AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
Controversial Book On Obama Appears To Have Lifted Key Quote
Walker Recall Effort Struggles To Gain Momentum
education reform
Obama Urges Reforms to 'No Child Left Behind'
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyDuring a speech Monday at a Virginia school, President Obama outlined his plan to reboot George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education law, saying he wants to overhaul in place before the start of the next school year. The president's appearance at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington was the latest stop in a campaign to give more education-reform power to state and local governments and improve student performance, The Hill reported Monday. Obama told students that the U.S. economy depends on young people getting an education that leads to a competitive career. "Over the next 10 years, ...
Opinion: Scandal Debunks Education Miracles
By Walt Gardner - AOL NewsA scandal now unfolding in New York City, home of the nation's largest school district, is calling into question whether miracles in education are really mirages. From 2006 to 2010, the number of students who passed statewide math tests in Grades 3 through 8 soared from 58 to 82 percent. During the same period, the graduation rate leapt from 49 to 63 percent. Not surprisingly, the data were used by reformers to "prove" that miracles are possible when schools are held accountable. In fact, when Joel Klein announced his resignation to take a top executive position with News Corp., The New York ...
Teach for America Answers Obama's Education Call
By Matthew Hall - AOL NewsPresident Barack Obama's recent State of the Union address called for more young people to join the effort to close the vast achievement gap that exists in the United States. It turns out that Wendy Kopp, CEO and founder of Teach for America, had been ready for the president's call for 20 years. For two decades, Teach for America has been recruiting elite college graduates to work as teachers in low-income communities that face educational challenges. Stephen Lovekin, Getty Images Teach for America CEO Wendy Kopp, seen here in 2008, says, "We need transformational change" in ...
Opinion: Can Michelle Rhee Save Public Schools?
By Richard Whitmire - AOL NewsIf school reformer Michelle Rhee hasn't yet parachuted into your hometown, chances are she soon will. You'll recognize her immediately -- she's the blunt-talking, young Korean-American woman praised by governors, scolded by teachers unions and pursued by the press. Alex Wong, Getty Images Former Washington, D.C., public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is taking her successful reform ideas nationwide. As someone who spent the better part of a year researching a book about Rhee, allow me to set the scene for what made her famous in Washington, D.C.; why she's visiting your state; ...
Reactions to the State of the Union: An A+ From Teachers
By Kayla Cagan - AOL NewsI was so proud of President Obama when he suggested treating teachers with the same level of respect as do the South Koreans, who refer to their teachers as nation builders. Teachers across the country are struggling with overcrowded classrooms, tiny salaries, reduced benefits and longer hours. It is time for our communities to validate and elevate our educators, instructors, and principals -- not to celebrity status -- but as the respectable, compassionate leaders that most of them try to be on a daily basis. President Obama wants all of us to back our teachers, financially and socially, to ...
Opinion: The Missing Link in Education Reform
By not in system - AOL News(Dec. 9) -- No longer can we "wait for Superman" to fix America's education system. As politicians, researchers, educators and even filmmakers continue to debate why the United States has dropped to number 25 in educational achievement in the world, the role of high-quality early childhood education in closing America's achievement gap needs to be a bigger part of the reform conversation. While the Obama administration's Race to the Top program and the creation of common core state standards for K-12 in English/language arts and mathematics are rightfully lauded as major victories, these ...
Opinion: Will Teachers Unions Bend to Education Reform?
By not in system - AOL News(Nov. 5) -- Democrats in Congress aren't the only ones who had a bad day on Tuesday. So did their No. 1 cash cow, the teachers unions. The two largest teachers unions -- the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which combine to form the single largest source of donations to Democrats -- have hit a rough patch. Not only did their political apologists in Congress just lose more than 60 seats in the House and Senate, but they've been enduring a PR nightmare of epic proportions ever since the release of the much-discussed "Waiting for 'Superman,'" a ...
Opinion: Why Education Reforms Keep Failing
By not in system - AOL News(Oct. 18) -- In 1966, the U.S. Office of Education issued the most comprehensive study on education ever produced by the federal government. Known as the Coleman Report, it was commissioned by bureaucrats in the educational establishment in hopes of making the case for ever-greater educational expenditures if perceived inequalities in education could be documented. To the consternation of the mortified bureaucrats who commissioned it, the Coleman Report concluded that "schools are not very important in determining student achievement. Families, and to a lesser extent peers [are] the primary ...
Tea Party Candidate: Abolish All Public Schools
By David Knowles - AOL News
(Oct. 14) -- School's out ... forever? Tea Party candidate David Harmer, who is running as a Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 11th District, thinks the nation's public education system should more closely resemble the way it looked in 1825. In other words, Harmer would abolish public schools altogether. In an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000, Harmer wrote the following: To attain quantum leaps in educational quality and opportunity, however, we need to separate school and state entirely. Government should exit the business of running and funding ...
Five Reasons Michelle Rhee's Departure Does Not Spell Disaster for D.C. Schools
By Melinda Henneberger - Politics DailyAll right, so Michelle Rhee did not take my unsought advice -- which does happen now and again, even in my own house. (I'd hoped that the hyped-to-the-heavens Washington, D.C. schools chancellor, who has dismissed as "overrated" such niceties as collaboration and consensus-building, might astound us by sticking around and at least trying to work it out with the city's mayor-almost-elect, Vince Gray. Sure, she owes her high profile as the country's best-known school reformer to Adrian Fenty, the incumbent Gray defeated in last month's primary, which effectively decided the race in heavily ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- Irked Senate Panel Votes 30-0 to Cut Pakistan Aid
- GSA Bash Organizer Steps Down
- More Stories »
- Know Your Enemy
- Obama’s Challenge in Egypt
- The Edwards Waiting Game
- Are Doctors Doing Too Much?
- The Pagan Cult of Reagan
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics