Sign Up For Our Newsletter

October 30, 2012 So there’s another movie out there that pits a great teacher against the system, only this one is set in rural South Carolina and it’s based in the 1960s, not today. At the end, after imparting wisdom and knowledge, Mr. Conroy gains the support of parents but the scorn of the administration, […] Read more »

I was recently asked by a famous Ed Blogger, Alexander Russo, what I thought of the “audit” by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), over how charter school funds are monitored. The experience of reviewing this report was a reminder of the disconnect between a new way of doing public schooling and the old fashioned way. […] Read more »

October 10, 2012 If Teachers Can Organize, Why Can’t Parents? That’s essentially the question that Doreen Diaz, president of the Desert Trails Parent Union, an organization formed to change failing Desert Trails elementary school under California’s parent trigger law, asks in a Washington Examiner column. The frustrated parent compares the real life efforts of California […] Read more »

October 3, 2012 Who knew education would come up repeatedly tonite? Romney: After the president opened the debate about his jobs plan, Romney introduced the education component into the debate, combining jobs and skills, which come from education. Obama: We have to improve our education system — we have a program called Race to the […] Read more »

“Does the expanded population of test takers explain the decline in reading and writing scores?” The simple answer is no, it does not – despite the College Board’s continual insistence to the contrary. What these SAT scores, combined with the equally dismal ACT scores, confirm is that the majority of kids in this country are […] Read more »

(CER President Jeanne Allen shared her thoughts with reporters in an email earlier this week. We thought everyone has a right to know what’s happening.) The teacher evaluation piece in the Chicago contract negotiation is so weak to start that it’s almost unfathomable that the union would waste political capital on this piece. Have you […] Read more »

It’s a reflection of the state of the debate today that people immediately jump on a common Twitter mistake with an accusation of slander. In a recent op-ed in which I detailed a lengthy Twitter exchange about the upcoming movie Won’t Back Down, I quoted one of the many tweets assaulting the movie and it’s […] Read more »

When trying to separate real reformers from “talkers,” it helps to see how they behave in various habitats. For example, how does this alleged reformer act when invited to participate in a forum where the education establishment may well be present? Does (s)he: a. Change the word “choice” to “options”? b. Use accountability fifteen different […] Read more »

Coverage of the conventions continues today in Charlotte, where veteran CER staffer Kara Kerwin has been hob-knobbing with Edreformers… and some not-so-edreformers! Here at a Dems for Ed Reform event the two major union bosses flank entrepreneur, Princeton Review Founder John Katzman. (Note they look a little peeved to have to listen to someone else!) […] Read more »

It’s the moment one waits for, a bit of a dream come true, when day after day members of a major political party endorse and embrace the work to which you have devoted your professional career. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Tampa was the icing on […] Read more »