Costly, But Worth It by Marcus Winters

NY Times

Marcus Winters is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he has done several studies on education testing and school report cards.

Avoiding the Poverty Issue

By Paul Thomas, NY Times

Paul Thomas is an associate professor of education at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. He is writing a book on poverty in the United States. You can follow his work at Radical Scholarship and on Twitter at…

A Dangerous Obsession

NY Times

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she is co-director of the Stanford Center on Opportunity Policy in Education. She was founding director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, and she led President Obama’s…

Blaise Linn—Digital Citizenship Program, Southold High School, NY

 (from Ian Jukes website "The Committed Sardine")

Thanks to Superintendent David Gamberg for sharing this with SL 2.0's community!

Greetings, Committed Sardines! I am a student at Southold High School in Southold, New York. I am going to be writing about my school’s process as we move to implement a Digital Citizenship Contract to replace our current Internet usage policy. To do this we have formed a…

The Failure of American Schools

Tax cap will hurt public schools

May 26, 2011

 

I am dismayed and deeply disappointed at the State Assembly's proposal for a property tax cap ["Deal on property tax cap 2%," News, May 25].

Last week, voters in the Longwood community passed a budget that reflected a 3.95 percent increase in the…

Recently, Justin Hamilton, @EdPressSec on Twitter, asked folks to state what they believe regarding education policy.  No, that’s not quite right – what he actually said was this:

Specifically, he, after being a little bit mistreated by some folks who don’t understand civil dialogue, asked folks to share what they’re for, education policy-wise, as they were…

Reject the Tax Cap

NY Times Editorial - May 26, 2011

CEOs and School Leaders:

The Good Ones are More Alike than Different

 The Dim Bulb

The Occasional Musings of an Educator

by Michael Keany…

Whose Failing Grade Is It?

By LISA BELKIN

NY Times

SINCE the subject today is schooling, let’s start with a quiz:

1. A third grader in Florida is often late for class. She tends to forget her homework and is unprepared for tests. The teacher would like to talk to her…

Bixhorn: LI voted to protect its schools

 Newsday

May 19, 2011 by GARY D. BIXHORN Gary D. Bixhorn is the chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

Long Islanders have again stared down tough economic conditions and voted to increase their already excessive property tax burden to…

COMMENTARY

Principal Preparation: Moving Beyond Assessment

By Ann Hassenpflug

Increasingly, principal-preparation programs are getting the national scrutiny that has been focused on teacher education for some time.

Today, many principal-training programs run by public and private higher education institutions have been modified to align them with national standards from the Educational Leadership Constituent Council, or ELCC. To receive…

Editorial: 40% for tests adds up right

Originally published: May 17, 2011 6:27 PM

Updated: May 17, 2011 8:15 PM

Newsday

Something shocking happened among New York's custodians of public education on Monday. For a fleeting moment, common sense prevailed.

Under intense pressure from Gov. …

Tilles: Don't grade teachers on test scores

May 16, 2011 by ROGER TILLES /Newsday

Roger Tilles is Long Island's representative on the New York State Board of Regents.

Last summer, legislation based on the federal Race to the Top program was passed in Albany to create an accurate system of evaluating teachers and principals. Yesterday, the question before the Board of Regents was whether the proposed system would actually achieve that goal. I…

In Praise of Principals (in Hard Times)

By Elena Aguilar

TLN

For the last few years, I have worked as a school leadership coach in Oakland, Calif. Primarily, I support principals to develop their capacities—work that gives me a wide-angle view on the daily lives of our public school leaders. I have long recognized that principals’ jobs are challenging, but this year I have seen Oakland’s principals rise to tackle a new array of difficulties. As 2011…

Teaching Secrets: The Last Day of School

It's that time of year again—the last few weeks of school. Many of us work hard at plans to keep students engaged during this time but, at least in my experience, far fewer have a well-considered plan for the last day of school.

This final day together can be an important time for both the students and the teacher. It's a time to reflect, to celebrate, to…