Charter schools: Public? Private? Does it matter?
Those who live and breathe education policy assume everyone knows what a “charter school” is. (Here is some history.) But polls show that most people haven’t a clue. Newspapers don’t help much. Sometimes they are said to be schools that are “publicly funded but privately operated.” Sometimes they are said to be “public schools that […]
Jaime Escalante, an appreciation
As this report from NPR’s Claudio Sanchez makes clear, Jaime Escalante, the real teacher who inspired the movie Stand and Deliver, wanted to be remembered simply as a good teacher. Which, because he helped his students exceed their expectations, he was. — Richard Lee Colvin
You gotta give to get
The first two winners of grants from the Obama administration’s $4 billion “Race to the Top” fund — Tennessee and Delaware — were announced yesterday and the decision ignited the education blogosphere. For those who don’t venture into that world much, it’s a surprisingly contentious, Alice-in-Wonderland place. Broken down, the debate went like this: Both […]
Journalists race to cover “Race to Top”
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan moved up an expected April 1st announcement of Race to the Top winners, and journalists scrambled to get the story. It appears the news that only Delaware and Tennessee received grants first appeared on the website of the Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post quickly followed, with an initial story […]
The final nail in NCLB’s coffin?
Pundits aplenty are busy parsing the latest NAEP results. On Wednesday, the federal government released reading scores on the “nation’s report card” — also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — for fourth- and eighth-graders around the country. The results disappointed almost everyone. Over at The Washington Post, Jay Mathews said the […]
Journalists to share community college coverage
The third and final class of Hechinger Community College fellows will be back in New York City this weekend to present their projects, as part of the Institute’s “Covering America, Covering Community Colleges” Fellowship. So far, 40 journalists have been trained to take on a topic that is vastly undercovered at most U.S. news outlets. […]
