Margaret Spellings Walks into a Bar
Okay, Alexander Russo: I’ll bite on Susan Ohanian‘s request for a punch line. Margaret Spellings walked into a bar. Barkeep sighed with relief. “At least she’s not going to give another speech about ‘razing the bar.’”
YackPack
Practical question to my 2.71828183… readers: has anyone used YackPack for classwork? I’m realizing that for the first time in 5 years, I’ll be teaching a course distance-learning without live chats, or at least without having to wrench each week upside down for students or me in doing so. Our LMS (Blackboard) doesn’t even have […]
New Swanson CPI numbers: still flawed
The new Ed Week graduation numbers are out, based on 2003 and 2004 Common Core of Data figures. Among the 50 largest district, the lowest Swanson CPI (cohort progression index) in the nation is still Detroit with 24.9%. And the CPI is still flawed, partly because it relies on the unaudited Common Core of Data figures. As I […]
Listen to chatting on the Gadfly podcast, but skip the singing
With a batch of driving stints this week to Florida Education Association meetings 30 minutes from home, I’ve caught up on the Education Gadfly podcast (feed). They have a new opening song (a rap), which I can definitely confirm was not performed by Mike Petrilli or Rick Hess, after hearing both of them attempt to croon on […]
National Standards as Policy Machismo
Alexander Russo and I agree on National (Yawn) Standards (Again) (his title), regarding last week’s CEP report on state proficiency percentage trends and the NCES comparison of state proficiency cut-scores and NAEP cut-scores and also the double-report week’s politics. In a different way, I also agree with U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in her […]