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 This blog is no longer being updated.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Pay For Performance... In The Blogosphere
Pay for performance is everywhere, these days. Once compensated purely based on how many posts they wrote, some bloggers are now being paid according to how many viewers and comments their posts generate, according to this in-depth New York Magazine article (Everybody Sucks). How's that for pay for performance?
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
"I Don't Want To Blow You Up!"
Talk about misguided efforts at teaching tolerance. This artist has created a storybook-coloring book to help children understand Muslims -- a noble effort, but perhaps a little too shocking in its approach (Teach Tolerance Through Coloring). From New York Magazine.
Education
Opinion
EdWeek Runs Scientologist Ad, Says NASBE
I hardly ever read the paper version of EdWeek, so I never see the ads. But over at the NASBE blog (yes, everyone has a blog now), the question is whether EdWeek should have run an ad that's apparently paid for by a group affiliated with Scientologists (No Apparent Ad Policy at Ed Week): "What kind of advertising and editorial policies does Education Week have that ads like this have a place in their publication?"
Federal
Opinion
Dentists Good, Dentists Bad
In its letters to the editors section, the New York Times recently printed the overly familiar story about how NCLB's rating system is unfair like punishing dentists based on their patients' health. Luckily, a couple of days before, the paper had reminded us what money-grubbing louses many dentists are, refusing access to poor kids and families more than ever before. So much for sympathizing with the dentists, I say.
Education
Opinion
Taking On The Higher Ed Lobby
I thought the Washington Monthly's Paul Glastris did pretty well on The Colbert Show last night talking about his magazine's unorthodox annual rankings (the anti-US News list). Check out the package of stories, which includes an interesting look at community colleges done by Kevin Carey, and a Ben Adler piece on the higher ed lobby's pretty amazing resistance to reform. The Adler piece reminds me a lot of the largely-overlooked James Traub piece from a few weeks back. If you think K12 is reform-resistant, you haven't dealt with the folks at Dupont Circle. And I'm not talking about the lefties who are rallying against the US News ranking, who demonize the US News and distract from real accountability issues.
Education Funding
Opinion
Foundation Bringing $ Bling $ To Education Beat
The Spencer Foundation, which focuses largely on funding academic research, is funding a new $75,000 fellowship for education reporters (and other interested parties) who want to spend a year at Columbia University's J-School and produce a "long-form reporting project [book, magazine article, newspaper series] to advance the understanding of the American education system." The deadline is January 31, 2008. Three lucky fellows will be named by March 1, 2008. This isn't Spencer's first try at boosting the quality of education coverage. Its 2000 annual report lists similar, though much smaller, grants given to UMichigan and Harvard for education journalism fellowships. Columbia has similar programs for business reporters, among other things.
Education
Opinion
Links From Other Blogs
Last week, pretty much the only blog that linked to me was the union critic Mike Antonucci (aka EIA). This week so far, it's the pro-union Dr. Homselisce (Teach For America). Pathetic, I know. But readers keep finding me even without the links, and I'll take a link whether it agrees with me or not. This one, perhaps not surprisingly given TFA as a subject, does.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
A Gay Union Leader For New York City Teachers
According to this NY Daily News article, Randi Weingarten, head of the NYC teachers union and potential successor to AFT president Ed McElroy, came out at a recent event as a lesbian. This is probably not such a big deal in New York City, but in the rest of the country, who knows.
Education
Opinion
Once Around The Blogosphere
Newbie blogger Charles Barone annotates (eviscerates?) a Mike Smith-Bruce Fuller op-ed (Smith & Fuller Automatic Revolver). Joanne Jacobs passes us a secret note that there's a girl's version of The Dangerous Book For Boys out (The girly book for girls). I'm not sure she's a fan of either. TeacherKen says that Barack Obama's education plan is ok (Decent, not spectacular), which is probably as much as Obama can ask for. Make Mike Goldstein happy and watch this ABC News segment on his charter school in Boston (via Eduwonk). From the picture, it looks like they make the teachers work in the cafeteria, too. Excellent. Meanwhile, Yale undergrad Zach Marks ambushes NCLB on the Huffington Post. The arguments are pretty basic, but I'm jealous of his comments (14!). My screed against Wendy Kopp has zero. Want a cute story? Check out Web-Logged's Will Richardson: How to Fix a Monarch Butterfly’s Wing (and Other Random Tales).
School & District Management
Opinion
"Grow Your Own" Teachers -- And Recruits?
Chicago has a newish "grow your own" teachers initiative, as well as the nation's largest set of military-themed schools:
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
"Nice White Lady"
A little Monday-morning humor, this video spoofs all the movies like "Freedom Writers" where a committed teacher -- always a white woman -- helps urban youth reach their dreams:
