Education Links

"The shift in E.D. Kain's thinking on education reform of late has been an interesting and, I think, beneficent one for reform discourse. Kain basically blanched when he began to perceive he was too strongly in the "anti-reform" camp (few are actually anti-reform, but that's the unfortunate appellation ascribed to opponents of Duncan, et al)."

"In our education system we have nothing nearly so clear as prices to help piece together the various bits of knowledge and experience, desires and frustrations that comprise the system as a whole. Our education system is not a market and, even if Milton Friedman's vision of universal school choice were someday realized, would still not be a market, really, because there is nothing for sale and nothing produced save well-educated young minds."

"Something remarkable has been happening in public education. Since the beginning of the year, the people appointed to run major school systems at the district and state levels have all come from a clearly identified reform movement that seeks to dramatically change the current system."

"Gov. Rick Scott seems determined to ruin public education in Florida. Not only is he devastating school budgets with multiple-billion-dollar cuts, but he is intent on crushing the morale of the state's teachers. One can't expect to improve the public schools while demeaning the professionals who work in them."

"...Today, the bands of nouveau corporate royalists (with coats of arms bearing such names as Coors, DeVos, Koch, Scaife, and Walton) are determined to take back those middle-class gains of yesteryear."

"Our earnest Secretary of Education, who famously (and bizarrely) promised Congress a billion-dollar edu-bonus if it reauthorized NCLB by the administration's deadline and to the President's satisfaction, was back at it on Friday. Exhibiting the administration's patented disinterest in the niceties of the U.S. Constitution, he announced that he's getting ready to waive NCLB requirements for states if they agree, as the New York Times put it, "to embrace President Obama's education priorities, a formula the administration used last year in its signature education initiative, the Race to the Top grant competition.""

"Every morning, children in Boston disperse to schools all over. Childhood chums, and neighborhood feeling, can be left behind"

"Many of us have had at some point in our lives a wonderful teacher, one whose value, in retrospect, seems inestimable. We do not pretend here to know how to calculate the life-transforming effects that such teachers can have with particular students. But we can calculate more prosaic economic values related to effective teaching, by drawing on a research literature that provides surprisingly precise estimates of the impact of student achievement levels on their lifetime earnings and by combining this with estimated impacts of more-effective teachers on student achievement."

"Today, America's teachers are so disillusioned with the Obama administration that their participation in the 2012 is a big question mark. Most teachers I know may ultimately vote for Barack Obama, but they will do so only because they fear the Republican candidate will do more damage, not because they think the Obama administration's policies are moving the nation in the right direction. When it comes to education policy, most teachers and professors see the Obama administration as promoting national initiatives which strip teachers of their autonomy, make them scapegoats for the nation's problems, and promote formulas for assessing teacher quality that will, if accepted, turn reduce instruction at all levels to memorization and test prep. They are very likely to sit out the next presidential campaign unless the administration switches gears and embraces a teacher centered strategy for improving American's schools and universities."

"Just as climate scientists warn Americans to brace for a long hot summer, anyone paying attention to the nation's public schools can expect a summer of more of the same, heated cross-fire between the "reformist" politicians and pundits, and the growing population of skeptics who disagree with them."

"Wisconsin state assessment results show voucher students' performance lackluster. The state's response: remove the requirement that voucher students take the assessments and expand the voucher program to include wealthy families."

"Gov. Chris Christie proposed Thursday that private companies play an unprecedented role in public education, managing some schools and creating others from the ashes of dysfunctional ones."

"Katie Campos will be appointed to serve as Assistant Secretary for Education. Ms. Campos is the co-founder and Executive Director of Buffalo ReformED, a not-for-profit education reform advocacy organization that empowers the community to prioritize education by putting students first. Buffalo ReformED builds and strengthens relationships between school leaders, teachers, parents, community leaders and elected officials in Buffalo. Through Buffalo ReformED, Ms. Campos has emerged as a leading parent advocate in the education reform debate in Buffalo. Previously, Ms. Campos was the Director of Public Affairs for the New York Charter Schools Association, where she was advocated for quality Charter Schools legislation in the NYS Legislature and coordinated grassroots advocacy efforts at individual charter schools in Upstate New York. Ms. Campos also served as the Director of Development at Democrats for Education Reform, where she promoted education reform to elected officials and community groups through proactive outreach and marketing. Ms. Campos earned her B.A. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis."

"On Tuesday, News Corp announced "The Future of American Education: A Presidential Primary Forum.""

"I'm going to D.C. tomorrow to talk with Rick Hess about Terry Moe's new anti-union book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools. I read it thinking: "Does this guy really believe what he's saying, or is he only trying to make points with some larger audience he hopes to reach?""

"The Los Angeles Unified School District squanders more than $500 million a year on an academic-improvement strategy that has consistently proven to be ineffective, researchers concluded in a report released Tuesday. The nation's second-largest school system spends 25% of its teacher payroll ($519 million a year) to compensate teachers for completing graduate coursework. These courses are a primary means by which teachers earn credits that translate to raises. Yet such training has shown no overall benefit in improving student performance, said Kate Walsh, president of the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality, which conducted the research."