FCAT data released
The Florida Department of Education released another year’s batch of FCAT scores. Reporters will rush to the media packet to mine it for details. Page 36 will get some attention, as it shows that a lower proportion of 10th graders have been passing the reading section of the FCAT (for graduation purposes) in the last […]
On NCLB and goals
It is a frequent criticism of the No Child Left Behind Act that a goal of 100% of students’ reaching proficiency in reading and math is unattainable (new link—11:30 am). The counterargument is that unattainable goals are nonetheless useful. In 2014, no matter what the achievement of the country’s students, there will be defenders of […]
Shameful principal priorities
Someone who wants to see the incredibly high priorities that some principals still have for their teacher recruitment should look at the list of openings and job descriptions for the high school that is the closest to my home. There are nine openings listed this evening. How many of them do you think have, as […]
Stupid bureaucratese of the week
Via Elsa Haas on a listserv and Judy Rabin comes news of a Staten Island school that is demanding the parents of a multiracial child pick one of the OMB’s 5 racial/ethnicity categories*, or the parents won’t get her kindergarten school report. (*—the ‘canonical’ five categories derive from a 1970s-era directive of that federal bureau […]
The Hamilton Project and education
A brief observation on political positioning: It’s sort of about the substance. The aggregation of the new Hamilton Project is a case in point. Headlined by Richard Rubin and headed by Peter Orszag (the Brookings fellow who neatly dissembled Bush’s Social Security plans), the project promises to lay out policies in a variety of areas […]