Five Best Blogs: Hearing For Nothing

ESEA Bill Poised for Hearing PoliticsK12: Senate leaders may hold off on putting the ESEA bill on the floor until and unless the House approves an overhaul of the law's accountability and teacher quality provisions. PLUS: Charles Barone on ESEA Reauthorization Connor Williams: There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with finding unlikely allies on the other side of the aisle. 

MPR’s Unfortunate Sidestepping SchoolFinance101:  They fail to explore in any depth how successful charter schools allocate resources and the cost implications of those strategies. It’s time to start taking this next step!

The Book on Rhee’s DC tenure Matthew Ladner: While the needle is moving in the right direction in DC, I believe that the Cool Kids came out of the experience sadder, wiser and undeterred. That’s for the best.

Are Teachers Overqualified? Matthew Yglesias: The issue with American teachers isn’t that they’re “overpaid” it’s that we seem to have overinvested in quantity of teachers rather than quality. 

How Bill Gates throws his money around in education Anthony Cody: Invent a host of new mechanisms to reward success as well as punish failure. As much a possible, target these interventions down to the level of the individual teacher and student, to ensure compliance. 

MORE BLOG POSTS INSIDE

 The One Best Way ... Not Deborah Meier: Unfortunately, Tony discovered "the one best way" while subsequently superintending in Manhattan's District 2. Unfortunately, he took this one-best-way "package" to San Diego. 

What Charlotte Danielson saw when the UFT came calling GothamSchools: The checklist she saw, Danielson said, was inappropriate because of the way it was filled out. It indicated that the observer had already begun evaluating a teacher while in the classroom observation. She said that’s a fundamental no-no.

The Tyranny of Meritocracy Megan McArdle: It is fine that CEOs earn many times what their workers do--but it is not fine if some are born to be workers, and others to be CEOs.