Education Next – Martin West

“Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a new Education Next study showing that, at least in New York City, attending a standalone middle school rather than a K-8 school has a big negative impact on student achievement and attendance rates. “(more)

The New York Times – Winnie Hu

“In 2002, the 2,800-student district in Nassau County became the only one of more than 700 districts in New York to be placed under state control. In the years since, Roosevelt’s problems have persisted despite a succession of state-appointed superintendents and hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid for improvements, including new buildings. …But lately there have been glimmers of hope.”(more)

The New York Times – Winnie Hu

““D’s are simply not useful in society,” said Larrie Reynolds, the Mount Olive superintendent, who led the campaign against D’s as a way to raise the bar and motivate students to work harder. “It’s a throwaway grade. No one wants to hire a D-anything, so why would we have D-students and give them credit for it?””(more)

New York Times – Gretchen Morgenson

“In the spring of 2008, the Denver public school system needed to plug a $400 million hole in its pension fund. Bankers at JPMorgan Chase offered what seemed to be a perfect solution.”(more)

The New York Times – Sharon Otterman and Robert Gebeloff

“There were large drops in passing rates across New York, reflecting new requirements intended to correct for years of inflated results. The exams, state education officials said, had become too easy to pass, their definition of proficiency no longer meaningful. Citywide, the proficiency rate in English fell to 42 percent, from 69 percent last year; 54 percent reached grade level in math, down from 82 percent.”(more)

The Wall Street Journal – Barbara Martinez

“Erasing years of academic progress, state education officials on Wednesday acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of children had been misled into believing they were proficient in English and math, when in fact they were not. The bar for what it means to be “proficient” has now been set substantially higher.”(more)

The Wall Street Journal – Aaron Rutkoff

“It’s been one day since New York state raised its standards for proficiency in reading and math, reversing years of evident progress for New York City students on standardized tests. Response to the news from education observers and pundits has been pretty grim.”(more)

The New York Times – Sharon Otterman

“But on Wednesday, the veil was lifted with the release of 2010 test results that state officials said was a more accurate picture of students’ abilities, and experts and educators were left to wonder exactly how much the city’s schools had improved during the last decade.”(more)

The New York Times – Nicholas Confessore

“Mr. Simons’s role has raised hackles among some lawmakers opposed to the plan, which would let SUNY campuses raise tuition without legislative approval and give them more latitude to enter into partnerships with private-sector firms.”(more)

Education Next – Paul E. Peterson

“After all that sophisticated criticism of the replacement of large schools with smaller ones, it comes as a total shock to learn that students are more likely to graduate from high school in New York City if they attended one of the small high schools. Sixty-nine percent of those who went to a small high school graduated from high school four years later, as compared to just 62 percent of those who did not. Those still in their sophomore and junior years were earning more credits toward graduation, giving hope that the success of the first cohort of students will be repeated by subsequent ones.”(more)