Last night was fun for the kids, but today is every education wonk's favorite holiday: NAEP release day! Kevin Carey is already out with some savvy analysis; let me add some thoughts on the trends in reading.
The big news is that we finally eked out some statistically significant progress in...
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Liberal reformers and prominent editorial pages are raging mad about the Harkin-Enzi bill’s supposedly weak approach to accountability in its ESEA update. Are they right to be? And is it true that Republicans have become teacher union stooges when it comes to federal...
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The Senate HELP committee voted last night to send the Harkin-Enzi ESEA bill to the floor. It passed 15-7, with support from all of the Democrats and three Republicans (Mike Enzi, Lamar Alexander, and Mark Kirk). Now, let the analysis begin! Here are five thoughts:
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="320" caption="The making...
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We finally have a serious, thoughtful ESEA reauthorization proposal in the Senate, one that should gain support from both sides of the aisle and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. But here’s a warning: it’s not the bill that scheduled to be marked up tomorrow.
No,...
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It’s official: Federal policymakers across the political spectrum are finally willing to admit that Congress overreached when it passed No Child Left Behind and put Uncle Sam in the driver’s seat on education accountability. First there was (Republican) Senator Lamar Alexander’s proposal to get the feds out of the business...
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I've been traveling a bunch the past few weeks, making it harder to blog. (Though there's always time to tweet!) So I'm a little late to the party on the recent report from Complete College America, Time is the Enemy. As the press and many pundits have relayed, CCA finds...
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Follower's of Fordham's work know that for the better part of three years, we've been pushing an approach to federal education policy that we call "Reform Realism"--a pro-school reform orientation leavened with a realistic view of what the federal government can get right in education. Its central tenets are tight-loose...
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For months—no, years—the ESEA discussion has been nothing short of maddening. While many pundits decry the lack of a “clear route to reauthorization,” an obvious bipartisan solution has been sitting there, ready for the picking. It goes something like this: Step away from federal heavy-handedness around states’ accountability and teacher...
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Do you have a voracious appetite for education policy news and views? Do you need to stay abreast of the latest school reform debates? Do you want to have access to breaking news, as soon as it's reported? Are you always looking for new ways to waste time? Then Twitter...
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It’s long been said that public education must achieve both public and private aims. The public, which foots the bill, has an interest in a well-educated populace. Parents—schools’ primary clients—want a strong foundation for their own children. Much of the time these two interests are in perfect alignment. But what...
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