This Week in Education

Rumor has it that non-employee edweek.org blogger Alexander Russo, in search of fame and fortune, has moved kit and kaboodle over to scholastic. com.

It's been great fun working with Alexander (I'm gonna miss those 3 a.m. calls! and the demands for only blue M&Ms in his dressing room!). If you've followed Alexander for any length of time, you know that he is a prolific blogger, providing a never-ending stream of news, commentary, and reports on the comings and goings in the edusphere that often inspired heated reactions. (Who could forget, for instance, "Our Hottie Is So Much Hotter Than Their Hotties"?)

We also thank Alexander for helping to brighten up the sometimes—dare I say?—dull world of edu-policy. We laughed, we cried. We cried.

I speak for all of edweek.org when I say that we will truly miss him, are sorry to see him go, and wish him only the best.

Find Alexander’s latest musings over here.

And, as is only fitting: Congrats, condolences.

Posted by Jeanne McCann at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are my new coordinates:

New URL: here
New RSS feed: here
Master URL: here (if you ever can't find the site)
Contact: thisweekineducation@gmail.com

Thanks, and so long.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Best Of The Week
Funders "Heart" TFA
A Pack Of Dogs, A Fire Hydrant, And A Powerful Lobby

Urban Education
 Unionized Charter Schools Headed East
A "National" Test For Urban Districts
How Cash Incentives Really Work
Setbacks For NYC "Incentives" Guru Roland Fryer
PLUS:  New York City Department Of Education Responds

Bush Administration
 No Crony Left Behind
 Spellings Press Event Tomorrow May Be Faked
 Like Imus, Edison Schools Is Coming Back

Campaign 2008
Obama Gets Tough On NCLB
 Tensions Within The Universal Preschool Crowd

Teachers & Teaching
 Follow The Bouncing Ball
 Wisconsin NCLB Protest Teacher Gets Reprimand Letter
 Research, Politics, and -- Yes -- Personal Experience

School Life
Cupcake Parties Are Killing Our Children
Cool Ways To Prepare For Saturday's SAT Exams
Creepy Congressman Wants To Eliminate Digital Divide For All The Wrong Reasons

Media Watch
 Dropout Mania
 Vivid WritingAbout Urban Education
Dirty Tricks Against NYC Education Critic
Brittanic Blogs

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots of takes from the blogs on the NEA letter from yesterday, which, ironically, is signed by none other than Diane Shust, the NEA lobbyist who used to work for Miller. Joe Williams of DFER who broke the news notes tongue in cheek "Whatever happened to support for multiple measures? Isn't it cruel/unfair to hold a Legislator accountable for the results of a single test?" I love it. PreaPrez, one of the most bilious people in the edusphere (at least towards me), says the NEA is just doing what it's supposed to do. Indeed, that's true. That doesn't make it right for education, though, or wise, or tolerable. Scooped by the blogosphere, The Hoff weighs in to note that until 2005 the NEA only rated lawmakers on votes, not cosponsorships, and that one of the bills on the "good" list comes from a lawmaker who has previously been "bad." Last but certainly not least, Charlie Barone's blog depicts House freshman as dogs on the NEA leash looking eagerly at the NCLB fire hydrant. Funny and mean, it's well worth clicking. (Former Miller staffer Barone noted on the HotSeat last month that Miller's own rating has been affected by his votes in the past on class size and Katrina vouchers and teacher quality.)

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Over at the Huffington Post, comedian Bill Maher rips on President Bush for always making sure that his policy ideas benefit his friends and allies financially: "In the next fifteen months, President Bush has to perform at least one act that doesn't make money for someone he knows. Take "No Child Left Behind." At first it just looked like gentle empty bullshit, a way to neutralize the Democrats edge with voters on education issues...It made Lady Bird Johnson's wild-flowers-by-the-highways project look like the fucking Marshall Plan. Except, like all Bush ideas, there was more to it." (No Crony Left Behind)

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Prospects Fade for NCLB Bill in 2007 EdWeek
Efforts to revise the law are mired in backroom negotiations in both the House and the Senate and show no signs of gaining the momentum necessary to ensure completion of the reauthorization in 2008.

Knives, Not Guns, Have Been Weapon of Choice, Study Finds WPost
More than 3 percent of 17 million crimes reported from 2000 through 2004 occurred at schools, colleges and universities, with knives being the most commonly used weapon, according to an FBI study released yesterday.

Teachers unions battle school choice for parents and students Detroit News
In today's political taxonomy, "progressives" are rebranded liberals dodging the damage they did to their old label. Perhaps their most injurious idea -- injurious to themselves and public schools

Kids join parents at teacher conferences AP
It’s that time of year when moms and dads across the country are squeezing into uncomfortable kid-sized chairs to discuss with teachers whether their children are off to a good start at school. In some places, the conference comes with a wrinkle: The children sit in. PLUS: US kids get new trend: more active parents Christian Science Monitor.

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Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"It's not fair to put complaints about the non-school-related elements of NYC’s multi-pronged anti-poverty program, OpportunityNYC, on Roland Fryer. The New York Mag story you link to is mostly about parts of the plan Roland has zero to do with. He is connected only with cash incentives around tests.Also, for the record, the ban on cell phones in NYC dates to 1988 (focused on pagers then)."

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Has anyone noticed I just can't stop blogging lately? Over at the Education Election blog, Cathy Grimes notes a part of the recent Democratic debate that included TIMSS, of all things (TIMSS makes the debate "lightning round"). I must have been sleeping by then. The NSBA blog pushes back on the notion of "dropout factories" that was popularized in a recent AP story. Meanwhile, the NCLB blog compares conservative views on vouchers and the SCHIP (SCHIP's Rationale vs. Vouchers'). Joanne J digs out some standardized misdeeds in Washington State (Sham standards). And The Hoff shares tutoring news (Demand Doesn't Keep up With SES Supply, Civil Rights Project Says). Charlie Barone picks up on the issue with his post (Supplemental Educational Services: End 'em or Mend 'em?). Eduwonkette finishes off her Halloween Edu-Parade with a flourish.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neither of these reward-based ideas is necessarily bad, in my view at least, but someone get this guy a (better) handler and a brush-up on selection bias. When you're at the center of the storm, you just can't mess up like this. Or maybe there's more behind this that I don't know.

Meanwhile, the controversy of the city's effort to discredit Diane Ravitch continues with her response (here).

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Worried about cupcakes in schools? Dr. Rob Riggle finds out that cupcakes are the "number one killer" of our children:

From The Daily Show.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Much as I love the New York Times' weekly Sam Freedman column on education, or the Post's Jay Mathews, what I'm really liking right now is Will Okun's weekly posts about teaching high school on Chicago's rough West Side. Published on Nick Kristoff's New York Times blogsite, Okun's posts (and their accompanying pictures) are at their best like little scenes from "The Wire" -- vivid, unsentimental, and complex.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another seemingly overlooked article comes from the most recent NYT Sunday Magazine, in which Ann Hulbert charts the growing tide of interest and action towards universal preschool (Universal Prekindergarten). We all know that, of course. But Hulbert points out a couple of worthwhile reminders.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bush administration turnover plays like Survivor: Texas Houston Chronicle
With Karen Hughes' resignation announcement Wednesday, nearly every prominent Texan who came to Washington with President Bush has left the administration.

Wis. teacher protests NCLB law by sitting out testing; discipline threatened AP
A middle school teacher is protesting the federal No Child Left Behind law by refusing to administer a standardized test to his eighth-grade students.

Md. keeps tests as graduation requirement but allows alternative AP
High school students who fail one or more of Maryland's exit exams will have the option to earn their diplomas by completing projects in the subjects where they fall short.

Top U.S. Language Official Resigns EdWeek
Kathleen Leos, director of the office of English-language acquisition in the U.S. Department of Education, resigned last week.

Posted by Alexander Russo at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Daily Show's Demetri Martin shows the latest "advances" in standardized test prep (Princeton Review podcast tutorials, Kaplan MySpace pages, comic books with words like "alacrity" in them, bad pop songs with the same):

"I know this test seems like a big deal that will determine your entire future. And it is. Because it will."

Posted by Alexander Russo at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)