Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, January 28, 2013

UPDATE: Joy Resmovits: Michael Bloomberg Rails Against Teacher Evaluation Deals (And No Deals): Ed Tonigh +Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today

Joy Resmovits: Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today:



Michael Bloomberg Rails Against Teacher Evaluation Deals (And No Deals): Ed Tonight

Mayor Of New York State? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has had it. Speaking to a joint legislative panel in Albany, Bloomberg said the school districts that submitted teacher evaluation plans that expire in a year have committed "fraud," reports the Buffalo News. Bloomberg also said that the holdup over NYC's evaluations -- the so-called "sunset" provisions -- surprised him. Ernest Logan, who heads the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, is miffed, to say the least. "The mayor turned the truth upside-down," he wrote in a Monday letter to his membership that was forwarded to HuffPost. "We can't comprehend how he can claim surprise when the issue was on the table throughout both unions' negotiations and was approved ... for virtually every other district statewide."

Cheating Uncovered In New York City? GothamSchools FOIA'ed the Department of Education and foundpreviously unreported issues that put the integrity of some test results in question. Test security violations outlined in 97 reports written between 2006 and 2012 include inflated scores and inappropriate coaching. While 


Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today

Tom Harkin Out? This weekend, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced he won't be running for reelection. While the "liberal lion's" announcement made news, what I didn't see mentioned in many stories about the retirement is that Harkin is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee -- the very one that is in charge of dealing with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. So what's next for HELP? Harkin has told me he intends to reset the reauthorization process while he's still there, but as the folks at Politics K-12note, that desire could "set up an interesting dynamic with the Obama administration," which is more focused on implementing the waivers it has issued from the law to 34 states and Washington, D.C. The White House wasn't exactly thrilled with the bill his committee moved last year.

Also, his retirement will leave a gaping hole in the chairmanship of the committee. Some have said that, by seniority, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a former preschool teacher, is next in line. But taking into account other