Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

11-12-13 Education Opportunity Network

Education Opportunity Network:

Education Opportunity Network -



11/12/2013 – Still No Proof School Reform Helps
November 12, 2013 Subscribe THIS WEEK: Childcare More Expensive Than College … Schools For Wealthy Get More Funding … School Segregation Problem … Ending School To Prison Pipeline … College Misconceptions TOP STORY Sorry Nicholas Kristof, Still No Proof School Reform Helps By Jeff Bryant “Prompted by the latest results of the National Assessment of Education Progress, aka “the Nation’s Report Card,” Times opinionator Nicholas Kritsof observed on Twitter, ‘Latest NAEP school test scores suggest that school reform helps’ … Such claims are truly silly … In the meantime, the urgent matter NAEP r


Sorry Nicholas Kristof, Still No Proof School Reform Helps
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry when an “All-Purpose-Pundit” at The New York Times takes it upon him/herself to write a commentary about education. “Thomas Friedman is infamous for his uninformed pieces on education,” Larry Ferlazzo, a retired schoolteacher and ubiquitous education commentator on the Internet recently observed. And there’s “David Brooks, who is equally off-base.” Diane Ravitch, lamenting a recent column by Times editorialist Bill Keller, who lazily blamed widespread problems with education performance on university teacher preparation programs (without mustering a sh


Why America Should Care About Philadelphia’s Children
Philadelphia, the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was written, and the site of the oldest residential street in the United States, has become the site where the nation’s drift away from its founding ideals is most acutely obvious. A recent op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer described the situation of the city’s public schools as a “slow train wreck.” The district faced “a $304 million hole in the amount of money that’s needed to open safe schools.” A “rescue package” offered by the state was woefully inadequate. Recently, the city borrowed $50 millio


11/5/2013 – Behind Chris Christie’s Rage At Teachers
November 5, 2013 Subscribe THIS WEEK: Trouble Starting At Age 8 … The Excellence Gap … $1 Billion For Schools … Common Core Implementation Worse Than Obamacare … Will Bridgeport Reject Rhee Revolution TOP STORY What Chris Christie Is Hiding Behind His Rage At School Teachers By Jeff Bryant “New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has a record for responding with rage when anyone, not just teachers, q
What Chris Christie Is Hiding Behind His Rage At School Teachers
“I’m tired of you people. What do you want?” Those were the words New Jersey Governor Chris Christie used to respond to one of his constituents, a taxpayer, and a public servant of the state, who had the temerity to question the governor’s leadership of the state’s education system. As reported by Valerie Strauss on her blog at The Washington Post, Melissa Tomlinson, an elementary school teacher w