“Skirting” the law. Some Ohio charter schools are still open and operating, despite a state law mandating their closure, because they changed their name, according to a new report. (h/t StateImpact Ohio) (Policy Matters Ohio)

For a better ROI in higher ed. Indiana’s education commissioner, Teresa Lubbers, wants to improve the return on investment for college students by creating mentorinContinue Reading »

Alma and Colin Powell have joined the blogosphere. In their latest entry, they observe: “While the U.S. sent more than 500 athletes to London, back home, 7,000 students dropped out in just one day. Those athletes represented our nation, but so do the young people who drop out of school.” (Huffington Post.)

Two views on  gifted students and education options. In today’s Continue Reading »

Meetings at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) help state policymakers with both big picture issues (how will the Affordable Care Act affect your budget) to specific details. Education Sector’s Kris Amundson was at their annual summit this week in Chicago. Here are three important numbers she brought back from the conference.

On state budgets: 6. That’s the number of stContinue Reading »

Do “college-ready” and “career-ready” mean the same thing? Experts weigh in on the terms that everyone agrees are important . . . but no one seems to agree on what they mean. (SVEF Blog)

Our favorite flack. Now also one of our favorite EAO execs, Patrick Riccards, is out today with his latest version of the Eduflack Daily.

Stop smiling, Kevin Carey tells toContinue Reading »

ESEA saga. Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) hosted the hearing they promised Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., last month during the mark-up of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA). In all, 10 witnesses, including one teacher and one lead teacher (the others were administrators, state leaders, or outside experts), provided testimony during the two-hour session. Continue Reading »

In Part 1 of our Pathways series, we discussed the details of the proposed Pathways to College grant program.  The question that remained was what does it all mean? Can it help students from lower-performing, high-need schools become ready for postsecondary success?

One of the most promising aspects of the new Pathways to College grant program is that it requires funds to be usedContinue Reading »

Kathryn Byron on the Possibilities of Linking Education Data with Cal-PASS: “Cal-PASS partnered with UC Berkeley’s Center for Social Services Research on the pilot project, which matched students in foster care with those not in the foster system by grade, disability, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Researchers say the initial goal was just to see if it’s possible to connect the dContinue Reading »

Tomorrow will mark 9 years since President George Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law, with the bipartisan help of former Senator Ted Kennedy and Congressman John Boehner.  This law, that greatly increased federal focus on school accountability and expanded education choice, has been much lauded and criticized, prominently featured in serious speeches and not-so-serious jokes, and up and Continue Reading »

There’s been a lot of news lately about college- and career-readiness. Jordan Horowitz from California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) had an entirely sensible op-ed in EdWeek arguing, “We must link high school exit expectations with college-entrance expectations.” The American Association of State Colleges and Universities calls college readiness one of Continue Reading »

Standardized test scores are a necessary evil. They do not adequately measure everything that children should know or be able to do, but, in many places and for many grades, they are the only available metric on which student learning can be assessed on a broad scale. No one–not even the most diehard reformer–thinks that standardized test scores in and of themselves are sufficient. Continue Reading »