Ed Beat Rotating Header Image

Does “advanced” have to mean “better”?

Dec 21st, 2009
by Elena.
1 comment

10WolfsonHigh022108On the New York Times‘s “Room for Debate” blog, a daily topic is offered up to a panel of experts for commentary, and yesterday they were talking about the “Advanced Placement Juggernaut.” A.P. classes have been offered to high school students for fifty years now, but in the past five their enrollment has increased by 50 percent. The program is nearly universally accepted as a good thing, and it’s particularly well-liked by college admissions officers. But some researchers and educators call its value into question.

Trevor Packer, who represents the College Board in the Times‘s discussion, argues that the only problem with Advanced Placement is how few minority and underserved students have access to AP classes. Continue reading →

Posted in: Ed Beat, Testing, teaching.

A Decade of Learning, Sleuthing and Reporting at Learning Matters

Dec 18th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

Yesterday, Scholastic published a list of the “10 Biggest Education Ideas of the Decade.” The list covers charter schools, technology and the stimulus, among other topics. For the past decade–and since long before that–the producers at Learning Matters have done in-depth reporting on big ideas in education; at the same time, they’ve told the intimate stories of the people behind those ideas. To mark the end of the aughts, I asked our producers which stories, series and documentaries they feel most proud of, or found most interesting to work on. Watch, read and listen to the results below. Continue reading →

Posted in: Ed Beat.

Around-the-web Wednesdays: The race to the top, or the race to nowhere?

Dec 16th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

duncan_blogSecretary of Education Arne Duncan made two significant appearances this week: one on PBS NewsHour -which has recently updated its format to include more internet-based features, like this conversation between Duncan and correspondent Hari Sreenivasan about the Department’s financial literacy initiative and, of course, Race to the Top- the other a town hall meeting on “elevating the teaching profession” Duncan held with teachers from the D.C. area. The webcast is long, but full of honest and thoughtful comments from teachers on the need for better certification programs, the need for scholarships and grants related to ESL students, and more. Continue reading →

Posted in: Arne Duncan, Ed Beat, Wednesday.

Media Monday: Secretary Duncan may not like Michelle Rhee, but the Wall Street Journal sure does

Dec 14th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed today that marries two of education’s hottest topics: D.C. superintendent Michelle Rhee and the Department of Education’s Race to the Top fund. The Journal claims that Secretary Duncan should more actively and publicly put himself in Rhee’s corner, since her reform efforts in D.C. parallel many of the Department’s alleged reform goals. Race to the Top funding will be given to states that prioritize pay for performance, charter schools, and tying teacher evaluation to student performance–all of which figure prominently in Rhee’s plan for D.C. Continue reading →

Posted in: Arne Duncan, Ed Beat, Education Policy.

Around the web Wednesdays: More money, more charters

Dec 9th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

hedgefund060213_1_560Our interest was especially piqued this week by a story on the hedge fund managers and other wealthy businessmen and women who invest in charter schools, in Sunday’s New York Times. According to Joe Williams, director of an organization that lobbies for charter schools, “These are the kind of guys who a decade ago would have been spending their time angling to get on the junior board of the Met, the ballet.” What does it mean that charter schools are the new face of stylish philanthropy? Continue reading →

Posted in: Arne Duncan, Charter Schools, Ed Beat, Higher Ed, Wednesday.

Shakira: now the voice of global education

Dec 8th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

In June, we wrote about Shakira’s increasing focus on education in her philanthropic work. The Economist recently published a piece she wrote about the importance of creating a Global Fund for Education. The fund, she writes, already has President Obama’s support, and would work toward the United Nation’s stated goal that every child in the world complete primary school, starting in 2015.

shakira_in_india2

One of Shakira’s foundations, Pies Descalzos–The Barefoot Foundation–builds and maintains schools in three regions of Colombia, and focuses its work on children whose families are part of Colombia’s large displaced population. Continue reading →

Posted in: Ed Beat, Education Policy.

Media Monday: Why Texas won’t race to the top

Dec 7th, 2009
by Jane.
No comments yet

If you hear someone worrying about a “federal takeover,” it’s likely they’re talking about the health care debate and the public option — but Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott is pointing in a different direction.

The US Department of Education is “placing its desire for a federal takeover of public education above the interests of the 4.7 million schoolchildren in the state of Texas,” Scott said last week. He was discussing the USDOE’s “Race to the Top” (RTTP), a federal education grant program, the first of its kind, with $4.35 billion in cash for winning states. Continue reading →

Posted in: Arne Duncan, Ed Beat, Education Policy, Media.

Replicating Rosie

Dec 4th, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

250px-womanfactory1940sThough Rosie the Riveter is an important feminist emblem, and represents a turning point in the history of women in the workforce, we don’t necessarily see so many Rosies around us in 2009.

Women dominate any number of fields, but the kind of work that they were recruited to do during World War II, and for which Rosie is a symbol, has remained the province of men. Female construction workers, for instance, are a rare sight in American cities.

In Long Beach, California, a charter school using Rosie as its namesake–Rosie the Riveter High School–aims to close the gender gap in technical fields like construction, auto mechanics and electrical engineering. Students (both boys and girls) take a full range of academic courses, but they also take vocational classes at a local community college. Continue reading →

Posted in: Ed Beat, Gender, teaching.
Tagged: · · · · · ·

“Give it a ponder.” The catchphrase for a generation?

Dec 3rd, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

James Lipton, the decidedly odd host of the now defunct Bravo series “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” hardly seems like an ideal spokesman for teen culture. And yet, LG, a large electronics company that produces mobile phones, has developed a series of PSAs targeted at teens centered around Lipton. In each of the flippant, quirky videos, Lipton delivers a short monologue on the dangers of sending belligerent text messages or sexually explicit photos to one’s peers. “Before you text…give it a ponder,” he says, after transferring his signature beard from his own face to the face of the teen in question. The campaign seems potentially effective: Lipton may be just offbeat enough to appeal to teens. Continue reading →

Posted in: Ed Beat, Gender, Media, Sex Ed.

Charter schools find a home in New York

Dec 1st, 2009
by Elena.
No comments yet

Though charter schools have been a buzzword in education reform for years now, the past months have seen them gain even more traction and hype. Thanks to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s vocal support for charters, and the regulation that denies Race to the Top funds to states that block their creation, it looks as if the future of public education will have to accommodate them.

0219_1And so, it seems, will New York City. According to the New York Times, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it a priority to encourage the growth of New York’s charter schools in his third term. Not only has he committed to opening twenty-four charter schools next fall and one hundred over the next four years, he has offered many of the city’s charters space to operate within existing public school buildings. In most other cities, charter schools are required to buy or rent their own spaces–this is in part what distinguishes them from traditional public schools and makes it more difficult for them to exist in the first place.

In an article for Counterpunch, David Wolff does a thorough job of explaining how the business behind charter schools–the investments that support them, and why it’s lucrative for companies to invest in them at all. According to Wolff, when charter schools use portions of their (public) funding to buy real estate, it often means that cutbacks are made in other areas:

In the case of the 100 Academy of Excellence, the principal told a state official that money was saved by letting go veteran (read expensive) teachers and increasing class size (read cost saving).

By Wolff’s reasoning, Bloomberg’s decision to house more charter schools in public school buildings may improve the quality of the education they provide. But, as Jennifer Medina notes in her piece for the New York Times, students in traditional public schools will still have to walk past their charter neighbors and wonder why their facilities are newer and better. Joel Klein, New York City’s schools chancellor, has said about charters:

“There are so many talented people out there, and I want them to come to New York…[w]hy would we want to put up barriers to that?”

His emphasis on importing talent begs the question: when charter schools move in, what will happen to what’s already here?

City’s Schools Share Their Space, and Bitterness [The New York Times, 11/29/09]
Speculating on Education [Counterpunch, 9/29/09]
Tracking the Charter Movement [Taking Note, 12/01/09]

Posted in: Charter Schools, Ed Beat, Education Policy, Mayoral Control.
Tagged: · · · · ·

← Earlier Posts