With a weekend of reflection between me and the markup of the Harkin-Enzi ESEA Reauthorization Bill, I am caught up on sleep, but still coming to terms with the implications of last Thursday’s events. Yes, the bill passed out of committee 15-7, receiving only 3 Republican votes. But what did we really learn about the direction of federal K-12 education policy, the positions of key players, and Continue Reading »

The Senate’s ESEA Reauthorization bills (the old Harkin bill and the newer Harkin-Enzi version) elicited a familiar reaction from interest groups representing teachers, principals, and school administrators and from conservative eduwonks following the legislation: federal overreach.

You have Rick Hess: “I’m not worried about going ‘back’ to 1994… partly because some of the ‘retreats’ areContinue Reading »

If you haven’t heard, Senators Harkin and Enzi introduced a substitute version of their ESEA Reauthorization bill today. While I’m disheartened and disappointed by these changes, Secretary Duncan released a more muted statement on the new bill. As a public service, Quick and the Ed is going to break down the key changes so you don’t have to re-read the 860-page bill again (seeContinue Reading »

Earlier, I praised the Harkin-Enzi ESEA Reauthorization bill’s handling of teacher and principal evaluations, noting that they found a very small middle ground between the Obama administration’s waiver package and the Senate Republican plan. Well, strike that. Guess Senators Harkin and Enzi really aren’t worried about what I think of their plan.

A substitute has been introduced and posteContinue Reading »

Harkin-Enzi’s ESEA reauthorization bill attempts to find a middle ground on teacher and principal evaluations. On one hand, you have the Senate Republican plan supported by Secretary of Education-turned-Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) that would give states the option to develop these kinds of evaluation systems. On the other, you have the Obama administration’s ESEA waiver package that requiresContinue Reading »

Tomorrow morning, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will convene its third hearing on for-profit colleges. (You can find links to the first two here and here.) Our live-tweeter extraordinaire Forrest Hinton will be on the Education Sector feed (@EducationSector) with real-time reporting and the best education fashion advice around, but I thought I’d weigh inContinue Reading »

When the junior senator from Iowa banged the gavel twenty minutes late to begin yesterday’s Senate HELP Committee hearing, I was anticipating a good, meaty policy conversation on revamping high school accountability. After all, Senator Harkin titled the Tuesday afternoon event “ESEA Reauthorization: Improving America’s Secondary Schools.” Even the witnesses promised toContinue Reading »