The Common Core State Standards are causing major discontent across the ideological spectrum. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has joined groups like the Republican National Committee, the American Association of Christian Schools, the Home School Legal Defense Association, Tea Party groups, public policy organizations, and parents across the country …
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), proposed a “bar exam” for public-school teachers in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. Modeled after the bar exam for aspiring lawyers, the new test would be intended to produce highly effective teachers. But it would do nothing of …
You may have heard: Chicago teachers are on strike. Some facts you may not have seen (unless, of course, you’ve been reading the Foundry): the average Chicago teacher makes $71,000 a year before benefits. That’s $24,000 more than the average Chicago resident, and second only to New York City in teachers’ …
A major state-level teachers union accused a group promoting school choice for African-American families of supporting the notorious white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan in a series of statements on Thursday. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers accused the Louisiana Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) of advancing a “pro-KKK …
Michelle Rhee’s tenure as D.C. Schools Chancellor ends Monday. In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, she and Mayor Adrian Fenty published an “Education Manifesto” summarizing their reform legacy and the breakthrough they hope it represents for other troubled school systems. Their rallying cry: Education policy should serve the needs of children, …
Waiting for Superman has left moviegoers rightfully outraged at the state of America’s education system. It’s an accurate portrayal. In many of the nation’s largest cities, fewer than half of all children graduate high school. Academic achievement and graduation rates have largely stagnated since the 1970s while countries around the …
NBC News is on Day Two of its week-long series Education Nation. You cannot turn on any of the NBC family of networks (MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, A&E, Telemundo, etc.) without seeing Education Secretary Arne Duncan, or some Obama administration surrogate, flacking for the President’s education agenda. There are plenty of …
Soon after taking office in 2007, Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty took over the D.C. Public School System. In short order, he appointed Michelle Rhee as Chancellor of the underperforming, unsafe, and neglected school district. Rhee was viewed from the beginning as a force capable of improving a school system …
Yesterday, members of Congress released the text of their $446.8 billion spending measure – the Omnibus Appropriations bill – which will likely be enacted before December 18. To the dismay of low-income parents in the District of Columbia, the omnibus also contains language seriously jeopardizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program …
