Clips, And What To Do At NewSchools

A few odds and ends worth checking out:

They are still letting it all hang out in Douglas County, Colorado.  And contention around Common Core?

If you’re heading to NewSchools Summit don’t miss Bellwether’s Kim Smith leading a discussion on disruption and the public good at 11:30 and United States Senator Michael Bennet and Margaret Spellings at 3:30.

JoAnn Armao of the WaPo editorial board checks out New Orleans.  We did the same at an Askwith last week, at HGSE.

Insiders have been watching Virginia’s NCLB waiver request as a signal of the administration’s seriousness about holding the line on accountability.  Based on this response looks like they plan to do that.  Here’s my take from a few months ago in RTD.

New roll-up of data on NY charter schools.  And a throwdown on math here.

Last week it was teacher of the year, this week TNTP announces Fishman Prize winners.

4 Replies to “Clips, And What To Do At NewSchools”

  1. DougCo is my neck of the woods, more or less. One of the best districts anywhere but a cabal of movement and social conservatives are trying to paint the district as failing. So, the union–one of the most willing to accept performance standards and all the rest–is taking a risk to open up negotiations to prove that they are being railroaded by the conservatives who took over the board. And they say there is no conservative agenda. Ha. The board has gone so far as to try to allow public tax monies to pay for private religious schools but that backdoor effort has been stopped by a judge. Try to argue with the conservatives as I have and all you get from them is, “hey, it’s all about offering more choices to parents and kids–really, honest injun, it’s all about choice and choice is good, right?” These people have no shame.

  2. The scariest thing about this “reform” movement is the fact that even such venerable institutions as the Washington Post and Harvard University have drunk the Kool-Aid of test scores. Don’t they even ask, “Are these scores valid?” If not, why not?

  3. Good points, Linda. Sometimes I really don’t know what the media and other institutions are thinking, when they blindly sign on to “reform” ideas that have no empirical evidence in their support. For one thing, we know that they were never teachers!

  4. Choice is always good.

    Thank you conservatives.

    Hands off my wife’s birth control and her private decisions, and our bedroom.

    If choice were always good, then the 2007 market failure that nearly destroyed this free country would be fiction.

    Since 2007, the right has engaged in a spirited defense of their principles of markets. And it has been done indirectly by scapegoating others.

    They condemn teachers but will say NOTHING about the numerous professional licensing boards and attendant professional associations that behave JUST LIKE UNIONS: These association provide labor market barriers that drive up wages, and benefits.

    The associations that donate to the right are saved. Those who do not are condemned.

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