Education News, Analysis, and Commentary
The AFTies are understandably upset about this WaPo editorial today about the offshoring of tutoring but basically, I think the WaPo hits the nail on the head in terms of the big picture issues and the AFTie post shows what this is basically about: jobs not kids.* The problem, however, is that the Bush Administration …
So I had a strange experience yesterday. Periodically government officials have in a few reporters for an on-the-record but less formal briefing about ongoing things and future plans. Yesterday Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings held such a meeting over lunch with the usual suspects AP, NYT, WaPo, USA Today, Ed Week, Ed Daily, and…Eduwonk. Yes, …
Over at the AFT’s anti-NCLB blog One-L makes a revealing point. She asks whether punishment or sanctions will make teachers work harder and says that since teachers like erstwhile Eduwonk guest-blogger Alice in Eduland seem pretty intrinsically motivated, who needs ’em anyway! Couple of things to unpack here: First, though its opponents have decided (through …
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Big NYT front page lead story on Sunday about No Child Left Behind’s “Supplemental Education Services” or SES provisions. It’s great that the Times is looking at this issue. The SES issue is a complicated one because the program is a muddle intended by some to foster choice, others accountability, and still others just extra, …
It’s the time of year when states are reporting results state tests and whether schools made “adequate yearly progress”. Two quick thoughts: First, the media often does a lousy job of unpacking these figures so they make sense for the average person. Assuming that a sufficient number of students took the assessments, then whether or …
In NYC, the UFT has become a supplemental services provider under No Child Left Behind. Interesting development…and probably a good bet that they’ll do a good job. Sort of a paradox for foes of the program…
Will they be joining the various sign-on letters demanding changes in the law, too? This article, ostensibly about education reporting, is really a clever pop at No Child Left Behind. Does this mean the NEA has an inverse Armstrong Williams problem, meaning they’re pouring millions into anti-NCLB propaganda when they could be getting it for …
Interesting Jacobs post on social mobility, or lack thereof. Related NYT story here. Here’s some good news for the Department of Ed, Alexander Russo says they’re right about Chicago’s supplemental services dispute. NYT’s Herszenhorn hits the NYC small schools program. Must-read if you follow this, already burning up the email lists…And from Boston, who says …
Chester Finn and Rick Hess have written a long analysis of No Child Left Behind in The Public Interest. It’s generating a lot of buzz as the first serious entry in the coming sweepstakes on ideas about how to improve NCLB. That’s largely because (a) Finn – Hess put NCLB in a valuable historical context …
Earlier this week Senators Kennedy and other Senate HELP Committee Democrats introduced a bill with some very modest changes to No Child Left Behind. This close to the election, Republicans are muttering that it’s politics. But that’s not right. Most of what is in the bill are the exact same issues these Democrats have been …
Continue reading “No Child Left Behind Improvement Bill…Road To Ruin or Needles and Pins?”