Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Here are some recent good articles and posts on education policy issues:

Higher Dropout Age May Not Lead To More Diplomas is from NPR. I’m adding it to The Best Commentaries On The President’s Proposal For Students To Stay In School Until They’re Eighteen.

“Why Do Good Policy Makers Use Bad Indicators?” is by Larry Cuban. I’m adding it to The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven.”

Finland Schools’ Success Story: Lessons Shared At California Forum is from The Huffington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System.

The Illusions of School Choice is by Renee Moore.

The Ivory Castle? is from The Line. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Public Officials (& Non-Elected “Reformers) Sending Their Children To Private Schools.

‘Reformers’ playbook on failing schools fails a fact check is by Richard Rothstein. I’m adding it to The Best Articles Providing An “Overall” Perspective On Education Policy.

Getting Teacher Evaluation Right: A Background Paper for Policy Makers is by Linda Darling-Hammond and colleagues. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments.

At My “Persistently Low-Achieving” School is from Gotham Schools.

How Can Smart People Do Dumb Things? is by Larry Cuban.

I have little confidence in Bill Gates judgment on education issues, including on how to evaluate teachers. However, he did get one thing right in today’s guest column in The New York Times, which is headlined “Shame Is Not the Solution”:

LAST week, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that teachers’ individual performance assessments could be made public. I have no opinion on the ruling as a matter of law, but as a harbinger of education policy in the United States, it is a big mistake.

I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The New York Court Decision Releasing Teacher Ratings.

Now, if he would just admit to a few education policy mistakes of his own…

Parent Trigger Fails (Again) In California is the headline of the latest post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.

A Southern California School Board announced tonight that the petition didn’t have enough valid signatures, and that many parents who had originally signed rescinded their names after they learned what the Parent Revolution organization really had in mind…

Today, The New York Times published an article about the new Superintendent of the Atlanta schools, Erroll Davis. He’s replaced Beverly Hall after the publicized cheating scandal (see The Best Posts & Articles About The Atlanta Testing Scandal).

Based on what the article says, he appears to be saying and doing many of the right things, though I’d love to hear from teachers in Atlanta if they think that assessment is accurate. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

As he travels the district, often driving himself to meet with small groups of principals, Mr. Davis repeatedly tells them, “Education is the only industry in this country where failure is blamed on the workers, not the leadership.”

….People are still shellshocked from the Hall years. Ms. Turner, the union president, said she was surprised when Mr. Davis’s secretary called to set up a lunch. “I said, ‘Why does he want to do that?’ ” Ms. Turner recalled. “She said, ‘He wants to get to know you.’ The man is a breath of fresh air.”

….He says he does not want a school system driven by test results.

“That is not how education should work,” Mr. Davis said. “If you create the right kind of system, run by the right kind of people, tests scores will take care of themselves.”

When Dr. Hall was the superintendent, she covered one wall in her office with bar graphs showing the test results for all 100 city schools.

After Mr. Davis became superintendent, he took the test scores down and replaced them with large color photographs of Atlanta schoolchildren.

It appears he might understand the difference between being data-driven and being data-informed.

Bob Sutton has also written an interesting post about Superintendent Davis.

“Parent Trigger Divides Families” Says L.A. Times is the title of the newest post over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.

The L.A. Times has just run a story about the disastrous second effort at using the flawed Parent Trigger law here in California.