Budget fun! The White House, of course, has edu-highlights on President Obama’s proposed budget, released today. Politics K-12 also has a good rundown of what’s most important.

Ask the students. Tom Kane outlines the advantages of using student surveys as a component of teacher evaluations. (Chalkboard/Brookings Institution)

Spelling is for wussies. The National Spelling Bee will Continue Reading »

A shortfall … times millons. Philadelphia school officials have to borrow $300 million to pay bills. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Beyond the Ivy League. Teach For America is expanding its recruitment efforts to attract military veterans. (Teach For America)

“The world’s first superstar teacher.” Salman Khan enjoys more good press, this time on the cover of Forbes. (Forbes)

Back Continue Reading »

More to worry about in 2014. The Office of Management and Budget’s early memo regarding the budget for fiscal year 2014 (yes, that’s correct) signals the severity of the nation’s debt and deficit—and why programs included in discretionary spending, like education, need to start looking for solutions now. (Title I-Derland)

“Well, we know at least ONE day they came to school …” AtlanContinue Reading »

Details of the policy proposals President Obama intends to outline in tomorrow’s State of the Union are starting to leak out and it’s looking like a bit of a mixed bag on education.

On the good side is the proposed expansion of Income-Based Repayment (IBR).This program, which has been available to federal student loan borrowers since July 1 of last year, currently caps paymenContinue Reading »

Turning around a low performing high school may be the most difficult task in K-12 education. This week Sec. Duncan has suggested that charter schools should play a critical role in the effort to turn around low performing schools. Perhaps this comparison will start to suggest why. There is a lot to learn about two attempts started this year in Los Angeles Unified both of which have been backedContinue Reading »

The New York Times recently published a full-length article chronicling all the ways colleges and universities are cutting back in these recessionary times. The piece’s intent was surely to show how bad things are, but these are the examples it gave:

ConnCAN sent out an alert last Friday about Connecticut’s Governor Rell’s latest budget, which includes substantial cuts to the state’s charter schools. Nevermind that Connecticut’s charter schools already receive less per-student than traditional public schools and face caps on the number of students they can enroll. Or that, according to this report, they have greater Continue Reading »

In California, the state took action last month to address an over $40 billion budget gap through a combination of program cuts, new taxes and a whole lot of other manipulations. The voters will decide what they think about the package in a special election on May 19th. While the actions taken were historic, they addressed the budget hole identified at the end of 2008. Oh course the economy hasContinue Reading »

Per the AFT blog, the Indianapolis Star reports that policymakers in Indiana are once again talking about funding full-day kindergarten for all Hoosier students. Considering that many states have done this for decades and are now concentrating on giving all students access to pre-kindergarten, this is welcome, if belated, news.

It also reminds me of one the formative “A-Ha!” Continue Reading »

The House Appropriations committee passed a version of the FY 2007 federal education budget earlier this week (details here). There weren’t a lot of differences from the budget President Bush submitted earlier this year. But one small change is worth noting.

The administration’s proposal to increase funding for state data systems from $24 million to $54 million was reduced toContinue Reading »