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 This blog is no longer being updated.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
The Week Ahead In DC
There's not much on the Secretary's public schedule, but tomorrow the NAEP reading and math scores come out -- so much fun -- and it's rumored that a Kennedy discussion draft might come out soon. Less likely for this week, but something to look for, is the next iteration of the Miller reauthorization proposal. I read that there were 3,000 comments submitted on the draft, most of them negative.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Spider-Man Vs. Moses
WalMart is going to be selling toy religious figures this fall, according to an article from In These Times, a product line that may bring up interesting but difficult discussions for parents like "who would win in a fight -- Spider-Man or Moses?" Spider-Man, apparently.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Daft Hands
If you see the kids in the hall doing some crazy thing with their hands covered in marker, they might not be flashing gang signs. The "Daft Hands" video on YouTube has been watched over 3 million times, and done "live" on the Ellen Degeneres show.
Education Funding
Opinion
Andy Rotherham's Tony Soprano Moment
So I got a phone call today from Andy. It wasn't social. He said things would "get ugly" if I wrote more about his brief stint at the White House (as I have in the past). And he wasn't just talking about writing a nasty blog post. He said he'd try and get me fired from EdWeek and blacklisted from other writing projects. Who knows -- he might succeed. The guy knows a lot of people. And not everything I've worked on has been 100 percent successful. (Most especially an ill-fated charter schools report I did for Andy at PPI.) Funny thing is, I was thinking about taking the day off writing about him before I got the call. He's not fun to spar with like he used to be. After that, however, I didn't really have a choice.
Education
Opinion
TAPPED In
Welcome to all the readers from TAPPED, The American Prospect's blog, who read about that whole Hillary-at-the-NEA building thing (and wonders whether Edwards is still hoping). Look around, there's lots more tidbits and treasures to be found.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
How Teachers Think
I wish there was an education version of Jerome Groopman's new book, How Doctors Think, to help us understand how teachers make decisions about students' learning difficulties. The Groopman book examines the thought processes of various doctors, focusing especially on how -- and why -- even the best of them tend to get things wrong when diagnosing patients. As Groopman shows, the errors (up to 24 percent in some studies) have common causes: doctors aren't listening carefully, they're thinking of their previous patients, or they rely on experience rather than using statistical guidelines. Are teachers any better or worse at making tough decisions with little time and lots of uncertainty? More important, what are the error patterns in their decisionmaking?
School & District Management
Opinion
Green Dot Goes National, Maybe
Hoping not to get outflanked like in LA, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union is checking out the Green Dot charter schools and working with the Board of Education in Chicago to consider starting some union-run charters, according to this new Catalyst article. Up til now, the new schools opened under Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 plan have all be nonunion efforts. A leftover program called Fresh Start has included some teacher-district collaboration but not a charter. Funny --six months ago Steve Barr said he wouldn't even start a school in The Valley. Now he's everywhere.
Education Funding
Opinion
New Schools Venture Fund Hires A "Journalist In Residence"
Steven Barrie-Anthony has what might be the perfect job. He's the "journalist in residence" for the New Schools Venture Fund, which means he gets to write about school reform but doesn't have to pay all his bills selling articles to ever-stingier and harder-to-get into papers and magazines. I'm so jealous -- assuming he can say things that are critical of NSVF-funded projects. Here he sings this the praises of Green Dot. Maybe they need someone else to help out?