Alexander Russo

Former CPS CEO Paul Vallas blames successors [including Duncan] for $1B deficit ABC7 Chicago: “In 2001, the district had $1.2 billion in cash reserves,” said Paul Vallas, former CPS CEO. “They had six years of structurally balanced budgets.” Dyett hunger-strikers vow to continue fight Chicago Sun-Times: Randi Weingarten, president of the Washington D.C.-based American Federation of Teachers — which […]

The latest version of Education Next’s Top K-12 Education Policy People on Social Media is out today, and I’m happy to have been included again (up from #20 out of the top 25 to #16). Though separate rankings based on media outlets and organizations are set to come out later this week, the rankings based on Klout […]

There haven’t been any major gaffes or problems with media coverage of this year’s report, according to the folks at PDK.  “I thought all the coverage was great,” says PDK’s Joshua Starr, who until recently headed the Montgomery County school system.   For a full list of media coverage look here. The #PDKpoll hashtag was trending on twitter the […]

Today’s news includes an ACT gap for schools serving Latino students, a resumption of the NY version of the teacher tenure challenge that rocked CA last year, and a new report showing a massive racial gap in Southern states: Latinos struggle to close gap with whites in California ACT scores LAT: Across the country, the class of […]

This Andrea Gabor oped in the NYT (The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover) has reform advocates freaking out, appearing as it does in the nation’s most prominent paper and claiming that reform efforts in New Orleans have been exaggerated.  Coverage of New Orleans school improvement efforts has been a major issue this 10th […]

Last week, news got out that Kate Zernike (@kzernike) is returning to the national desk and to the education beat, where Motoko Rich has been toiling on her own for a while now. I heard about it first from Patrick Riccards on Twitter, then from several others such as as Jim Rutenberg, who noted “NYT’s […]

Today’s education news includes a report showing that NY State won’t be punished for its 20 percent testing opt out rate (statewide), plus more coverage of public polls on annual testing and NOLA anniversary examinations: Department of Education Won’t Punish N.Y. for High Opt-Outs, Report Says PK12: Federal law requires each school to test at least 95 […]

No offense, but there’s nothing much I like about Boston except that my mom and sister both live there, and it’s my mom’s birthday on Friday. So that’s where I am headed, and not here sharing the day’s best news and commentary with you like I usually do. But not to worry — all things […]

Screengrab of page A2 of today’s LA Times Today’s the first day of school for LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school district. It’s also the first day for Education Matters, a new online vertical at the LA Times. Former HuffPost reporter Joy Resmovits is the big new hire, listed as reporter and editor for the new page. Read […]

Bernie Sanders is going to meet with the TFA alum and other leaders of #blacklivesmatter. New polling (from a right-leaning think tank) suggests strong support for annual testing and little support for parents opting kids out of the process. One way or another, states are going to have a much stronger role in education in […]