Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch featured a compelling story about the worst-performing middle school in all of Ohio, Champion Middle School located on Columbus's Near East Side (Mike
This week, Mike and Rick discuss Fordham and Northwest Evaluation Association's latest report, The Accountability Illusion (after John Cronin, one of the authors and studio guest, gives us a Research Half Minute), what to make of Arne's $650 million, and Milwaukee's flirtation with mayoral co
The Gates Foundation is looking for a Senior Policy Officer for Education who will manage the foundation's public policy, government relations and community outreach efforts in five to eight states. For more information or to apply, surf to www.gatesfoundation.org/aboutus/employment.
In last week's short review of the Annual Privatization Report 2008, Gadfly misspoke; as one careful reader of this publication pointed out, there is no Southfield, Minnesota. The Southfield in question is located in Michigan.
Arne Duncan landed in New York’s state capital [this week] but it wasn’t to boost the spirits of the city’s “heroic” education reformers or stop by the state’s first all-girls charter high school (which was celebrating its opening). Nope.
The Massachusetts Department of Education has developed a new (draft) curriculum framework for history and social science. This 60-page document summarizes what the Commonwealth thinks students should learn about history, geography, economics, and civics in each grade.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is looking for a new Vice President of External Affairs, who would be based in their headquarters in Chicago. This person should be a flexible leader who’s excited to work for a singular organization involved in charter authorization.
We’ve been no fans of the Columbus City School District’s treatment of charter schools within its boundaries.
Three cheers for Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson for winning Harvard University's Innovations in American Government Award, a prestigious prize that comes with a $100,000 check for his city. Peterson took an immense political risk when he asked for, and in 2001 was granted, a mayor-controlled charter school system in Indianapolis.
The Pisces Foundation hopes to recruit an Associate Director of Policy to focus on its policy, research, evaluation, and advocacy efforts. This innovative and courageous education-centered foundation is probably best known for its support of KIPP schools across America and its widening interest in charter schooling and better teachers. What's more, it's based in San Francisco.
The National Council on Teacher Quality is looking for motivated, detail-oriented college graduates to work as research fellows in its Washington, D.C., office. The fellowship will last approximately four months and will focus on research using NCTQ's collective bargaining website.
Fordham and AEI are teaming up on an exciting new event entitled, “A Penny Saved: How Schools and Districts Can Tighten Their Belts While Serving Students Better.” An all-day conference on January 11, 2010 at the world-famous Mayflower Hotel, this will b
With a financial squeeze ('strangle hold' might actually be more accurate) on the horizon for Ohio, voters are eager to hear how soon-to-be elected officials will handle the state's mammoth budget hole.
This week, Mike and Rick talk about educating through humiliation, removing poor kids from good schools, and why grades don't matter. Checker Finn and his granddaughter Emma stop by to talk pre-K and such, and Education News of the Weird is Too Close To the Sun. Click here to listen through our website and peruse past editions.
While Gadfly has been sunning its wings in the summer sun, we have been hard at work pulling together the latest education policy papers and reports. We're pleased to bring you this special issue of the Ohio Education Gadfly with recommendations for your end-of-summer reading list.
The superintendent of Ohio’s largest school district is recommending that her school board sock away its $7.9 million in “Edujobs” funding in preparation for what is sure to be a tough budget next y
Ohio recently announced the 42 schools who won School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to fund efforts to turn themselves around. …the vast majority of schools opted for the transformation model….
In Fordham’s customary role as a bumptious ed-reform think tank and advocacy shop, it’s unusual to engage in the real work of transforming schools and educating children.
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's office recently shared his "Roadmap for Academic Reforms," which appears to be the forerunner or prelude to the governor's long-awaited plan for renewing and strengthening K-12 education in Ohio.
Ohio education policymakers seem to have a split personality when it comes to what they say they care about and what they fund.
Imagine, you have been laid off and you can't find another job earning anywhere close to what you were making. Your savings have been decimated by the disaster on Wall Street. You may be renting now that you lost your home. Maybe your pension is a lot less, too. That's an all-too-familiar scenario already.
Teacher layoffs are a hot topic nowadays, as are the dire warnings about what will happen if teachers are let go. When Cleveland’s board voted to lay off 545 teachers to balance that district’s budget, the union warned of class sizes topping 45 students per teacher (don’t w
"It's frustrating to be a charter-school supporter in the Buckeye State. Charter performance in Ohio is, overall, barely equal and too often inferior to that of the district schools with which they compete...." Read it here.
Earlier this year the Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio Policy Center garnered attention from both gubernatorial
The other day the Columbus Dispatch ran an article assessing Gov.
For the first time since its inception five years ago, Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship program (the state’s targeted school voucher program) has reached its legal m
While Andy grows increasingly pessimistic about the education stimulus, I am starting to see some more reasons for hope.
Here we go again. As Politics K-12 reports, the Administration is foreshadowing a second stimulus package, this one likely to focus on bailing out local and state governments, including and especially public school systems.
The Core Knowledge Foundation (CKF) in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., seeks an Executive Director. The Foundation staff currently numbers 20, and its annual operating budget is approximately $1.7 million.
I’ve always been your ardent defender. I buy peanut butter buckeye candy for people out of state and I have a t-shirt with a red outline of you that says “Midwest is Best.” And I really believe it.
