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 This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Will Universal Preschool Get "S-CHIPed"?
Universal preschool is going to be education campaign issue Number One, says Richard Whitmire (Preschool) based on all the proposals out there. Many would agree with him. But the recent Presidential veto of the S-CHIP shows that it might not be so easy to get something done. President Bush vetoed the S-CHIP on the grounds that it doesn't focus on the poorest kids who already have preschool and creates a major new "entitlement" program. Of course, politics play a part and Bush will not be there in the future, but the struggle shows just how difficult it is to get new programs created even when little kids are involved.
Education
Opinion
SuperTutors, School Closings, Less NOLA, USDE Blog
Edwards' education plan is a good one, says the Ed Sector's Kevin Carey, except for just one crazy idea (Super Tutors). Denver can learn some lessons about closing schools from what other cities have done, says Schools For Tomorrow's Van Schoales (Closure lessons from other districts). TFA is a great place to start a career, says BusinessWeek via EdWize (Teacher News of the Day). Exactly. Refomers should stop making such a big deal out of New Orleans, says Eduwonk (A Little Less New Orleans?). Jenny D says that it won't be long before there's a US Department Of Education "blog" (Been Gone Too Long).
Education Funding
Opinion
Forget NCLB -- It's All About Spending
Forget those puny authorizing committees -- it's all about budget and appropriations. That's where the money (and an awful lot of policymaking) happens. That's why New America is holding an event today on the latest FY 2008 spending developments, featuring the House budget committee's Barbara Chow and New America's Heather Rieman (right).
Education
Opinion
Big Stories Of The Day
The Washington Post features the new Fordham Foundation study showing low expectations and disparities among 26 states standards especially at the younger ages (Varying Standards May Hurt 'No Child' ). Ditto for AP, albeit with a slightly different focus (State Reading Tests Deemed Easier). USA Today goes with the Sputnik anniversary (Sputnik heralded space race, focus on learning). Over on PBS, the NewsHour focuses on New Orleans' new superintendent, Paul Vallas (New Orleans School Chief Tackles Rebuilding Shattered System). Last but not least, MSNBC goes with the Ohio lawmaker whose lesson on the legislative process inadvertently included a slide showing a naked woman (Nude woman shown during lecture).
Federal
Opinion
Chicago Teachers Go With Obama, Not Clinton
The same day that the national teachers union AFT announced that it was supporting Hillary Clinton for president, the Chicago local announced that it was going with the local guy: Barack Obama. Here's the announcement -- what do you think?
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Giving Shanker Credit For What He Wanted To Do
I wish Slate had taken my piece about Al Shanker (How Al Shanker Blew Up No Child Left Behind) instead of Sara Mosle's recent review, but I'm happy to report that Mosle and I make some of the same points. For example, that Shanker's work unionizing teachers affects nearly every classroom teacher to this day. ("Today, there isn't a teacher in America whose life hasn't been touched by Shanker's own.") But we disagree about his legacy, in that Mosle (The Man Who Transformed American Education) gives more credit to Shanker for his ideas and "prescience" than I do. Journalists and pundits and wonks (and AFTies) like to focus on all the rest -- the "good" Shanker, the ideas, the potential -- but to me, Shanker is all about his real-world accomplishments, which are powerful and far-reaching but aren't most of them really about school reform.
Education
Opinion
Women's Soccer Player Of The Year (Marta) Loves The Carnival
This week's Carnival of Education is up, including promising posts such as Bellringers' comparison of NCLB and "My Rather Large Behind," Right On The Left Coast on teachers and free speech, What It's Like on the pros and cons of teaching to the test, and Scheiss Weekly on the food stash for kids who forget their lunch.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Racial Slur Turns Up In Crossword Puzzle Assignment
Joanne Jacobs links to a much-discussed story a crossword puzzle that includes one question in which the N-word is the answer. Says Jacobs:"A parent complained that this is one word students don’t need to be taught, the teacher apologized and it appears that life will go on at Sequatchie County Middle School."
Federal
Opinion
Breaking News: AFT Endorses Clinton, Not Richardson
I guess all that pandering and NCLB-bashing worked. The AFT just announced that it's endorsing HRC for President. It's not much of a surprise, except maybe to Bill Richardson (pictured) who has so many good education ideas, or to Edwards folks who were hoping his proposal (see below) would give him some pull.
Education
Opinion
Wednesday Blog Roundup
I read them... so you don't have to:
About the Ravitch op-ed (see below), Eduwonk asks "didn't we try this already?" (States Right?). The AFT blog is concerned about the NYT piece on New Orleans from a couple of weeks ago (Predictable Sign Of The Times) -- namely whether the focus should be on poverty or school reform. School closings are getting too much coverage, says Sari Levy at Schools For Tomorrow (School closures bring out the drama queens). Educators and researchers don't usually get along, writes Eduwonkette -- except in one case (Cool people you should know). EdWize lets us all know that Ms. Frizzle is back to blogging and has some things to say (Ms. Frizzle on TFA).
About the Ravitch op-ed (see below), Eduwonk asks "didn't we try this already?" (States Right?). The AFT blog is concerned about the NYT piece on New Orleans from a couple of weeks ago (Predictable Sign Of The Times) -- namely whether the focus should be on poverty or school reform. School closings are getting too much coverage, says Sari Levy at Schools For Tomorrow (School closures bring out the drama queens). Educators and researchers don't usually get along, writes Eduwonkette -- except in one case (Cool people you should know). EdWize lets us all know that Ms. Frizzle is back to blogging and has some things to say (Ms. Frizzle on TFA).
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
TV Show Profiles District Of Columbia Marching Band
Thanks to JM for passing along this link from DCist about the upcoming taping of the Ellen Degeneres Show at Ballou High School. Check out this video snippet from a new documentary that's coming out on the school and it's band:
Federal
Opinion
Ravitch Proposes Impractical & Unlikely Pullback On NCLB
Education historian Diane Ravitch proposes a radical overhaul of NCLB in today's New York Times (Get Congress Out of the Classroom). She points out all the usual flaws in the law, and, as in the past, she proposes that the feds collect and report out data (including the results of national testing), and the states and districts take back the whole school reform thing. However, Ravitch overstates NCLB's reach into the process by quite a bit. Districts and schools aren't actually doing what the current NCLB tells them to do with struggling schools, finding loopholes and complying nominally without making bigger changes. And they aren't to my mind particularly likely to do more revamping with fewer prescriptions from Washington. National standards just aren't viable this time around. And, perhaps most important, Congress is unlikely to pass (or fund) education programs that don't give them a substantial say in trying to make education better. A big part of the funding increase that accompanied NCLB's first years was lawmakers' enthusiasm for the law.
School & District Management
Opinion
Washington Post Reporter Hypnotizes Local Superintendents Into Endorsing National Standards
Earlier in the week, the Washington Post's Jay Mathews used what must have been hypnosis to get three DC-area school superintendents to say that they supported national standards -- an idea that, as Mathews himself notes, has traditionally only been advocated by wonks and pundits (Superintendents Suggest Fixes For 'No Child'). What kind of hell do you think those three superintendents are going to get when the Mathews spell wears off and their colleagues read what they've said? Note also that one of the superintendents represents Fairfax, VA -- the folks who didn't want to test their ELL kids in English as required by NCLB. They don't want the current NCLB but they want national standards. Hmmm.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Group Hugging Ban Captures International Attention
One Oak Park Illinois school's "hugging ban" has captured the media spotlight, for however briefly. Maybe this is a new part of Ed In '08's strategy to win more attention for education issues. And it's working. (You know they convinced Kozol to do that partial fast thing.) Or maybe it's just a slow news week and schools are easy targets. Check here to see 200-something stories published on the topic. Not known for accuracy, many of the media stories miss the fact that the hugs being banned are big group hugs not the usual greeting kind.