Author
Peter Meyer
Articles
Assessing New York’s Commissioner of Education
With Steiner’s sudden resignation, will the state continue its Race to the Top?
Catholic Ethos, Public Education
How the Christian Brothers came to start two charter schools in Chicago
Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?
Lacking nuns and often students, a shrinking system looks for answers
Brighter Choices in Albany
Reformers in New York’s capital have brought high-quality charter schools to scale, giving hope to a generation of disadvantaged kids.
Blog Posts/Multimedia
Parent Power, Teacher Power, Local Power, and a Word from Michelle Rhee
In case you missed them, a few notable events from the last month (or so): An amazing story from Erik Robelen at Education Week begins… Overriding the governor’s veto, New Hampshire’s Republican-led legislature has enacted a new law that requires school districts to give parents the opportunity to seek alternatives to any course materials they [...]
Scaling Up By Scaling Down
It is not so much that “reform has to go beyond charters” as it is that real reform must embrace choice—choice at the individual level.
Education Reform Comes Home: the state of the states
We shall see tomorrow night, but this is already looking to be the Year of the Education Governor. With NCLB being pummeled from left and right and Race to the Top in suspended inanimation, the feds seem unusually quiet, if not on the run.
King’s Message: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
The best way to honor Martin Luther King would be to commit ourselves to delivering a rigorous, comprehensive, and, ultimately liberating education. Indeed, it would be the best way to let freedom ring for future generations.
Teacher Unions, Mac the Knife, and Dollar Power
That’s the headline above Paul Peterson’s better-than-nifty essay on the Ed Next blog.
What Do Education Policymakers Do About “Toxic Stress”?
My friend Robert Pondiscio and I went head-to-head in a weeklong Facebook exchange about poverty and education over the holidays. Part of the debate was spurred by a draft of his recent Core Knowledge post on “ Student Achievement, Poverty, and ‘Toxic Stress.’” It is well-worth a read. Robert keyed in on a recent study [...]
Will the Real Lobbyist for Students Please Stand!
The responses to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent claim that he was going to be a lobbyist for public school students because no one else was reminded me of the old television game show, “What’s My Line?” wherein a celebrity panel got to quiz three contestants and then guess which one actually performed the job they all said they performed.
Teachers: can’t live with em, can’t live without ‘em
Amidst lots of recent drama about teacher evaluations came a wonderful report by Sam Dillon in the New York Times: In Washington Large Rewards In Teacher Pay.
Educating the Poor in India: Lessons for America
A fascinating story in the New York Times about schooling in India has a few things to teach American educators; mainly, that the poor really do want a good education.
Looking Back to Look Forward: A List of Lists
Last year I attempted to rank the top education stories of the year using Google. It was fun, but it was bit too nuanced (algorithmically speaking) to work.
‘Twas the Night Before De-regulation
The controversy over the recent New York Times front-page slam of K12 Inc. was ostensibly about the company’s inability to deliver online education, but one of the more interesting parts of the ensuing debate was not about computers and education but about delivering education for profit.
The Bold & the Beautiful: The Mind Trust Plan for Indianapolis
By combining mayoral authority and parental choice, the Mind Trust proposal would create a marriage made in heaven.
A Christmas Carol For Our Schools
A new round of the popular education board game, Poverty Matters, began last week with a New York Times op-ed by Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske, titled, “Class Matters: Why Won’t We Admit It?”
What’s Not to Like About Newt’s Education Proposal?
Newt’s never been known for soft-and-cuddly and he does make an easy target for bleeding heart liberals as he joins his Darwinian socio-economic observations with a delivery crisp enough to shatter good china. The problem is, though, that he’s mostly right.
Holiday Feast: STOP THE PRESSES!!! And pass the gravy.
I must interrupt this program to urge readers to cozy up to ednext.org and be thankful for the new issue of Education Next. Cover-to-cover, it’s a blessing.
How About Better Parents? Ask Clarence Lee
Reading Thomas Friedman in yesterday’s New York Times, I couldn’t help but think of the Shel Silverstein classic, “Clarence Lee from Tennessee,” a 1993 poem suggesting that kids could trade in their parents for new ones.
Steve Brill’s Diane Ravitch Moment
It’s hard to tell whether Joe Nocera’s op-ed essay in the New York Times last week, “Teaching With The Enemy,” is wonderfully nuanced or just silly. That’s surely what some education observers might wonder about the notion that Randi Weingarten, former head of New York City’s teacher union and current head of the American Federation of Teachers, should be chancellor of New York City schools.
The Secret to Good Parenting? Good Schools
Schools and parents have different responsibilities – and we need to appreciate the differences.
More Money to the Parents; More Power to the People
University of Chicago economist John List is following more than 600 students in several Chicago schools to find out whether investing in teachers or, alternatively, in parents, leads to more gains in kids’ educational performance.
What money can’t buy: Facebook happiness in Newark?
Reading the New York Times update on the progress of the $100 million Mark “Facebook” Zuckerberg donation to the Newark public schools this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the time our superintendent convened a meeting of parents to announce a $20,000 grant for a “Parent University” project. Wow!
News of the world… Or, catching up on Rupert, Nick, Alexis, and the NAACP
Whatever happens with ESEA reauthorization, I am convinced that the genie of education excellence is out of the bottle; administrators, teachers, aides, security guards – they are getting with the program.
A progressive school finds some accountability religion
I was prepared for a rant against all things reform when I started reading the New York Times Q & A interview with Maria Velez-Clarke, the principal of the Children’s Workshop School in Manhattan’s East Village, about the school’s C-grade from the City.
Back to the Future: Re-Inventing Local Control
As much as it pains me every time I hear Checker Finn say it, school boards may indeed be irrelevant. And Checker’s new essay in National Affairs lays out a pretty persuasive case for why they will disappear; not, why they should go away, but why they will simply die on a vine that is no longer part of a healthy education system.
New York Leaps into the Middle School Trap
What was so odd about Dennis Walcott’s announcement that New York City was opening 50 new middle schools is that the most recent research suggesting that a middle school grade configuration is probably not the way to go was done in his city.
Teachers Breaking Out of the Box
I gave up bashing teachers years ago, when I realized that, as with soldiers in the trenches, they had their hands full just staying alive. What I never understood, however, since this wasn’t really a war, was why teachers seemed to hide behind their unions.
Zen and the Art of School Board Maintenance
The problem is that local school boards can’t wait around for the folks who have caused our cancers to cure them.
A Bronx Cheer for Bloomberg? A New Poll is Harsh
I felt a bit sad reading this morning’s New York Times poll report showing that New Yorkers are now broadly dissatisfied with their school system and that most say the city’s school system has stagnated or declined since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of it nine years ago.
A New Leader for New Orleans
Podcast: John White talks with Education Next about his goals for the Recovery School District.
More Power Politics in New York. Or, Another Hacking Victim
New Yorkers were reminded yesterday that politics can be bloody when the state’s comptroller pulled the plug on a multi-million-dollar no-bid contract to Wireless Generation to set up a data-base for New York City’s schools.
The Union Wins a Big One in New York: Judge Tosses Out Most of Teacher Eval System
On Wednesday a state judge in Albany ruled that student test scores on state exams could not be used for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation and that NYBOR’s and NYSED’s cut scores for grading teachers was unfairly slanted to favor those student scores.
The End of the Era of Accountability?
My only hope is that we don’t let education policy get hijacked by the same partisan bickering that flavored the debt-ceiling standoff a couple weeks ago. Our education system lost its AAA rating several generations ago.
The Information Gap – Serious Policy Implications
It would be too simplistic to say that the difference between good schools and bad is in the quality of the information the public gets about its schools. But the swing in public opinion the size of that reported by the PEPG/Ed Next survey should be a wake-up call: get the information out.
Cheating in the Keystone State
Michael Winerip is on a roll. After a good piece of reporting on the Atlanta cheating scandal a couple of weeks ago, he has turned in a solid story about the testing mess rolling into Pennsylvania.
News of the World: rocketships, suburban charters, parent triggers, cheating, merit pay — and even Winerip does good
Okay, it’s not exactly what Rupert might condone, but since he and his crew are preoccupied, I offer some education highlights from my weekend reading.
Reading is NOT Fundamental: Knowledge Is
It is encouraging news that New York City’s three-year-old pilot project testing the content-rich Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum has proved so far “a brilliant experiment in reading.”
Winerip v. Moskowitz: Success Wins
I’ll hand it to Michael Winerip. This morning he takes on one of the charter movement’s fiercest competitors, Eva Moskowitz
History Lesson: Where’s The Declaration?
It is hard to read the Declaration of Independence without being moved by the document’s plainspoken audacity, especially recalling that it wasn’t then a “document,” but a rather blunt call to arms.
Brooks is Brilliant: An Op-Ed To Savor
There are no knock-out punches in this fight, but David Brooks comes close with a perspective-setting essay about school reformers and their adversaries.
The RTTT Honeymoon is over in New York
After the sweetness-and-nice between New York State Education Department and the New York State United Teachers to win $700 million from the federal Race to the Top fund last year, NYSUT sued the state’s Board of Regents and NYSED’s acting commissioner over the decision to ratchet up the importance of student test scores in a teacher’s annual evaluation.
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