Ben Franklin would cry

Another day, another state content to let its kids continue to earn meaningless high school diplomas.

Norton hears a boo

"We have to protect the children, who are the truly innocent victims here." Absent context, one might guess that Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's non-voting congressional delegate, was decrying, say, the inadequacy of the nation's response to child abuse. Not so.

No small feat

More glum feedback for the Gates Foundation's pricey initiative to create and support small schools--and others enraptured with smallness per se as an education reform strategy.

What do we mean by "international benchmarking"?

You've heard it a hundred times: "We really need to benchmark our education standards to the best in the world," or words to that effect.

Change we can disagree in

It's true--it's tough to predict the future. Of course, that doesn't mean we should be content to let the progression of technology sweep us up and take us where it may.

Hyperbole at its finest

Education Week reports today that data collected from the states by the U.S. Department of Education show the percentage of core classes in the nation taught by highly-qualified teachers is around 94 percent for 2006-2007.

No fans of Eleanor, these

The Wall Street Journal editors defend D.C.'s voucher program.

Salt in Booker's wounds

A few weeks ago at the NewSchools Venture Fund summit, Newark Mayor Cory Booker's jealousy about Washington mayor Adrian Fenty'

Progress toward what?

The last paragraph of Coby's latest post,??directly below,??contains this: "But once they're washed downriver by the unyielding tide of technological progress, they'll sound as quaint as Socrates' reminiscences about the days before writing." Progress has both a quantitative and qualitative definition, and one wonders if Coby doesn't concentrate overmuch on the former.

Sounds promising

Some good news from Boston.

Reverend Al's odd alliances

Thinking differently

I still don't like the snarky title of Mark Bauerlein's new bo

Re: Progress toward what?

I don't know, Liam, what will be the "quality" of the coming decades' progress. Nor, do I think, does Bauerlein.

Little bang for lots of buck

I was expecting a bit more from Eduwonk's $5 billion challenge. The winner, just announced, would use the money to

Research question

Kevin Carey expounds upon the reasons that research doesn't always or even often make it to policymakers and into their policies. His suggested remedies are fine, especially the appeal for better writing.

The Great Society, Redux

Mike is too gentle with this broader, bolder initiative. First, a chicken and egg problem arises.

Just regular, neighborhood guys

The Weekly Standard looks at the Obama-Ayers connection.

Holding report cards hostage

I'm not one to beat up on teachers unions just for the sake of it, but this little news story out of Australia illustrates precisely how the interests of unions and students do not always intersect.

Success for few in after-school

Oddly enough, on the same day that the Economic Policy Institute and friends release this manifesto recommending that we "pay more attention to the time students spend out of school" (see

TMA in the WSJ

Washington, D.C.'s Thurgood Marshall Academy charter school is featured in today's Wall Street Journal.

A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education: Our panaceas are better than your panaceas

Apparently tired of being called defeatist defenders of the status quo, the Economic Policy Institute (home of Lawrence Mishel and Richard Rothstein) just released a policy statement calling for a "broader, BOLDER approach" to education.

Ray Cortines, ready to collaborate

The California Charter Schools Association published

More on McCain's NCLB problem

Here's another analysis explaining why it's "good politics" for the candidates to bash NCLB--something Senato

The price of culture

I'm all for building schools dedicated to the arts, especially for students hailing from low-income neighborhoods. I'm just not sure it's worth $230 million while kids in other districts learn in classroom trailers.

It's not just OSP

Sounds like D.C.'s charter schools are taking fire, too. If you can't beat ???em, sabotage ???em.

Would you like some hope with your hope?

Oh, brother. "Students [would] have a chance to recover," Martin said. "Getting a bad grade or having a bad day does not mean you are a failure. This is about hope."

You down with OSP?

As you can see, we're not exactly doing cartwheels over here upon hearing what Eleanor Holmes Norton had to say about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Face-off

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews and Checker Finn debate: "Is AP Good for Everyone?"

The age factor

It's no secret that Senator John McCain'

New Jersey's alternate route to teaching: Thoroughly unremarkable

The New York Times had a nice piece Saturday on the Garden State's alternative certification program, the first and largest