This Week In Education: Thompson: Editing Suggestions for Jay Mathews

This Week In Education: Thompson: Editing Suggestions for Jay Mathews

Thompson: Editing Suggestions for Jay Mathews

by john thompson

Jay Mathews writes that if the new D.C. contract doesn't work "it will be leaders like Rhee who get the blame. ... Tests are flawed measures, but they are pretty much all we have."[insert] Diagnostic assessments would better serve students, but they do not have the political cache. "That is why the new breed of teachers takes them seriously. ... If [insert] When "scores don’t continue to improve, the headlines will say Rhee failed." But "the teachers driving schools in these new directions will blame themselves and" [insert] many will become discouraged and abandon the profession but they shouldn't. Rejecting the blame game would be "a useful habit if we want urban schools to work." "One crucial element in all this can’t be easily measured — attitude, both in teachers and students. Leaders like Rhee have insisted on hiring only teachers who believe that they can make big gains despite the drag on learning that comes from poverty" [insert] pass her

Media: The Perils Of Nonprofit Education Journalism

by Alexander Russo

You think for-profit "corporate" journalism is flawed when it comes to covering education issues?  I'd agree.  But perhaps tax status isn't the real issue.  As the Community Media Cooperative's Curtis Black documents in a new Huffington Post column (here), nonprofit (foundation-funded) journalism has challenges, too -- perhaps nowhere as much as in its coverage of controversial education issues like school turnarounds and performance pay. The backstory here is that  Chicago News Cooperative, which provides coverage for the Midwest edition of the New York Times has experienced some struggles disclosing its conflicts and reporting Chicago news in a balanced way for the New York Times.  This problem has been widely discussed in Chicago and was written up in the Columbia Journalism review (here).  A large part of the debate has to do with CNC/NYT's coverage of school turnarounds, and the role CNC board member Mike Koldyke plays.  It's not just a Chicago issue, given that the Times has contracted out with other nonprofit outfits to provide content in other parts of the country.