Author
Peter Meyer
Articles
Education Activist Pursues an Ambitious Agenda
A conversation with Laura Bush
Newark’s Superintendent Rolls Up Her Sleeves and Gets to Work
A conversation with Cami Anderson
Advice for Education Reformers: Be Bold!
A conversation with Jeb Bush
Taking on New Jersey
A conversation with Chris Cerf
“Hedge-Fund Guy” Emails Support to School Reformers
A conversation with Whitney Tilson
The New Superintendent of Schools for New Orleans
A conversation with John White
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
The Middle School Mess
If you love bungee jumping, you’re the middle school type
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.
Learning Separately
The case for single-sex schools
New York City’s Education Battles
The mayor, the schools, and the “rinky-dink candy store”
The Early Education of Our Next President
Not much in public schools
Baby, Think It Over
Technology meets abstinence education
A Board’s Eye View
Lessons from life in public office
Blog Posts/Multimedia
The Quixotic Quest for Good Education through Integration
While there is no secret sauce for creating schools that close the achievement gap in poor urban neighborhoods, there is certainly a great deal that a school can do short of busing in white students.
“The Writing Revolution” May Just Be a Reading Revolution (with thanks to E.D. Hirsch)
A knockout story in The Atlantic by education journalist Peg Tyre describes the wonderful turnaround of a Staten Island high school that the turnarounders attribute to a writing program.
The Fear Factor: Merit Pay with a Punch
The new CTU contract will not have “phony” merit pay (differentiated pay) but will have the “real” thing (school autonomy).
The Strike—and the Stakes
The reason we are so transfixed by Chicago is that the deal being hammered out now will be a game-changer.
Reform v. Rights: The Windy City’s Teachers Walk Out
The walk-out may tell us more about the power of politics than about the issues facing our nation’s schools.
The Best Education for the Best is the Best Education for All
Shouldn’t every American citizen have a right to the best education we can deliver?
Catholic v. Charters: Where’s the God Gene?
A couple of reports last week reanimated the debate about what to do with Catholic schools, which have been hemorrhaging students for the last couple of decades.
The D-Word: Good News from New York, But…
Rigorous and consistent attention to academic discipline helps ensure a culture of respect where behavioral discipline is less necessary.
Teacher Unions: “Pigs at the Trough” or Victims of their Own Success?
We should surely understand how far the reform movement has gone in transforming public perception of teacher unions and their role in education, but we should also appreciate how big and scary the unions still are.
Profit and Loss, Public or Private: Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee
Given that our public education system is failing too many children, why wouldn’t one consider doing something different? We should at least ask the right questions. Does the free market work? Why not run schools like a business? What’s wrong with profit?
Are the Teacher Unions on the Ropes? New Jersey Scores a Big One for Tenure Reform
This week Chris Christie signed legislation that creates a new teacher-rating scheme and also streamlines the process for firing both teachers and administrators.
Nothing to Lose: Turn Failing Schools Over to CMOs
It started as a fairly typical funding-equity lawsuit and ended with a startling Wall Street Journal headline, “Michigan City Outsources All of Its Schools.”
Poverty and Schools: Finally, Some Lights Go On
The pendulum might be swinging, ever-so-slightly, toward the believers (in school).
Social Mobility Starts and Ends in Schools
Schools can boost social mobility, but only if they value merit and knowledge
The Mobility Dilemma: Have We Lost Faith in the Power of Knowledge?
The terrible consequences of family breakdown are certainly upon us, but if this recent spate of teeth-gnashing over the growing social mobility gap is any indication of where the country is, I’d say the country still doesn’t get it.
The End of Governance Geography: Hess and Meeks Point the Way to the Promised Land
Of the papers presented at Fordham’s Rethinking Education Governance for the 21st Century, one that had particular resonance for me was Rick Hess and Olivia Meeks’s analysis of the school district dilemma.
Five Lessons from Five Years on the School Board
At some low point in my tenure on the board of education in my small school district, a friend advised, “Don’t worry. You are like gravity. They always know that you are there.”
In Search of the Elusive Reform-Minded School-Board Member
It is the existential question of school board membership: Can you suggest improvement without appearing to criticize the current administration, the current system?
Teacher Evaluations in New York: A Compromise or a Cave-In?
To have gotten this far on the accountability track is good news. But we surely seem to be a long way from getting our children the kind of educational protection that even restaurant patrons receive—not a healthy illustration of our public priorities.
Getting Good Ideas to the Finish Line: Choice, Political Will, and a Coxswain
The good news is that we have two trends that are gaining ground on the monster that is our education system: a renewed appreciation for content and the new market mechanisms (i.e. choice) that incentivize innovation and renewal.
Big News in the Bayou State
Passing a set of historic reform bills last week, the Louisiana legislature handed Gov. Bobby Jindal and his new education chief, John White, the keys to reform city.
The Fight’s On: Rhee, Klein, and Moskowitz Team Up in New York
The three have formed a group that intends to raise $10 million annually for the next five years to lobby the New York State legislature to protect the reform initiatives launched by Klein and Michael Bloomberg in New York City and promote reform throughout the state.
Bush Saves Romney From Etch A Sketch Hell!
As was widely reported Jeb Bush endorsed Mitt Romney yesterday. The Times called it a “coveted endorsement”—and indeed it is, no matter how much fun Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich had at poor Eric Fehrnstrom’s expense.
The Race Card: Making Sense of the Duncan Discipline Report
The big news last week was the release of data by the U.S. Department of Education showing that, as the press release stated: “Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers.”
Teacher Evaluation Data, Part 2: The Perfectionist Disease
In Part 1 of my New York City teacher evaluation commentary, I explained the judicial decision which determined that the public had a right to know how individual teachers were doing. Most tellingly, perhaps, was Judge Kern’s dismissal of the argument that flaws in the data mattered to her decision. Referring to a previous ruling [...]
Teacher Evaluation Data, Part 1: The Public’s Right to Know
It is possible that in a different era, a court might very well have concluded that releasing teachers’ names was quite insane. But while this lower court decision (there are, in New York, several higher courts) will not prove to be a major marker in educational jurisprudence, it does show how far we have come in righting a long-listing ship.
The Conspiracy Theory in Search of a Conspiracy
What worries me about the reasoning of some of the anti-Common Corers is that they seem to confuse a popular national trend with nationalism
Education Is No Zero-Sum Game
The point of a liberal arts education—and I include math and science in that education—is to teach some eternal verities so that, when the surface world changes, as it tends to do, we have citizens that possess the most important skill of all: the ability to adapt.
The Poverty Myth Persists
Why have we given up on the idea that education can be the “great equalizer”? The answer, I believe, is that we have accepted the “materialistic fallacy.” We have taken results of our education ineptitudes—more poverty—and made them the cause of them.
Education Malfeasance: The “Reading to Learn” Myth
It is a shame that in 2012 educators continue to ignore the importance of background and domain-specific knowledge as the essence of reading—and of a good education.
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.
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