After 30 years—some historians might say 100 years—of rhetoric about the “crisis” in American education, it’s getting hard to come up with new ways to frighten the public about the state of American schools. So maybe it’s understandable that the Council on Foreign Relations chose a foreboding title for its March report: “U.S. Education Reform and National Security.” The message is even blunter in one of the chapter titles, “The Education Crisis Is a National Security Crisis.” The council points to a slew of subpar standardized test scores as well as to the surprising fact that 75 percent of young people don’t qualify for military service. (Education is hardly the only reason for that; criminal records and lack of physical fitness can also be disqualifiers.) ... Continue reading →

T. Rob Brown / Associated Press Arne Duncan The state Department of Education, after saying it wouldn't, is applying for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law that funnels federal money to help students with extra needs to learn. Not the waiver package granted 11 states and under consideration for 27 other states. California wants its own, special waiver. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan should not grant it, and probably won't. With more than 80 percent of public schools nationwide (and even more in California) on track to miss academic proficiency requirements of the law by next year's deadline, states are desperate for relief from impending dire sanctions. California wants a waiver that stops labeling schools as failing, gives districts greater flexibility ... Continue reading →

Stephanie Saul offered an indictment in the New York Times today of tax credit scholarship programs that have, in my opinion, serious design flaws. These flaws were almost guaranteed to provide examples like Saul found for her article. How lawmakers and, just as importantly, parental choice advocates respond is an important test of their credibility. Not much of what Saul reported is new, though that makes it no less troubling. Georgia’s law sets no boundaries on the income of scholarship recipients and no limit on the amount of the scholarship itself. It requires no financial audits, no attempt at any meaningful data collection. Many of the contributions are steered through schools and parents with a self-interest to underwrite the tuition of their own students. In ... Continue reading →

May 22, 2012 | Posted At: 04:32 PM | Author: Alexander Russo | Category: Best of the Week , Parents & Parenting , Site News Graduation: Ira Glass At Goucher There haven't been any breakout commencement speeches this spring so far that I know of, but here's Ira Glass's speech at Goucher from over the weekend (his grandmother went there), which isn't bad if not quite viral: Slate and Longform have combined forces to create a roundup of best speeches of all time (what's a commencement speech if not a long essay?). My favorite speech in recent memory is Jonathan Franzen's speech at Kenyon last year, which prompted me to write Education Will Break Your Heart. Continue reading →

May 22, 2012 | Posted At: 04:01 PM | Author: Alexander Russo | Category: Five Best Blogs [Of The Day] Five Best Blogs: Romney Names His Education Team All the best blog posts from around the Internet, posted here and on Twitter at #5bb: Familiar names Rod Paige, Nina Rees, Martin West named to Romney K12 team WPost via GTo http://ow.ly/b4PjN #5bb Plus Whitehurst and Chubb! Early Grade Best Practices Could Provide Important Model for District RTTT http://ow.ly/b54Is @newamerica #5bb Then and now, the ed establishment decided they'd "rather fight everything than compromise." Patrick McGuinn http://ow.ly/b54wG#5bb Rotherham on in-district resistance to school boundary changes that limit with integration advocates can do http://ow.ly/b54nO #5bb The Obama administration is standing firm on some Bush-era decisions like grad ... Continue reading →

May 22, 2012 | Posted At: 03:44 PM | Author: Alexander Russo | Category: Media Watch , NCLB News , Obama Administration Media: The Nation's "Testing Pitfalls" Webchat The Nation was really pushing this webchat Dana Goldstein and others did last week. Anyone know whether it was well attended and/or informative? Continue reading →

If school districts want to win between $15 million and $25 million in the next Race to the Top competition, they will have to focus on personalized learning, according to draft guidelines released by the U.S. Department of Education today. They will also need to come up with a way to link student performance to the evaluation of teachers and school leaders, such as principals. And they will need to have a system for tracking data on children’s academic growth from pre-kindergarten programs up through post-secondary education.The emphasis on personalized learning -- named as an “absolute priority” for competitors to address -- could provide an opportunity for districts that are leaders in early education, depending on how personalization is defined. For example, school districts that ... Continue reading →

Eduflack is written by Patrick Riccards, one of the nation's leading education communications strategists. In 2009, Pat was named one of the top communications professionals in the nation by PRWeek, the first time an individual from the education sector received the honor. In 2011, Pat was named the Not-for-Profit Communicator of the Year by Bulldog Reporter. He has worked with a wide range of distinguished organizations over his career, including American Institutes for Research, International Baccalaureate, National Governors Association, National Reading Panel, U.S. Department of Education, and many others. Pat began his career on Capitol Hill, where he held senior positions for members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Before moving to Connecticut in 2012, Pat served as both chairman and vice ... Continue reading →

"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!" -- Mickey Kaus "Fabulous" -- Education Week's Alyson Klein "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" -- 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, ... Continue reading →