Are ‘No Excuses’ reformers and their critics finding common ground?
The current debate between business-minded reformers like Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and former Washington, D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee and their critics has often been set up as a fight over whether policymakers should tackle poverty or not as they attempt to improve student achievement. Last week, Michael Petrilli, vice president at the Fordham [...]
Union president likely to win reelection despite teacher dissatisfaction
The United Federation of Teachers wraps up an election today that will likely see the return of president Michael Mulgrew. It has been a difficult tenure, however. Nationally, unions and many of the policies they support are under fire like never before from former allies in the Democratic Party as well as traditional political foes. [...]
Will value-added measurement survive the courts?
An ongoing argument raging across the country over whether student test score gains are a fair way to gauge a teacher’s skill has hit the courts. In what may be among the first of many lawsuits over the new evaluations—which have been adopted by multiple states—the Florida teachers union is challenging the state’s use of [...]
The radical changes to New Orleans’ schools
Sarah Carr, a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report, went on NBC’s Education Nation on Friday to talk about the radical changes to New Orleans’ school landscape since Katrina. The city has a higher percentage of charter schools than any other since the flood. Education Nation traveled to New Orleans last week to see how [...]
Can we please change the conversation about college admissions?
If you’re spending any time in the company of ambitious high-school seniors or hyper-competitive parents these days, you may be reading Facebook posts with status updates proclaiming acceptances at prestigious colleges: “Dartmouth! Duke! Vassar! Swag! I’m three for three!” You may not read about rejections, but you will certainly hear plenty about them, along with [...]
When knowing everything about your students isn’t enough
In March, technology entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, representatives from big-name companies and philanthropies and some teachers descended on Austin, TX for a conference meant to highlight new solutions to the biggest dilemmas in education. Educational games, apps, data dashboards and social media were touted as the next big things in panels with titles like “EdTech Entrepreneurs: [...]
Five Hechinger Report writers recognized with national awards
For the third consecutive year, The Hechinger Report has been honored with National Awards for Education writing from the Education Writers Association. Our brand of solutions-oriented, in-depth writing about education has been appearing in major publications across the U.S. since May 2010. Five Report writers are among the winners of the 2012 National Awards for [...]
Arne Duncan stands firm: Sequester would squeeze schools
This post comes to us courtesy of Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog. Today is the day that those automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that have been coming since August 2011 are finally set to kick in. And U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been a chief spokesman for the administration on the impact of the [...]
Local school districts are new target of education reformers
The large amounts of outside money flowing into the Los Angeles Unified school board election represent a new front in the reform battles that have shaken up education politics over the last decade. Donations of $1 million by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and $250,000 by former District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor [...]
Teacher job satisfaction at 25-year low
Job satisfaction among public school principals and teachers has decreased in the past five years, with teacher satisfaction reaching its lowest levels in 25 years, according to survey results released Thursday. Only 39 percent of teachers reported being very satisfied in their job, and more than half said they felt under “great stress” several days [...]
