Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths

by Ben Miller

I can’t recommend enough Kelly Field’s excellent piece on the front of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education about the true story of long-term default rates (and not just because Erin and Robin’s report on this topic gets a mention). What Field turns up isn’t pretty:

According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.

We’ve known from other Department documents that default rates were always higher than expected, but to see it laid out in such clear terms is worth the read by itself. But there are three other things about the story (and theaccompanying piece from Goldie Blumenstyk) that are worth highlighting.

Lots of Complexity

Over the past decade or so the Department of Education successfully established a complex and opaque

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.

• How effective are mandatory random drug testing programs on high school students’ drug use?(Institute of Education Sciences)
• Why is charter school governance, which might seem like a snoozer, actually a critical issue? Sara Mead’s take on her new Ed Week blog. (Sara Mead’s Policy Notebook)
• Corporal punishment making a comeback? Not in Memphis at least. (The Commercial Appeal)
• What’s the College and Career Association’s legislative strategy for dealing with increased scrutiny on proprietary schools from Congress? (Higher Ed Watch)

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top

by Michele McNeil

The pros and cons of Congress' proposal to trim $500 million from Race to the Top to fund edujobs have sparked quite the discussion on this blog.
Most of the commenters seem to think edujobs is a far better use of taxpayer money than Race to the Top.
But here's one interesting argument in favor of cutting Race to the Top, and not for obvious reasons. Mike Petrilli over at Flypaper says that to leave Race to the Top Round 2 at a bloated $3.4 billion forces Education Secretary Arne Duncan to fund some very mediocre proposals. And that's not very reform-y at all. In fact, Petrilli isn't a fan

Education Advocacy Toolkit | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Education Advocacy Toolkit | The Forum for Education and Democracy

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Education Advocacy Toolkit

In conjuction with our partners in the Rethink Learning Now campaign, we have produced an ESEA Toolkit for you to use in making your voice heard around ESEA reauthorization.

To read The Forum's paper, Creating a National Culture of Learning: The Forum for Education & Democracy’s Recommendations for the Reauthorization of ESEA.

New Features

• Read George Wood's blog and learn about the new Education Advocacy Toolkit from The Forum and Rethink Learning Now in the July 13th edition of The Forum's newsletter News and Views.

  Pedro Antonio Noguera is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. He has published on topics such as urban school reform, conditions to promote student achievement, youth violence, the impact of school choice and vouchers on urban public schools, and race and ethnic relations in American society.

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Unions and Democrats Both Straddle the Fence | Intercepts

Unions and Democrats Both Straddle the Fence | Intercepts

Unions and Democrats Both Straddle the Fence

by Mike Antonucci

There’s a highly illustrative bit of information in Politico, courtesy of U.S. Rep. David Obey, about the battle over the edujobs bill. Obey says he knew the Obama administration would be upset about the cuts to the Race to the Top program, but that he proposed cuts to some of his own pet projects, “such as expanding broadband computer access to rural areas like his district.”
So to Obey, the plan to incentivize specific education reforms is no different from spending money on rural community access to broadband. It’s safe to say Obey and Obama don’t see eye-to-eye on education policy. It would seem with NEA and AFT in favor of the edujobs bill and against Race to the Top, the lines are clearly drawn between union-allied Democrats and reformy Democrats. But it’s not that simple. With a midterm election looming, neither the unions nor the Democrats want an internal split, so we’re seeing a lot of overlapping

Eduflack: Can Gates Remake K-12 Education?

Eduflack: Can Gates Remake K-12 Education?

Can Gates Remake K-12 Education?

by Eduflack

Yesterday, Nick Anderson offered up a front-page story in The Washington Post on the influence and impact the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is having on education reform in the United States. For many, this was not new news (particularly since Libby Quaid and the Associated Press did a similar story about two years ago), but the size and scope was bound to attract attention. When we start to see the number of grants awarded, the total dollars doled out, and the influential individuals who have moved from Gates into either government or practitioner roles, and you start to see the possibility of the Gates Foundation and education improvement.

But Eduflack is struck by the same thinking that has dogged him for years. Anderson's well-written piece portrays the current K-12 public education environment and how the Gates Foundation needs to work within the confines of that system. It continues to be about refurbishing existing homes, not about tearing down and building new. And if anything was clear from the Anderson article, it is that Gates is in a position to do it its way, and not simply as we have always done.

So it had Eduflack going back into the archives to look at some past writing. In March of 2009, I opined on this

Diane Ravitch Speaks on Charter Schools

MikeAntonucci 29 videos