Department of Education

Let's Get Creative: Why Not Ask Bill Gates to be Secretary of Education?

Paul Abrams | Posted 11.08.2008 | Politics

Read More: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Department of Education, Secretary of Education, Barack Obama, Obama's Cabinet, Obama Cabinet, Politics News

Bill Gates is not considered partisan nor ideological nor beholden to any interest group, so it would difficult to deny his proposals by raising suspicions on any of those grounds.

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Candidates Agree On Education Goals, Differ On Path To Get There

Richard Riehl | Posted 09.26.2008 | Home

Read More: Public Schools, Department of Education, Education, Education Policy, No Child Left Behind, Homeschooling, Head Start, Election 2008, Accountability, Barack Obama, John McCain, Parental Involvement, Home News

Obama goes into great detail about how to improve schools. McCain's message is much simpler. Public schools should be just one option of many, including home schooling.

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Is Reading First a Flop?

Gerald Bracey | Posted 05.07.2008 | Living

Read More: No Child Left Behind, Reading First, Department of Education, Education Reform, Living News

On a measure of reading comprehension, Reading First students didn't do any better than students in similar schools without the program. How come?

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School Accountability: NYC Sets the Tone, For Better or Worse

Dan Brown | Posted 03.18.2008 | Politics

Read More: No Child Left Behind, New York City Public Schools, Education, Department of Education, Randi Weingarten, United Federation of Teachers, Michael Bloomberg, Nclb, Joel Klein, Standardized Testing, School Accountability, Uft, High-Stakes Testing, Teachers, Public Education, New York City Education, Politics News

Life and education are too complicated for single letter grades. A smarter, nuanced alternative is within New York's grasp.

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School-Level Cuts Hit New York City; Why, Bloomberg, Why???

Dan Brown | Posted 02.11.2008 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Education, Principal, Department of Education, New York Daily News, Randi Weingarten, Budget Cuts, United Federation of Teachers, Michael Bloomberg, School Reform, Joel Klein, Uft, New York Times, Teachers Union, New York City, Tweed, Politics News

This is not about keeping a stock's price afloat; you are cutting kids' after-school programs, guidance counselors, smaller classes, computers. Erasing these entities will incontrovertibly have an effect, and a terrible one at that.

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The U.S Department of Education: Awash in Earmarks

Gerald Bracey | Posted 01.11.2008 | Politics

Read More: Waste, Department of Education, Inefficiency, Earmarks, Legislation, Education, Politics News

While tracking down some details of the Dept. of Education's Inspector General's investigation of the Reading First debacle, I happened also on to his inspection of its earmarks.

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Is U.S. Education Better Than Ever?

Diane Ravitch | Posted 12.05.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, Education, David Kearns, Department of Education, Gerald Bracey, Public Education Reform, PISA, Schools, Public Education, Sandia Report, Politics News

What was the Sandia report and why does it matter? And how did I allegedly conspire to "suppress" it?

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Literacy

Gerald Bracey | Posted 12.04.2007 | Politics

Read More: PIRLS, Race Gap, Education, Department of Education, No Child Left Behind, Education Gap, Margaret Spellings, Public Education, Nclb, Naep, Global Competitiveness Report, Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, World Economic Forum, Politics News

Is the sound you just heard the Department of Education building a massive wall against reality? If we're making progress, how come it doesn't show up on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study?

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How to Stem the Teacher Attrition Crisis

Dan Brown | Posted 10.15.2007 | Politics

Read More: Public Schools, No Child Left Behind, Class Size, Teacher Union, Education, Department of Education, United Federation of Teachers, Nclb, City Council, Rookie Teacher, Student Loans, Teacher, New York City, Bronx, Politics News

New drafts of No Child Left Behind could contain the best ideas in education history, but they won't work in the long run unless we address the biggest crisis in our schools.

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