Leonie Haimson: Diane Ravitch Wins the 2011 Moynihan Prize

Leonie Haimson: Diane Ravitch Wins the 2011 Moynihan Prize

Diane Ravitch Wins the 2011 Moynihan Prize

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Read More: American Academy Of Political And Social Science , Daniel Patrick Moynihan , Diane Ravitch , John Dewey , Leonie Haimson , Moynihan Prize , Education News

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Diane Ravitch was just selected as the 2011 recipient of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize, created by the American Academy of Political and Social Science to honor those individuals whose careers in the academic or public arena have been dedicated to the use of social science research to improve public policy. The $20,000 prize was awarded in recognition of her long career of distinguished work on urban education as a researcher and public official.

Ravitch is a true public intellectual, someone who is fully engaged and committed towards ensuring that local, state, and federal education policy is informed by history, social science research and good sense. She has also passionately advocated for the parent and teacher voice to be recognized in the national debate over education reform. I can't think of anyone else in the field of public

Feds eye CA district's handling of bullying claim

Feds eye CA district's handling of bullying claim

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By LISA LEFF

The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 21, 2010; 5:37 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal education officials say a California school district is being investigated over its handling of harassment by classmates of a gay, 13-year-old boy who later committed suicide.

Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for Education Secretary Arne Duncan, confirmed the probe Tuesday.

Investigators from the department's civil rights division are trying to determine if Tehachapi Unified School District employees failed to address bullying that preceded the

Martinez picks Florida reformer to be education secretary | NMPolitics.net – Get the real story

Martinez picks Florida reformer to be education secretary | NMPolitics.net – Get the real story

Martinez picks Florida reformer to be education secretary

By Heath Haussamen • 12/21/10, 3:34 pm • Print

Hanna Skandera

Gov.-elect Susana Martinez has nominated a woman who implemented education reforms in Florida to be New Mexico’s public education secretary.

Hanna Skandera “served as the deputy commissioner of education under (Florida) Governor Jeb Bush, where she promoted and implemented middle and high school reforms that instituted greater accountability, incentives for high performance and the end of social promotion,” a news release from Martinez’s transition team states.

“As a result of the education reforms put in place in Florida, reading scores improved dramatically across ethnic groups, with Hispanic students outperforming all students in 31 other states,” the release states.

Skandera has also served as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Education and undersecretary for education for the State of California.

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“Hanna is a proven reformer who has successfully implemented education innovations and

Rep. Fattah Cites Unequal Educational Opportunity as National Defense Threat -- WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Rep. Fattah Cites Unequal Educational Opportunity as National Defense Threat -- WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Rep. Fattah Cites Unequal Educational Opportunity as National Defense Threat

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), preparing legislation designed to compel equal access to educational opportunity across school districts, today pointed to a significant new report that documents the little-understood impact of educational disparities on military recruiting.

The Education Trust's report released today, "Shut Out of the Military: Today's High School Education Doesn't Mean You're Ready for Today's Army," cites compelling evidence of the effect of inequitable educational opportunity on the ability of Americans to serve in the military.

The report finds that almost one-quarter (23 percent) of recent high school graduates fail the enlistment entrance exam for the armed services. That number is considerably higher for African Americans – 39 percent of whom do not reach the qualifying minimum score, versus 16 percent of White applicants and 29 percent of Hispanics.

The Education Trust report comes as Fattah, the Congressional champion for leveling the playing field between rich and poor

Is a Good Teacher Worth $400,000? | The Atlantic Wire

Is a Good Teacher Worth $400,000? | The Atlantic Wire

Is a Good Teacher Worth $400,000?

by Uri Friedman

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Over the course of a school year, a good teacher produces $400,000 more in future earnings for a class of 20 students than an average teacher. What's more, replacing the worst-performing five to eight percent of teachers with average teachers could catapult the U.S. to near the top of international math and science rankings, padding GDP by $100 trillion and generating returns that dwarf "the discussions of U.S. economic stimulus packages related to the 2008 recession ($1 trillion)."

These are the findings of a National Bureau of Economic Research study by Stanford's Eric Hanushek, which investigates the interplay between teacher effectiveness and the economic impact of higher student achievement, specifically in terms of test scores.

Hanushek notes that one challenge his paper doesn't tackle is how to link pay to effectiveness; instead, the research "simply suggests that the economically appropriate rewards for particularly effective teachers in the context of a performance pay plan could be very large."

How are commentators receiving the findings?

• There Are Two Ways to Interpret This Data, argues Adam Ozimek at Modeled Behavior. Studies like this show that teachers are valuable and that we should raise wages to attract better talent. But:
  

If good teachers are very valuable, then bad teachers are very costly. This means we should be willing to pay more for good teachers, but it also increases the benefit of getting rid of bad teachers and ensuring we have a system that can do that. After all,

Looking back: What Joel Klein said about leaving last year | GothamSchools

Looking back: What Joel Klein said about leaving last year | GothamSchools

Looking back: What Joel Klein said about leaving last year

by Anna Phillips

Here’s a reminder of exactly how much can change in a year.

Though Chancellor Joel Klein now says that he told Mayor Bloomberg he would stay through the mayor’s second term and leave in the third, that wasn’t what the public heard at the time.

Nearly a year ago, Klein sat down for an interview with NY1 education reporter Lindsey Christ to talk about what Bloomberg’s third term would bring for the city’s schools. Here’s a snippet of the dialogue:

Christ: Are you planning on staying on for the next four years as chancellor? There’ve been a lot of

Opinion: A superintendent responds to the governor - NorthJersey.com

Opinion: A superintendent responds to the governor - NorthJersey.com

Opinion: A superintendent responds to the governor

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

BY BERNARD JOSEFSBERG

THE RECORD

Bernard Josefsberg will retire in June 2011 as superintendent of Leonia public schools.

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KUDOS to our governor for riding the zeitgeist and making fear, anger and loathing the wind beneath his wings. As a result of his formidable skills, is anyone absolutely certain that greed does not motivate everyone who seeks or leaves the position of public schools superintendent?

Even I wonder whether my self-professed commitment to the mission of public education was all sham all of the 38 years that I’ve made it my living.

Too many are unemployed, underpaid, underappreciated or otherwise underwater. Recognizing the opening these plights present, our governor draws a direct line from their taxes to the salaries, pensions and benefits of public employees who should not only “share the pain” but who might be proffered as reasons for why the

Opinion: On our shrinking police and superintendent numbers

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

By JAMES AHEARN
RECORD COLUMNIST

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NEWARK has laid off 167 cops, 13 percent of the city’s force, including nearly every officer hired since 2006.

Facing an $83 million budget gap, Mayor Cory Booker says layoffs are unavoidable. This batch is the largest since 1978, when Kenneth Gibson, then mayor, dismissed 200 officers, resulting in a spike in crime.

There will be no such spike this time, vows Police Director Garry McCarthy. He has reorganized the department’s command structure to keep crime in check. Well, we will see.

Camden, struggling with the second-highest violent-crime rate in the country, is taking even more drastic action to hold down costs. It is preparing to lay off nearly

Washington Post's Kaplan Higher Education Sued for Racial Discrimination - Bloomberg

Washington Post's Kaplan Higher Education Sued for Racial Discrimination - Bloomberg

Washington Post's Kaplan Higher Education Sued for Racial Discrimination

By Tiffany Kary - Dec 21, 2010 12:36 PM PT

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Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan Higher Education division was sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over claims the company rejected job applicants based on credit history, a decision which discriminated by race.

The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Cleveland, alleges that Kaplan’s hiring practices have violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 since at least 2008. The lawsuit seeks lost wages and benefits, and offers of employment for people who weren’t hired.

“This practice has an unlawful discriminatory impact because of race and is neither job-related nor justified by business necessity,” the EEOC said in a statement.

Kaplan Higher Education enrolls 110,000 students, with about 70,000 attending class online, and has 75 campuses nationwide. The Chicago-based school derived 87 percent of its revenue