This Week In Education
Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education was an opinion blog that covered education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge. (For archives prior to January 2007, please click here. For posts after November 2007, please click here.) This blog is no longer being updated.
Federal
Opinion
Presidential Candidates Don't Use Education Scholars
Wondering why education's great academic minds -- Ravitch, Fuller, Hoxby, Hanushek, Murnane, whomever -- aren't in the fray advising the major presidential contenders like their counterparts in other fields? Me, too. The Education Election blog points to this free article in the Chronicle about campaign advisors who come from academia (Scholars Who Counsel Candidates Wield Power). But there is no mention of education. This means (a) education isn't important enough to have any scholars on board, (b) there aren't any education scholars worth having, (c) the education think tanks have pushed the academics out of the way, or (d) the article simply left them out. My guess is "C," which is a big problem if you're the AERA or anyone else who thinks academic research should play a role.
Education
Opinion
The Best Of The Carnival
This week's Carnival of Education is up ("with no further adieu"). Some of the most eye-catching contributions include The Red Pencil on blogs that Carnival Goers read regularly, John from the Teacher Leaders Network tackles the difference between "best practices" and "what works in schools," Great College Advice on why increased accountability won't work at the college level but is perfectly fine for K-12 education, Friends of Dave posts about how badly education news is reported by the press, Scheiss Weekly on the joys of living in the neighborhood where you teach. And many, many more.
School & District Management
Opinion
Hijinks & Disappointments For Prizewinning School District
One particularly waggish friend asked me earlier today whether Eli Broad had toured New York City's infamous "rubber rooms" before giving the city its prize for urban school reform. I'm guessing not. Samuel Freedman updates on these holding tanks for teachers in today's Times (Where Teachers Sit, Awaiting Their Fates). I think the Voice broke this story before (here). Meanwhile, the school that was originally installed in the main administrative building for the NYC school system has been quietly moved elsewhere, and now disbanded, writes Jennifer Medina (Academy That Symbolized Innovation in Schools Is Closed). Talk about gimmicks -- and too bad for the kids and teachers who put everything into it.
Education
Opinion
Free National Journal Interview With Spellings
Thanks to the folks at National Journal for letting everyone get a free look at Lisa Caruso's fascinating interview with EdSec Spellings (Insider Interview: Improving on '99.9 Percent Pure' (10/09/2007)). As I wrote earlier this morning, there's lots of good stuff in there.
Education
Opinion
Around The Blogs
I blog about them, even though they never blog about me...EIA notes that public education employees now number 10.3 million (3rd behind health care and service industries), including 2.4 million state education employees. And they say SEAs are understaffed. Over at Early Learning, Richard Lee Colvin says "This blogging business is harder than it looks." Amen to that. Then Colvin goes on to say -- no surprise given his sponsor -- that UPK is going strong. Kevin Carey joins a small but merry band of folks who didn't like Linda Perlstein's new book, Tested. Any pub is good pub. There's a Latino version of Brown, says Dana Goldstein at TAPPED. Who knew? Charlie Barone's new blog, Swift And Changeable, takes on the Miller-CTA debate. I interviewed him yesterday (see below) and got some background on the history of this relationship. The Hoff wraps up on the Rose Garden speech from yesterday, with some excellent personal tidbits.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Sleep Deprivation Slows Learning By A Year
Yesterday, I ranted about the dangers of students multitasking while trying to learn. Today's rant is about sleep deprivation. Thanks to a post from former US News reporter Stacey Schultz on her blog, Fussbucket, we learn about a new NY magazine story showing that sleep deprivation has concrete effects on how much students learn, and that districts (and parents) who have addressed the issue have seen achievement go up.
Education
Opinion
Journalists Should Be Focused On Fact-Finding, Not Access
Powerful people have been trading access for friendly coverage since journalism began, but the recent example of GQ magazine killing an investigative story on Hillary Clinton's campaign in order not to endanger their ability to do a cover story on Bill Clinton's trip to Africa has brought the practice into the light. This happens in education, too, though is not widely publicized. Reporters who don't provide favorable coverage aren't invited to pre-briefings, or given materials ahead of time, or don't have their interview or information requests handled quickly, or at all. But as this article from Slate suggests, "access" may be over-rated as a journalistic tool, compared to independent investigation (Bring back the write-around!).
Education
Opinion
Spellings Spills To National Journal
There's not much that's really new or interesting in too many education stories these days, but not so in National Journal's Q and A with Secretary Spellings from Friday (Improving on '99.9% Pure' $$). In an interview with reporter Lisa Caruso (pictured), Spellings mocks multiple measures as do-it-yourself school reform, says that more money for NCLB will only come with a new iteration of the law, walks back from earlier statements about preferring current law to the Miller proposal, declines to apologize for the infamous Ivory Soap remark, and explains the origin of her Bush nickname. That's good stuff. The only thing missing from Caruso's piece is an in-depth analysis of what Spellings was wearing. (The black pantsuit? The big broach?) Find a friend who has a subscription. Related post here.
Federal
Opinion
Kennedy Playing Tough On NCLB
Wondering when Ted Kennedy (pictured, file photo) was going to get a word in on this whole NCLB mess? Well, today was the day -- but it wasn't warm and fuzzy like the White House or the NCLB supporters wanted. Said Kennedy (via a press release):
Education
Opinion
Best Of The Blogs
Over at the DFER Blog, Joe Williams writes about a recent article following high school graduates out into the world. Foolish teachers are getting fired for their racy MySpace pages, notes Joanne Jacobs here. On a more serious note, Kevin at D-Ed Reckoning has some pointed things to say about educators complaining about NCLB. The Intelligencer points out that SEIU didn't endorse Edwards despite all his pandering. Over at Education Election, Jeff Solocheck highlights a new site that is checking Clinton and Edwards' claims about education.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Is Multi-Tasking Holding Our Kids Back?
Most pundits say that kids multi-tasking -- doing homework with the TV on, for example -- is just the way things are now, and indeed they may be right. But in the new Atlantic author Walter Kirn says that students' and teachers' and indeed human beings' brains were not made for such things. According to Kirn, our brains lose their ability to retain information if asked to do too many things at once. The implications for schooling are clear:
Education
Opinion
President Announces New NCLB Strategery
From the White House NCLB event going on right about now:
Education Funding
Opinion
White House, Civil Rights Group Pump Up The NCLB Volume
Thanks to a friend for passing along the attendees list for the White House NCLB list, which features pro-NCLB civil rights groups (Wade Henderson, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President, Janet Murguía, National Council of La Raza President, Marc Morial, National Urban League President, William L.Taylor, Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights Chairman). Not all civil rights groups support NCLB, but these guys do. And they're obviously trying to keep the pressure on to move forward with NCLB reauthorization. This is all fast-moving stuff, though, since the event wasn't even on the EdSec's calendar for this week when they sent it out on Friday.