Like a glove. The exit of former Washington Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau should remind us that although someone may have the abilities, they may just not be the right fit. This applies to teaching too, says Eduwonk’s Andy Rotherham. (Eduwonk)

Hint, hint, second-round applicants. PoliticsK12 provides a bulleted list of the top flaws seen in the first round of applications to the adContinue Reading »

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

On Monday, the Obama administration released its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. $69.8 billion was requested for the Department of Education, a $1.7 billion dollar increase from the previous year. Since Steve already covered some of the budget’s higher ed components, today we’re looking at the hottest K-12 budget items: $14.5 bContinue Reading »

Flickr photo by AlaskaTeacher

UPDATED 2/15: Although slightly behind schedule, President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education finally announced the first round of states to receive ESEA waivers today. Ten of the eleven early-bird applicants – Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – willContinue Reading »

On Friday, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the final two pieces of House Republicans’ piecemeal strategy to overhaul No Child Left Behind, and reactions to the bills are trickling in. The Committee had already approved legislation relating to school choice, funding flexibility, and program consolidation. While the latter two were approvContinue Reading »

Flickr photo by skyloader

The Center for American Progress released the first analysis of the initial 11 ESEA waiver applications that moves beyond the contents of each waiver proposal to the merits of a state’s application. As noted here, and here, and here the report calls out Massachusetts and Tennessee for submitting particularly well-crafted proposals and Continue Reading »

This Thanksgiving, those of us following the ESEA reauthorization debate have a lot to be thankful for. Who’d have thought the last few months would be so exciting?

We have a bipartisan (sort of) Senate ESEA Reauthorization bill passed out of the HELP Committee. Depending on your point of view, you could be thankful for a lot of things here: a) that a reauthorization bill has gotten thisContinue Reading »

Eleven states yesterday applied to the federal government for relief from much of the law formerly known as No Child Left Behind, including the law’s demand that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. To get that freedom the states had to commit themselves to implementing: “career and college ready” standards; accountability systems that focus more attention on low-perforContinue Reading »

Flickr photo by kmevans

States, listen up: Want to win an ESEA waiver? Like getting money from the federal government? Then you need to collect and report high schools graduates’ college outcomes – and not just for in-state, public colleges and universities, but for all postsecondary institutions.

Just as the administration has used multiple platforms (ScContinue Reading »

Yesterday, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released a long-awaited bill to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. After a series of Republican bills in the House and Senate as well as the Obama administration’s ESEA Waiver plan, the draft legislation represents the first bipartisan effort to rewrite NCLB in this Congress and is the product of months of compromise between Harkin and the Senate Health, EducContinue Reading »

We know now that all states – whether they’ve adopted Common Core or not – can successfully apply for one of the administration’s new ESEA waivers. Non-Common Core states simply need to demonstrate they have adopted college- and career-ready standards in reading and math… and that the state’s network of higher education institutions agree that “students who meet these standards will not need reContinue Reading »