Commentary
Narrowing the Achievement Gap: Perspectives and Strategies for Challenging Times
Stretching the school dollar goes mainstream
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Pension-Induced Rigidities in the Labor Market for School Leaders
Complex methodology, simple message
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Charter Schools
From the Cuyahoga to CT, charters had a good week
Tardiness and school construction are among the education issues keeping courts busy.
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Hope is not a plan
Why raising the dropout age may get more kids to stay in school, but it won’t meaningfully increase the number of students ready to succeed after graduation.
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Field notes: car crashes into school and other educational issues.
From walking school buses to bullying, Peter examines the day-to-day challenges of education policy.
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Surviving Pennsylvania's school aid cuts
It's time for folks in the Keystone State to recognize that the current fiscal crunch will take more than a little short-term pain to resolve.
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Five key factors to the success of Cleveland’s school transformation plan
Cleveland has taken a significant step toward becoming one of the nation's school-reform leaders with the introduction this week of Mayor Frank Jackson’s "Plan for Transforming Schools."
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Charter Schools
Turning on a successful charter in Chester Upland
A lot of negative forces contributed to Chester Upland’s present circumstance, and it will take an equal or greater number of positive forces to turn it around. That should include a successful charter school.
Commentary
Scaling up by scaling down, part 2: Deborah Meier meets Jay Mathews
The success of so many different models of schooling over the last couple of decades suggest that it is less pedagogy than governance methodology that is the key.
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Charter Schools
A cautionary note for D.C. charter-district collaboration
Here's hoping that collaboration doesn’t co-opt educational diversity.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Teach Like a Champion versus the Common Core: Do pre-reading activities help or hurt struggling students?
Two competing perspectives on reading instruction.
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Charter Schools
New evidence on vouchers and “cherry-picking”
A new study of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program should render a persistent critique of school vouchers and tax credit scholarships irrelevant.
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Bob Sommers, the exit interview
Bob Sommers, Ohio Governor Kasich’s “education czar” for the past year officially stepped down from his position on January 31, and before leaving he sat down with Rick Hess for an interview.
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Charter Schools
A dissenting voice muddies the charter school debate
With friends like these, the growing coalition of support for charter schools will have a harder time coalescing around a common purpose.
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Charter Schools
Why MBAs won't save district schools
School choice, not business degrees, offers the best shot at improving the K-12 sector.
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Sustained Positive Effects on Graduation Rates Produced by New York City’s Small Public High Schools of Choice
Small schools get the final word.
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Flexibility, Philadelphia, and Bloomberg calls Cuomo’s bluff
The AP reports that the U.S. Education Department scolded states that had applied for the first round of NCLB waivers for not ensuring to ED’s satisfaction that schools would be held accountable for student performance.
Commentary
Parent power, teacher power, local power, and a word from Michelle Rhee
Peter catches up on a few of the most notable education stories from the past month (or so).
Commentary
Charter Schools
High-quality customizable learning options should be the rule, not the exception
One could argue that 2011 was the year of “digital learning” in Ohio and across the nation. In September, the White House announced its “Digital Promise” campaign, while a number of states have been embracing initiatives and campaigns in this realm, aided and encouraged by national groups like the Digital Learning Council and the Foundation for Excellence in Education. Ohio’s biennial budget launched the Ohio Digital Learning Task Force and charged it with ensuring that the state’s “legislative environment is conducive to and supportive of the educators and digital innovators at the heart of this transformation.”
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A big bet on Common Core implementation
Here’s hoping the GE Foundation’s $18 million will provide CCSS authors an important tool for shaping implementation discussions.
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O'Malley fights the good fight on Maryland pensions
A modest, and relatively unpopular, plan could go a long way towards improving Maryland's fiscal situation.
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Charter Schools
Can a small program in Mexico inform parental choice in the U.S.?
Parents, even those a step above poverty, are ready to exercise more control over their children's education.
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Charter Schools
Survey: charter school closure rates dropping
Adam explains why charter school applications must be subjected to closer scrutiny.
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Charter Schools
Scaling up by scaling down
Real reform must embrace choice—choice at the individual level.
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Charter Schools
Ranking reform, embracing audacity
As the recent ALEC report card on American K-12 education shows, it's been a brazen year for school reform.