We always tell kids that set-backs shouldn’t discourage them. If at first you don’t succeed– try harder. The State of Arizona did just that and found itself a finalist in the second round of the Race to the Top (RttT) grant competition. The Hechinger Report‘s Liz Willen reports: Ann-Eve Pedersen of the Arizona Education Network [...]
Nick Anderson at the Washington Post reports that the overhaul of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) seems to be stalled in Congress. Despite pleas from Duncan and Obama, it also appears increasingly unlikely that the Democratic-led Congress will provide a bailout for schools this summer to prevent teacher layoffs and program cuts related to local [...]
The debaters at the NYT Room for Debate take a look at the pros and cons of national curriculum standards: Twenty-seven states have said they will adopt the recently unveiled national education standards, and several other states are expected to sign on in the next two weeks. The Obama administration has pressed hard for the [...]
The Hill’s Walter Alarkon reports today on the fight within the Democrat Party on education funding. The Obama administration’s Department of Education– in the person of Secretary Arne Duncan–is counting on the competitive grant program Race to the Top (RttT) to reform education. But not all the Dems in Congress are on board. The intra-party [...]
The National Education Association (NEA) convention (July 2-11) is underway in New Orleans. There’s plenty of goings-on to interest political junkies- even those who don’t care all that much about education issues. Neither President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—nor anyone from the current administration for that matter– is scheduled to speak to the delegates [...]
Lindsey Burke and Jennifer Marshall make the case against a common national curriculum, arguing that standardization is more likely to result in uniform mediocrity than in academic excellence. According to Burke and Marshall, having common standards not only won’t increase student learning, national standards will tend to lower standards and distract schools and communities from [...]
I’ve never really understood the Race to the Top requirement that states sign on to a set of common academic standards that haven’t even been created yet. It seems to me that we’re putting the cart before the horse. The U.S. Department of Education is pushing common standards before we’re had a good discussion on [...]
The meme in education circles has changed in the last few days. The focus has shifted from Race to the Top to Ed Secretary Arne Duncan and the Obama administration’s Department of Education. Instead of asking just how much the states will have to change and do to have a chance at billions in grant [...]