The queue of stuff that people have sent and I’ve been meaning to post is way out of hand as often happens when I’m travelling a lot. Here’s a lot of links worth checking out, with a few treats buried in there. First the news.
Something Happening Here: From Denver, The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News report on yesterday’s big-hitter presser on education reform and local education player Alan Gottlieb offers his take. Sam Dillon previews Randi Weingarten’s coronation in The Times. But Sam falls for some spin when he writes:
Another group, headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein of New York, issued a manifesto last month urging the nation to redouble its efforts to close the achievement gap separating poor students from affluent ones and blaming “teachers’ contracts” for keeping ineffective teachers in classrooms.
Actually, the document blames teachers contracts and state policies for some of the problems, that’s nuance that matters.
Meanwhile Jonathan Alter calls for real reform in Newsweek and Matt Miller does the same in the WSJ.
Weingarten has positioned herself as the go-to reformer in the teachers’ union community. In public and private Eli Broad calls her the next Al Shanker all the time. But, she needs to be careful here because (a) people are watching all those markers she’d laid down and (b) Alter, Whitmire, Miller, etc…etc…etc…are a pretty good reflection of the zeitgeist out there right now…I remain optimistic about her tenure but it’s going to be a real leadership challenge.
Along those lines, with IBM’s Ted Hoff, TNTP’s Tim Daly and I presented to the governors at the National Governors Association this weekend about human capital policy and actionable policy ideas that are out there today, there is a lot of interest in this area and a sense that we need to take bolder action. But, what I’m really left wondering about from the meeting is whose idea it was to book Motley Crue and the nation’s governors into the same hotel…
Not quite related, but speaking of New York, since we sorta were, they’re still debating down below over what has/has not happened there during the last eight years.
Reading War: They’re debating reading/Reading First over at USAT (ed board here and opposing view here) and Tim Shanahan weighs-in here.
Ad War: More ads on education coming and again highlighting competitiveness. On the merits I think the competitiveness issue is overblown, it’s a longer term issue and a more subtle one. But I am also unconvinced that highlighting it is such a smart political strategy in terms of generating support for school reform. Civil rights, fairness, quality and customization, and using public money as effectively as possible strike me as more salient issues.
Good Links: The new American Educator takes a look at English-language learners, it’s amazing that with the demographic changes we know are coming there is still so little capacity to effectively educate these children…And it includes another winner by the invaluable Dan Willingham. Plus the requisite Shanker fetishizing.
End of last week I was in Aspen for some meetings and Scott Page spoke. You want to check this guy out, amazing.
CBS News recently produced a three-parter on education. Orwell student tracking device here, D.C.’s Michelle Rhee here, and single-gender here. Meanwhile, John Walsh is hosting an online special about keeping kids safe online.
US News is considering changing how they rank law schools and US News’ Ramirez looks at dual enrollment.
Teacher Paul Barnwell has launched an interesting website “Questions for Schools.” Chris Osborne wants to help you track your grades better. Matt Ladner goes all bigger and bolder, and Advance Illinois needs a director of policy.
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