February 3, 2010
Education Week, Vol. 29, Issue 20
Education
Letter to the Editor
What We Gain With National Standards
To the Editor:
Alfie Kohn has made a career out of bashing tests, and he continues in that vein with his Quality Counts 2010 Commentary ("Debunking the Case for National Standards," Jan. 14, 2010).
Alfie Kohn has made a career out of bashing tests, and he continues in that vein with his Quality Counts 2010 Commentary ("Debunking the Case for National Standards," Jan. 14, 2010).
Education Funding
Opinion
Community Schools: Reform's Lesser-Known Frontier
Lawmakers should do more to expand efforts to link schools with networks of social support, argues Sarah M. Fine.
Assessment
States Rush to Join Testing Consortia
Hoping to win some of the $350 million at stake in Race to the Top money, most states have signed on with multiple common-assessment groups.
Standards & Accountability
Core Knowledge to Link Curriculum to Core Standards
Satisfied with the standards crafted by the multistate initiative, the foundation will make free its content-focused K-8 sequence.
Education Funding
Opinion
Attention, Gates: Here's What Makes a Great Teacher
Before shelling out $45 million for research, ask retired teachers like himself the secret of good teaching, writes James D. Starkey.
Education
News in Brief
Gates Calls Teacher Grants a Risk
In his 2010 annual letter, Bill Gates describes his foundation’s recent $335 million investment in developing evaluation systems to improve teacher effectiveness, saying there is a “high risk” the work could fail.
Equity & Diversity
College Board Report Examines State of Minority Male Students
Given the nation's demographic changes, the report and panelists at a discussion argue, more must be done to improve education for minority males.
States
States Said to Lag in Using Data Systems Well
An advocacy group says states should focus on effectively analyzing and sharing education data, not just building information infrastructure.
Standards & Accountability
New Critiques Urge Changes in Common Standards
Groups writing the much-anticipated standards want to streamline the latest 200-plus-page draft and make it more user-friendly for educators.
Education Funding
Obama to Seek Up to $4 Billion Boost for Education
The president voices support for K-12 education in a State of the Union speech that calls for freezing other domestic spending.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Teacher-Dismissal Powers Found to Affect Absences
When Chicago gave school principals more latitude to fire teachers who lacked tenure, faculty attendance improved, a new study finds.