Edu Commentary

UFT head Randi Weingarten here, NY Post editorial here. Background here.

This one is for parents, from the folks at KSA Communications. Lots of information.

Readers respond to a column on teen drinking.

The Governator and CA Senate Democratic Leader Perata a lot closer than you might think according to Sac Bees Weintraub. Worth reading.

NYT’s Freedman on this issue in NYC. Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing that can be outsourced to firms that specialize in it so districts can focus on their core competencies?

Update: A NYC correspondent writes to note that some, though not all, of this was done out of house.

Will they be joining the various sign-on letters demanding changes in the law, too? This article, ostensibly about education reporting, is really a clever pop at No Child Left Behind. Does this mean the NEA has an inverse Armstrong Williams problem, meaning they’re pouring millions into anti-NCLB propaganda when they could be getting it for free? Could be…

In any event, This Week’s Russo does a good job of pointing out some problems (a tremendously superficial disappointment, he says), Edu Commentary will just point to one line as an example of the meta-problem:

The second part of No Child Left Behind reflects Bush’s belief that the private sector is best equipped to carry out public reforms.

Edu Commentary guesses (well actually knows from experience) that this sort of sweeping statement makes one sound very erudite and above today’s false consciousness at New York dinner parties and other salons. Only problem, where is the evidence to back it up? Bush has never really done much for vouchers, particularly in Texas, much to the disappointment of the Christian right, when he really could have. He sent his own kids to public schools. And, aside from supplemental services there isn’t much private sector activity in NCLB that wasn’t there long before Bush was dealing away Sammy Sosa, let alone running for public office.

There are certainly some holes in the President’s theory of change on education, but a relentless affinity to privatization simply isn’t one of them. NCLB’s a public school reform; it’s about voice and change, not exit. Ironically though, this sort of knee-jerk resistance may end up making it about exit…

Besides, across the board, aren’t there enough Bush policy problems already, why waste time making them up?

Diane Ravitch on high school reform in today’s NYT.

No less than Teachers College honcho Levine (and a chorus of educators) says we’ve got a big problem with the ed schools…but nonetheless our talking points from the home office are to not let those pesky TFA’ers, New Leaders, or Broad fellows anywhere near the schools at all costs!

Update: More here. Great article from The Chronicle’s Glenn, with more pushback.

Update II: Hess on the march? When Rick Hess said basically this same thing about teachers and leadership a few years ago he was assailed as a kook, or even worse in educational parlance as a — gasp! — “conservative”. Now, Levine’s basically saying it, too. More Hess here from the current Educational Policy. Hungry like a wolf? Hess is like the Duran Duran of education policy, once only listened to in secret, now hip and trendy.

Boardbuzz keeps saying that vouchers are not on the march, yet stuff like this keeps happening. You know, No Child Left Behind may well look pretty good in hindsight a few years from now…

Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, a new charter high school opening in NYC is hiring in the following subjects for the 2005-06 school year: Reading, Writing, Literature, Mathematics, U.S. History, Government/Economics, Law, Forensics and other sciences. Resumes or inquiries here. As the name implies, the school will focus on law and justice.

And, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is looking for a research director. Interesting job that covers a range of responsibilities, resumes here. You don’t have to be a conservative, some Ds working there now, but check the site for a good sense of the issues they work on.