For your weekend reading:

Alexander Russo offers advice to new education reporters (including to get off the beat soon because it’s not very prestigious). And he’s surely annoyed the Education Department by asking for EdSec Duncan’s daily schedule -- and not the one that’s already online. Russo wants to know who the secretary is meeting with who’s not on the schedule. This is an important issue, and the Ed. Dept. should promptly release this information because Duncan is a public official and who he meets with while on the taxpayer’s dime should be public information. After all, in addition to setting and implementing federal education policy, the guy is now in charge of doling out a whopping $100 billion or so in education stimulus aid.

GothamSchools highlights Indiana’s teacher-evaluation “mini drama” and ties it to New York’s ban on linking student data and teacher evaluations—all with implications for Race to the Top.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, in an effort to make sure everyone knows he’s his own man, claims that his reversal on expanding charter schools had nothing (nothing!) to do with Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s arm-twisting and the potential for a slice of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund. Seriously?

Andy Smarick, over at Flypaper, examines the potential role for faith-based schools in stimulus-driven reform, especially in terms of the competitive Race to the Top and innovation grants.