George Will: "Paternalistic" is Right

George Will, the nation's most widely syndicated columnist, weighs in today on

The people want answers

CATO's Neal McLuskey and Eduwonk Andy Rotherham are strange bedfellows, but they both have the same burning question on their minds: Why would national standards and tests be any better than state

It's Thursday. You know what that means.

This week's Gadfly is now available for all the world to see.

Waterloo sounds rough. Can we just attack the Irish?

The evidence, as always, is mixed. Yesterday, the New York Times noted that the Big Apple's dollars-for-high-test-scores program hasn't worked.

Looking up the word "transformative"

More on Debbie Phelps

We discovered last week that not only is Debbie Phelps the principal of Windsor Mill Middle School in Maryland, but that Windsor Mill didn't make AYP last year.

Snug as a teacher in tenure

The Associated Press, which has been a little blue of late, tells us that the nation's trepidatious economy is affecting youngsters in the worst ways: "Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks, even wear last year's clothes. Field trips?

State High School Exit Exams: A Move Toward End-of-Course Exams

Center on Education PolicyAugust 2008

Save the World on Your Own Time

Stanley FishOxford University Press2008

Just as sweet, by any other name

David Whitman's new book, which George Will wrote about today in his Washington Post column (see above), contains the word paternalism. Whitman uses it to describe a particular type of urban school that succeeds in teaching its poor and minority students largely because it focuses on discipline and hard work (and takes pride in both).

Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality

Charles MurrayCrown Forum2008

Education Olympics: The games in review

With the 2008 Summer Olympic Games nearing its endpoint, there's consternation in the air about the likelihood that China will best the United States in the gold medal count, and might catch the U.S. in medals overall.

Guns 'n' classes

Author Charles Edward Chapel writes in Guns of the Old West, "Considerably cared for and used with skill, a gun would argue loud and persuasively for you against man and nature when both were hell-bent on your immediate personal destruction." Perhaps the chaw-spittin' school board in Harrold, Texas, has recently been reading Chapel--it just voted to allow the town's teachers to carry p

In denial

Washington Post writer George Will is sharp as a tack, which is why he ends today's column, about David Whitman's new book, thusly: "Today's liberals favor paternalism--you cannot eat trans fats; you must buy health insurance--for everyone except children.

Big D gets a big F

The Dallas school district has decided it cannot grade students by academic benchmarks because, evaluated thusly, the pupils have a tendency to fail.

Day Nine of the 2008 Education Olympics

Just weeks after the loss of one if its leading literary lights, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia took two golds and a silver in three PIRLS reading events. Team USA, meanwhile, has two days left to secure its first medal. Can they pull it out? Stay tuned at edolympics.net.

The Washington Post goes bolder though not broader

The usually sensible Washington Post editorial board sizes up the presidential candidates' education platforms in

The Democratic Party: Back to its regularly scheduled programming

Earlier this month I argued that the Democratic Party was no longer a fully-owned subsidiary of the NEA and the AFT.

Of rights and wrongs

The New York City program that pays students for good scores on AP exams yielded "mixed results," according to the New York Times. Education Trust President Kati Haycock, commenting on the program's philosophy,??gets the article's last words:

Writing skills lagging for young STEM kids

Writing is the most difficult challenge for students participating in a two-year, pilot, after-school science program being conducted in nine schools in central and north-central Ohio.

Commission: We are all responsible for the education of our children

The Public-Private Collaborative Commission delivered this week its report, Supporting Student Success: A New Learning Day in Ohio (see here).

Is a high-school diploma worth the paper it's written on?

Next week the state will release its school-district report cards-although districts are leaking their data already (see here), detailing how well Ohio's public schools are meeting academic standards, including how many high-school students passed the Ohio Gr

Don't blame unions, blame the legislature

Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining: Why Key Issues are Not AddressedNational Council on Teacher QualityJuly 2008

Studies provide insight into the concept of longer school days

Expanded Learning Time in ActionTaking Stock of the Fiscal Costs of Expanded Learning TimeCenter for American ProgressJuly 2008

Autism scholarship program hits 1,000-student milestone

More than 1,000 preschool and K-12 students with Autism are now using an Ohio state-sponsored scholarship program that provides an educational option for parents dissatisfied with the services their child is receiving in a traditional public school.

Romer interview on Education Olympics Today

Today Roy Romer--formerly governor of Colorado and superintendent of Los Angeles Public Schools, and currently chairman of the Ed in '08 campaign--joins us to discuss Team USA's heretofore dismal performance in the 2008 Education Olympics.

Will John Kasich be John McCain's VP nominee?

Politico is reporting that Senator McCain will announce his vice presidential pick on August 29th in Dayton, Ohio (Fordham's hometown). We can't help but wonder whether that means that McCain is going with an Ohioan.

How Reid Lyon is like Ronald Reagan

Sure, he was flawed, but he got a few big things right.

Lay of the educational research land this week

Once in awhile, I take the time to sniff around and find an education study worth talking about in this blog. I wish I had the time to do it more often, but judging from my quick look-see this afternoon, the research terrain isn't overflowing with milk and honey these days anyway.

Day Seven of the 2008 Education Olympics

The Education Olympics resume after a weekend hiatus--for some competitors, that is. Students from Finland and Hong Kong were spotted engaging in some last-minute cramming, while the Americans played Nintendo Wii. The outcome was predictable. Complete results at edolympics.net.