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.
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.
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….
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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.
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
Check out this special edition of the Ohio Education Gadfly, a look back at the decade's most significant education events in Ohio.
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.
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.
We’ve been covering the Los Angeles school-outsourcing plan for a while and it’s no surprise that teachers are among the groups vying for control of various schools.
Spectrum Academy--the catchy if slightly off-putting name for Utah’s K-8 charter school for students with autism (or “on the spectrum”--get it?)--will expand its offerings to high school in fall 2010. What’s more interesting is how the school’s very existence reminds us of two contentious issues.
Hard education news was skimpy at year’s end, so the New York Times education beat folks must have been catching up on their reading--of the Gadfly, at least.
This volume is the work of the New Teacher Center (NTC) at UC-Santa Cruz, a comprehensive teacher mentoring and professional development outfit.
While the United States has been fussing about paying students (see here for starters), the Brits have turned it into national program.
If you missed the January 2010 issue of U.S. News and World Report, go pick up a copy. “Will School Reform Fail?” queries the cover and it’s a troubling question.
In early December, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) told school districts to stay tuned for updates on the Race to the Top (RttT) grant program, promising to advise on "the value of supporting or not supporting" Ohio's application.??
Like other states, half of Ohio's $200 to $400 million in potential Race to the Top (RttT) winnings will be distributed to participating LEAs via the Title I formula.
