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Links and broken links: On the relationship between proficiency, progress, and poverty
Schools can and do help disadvantaged students learn.
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Parents! How you can use Ohio’s new A-F school report cards
Ohio's A-F school report cards can help parents discern quality.
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Curriculum & Instruction
The Algebra Imperative: Assessing Algebra in a National and International Context
This valuable paper from the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings sounds an important alarm: “The danger is that grade inflation, the often discussed phenomenon of students receiving higher and higher grades for mediocre academic achievement, has been joined by course inflation.
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Ohio Pensions Reform in Cleveland: New Teachers Beware
Unfunded liabilities accrued from teacher retirement costs have burdened states and districts to the tune of at least $390 billion (and perhaps as high as one trillion dollars). That amount is projected to swell in the next decade if states do not implement reforms.
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Can education and child service leaders work together to stabilize schools and communities?
Community and human service agency leaders gathered this morning in Columbus to discuss student mobility in Ohio’s schools (when students transfer schools for reasons other than customary promotion).
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Early Start: Preschool Politics in the United States
Preschool policy is a fragmented hodgepodge, writes Andrew Karch, as he traces early-education policy since the 1970s. He starts with President Nixon’s veto of the Comprehensive Child Development Act—for some, a missed opportunity; for others, the beginning of the private and public program-mix we have today.
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Sustained Progress: New Findings About the Effectiveness and Operation of Small Public High Schools in New York City
Bloomberg’s education legacy
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The civil rights movement and education reform
The fight for civil rights and empowerment didn’t happen overnight, but rather one lunch counter at a time, reminds reverend H.K. Matthews in an editorial supporting the new Alabama Accountability Act.
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All or nothing on teacher accountability
Someday, when they write the history of the education-reform movement, future scholars will tug their chins in puzzlement as they ponder today’s obsession with high-stakes teacher evaluations.
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Back to school ed-policy short reviews
Summer vacation is over for many of Ohio’s students. As they head off to class, you may find yourself with some extra time to catch up on reading. Looking for suggestions? The Fordham staff is here to help you find some good reads.Private Enterprise and Public Education: Strange Bedfellows or Natural Allies?Angel Gonzalez
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Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Testimony to the Michigan House Education Subcommittee on Common Core Standards
Prepared for Delivery on August 28, 2013
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Early Career award conferred to EEPS alums Cory Koedel and Katherine Strunk
Congratulations to Cory Koedel and Katherine Strunk, both recipients of American Education Research Association’s “Early Career” award&m
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Gates Foundation hiring
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to fill two positions on its U.S. Program Policy & Advocacy Team. The work to be done could be either in DC or in Seattle.
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Classroom, Inc. hiring a Chief Officer of Educational Partnerships
This person will be charged with expanding the firm’s reach.
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The NGA is looking for two new members for its education team
The National Governors Association, seeks two experienced professionals to join its education division.
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A new resource for education reformers
The Foundation for Excellence in Education launched a nifty new website to empower and aid reformers. It features an interactive map illustrating state-level education policies and a page that will allow users to create graphs using NAEP data. Next year, they plan to add a searchable database and a policy library. We can’t wait!
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Global Report Card 2.0
Global Report Card 2.0, developed by Jay Greene and Josh McGee on behalf of the George W. Bush Institute’s Education Reform Initiative, was released last week.
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NACSA hiring a Director of State and Federal Policy
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is seeking a new Director of State and Federal Policy. The Director would work directly on the NACSA agenda and would be responsible for promoting it in states and in Washington.
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Fordham seeks a research + staff assistant
Would you like to work at the forefront of the national education-reform movement? Are you a personable, organized, and detail-oriented self-starter? Are you comfortable handling varied responsibilities? Calm under fire? A born multi-tasker? A resourceful researcher? A savvy writer/editor? If so you might be the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s new D.C.-based research + staff assistant.
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AEI event on the Common Core, January 10
On January 10, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a discussion on what it will take for school systems to adopt the Common Core effectively. The panel, moderated by Rick Hess, will feature College Board’s David Coleman, the Education Department’s Joanne Weiss, and superintendents Eric J. Becoats, John Deasy, and Elizabeth Celania-Fagen.
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The Ryan Fellowship for aspiring principals
The Ryan Fellowship is seeking applicants for its one-year, fully paid fellowship, which provides aspiring principals in New York, Chicago, and Memphis the opportunity to plan the creation of a high-achieving urban school in the year prior to their first as a principal.
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The Walton Family Foundation seeks a senior program officer for the Great Lakes region
The Walton Family Foundation is seeking a skilled and experienced individual to join their K–12 education-reform team as a senior program officer for the Great Lakes region. The senior program officer will help manage a small team and a diverse portfolio of state- and local-based grantees working to empower parents with quality school choices.
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Citizen Schools hiring a new executive director
Citizen Schools seeks an extraordinary leader to serve as the New York executive director and to drive the next phase of its growth.
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Believe in GreatSchools?
GreatSchools is looking for a vice president of local engagement, preferably based in San Francisco.
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Are you the Bush Center’s newest education policy manager?
The Alliance to Reform Education Leadership (AREL), an initiative within the Bush Institute, believes that high-quality school principals are a key component of increased academic achievement. The new policy manager will report directly to the AREL director and education-reform director, and he/she will be part of the programming team for the education-reform division within the Institute.
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January 31: Cato hosts a Policy forum
As our nation comes ever closer to being “majority minority,” Americans will look increasingly to our education system to unite us. A natural impulse will be to force, or at least nudge, children from different ethnic, religious, or other backgrounds together in public schools.