- Think pension reform has been hard going in the States? Yesterday, two-thirds of Britain’s schools (along with a host of other public-sector entities, agencies, and offices) shuttered their doors, as Blighty saw its largest strike in decades. The grievance? Westminster is now asking workers to retire later and pay more in pension contributions. A sign of things to come?
- Be still, Gadfly’s geeky heart. Brookings recently rolled out its Education Choice and Competition Index—an interactive website for tracking and comparing districts based on thirteen categories of education policy and practice. A lot like our own America’s Best (and Worst) Cities report—but still a lot of fun, and potentially enlightening about what is and isn’t educationally worthy in your community.
- Gadfly sees Christmas lights and hears the faint jingle of the Salvation Army bell. It must be the holiday season. And with it, the season for end-of-the-year best-and-worst lists. To start you off, here’s the best and worst education events of 2011, according to Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. (For their sake, here’s hoping nothing monumental happens in December.)
- By 2015, Teach For America could hold one-quarter market share of all teachers in America’s sixty largest cities. Why aren’t more reformy entrepreneurs trying to copy this model?
- Interesting, but none too surprising: Teacher-union membership in Tennessee is way down since state lawmakers stripped the groups’ collective-bargaining rights.
- Sure lessons from abroad are good to note. But, remember, America is still the most innovative country in the world.
