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Dollar sense
While most Americans think per-pupil spending in public schools is lower than it really is, many new immigrants think Catholic school tuition is higher than it really is.
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Fordham Fellows change the world
Congrats to Davida Gatlin, a member of our first class of Fordham Fellows, whose
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The arts in K-12
Sunday's New York Times Magazine features an article on K-12 arts education. The piece sets out to refute Obama's evidently misleading claims that teaching the arts leads to improved student performance on standardized tests.
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And still more on ANAR
Checker writes about the twenty-fifth anniversary of A Nation at Risk in the Wall Street Journal and the Gadfly.
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Don't know much about education spending
The upcoming issue of Education Next (which Fordham sponsors) reveals that "Almost 96 percent of the public underestimate either per-pupil spending in their districts or teacher salaries in their states." In fact, they vastly underestimate these figures:
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Checker vs. Reverend Wright
Evidently Reverend Jeremiah Wright made some controversial statements about education and race last night. Over at The Corner, Byron York asks Checker for his take on the whole thing.
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A cause without rebels
At The Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez writes that we can help save our inner cities by saving faith-based schools.
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If the think-tank thing doesn't work out...
Eduwonkette flatters us. Unfortunately, Mike can't carry a tune, and he's just too damn honest to lip-sync.
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My teacher is stupider than yours
Coby's latest spark--that students (or their parents) who rated their teachers online could provide useful feedback--is intriguing. He's right that such k-12 rating websites exist (see here) but haven't reached a critical mass of users.
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Teach us
Ed school professor Brad Olsen writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that "we don't much hear from, or about, teachers' experiences in--and perspectives on--what's happening in schools these days." Really???Just yesterday we published in The Gadfly
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Hyper-unionized higher ed?
Several people questioned my argument the other day that bad ideas tend to flow from higher education to our K-12 education system (e.g., here and here).
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Math education
Science writer Jonah Lehrer on algebra: "Abstract concepts, untethered to experience, are never internalized by our neurons." Or are they?
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K-12 2.0
The website RateMyProfessors.com has been the subject of much criticism as it has grown in popularity.
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Anybody for Catholic charter schools?
Left unspoken* at yesterday's White House summit on faith-based schools was whether the idea of religious charter schools has any merit. Of course, this is no surprise.
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Goodwill
George Will has a nice column today on A Nation At Risk. He mentions Checker's book, too. Update: Mike says the column doesn't just mention Checker's book; it "summarizes it!" Let's compromise on "highlights."
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The real problem with Bill Ayers
According to Sol Stern, it's not his (literal) bomb-throwing past but his (figurative) bomb-throwing present:
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Pessimism or realism?
You can find a different take on George Will's column over at The Quick and the Ed. The author, Kevin Carey, is a very detail-oriented guy, but one wonders if today he hasn't missed the forest for the trees.
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Fordham Fellows: The deadline looms
Now is as good a time as any to mention that the deadline for Fordham Fellows applications--the day by which all those who wish for Fellowship must submit the apposite materials--is nearing: April 30th it is.
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Think virtual
The Economist has an article about the challenges confronting South Dakota's rural schools and school districts.
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Hairy
Are you a teacher looking for field trip ideas, now that testing season is over? Do you live in the greater Washington, D.C., area? Would you like to totally gross out your students? This oughta do the trick.*
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This Week's Fordham Factor: More tweaks to NCLB
Mike and Christina discuss Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings's latest round of changes to No Child Left Behind. httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=dwkaKllgyBY
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Charter school of hard knocks
Whitney Tilson, who blogs on education here , reflects level-headedly in today's New York Daily News on the struggles facing the UFT's c
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Pizza
This Wired Magazine article sheds some light, however obliquely, on why it's so difficult to replicate successful school models in different places.
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Thoughts on today's White House summit on faith-based schools
The White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools, underway at this moment, has about 300 attendees, all of whom already agree with each other about nearly all the issues on the table. No bad thing to rally the troops or (changing metaphors) preach to the choir.
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P.U. to B.U.
Not so many moons ago, Boston University's college of education was the brightest spot in the dim universe of U.S. ed schools, full of heterodox thinkers on important issues (e.g., Charles Glenn, David Steiner, Kevin Ryan, Steve Tigner).