Through the lens of social science, eduwonkette takes a serious, if sometimes irreverent, look at some of the most contentious education policy debates. (Find eduwonkette's complete archives prior to Jan. 6, 2008 here.)
July 31, 2008 12:54 AM
Last call! Submit your slogan by the end of the day. I'll put a few together as logos and we'll vote next week. My new submission is "The NYC DOE: Truthiness in Education." Some of...
July 31, 2008 12:25 AM
If you follow NYC schools, here's a new must read blog for you - Gotham Schools. When the Open Planning Project lined up two of NYC's most talented education bloggers - Philissa Cramer (formerly of...
July 30, 2008 9:12 AM
Looks like the tea party is finally over. As we all expected, the New York City Department of Education had questionable motives for stalling the release of the New York State scale score data.Here's why:...
July 30, 2008 8:51 AM
The inaugural "Order of the Yellow Cape Award" goes to fellow blogger Matthew Tabor for being the first to FOIL for the illusive New York City scale scores. He inspired a number of other bloggers...
July 29, 2008 9:14 AM
Some readers asked me to put together a summary about the achievement gap in New York City:1) Proficiency rates, or the percentage of students passing a test, are often used to measure achievement gaps. For...
The current policy discourse about teachers and teaching in the U.S. emphasizes the recruitment and retention of “high-quality” teachers, defined either by the teachers’ credentials, or their value-added influence on students’ achievement, or both....
July 28, 2008 12:32 AM
David Cantor, the New York City Department of Education's press secretary, will not be receiving a free cape. Sadly, this is what it's come to in New York City - the Department of Education is...
July 25, 2008 1:26 PM
A child, however, who had no important job and could only see things as his eyes showed them to him, went up to the carriage. "The Emperor is naked," he said. "Fool!" his father reprimanded,...
July 25, 2008 11:25 AM
Did the Fordham Factor jump the shark? I don't think so, but after yesterday's geezer complaints about Miley Cyrus lyrics endorsing "anti-school" messages, I knew they needed a hand. Here it is - Madonna's "Like...
July 24, 2008 10:12 AM
On Tuesday I described the math achievement disparities separating black and Hispanic New York City students from their white and Asian counterparts on NAEP. Turning our attention now to reading, you’ll see that the achievement...
July 22, 2008 8:55 AM
Today I will lay out the math achievement disparities separating black and Hispanic New York City students from their white and Asian counterparts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Needless to say, Mayor...
July 20, 2008 8:53 PM
"Over the past six years, we’ve done everything possible to narrow the achievement gap – and we have. In some cases, we’ve reduced it by half."-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, testifying before the House Committee on Education...
July 18, 2008 8:26 AM
When I read about the University of California's proposed changes to their admissions standards, which would deemphasize test scores in favor of class rank (Hat tip: Education Optimists), I realized that proposal is a partial...
July 17, 2008 11:05 AM
Boy bands have a short shelf life. Not long after "Rage Against the Rothstein" was born, things fell apart. Fordham's new research director, Amber Winkler, came onto the scene and declared the boy band kaput....
July 17, 2008 12:36 AM
When you're looking for measured, careful, and thoughtful analysis, there is no better blogger to turn to than Dean Millot at edbizbuzz. He's consistently able to take complex debates and lay out the issues raised...
July 16, 2008 8:09 AM
"You're too young to be this cynical, " he said, staring across his desk at me with a perplexed half smile.I was 10, and in the middle of our classroom's simulated presidential campaign in which...
July 14, 2008 8:32 PM
Does the market for research in education policymaking work pretty well? For once, eduwonk, Dean Millot, and I all agree - it doesn't. The “market for lemons,” which Jay Greene makes reference to in his...
July 13, 2008 5:56 AM
Over at eduwonk, the New York City Department of Education is putting its best foot forward by displaying its two strongest (and most becoming!) skills: a remarkable willingness to spin the naked facts and to...
July 11, 2008 3:24 PM
Let me use the occasion of Jay Greene's response to my earlier post to explain the differences between blogging and research, as I see it. Greene makes no distinction between the two activities, and is,...
July 11, 2008 8:19 AM
Stefanie DeLuca is a sociologist who teaches at Johns Hopkins. Self-described as "Ann Coulter's anti-matter, but not as tall," DeLuca has recently been named a W.T. Grant Foundation Scholar - a prestigious five-year award -...
July 10, 2008 7:25 AM
If you think "Education Department Employs Squadron in Search for Truth" is a spoof article from The Onion, guess again. You'd think that PR flaks would know better than to name an otherwise mundane 21st...
July 9, 2008 11:36 PM
Here are four blogs - 3 of them are relatively new - that you should definitely check out:* The Lights of El Milagro: Stories from One of America's Most Innovative Charter Schools: This is the...
“Better schools. Higher scores. And satisfied parents. That's the record of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.” Thus begins Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ column in yesterday’s Washington Post. In this piece, she seeks to...
July 8, 2008 8:02 PM
Mica Pollock is an anthropologist who teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She has two new books coming out this summer: Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real about Race in School (on which she has written...
July 8, 2008 12:51 AM
Today, Marcus Winters, Jay Greene, and Julie Trivitt are releasing a study called, "Building on the Basics: The Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Student Proficiency in Low-Stakes Subjects."It may be an elegantly executed study, or...
July 7, 2008 6:24 PM
Many of you have pointed out that it's tough to find the RSS and email subscription buttons, so here are direct links:1) To subscribe to the RSS feed in a reader, click here.2) To receive...
July 7, 2008 12:30 PM
Can asking women to simply bubble in their gender before a test hurt their performance on math tests? Conversely, does mentioning that a math test is gender-neutral boost women’s achievement? More than a decade of...
July 6, 2008 10:03 PM
Let's be honest. skoolboy is - and this is my highest compliment - a total rockstar. His posts last week were remarkable for their range, their humor, and the quality of the discussions they set...
Happy Independence Day! Today is an opportunity to reflect on the ideals and principles that founded this great country, and to renew our commitment to uphold and support them when we see signs of...
We’ve spent a lot of time here lately talking about tests and test scores. You can’t ignore ‘em – they’re a ubiquitous part of the educational landscape in the U.S., and their salience has...
While you’re waiting for Dan Koretz’ book on testing to arrive – I think eduwonkette and I should get some kind of consideration for shilling for this book so often here – here’s a brief...
This year’s statewide fourth-grade math exam administered in New York State -- the one with the remarkably high gains -- contained the following item: “Janice bought a notebook for $3.75 and a pencil for...
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