Briefly Noted: Everything you missed this holiday season

/ January 5, 2012

• Tucson’s controversial ethnic-studies program—does it promote the success of Latino students or promote victimhood?—may be axed, in the end. This week a judge ruled that the program was teaching Latino history and culture “in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.”
• In a biting State of the State address yesterday, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the Empire State’s 2010 teacher-evaluation legislation “didn’t work.” Where he plans to go from here is unclear.
• Here’s a novel way to save America’s urban Catholic schools (and they do need saving, as the Philly archdiocese may close a “staggering” number this spring): Turn them into football powerhouses, as one New Jersey school has done.
• The D.C. Council may need a refresher on what “college-readiness” actually means, as they consider requiring that all Washington students apply to college in order to receive a high school diploma.
• You devoured Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion, but implementing his techniques in the classroom proved more difficult than you’d anticipated. Fear not. He’s back with a “field guide” to his forty-nine teaching techniques.
Stanford > Harvard? It’s true—if you’re using Rick Hess’s 2012 ratings of education scholars as you metric; the West Coast school boasts four of the top ten edu-scholars, ranked by “[substantial contribution] to public debate.

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