KIPP: Report Card 2007

KIPP Foundation2008

ESRA mischief

If, like most Americans, you haven't the faintest idea what ESRA is, don't feel bad. The Education Sciences Reform Act is a classic inside-the-beltway statute best known by the smallish number of people and institutions directly affected by it.

"Strengths and weaknesses"

Will it never end?

Teacher of the year

This woman isn't just saving her life, she's saving taxpayers money.

And better and better

This week, the good news never ends.

We'll miss you, Sam

Today's is Samuel Freedman's last New York Times column, he reports.

This week is getting better and better

It's not just that Leo Casey noticed that I lost a few pounds, or that

Shocker

The NEA is finally moving to endorse Senator Barack Obama for president, reports Mike Antonucci. Well I'm glad they cleared that up!

What world is this?

I read stuff like this and think it's some kind of joke. That teachers in Los Angeles??are required to spend one hour of the school day protesting outside school, or else, according to union president A.J. Duffy, they "will be crossing a picket line," is just anachronistic and ridiculous.

There they go again, again

Race-based school integration is on the way out. But Richard Kahlenberg thinks, and hopes, that economic integration is on the way in.

Out with the education czar?

Gov. Ted Strickland may not have formal control of the Ohio Department of Education, but he got half of what he wanted last week when Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman announced her resignation (see here). The news wasn't a surprise.

Cell phones help kids' writing, at least if they're writing in Canadian

The explosion of cell-phone text-messaging, especially among young people, has ignited a debate about what the practice means to the skill of writing.

Closing a charter is painful, difficult work

Fordham has learned a lot about sponsoring charter schools in the last three years. Now we've gained experience in the unfortunate task of closing some schools. The Omega School of Excellence, and East End Community School, in Dayton, and Veritas Cesar Chavez Academy, in Cincinnati, will not reopen next year.

It's time for Dayton district and charter schools to collaborate

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth about Dayton Public Schools during the last year. Seldom does a week pass without a front-page article or an editorial describing the profound challenges facing the district.

Re: Does Eduwonkette think teachers are racist?

If high-quality teachers don't want to work in schools where students of one race predominate (a claim that seems dubious, for the reasons Mike points out), this fact??remains: students at lots of schools are going to be of the same race. Alas, housing patterns make it so.

Universally distressing

From Ed Week: States that set easy targets during No Child Left Behind's early years will now??"have to make annual gains of 10 percentage points or more in the proportion of students scoring as proficient in those subjects...."

Closing the internship gap

From this Palm Beach Post article, about college graduates??who have??a tough time finding jobs:

Teachers want relief from union contracts, too

While Eduwonk Andy and Leo Casey of the United Federation of Teachers spar about teacher collective bargaining agreements and whether or not they "prevent educational innovation," some

Seattle's best contribution to the education discourse in decades

The Seattle Times is into the third day of its series on the "resegregation" of the Seattle Public Schools.

Reading First 101

Still trying to get your head around the recent Reading First evaluation? Do you work on Capitol Hill and want to give your member of Congress a quick overview of the hub-bub?

Does Eduwonkette think teachers are racist?*

That's one implication of her recent post about

The key to a pleasant commute

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Teachers playing hooky

Mike just quoted this from the Rocky Mountain News: Nearly two dozen teachers from Denver's Montclair Elementary took a field trip of their own Friday--to their union headquarters to urge a vote on the school's six-week-old request for autonomy.

Re: Teachers playing hooky

My short post today on the decision of a couple-dozen Denver high school teachers to skip school last Friday did not sit well with one commenter and at least one educator. The commenter wrote:

Teachers lounge reading

More trouble

The latest issue of Commentary contains a review of Checker's newest book, Troublemaker. It's available here for subscribers.

Ed reform, finished

With the release of every new education report, it seems, we hear from commentators that the findings are promising but certainly do not constitute a "silver bullet" or a "panacea" for k-12's problems. No longer.

A ray of hope

Amid all the news of doom and gloom, here's one reason for optimism: America's best spellers appear to be getting better and better.

Those silly Canadians

Baffled by America's arcane process for electing a president, the Edmonton Sun's Edward Greenspan has this to say:

The GOP's education problem

Republicans should be thankful that, according to Rasmussen,* education ranks only sixth out of ten issues for American voters right now, because Congressional Democrats are opening up a big