The Grade

There have been lots of changes at the Huffington Post’s education page over the past year or so, but if you’re not paying attention to the stories it puts out every day you might be missing out on good material.HuffPost isn’t breaking news or doing much event coverage any more, but it’s still finding ways […]

Jeffco school board members who pushed controversial changes ousted in recall ChalkbeatCO: After two years of political acrimony in the Colorado’s second largest school district, three conservative school board members were easily swept out of office Tuesday in a recall election that cost more than a million dollars and attracted national attention. Replacing them are three candidates […]

In honor of Jefferson County’s never-ending education/culture/politics battles, let’s take a listen to this 2014 On The Media segment about the AP History curriculum debate, featuring EdWeek’s Liana Heiten: “Conservatives in Colorado and elsewhere are alarmed by the College Board’s new Advanced Placement US history test, which the  Republican National Committee has called  a “radically revisionist view […]

There are not one but two ads from the NEA and AFT in today’s edition of Politico’s Morning Education (Failing schools can’t buy success), both urging Congress to pass a revamped version of ESEA. Is that a problem? Not really. They’re both clearly identified as promotions, and the email version of the newsletter is clearly identified […]

Elections in Three States Are Low-Profile, But High-Stakes for Education State EdWatch: Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi hold gubernatorial elections, as well as down-ballot contests Nov. 3, and issues range from the Common Core State Standards to K-12 spending. Colorado School District Immersed In Political Turmoil Amid Recall AP: While school-board spats typically are confined locally, these recall efforts have […]

Six months into The Grade, I’m making some changes that I think will make the site more interesting, engaging, and nuanced. First and foremost, I’m going to start reaching out to reporters and editors I’m writing about earlier on in the writing process, hoping that they (and the subjects of their stories that I’m also […]

Over the weekend, the Council of Great City Schools’ head Michael Casserly put out an oped opposing the Obama 2 percent testing cap. “One of [the Obama administration’s] proposals, however, stands out as a singularly bad idea: a blanket cap on the amount of testing time. This strikes us as a classic example of Washington trying […]

In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ Washington Post: In Jefferson County, teachers unions and Koch brothers battle for votes and the future of public schools. See also ChalkbeatNY. Success Academy Founder Calls ‘Got to Go’ List an Anomaly NYT: Ms. Moskowitz, who spoke on Friday at a news conference, said that […]

BEST OF THE WEEK NYT: Surprise! Florida and Texas Excel in Math and Reading Scores http://ow.ly/U3ria CNN: Ben Carson’s surprising position on education funding http://ow.ly/U2QgC NYT: At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’ http://ow.ly/U0api ChalkbeatCO: In Denver school board race, a telling divide over what defines a “neighborhood http://ow.ly/U3gqR […]

Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi makes several good points in his latest piece (Foundations fund L.A. Times’ education reporting. A conflict?) — and the LA Times appears to have already begun to respond. Farhi’s strongest point isn’t so much that the LA Times and other outlets shouldn’t take outside money at all — this seems […]