Carnival of Education #81

August 28, 2006

I failed to note earlier that the Carnival of Education 81 is up over at The Education Wonks.

Blog carnivals offer good opportunities to find blogs that provide great value, or to find blog entries which are individual gems.  When I send notices of these carnivals to other teachers, I always get thank-you notes.  It’s a cheap way to get a minor ego boost (is there any way to get those put down on the evaluation forms?).

One of the things I’m passing along to my Texas history-teaching colleagues from Carnival 81 is this post, a letter from a grandmother to a young boy, about what her schooling was like, in Texas in the 1890s.  From huffenglish.com.

Miss Gilbert's Music and Elocution Classes, 1891-92, Whitt, TX.

Students at the Parker Institute, Whitt, Texas, 1891-1892 — courtesy of huffenglish

1 Comment | Education, Education blogs, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Another report: Charter school performance lags

August 23, 2006

Gee, I wasn’t counting — is this the third report in a couple of months that notes no great improvements in performance at charter schools?

The National Center for Education Statistics released a report Tuesday showing fourth graders in public schools testing higher than fourth graders in charter schools.  According to the Los Angeles Daily News, for example:

Fourth-graders in traditional public schools did significantly better in reading and math than comparable children attending charter schools, according to a report released on Tuesday by the federal Education Department.

Other news reports:  Associated Press in the Boston Globe; Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah; Jay Matthews in the Washington Post.

Leave a Comment » | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Charter schools, Education, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Nurture a sense of outrage

August 11, 2006

I suffered through a couple of uninspiring commencement addresses in my day, and a few good ones (Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s speech at my law commencement even impressed my father, who generally regarded speeches by politicians as pure fluff).

David Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald, delivered an outrageous commencement address at Florida State University.

David Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald, delivered an outrageous commencement address at Florida State University.

Even the good ones generally fall back into platitudinous depths, reminding graduates of the great potential they have to do good . . .

“Be outraged that our great country can figure out how to invest $5 billion dollars every month to try to bring democracy to Iraq, and yet we live in a nation where more than 12 million children live in the full definition of poverty.”

This commencement address popped up in some search or other. If Howard Beale is platitudinous, this is full of platitudes. Sadly, most Americans haven’t a clue who Howard Beale was, or why they should care. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education spending, No Child Left Behind Act | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

NCLB progress in Alabama

August 8, 2006

An editorial in Alabama’s Montgomery Advertiser commends progress in Alabama schools toward achieving standards under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Alabama public schools made huge strides toward meeting national No Child Left Behind accountability standards, with 1,194 of the state’s 1,364 schools making “Adequate Yearly Progress” toward a goal of having every child in the state and in the nation performing at proficiency levels in reading and math by 2014.

That’s 87.5%.

1 Comment | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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