Thomas Fordham Foundation
Executive Vice President for National Programs and Policy at the Fordham Institute, a think-tank focused on K-12 education policy; author of No Child Left Behind and The Diverse Schools Dilemma: A Parent's Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools
Where Have All the Teachers Gone? As the new school year gets under way all over the country, the New York Times is reporting “a stark about-face from just a few years ago.” School districts that were handing out pink slips are now scrambling to hire teachers—and many are having trouble staffing their classrooms. Explanations differ. There’s bad-mouthing and micro-management by school reformers. There’s low pay, job insecurity and… better options.
Common Core: The Obamacare of the Classroom? Common Core standards for math and reading were adopted by 45 governors, but they’ve since become a political football. Anne Hyslop is a policy analyst at the non-profit Bellwether Education Partners who’s been tracking the backlash for foundations, school districts and other interested parties. Florida’s former Governor Jeb Bush is one potential Republican candidate who has not backed down on support for Common Core. Here’s an apparent challenge from Texas Senator Ted Cruz: "If you say you oppose Common Core, show me where you where you stood up and fought." Meanwhile, Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich is a full-throated supporter of Common Core: "Barack Obama doesn't set it, the state of Ohio doesn't set it. It is local school boards driving better education, higher standards, created by local school boards... Part of the problem is today politicians are running to try and to get votes." Jeannie Metcalf is a 20 year veteran of the school board in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She’s also co-chair of a commission created by the state legislature to “review and replace” Common Core.
Is Public Education Too Soft on American Students? " Common Core " is the new public school standards initiative requiring analytical skills with tough math problems and in-depth essays. It was devised by a committee appointed by the National Governors Association, and since 2010 it's been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Full implementation is planned for next year, but in many places it's already under way, with full implementation planned for next year. But an angry backlash has been developing from both Tea Partiers and progressives. Abysmally low scores on rigorous new tests have shocked teachers, parents and their children from New York to Kentucky. Some states want to abandon ship. What's the role of the Obama Administration? What about Bill Gates and other wealthy advocates of education reform?
Is High-Stakes Testing the Ruin of School Reform? In Atlanta, 35 teachers and administrators were indicted this week for conspiring to raise student scores on standardized tests. In El Paso, a former superintendent’s in prison for putting kids in the wrong grade, pushing them out of school or preventing them from enrolling—so that test scores would meet high standards of accountability. Texas spends more on standardized testing than any other state. It’s where George W. Bush got the idea for “No Child Left Behind,” which evolved into “Race to the Top” under Barack Obama.
A Downtown Charter and the 'Diverse Schools Dilemma' LA Unified has more charter schools than any other school district in the United States — with 15 percent of the student population. Now the elected board has approved yet another charter in downtown LA. KCRW's Anna Scott has the story.
Is 'Race to the Top' Producing Education Reform? On Monday, 18 states and the District of Colombia were named finalists in Round Two of the Obama Administration's " Race to the Top " in education. But yesterday, the President was defending against attacks from an unlikely source: civil rights groups concerned about the emphasis on competition. Teachers and some union leaders have also complained about efforts to hold them accountable for their students' performance. The $4.3 billion program is less than 1% of what's spent every year on K-12 education. Can it give states the help they need to prepare kids for the global economy? We talk with the head of the Race to the Top Fund and others.
Grading No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to level the playing field by providing an equal education for all kids no matter their backgrounds or where they lived. Accountability is supposed to come from tests in reading and math, with the threat of sanctions against schools where scores don't improve. We assess NCLB's pros and cons, hear whether testing become the end of instead of the beginning of quality education, and learn whether education will be a defining issue in the 2008 presidential election.
A call to prepare for the next natural disaster A local environmentalist says we should spend more time and money preparing for natural disasters than responding to them. A Ventura resident who lost his home in the Thomas Fire says rebuilding is taking longer than he’d hoped. Local animal shelters are becoming critical evacuation centers. And California counties must now hold public meetings on their relationship with federal immigration agents.
Despite evacuation orders, some Malibu residents 'stay and defend' homes The Woolsey Fire destroyed 670 structures in Malibu, including more than 400 single family homes. That makes it the most destructive fire in the history of that beachside community. But some residents say even more homes would have been lost, if not for the private citizens who defied mandatory evacuation orders to protect their neighborhoods. The homeowners who stay during a fire can be a nuisance for fire fighters... but they say they're not going anywhere next time.
California Gets Back into Presidential Politics In 1972, California clinched the presidential nomination for Democrat George McGovern. Since then, the biggest state has become an ATM for candidates of both parties. But starting in 2020 all eyes will be on California as it moves its primary up to a month after the Iowa caucuses.