Best edu-tweet from last night’s State of the Union? @smarick: PreK, high schools, CTE, and higher ed get big attention. K-8: the Jan Brady of this year’s SOTU. (Twitter)

When does a policy start? “The point is that a counter-intuitive idea—that policy effects can occur before a policy is adopted—must be taken seriously,” writes Tom Loveless. It’s something to consider for implemenContinue Reading »

Poor grades. StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee’s organization, has ranked states based on education policy. Not one state got an A, and 11 received Fs. (StudentsFirst.org)

Getting evaluation right. Georgia officials aren’t happy with the results from its new teacher evaluation pilot, saying ratings are “skewed to the positive.” Principals and teachers will receive more training. (Get SchooledContinue Reading »

What’s Obama’s grade? A look at President Obama’s record on education policy since he took office. (Politico)

“More muscle and tissue than the past.” College Board’s new president, David Coleman, speaks candidly to Rick Hess about his new position and the future of College Board and Common Core. (Straight Up/Education Week)

A “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for schoContinue Reading »

If you’re smart, motivated and just can’t learn enough about education policy, then you have 5 more days to apply for the Fordham Fellows program, which promises to open the doors to the D.C. education policy world. For 9 months, you’ll be doing substantial, interesting work in some of D.C.’s best policy organizations (including us, of course). Last year’s ES FelloContinue Reading »

Long-time actor, occasional politician, and allegedly viable presidential candidate Fred Thompson has this to say about NCLB (via HuffPost):

“No Child Left Behind _ good concept, I’m all for testing _ but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test _ you can’t really tell that everybodyContinue Reading »

The Washington Post magazine has a very interesting article this week written by a special education teacher in DC.* Samantha Cleaver’s story is not unusual–it’s really hard being a first year teacher, probably harder still if you’re alternatively certified, and even harder yet to teach special education.

What makes her story powerful is the painstaking detail ofContinue Reading »

After a couple of very good but not great weeks, The Wire launches into the final third of the season with a vengeance.

First, I hope the foolishness with sticking students in 90-minute test prep classes, but then turning up the heat in order to keep them docile in said classes, apparently without considering that the heat also means they’re sure not to learn whatever meager test pContinue Reading »