The Accountability Illusion event video

Check out our long-overdue "The Accountability Illusion" event video. You can read the full report here. Don't forget to check out our "Fix That Failing School" video game!

Vouchers: Not so radical anymore

Arne Duncan, warming to school vouchers

I've already parsed the meaning of Arne Duncan's statements about Washington's school voucher program (he doesn't think vouchers ???ultimately are the answer??? because they're not ???ambitious???

Charter schools rock

Gadfly has arrived

You don't want to miss this spectacular issue (and enjoy it too, since Gadfly's taking his spring break--woo hoo! Cancun!--next week and will return to your inboxes on March 19).

Can we get to national standards, considering the pitfalls?

My feet aren't frozen, but as the march toward national or "common" academic standards trudges through deepening snow, they're getting chilly. Evidence is mounting that those who take curricular content seriously may not like what we find at the end of this road, and I worry that America could be headed toward another painful bout of curriculum warfare.

Cold cheese is better than no cheese

Economists take note: there is a free lunch, and it's a cheese sandwich. Albuquerque, New Mexico is facing a troubling problem: students who show up to school without their lunch money. (Mind you, these are children who aren't eligible for the official federally-funded "free lunch" program.) In the past, the district has absorbed the cost of delinquent lunch tabs--i.e.

Get on the ball already

There are all sorts of new ways to let kids wiggle while they learn. But glance in the window of an elementary school classroom, and you may just see students wobbling behind their desks on stability balls. Seems these brightly colored inflatable balls aren't just a Pilates accoutrement after all.

Vouchers: Not so radical anymore

There's been a lot of chatter the past few weeks about President Obama's efforts to shift the American political center sharply to the left. Universal health care, caps on carbon emissions, and steeply progressive taxation have in recent years been considered "liberal" positions.

Elite not elitist

Will Garden State voc ed schools give traditional high schools a run for their money? Seems that way--and in more ways than one.

Foolish in Fresno

Defaulting on a $2.3 million loan may spell the end of Fresno, California's KIPP Academy, one of the few high-performing middle schools in the district. The school needs a $5 million grant from the state to stay afloat, but the Fresno Unified School District is withholding its much-needed endorsement.

Achievement Effects of Four Early Elementary School Math Curricula: Findings from First Graders in 39 Schools

Roberto Agodini, Barbara Harris, Sally Atkins-Burnett, Sheila Heaviside, and Timothy NovakMathematica Policy Research for Institute of Education SciencesFebruary 2009

Realizing the Promise: How State Policy Can Support Alternative Certification Programs

Robin Chait and Michele McLaughlinCenter for American ProgressFebruary 2009

Buckeye charter schools continue to shoot themselves in the foot

Charter schools in Ohio are under serious threat. The governor has presented a state budget that would cut funding for charter schools to the point that most schools would have to close, while all would face increased regulation.

Charter schools in Harlem

Interesting article in the New York Times about the proliferation of charter schools in Harlem. This borough has a substantial and growing share of NYC's charters. But what's with the headline? The article certainly shows the ???????more choices in Harlem,???????

Department of Education's 2010 budget

With less than $50 billion of discretionary spending, the US Department of Education's 2010 budget seems downright quaint compared to the money it's getting through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Higher education accessibility

I'm still making my way through the pile of reports that I put off reading for the last year and a half, and I'm finding some very interesting stuff.

Arne Duncan supports D.C. vouchers

Education Secretary Arne Duncan made some waves today. In this Associated Press story he said poor children receiving vouchers to attend private schools in the District of Columbia should not be pulled out of school. Duncan opposes vouchers but said that D.C. is a special case.

Live-blogging the NAGB conference: Duncan's end goal

At the??National Assessment Governing Board's??20th anniversary event today at the National Press Club, Secretary Duncan is talking with passion about nearly all the important reforms--but he's also horrified by the prospect of class sizes growing if any teachers get laid off due to the recession.

School success under NCLB depends on the state

Whether schools, including those in Ohio, make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under federal law is as much a product of inconsistent rules set by state education officials as of actual pupil achievement, according to a new study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Special analysis of House Bill 1

Substitute House Bill 1, the legislative vehicle for Gov. Strickland's biennial budget proposal, was introduced last week. At more than 3,100 pages, the bill is massive, and its education section alone numbers more than 700 pages. It is a tall, but necessary, task to quickly analyze the budget bill and understand what its many education-related provisions mean for Ohio's schools and students.

21st century skills: an old familiar song

Diane Ravitch (see here) is a research professor and educational historian at New York University, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a former assistant U.S. secretary of education, a nationally renowned education expert and author, and a Thomas B.

Buckeye charter schools continue to shoot themselves in the foot

 Charter schools in Ohio are under serious threat. The governor has presented a state budget that would cut funding for charter schools to the point that most schools would have to close, while all would face increased regulation (see above).

Re: Human capital or elitism constraining charter scale up?

Let me start by saying how glad I am that Andy Smarick is guest-blogging on Flypaper. I've known Andy for many years and think he's one of the smartest thinkers in education (see this great Education Next piece by him, for instance), and also among the world's nicest guys.

A reprieve for Achieve

I've gotten a lot of feedback about my post yesterday regarding Achieve and its efforts (along with the NGA, CCSSO, etc.) to move states toward "common" standards.

Human capital or elitism constraining charter scale up?

I just had a chance to tackle Steven Wilson's ???????Success at Scale in Charter Schooling,??????? an AEI Working Paper that generated a good bit of buzz late last year. ????Wilson found that the vast majority of teachers in the best urban charters are graduates of the nation's most elite colleges.

Human capital or elitism in charter schools - the debate continues

I'm delighted to report that our debate was so powerful and compelling that the AEI staff, after reading our comments, arranged an event to dive deeper into these very matters! (Just kidding, though we shouldn't underestimate the far-reaching powers of this blog!)

Isn't it ironic?

If the state of Ohio were a charter school, it could see its public funding frozen and lose its authority to open new offices and agencies. According to the Columbus Dispatch:

Girl Scouts modernize

Girl Scouts badges are so 20th century. Moms as troop leaders for teenagers? Also pass????. But educating young women and providing the public with yummy cookies? Well, those Do-Si-Dos and Samoas will never go out of fashion.

A Sidwell snow day all year long