Big Stories Of The Day

Major Study of City Schools Shows Charters in Lead NY Sun
Researchers took advantage of New York City charter schools' popularity -- applications outnumber available seats, on average, 3 to 1 -- comparing students who applied and were accepted through a random lottery to students who were rejected.

In science, rural kids strongest AP
Rural students perform better in science than their urban counterparts, and rural teachers generally are happy with their schools, a federal study finds.

Bloomberg's New Slogan: A Harry Potter in Every Pot Washington Post
Bloomberg laid out an agenda that includes several items opposed by teachers' unions, a major backer of Democrats, including making it easier to fire ineffective teachers, offering bonus pay for teachers and principals whose students perform well on tests and even denying tenure to teachers whose students don't do well.

Vallas Puts Team to Work NOLA.com
When the Recovery School District opened its Poland Avenue offices last year, there were so few people in the building, there seemed to be an echo. Almost a year later, the office bustled with sound, while employees squeezed by each other through narrow halls, past doors with names printed on white paper.

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Comments

[Caroline]

The New York Sun refers to a project by Caroline Hoxby as a "study" when what it is is advocacy. The right seems to have the press totally snookered about this -- they are forever referring to "studies" from "think tanks" that are actually opinion pieces by advocacy organizations.

I'm all for advocacy (especially when it's done by me), but what's the deal with convincing the press and the public that somebody's opinion is actually scholarly research?

[Alexander]

i agree that the press often refers to think tank studies as if they were the same as academic research, but no one seems to care. so much academic research is questionable, too, and so much harder to read. good point, though -- maybe the two of us can shame folks into doing right in the future.

ps -- my other favorite is when the press refer to think tankers as scholars or researchers. right.