From Our Blog
National Standards Nonsense
The national standards train-wreck is pulling into the station, again. This time it is a completely voluntary set of national standards in the same way that complying with a 21-year-old drinking age is completely voluntary for states to receive federal highway money. States had to commit to a rushed and largely secretive national standard setting process as part of the Race to the Top application.
Is Arne Duncan’s new civil rights crusade unconstitutional?
On Monday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that his department will expand its efforts in civil rights enforcement. Like everything this sounds fantastic in the abstract. Who after all publicly declares that they oppose protecting civil rights? The details, though, paint a more troublesome picture.
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On Top of the News
Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools
3/11/10 | The New York Times
Behind the Headline
from the EdNext Archives
Education Next
Drafts of the "common core" standards in reading and math have just been released. In a forum published by Ed Next last year, Chester Finn and Deborah Meier debated the merits of a national curriculum.
Federal agency to investigate L.A. schools
3/10/10 | Los Angeles Times
Behind the Headline
from the EdNext Archives
Education Next
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will be investigating whether the LA Unified School District provides adequate services to students learning English. An article by Christine Rossell that was published in Ed Next in 2003 looked at California's implementation of Prop 227, which was meant to end bilingual instruction in the state and move students more quickly into English-language classrooms.
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Benefits were small and only reached white children
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New evidence suggests they are boosting high school graduation and college attendance rates
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Tale of Two Cities
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Videos
Video: Education Next’s Paul E. Peterson talks about his new book, Saving Schools, and about the advantages of virtual schooling, with Nathan Glazer.
Podcast
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about whether the federal share of education spending is likely to remain at 15 percent and whether the $1 billion bonus for reauthorizing ESEA this year is likely to be awarded.
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Large state investments in universal early-childhood education programs do not necessarily yield clear benefits for more disadvantaged students
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EdNext in the News
Study: kindergarten does not help
March 8, 2010 | The Dartmouth
15 states, D.C. make first cut in Race to the Top school reform contest
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Testimony of Caprice Young
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Minneapolis district poised to create two schools outside the bureacuracy
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Looking South at Education – What Can Canadians Learn?
February 18, 2010 | Our Kids Blog
Study says students from charter high schools more likely to graduate, go to college
February 10, 2010 | The Grand Rapids Press
Study Gives Charters an Edge
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Featured Comment
The new standards are an important step in the right direction, but they represent the first mile of a marathon race to the classroom and students. The next mile will be developing quality, clearly aligned assessments, which is a jog compared to the task of ensuring that our 15,000 school districts provide their four million classroom teachers with high-quality and precisely aligned curriculum and that their instruction is of equal high quality and aligned to the curriculum.
in: comments on “Will the Common Core Standards Prove Safe and Effective?”