Two SC professors have been fired for refusing to assign grades based on effort rather than merit. Chronicle of Higher Ed on this, too, here ($). This has all the ingredients to make some news.
Atlanta Journal Constitution weighs-in on the charter flap and Phil Andrews notes that charters are doing pretty well in magnolia country. Also, good news from Florida and Wisconsin (from John Witte who is certainly not a Kool-Aid drinking choicenik…). Here’s Witte:
“…the editorial board of the New York Times was incautious and reckless when interpreting the report’s findings on the August 18th editorial page. The AFT’s report does not show many statistically significant findings, nor does the report’s text claim to. Instead, when one considers two major educational factors, race of students and their families’ income, the AFT’s simple tables report that public charter school students do not achieve differently than similar traditional public school students.”
And, The Times clarifies the charter school story here. The Washington Times…Meanwhile, EIA’s Antonucci says all this is good news.
A Pennsylvania court has rejected a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) lawsuit there. This suit, which was not just a knee-jerk reaction against NCLB, alleged that the state had not done enough to help school districts meet the requirements of the law. Appeal coming. Decision here (pdf). More from NSBA’s legal department here.
In Japan, a Northwestern trained researcher is having a big impact on education policy decisions there.
Good news from the U.K.
On the left you’ll find a link to Scotusblog, a terrific resource for anyone following Supreme Court activities and appeals. The new Washington Monthly includes an article about whiz lawyer Tommy Goldstein who, along with his wife Amy Howe, are the Goldstein and Howe that produces Scotusblog. It’s quite a story (and quite a blog).
School is starting for Hip Teacher, fun to keep up with this.