Yet another example of a state backing away from high standards. A committee, composed largely of Georgia teachers, included challenging new questions in the state's sixth- and seventh-grade social studies exams. Then, Georgia's Board of Education raised by nine points the score needed to pass those tests.
Capping off a debate described by one politician as "contaminated and a circus," the Texas Education Board last week endorsed a back-to-basics approach to reading comprehension and grammar in the English standards for the Lone Star State.
It is wrong to condemn children to bad schools. But it is dastardly to teach them in unsafe, shoddily-constructed buildings. The Chinese authorities are, it seems, quite guilty of the latter offense. Of the 61,000 people whose lives were ended by the recent earthquakes in Sichuan Province, over 10,000 were children crushed while attending class.
Yesterday, Barack Obama decided to capitalize on John McCain's total, no-caveats embrace of No Child Left Behind. The Illinois Senator, speaking at the Mapleton Expeditionary School for the Arts: "I believe it's time to lead a new era of mutual responsibility in education...
Why is District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, the darling of education reformers (usually including us), eliminating one of the few promising features that greeted her in the D.C. public school system? Is she a control freak, even when she shouldn't be?
The drive to lower standards can take on ridiculous guises. See, for example, the case of 18-year-old Australian Nicholas Benjamin Siiankoski, who recently pleaded guilty to possession of Ecstasy. Justice George Fryberg sentenced him to three years' probation and 100 hours of community service. But the judge also added an interesting twist to the punishment.
Stacey Childress, Richard F. Elmore, Allen S. Grossman, Susan Moore Johnson, eds.Harvard Education Press2007
Charles M. PayneHarvard Education Press2008
Margaret RaymondCenter for Research on Education Outcomes, Stanford UniversityApril 2008
This over-the-top, the sky-is-falling article from the Boston Globe is yet more evidence that the concept of "standards" has taken a beating in public discourse.
Mark Lampkin, executive director of ED in '08, responds here to an earlier attack, launched by the Cato Institute's Neal McCluskey,??on ED in '08's priorities.
Mark Bauerlein, author of this book about dumb people and the harm they do, has the numbers.
On the front page of today's Washington Post is a feel-good story about Ocean City Elementary, a Maryland school in which 100 percent of the students passed the state's math and reading tests.
A post from guest blogger and Fordham Vice President for Ohio Programs & Policy Terry Ryan.
Anecdotal gripes that gifted children are not getting their needs met abound.
Or so reports Politico in an article that has Ed in ???08's fingerprints all over it:
Tough to miss over the weekend were two pieces--one in the New York Times, the other in the Wall Street Journal--about high-achieving high school students and their struggles.
Roy Romer, chairman of ED in '08, tells NPR why education is not a big issue in this year's presidential election.
The United Federation of Teachers is protesting a teacher's removal to one of New York City's famed "rubber rooms."
The editorial board of the Washington Post looks back on Mayor Fenty's first year after taking control of the D.C. public schools and is pleased so far.
This Memorial Day Weekend also brought a great piece in the Washington Post about the Washington Middle School for Girls.
Of course our fallen soldiers deserve the recognition they receive this special day (deserve much more than that, for sure), but this Memorial Day Weekend brought some recognition for a few living heroes, too.
School reformers have been infatuated with D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee since she took office last fall. But for me, that ended today when I read that Rhee has ???scrapped???
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So, after posting this, Mike drops me an email asking if I've got his back... I, of course, ask if he is insinuating that my blond highlights are not completely au naturelle.??
