John Easton to be director of the Institute for Education Sciences
It's been rumored before, but I'm hearing that it's a done deal: John Easton,
It's been rumored before, but I'm hearing that it's a done deal: John Easton,
Watch out Massachusetts; your little neighbor to the south is poised to become the next big school reform powerhouse.
This morning, the Department of Education posted all the information you could ever want about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (phew). But we're still interested in exploring budget cuts and whether they can catalyze education reform. Are you?
We got a bit ahead of schedule this week so we thought we'd publish a day early. You know what they say about that early worm... or early bird? Whatever.
National Center for Education StatisticsMarch 2009
Much has been much written about the challenges of understanding Gov. Strickland's school-funding plan. For example, the Akron Beacon Journal asked, why some "wealthy districts receive more state money than much poorer ones?
Two Ohio lawmakers on opposite sides of the political aisle say it is critical for the state to address a looming pension crisis among teachers and other public-sector employees."There have been rumblings about pensions for some time. We've seen bloated pension benefits take down companies like GM," said Rep. Seth Morgan (R-Huber Heights).
Very encouraging article out of Newark, NJ about the growth of high-quality charters in that city and other urban areas in the state.
Fred Hiatt pens a very good piece in today's Post about Bill Gates' priorities for K-12 education reform and how these align with the positions of the president, secretary of education, and DC schools chancellor.
When I talk to friends or suburban audiences about urban education, the conversation nearly always turns to the role of parents. ????The consensus is that disinterested, disengaged parents are to blame for the discouraging results of inner-city public schools. ????From this, they typically infer that these schools will never turn around until parents shape up.
During my time at the Alliance, I got to know and greatly respect the work of ConnCAN, a nonprofit education research and advocacy organization in Connecticut.
The NYT reports on a new study finding that if a school is within a block of a fast-food restaurant, its students are more likely to be obese. ????I've been fascinated by obesity studies since I read that 100 years ago the wealthiest quartile in America was the heaviest but today the poorest quartile is.
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Lynne Munson of Common Core offers the inside scoop on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills's pep rally held at the NEA yesterday.
...is here.??First up, take a closer look at our new voucher and accountability paper.
Michael Gurian, Kathy Stevens, and Peggy DanielsJossey-Bass Publishing2009
Ron Zimmer, Brian Gill, Kevin Booker, Stephane Lavertu, Tim Sass, and John WitteRAND EducationMarch 2009
Conventional wisdom says that most states and school districts will make budget cuts in the most boneheaded manner possible: lay off their young teachers, eliminate art and music classes, decimate sports programs, and so forth. And evidence from the current recession indicates that this conventional wisdom is usually right.
What do outer space and Appalachia have in common? They're both topics that students could encounter in reading comprehension passages on typical state tests. And they illustrate E.D. Hirsch's big beef with such assessments: they mean to test students' reading abilities, but they really test students' knowledge on randomly-chosen topics.
John D. Bransford, Deborah J. Stipek, Nancy J. Vye, Louis M. Gomez, and Diana Lam, eds.Harvard Education PressFebruary 2009
If it's sensational, it'll sell papers. That's the motto of most periodicals and the tack the New York Post was surely taking with this subhead: "Teachers watched porn on work computers, falsified records to pad their pockets, faked doctors' notes to go on vacation." The New York Department of Education received 2,886 misconduct accusations last year--the most ever.
When the federal government starts talking in billions, is it too much to ask that the money be well spent? Apparently so. In the rush to get funds out to states and districts ASAP, education stimulus dollars are being dispersed via a tangle of federal formulae.
The Washington Post's Jay Mathews is ready to close the book on vouchers. While he supports them himself, he thinks "[t]his nation of public school backers just won't go for vouchers." But hold the eulogizing for just a sec. Simply because D.C.'s program is on the block doesn't mean there's not hope beyond the Beltway.
As we write, the fate of the District of Columbia voucher initiative (a.k.a. Opportunity Scholarship Program) hangs in the balance. Ambiguous, ambivalent remarks from President Obama's camp and Secretary Duncan certainly haven't helped to secure its future and its Congressional and interest-group enemies seem bent on ending it--with a possible reprieve for current beneficiaries.
The best and brightest among educational entrepreneurs are often called rock stars. Though I can hardly imagine two things more different than, say, a ???????no excuses???????
During last night's prime-time press conference, President Obama was asked about shared sacrifices during these tough times. The president noted that these are indeed difficult times for many Americans.
The trusty Reform-o-Meter has become a little rusty lately; that's because there hasn't been a lot of action at the U.S. Department of Education worth rating. This is particularly true since we still don't know who the picks for Deputy Secretary, Undersecretary, or Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education will be.