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2007 Winner, Editor's Choice Best Education Blog
-- Performancing.com

2006 Winner, Best K-12 Administration Blog -- "Best of the Education Blog Awards"
-- eSchool News and Discovery Education

2006 Finalist, Best Education Blog
-- Weblog Awards

Least influential of education's most influential information sources.
-- Education Week Research Center

"unexpectedly entertaining"..."tackle[s] a potentially mindfogging subject with cutting clarity... they're reading those mushy, brain-numbing education stories so you don't have to!"
-- Slate's Mickey Kaus

"a very smart blog... [if] you're trying to separate the demagogic attacks on NCLB from the serious criticism, this is the site to read"
-- The New Republic's Ryan Lizza

"everyone who's anyone reads Eduwonk"
-- Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media's Richard Colvin

"full of very lively short items and is always on top of the news...He gets extra points for skewering my high school rating system"
-- Jay Mathews, The Washington Post

"a daily dose of information from the education policy world, blended with a shot of attitude and a dash of humor"
-- Education Week

"designed to cut through the fog and direct specialists and non-specialists alike to the center of the liveliest and most politically relevant debates on the future of our schools"
-- The New Dem Daily

"peppered with smart and witty comments on the education news of the day"
-- Education Gadfly

"don't hate Eduwonk cuz it's so good"
-- Alexander Russo, This Week In Education

"the morning's first stop for education bomb-throwers everywhere"
-- Mike Antonucci, Intercepts

"…the big dog on the ed policy blog-ck…"
-- Michele McLaughlin, AFT Blog

"I check Eduwonk several times a day, especially since I cut back on caffeine"
-- Joe Williams, fallen journalist, Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform

"...one of the few bloggers who isn't completely nuts"
-- Mike Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation

"I have just three 'go to' websites: The Texas Legislature, Texas Longhorn sports, and Eduwonk"
-- Sandy Kress, former education advisor to President Bush and former chairman, Dallas Board of Education

"penetrating analysis in a lively style on a wide range of issues"
-- Walt Gardner, champion letter-to-the-editor writer and retired teacher

"thugs"
-- Susan Ohanian

Education News and Analysis

American Educator
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EduReading


Collective Bargaining in Education: Negotiating Change in Today's Schools

Edited by Jane Hannaway and Andrew J. Rotherham


Why Newsweek's List of America's 100 Best High Schools Doesn't Make the Grade

By Andrew J. Rotherham
and Sara Mead

A Qualified Teacher
in Every Classroom

Edited by Frederick M. Hess, Andrew J. Rotherham,
and Kate Walsh

America's Teaching Crisis

By Jason Kamras and Andrew J. Rotherham

Rethinking Special Education For A New Century

Edited by Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew J. Rotherham
& Charles R. Hokanson, Jr.

Making The Cut: How States Set Passing Scores on Standardized Tests

By Andrew J. Rotherham

Education Blogs

A Constrained Vision
Andrew Pass
a schoolyard blog
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Assorted Stuff
Mr. B-G's English Blog
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edbizbuzz
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IALA
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What up, Mz. Smlph?
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Educational Resources and Organizations

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National Council on Teacher Quality
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New Leaders for New Schools
New Schools Venture Fund
The New Teacher Project
New Vision
Pre-K Now
Harvard's Program On Education Policy and Governance
Progressive Policy Institute
PPI's 21st Century Schools Project
Public Agenda
Public Impact
Reading Reform Foundation
Rick Hess' World HQ
The Savvy Source for Parents
Scholastic Administrator
School Data Direct
Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services
Standards Work
Teach for America
The Teaching Commission
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Trust for Early Education
Uncommon Schools
United States Department of Education
The Urban Institute
WestEd

Opinions on Eduwonk reflect the views of the author, Education Sector does not take institutional positions. Outgoing links do not constitute an endorsement.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Aye Aye!

The Democratic Attorney General of CT goes to a yacht club and gives a speech attacking a law aimed at helping poor kids...
Posted at 4:27 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Kirke McGrath
U.S. News' Anne McGrath gets Jay Greene to sit down and talk education myths.
Posted at 10:17 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Doyle On Feldman
Denis Doyle turns in a must-read remembrance of Sandy Feldman.
Posted at 8:57 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Prognosticating Roberts
Based on last week's hearings, it's hard to know exactly what John Roberts will do if he's confirmed as Chief Justice and if the education world's legal experts know, they're not telling either.

But, this passage in a recent Jeffery Rosen TNR piece ($) about Roberts ought to give the anti-NCLB crowd pause...

The most notable area where Roberts would be more deferential to Congress than O'Connor relates to Congress's ability to condition the grant of federal funds on a state's agreement to respect federal law. This is Congress's most significant power over the states--just as significant as its power to regulate interstate commerce, if not more so. For example, federal civil rights laws that forbid state programs and institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race and sex depend on a broad interpretation of Congress's spending power. Similarly, Congress can use its spending power to circumvent the Supreme Court's attempts to strike down federal laws under the Commerce Clause. For example, after the Supreme Court held in 1995 that a federal regulation prohibiting guns in schools exceeded Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce, President Clinton pointed out that Congress could achieve the same result by denying federal funds to the handful of states that refused to prohibit guns in schools on their own.

Along with Justice Clarence Thomas, O'Connor was the Rehnquist Court's most energetic critic of Congress's efforts to impose conditions on federal grants to the states. In 1987, she dissented from a crucial case that upheld Congress's power to deny a portion of federal highway funds to states that refused to adopt 21 as the minimum drinking age. By contrast, Roberts, who participated in the case as an advocate, came to agree with the Court's majority. In a 1999 interview on public radio, Roberts said, "The basic principle is, if you pay the piper, you get to call the tune. And I think the federal government could say, 'If we're giving you money, and it's related to the area in which we're trying to get you to waive sovereign immunity, we can require you to consent to suit as a condition of getting those funds.'" This suggests that Roberts would give Congress more latitude than O'Connor to impose conditions on federal funds. Emph. added.
Posted at 7:33 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Thursday, September 22, 2005

PM Reading...Who Lost Schrag? And Wilkins Channels The Boss...

OK, losing Alter is one thing, but losing Schrag is a whole different kettle of fish...excellent Peter Schrag column in today's Sac. Bee.

And, if you're in the mood for more in the same vein, Amy Wilkins responds to some recent back and forth in the Gadfly.
Posted at 3:40 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Teaching And Learning
Give some love to Michael Lach over at Teach And Learn, he's moving the ball in Chicago.
Posted at 1:07 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Turnover
In The Times, Hal Varian discusses the recent Hanushek Texas study.
Posted at 10:43 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

More Katrina's Kids
Washington Post weighs-in with a very sensible editorial. Targeted, modest, and time-limited. While hardly surprising at this point, the Bush Administration's ability to mortgage the high ground on an issue in favor of playing politics still manages to astound...Eduwonk readers weigh-in later...
Posted at 9:23 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

158-0....And Shut Out By Alter, Too!
Over at bold print blog Edwize it's all about the kids...except when it's about the contract! 158 comments on EdWize about the fact-finders report, no mention of what's good for the kids. Curious...

Also, at the same place, Leo Casey comes back about this post, nothing new except some links to random unrelated Eduwonk posts to try to stick it to these guys. It's actually pretty tendentious in other ways, for instance no one is suggesting most teachers work less than 4 hours a day, the issue is what's in the contract. The bottom line here doesn't require the words Leo devotes to it. Read this, read where the UFT is on this stuff, and then read the fact finders report. Duh. Could it be that they saw different numbers than Leo is touting? Stay tuned...

By the way, in case the teachers' unions aren't convinced that they've lost elite opinion on this issue and are in the process losing the public, check out this line from Jonathan Alter in his recent Newsweek cover story about Katrina's broader lessons.

Democrats have offered little on education beyond opposition to NCLB. They've shown more allegiance to the teachers unions (whose contracts are models of unaccountability) than to poor kids.

Yikes. Plenty of time for Ds to fix this perception before '08, but not a lot to waste...More interesting question, when do people like SEIU's Stern decide that they can't be dragged down by this and really start publicly distancing themselves...that's some class warfare worth watching...
Posted at 8:07 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Back To School Law

It's not quite a Socratic dialogue...but taking time off from all their Katrina relief work, NSBA is hosting an electronic chat about pending school law issues. It's a good line up to answer a variety of questions that you may have on that front. Just don't ask them about the most important question on most people's minds...
Posted at 5:35 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Sandra Feldman
Excellent Washington Post and NYT obits.
Posted at 9:02 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Russo On Blogging
Over at This Week Alexander Russo has now decided to start refereeing what is and is not a blog (though he notes he doesn't really care). This is a slippery slope as everyone has a view though that, of course, is what makes the medium interesting in the first place.

Of course, some might argue that real blogs don't exploit unpaid interns loaded with cereal to do their work....And didn't he just laud some sup'ts (rightly Eduwonk thinks) for blogging? Some argue those aren't true blogs either.
Posted at 6:02 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Monday, September 19, 2005

Swing!

At last, a true third way on school facilities...and this is a hell of a lot more interesting than Sara Mead's proposal...

Via Drudge.
Posted at 9:52 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

More Katrina
Time looks at the education issue.
Posted at 4:14 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Sad News
From the AFT:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sandra Feldman, who rose from her position as a second-grade elementary school teacher in New York City to become president of the 1.3 million member American Federation of Teachers, died last night after a long battle with cancer, AFT President Edward J. McElroy announced today. Feldman would have been 66 years old next month.

This is a loss on multiple levels. Obviously the personal dimension for her family, friends, and colleagues, but also for the AFT and the teachers they represent because she was no ideologue, was able to see the forest for the trees, and understood the stakes...in other words a leader.
Posted at 3:42 PM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Homer Meets Class Size Reduction
Eduwonk's take on Jay Greene's new book in the NY Post. Hechinger Institute's Colvin here in the LA Times. He's got more words...
Posted at 2:40 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post

Coming Attractions
Over at celebrity-blog EdWize Leo Casey argues that when Eva Moskowitz pointed out that the current contract there requires less than 4 hours a day of actual instruction it was teacher bashing (more on her horrific atrocities here). Yet here are actual UFT members pointing out the same thing (though in a different context). Are they calling teachers lazy or just pointing out that, well, the contract requires less than four hours? Good teachers do work more than this, obviously, so why not work that into the contract? Answer? This is where the rigid, albeit important, constraints of industrial unionism rub up against the more textured nature of the workplace in a profession like teaching.

Leo also argues that there is no problem with excessing and seniority provisions in the NYC contract. Well, if they are as minor an issue as he says then drawing a line like this on them sure seems like an ill-advised strategy since the union is getting clobbered on this issue (and don't be fooled, this isn't some conservative plot, it's liberal groups starting to analyze this...) The deal here is obvious -- reforms for money -- but it's not so easy because in fact reforms are an enormous issue because they cut to the bone in terms of how to deal with low-performing teachers and the power of veteran teachers. Yet every day the UFT waits to make a bold gambit their position weakens and amount of money seemingly shrinks...

The fact finding panel (which the UFT asked for, this was no gotcha) got specifics about the extent of the problems the rules contribute to and the number of teachers affected and were obviously convinced by what they learned and not by the UFT's take on this which was also presented. That data will be public at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Posted at 2:35 AM | Comments: 0 | Link to this item | Email this post