Education Research Report: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates

Education Research Report: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates

How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates Ω Since 2002, New York City has closed more than 20 underperforming public high schools, opened more than 200 new secondary schools, and introduced a centralized high school admissions process in which approximately 80,000 students a year indicate ...

K-12 Education in Philadelphia Undergoing Dramatic Change A comprehensive new study from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research Initiative finds that K-12 education in Philadelphia is undergoing a sweeping transformation that has given parents a new array of choices about where to send their ...


K-12 Education in Philadelphia Undergoing Dramatic Change A comprehensive new study from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research Initiative finds that K-12 education in Philadelphia is undergoing a sweeping transformation that has given parents a new array of choices about where to send their ...

The Washington Teacher: Why Not Blame DC's Teachers ?

The Washington Teacher: Why Not Blame DC's Teachers ?

Why Not Blame DC's Teachers ?

by The Wash. Teacher

Are the winds changing under Chancellor Michelle Rhee ? Given the recent announcement of low standardized test scores on the elementary level in DCPS, Efavorite poses some interesting questions for us to consider.

Written by Efavorite, guest writer

Have you noticed that Chancellor Rhee has not pointed the finger of blame at

openSUSE Education 11.3 - still not there yet | ZDNet

openSUSE Education 11.3 - still not there yet | ZDNet

openSUSE Education 11.3 - still not there yet

By Christopher Dawson | July 18, 2010, 11:18pm PDT

Summary

Is it openSUSE or their educational package that’s the problem? Hardware and installer issues certainly suggest that the problem lies with Novell, not a hugely dedicated group who wants students to have access to the best FOSS available.

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Education, Distribution,Linux, Education & Training, UNIX,Operating Systems,Open Source, Software,Christopher Dawson

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Christopher Dawson

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I really wanted to love the latest version of openSUSE’s education-oriented distribution, Li-F-E (Linux For Education). It was released this weekend, alongside version 11.3 of the main openSUSE distribution, and was incredibly promising with a host of great features. Ultimately, though, it was let down by poor hardware support and a glitchy installer that left me anxious to switch back to Ubuntu.

openSUSE is Novell’s community-driven, free Linux distribution. It’s powerful, fast, and feature-rich. Layer on a group of super-smart, completely dedicated educators/developers/volunteers who run the Education group and it would seem that you have a recipe for success. According to the group’s website,

The Penn State Problem � The Quick and the Ed

The Penn State Problem � The Quick and the Ed

The Penn State Problem

by Erin Dillon

Ben posted last week on what I think of as the “Penn State Problem”. It’s a problem that only data nerds would spend much time thinking about, but it actually matters for parents and students. And it is important for the one, small piece of accountability (cohort default rates) that we have in our higher education system.
Ben does a good job of describing the problem in his post. I wanted to illustrate the problem with a couple charts, using Penn State as an example.
Penn State likes to think of all of its campuses as part of one, large, happy family and reports data to the Office of Postsecondary Education this way. As a result, it reports one student loan default rate–3.5%–for all of its 23

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Long Gates

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Long Gates

Long Gates

by arotherham

Businessweek takes a long and analytic look at The Gates Foundation and education.

Cut Ups

by arotherham

It would be nice to think New York is the only state with this problem, but it’s not. A lot of states have been using sleight of hand on tests and proficiency rates to make themselves look better than they are. It’s part of the whole pathology in education governance around looking good rather than doing well.
You’re hearing a lot of excited chatter about how common standards will make this problem go away. That’s

45,000 Fewer Students and 7,800 More Teachers | Intercepts

45,000 Fewer Students and 7,800 More Teachers | Intercepts

45,000 Fewer Students and 7,800 More Teachers

by Mike Antonucci

Click here to read:
1) 45,000 Fewer Students and 7,800 More Teachers
2) NEA Reduces Media Fund Spending for State Affiliates
3) Last Week’s Intercepts
4) Quote of the Week

Announcing "Race to the Top": the reality show NYC Public School Parents

NYC Public School Parents

Independent voices of New York City public school parents

NYC Public School Parents

Announcing "Race to the Top": the reality show

by Leonie Haimson

Inspired by a recent news account of the firing of a popular principal, the US Department of Education has announced a new reality show, to be co-produced by the Gates Foundation and aired this fall on MSNBC, called “Race to the Top.”



Each week will feature three inner-city public schools, with large numbers of immigrant, poor, homeless and/or special education students.


These three schools will then compete before a panel of judges, who will decide whether the principal should be fired

My high school experience, the second time around | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

My high school experience, the second time around | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

My high school experience, the second time around

by Guest blogger on Jul 19 2010 Posted in Community voices

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Tags:

• community partnerships
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• small schools

This week's guest blog post is from Tony Franklin, a Microsoft employee who wrote about his experience with School of the Future.

---

I graduated from a Harrisburg high school in 1991. Like many graduates before me, I walked out the doors for the final time, thankful to be out of there. So, imagine my surprise when, 15 years later, I’m asked by my employer, Microsoft to go back to high school.

In 2003, Microsoft and the Philadelphia School District entered into a partnership to design a public high school in West Philadelphia, the heart of one of

Thursday at Michigan and Wacker. Support hotel workers. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Thursday at Michigan and Wacker. Support hotel workers. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Thursday at Michigan and Wacker. Support hotel workers.

by preaprez

This Thursday hotel workers, food service workers, and airport workers in fourteen cities from Honolulu to Boston will engage in civil disobedience to draw attention to their — and others’ — struggles for decent wages and working conditions. Along with other community supporters, I will be with UniteHere Local 1 members in

Guilty Plea Entered in Obama Student Loan Case | KCRG-TV9 | Cedar Rapids, Iowa News, Sports, and Weather | Local News

Guilty Plea Entered in Obama Student Loan Case | KCRG-TV9 | Cedar Rapids, Iowa News, Sports, and Weather | Local News

Guilty Plea Entered in Obama Student Loan Case

Story Created: Jul 19, 2010 at 11:46 AM CDT

Story Updated: Jul 19, 2010 at 11:46 AM CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Another person accused of viewing President Barack Obama's student loan records at a U.S. Department of Education contractor in Iowa has pleaded guilty.

Patrick Roan pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor. The Iowa City man is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 12.

He was one of nine people indicted on charges of accessing Obama's student loan records while they were employed at Vangent Inc. in Coralville.

A telephone message left for Roan's attorney wasn't immediately returned. Court records did not

At long last, state offers evidence that test standards are low | GothamSchools

At long last, state offers evidence that test standards are low | GothamSchools

At long last, state offers evidence that test standards are low

by Anna Phillips

In recent years, teachers, principals, parents, and much of the city’s press have met the annual unveiling of climbing test scores with increased skepticism, if not

This Week In Education: Thompson: What Statisticians Whisper

This Week In Education: Thompson: What Statisticians Whisper

Thompson: What Statisticians Whisper

by john thompson

Over at the National Journal's education blog, Kati Haycock defined an effective teacher as an angel bending over a blade of grass who "whispers, ‘Grow, grow.’" Somewhere, I imagine, there must be statisticians sitting at their desks whispering to their growth models, "be good enough, good enough." Reformers have caused a huge mess for the Obama Administration because they raced ahead with the

Moral Camouflage or Moral Monkeys? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Moral Camouflage or Moral Monkeys? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Moral Camouflage or Moral Monkeys?

By PETER RAILTON

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.

TAGS:

DARWINISM, EVOLUTION,MORALITY

After being shown proudly around the campus of a prestigious American university built in gothic style, Bertrand Russell is said to have exclaimed, “Remarkable. As near Oxford as monkeys can make.” Much earlier, Immanuel Kant had expressed a less ironic amazement, “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe … the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” Today many who look at morality through a Darwinian lens can’t help but find a charming naïveté in Kant’s thought. “Yes, remarkable. As near morality as monkeys can make.”

So the question is, just how near is that? Optimistic Darwinians believe, near enough to be morality. But skeptical Darwinians won’t buy it. The great show we humans make of respect for moral principle they see as a civilized camouflage for an underlying,

“Who Went Viral?” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Who Went Viral?” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

"Who Went Viral?”

by Larry Ferlazzo

As I’ve explained in earlier pieces, I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites (and books) that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites and resources, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.”
“Who Went Viral?” shows you the most popular online videos. Like similar sites, they’re divided into categories, like “education.” However, unlike other similar sites, Who Went Viral? lets you sort them by country and period of time, too.
USA Today’s “Voices” Project USA Today has begun a “Voices” Project, where the paper poses a question and then people can respond in writing (via Twitter) or video. Some of the questions have included: What is the American Dream? How has the oil spill changed you? What does ...

Better data needed to accurately rate school systems

Better data needed to accurately rate school systems

By Jay Mathews

Monday, July 19, 2010

Educational statistics expert Joseph Hawkins, one of my guides to the mysteries of test assessment, is impatient with the way the Montgomery County public school system is, as he puts it, "always telling the world how much better it is than everyone else." He finds flaws in its latest celebration of college success by county graduates, particularly minorities.

As a senior study director with the Rockville-based research firm Westat, Hawkins's critique has regional and national importance because it deals with theNational Student Clearinghouse. This little-known information source might become the way school raters such as me decide which school families and taxpayers are getting their money's worth and which aren't.
The clearinghouse has a database of more than 93

NYC Public School Parents: No One Safe From the “Race”

Public School Parents

Independent voices of New York City public school parents

NYC Public School Parents: No One Safe From the “Race”

No One Safe From the “Race”
from NYC Public School Parents by Gary Babad

July 19, 2010 (GBN News): A snag has developed in the efforts of education reformers to dismiss ineffective principals and teachers. Apparently, there are not enough of them to go around, so the reformers are now going after successful ones as well.

A shortage of poor educators is seen as the only possible explanation for the recent firing of a popular Vermont principal, Joyce Irvine. Ms. Irvine was universally admired for her effectiveness and vision in running the Wheeler Elementary School in Burlington. But she was dismissed in order to comply with Race to the Top rules stating that “failing schools” can only be “turned around” by firing the principals, regardless of their abilities and accomplishments. So with no ineffective principal available to fire, Ms. Irvine was let go instead.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan had high praise for the district’s actions. “Anyone can fire an incompetent

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Show Me The Money

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Show Me The Money

Show Me The Money

Even before the current downturn it was clear that the fiscal picture for schools was changing in some unfavorable ways.
That means the dreaded ‘p’ word, productivity, is now getting more attention in policy discussions. It’s also why you absolutely don’t want to miss Paul Hill and The Commodore’s* new paper on this very question. (And if you