The Education Sector

Updates, Analysis, and Commentary on Today's Education Issues

In the EduBlogs

Brown Out

Scott Brown, we have a problem! But it's not Scott Brown. That plus the Weingarten speech, Race to the Top, and Houston happenings on Eduwonk.

Cheater-Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Our bloggers ask, what's up with school lunches? Also, are non-elite U.S. universities—unlike their Chinese counterparts—doing enough to ensure their graduates can compete on the international stage? And, we've got a new spin on RTTT.

This Week

One of the Best Education Blogs . . .

The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss and Jay Mathews recently named The Quick and the Ed among the best education blogs for 2009. It's especially nice to earn this distinction from two reporters whose work we read daily. We thought we'd celebrate by sharing a few of our most popular blog posts from this past year. Did we miss any?

9.5 Scandal Makes Its Way to Sallie Mae

While cost and increased aid for low-income students have rightfully dominated the discussion of the proposal to end subsidies for private lenders making federal student loans, it's worth remembering that terminating the bank-based system would also help return integrity to a system with an ever-growing history of scandal and abuse. ...

The Best Interests of Teachers

It turns out that Patricia Adams was Rubber Roomed less for "seniority" than for "passing out in an alcoholic stupor in a classroom full of 34 students." After two years (paid) out of the classroom, she came back for a semester and then moved to a desk job where she was eventually found in another stupor, and fired, earlier this year. ...

College Consumerism Run Amok?

The two dirtiest words in higher education these days are "climbing" and "wall." Seriously, if you spend enough time attending conferences, reading op-eds, etc., you come to realize that climbing walls have somehow come to symbolize all that ails post-secondary education in America today. ...

The Limits of Financial Aid Policies

The halftime festivities of many big-time college basketball games feature a contest in which one student gets the opportunity to sink a half-court shot or series of shots for a chance to win a car or some other large prize. Paying off a winning prize is expensive, but the organizer doesn't really have to worry about it since the odds of success are so low. ...

Only in the Military?

A report released by the National Center of Education Statistics provides a more detailed account of states' failure to close the achievement gap between blacks and whites. ...The failure to close the achievement gap is old news. However, the report does uncover a possible solution for closing the gap at a faster pace. ...

Also From Education Sector

Making NCLB Work

In his latest column for U.S. News & World Report, Co-founder Andrew Rotherham argues for more ambitious poli­cy and political ideas in the next version of No Child Left Behind. "[It] was an important 'what' law. It forced states to specify performance goals, report data, and increase pressure for better performance. But it was a weak 'how' law, too an­chored in past approaches to federal education policy," says Rotherham.

According to Rotherham, improving the law's accountability rules, as well as investing in teacher effectiveness, and opening high quality new public schools through charter schooling and other strategies are a part of the solution. But, as important—and to move the conversation forward—policymakers must begin to change the politics around NCLB.

Quality Is Key

Last week, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a new report ranking state charter school laws. "The rankings take an important step in setting out clear quality criteria and measuring states against those standards. Moving up on the NAPCS rankings, then, isn't just about creating a bigger charter school sector, but also about creating a quality charter school sector," says Senior Policy Analyst Erin Dillon. Dillon and Co-founder Andrew Rotherham were a part of the initial working group that helped set the model charter law criteria.

Announcements

Welcome Dan and Sharon!

Two stellar college students—Dan Tsin and Sharon Miller—have joined our team for the spring semester. Tsin is a first-year graduate student at George Washington University where he's studying public policy. Prior, he worked with the staffing and recruitment teams at D.C. Public Schools. During his internship, Tsin will be working on teacher quality issues. Miller is a senior at Kent State University where she studies English and political science. She will be working on our higher education initiatives. Welcome Dan and Sharon!

I.S.O. Summer Interns

We're seeking applications for summer interns. Interns are integral to Education Sector's policy, research, and communications teams. This review from a recent intern says it all:

"I'm really not exaggerating when I say that working at Education Sector was the best internship I've ever had. The internship is very substantive, and I've gotten to learn a lot about a variety of topics in the education policy world from doing research on the job."

So come on, spend your summer in Washington! Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply now!

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