Alexander Russo

Boys walk home for lunch from school in the village of Kogelo Kenya https://t.co/7u7JmbIQtD pic.twitter.com/asvRlUAXbu — alexanderrusso (@alexanderrusso) December 16, 2015 BEST OF THE WEEK Politico: How Ryan & Kline made NCLB rewrite happen http://ow.ly/VMGqz WSJ: Clinton Views on Charter Schools, Teacher Evaluations Upset Some Democrats http://ow.ly/W54NY NYT: How School Segregation Persists in Gentrifying Neighborhoods http://pllqt.it/cmqOp1 Slate: For-profit […]

Screengrab of Politico story from last Friday. Over the past week, there have been at least two in-depth attempts to explain what went on behind the scenes leading up to last week’s somewhat unanticipated bill-signing ceremony: In Morning Consult, Fawn Johnson reported How Old-School Legislating Brought an Education Bill to the Finish Line. At Politico, […]

At least two education books have made some of the annual year-end roundups that are going around right now: First up is Dale Russakoff’s “The Prize,” which gets a nice writeup in The New Yorker (The Books We Loved in 2015). Greg Toppo’s “The Game Believes In You” made the list in the Kansas City […]

Education Comes out on Top in Federal Spending Bill US News: The $1.2 billion increase for the Department of Education largely consists of a $500 million boost for Title I, the pillar of the federal K-12 law that provides funding for poor students, and a $415 million increase to the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which funds special […]

The Columbia Journalism Review hands out more kudos to Chicago’s long-running education magazine, Catalyst, in its roundup of Our favorite local journalism from 2015: “In a remarkable show of force for independent media, an Uber-driving freelancer and a veteran education reporter at a small niche publication helped drive the political agenda in Chicago this year, with journalism that led to […]

Read the emailed threat that closed LAUSD schools on Tuesday LA Daily News: The emailed threat to the Los Angeles school district that resulted in an unprecedented closure of all campuses included specific references to “bombs hidden in lockers,” “nerve gas agents” and “Kalashnikov rifles.” Threats sent to schools in South Florida, Houston AP: School officials in Miami, Fort […]

Here’s what school lunches look like around the world http://t.co/jmNEn5OZ2q — Vox (@voxdotcom) January 9, 2015 Gizmodo’s year-end roundup of 76 Viral Images From 2015 That Were Totally Fake includes one school-related meme that was shared widely (including by some reputable news outlets) before it was debunked by Mother Jones. Number 24 on the Gizmodo fake news […]

U.S. High School Graduation Rate Ticks Up To 82 Percent AP: The U.S. high school graduation rate inched up to 82 percent and the achievement gap narrowed, according to new federal data that raise concern among education officials and others that too many students still aren’t getting a diploma. Read more in NPR, EdWeek, WSJ, Huffington Post, Washington […]

Lost in all the big ESEA news last week was this NYT piece (The Search for Local Investigative Reporting’s Future) whose basic premise is that it’s hard to do great local investigative work — and there’s not nearly as much of it as there used to be: “For decades, local investigative reporting has been done […]

New York City to Close 3 Troubled Public Schools in Brooklyn NYT: It is the first time Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has elected to shut down any noncharter public schools. See also WNYC, Chalkbeat. Chicago Teachers Say Yes To Strike OptionWBEZ: Under state law, the earliest that teachers could walk off the job this time around is […]