- Did you know that American government creates advantages that “channel wealth and power to white people”? You would, if you were a staffer in the Omaha Public Schools. Thanks to $130,000 in federal stimulus monies, Omaha educators, administrators, and staff all received copies of a manual on cultural sensitivity with that message. Gadfly wonders how Russlyn Ali and her Office of Civil Rights feel about the matter.
- Gov. Chris Christie has big plans for the Garden State. But Senate President Stephen Sweeney has big plans to derail them. Sweeney strangled two of Christie’s seven education-reform proposals (on performance pay and LIFO) in the cradle this week.
- How should we improve summer school? By nixing summer vacation, explains Kathleen Porter-Magee in this week’s Room for Debate.
- International Baccalaureate chalks up its 4,000th program, this one in an international school in Wuxi, China. The IB has doubled over the past five years.
- Through an analysis done by the Detroit News, we learn that the Motor City’s charters fare no better than its district schools—troubling, when we consider the district’s plan to convert forty high schools into charters. Luckily, Motown has enlisted top-notch Doug Ross (co-founder of the successful UPrep charter network) to spearhead the initiative.
- Scott Walker can be described many ways but lackadaisical about education-reform is not one of them. On Friday, the Wisconsin governor announced plans to produce a new school-accountability rubric to be used for the 2011-12 school year. Maybe “man in a rush” is a better way to frame this development.
- Oregon Governor Daniel Kitzhaber is also pushing seismic shifts in his state’s education system—attempting to move student progress from “seat time” to subject mastery. A great idea; but there’s a twist. Kitzhaber has also appointed himself state supe, meaning that he would personally be in charge of the whole program. Remember what they say about absolute power.
