NCLB revamp would affect schools differently
Officials would take a 'largely hands-off' approach with most schools
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President Obama (AP).
Former Bush administration official backs student loan reform bill
A former Bush administration official whose job it was to implement No Child Left Behind is urging her fellow Republicans to pass legislation for student loan reform that also supports community colleges and provides funding to promote impvementsin early childhod education.
Susan B. Neuman, assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education from 2002-04 and now a professor in educational studies at the University of Michigan, uses stark language in this Roll Call pieceabout the legislation now in the Senate. It starts:
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Valerie Strauss v. me on tests
I didn't intend to pick a fight with my blogging wonder of a colleague Valerie Strauss, but she wouldn't let go of the issue. (I least that is what I would tell my mom if this were the playground and not the world's finest Web site.) Valerie says the standardized tests we use now are too unreliable to tolerate. I don't like them that much myself, but I still think they are useful, and don't see Valerie providing any evidence on her side.
The standardized test results I have seen over the last 30 years seem to conform with what I would expect from what I know of the quality of the teaching and the socio-economic level of the students being tested. McLean High in that wealthy community has higher test scores than Annandale High, which is in a less expensive part of Fairfax County with fewer parents who have graduated from college. Banneker High in D.C., which has a selective student body, does better on tests than Ballou, which does not.
Schools that have taken unusual measures to deepen and invigorate the learning of impoverished children, such as Achievement First,Uncommon schools and KIPP, show significantly better scores than schools that have not.
Those examples, and hundreds more, convince me that the tests we are using are much better than nothing, and shouldn't be dismissed as not
Student compares Rhee to Harry Potter villain
Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has been called many things. But it was likely a first Monday afternoon when a student from Hardy Middle School compared Rhee to the pernicious Harry Potter character, Dolores Umbridge, a cruel teacher at Hogwarts Academy.
One by one, middle school students lined up in the D.C. Council chamber this afternoon during an oversight hearing to protest Rhee's decision to reassign their popular principal, Patrick Pope.
Rhee's actions, said seventh-grader Angela Marsh, "say she doesn't really care about the people affected by her unreasonable decisions. She is breaking the heart and soul of the school."
The students got some backup from Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D), who said he agrees that "a mistake has been made."
"For the life of me, I do not understand why this is being done," he said.
Before the testimony this afternoon, Rhee said she was sticking by her decision and moving Pope to start a new arts-centered magnet middle school. "I've been clear with the community and at this point it's not