Are virtual schools the new vouchers?

Eduwonk Andy thinks that merit pay is the new vouchers.

This Week's Fordham Factor: Rock and roll is the devil

Mike and Stafford discuss Miley Cyrus's new single, "Breakout," which disparages school-going.

Diction friction

Two cheers for George Parker

The Washington Teachers' Union president tells it like it is (on The NewsHour): JOHN MERROW: Rhee is hoping to tie teacher pay to student achievement. Because teacher union membership is declining, Rhee may have an edge in negotiations.

Is the era of big spending over?

This front-page Wall Street Journal arti

Don't miss it!

Wow! What a Gadfly!

"The Disadvantages of an Elite Education"

The American Scholar notes, "Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers."

About that science bias

Some are pushing for the government to apply Title IX to science education. John Tierney wrote on Tuesday an article about this; he??offers more on his blog.

New York's Regents exams

Dumbed-down and becoming more so?

What's in a revision?

"Please revise," indicates your editor, his note scrawled in red ink atop your latest submission. So you do. You rework the major points, you tighten where needed, you revamp and polish and tweak and shift around. That is, after all, how revision is done. Not, it appears, in Saudi Arabia.

Racy and classy, in a bad way

Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine included a piece titled The Next Kind of Integration, which was about school districts that have, since the Supreme Court's ruling l

Randi Weingarten responds to Checker (and Mike)

Mike Petrilli is spot-on in this sense: Clearly, a good education is much more than test scores. He's right about the importance of extracurricular activities in providing that education--and I hope he'll agree that we should find ways to make sure kids in our highest-poverty schools have access to those kinds of activities.

Rock 'n' fail

No good can come of this. In recent years, ever since the Beastie Boys slung their anti-school rhetoric on the airwaves, pop singers' lyrics have attacked educational institutions with alarming frequency and ferocity.

Short and sweet

Maryland students were said to have made impressive gains this year on their state test. Naturally, our first reaction was to wonder how that happened when the state's NAEP scores are stagnant.

Can he?

Jonathan Alter offered Barack Obama, free of charge, some darn good advice in the July 21st Newsweek. Will the senator from Illinois take it? "Now Obama needs to embrace a Grand Education Bargain--much higher pay for teachers in exchange for much more accountability for performance in the classroom," writes Alter.

Checker responds to Diane

It's never easy to disagree with Diane--not only is she a friend and colleague of long-standing, as well as a Fordham trustee, but also she's so often right about education. I've found over the years that when she and I work at a difference of opinion for a while, we usually discover that the domain of true disagreement is small.

Checker responds to Randi

Because I'm mostly home playing grandpa to a four-year-old this week (and doing my small part to assure that at least one small child is ready to succeed in school and beyond), this must be very brief. To my eye, Randi's explanation is clearer and better balanced than her speech was, maybe because it lacks some of the crowd-pleasing anti-NCLB rhetoric.

In which I differ with a friend

My longtime friend Checker Finn wrote a critique of Randi Weingarten's inaugural speech as President of the American Federation of Teachers. Checker chastised her for endorsing the idea that schools should help the neediest kids by offering health services and social services in addition to their customary academic fare.

Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development

Christine Campbell and Brock J. GrubbNational Charter School Research ProjectJune 2008

Learning Accountability from Bologna: A Higher Education Policy Primer

Clifford AdelmanInstitute for Higher Education PolicyJuly 2008

Competition works

On tonight's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, John Merrow interviews George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union. Here's a teaser from the transcript:

Reading this post will make you stupid

Here's more on how Google, blogs, etc. supposedly turn our brains into grape Jell-o. (Previous post here.)

Rheedacted?

Whew, that last post was a long one, and a bit heavy for these hot summer days. Nonetheless, sometimes we must wade into the tall grass, scythes in hand, and clear away the overgrowth. Bad arguments, like snakes, fester if such periodic maintenance is neglected.

The kids are alright

When we at the office have our tippling time, Coby tends to hang back, uncomfortable, no doubt, with all the "these young kids" bashing that transpires.

Another education Dem for Obama

Campaign K-12 astutely points

Someone needs a hug

I hope someone over at Education Sector gives a big hug to Kevin Carey, who is, judging by this post, in a foul mood, perhaps because he's trying unsuccessfully to make the case that one program at FSU (with which I was, as an undergraduate,??quite involved) successfully refutes affirmative action's pr

The ticking pension bomb

While America Aged: How Pension Debt Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial CrisisRoger LowensteinThe Penguin Press2008

Two top-flight charters set to open in Columbus

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (our sister organization) is excited to be sponsoring two new charter schools opening in August in Columbus.

Delaware-Union and Franklin ESC merger set for New Year

The Delaware-Union County Educational Service Center (ESC) and the ESC of Franklin County will merge in January (see here), creating a multi-county agency that will serve more than 11 percent of Ohio's public-school students.

International comparisons

Japan's famously demanding education system figures significantly in Natsuo Kirino's new novel Real World, reviewed in Sunday's New York Times books section: