All Posts Tagged: 'Secretary Spellings'


Accreditation Explains Everything

June 7th, 2008 | Category: Undergraduate Education

InsideHigherEd reports a new flare-up in an ongoing dispute about the way the U.S. Department of Education regulates people who regulate colleges. Yes, this sounds very boring. It’s not; it actually explains much about higher education as well as school vouchers and other hot-button K-12 issues. But first, a little history:
For a long time the [...]

differentiated accountability proposals

June 3rd, 2008 | Category: Accountability

In response to Secretary Spellings’ March 2008 call for differentiated accountability proposals, 17 states submitted plans. The Department forwarded all 17 plans to a peer review committee, which will comment on them in mid-June before a final decision by the Secretary. Up to ten state plans may be approved. I’ve had a chance to review [...]

Smoldering

March 19th, 2008 | Category: Accountability

In the announcement heard ’round the edu-blogosphere today (but on the back page of the Washington Post), Secretary Spellings invited states to apply to be one of 10 which will be granted more flexibility under NCLB. The selected states will be allowed to differentiate consequences for schools that are failing to reach NCLB goals on [...]

Understanding "Standards"

June 11th, 2007 | Category: Accountability

There has been much discussion of standards in the last week, fueled by the release of two major reports. The National Center for Education Statistics raised some interesting questions about the rigor of state standards and variation between the states. Their report compelled Secretary Spellings to argue against national standards on the editorial pages of [...]

Secretary Spelllings Adds Value

May 18th, 2006 | Category: Accountability

There was a landmark event in the history of American education yesterday. Secretary Spellings announced that she is going let North Carolina and Tennessee change the way they rate their schools under NCLB. With that seemingly unremarkable bureaucratic declaration, Spellings set in motion a fundamental shift in education policy that stands, in time, to dramatically [...]