urban ed

New York City Department Of Education Responds

"It's not fair to put complaints about the non-school-related elements of NYC’s multi-pronged anti-poverty program, OpportunityNYC, on Roland Fryer. The New York Mag story you link to is mostly...

Two Setbacks For NYC "Incentives" Initiative Guru Roland Fryer

First, New York magazine revealed that the controversial new program to "incentivize" low-income families with financial rewards may not have dramatic effects because it didn't seek out those...

How Cash Incentives Really Work

Perhaps the most overlooked article of the week is this one from New York magazine (Can Cash Incentives Pull a Poor Family Out of Poverty?) looking into the prospects of success for New York's...

A "National" Test For Urban Districts

Sick of being told that scores are going up when you think they're really not? Well the cat is soon out of the bag, for 11 big urban districts at least (Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Charlotte,...

Unionized Charter Schools Headed East

On Friday, New York state officials approved Green Dot, a unionized charter school model from LA, to open in the South Bronx of New York City in partnership with the teachers union there. There are...

No "Marshall Law" For DC Public Schools, Says Millot

Conventional wisdom is that Michelle Rhee in DC needs, well, whatever she wants, in order to get the DC schools turned around. Power to fire folks? Sure. Shifting district staff to state (?)...

Former City Police Chief Takes Over School Security

Remember the New Orleans police chief during and after Katrina? Well that guy is now running security for the NOLA recovery district, trying to improve a security system that was reported to be...

"Grow Your Own" Teachers -- And Recruits?

Chicago has a newish "grow your own" teachers initiative, as well as the nation's largest set of military-themed schools: Grow Your Own Teachers US News & World Report Tired of seeing...

Evil Geniuses At Top Universities Want Your Schools

There's a big article in this week's EdWeek about universities' increasing efforts at school reform, focusing on the University of Chicago which currently runs several charter schools on Chicago's...

Hijinks & Disappointments For Prizewinning School District

One particularly waggish friend asked me earlier today whether Eli Broad had toured New York City's infamous "rubber rooms" before giving the city its prize for urban school reform. I'm guessing...