We'd like to stop writing about Randi Weingarten, really we would. But her ongoing antics simply don't allow it--and as she nears the leadership of the national American Federation of Teachers she has to be taken seriously.
Jennifer A. Kaminski, Vladimir M. Sloutsky, and Andrew F. HecklerScienceApril 25, 2008
Greg Anrig is smart, eloquent and likable, as was his dad, whose memory I cherish.
The ranks of American education's "newspaper of record" are growing ever thinner.
According to David Brooks, among others, yesterday's victory in North Carolina and near-tie in Indiana means Senator Barack Obama is almost assured the Democratic nomination.
In Australia's state of Victoria, teachers are about to receive a mammoth pay raise. But Kevin Donnelly, the Australian-education guru, doesn't like it. He sees lots of other problems that need remedying.
Education Sector just released a new survey, Waiting to be Won Over, by Farkas Duffett Research--a top-notch policy research firm that's don
There's more on the Absent Teacher Reserve and rubber room controversies in New York City.
Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher is right. Ohio is engaged in an "economic development arms race" with other states and nations for investment and jobs. But the state is also in an arms race to educate its children to compete successfully with young people in other states and countries.
Showing again that competition is a tide that lifts all boats, the Manhattan Institute released a study last week that shows public school special-education students perform better when they attend public schools that are exposed to competition with voucher programs (see here).
KIPP's 2007 report card is a good way to get to know the Knowledge is Power Program, which is scheduled to open its first Ohio charter school in Columbus in August.Here are a few samples from the report card:
Governor Ted Strickland is gathering ideas from businesses, academics, various interest groups, and even some ordinary Ohioans on K-12 education reform. At a recent regional Northeast Ohio "shareholder" meeting, everything from a single, uniform statewide property tax to making teachers work 12 months a year was suggested.
State Senator Tom Roberts Tuesday introduced three bills he said were designed to strengthen transparency and accountability standards in charter schools (S.B. 331, S.B.
After months of jockeying with control-freak Governor Ted Strickland, Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Tave Zelman is on her way out, perhaps to the University of Oregon as ed-school dean (see here).
A major job for Ohio's charter school sponsors is keeping track of stuff, the kind of stuff that, if a school doesn't have it, means serious problems. Not only does a sponsor have to show up and check out schools and classrooms, but a good sponsor also needs to keep track of all the state and federally required compliance data.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee will fire somewhere between 24 and 30 principals at the end of the school year, in large part because under the rules of NCLB she's required to restructure 27 chronically-failing schools.
Sunday's Daily News revisits New York City's ridiculous "rubber room" policy, which was also featured a year ago in a Village Voice article. A taste:
A group based in Dallas wanted to give schools in the state of Washington $13.2 million to strengthen their AP courses, but the plan fell through because state collective bargaining laws require that teacher pay be negotiated between unions and school districts.
The Heritage Foundation's Ed Feulner is a heckuva smart guy and he's usually right (as well as Right). His take on A Nation at Risk, and the country's response to it, however, is only half right.
The Sacramento Bee's editorial page weighs in on the racial remix controversy at Will C. Wood Middle School, coming to the defense of the school's principal:
Reid Lyon, the Godfather of Scientifically Based Reading Instruction (so says Eduflack), provides a ton of important insights into RF's interim evaluation study in this
Clay Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma and a Harvard business professor, is coming out with a new book that's sure to create a buzz in the K-12 space, Disrupting Class:
The Styles section features a piece about online services that let parents track their kids' grades in real time.
Looks like the United Federation of Teachers is not going to back down on the Absent Teacher Reserve issue.
The Washington Post reports that the Institute of Architects has recognized a new building on the campus of the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., "as one of the 'top ten green projects' of 2007":
