Churchill can't determine who changed grades
Grade hacking won't hurt college chances for students, principal says.
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Officials assured parents that the grade-changing scandal will not tarnish Churchill's reputation. (Jim Lo Scalzo-TWP)
Ravitch, unpredictable, still likes NCLB basics
Everybody (okay, everybody among the few thousand education obsessives who might read this) is talking about Diane Ravitch's new book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."
Some of us who also write books are envious of the news stories in both the Post and the New York Times about Ravitch's new work. But she is one of the grande dames of education commentary, like her fellowBridging Differences blogger Deborah Meier. When she significantly shifts her view of what we should be doing for schools, that's news.
But did she really change her mind that much? I am not so sure.
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Higher ed gender gap seems stable--except for Hispanics
A new study shows that the gender gap in higher education--females outnumber males--may have stabilized.
According to the report by the American Council on Education’s Center for Policy Analysis, the distribution of enrollment and undergraduate degrees by gender has remained consistent since about 2000.
Ten years ago males represented 43 percent of enrollment in higher education--and earned 43 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, according to the report, “Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010.”
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Independent evaluation of school reform begins
The four principal figures in D.C. school reform were on their best behavior Monday when they visited with the National Research Council (NRC) committee that will conduct an independent evaluation of their efforts.
The rare joint appearance by D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, State Superintendent of Education Kerri L. Briggs and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso was part of an inaugural public meeting for the 13-member panel.
The evaluation is required by the 2007 law that gave Mayor Adrian M. Fenty control of the school system. After months of political squabbling and stalemate over the choice of an evaluator, the Fenty Administration and Gray settled on the NRC, the research arm of the National Academies.
The NRC has assembled a committee loaded with big names in the academic and education policy sectors, led by former Clinton White House adviser Christopher F. Edley, Jr., now dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and University of Wisconsin sociologist Robert M. Hauser.
The panel's principal mission -- which will play out in a series of reports over the next three to five years -- is to determine what significant improvements in the school system, if any, are attributable to the Fenty-Rhee effort. On Monday, all four speakers said they welcomed the NRC inquiry, and committee members asked them what questions they would like to see answered by the study.
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