- NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg showed some serious moxie in last week’s State of the City address, taking on the United Federation of Teachers directly by proposing an ambitious merit-pay system and drastic personnel changes at failing schools. The UFT’s president said Bloomberg was living in a “fantasy education world”; here’s hoping dreams can come true.
- Apple managed to get both the education and tech worlds buzzing this week with cryptic hints about a big education announcement in NYC today. The suspense is over: creative new products include iBooks 2, interactive textbook for the iPad, and iBooks Author, an app that allows anyone to create their own interactive textbooks.
- A state superior court judge cleared the way for the Hoosier State to retain its Ed Reform Idol title in 2012 when he ruled that Indiana’s voucher program doesn’t violate the Indiana constitution.
- After weeks of refusing to rescue the broke—and broken?—Chester-Upland School District from fiscal mismanagement, Pennsylvania caved this week and will bail out the suburban Philadelphia district with $3.2 million in state funds. Still and all, perhaps Mike’s 2011 prediction of a district filing for bankruptcy was simply a year too early.
- Governors stayed on their education reform kick this week, with executives in New Jersey and Louisiana offering up ambitious goals for 2012. And the Washington Post wrote up Virginia Governor Bob McDowell’s bold education proposal, arguing that such “willingness to take on entrenched interests should be applauded.” Gadfly couldn’t agree more.
- The Washington Post reports that educators are getting stingier with their praise, as apparently meritless approval doesn’t do much to boost student achievement. Now if only parents would apply that lesson to their oft mediocre yet perennially popular local schools.