Joe Williams' Blog
I'm neither a schlemiel nor a klutz. I've ditched that schlocky advice I was getting from my advisors because it was meshugah. Things are going to change. I've found my new schmaltzy voice, and it sounds like buttah!
Posted by Joe Williams on January 9, 2008 9:21 AM
CSPAN Adult Desires: Dems And Charter Schools
DFER was one of the sponsors of a televised panel discussion in Boston last month on why Democrats support public charter schools. Thanks to our friends New York Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) and Massachusetts State Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty (D-Boston) for joining in the fun.
If you are one of those sad interesting people that the New York Times wrote about recently who watches videos on your computer while you eat your lunch, you can watch the entire discussion here.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 9, 2008 9:07 AM
January 8, 2008
Marian Wright Edelman: Reproduce Successful School Programs
Writing on the Huffington Post, Marian Wright Edelman profiles Excellence Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, arguing that policymakers should do more to replicate these kind of successful schools:
Excellence Charter School is clearly a model that works. It is an antidote to the dysfunctional approaches to education in too many schools around the country. It has taken a few basic components -- quality teachers, a strong curriculum, character development, high expectations for performance and incentives for achievement -- and is using them to make fine men of these boys. This model must be replicated in thousands of school districts in depressed urban and rural communities across our nation. Our political decision makers seem to have no problem finding the money and resources to reproduce juvenile detention centers in cookie cutter fashion. Why not reproduce programs that help develop our children into strong, self-sufficient, contributing adults?
Posted by Joe Williams on January 8, 2008 11:19 AM
January 7, 2008
Teddy K: 'Put Progress Ahead of Politics'
While presidential candidates of all stripes continue to call for the end of the federal No Child Left Behind Law, Senator Ted Kennedy continues to push to renew (with improvements) the historic law. Writing in this morning's Washington Post, he ties the goals of the law back to a fundamental principle for the Democratic Party: opportunity for all.
Kennedy highlights what he sees are the successes and failures of the law to-date, and takes a swipe at President Bush for his unwillingness to fund the law at adequate levels.
But then it gets personal for him:
Four decades ago, my brother Robert Kennedy asked at a Senate hearing on education: "What happened to the children?" That question is as appropriate today as it was in 1966. We're still not doing enough for the nation's schools and children.
As Democrats and Republicans choose their nominees in our democratic process, and as President Bush prepares to deliver his last State of the Union address, let us all remember that we owe it to our children and our children's children to put progress ahead of politics and support what is working in school reform, and to work together to fix what is not.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 7, 2008 8:43 AM
January 4, 2008
Walker Texas Ranger vs. The Oprah?
What an interesting night in Iowa. It seems like the showdown is clear heading to November, with Chuck Norris taking it to The Oprah. (Prediction: Oprah wins Ohio, Michigan, and Florida and cruises to victory.)
Few quick thoughts:
1. If you think that Hillary lost badly, you obviously didn't watch the second half of the Marquette-Providence hoops contest taking place a couple hundred miles east from the caucuses. My 1988 MU intramural squad could have handled Providence easily, it seemed. And even Madeleine Albright could have played better defense than the hapless Providence Friars.
Continue reading "Walker Texas Ranger vs. The Oprah?"....
Posted by Joe Williams on January 4, 2008 9:36 AM
January 2, 2008
Will Lake Wobegon Reject Lake Wobegon Law?
Critics have long complained that getting all students to proficiency under the federal No Child Left Behind law is as wild a fantasy as Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, "where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average." (Forget that we're only really talking about reaching a standard that is actually set so low than none of us would ever accept it as a gold standard for whether or not a child has been adequately educated.)
News from Keillor's home state of Minnesota today suggests that Republicans in the State Legislature are now planning to burp up a case of Schmidt's all over the federal law. Minnesota is a huge local-control state and the Leggies will need to decide whether or not it is worth it to cut the state's public schools off from some $250 million per year in federal funding.
Democrats in Minnesota also haven't been thrilled with the federal government's involvement, but aren't (yet) scrambling to get behind the Republican NCLB revolt.
Posted by Joe Williams on January 2, 2008 12:59 PM
Self-Inflicted Pimping
Per this post below on NYC Councilmember Robert Jackson's strong opposition to getting ineffective teachers out of the classroom in NYC public schools, Leo Casey points out on EdWize that I called Jackson a pimp. (Pretty much true, since I said he "pimped himself.") But what Leo failed to mention that I also called Jackson a "hack."
Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Some readers here attended the vigil, so I'll ask you: Was it as good for you as it was for Councilmember Jackson?
Posted by Joe Williams on January 2, 2008 12:40 PM
