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 This blog is no longer being updated.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Public Prep: A Public School With A Private Feel
So far, at least, most charter schools have focused on serving low-income kids and ensuring that they learn basic skills. That's where the biggest need is. Now some folks are thinking about starting charter schools of a different kind -- aimed at a more elite educational model: private schools. It's happening already in a fancy park of Brooklyn (2 Park Slope Fathers Dream Big NY Sun), and I can't imagine it not happening elsewhere.* And, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with it. Like a magnet school or G&T program, it brings private school parents back into the public system (or keeps them there). At the same time, it brings private school ideas into the public school testing ground, where they may flourish or fail. Either way, an interesting development.
Federal
Opinion
Obama Advocates Sex Ed For Kindergarteners, Does He?
This latest kerfluffle over Obama's comments about kindergarten sex ed to Planned Parenthood seems to have come and gone, alas, but reveals how easy it is to get in trouble on education issues: Sex ed for kindergarteners 'right thing to do' says Obama ABC News (video here): "Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do." Meanwhile, Obama Girl and Giuliani Girl are fighting it out on YouTube.
Education
Opinion
Best Of The Week (July 16-22)
Education Department
Spellings & Rove, Sitting In A Tree? As If.
Spellings & Rove, Sitting In A Tree? As If.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Bootylicious Teachers & Their Flip-Flops
Twenty-something teachers are pissing off the medium-to-older set (of teachers) by wearing flip-flops and giving kids extra credit for spelling words like "bootylicious," according to this post from AFT John based on a Teacher Magazine posting (here). It's an all-out generational war, I tell you.
Education
Opinion
NCLB Implementation Roundup
Hawaii Gets No Break on School Test Scores HonoluluAdvertiser.com
Education
Opinion
Cheating In The News
Fascinated or appalled at all the cheating that seems to be going on these days? Check out Caveon Security's email "Cheating In The News," which showed up in my inbox this morning, including all the latest cheating news:
Education
Opinion
Spellings & Rove, Sitting In A Tree? As If.
Thinking she was going to talk student lending or something, EdSec Spellings instead got some surprise questions about her former suitor, Karl Rove, from the Washington Post editorial board -- a conversation that eventually led to her tearing up (though not over Rove, thankfully (A Pop Quiz for the Education Secretary (Washington Post)).
Education
Opinion
Best Of The Blogs
We read them -- so you don't have to:
Over at Joe Williams' blog, Joe reflects on the AEI event earlier this week and observes that Charles Murray gives him heartburn, incentives work (not that there's anything wrong with that), and don't mess with Mesecar. Meanwhile, Richard Lee Colvin resurfaces to point us to an excellent editorial in the Boston Globe about holes in Hillary's pre-k plan.
Over at Joe Williams' blog, Joe reflects on the AEI event earlier this week and observes that Charles Murray gives him heartburn, incentives work (not that there's anything wrong with that), and don't mess with Mesecar. Meanwhile, Richard Lee Colvin resurfaces to point us to an excellent editorial in the Boston Globe about holes in Hillary's pre-k plan.
Education
Opinion
NY Times (and Balto Sun) Break Harry Potter Embargo
Just like they did with the Center On Education Progress's 2006 report on curriculum narrowing -- only much, much worse -- the NY Times has apparently broken the embargo on reviewing the new Harry Potter book. This is making some folks crazy, including at the Huffington Post, which has all the details -- but no spoilers.
Education
Opinion
Daily E-Mail Updates Now Available
Thanks to the wizards and code monkeys at EdWeek.org, you can now get DAILY email updates of whatever's new on this blog. Just sign up in the new yellow box just under my picture. It's not quite the same as making it your homepage or checking it obsessively (I know who you are), but it's a big set up from the weekly email summary or the occasional glance. I encourage it as a time-saving convenience. Never miss a brilliant post again!
