Morning Shots

(Ongoing updates throughout the day – as technology allows – after the jump…)

8:25AM-
Good morning! Sorry for the delay…

We’re back. Check out all the live coverage across our sites:
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Right here on Edspresso

12:00PM-
Random notes from form the ‘Job One’ panel at Education Nation:
Preparing America’s students to compete in the global economy

- Hosted by Maria Bartiromo

- After spouting a depressingly honest list of the proficiency levels and global rankings of U.S. students, Sally Ride: “This is not the ‘We’re number one!” (America) is used to…”

- Sally Ride: Our K-12 system is ailing our students, failing corporate America

- David Coleman: (speaking scientifically), All things being equal, there are great differences between teachers. We must be vigilent in rewarding great teachers and shielding kids from those who fail.

- Craig Barrett: On schools of education: Get someone with content expertise in the classroom. We have schools of education with dumbed down math standards. Start w/ content knowledge then add pedegogy.

- Craig Barrett: We’ve been talking about (the education crisis) for decades. After A Nation at Risk, multiple governors’ meetings, Gathering Storm 1 and 2, I am looking for action. I am not looking for words.

- Sally Ride: One of the advantages of technology is the collection of data to see what is working for students so that districts can focus on those programs and teachers making a difference, and to see where both are lacking.

- Dick Parsons: I ran a bank and we could not place high school grads as tellers because they could not make change or communicate with customers…

- Craig Barrett: When asked by Intel to take a course on incorporating tech in the classroom,the  general response form U.S. teachers was “How much

Read More …

(originally posted on Politico‘s The Arena blog)

Unpopular positions? Tough love? The teachers unions want you to believe they are being punished by the president’s policies. It makes for great copy and provides cover for both the unions and the Education Department as they manipulate Capitol Hill for a second multi-billion dollar bailout. But the truth is, it’s all in the family.

The administration’s education policy, including the “Race to the Top” initiative, has been easy on unions and their members. States have received money for saying they are going to factor performance into evaluations, when in reality to make meaningful performance pay work, you must either require performance to trump local union contract provisions or change the contract itself. Additionally, districts have been paid money for saying they will turn around failing schools. No one in the status quo is hurting or being forced to change very much because of what the president is saying. The talk is good and strengthens reformers’ hands, but the teachers unions won’t feel any discomfort until someone or something cuts into the lock they have on how schools operate and how policy is crafted.

Read the entire post over at The Arena…

There is no more dedicated charter school foe than Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia. For years, they have targeted Ivy Preparatory Academy, a unique all-girls school in Norcross educating more than 300 students.

First they denied Ivy its charter. Then they fought the state board which overruled their rejection. Then they fought the constitutionality of the state board. Then they cried foul over a funding allocation process they say robs their kids of a quality education. That’s a lot of billable hours, no matter how you look at it. No big loss for a district with a $2 billion + annual budget, I guess.

But in this battle, David just keeps getting one up on Goliath. On the latest round of state tests, every girl at Ivy Prep passed the reading and language exams. To add a cherry on top of that, no traditional public school in Gwinnett County had multiple grade levels ace the tests, but its other charter school, New Life Academy of Excellence, did.