The Chariots of Fire theme song echoed across the plains on Tuesday as states submitted their Race to the Top applications. But not everyone is drawn to the bait of federal dollars when it contains reform hooks.
Should computer algorithms determine our national English curriculum? That’s what E.D. Hirsch wants to know when he raises this shockingly relevant--if absurd--question in his evaluation of the draft “Common Core” college-ready standards. The standards, in his view, have several pluses.
While the devastating effects of Haiti’s January 12 earthquake remain agonizing, there has been an upwelling of compassion and generosity across America, albeit with a couple of odd twists.
The vice principal at a San Diego tech-themed magnet middle school must not have been very hip, rad, phat, or da bomb diggity in the 90s. The slang-challenged fellow recently confused a student’s science project that was da bomb for being…a bomb.
Taking its cue from Obama’s campaign platform, the current administration has adamantly supported sizable boosts in “Zero to Five” programs meant to improve the school readiness of low-income children.
This is the Education Department’s series finale on NCLB implementation. Utilizing data from two separate studies, it supplies broad descriptions of NCLB accountability efforts. At first blush, it highlights a lot of things we already knew.
In these lively and readable case studies, the author spells out--with the appropriate degree of detail--the changes that five urban school districts (Long Beach and Garden Grove, CA, Norfolk and Boston, MA, and Aldine, TX) made on the path to winning the Broad Prize.
Last week, Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eugene Sanders unveiled a major plan to transform the district, Ohio's second-largest and one
Having spent four years working in New Jersey, I was happy to hear the announcement this week that New Jersey Governor-elect Christie selected a school choice advocate (Bret Schundler) to serve as state education co
The annual ???????Quality Counts??????? report by Education Week, out today, ranks Ohio's education system as the 5th best in the nation.
The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald F. Seib is wise in the ways of Washington and practiced at reading its political entrails. But is he right to think that K–12 education is the great centrist issue of 2010--and that it will reignite the Democrats’ prospects by appealing to independents and least a few Republicans? Hmmm.
Human capital discussions in education nowadays typically start with the problem of “incompetent” teachers and what to do about them.
In her Tuesday speech at the Press Club, AFT President Randi Weingarten attempted to take the teacher-policy steering wheel back from Arne Duncan, who’s been driving since the Race to the Top motoring began. The big news is her willingness to reconsider due process rules and to revamp teacher evaluations. Ms.
Some things are just not surprising: Mark McGwire’s steroid usage, the incompetency suit against Octomom’s fertility doctor, and states backing off graduation test requirements in r
For better or for worse, Education Week’s annual Quality Counts feature, now celebrating its thirteenth birthday, is the closest thing we have to a comprehensive annual report card on American K-12 education. Unfortunately, it’s fraught with methodological weaknesses.
Finally, a strong, modern, quality-centered metric by which to judge the strength of state charter laws!
If you read only the coverage of this study, you’d come away with a vastly more negative view of TFA graduates than you should. So let’s put the record straight. The study asks whether the TFA experience “make[s] citizens”?
This report adds to the pile of evidence that good charter schools elicit positive student achievement--and that something about New York City’s approach is worth understanding if not emulating. A follow-up to its June 2009 national study, CREDO undertook this one exclusively in Gotham.
The Dayton Public Schools, in Fordham's hometown, rang out 2009 with an announcement that it faces a $5 million budget shortfall caused by rising home foreclosures and delinquent property taxes.
Both Lighthouse Academies and Building Excellent Schools – two national, top-flight, nonprofit charter-school management organizations – never wanted to come to Ohio, but both did and both regret the decision.
Ohio Auditor of State Mary Taylor recently released special audits as part of an investigation into Daniel Burns, a former district administrator at the Toledo and Cleveland school districts who is accused of stealing $820,000 from the two districts over the course of eight years….
Can’t wait two weeks for more news and analysis from the Ohio Education Gadfly? Then check us out on Facebook and Twitter!
The news coverage around Race to the Top and the efforts states are making to become more competitive seems to now dominate much of the conversation around education.
To be eligible for a portion of $200 to $400 million in Race to the Top money (should Ohio win), Local Education Agencies (LEAs) – school districts and charter schools – were required to submit memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to the Ohio Department of Education by last week.
After the release last month of The New Teacher Project's Cincinnati-focused human capital reform report (see Jamie's take here), both district and union leadership
The news coverage around Race to the Top and the efforts states are making to become more competitive seems to now dominate much of the conversation around education.
Check out this special edition of the Ohio Education Gadfly, a look back at the decade's most significant education events in Ohio.
While everyone in educator-land obsesses over the $4 billion competition among states for Race to the Top (RTT) funding, the Education Department is readying a separate competition for less than one-tenth as much money that may nonetheless prove far more consequential for American education over the long term.
The large-scale arrival of women in the U.S. workforce has brought serious change to many industries, certainly including education. The Economist peeks at the social consequences of this transition, specifically how these changes have affected decisions on motherhood. Previously, one of the few paths open to women was teaching.
