Thomas B Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

Republicans for Education Reform

yes Michael J. Petrilli , yes Tyson Eberhardt / February 22, 2012

This post originally appeared on the National Review Online and is adapted from an Education Next article.

The “Race to the Top” education initiative is one of President Obama’s most vaunted domestic-policy successes. The name itself connotes progress, forward movement, even competition. And there’s plenty of substance for the president to brag about: Forty-six states and the District of Columbia signed on to rigorous common standards; dozens of states got serious about teacher evaluations; key jurisdictions removed caps on charter-school expansion. This is what New Yorker contributor Steven Brill called “a sweeping overhaul” of the system.

With the Department of Education proposing a new $5 billion Race to the Top–style competitive grant program aimed at teacher policy, however, it’s worth taking a closer look at Race to the Top’s results. When you do, the scorecard changes considerably.

The Race to the Top was good for education reform. But the 2010 election, it turns out, was much, much better.

Ponder: Did the 2009–10 period, in which states were competing for Race to the Top funds, see the most reforms ever enacted? No. That distinction belongs to 2011, after the 2010 midterm elections swept historic Republican majorities into office in state after state.

Start with teacher evaluations . In 2009, no state specified ineffectiveness as grounds for the dismissal of a teacher (incredible but true!). By 2010—in part because of Race to the Top—four states did (Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island). But in 2011—after the main Race to the Top competition was long past—eleven states joined the

» Continued

Republicans for Education Reform

The Gadfly Daily’s week in review

yes The Education Gadfly / February 18, 2012

Here’s your weekly look around at all the great commentary on the Gadfly Daily’s blogs:

• Terry Ryan broke down the flaws in Diane Ravitch’s criticism of the Cleveland mayor’s education reform plan on the Ohio Gadfly Daily, and a Chicago charter school network under fire for fining its students isn’t all that out of the ordinary, argued Adam Emerson on the Choice Words blog.

• On the Common Core Watch blog, Kathleen Porter-Magee observed that the advice on Common Core implementation just keeps getting worse, while Peter Meyer pointed out on Board's Eye View that the “poverty myth” in education just won’t go away.

• On Stretching the School Dollar, Chris Tessone highlighted a promising school finance plan in Utah that would tie dollars to students, not schools. Over on Flypaper, Checker Finn noted that business leaders are lining up for yesterday’s reform agenda, while Mike wondered if ESEA waivers are really worth the trouble for most states.

To have all the content from the Fordham Institute’s blogs delivered right to your inbox, simply subscribe to the combined RSS feed.

» Continued

The Gadfly Daily’s week in review

The Buckeye State has been busy

yes The Education Gadfly / February 16, 2012

Fordham's Ohio team posted to two can't-miss items this morning. First, Terry Ryan penned a strong rebuke of Diane Ravitch's scathing take on Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's promising plan to reform the city's schools. As Terry writes,

What Diane calls an attack on teachers is actually an honorable response to a brutally tough dilemma facing a city that has to shrink its overall number of schools and teachers. Mayor Jackson's plan is an honest effort to do this in a way that will result in fewer, but better, schools. It is in fact a brave effort to try and make the best of a truly difficult situation.

The Buckeye State office followed that up by posting video from yesterday's fascinating discussion in Columbus on the challenges and opportunities of Common Core implementation. Below you can stream Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner and Achieve, Inc. President Michael Cohen on this crucial topic.

» Continued

The Buckeye State has been busy

Obama’s education record

yes Michael J. Petrilli / February 15, 2012

Ty Eberhardt and I have a new feature article in Education Next looking at President Obama’s first three years in office that’s worth checking out. We conclude:

Obama and Duncan have been good on education reform, certainly better than any of their Democratic predecessors. But to ignore the shortcomings of the president’s K–12 education-reform record entirely would be a mistake, we think. And it would also be bad for the country. The administration deserves to be pressed on the cost-effectiveness of its education system bailouts, on the results of its Race to the Top initiative, and on the wisdom of its approach to federalism and separation of powers. Education may not play a major role in the 2012 election, but that doesn’t mean that Obama’s education policies should be given a pass.

Read the whole thing here.

» Continued

Obama’s education record