DFER News Roundup 08.23.2013

Blogs, Letters & Testimonials

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August 23, 2013

DFER News Roundup

What’s better than Ben Affleck as the new Batman? The DFER News Roundup!

By Devin Boyle, Director of Communications, and Stephanie Doctrow, Communications Coordinator and Web Editor

DFER Seen & Heard:

  • DFER’s Joe Williams and National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President Nina Rees wrote an op-ed in support of a Kentucky public charter school law for the Louisville Courier-Journal. (It also gets a mention in EdWeek.) 
  • Charles Barone tells Joy Resmovits of the Huffington Post, “Kentucky is pretty ripe as a state that can benefit from a charter school law.” 
  • DFER cohosted an event on charter schools with the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools and the Black Alliance for Education Outcomes in Louisville, Ky. Check out NAPCS’ collection of the best soundbites. 
  • DFER-NJ’s Kathleen Nugent says the nomination of ed reformer Paymon Rouhanifard as Camden Public Schools Superintendent is “a significant win for the students, families, educators, and stakeholders of the city.” (NJ Left Behind) 
  • Williams, on NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legacy: “There are WAY more good choices for families today than when he first took office.” (US News & World Report)
  • Williams, on the NYC mayoral race: “I don’t hear anyone talking about great teachers and great schools. I hear them talking about Bloomberg, and it has become irrelevant at this point.” (City Limits) 

Advocacy, Policy Briefs & Such:

  • Statement | DFER Applauds Nomination of New Superintendent of Camden Public Schools, Paymon Rouhanifard 
  • Statement | DFER Supports Tennessee Teacher Licensure Reform 
  • Statement | DFER Congratulates Booker on Win in NJ Senate Primary
  • Release | Ahead of Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Democratic primary victory, a poll revealed that 8 out of 10 NJ Democrats say Booker’s support for education reform makes him a good choice for U.S. Senate. 

DFER Blog:

  • Giandomenico writes, “For any concerned individual or organization, tracking state work under waivers is a nightmare, and it’s difficult to believe that the Department of Education itself is faring any better with its limited manpower and recurring furloughs.” 
  • Policy analyst Mina White discusses teacher satisfaction.   
  • DFER-CO Advisory Board Member Van Shoales welcomes DFER-CO’s first full-time executive director, Jennifer Walmer. 

In Related News:

  • According to Phi Delta Kappa’s new poll, 68% of Americans favor the idea of public charter schools and 67% support new public charters in their communities. 
  • POLITICO’s Stephanie Simon gives an excellent overview of three recent polls on education reform. 
  • The Obama Administration approved Pennsylvania for an NCLB waiver this week. 
  • NYCAN executive director Julie Marlette argues that big drops in test scores can lead to real gains in schools. (Syracuse.com) 
  • TFER’s Mac LeBuhn, on the recent AP-NORC poll: “The results underscore the difference between the issues raised by education policy folks and the issues that are most important to parents with students actually attending school.” 
  • The Tacoma News Tribune’s Peter Callaghan writes, “When it comes to education reform, Washington state lives by this guiding principle: Anything worth doing is worth doing as sloooooowly as possible.”
  • The Tampa Bay Times’ Kathleen McGrory writes, “Common Core curriculum standards spark political firestorm.”
  • The New York Times’ Bill Keller: “Core is not an attempt to pack kids’ heads with an officially sanctioned list of facts, but to assure that they are able to read a complicated text and understand it, to recognize a problem and know how to solve it.”
  • The Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie Banchero writes, “Tennessee to join three other states in yanking privileges based on student scores.” 
  • According to a recent AP-NORC poll, 61% of parents think their children take an appropriate number of standardized tests.
  • The Washington Post’s Michael Alison Chandler reports that Head Start eliminated services to 57,000 children in the U.S. as a result of the sequester. 
  • Donna Gordon Blankinship writes for the Associated Press, “3 states, including Washington, get federal warning on teacher evaluation.” 
  • Kentucky teacher Krystal Doolin: “If you teach the way we’ve taught for years and years, basically we’re robbing our kids of the future.” (New York Times)    
  • According to a Vanderbilt University professor, readers develop best when faced with a combination of paper-based and online reading materials.
  • Education Reform Now’s Elizabeth Ling writes for the Albany Times Union, “Continuing Common Core is crucial to students’ futures.”
  • TNTP released a new report, “Perspectives of Irreplacable Teachers.”  
  • Caitlin Emma writes for POLITICO, “Obama administration presses forward on early education.” 
  • This year’s Common Core-aligned proficiency tests showed that, despite the new standards, NYC students performed higher than students in other large urban districts in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.    
  • The New York Times’ Javier Hernandez writes, “Mayoral candidates see Cincinnati as a model for New York schools.” 

Fun With Infographics & More: