Washington, DC: Free global mathematics education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

See: http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-dc/

Austin: Free global mathematics education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

See http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-austin/

Massachusetts: Free global math education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-massachusetts/

National Mathematics Advisory Panel final report released

We congratulate our American sub-team members and friends Richard Askey, Karen Fuson, Roger Howe, LiPing Ma, R. James Milgram, and Wilfried Schmid on their Panel contributions.

http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/index.html

“Mathematically gifted students with sufficient motivation appear to be able to learn mathematics much faster than students proceeding through the curriculum at a normal pace, with no harm to their learning, and should be allowed to do so.”

Old-system NCLB being watered down

Our comment: Another end-of-era tug-of-war. From now on performance will be measured per teacher, not per school, and students and parents will be the ones choosing who gets to teach what.

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U.S. Eases ‘No Child’ Law as Applied to Some States

By SAM DILLON

Published: March 19, 2008

www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/us/19child.html

Washington, DC: towards student-demand-driven teacher allocation

A Contract for Change

Reform of D.C. schools hinges on new teacher rules

Washington Post editorial | Friday, February 22, 2008

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022201961.html

Rules that put the interests of teachers ahead of the educational needs of children must be changed if Ms. Rhee is to succeed in transforming the system. …

New Republic covering Obama and charter schools and vouchers and the new generation of teachers – but not the biggest picture

Our comment: but “even” this article fails to mention that teacher salaries – and teacher employment – from now on will be rapidly increasingly based on demand from students and their parents – again based on web-based rankings of thousand and thousands of teachers all over the world. What we are witnessing now are the final spasms of a 200-year education system era.

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Reform School

The education (on education) of Barack Obama.

Josh Patashnik, The New Republic Published: Wednesday, March 26, 2008

http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=df590bb6-b976-4ea0-9df4-c82be67aa73e&p=2

Washington D.C. area: performance pay for teachers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030401239_pf.html

Pilot Plan for Incentive Pay Unveiled

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; B05

Prince George’s County education and labor leaders unveiled a much-anticipated pilot program yesterday that will offer teachers and administrators at 12 schools incentive pay for good performance.

Los Angeles: Free global math education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-los-angeles/

New York City: Free global math education for one Grade 6-entering student at every middle school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-new-york-city/

San Francisco Bay Area: Free global math education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-san-francisco-bay-area/

On the accomplishments of Bloomberg and Klein: Whitney Tilson’s letter to Education Next

March 3, 2008

 

To Education Next:

 

As someone who has both observed and been deeply involved with efforts to improve public schools in New York City, I read “New York City’s Education Battles” with great interest. Overall, I thought it was an excellent article that fairly presented both the successes and hiccups of the reform efforts led by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein.

 

In their efforts to do what is best for children, Bloomberg and Klein have been willing to take on powerful entrenched interests that are happy with the status quo and fight to maintain it. To cite only a few examples, Bloomberg and Klein:

Arizona: Free global mathematics education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-arizona/

Finn and Petrilli: “The education of John McCain”

“The monster: We now have a federal Department of Education meddling in schools across the land. Washington bureaucrats don’t improve them but do monitor everything from teacher qualifications to reading curricula to discipline. Yet when it comes to what matters most–expectations for student learning–NCLB allows every state to grade itself, enabling most to set low standards and play games with test results.

…

When it comes to global competition, President McCain would rally U.S. workers to compete worldwide without yielding to the siren song of protectionism. But here, too, NCLB is weakening our human-capital development with its low (and uneven) standards and its neglect of high-achieving students. McCain could change this by calling on governors to develop a set of common, rigorous expectations and assessments for all young Americans from Okeechobee to Walla Walla. And he could push Congress to rewrite NCLB so it focuses not just on academic stragglers but also on our savviest youngsters, too.

…

He could give states and communities the authority to merge all their federal funds into one flexible stream (while being held to tougher, more consistent standards for student learning).

…

There are plenty of other ideas worth supporting–targeted vouchers, aid for charter schools, incentives for districts to rid themselves of restrictive union contracts, and more.

…

Happily for him, Obama’s mushy education plan and flip-flopping on merit pay and vouchers give the Arizonan plenty of room to maneuver. Like Reagan, McCain may never make education his top priority. But by picking a few key issues and using his power effectively, he just might be an education president anyhow.”

New Jersey: free global mathematics education for one Grade 6-entering student at every middle school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives-new-jersey/

Maine: free global mathematics education for one Grade 6-entering student at every school

http://globaleducationforyou.wordpress.com/mathematics-initiatives/mathematics-initiatives-maine/

“The Democrats should not be redebating NAFTA. They should be debating how to help Americans adapt to a new economy in which no job is safe.”

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

2008/02/29

Words of wisdom and courage – from the greatest President the country will never have?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/opinion/28mike.html?

I’m Not Running for President, but …

By
MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG

Published: February 28, 2008

WATCHING the 2008 presidential campaign, you sometimes get the feeling that the candidates — smart, all of them — must know better. They must know we can’t fix our economy and create jobs by isolating America from global trade. They must know that we can’t fix our immigration problems with border security alone. They must know that we can’t fix our schools without holding teachers, principals and parents accountable for results. They must know that fighting global warming is not a costless challenge. And they must know that we can’t keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals unless we crack down on the black market for them.

The vast majority of Americans know that all of this is true, but — politics being what it is — the candidates seem afraid to level with them.