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Though Colorado is more than a year away from implementing its new teacher-evaluation system, doubts have surfaced about the state's ability to launch such a sweeping initiative on time and with adequate resources for professional development. Educators from some of the 27 districts piloting all or part of the new system say that effort has turned out to be a complex and time-consuming task heaped upon demands of other education reforms.

Governor Chris Christie, after proclaiming 2011 the "year of education reform" in January, is running out of time to make good on overhauling New Jersey's school system before lawmakers wrap up the current session. Christie, 49, a first-term Republican, said during a Nov. 18 speech at the University of Notre Dame that the teachers' union has a "$130 million political slush fund" to thwart his plans. He said the New Jersey Education Association uses it "to help their friends and punish their enemies."

Michigan sometimes gets short shrift in school reform news, what with all of the publicity given this year to Wisconsin - where some Democratic legislators left the state to avoid a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to restrict collective bargaining rights of teachers - and to Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich just saw voters repeal his effort to curb collective bargaining for public sector workers. But it shouldn't. Michigan's legislature this year has been considered a host of Republican-sponsored bills that public school advocates see as attacks on schools and teachers.

Gov. Bobby Jindal and his allies on education reform are considering an unprecedented, statewide expansion of private school vouchers and steps to more closely link teachers' job security with performance, according to two officials who have consulted with the governor's office on proposals for this year's session at the Louisiana Legislature.

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, addressed teachers at the National Council for the Social Studies national conference on December 2, 2011.  She agreed to be interviewed for HNN the following week.

"This was written by Carol Burris and Harry Leonadartos. Burris is the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York.  Leonadartos is the principal of Clarkstown High School North in Rockland County, New York. Carol is the co-author and Harry is an active supporter of the New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers by student scores."

"In a conversation about the intractable problems of the Middle East, one of David Grossman's characters in his compelling novel, "To the End of the Land," says, "Who could possibly come up with a new, decisive argument that hasn't been heard?" An equal sense of frustration must lurk in the efforts to construct a reasonable, fair way to assess the performances of public school teachers."

"Lindsay Wagner is an excellent journalist at NC Policy Watch. She covers the legislature. Here is her summary of the slash-and-burn policies that the legislature applied to public education"

"I consider the Gates report to be another step in reducing teachers to labor under the heel of principals who function as management. If reform is ever to be successful, teachers and principals must work as partners. An adversarial system may work in the courtroom, but it has no place in the classroom."

Just when it seemed that teachers unions could not possibly be subjected to any further attacks, they find themselves confronting a totally unexpected foe. According to a new survey by the National Center for Education Information, nearly one in five educators say they support abolishing teachers unions ("Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 2011").

Books criticizing higher education are gaining in popularity,  judging from the number written and published in the last year or so (see here, here, here, and here for just a few examples).  Naomi Riley's The Faculty Lounges And Other Reasons That You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For, which I was asked to review by the publisher, has just joined these ranks. In her book, Riley tackles an important question facing the U.S. higher education system - that is, whether the increasing number of contingent faculty, including adjunct professors and part-time instructors, has eroded the value and quality of a university education.

On Oct. 1, 650 people attended the 4th annual Northwest Teachers for Social Justice conference in Seattle.  Rethinking Schools editor Stan Karp gave a well-received talk on "Challenging Corporate Ed Reform." He ended on an uplifting note with " 10 hopeful, tangible signs of organizing resistance and alternatives to the corporate reform agenda."    The following is an excerpt from that presentation.

"Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and soon-to-be acting Education Commissioner Elizabeth Berlin offered a host of proposals that would dramatically change education policy in New York state in a 20-page letter released Wednesday."