Couple of good reads while I was gone: Manual High School in Denver has been in the news a lot, here’s a look at Rob Stein and what he’s trying to do there now. Blogger and professor Sherman Dorn sits down with Doug Christensen to talk about testing. Governing’s Alan Greenblat blogs about mayoral control. And, if you didn’t get enough New York already, here’s an article about ed reform there from Sol Stern. A lot of claims being made on all sides about what parents want/don’t want etc…proof will be in the pudding in a couple of years…In a forthcoming article Christiana Stoddard and Sean Corcoran look at support for charter schools, some interesting data. I finally got to the summer issue of American Educator and you should, too. UVA’s Daniel Willingham turns in a must-read on critical thinking and content and Leo Casey reprises the argument he made in his chapter in this book. The Indy Star ed board is at it again! This time they look at special education…See this Erin Dillon analysis for more. If you were not at the New Schools Venture Fund Summit in New Orleans you can read about it here (pdf). Finally, this is a depressing story from LA, and it will help you understand why a lot of rank and file teachers may not love their teachers’ unions overall but sure do –understandably — want protection from this sort of craziness and lousy management.