The Grade

Over at The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog, there are some recollections and regrets from now-retired education journalist John Merrow in (The biggest regret from a 41-year career).  The piece, which comes to us in the form of an interview by James Harvey, executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable, quotes Merrow observing that it’s “not clear […]

Nobody likes to have to do a correction, which is partly why they’re done so rarely and often so obscurely. But if you’ve got to do one, do it right. That’s what AP seems to have done with a recent school funding story (Correction: Education Dollars story) by putting the correction and the substance of the […]

Hillary Clinton Calls for End to School-to-Prison Pipeline in Bid for Black Votes WSJ: Hillary Clinton, relying heavily on black voters in her battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, vowed Tuesday to address racial disparities in the nation’s economy, criminal-justice system, health and schools. Bernie Sanders Promises Free College. Will It Work? NPR: Let’s assume that, somehow, […]

On Friday morning, this shocking video was published in the Metro Section of the New York Times.  On a surreptitious cell phone video, Success Academy Charter Schools (SA) Charlotte Dial berates a student. If you haven’t already stopped to watch it, you should do so now. It’s only about a minute long. (No time? Not […]

It’s awards season for journalism as well as movies and music, and as the New York Times reported just a few days ago there were at least a couple of education-related stories awarded 2015 Polk Awards: “Three reporters from The Tampa Bay Times won for education reporting. The three — Cara Fitzpatrick, Lisa Gartner and […]

How Scalia’s Death May Grant Public-Sector Unions A Reprieve Huffington Post: But now, with the likelihood of the court’s four liberal justices backing fair share fees, Friedrichs may no longer be the looming disaster for public-sector unions that it seemed. See also LA Times, ScotusBlog, EdSource Today, Slate, NYT, EdWeek. Louisiana Drops Common-Core Lawsuit—Again State EdWatch: Gov. Jon Bel Edwards […]

BEST OF THE WEEK The Atlantic: More American Teens Are Excelling at Advanced Math http://ow.ly/YfPrs NPR: ‘An Average Guy’ Excels At Teaching Students AP Calculus http://ow.ly/Y7LdE Washington Post: D.C. Public Schools overhauling teacher evaluation and training http://ow.ly/Yg6Aq WSJ: The Common Core Has Its Supporters http://ow.ly/Yg62w Catalyst Chicago: Teacher Autonomy – At A Price http://ow.ly/Y5KRf  WNYC: ‘Pushy […]

Obama to Officially Nominate John B. King Jr. as Education Secretary PK12: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee, has been urging the White House to officially nominate someone to succeed former Secretary Arne Duncan, since back in December. See also AP, Washington Post. D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students Washington Post: According […]

According to this Bloomberg analysis (Who Marries CEOs, Doctors, Chefs and Janitors), journalist types are most likely to marry elementary and middle school teachers, secretaries/admin assistants (more female occupations, according to the analysis) — and managers or physicians/surgeons (more male occupations). They also marry each other a fair amount, and the patterns seem to differ […]

Screengrab of the data visualization If you haven’t done so already, I would highly recommend Segregation in Pittsburgh-area schools an enduring issue, Natasha Lindstrom’s recent Trib Live deep dive into longstanding school segregation in Pittsburgh and surrounding school districts. The story, like last week’s WNYC piece, explodes the notion that school segregation isn’t an issue […]