Press
Landrieu Tabbed For Education Calendar
(From The Shreveport Times, September 2, 2009)Democrats for Education Reform, a national political action committee, has chosen U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for their calendar -- 10 Champions for America's Students.
This is the first time that the organization has put a calendar together. Landrieu was chosen by the organization for her work for charter schools as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Other calendar members include: state Sen. Gloria Romero from California, Mayor Daniel McKee from Rhode Island and state Sen. Malcolm Smith from New York.
Cumberland Mayor Gets Calendar Display
(From The Providence Journal, September 7, 2009)By JENNIFER D. JORDAN
CUMBERLAND, R.I. -- Mayor Daniel J. McKee is Mr. June 2010.
Got your attention now?
McKee is the only New England official to be included in the "Democrats for Education Reform" 2009/2010 calendar, which the organization sent out last week.
The mayor's appearance comes in recognition of his leadership in starting a new kind of charter school, the Mayoral Academy.
Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley opened Aug. 31, welcoming 76 kindergartners from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket, and McKee says he hopes to open a series of the alternative public schools across the state.
Other honorees in the organization's calendar include U.S. Rep. George Miller
of California, who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee; Washington
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who is the former boss of Rhode
Island's new education commissioner, Deborah A. Gist; and Mayor Cory Booker,
mayor of Newark, N.J.
August 21, 2009
New York's Charter School Challenge
(From the New York Post, August 21, 2009)By THOMAS W. CARROLL
NEW York is lagging behind as other states move to make their laws more charter-school friendly to compete for $4 billion in federal Race to the Top aid.
Several states already answered the challenge with
pro-charter actions, notes Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for
Education Reform. Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana and Tennessee raised the caps on
the number of authorized charter schools in their states -- and Massachusetts
Gov. Deval Patrick pledges to do the same. Connecticut and Rhode Island recently
reversed cuts in charter-school funding.
The Race to the Top will reward states for policies
that encourage the growth of charter schools. Public comment on Education
Secretary Arne Duncan's draft guidelines for the challenge ends this month, with
final rules to be published in October.
Continue reading "New York's Charter School Challenge"....
Schwarzenegger's Plan Would Reshape Education In California
(From the Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2009)By JASON SONG and JASON FELCH
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on legislators Thursday to adopt sweeping education reforms that would dramatically reshape California's public education system and qualify the state for competitive federal school funding.
The governor's proposed legislation, to be considered during a special session that ends by Oct. 5, was met almost immediately by criticism from the powerful state teacher unions, which called Schwarzenegger's plans rushed and unnecessary.
While Schwarzenegger's goal is to boost California's chances to qualify for $4.35 billion in federal grants, known as "Race to the Top," many of his proposals go far beyond those needed for eligibility, and embrace the Obama administration's key education reform proposals.
Schwarzenegger's reforms include:
Continue reading "Schwarzenegger's Plan Would Reshape Education In California"....
August 17, 2009
Dangling Money, Obama Pushes Education Shift
(From The New York Times, August 16, 2009)
By SAM DILLON
Holding out billions of dollars as a potential windfall, the Obama administration is persuading state after state to rewrite education laws to open the door to more charter schools and expand the use of student test scores for judging teachers.
That aggressive use of economic stimulus money by Education Secretary Arne Duncan is provoking heated debates over the uses of standardized testing and the proper federal role in education, issues that flared frequently during President George W. Bush's enforcement of his signature education law, called No Child Left Behind.
A recent case is California, where legislative leaders are vowing to do anything necessary, including rewriting a law that prohibits the use of student scores in teacher evaluations, to ensure that the state is eligible for a chunk of the $4.3 billion the federal Education Department will soon award to a dozen or so states. The law had strong backing from the state teachers union.
Continue reading "Dangling Money, Obama Pushes Education Shift"....
A Long Trek Before A Race To The Top
(From The Huffington Post, August 9, 2009)
By TOM VANDER ARK
Team Obama is winning on education and losing on health. One difference between the health care food fight and the coherent education agenda is a mostly unified eight-year policy push by the new money foundations.
The debacle we're watching in health care is, in part, sponsored by competing foundations. Heritage is supplying talking points on the right, Kaiser Family Foundation is pushing the president's agenda.
Centerpiece of Team Obama's education strategy is the Race to the Top grant program. The RTT criteria -- particularly requirements for a school turnaround strategy, strong charter law, comprehensive data system, and links between student achievement and teacher evaluation -- are the new education reform agenda. They represent a consensus of centrist foundations that simply doesn't exist in health care.
The 'new' education agenda didn't get written last month: it's been a decade in the making. During the last reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (called No Child Left Behind), Education Trust was the voice for reform. Kati Haycock's gap-closing advocacy created an unusual degree of congressional consensus in favor of standards and accountability.
Continue reading "A Long Trek Before A Race To The Top"....
Obama, Teach New York A Lesson: How The Feds Should Answer The State's Request For School Funds
(From The Daily News, August 10, 2009)
By JOE WILLIAMS
Frank Sinatra understood well New York's tendency to visualize itself as king of the hill, top of the heap - even if the evidence doesn't always back it up. Even on K-12 education, despite an appalling achievement gap between the haves and the have-nots, we New Yorkers like to think we're ahead of the curve.
The reality is that the Empire State's self-absorbed, feel-good approach to education policy is on a collision course with President Obama's plans to promote pragmatic change in our nation's schools by rewarding only the most progressive states through a $4.3 billion federal "Race to the Top" reform contest.
In announcing the draft guidelines for the contest last month, Obama declared that eligible states must not have "legal, statutory or regulatory barriers" to using student achievement data to evaluate teachers.
For a nation that is looking to improve the quality of its public schools, this requirement would seem to be a no-brainer, with or without the federal incentives. If one teacher is working miracles in the classroom, consistently improving student learning, and another is consistently doing the opposite, it only makes sense that a principal or school system be able to take that fact into consideration.
