First Bell 5-24-13

yes Pamela Tatz / May 24, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

Yesterday, the House passed legislation—mainly along party lines—to stop a doubling of student-loan interest rates by tying rates to prevailing market trends and ending federal subsidies. (Politics K–12 and New York Times)

Rhode Island has become the first state to officially adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. (Curriculum Matters)

After Chicago announced that it would close fifty public schools, the CTU renewed its promise to oust Mayor Emanuel. (Huffington Post)

The Hechinger Report profiles the transition to Common Core in Washington, D.C.

A team of MIT researchers report that Boston’s charter school students perform better than their traditional public school peers. (Charters & Choice)

A study finds that minority students are less likely to be diagnosed with autism. (On Special Education)

Politics K–12 takes a closer look at the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 school-finance data on per-pupil spending.

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First Bell 5-24-13

Bad to good and good to great

yes Michael J. Petrilli / May 24, 2013

This article originally appeared on Education Week’s Bridging Differences blog, where Mike Petrilli will be debating Deborah Meier through mid-June.

Many of the seeds planted in the "let a thousand flowers bloom" era of the early charter schools movement grew into skunk cabbage. What happened? Photo by Nicholas_T

Dear Deborah,

I want to say more about a topic that interests us both: How to create an accountability system that empowers excellent educators to create top-notch schools while ensuring a basic level of quality for everyone.

It's a real dilemma, because what might work in a hothouse setting (especially lots of professional autonomy) has tended to disappoint when taken to scale.

That's not easy for me to admit. My first education enthusiasm was the notion of autonomy and uber-local control, as epitomized in Chicago's "local school councils" of the early 1990s. I wrote my college thesis on the topic (with the help of the University of Michigan's great David Cohen), and came away convinced that educator autonomy, plus parental choice, would lead us to the Promised Land. (Professor Cohen knew better!)

A few years later, I landed at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, where we embraced the "let a thousand flowers bloom" mantra of the early charter schools movement. I helped plant a few of said

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Bad to good and good to great

First Bell 5-23-13

yes Pamela Tatz / May 23, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

In the largest mass school closure in any major U.S. city, Chicago officials have officially voted to shutter forty-nine public schools this year and one next year. (Washington Post, New York Times, Huffington Post, and Chicago Tribune)

ACT Inc. has jumped into the Common-Core-assessments arena, announcing that they are an alternative to the Smarter Balanced and PARCC tests. (Curriculum Matters)

A new report finds that while two-year colleges enroll more poor and minority students, they receive lower levels of federal resources. (New York Times)

Kansas lawmakers have dropped from a state budget bill a measure that would have blocked spending on Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. (Curriculum Matters)

The U.S. Department of Education reports that even as more Americans than ever are earning bachelor’s degrees, the nation’s international lead is slipping. (Hechinger Report)

A new report finds that schools are flooded with data that

» Continued

First Bell 5-23-13

By the Company It Keeps: Tim Daly

yes Andy Smarick / May 22, 2013

Our first guest on By the Company It Keeps is Tim Daly, President of TNTP. I’m a huge fan of Tim and his organization. In addition to being a highly talented and endlessly affable guy, he’s helped lead TNTP into rarified air. It is as influential on policy and practice as any education-reform organization around.

Tim was a guiding force behind the seminal publication The Widget Effect and played a major role in the production of other top-flight TNTP reports like The Irreplaceables and Leap Year.

Earlier in his career he was a TFA corps member (having taught in Baltimore) and helped establish and expand the New York City Teaching Fellows program. With TNTP CEO Ariela Rozman (another total star), he received the 2012 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.

If future interviews turn out half as well as Tim’s, I’ll be thrilled. We learn a great deal, and the subject’s smarts, curiosity, and humility shine through. He even enlightens us about Garry Wills and Stan Musial.

As a matter of fact, the totality is so good that I’m willing to look past his grievous error about Sandy Koufax (he only had 165 career wins!).

Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Daly.

1.   How would you summarize

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By the Company It Keeps: Tim Daly