its quality.
The problem with "culture is the problem"
Michael J. PetrilliPedro Noguera attacks David Whitman's book, published by Fordham last year, in
Arne Duncan speaks to the nation's education writers
Arne Duncan spoke to a packed room last night at the Education Writers Association conference, and got some chuckles by promising not to use his three favorite words during the speech: extraordinary, dramatic and incent.
Re: The GOP on education: Where's the next big idea?
Michael J. PetrilliMike Umphrey, an AP English Teacher in Polson, Montana, (and a loyal Flypaper reader!) offers??a great response to my post from a few days ago: My main reaction tends to be "Bah, humbug."
News from the Hill
This guest post was written by Fordham research intern Katie Wilczak. She attended the House hearing yesterday morning.
Growing pains in the Advanced Placement program
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Chester E. Finn, Jr.The Advanced Placement (AP) Program is enjoying a growth spurt in the United States. Over the past five years, the number of high-school students taking at least one AP exam increased more than 50 percent. There's probably no education program in America that's been expanding faster.
Gun Control in the Wild West
What's the best way to improve a negative perception? Change the reality feeding it. That's the constructive tack being taken by the new leaders of the Arizona Charter Schools Association (ACSA) as they crack down on their state's surfeit of low-performing charters.
Taxpayer chutzpah
Say you're a parent in a school district whose population is largely Haitian, African-American, and Hispanic. And say this district's board is dominated by Orthodox Jews who don't send their children to public schools and aren't happy about paying both high taxes and huge private school tuition bills. And say the board just voted to close an under-enrolled district school to curb costs.
The world needs firefighters, too
Within the education establishment, it's taken as an article of faith that schools should face budget cuts only after all other options have been exhausted. How about public safety? That's the debate playing out in Prince George's County, Maryland, a big Washington suburb now facing a massive budget shortfall.
Charter School Achievement: What We Know, 5th Edition
Laura BornfreundAnna NicoteraNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsApril 2009
Postsecondary Preparation and Remediation: Examining the Effect of the Early Assessment Program at California State University
Jessica S. Howell, Michal Kurlaender, and Eric GrodskyCalifornia State University, SacramentoApril 2009
Growing Pains in the Advanced Placement Program: Do Tough Trade-Offs Lie Ahead?
Steve Farkas, Ann DuffettOver the past five years, the number of students taking at least one Advanced Placement exam rose by more than half. This news is celebrated but is there a downside? To find out, Fordham commissioned the Farkas Duffett Research Group to survey AP teachers in the US. The AP program remains popular with its teachers. But there are signs that the move toward "open door" access to AP is starting to cause concern.
Evidence of innovation in school funding?
Emmy L. PartinYesterday in the Ohio Senate Education Committee, school funding expert and Buckeye (OSU class of '66 and '72) Paul Hill offered testimony about how Ohio can go about reforming its system of school funding while at the same time raising student perf
Growing Pains in the Advanced Placement Program: Do Tough Trade-offs Lie Ahead?
Michael J. PetrilliFordham's latest report is out this morning; it focuses on the dramatic expansion of the Advancement Placement program in recent years. In 2002-2003, 1 million students participated in AP by taking at least one exam. Five years later, nearly 1.6 million did???a 50+ percent increase.
Randi Weingarten going to the "dark side"?
Michael J. PetrilliCertain segments of the edu-sphere like to call those of us at Fordham silly (though, I'll admit, colorful) names, like "
The 100th day
Michael J. PetrilliPresident Barack Obama's "first 100 days" come to an end today, as you may have noticed from the barrage of fawning press coverage (
Good news from NAEP
NAEP long-term trend scores were released yesterday, and the results are quite positive.