Commentary
Commentary
Charter Schools
Mayor Jackson's reasonable request of Ohio's charter community
A free market for schools, not so much for authorizers
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Charters and coders get their due
This week, Tennessee capped the number of foreign workers on visas that charter schools in the Volunteer State can hire.
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Don't kick the pension can down the road
Illinois lawmakers should resist the urge to delay fixing retirement benefits, instead passing radical reform of the pension system and providing teachers with a forward-thinking retirement plan.
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How tests can help us overcome the "soft bigotry of low expectations"
It’s become popular in many education circles to decry “teaching to the test,” but new research provides one more reason why these independent checks on what students have actually learned are a critical element of an effort to close America’s achievement gap.
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NSBA’s Anne Bryant: Districts need more freedom
Guest blogger Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, writes that granting districts greater autonomy is the key to improving education governance.
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Charter Schools
Mayor Jackson’s reasonable request of Ohio’s charter community
It is in the hope of stemming the loss of families and children that the mayor has proposed his bold school reform plan that seeks to turn the city’s educational fortunes around.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Mayor Jackson’s reasonable request of Ohio’s charter community
It is in the hope of stemming the loss of families and children that the mayor has proposed his bold school reform plan that seeks to turn the city’s educational fortunes around.
Commentary
Ohio’s “value-added” metric not ready for primetime
There is little dispute that information about the academic gains students make (or don’t) is a valuable addition to pure student proficiency data. But there is little agreement about how best to calculate growth and how to use it.
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When Washington focuses on schools
With trivial exceptions, Washington does not run schools, employ teachers, buy textbooks, write curriculum, hand out diplomas, or decide who gets promoted to 5th grade.
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Ohio’s elementary special ed students see improvement while their high school peers languish
Are Ohio’s special education students benefiting from all this spending? Not if you look at their student achievement.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Early reports from the heartland show support for the Common Core
The report, Future Shock: Early Common Core Lessons from Ohio Implementers, will be released next week, but some of Belcher’s findings are worth reporting early because this is such a burning issue for schools and educators across the state.
Commentary
Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools: How to Survive and Thrive in Tight Times
For school administrators and board members lost in the forest of books, reports, and briefs written on “doing more with less,” this outstanding volume provides a compass, map, and sturdy walking stick.
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How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education
The mass implementation of communication technology delivery tools like blogs, wikis, and Twitter has radically changed how information is disseminated and received.
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Reclaiming The American Dream: Community Colleges And The Nation’s Future
In this report, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) examines the “21st-Century Initiative, the overall goal of which is to arm an additional five million students with diplomas, certificates, or other credentials by 2020.
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EVENT: There is still time to register for “Digital Learning: The future of schooling?” (May 17)
Don’t miss this important, nonpartisan event about digital learning and where it will take education in Ohio -- and the nation -- in the years to come.
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EVENT: Pricing the Common Core
Circle May 30 on your calendars because the Fordham Institute is gathering a diverse group of experts to answer a crucial education policy question: How much will smart Common Core implementation cost?
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Successes and failures
At one time or another, most people like to think of themselves as flawless. We just hope that the annoying reminder that we all make mistakes isn’t broadcast too far or wide. Unfortunately in the education world, your mistake can occasionally be laid out to the public.
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Elementary special ed students see improvement while their high school peers languish
Is Ohio’s special education spending spree warranted? If special education students are achieving, then yes.
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Curriculum & Instruction
Set high goals for all of our students
There is a saying among high performing schools that there is no 100 percent solution to helping students learn. Instead, there are a hundred 1 percent solutions that add up to big results. The same is true in the world of education policy.
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Charter Schools
Corporate support for school choice doesn’t come without tension
Chris Christie and Cory Booker may have been the headliners at a school choice policy summit last week, but it was a largely unknown corporate representative who provided some sobering perspective.
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Parental choice: Why I favor less government
Guest blogger Jay P. Greene argues parental choice and control offer a better approach to governing education than state or national control.
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Miles to go, but pointed in the right direction
What the Schmidt and Whitehurst studies tell us—and don't tell us—about the Common Core State Standards.
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Commentary
Advanced Education
Taking care of Florida’s high flyers
Fast-tracking the future in the Sunshine State
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Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools: How to Survive and Thrive in Tight Times
As close to a win-win as budget cuts get
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Investing in America’s Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Career and Technical Education
Putting “career” back in “college and career”
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Commentary
Commentary
Billboards don’t make good policy
Designer Kenneth Cole dipped his toe into the education reform fray recently with a New York City billboard that framed “teachers’ rights vs. students’ rights” as an issue in his foundation’s “Where Do You Stand?” campaign.