Here are a few excellent articles on educational policy issues that have been published in the past day or two:

Here’s a great column from The Seattle Times pointing out that small class sizes were important to Bill Gates when he went to school, and are an important reason why he sends his kids to the school they attend. I’m adding it to The Best Posts Responding To Bill Gates’ Appallingly Clueless Op-Ed Piece.

The Columbia Journalism Review has an excellent article on the issue of newspapers publishing teacher rankings based on test scores. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On “Value-Added” Teacher Ratings.

What Is the Meaning of LIFO: You’re Fired Mr. Chips! is a good piece recounting the history of “Last Hired: First Fired.” I’m adding it to The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Both Why Teacher Tenure Is Important & The Reasons Behind Seniority-Based Layoffs.

Coming Together to Give Schools a Boost is the headline of an article in The New York Times, with a subtitle saying “A group of Cincinnati leaders are improving schools by using data for progress, not punishment.”

It describes how schools have been working with community groups and businesses in an effort called STRIVE. This name struck a chord for me because it was one of the efforts that Diane Ravitch highlighted in an interview I did with her in January when I asked her about “rays of hope” she saw in education.

The article talks a lot about how STRIVE uses data. I’m going to print an excerpt that is interesting, but I also have to admit its focus on data raises some concerns for me. Nevertheless, I’m going to add this post to The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven” and, for now, give them the benefit of the doubt that that, in practice, they are indeed more data-informed than they are data-driven. Here’s the excerpt:

The Cincinnati Public Schools, which has made gains with an ambitious turnaround program among its 16 lowest performing elementary schools, established “data war rooms” in each school. Teachers have meetings every two weeks, where they closely monitor students’ progress — looking at academic performance, behavioral issues, absenteeism and lateness as well as special services each child is receiving. Through the network, they can easily connect high-risk students with external resources like mentoring or tutoring. Moreover, they can track which programs make a difference — and why — and then share that information with everybody else. The result is that the network can engage in continuous learning based on evidence.

This is a powerful cultural shift, notes Jeff Edmondson, who led the Strive partnership for years and now is spreading the framework nationally. “In education, data has traditionally been used for punitive purposes, not for improvement,” he explained.

Again, today, there have been a number of very useful articles, videos and blog posts related to school reform issues. They include (a few are older than today, but I’ve just learned about them):

* Richard Rothstein has written a great piece titled Fact-Challenged Policy. It challenges claims made recently by Bill Gates. I’m adding it to The Best Posts Responding To Bill Gates’ Appallingly Clueless Op-Ed Piece.

* Study: $75M teacher pay initiative did not improve achievement is a new report on the failed use of teacher merit pay in New York City. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea.

* Here’s an MSNBC video of Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters explaining why smaller classes are the key to success.

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I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter.

* Evaluating New York Teachers, Perhaps the Numbers Do Lie is an article from The New York Times. Check-out the equation above the headline! I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.

* Think Again: Education: Relax, America. Chinese math whizzes and Indian engineers aren’t stealing your kids’ future is from Foreign Policy Magazine. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery.

* We Must Change the Narrative About Public Education is very good piece by Diane Ravitch at Edutopia.

* Gates’ Measures of Effective Teaching Study: More Value-Added Madness is by Justin Baeder at Ed Week. I”m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.