Is there a Christmas miracle in school reform debate?
This was written by Paul Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina, and a version was published at Daily Uncensored.
By Paul Thomas
Something profound appears to have occurred — a cosmic shift in the education reform debate that reflects our larger social debates in the United States.
2011: Best and worst in education
My guest is Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research organization, writes about education, equal opportunity and civil rights. This appeared on the foundation's blog.
By Richard D. Kahlenberg
Looking back on 2011, we saw in K-12 education some continuation of the misguided obsession with teachers unions, as Republican governors sought to cripple public employee unions in Wisconsin and Ohio. To add to the drumbeat, authors Terry Moe and Steven Brill published high-profile anti-teacher union books. But if some politicians and pundits got it wrong, there was good news from voters, as Ohio residents in November repealed the wrongheaded attack on teachers and other public employees, and North Carolina voters backed a return to