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EducationReform
State of the Union: Obama Faces New Challenges in Reforming Education
By Julie Moos - Politics DailyWhen President Obama enters the House chamber to deliver his third State of the Union address Jan. 25, he will bring with him a track record of at least limited success in reforming education, a topic he's expected to feature in his remarks. Obama has fulfilled or made progress on most of his campaign promises to improve the nation's schools, based on tracking done by PolitiFact.com, which monitors and fact checks political claims. According to PolitiFact's numbers, Obama has kept 11 of his 48 education promises, compromised on four of them, and has made progress on another 24. He has broken ...
Why D.C.'s Next Mayor Ought to Keep Michelle Rhee (Who Doesn't Love My Husband)
By Melinda Henneberger - Politics DailyIf Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty loses to his Democratic primary challenger, D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray, this Tuesday as expected, I hope Gray does something wholly unexpected and finds a way to keep Michelle Rhee on as chancellor of the city's long-struggling public schools. Not because she has in the last three years miraculously transformed the schools, where only 9 percent of ninth-graders will graduate from college within five years of leaving the system. And not because she's necessarily the superwoman we've been waiting for, as per Davis Guggenheim's admiring documentary ...
Volunteerism and Cash-Strapped Britain: Are U.S.-Style PTAs on the Way?
By Delia Lloyd - Politics DailyWhile reading the New York Times Motherlode blog the other day, I was struck by a piece about current trends in American education. Apparently, many public school districts in the United States are increasingly turning to parents in order to cover budgetary shortfalls. In some cases, it's the parent-teacher associations that are spearheading the movement to make up for things like teacher's salaries and supplies when school boards can't. In other cases, schools are making direct appeals to parents for monetary contributions, sometimes making them mandatory. There's a lot to say about this ...
Arne Duncan's Reforms: Rep. Judy Chu Wants Them Left Behind
By Danny Yadron - Politics DailyTeachers unions have long had a friend in Democrats, and they've got a new one in Rep. Judy Chu of California. Chu called Thursday for lawmakers to ditch a model -- championed by another Democrat, Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- for fixing the country's worst performing schools, a combination of multimillion-dollar grants and federally prescribed reform models that call for school closures and staff firings. Flanked by leaders from the two national teachers unions, Chu said individual districts should decide for themselves how to fix failing schools. That's been a demand of teachers for ...
'College and Career Ready'? Education Reformers Need That Defined
By Danny Yadron - Politics DailyEducation reformers have made "career and college ready" the latest buzzwords in an overhaul of the U.S. education system. The only problem: They've yet to agree on exactly what the phrase means, a fact on display this past week at a Senate hearing on student assessment. "I think the theory is firm," Mary Ann Blankenship, executive director of the Kentucky Education Association (a state teachers union), told the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee . "I think the specifics are going to get much more specific once the standards are set." ...
Reform of 'No Child Left Behind' Calls for More Flexibility, Higher Standards
By Linda Kulman - Politics DailyIt's been something of a parlor game among educators and Washington think-tank types to speculate on what the long-overdue reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act would -- and should -- eventually look like. (Perhaps knowing that's what passes for cocktail-party chitchat is the reason that President Obama's outline for education reform was released on Saturday night.) On Monday, Obama delivered his much-anticipated wish list for revamping NCLB to Congress, to largely positive reviews. "A Blueprint for Reform," as Obama's outline is called, makes clear that one of the first things to ...
The Promise and Pitfalls of Public Education: What We All Need to Know
By Linda Kulman - Politics DailyTwenty-seven years since the publication of "A Nation at Risk," the alarming report that warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in U.S. schooling that threatened the country's "preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation," the needle has not moved much for public education. I was reminded of this when I read Carlo Rotella's profile of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in this week's New Yorker (the magazine's subscribers can read the full digital version; others can purchase access). ...
Opinion: Obama's Quiet Education Revolution
By not in system - AOL News(Jan. 26) – A week ago, President Obama announced that he is planning to spend $4.4 billion on his Race to the Top education program. If you missed the news, don't kick yourself. Obama's entire education reform plan had been largely overshadowed by the yearlong health care debate, the economy, Afghanistan and other big-ticket news items. It's unfortunate, since this may be the most impressive reform his administration has accomplished in the past year. Obama announced Race to the Top in July. The program awards grant money to states on a competitive basis, based on their implementing ...
Should Children Start School at Age 6 Instead of 5?
By Delia Lloyd - Politics DailyIn the United Kingdom, at least, it's looking like the answer to that question is "yes." This is but one of several controversial findings to emerge from the most comprehensive review of the British educational system in 40 years. The Cambridge Primary Review -- released last Friday -- is the biggest independent inquiry into primary education in this country in more than four decades. It is based on 28 research surveys, 1,052 written submissions and 250 focus groups, all led by a prominent Cambridge University-based research team. In addition to arguing for delaying the age at which children ...
Sen. Michael Bennet: "We're Falling Behind the Rest of the World.''
By Linda Kulman - Politics DailyBefore Michael Bennet joined the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in January -- named by the Colorado governor to replace Ken Salazar, who became Secretary of the Interior -- he was Denver's public schools superintendent. He was also an outsider to education when he took that job in 2005, but quickly became known for his efforts to shake up Denver's worst-performing schools, expanding early childhood education and basing teacher pay on their accomplishments in the classroom, location, and special talents. Although Bennet, 44, is not on the Senate education committee, he is known as one of ...
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