Big Stories Of The Day (July 20)

Edwards touts diverse schools plan in Rust Belt cities AP
The plan calls for beefing up inner-city magnet schools to attract suburban kids, and providing extra money for schools in middle-class areas as a reward for enrolling more low-income students.

Ten schools join state plan to lengthen school days Associated Press
Ten more schools will lengthen their days next year, more than doubling the number of Massachusetts schools that are adding class time in a bid to improve academics.

At this Irvine school, that sound you hear is Chinese LA Times
Slater Stanley is only 14 but already has big plans. He intends to have mastered Chinese by the time he finishes high school, then wants to head to Beijing for college.

Kids addicted to caffeine? Biz Of Knowledge
How much caffeine is there in the drinks your kids slurp?

Spellings & Rove, Sitting In A Tree? As If.

Thinking she was going to talk student lending or something, EdSec Spellings instead got some surprise questions about her former suitor, Karl Rove, from the Washington Post editorial board -- a conversation that eventually led to her tearing up (though not over Rove, thankfully (A Pop Quiz for the Education Secretary (Washington Post)).

Best Of The Blogs

We read them -- so you don't have to:
Over at Joe Williams' blog, Joe reflects on the AEI event earlier this week and observes that Charles Murray gives him heartburn, incentives work (not that there's anything wrong with that), and don't mess with Mesecar. Meanwhile, Richard Lee Colvin resurfaces to point us to an excellent editorial in the Boston Globe about holes in Hillary's pre-k plan.
Now you're done.

NY Times (and Balto Sun) Break Harry Potter Embargo

Just like they did with the Center On Education Progress's 2006 report on curriculum narrowing -- only much, much worse -- the NY Times has apparently broken the embargo on reviewing the new Harry Potter book. This is making some folks crazy, including at the Huffington Post, which has all the details -- but no spoilers.

Don't remember the hullabaloo surrounding Sam Dillon's story last year? Read here and here.

Daily E-Mail Updates Now Available

Thanks to the wizards and code monkeys at EdWeek.org, you can now get DAILY email updates of whatever's new on this blog. Just sign up in the new yellow box just under my picture. It's not quite the same as making it your homepage or checking it obsessively (I know who you are), but it's a big set up from the weekly email summary or the occasional glance. I encourage it as a time-saving convenience. Never miss a brilliant post again!

Dutch Kids Help Build Viking Ship Made Of Ice Cream Sticks

Ice cream stick ship set to sail A Viking sailing ship, made in the Netherlands from 5 million recycled ice cream sticks with the help of 5,000 school children, is ready for the high seas. Click here to see close-ups.

Merrow Team Wins Third Emmy Nomination

Kudos to the good folks at Learning Matters, whose PBS series on a failed effort to bring in superstar principals to turn around struggling schools has just been nominated for an Emmy -- the third they've gotten. The competition -- ABC World News, CBS Evening News, Good Morning America and NBC Nightly News -- doesn't stand a chance. You can read about and watch the program here: Turnaround Specialist.

Louisiana Gives Teacher Mercedes Benz

Thanks to a friend for passing this one to me. They really know how to do things down there, I guess.

Opting Out Of Highly Qualified Teachers

All of these bills are just markers for future wrangling, but one of the most notable elements of the NCLB proposal unveiled yesterday by Senators Lieberman, Coleman, and Landrieu is that it would let states opt out of the current HQT requirements, which have been pretty ineffective at doing anything beyond making sure districts didn't hire uncertified teachers (an accomplishment, actually), and replacing that with measures of teacher effectiveness.

Coleman backs changes to No Child Left Behind education law AP
As Congress debates whether to reauthorize President Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind education law, Sen. Norm Coleman and two other senators proposed legislation Wednesday that they say builds on that law but in a way that gives states more flexibility.

Senator Joe Lieberman: News Release Click below for full news release.

Big Stories Of The Day (Thursday July 19)

Edwards Pushes Better Education for Poor EdWeek
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has called for measures to strengthen education for poor children and make schools more economically diverse in order to fight poverty.

DC Conference Centering On Vouchers NY Sun
Giving private school vouchers to Washington, D.C., schoolchildren has increased the funds available to the city's public system at large, but it has not triggered a competitive pushback of improvement in the public schools, researchers will argue at a conference in Washington today.

Abstinence Education Faces an Uncertain Future NYT
Opponents of abstinence education cite a study that found no sign that it delayed a teenager’s sexual debut.

School fined after kids taped undressing MSNBC
A jury has awarded $40,000 each to 32 students who were taped by security cameras in a Tennessee middle school’s locker rooms.

Christian Fantasy Genre Builds Niche Without Hogwarts, Muggles or Spells WPost
Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian?

University Of Chicago Calls Out Rest Of Higher Education Community

This week's EdWeek includes a noteworthy commentary from UofC education honcho Tim Knowles (pictured) in which he calls out the rest of higher ed for not being more substantially involved in K12 school reform issues (John Dewey for Today). As Knowles describes, the UofC is running a fast-growing network of charter schools, providing support services to another set of regular Chicago public schools, and even have a small practice-based teacher prep program. All this without having a formal ed school.

The Yellow Boxes, The Orange Tab: More Ways To Never Come Here Again [Revised]

Never want to see my grinning gargoyle of a head shot again? I got no problem with that.

First, ditch that bookmark -- you never remember to check it anyway. Go to the first yellow box right under my picture and sign up for a weekly email summary of what's been on this site. At least that way you won't be entirely in the dark.

Want something more frequent? Go to the second yellow box and sign up there -- you'll get a daily report on whatever crap material that I've posted during the day -- just like the SmartBrief or DA Daily, only later in the day and smarter.

Want to know the second it happens? Click the little orange "Get RSS" box (pictured) that's a little farther down the right-hand side, and "subscribe" to this feed. There's no money involved, it just means that the little RSS gnomes will send new content from this blog to your email or RSS reader without you having to do a thing. (Sort of like a Google News Alert, for those of you who do those.)

Civil Rights & Business Groups Join Together To Fight For NCLB

You may or may not think it's significant that there's another new NCLB-related organization. Hard to keep up with how many there are these days. But this one includes a pretty diverse set of players including the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce, La Raza, NCEA, the Citizens' Commission, and the Ed Trust. And it's pretty staunchly in favor of keeping, if not strengthening, NCLB.

Of course, other folks who might help get something done -- CAP, Fordham, New America, CEP, etc. -- aren't signed on, either because they officially "don't do" advocacy or because they think it'd be more fun and/or better for kids if NCLB didn't get strengthened along the lines it was originally enacted. For them, it's all about bringing on the national standards, the increasingly Byzantine growth model ideas, the new programs, the carve-outs and the exceptions. Just getting NCLB done better doesn't really help them any. It's not their thing.

UPDATE: To give you a sense of where the dividing lines are, note that CAP (the Center on American Progress) signed onto last week's warning letter to the House, which I posted about earlier this week, but didn't sign onto this group.

Joking About The Use of Unofficial Emails

I was more than happy to find out I'd been included in Slate.com's roundup of blog posts from a few weeks back, but I wish they'd been able to tell that I was joking about why Bush Administration officials including ones at the USDE might use RNC e-mail addresses instead of their official ones (Today's Blogs). I said that maybe the RNC email was easier to use.

Convenient Arguments

There's something a bit too convenient about the most recent "bubble" kids study that says low- and high-performing kids are being left behind, while "bubble" kids in the middle get all the attention. Ditto for today's Clarence Page column in the Chicago Tribune, which riffs off of the study to -- no surprise -- call for lowering NCLB's proficiency requirements (Leaving children behind, again). You could argue that the bubble kids are increasingly higher-achieving, as the NCLB proficiency cutoff moves up over time. But the answer to teachers focusing on the middle kids (as they always have) doesn't seem to me to be lowering the NCLB proficiency standard. Instead lawmakers might think of giving schools extra credit for moving kids up from the bottom quartile, even if they still don't make AYP.

Rod Paige, Beauty Contest Judge

What to do if you're no longer the Education Secretary and can't judge schools anymore? Judge beauty contests, of course. In Mississippi. That's what Rod Paige is doing these days, according to this Sun Herald story (Miss Heritage is the new Miss Mississippi). Better to judge than be judged, I guess.

What To Do When The N-Word Just Slips Out

What to do if you happen to use the n-word during a board meeting? Resign, I guess. (R.I. School Official Resigns After Slur AP). Meanwhile, educators in New Mexico found out they won't get in trouble from the feds for a high school racism project that labeled water fountains "Whites Only" and, quaintly, "People Of Color". See: No sanctions for mock-segregation project MSNBC.

Bang For The Buck -- And Tricks Districts Use To Look Good

Forget the Challenge Index and all that nonsense about Advanced Placement Courses. So 90's. Now Forbes is out with its ranking of districts, based on their notions of who's got the most bang for the buck(Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck). According to Forbes, Marin County, California comes out number one. The others in the top five are Collin, Texas; Hamilton, Ind.; Norfolk, Mass.; and Montgomery, Md. Losers include Alexandria, VA. Others on the bottom of the list include Glynn, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; Ulster, N.Y.; and Beaufort, S.C. For all its obvious flaws, the Forbes story notes how difficult it is to obtain comparable data, and how many gimmicks and tricks districts use to make their numbers look better.

Big Stories Of The Day (July 18)

NCLB Seen as Curbing Low, High Achievers' Gains EdWeek
"This is the irony of the `soft bigotry of low expectations,`” he added, quoting a line from President Bush. “Having lower standards is actually beneficial to low-advantage children."

College Board Tries to Police Use of ‘Advanced Placement’ Label NYT
To help protect its brand, the College Board is creating a list of classes that high schools are authorized to call AP and reviewing the syllabuses for classes.

Head Start Renewal AP via EdWeek
The bill is virtually unchanged from the version approved in February by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Dem Groups Concerned About Miller NCLB Bill

Not everyone's so sure they're going to like what House education committee chairman George Miller comes up with, according to this letter sent last week from left-leaning progressives who are concerned about Miller watering down the law too much.

What a contrast with the last time around, when Miller and the Ed Trust and others worked seamlessly on NCLB and rarely if ever had to resort to public letter-writing like this.

Happy 47th Anniversary, Etch-A-Sketch

The Etch-A-Sketch was invented 47 years ago last week, according to my new favorite site, How Things Work, which includes a history, information on what's inside and how the things work, and some examples of fancy sketches that people have made. And apparently the gizmo is still appealing to some kids, even though they have computers and the Internet these days.

EdWeek Shows Some Love...Blogger Under-Appreciates It

If I had it my way, this blog would be splashed across EdWeek's front page each and every day -- a notion that I'm sure many would find horrifying. Fair enough. I get that -- though it hurts my feelings and doesn't make sense to me. So when little signs of love come down from EdWeek headquarters, you can imagine how good it makes me feel. Like this new ad, which, now that I think about it, should probably be splashed across the front page.

Dems & Vouchers

Every year, Democratic politicians' opposition to vouchers gets narrower and narrower, even though there still aren't a ton of voucher programs around. In fact, one Democratic front-runner, Barack Obama, has not only voted for targeted vouchers (Katrina, etc.) but also indicated he'd support them in other situations. So maybe this is the year for a Dem or two to cross that big divide. Here, Joe Williams calls for a big school voucher proposal from John Edwards, who's proposing a housing voucher instead (Holy Moses).

Running Out Of July

AFT John reminds us to read Congressional Quarterly a little more often, especially when it includes tidbits about the increasing unlikelihood of a summer bill introduction and markup for NCLB (Slouching towards 2009). Not enough July left, and not enough of a majority for either party to push something through.

Charters Get Their Own Search Engine...iPhone Next.

Those charter folks are so creative, so inventive, so damn entrepreneurial. Now, according to SmartMoney.com, they've got their own search engine: American Charter Schools to Receive Funding from New Search Engine. What will they think of next? Charter school credit cards, I'm guessing, or mileage programs. Special handshakes, too. Maybe their own version of YouTube? Or iPhone.

Accidents: Yet Another Reason To Get Rid Of Summer Break

As if there we needed any more reasons to get rid of the long summer break, US News reports that summertime is downright dangerous to children, spiking to more than 2.4 million ER visits (and 2100 deaths) each year and that only with increased diligence can injuries be avoided (12 Ways to Childproof Your Summer). Over at Slate.com, they debunk the notion that summer break was invented to follow the agricultural calendar. It was money, folks, that ended summer quarter -- and some strange notions about kids' development (Why do schoolchildren get a three-month summer vacation?).

Big Stories Of The Day (July 17)

No Child's authors work on a revision Boston Globe
"Everything's up for review," said Miller , Democrat of California and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Limelight Has Eluded Fired D.C. Schools Chief Washington Post
It's been a tough month for former D.C. school superintendent Clifford B. Janey since his abrupt dismissal by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in a late-night telephone call. Via DA Daily.

Nipping Bias in the Bud LA Times
As soon as Violet Feldman laid eyes on her cousin's short haircut, she wanted one too. The 5-year-old begged her parents to trim her dark-brown locks just like his and once at the salon, she wanted to go shorter and shorter.

Making AYP, Made Easy

Over at EdBizzBuzz, Marc Dean Millot digs up a how-to on making AYP (How to Make AYP). See? It's not so hard to understand. Actually pulling it off isn't so easy, though more folks are doing it than many imagined -- with and without tricks and gimmicks.

The Week Ahead

Though it's starting off slowly, the week ahead could be busy:

EdWeek says that the Miller education bill could come out (see below).

AEI's got an event today: The Impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) . Participants: Derek Neal, University of Chicago; Katherine Haley, Office of Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI); Charles Murray, AEI; and Henry Olsen, AEI.. Time and Location: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI. Diana.steinmeyer@aei.org for more information.

New America has a thing tomorrow: "Child Well-Being in America and Abroad: How Do American Children Fare in Comparison to Children in Other Countries?" Time and Location: 10:30 a.m.; NAF, 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7th Floor, Washington. Liz Wu, 202.986.2700 ext. 315, wu@newamerica.net.

Michelle Rhee makes her Hill debut on Thursday: D.C. Public School System Reform (E&S). Subject: The Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia Subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on "Great Expectations: Assessments, Assurances, and Accountability in the Mayor's Proposal to Reform the District of Columbia's Public School System." Time and Location: 2:30 p.m.; 342 Dirksen SOB. Contact: 202.224.2627.

No word on what the EdSec is up to. She must be still recovering from all the Bastille Day celebrating over the weekend.

More Kids Killed In Chicago Than Soldiers In Iraq

A few weeks ago, the Chicago Tribune's Stephanie Banchero tracked down just how many Chicago public school kids had died during the first half of the year -- 34 and counting -- a statistic that generated a lot of discussion not only because it seemed so high but also because most if not all of violence happened off campus. Since then, the statistic has been used by the school system to argue for more education funding, and, most recently, by political candidates like Barack Obama to make the case for paying more attention to the plight of the urban poor: Obama Bemoans 'Epidemic of Violence' (Forbes). "Nearly three dozen Chicago students have been killed this year, according to Chicago Public Schools. Obama said that figure is higher than the number of Illinois serviceman who've died in Iraq in 2007."

Now Blogging NCLB: The Hoff

EdWeek's much-anticipated new blog "NCLB Part II" didn't show up on my RSS reader until this morning even though its author, reporter David (Hassel)Hoff, had kicked things off last week by pointing out one of my many mistakes. Welcome to the blogosphere, David. Part of me thinks that having an EdWeek blog dedicated to NCLB will be helpful and great -- less work for me to do, the more the merrier, etc. Another part of me thinks that there are already too many blogs out there doing pretty much the same thing. I guess the real test will be whether Hoff's blog provides information and insight that the rest of us don't have.

Related post:
Is EdWeek Reaching On Obama?

Big Stories Of The Day (July 16)

Law makes state oversee failing schools New Haven Register
It is far more specific than the federal No Child Left Behind law, which introduced nationwide testing goals and accountability measures.

NCLB-Renewal Ideas Circulate on Capitol Hill EdWeek
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. has signaled to freshmen in Congress that he’ll propose some major changes to the 5½-year-old NCLB Act when he releases his reauthorization bill, possibly in the coming weeks.

School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some NYT
Recent experiments show how hard it can be to balance academic success and socioeconomic and racial diversity.

Intel, in Shift, Joins Project on Education
Intel said it would join the board of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which seeks to build inexpensive computers for the developing world.

Best Of The Week (July 9-13)

The Big Picture
Where's Our Michael Moore?
Capturing The Current School Reform Moment ... Down To The "Granular" Level

On The Hill
Fresh Off The FritzWire
Burr & Gregg Deliver The First Volley
....Or They Could Introduce NCLB Reauthorization Language
The Week Ahead (July 9-13)

NCLB News
Burr & Gregg Deliver The First Volley
Addressing NCLB's "Reverse Lake Wobegon Syndrome"

Urban Education
Payzant Says He Didn't Know About Pilot Schools Screening Kids Either
Do AP Incentive Programs Skew The Challenge Index?
Expanding District Boundaries, Beefing Up The NCLB Transfer Provision

Teachers & Teaching
What Most Folks Don't "Get" About Schools
Now Cool: Librarians

Foundation Follies
Who's In Charge Of What At The Gates Foundation? No One Knows.
Inside The Gates Machine

Media Watch
Is Wikipedia Accurate & Neutral On Education Issues?
Who Decides What's Important -- Readers, Or Editors?

School Life
The Water Gun Wars
Consultants Vs. Real Live School Administrators, Part 5

Special New York City Pull-Out Section
Yet Another Thing For Chancellor Klein To Worry About
Watch Out, New York City Schools -- Here Comes Medina

Fresh Off The FritzWire

Appropriations: On Wednesday, July 11, the House Appropriations Committee completed mark-up on a $607 billion Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that will set funding levels for education, health and labor programs for FY 2008. The bill allocates $62.6 billion for the Education Department, an increase of $2.3 billion over current funding. Overall, the total bill is roughly $7 billion more than that approved for FY 2007. Go to: http://appropriations.house.gov. The measure next moves to the House floor for consideration. The Senate has yet to move on its version of the bill.

Introduced Legislation: S 1775 (Burr, North Carolina) introduced, the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2007” to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ensure that no child is left behind. (http://burr.senate.gov).

New Reports: Today, the Center on Education Policy released a report examining the kind of assistance that schools identified for improvement under NCLB receive and how effective district and state officials believe that assistance to be. Moving Beyond Identification: Assisting Schools in Improvement is posted on the Center's home page (www.cep-dc.org) under "What's New."

Yet Another Thing For Chancellor Klein To Worry About

Recently named along with Joel Klein as one of the most influential parts of the New York City education scene, InsideSchools.org goes beyond the usual news coverage and profiles individual schools. Now it has a blog to go along with all the rest.

Expanding District Boundaries, Beefing Up The NCLB Transfer Provision

NPR reminds us that it was 50 years ago that the Little Rock Nine were escorted into white schools (Little Rock Marks Desegregation Anniversary. Jonathan Kozol observes in a recent NYT opinion piece that the Supreme Court's decision last week still allows all sorts of methods of increasing integration, including beefing up the transfer provision in NCLB (Transferring Up). Meanwhile, the NY Sun tells us that imaginative folks there are wondering what would happen if they did that whole city-suburban district thing (Activists Revive Idea of Blending Students From City, Suburbs)

Big Stories Of The Day (July 13)

Positive Trends Recorded in U.S. Data on Teenagers AP
Fewer high school students were having sex and more were using condoms in 2005, according to the latest government report on the well-being of the nation’s children. Via EdWeek.org.

Government Eyes Seat Belts for School Buses AP
The government is looking again at whether children are safer in seat belts when they ride the bus to school, months after a deadly crash in Alabama. Via District Administration.

U.S. education official touts charter schools Albany Press & Sun Bulletin
With a successful charter school's graduation ceremony as a backdrop Wednesday, President Bush's deputy education secretary said the administration is pushing to expand the number the publicly funded private institutions when a 5-year-old education accountability program is reauthorized this year.

Burr & Gregg Deliver The First Volley

According to the attached press release, Republican Senators Gregg and Burr are today introducing a "comprehensive" NCLB reauthorization bill -- the first of will likely be several volleys from folks who want to push or promote something that's not quite the same as what the committee and leadership staff are up to.

Is Wikipedia Accurate & Neutral On Education Issues?

Sick of everyone putting in their two cents instead of just giving you the facts? Me, too. According to this Times Magazine story from earlier this month, we should all be turning to Wikipedia for information -- including breaking news -- since the collaborative website is all about maintaining a neutral point of view. Sound interesting? Well, not so fast. The articles all created by group effort, and are not necessarily complete or accurate even if they're neutral. Maybe that's why people like opinion -- better sifting. Here's the entry for Reading First. And for NCLB. Click "history" to see what changes have been made. Make a correction if you find something wrong.

Watch Out, New York City Schools -- Here Comes Medina

Thanks to everyone who wrote in explaining that it's insider Jennifer (Jenny) Medina who's now writing city education stories that we'll all be (and are already) reading.

According to an internal email announcement someone sent me, Medina "began her career at The New York Times as an intern in education where working with Tamar Lewin she turned out a memorable series on how city schools were pushing students out so they wouldn't count as part of the dropout rate." Since then she's covered NY and CT state politics, as well as the Lieberman campaign, and more. "All of this was just the right preparation for covering the high-stakes drama of a school system of 1.1 million students where the political infighting can rival any legislature's and passions run high over the ideology of math teaching, kindergarten admissions, cell phones and contested territory as small schools proliferate and vie for space."

This is apparently a picture of Medina on the job. Here are some of her recent stories, some of which have already started appearing in the paper.

Payzant Says He Didn't Know About Pilot Schools Screening Kids Either

Following up on the Boston Globe's story that Boston's famed pilot schools were screening students rather than taking all comers like everyone else (is supposed to). former Boston superintendent Tom Payzant (under whose leadership the pilots were started) said that he didn't know about the practice, either.

Writes Payzant: "Frankly, I was surprised that schools other than Quincy Upper and the Arts Academy had special requirements. Sometimes the Supt. is the last to know." Payzant said he'd tell the schools to cut it out, though perhaps allowing schools to require a parent visit upon acceptance so that they know what they're getting into. Payzant also says that he's criticized charters for not taking enough SPED and ELL, and that the pilots have done better with ELLs and were being "pushed" on SPED kids for several years. "I pushed them to address the special ed issue 4-5 years ago and insisted that they welcome students with disabilities. There has been a lot of progress on that front."

Adds current interim superintendent Mike Contompasis: "I do not believe that the pilots with the exception of Fenway continue to screen prior to the lottery process. I am informing the pilots again that these practices will cease effective in the coming year."

NYT Education Reporter Flies The Coop -- Who Will Replace Him?

Word is that NYT education reporter David Herszenhorn has in fact left (escaped?) and is already down in DC covering Congress. [Read more about and an outdated but still reasonable look at where education reporters go to when they are no longer education reporters here.] No word yet on who's going to replace him in covering the NYC schools. How about Columbia's LynNell Hancock (right), who recently wrote a great send-up of the NYC reform effort in The Nation and who still may not have forgiven my for my ambush interview of her (here)? Or maybe Elizabeth Green (left), who just left US News to come cover the city schools for The Sun? Or even Joe Williams, who used to cover the city and now is stuck doing DFER? Of course, I'm sure it will be someone from inside the paper.

What Most Folks Don't "Get" About Schools

In yesterday's education column, Times education writer David Herszenhorn reflects on what it's been like covering NYC schools for over four years -- and what most adults don't (or don't want to) understand: "Working with children looks easy. It is not." Then the tagline at the end of the story seems to indicate that Herszenhorn is leaving the beat. Working with schools isn't just hard on teachers, it seems. Congrats, condolences. I'll try and get more information.

Big Stories Of The Day (July 12)

House moves to lower interest on student loans AP
Legislation to lower interest rates on student loans and increase aid to poor people who want to go to college won House approval yesterday.

Potter Has Limited Effect on Reading Habits NYT
The truth about Harry Potter and reading is not quite a straightforward success story.

Teacher-Turned-Astronaut to Deliver Educational Payload EdWeek
Barbara R. Morgan and the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour will conduct a variety of educational activities on an 11 day mission.

Carnival Time Vs. The Mustache

I managed to pull myself away from Burger King's "grow your own mustache" site (I'm 'stashing Obama) to skim this week's ed policy posts over at The Carnival Of Education: Week 127 and saw that there are posts on zero tolerance, harassment, student obesity, and the gaps between research and policy. Check it out.

Where's Our Michael Moore?

I'm finding it hard to get worked up about education reform these days when crazed but brilliant "Sicko" documentarian Michael Moore is taking on CNN's Wolf Blitzer, handsome medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, and mainstream coverage of health care issues (as well as missing the boat on Iraq, the treatment of veterans, etc.). It makes you think. Wouldn't it be horrifying and exciting and disruptive if someone in education -- a more charismatic and compelling version of Jonathan Kozol, Debbie Meier, Marian Wright Edelman, et al -- was pushing this hard on the school reform front, and getting this kind of attention? Why isn't there? If there was, who would be leading the way?

Do AP Incentive Programs Skew The Challenge Index? Yes, Says Benton

Dallas Morning News education columnist Josh Benton isn't the first to raise questions about Newsweek's High School Challenge Index (aka "Uncle Jay's List'), but the fact that two local Dallas high schools -- both in the same building -- got ranked #1 and #2 this year does give him an interesting perspective. In his column (here), Benton points out that at least some of the Dallas success is due to a local incentive program that pays kids and teachers for AP participation. In fact, Texas was the home of these AP incentive programs, which spread nationally and are now funded federally thanks in large part to my old boss, Jeff Bingaman, and Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The Water Gun Wars

Anyone dealing with kids this summer is probably dealing with water -- water balloons, water bottles, water guns. Here, Slate takes the time to rate the water guns that are out there, most of which are are far cry from the puny translucent pistols some of us may remember from long ago: Scouting out the best water guns. The top-rated Tarantula (pictured) is introduced as follows: "Packing a gun this well-designed almost feels like cheating....Its overdone space-age styling may seem a tad embarrassing, but its performance on the battlefield will teach your enemies to show some respect."

Inside The Gates Machine: Golston, Phillips, Pennington, Seleznow, & Shelton

OK, I think I understand at least some of the basics now, thanks to Gates spokesperson Marie Groark. Former Portland supe Vicki Phillips (right) will be the "new" Tom Vander Ark, heading the education initiative. However, the setup is different, too. Education is now going to be under US Programs, run by Allan Golston, and expanded to include special initiatives, which is being run by former JFF-er Hilary Pennington (left).

Within education, Steve Seleznow (the white guy) runs the Western States plus Ohio. Jim Shelton runs the Eastern states and "new school creation and replications." A slightly outdated version of this is here. Next step -- figuring out the second level of program officers who run each particular initiative.

Who Decides What's Important -- Readers, Or Editors?

Washington Post, media critic Howard Kurtz points out that much of the astounding success of the Huffington Post, a group blog that features all sorts of generally Democratic commentary and content (including mine), has come from the ability (and willingness) of its editors to go beyond the now-standard "most read story" gizmo in the corner and actually bring popular articles to the front page, top center. Editors hate this because it means that readers are making placement and prominence decisions and mixing commentary with news. Advertisers love it because it makes the site the sites that do this (Daily Kos and Google News are other examples) all the more popular. Check out Kurtz's piece here: The Huffington Empire.