More Math Education, Less Self Esteem Training

  Finances. If you’ve ever struggled with your tax return, wondered how interest rates could stay so low, or tried to explain why raising taxes on employers is actually not conducive to job creation…. We need solid math education now more than ever. We are no longer an agrarian nation yet we teach math like …

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Laffer’s Laughing

Arthur Laffer recently offered his thoughts on the Unemployment Benefits in the Wall Street Journal opinion pages…. What kept coming to mind is, how are we even having this conversation? And by conversation I mean, how can we look at the empirical evidence concerning unemployment benefits and still somehow draw the conclusion that extending them …

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Frenchonomics

I can’t even make this up . . . Students in France are protesting again. A few years ago they protested AGAINST lowering the bar for employers to be able to hire students. Employers wanted to be able to pay less experienced people a lower rate. The minimum benefits an employer has to set aside …

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Education Issues: Peer Effects?

The gadflies at Fordham are stirring the pot again. Mike Petrilli takes issue with a recent statement from Kevin Welner, “(Tracking student progress) is a destructive practice that has the undeniable effect of lowering expectations and opportunities for students who have already fallen behind.” As far as Mr. Welner is concerned the debate is ideasclosed….

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Education Issues: Cuts to Classtime is Unacceptable Way to Cut Costs

Reprint in full from education.change.org >>>>>> One of the highest ranking education officials in America has told Hawaii they’re going in the wrong direction by reducing the number of school days, and that the state and union need to put their personal agendas aside to help their students. Peter Cunningham, the assistant secretary for communications …

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Education Issues: Calling Out Bill Gates on Treating Schools Like Corporations

Now they’re eating their own! Mike Smith at Change.org skewers Bill Gates’ plan to provide $200 Million annually to schools willing to take on his ideas for reform. Apparently the idea of basing teacher pay on student test score performance is untenable. What I keep circling back to is this, if we are not to …

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Education Stimulus Money Establishes Test Standards, Can’t Fix Test Problems

One-hundred billion dollars of stimulus money is beginning to go into education, prompting states to track students progress more closely, use more rigorous tests, and generally embrace the Obama administration’s reforms. These changes in federal education policy is explained in a report by the Center on Education Policy who are working to understand what the impact of stimulus funds, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

They explain that “the stimulus dollars, in a time of economic challenges, mean that the federal government is poised to play a far greater role in driving education reforms.” YOWZA!

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Frightening: Arne Duncan Say Principals Must Act Like CEOs

 

Ran across this article this morning . . . in which the author complains that pushing principals to be like CEOs will single handedly destroy education. Hey buddy, we’re already there.

More telling is the vitriol for CEOs. Are all CEOs bad? Really? I missed that. Indeed, anyone familiar with local Education (2)businesses has met plenty of very, very good CEOs. CEOs who care passionately about their companies, their people and their communities. The defeatist mentality of all-business-people-are-bad is exactly what gets us into debates that reduce to screaming matches. There’s no reasonable conversation possible if you believe the other side is pure evil. Article follows…

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How to Fix Education — the Greatest National Security Crisis

 

Why is it so hard to bring quality leadership to the table in education? Surely we have a decent mix of men and women who have served both in the business world and the education field? But do we have enough to make a difference?

I am a huge proponent of speak softly and carry a big stick . . . but what do you do when the population can’t figure out what a stick is? “The greatest national security crisis in the United States is the crisis in education,” those are the words of Bob Herbert in the New York Times. He’s right on with his call for exactly the sort of leadership that is currently lacking in education: a cross section of skills — not principals that exclusively come from a business background (as we reported recently), and not those coming from traditional schools of education who then lack the necessary business acumen to lead and efficiently manage their school or district.

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