Five Best Blogs: Real World Education

Jeb Bush, Distance Learning, and the Hype Cycle Sherman Dorn: What School of One offers is algorithmic programming, not individualized education. 

Fighting the War on Poverty with Early Childhood Education CAP: As it stands, only three percent of TItle I funds are used for early childhood education. 

Trigger Happy? Title I Derland: If the goal of the waivers is to support state innovation, it seems strange to risk stifling a plan that puts school improvement solutions in the hands of parents in favor of one that is prescribed from Washington. 

Early Childhood Education Involves Taxes Matthew Yglesias: The actual question is what offsetting budget changes will make it possible to implement an early childhood education program.  Also from Yglesias: DC Education Reform Has Raised Teacher Salaries Substantially. 

Blame Game Eduwonk: We have a teacher quality problem and a management problem, teachers are not to blame for all that ails our schools, we can’t fire our way to better schools, but removing some percentage of low-performers would be quite good for students.  

5 MORE BLOG POSTS INSIDE

$34 million to Preserve Its Influence Dropout Nation:  This includes $350,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, the think tank whose education studies always seem to dovetail nicely with the positions taken by the AFT and the National Education Association.

Defense of “Achievement Gap Mania” Matthew Ladner: Call it the triumph of hope over experience if you wish, but we believe that public education can help achieve all of this and we refuse to give up on the notion.

The Ugly Truth US Chamber:  The fact sheets give business leaders, parents, community leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders a snapshot of the education landscape in each state—what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s downright ugly. 

Getting Moneyball Right Rick Hess: The problem in baseball prior to Beane's revolution in Oakland was not an absence of data... it was a reliance on overly simplistic measures.

37 Applicants for the Early Learning Challenge New America: Nine of our 11 "Top Contenders" applied for the grants: Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Carolina, Vermont. Louisiana and Tennessee, the other two "Top Contenders," did not apply.