Is Sarah Palin channeling Fordham?

Last night: "Science should be taught in science class."--Sarah Palin August 2005: "Science class is for science"--The Education Gadfly

Calling for independent research

Economist Roland Fryer's Educational Innovation Laboratory is off to the races, thanks to the Broad Foundation, experimenting with new ways of incentivizing kids to learn in three big cities (New York , Chicago,

Catholic schools redux

Looks like Catholic schools are taking on a new role in urban France. (We've written on the importance of Catholic schools in the US, too.)

Of Jerry Maguire and perverse incentives

This blog has seen various commentary on why Michelle Rhee's plan, "Capital Gains," to pay students for good behavior and good grades was a bad idea (try here to see the ongoing conversation). Liam, in particular, was vehemently opposed to it in its New York City and Washington DC manifestations.

Re: Don't get queasy about John Deasy

Mike may catch the attention of governors and superintendents, but school boards are deaf.

Isolationism: school edition

Oklahoma is trying an education venture some say will help kids stay in school and do better: removing one or perhaps two critical grades and creating separate schools for them. Ninth-graders in Coweta this year are the first to occupy a campus that's just for freshmen and Cache Public Schools plans something similar.

Broken government

No, I refer not to the failed bailout, but to the extension bill or "continuing resolution" needed now that Congress has failed to pass a 2009 budget prior to the end of the 2008 fiscal year (today).

Un- "sharp" priorities

It still makes me gag to see people I think well of--Roy Romer, J.C. Watts, Joel Klein--sharing a letterhead with the lamentable and reprehensible Al Sharpton.

Hirin' and firin'

I don't always agree with Jay Mathews, but he has written an excellent column this morning. The crux of his argument is particularly well put:

Scalpel, meet ineffective federal programs

In the debate Friday night, Barack Obama responded to John McCain's idea of freezing federal spending by arguing that "the problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel." Then, on Face the Natio

The activities gap

Erin Johnson debates Neil McCluskey so you don't have to

Check out the latest battle over school choice in the comments section here .

Obama's values

Alyson Klein at Education Week 's Campaign K-12 picks up on my "scalpel " post to dig into the likely candidates for Barack Obama's knife, were he to win the pr

Courting common sense

A post from guest blogger and Fordham writer and researcher Emmy Partin .

"Good" does not appear in front of "teacher" automatically

Kudos to Jay Mathews for writing this:

Everyone needs standards

"Responsibility! Accountability! Discipline! Oversight!

Slipping Science standards

Education journals get a lot of flack for their low research standards and willingness to publish almost anything. I've heard many people say that what education needs is something akin to JAMA or Science.

Joel Klein "friends" Thomas B.

As many of you, I hope, know, I, Thomas B. aka The Gadfly, have entered the social networking world--on Facebook. ??Just this morning, in fact, Joel Klein, Chancellor of New York City Schools, requested to become my friend on said networking site. I accepted his request with alacrity.

Gadfly--It's hot!

You won't want to miss this week's Gadfly. Checker and Stafford explain why community schools (as espoused by the Broader, Bolder folks and Randi Weingarten over at the AFT) are the antithesis of David Whitman's paternalistic model.

Schoolchildren heed John McCain's example

GADFLY NEWS SERVICE: HUNTSALOOSA, TN. A fourth-grade class in this small town gained national attention yesterday when a group of students petitioned their teacher to postpone their spelling test scheduled for Friday in light of the financial crisis on Wall Street.

After Sol Stern, and After Milwaukee

Rick Hess's recent piece in The American is finally online.

Maybe 'school' isn't the answer for the world's poor

According to Campaign K-12, Senator Barack Obama told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering today that he would invest $2 billion to close the international "education gap" by 2015--which I think means he'd work to get all kids across the world into schools by that date.

How schools can survive the financial downturn

Back-to-school time, soaring fuel prices, and a wobbly economy are all upon us, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that the papers are brimming with sad stories about schools getting slammed by skyrocketing costs and slumping tax revenues. "Hard Times Hitting Students and Schools," reported the New York Times recently. "Schools eye four-day week to cut fuel costs," declared Reuters.

Nanny state

Does Junior have a sour attitude? Tired of his aberrant adolescent behavior? Just drop him off at a local hospital to become a ward of the state. That's right. No need to ground him for attending that raucous party last weekend. Of course, you may have to move to Warren Buffett's neighborhood to pull this off.

Outward bound

In what has become a regular autumnal occurrence, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and Broward Country, Florida, school systems find themselves embarked upon yet another year of declining enrollments. And they're not alone.

The community schools con

When Randi Weingarten introduced her brainchild, the "community school," in her speech accepting the presidency of the American Federation of Teachers, we found it sorely wanting. And, of course, we found it not the least bit new, either.

Troubling indecision

That there still exist parents who have not yet extricated their children from Wake County's public schools is a marvel.

San Francisco Bay Area KIPP Schools: A Study of Early Implementation and Achievement

SRI InternationalSeptember 2008

The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth-Grade Algebra

Tom LovelessBrown Center on Education Policy, Brookings InstitutionSeptember 2008

The Seven Outs

Brian L. CarpenterNational Charter Schools Institute2008