"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, January 28, 2011

Weekend Reading

New: Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy Among New York City Charter Schools by Bruce Baker and Richard Ferris is a must-read.

The Department of Ed launched an education dashboard earlier this week. The DOE will soon be unveiling another tool to track school improvement grants.

Russo makes a few interesting points about progressives resisting education reform. One might fairly answer that there are alternatives out there, but they are not supported by the current administration nor pushed through big screen/TV exposure. There are active Twitter discussions about genuine progressive education reform and a variety of blogs out there (Cooperative Catalyst, for instance), but these outlets aren't wonkish and policy-focused like the well-funded think tanks that tend to dominate education policy circles.

Speaking of progressives, Cornel West responds to Obama's STOU address on the Smiley & West show. George Lakoff over at TruthOut asks how Obama's focus on competitiveness fits (or doesn't fit) with a progressive agenda. With George Will calling Duncan this administrations "redeeming feature" and Petrilli praising the "new 'Washington Consensus,'" real progressives should be wary of possible edu-bedmates.

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