Cheryl van Tilburg's List: Education Policy Blogs

One of the angriest, sharpest writers on education policy in the blogosphere. A must-read if you want to see analysis absent of sugar coating.

Technically not a blog, this weekly site gives you the best thinking on education policy from the Fordham Foundation. Checker Finn is a legend in ed policy.

The Public Education Network website is an accessible, interactive citizen's gateway to the world of public school reform and local education funds.\n

You can access many of Education Week's best articles online -- and without a subscription.

Sprouted in the aftermath of Allan Bloom's bestseller "Closing of the American Mind," NAS stands "for intellectual integrity in the curriculum, in the classroom, and across the campus." Aimed at the higher-ed audience, but a good site for anyone interested in preserving the idea of liberal arts education in its truest sense.

Alexander Russo writes this excellent blog on education policy and issues that affect schools in the United States.

Matt Miller describes the problems with local control of education. Pretty interesting....

A hilarious -- but sad -- analysis of Gov. Ted Stricklands' education reform proposals. While specific to Ohio, this analysis is applicable almost anywhere where policy makers are pushing 21st Century Skills. Strickland's heart is in the right place, but his Roadmap is a recipe for mediocrity, full of buzz words and flavor-of-the-moment approaches that avoid anything rigorous or seriously academic.

....starts to get good around page 120. Good examples of high- and low-expectation writing prompts, and a good explanation of why standards are a hollow way to provide teachers with specific, concrete information on what to teach. (See Robert Pondisco's rejoinder on the coreknowledge blog article "what it takes")

"The academic intensity of the student's high school curriculum still counts more than anything else in precollegiate history in providing momentum toward completing a bachelor's degree."

Yay, Andrew Rotherham! The EdWonk explains why educators should be wary before jumping on the "21st Century Skills" bandwagon, pointing out that skills such as "critical thinking" and "problem solving" are nothing new. He also reminds readers that skills aren't very useful unless undergirded with a solid foundation in content knowledge.

Good article on grading practices.

Chester Finn weighs in with some common sense on NCLB.

They're considering going back to the standard 10-point scale. It's all due to parent pressure. Woo hoo!

Yay!

Some common sense ideas from Jay Mathews. A must-read for administrators.

Great study from the Fordham people that takes the test scores of 36 schools and sees how those schools would fair in 28 different states. The patchwork of standards and variety of expectations means that we don't really know who's doing a really good job, and who's blowing it.

In this 2001 paper from Sociology of Education, Paul Attewell explores several practices used by high-SES "star" high schools to get their best-performing students into the most prestigious universities. Attewell uses SAT and AP scores, in addition to grading practices and policies on AP classes, to demonstrate that many "star" schools discourage students from taking AP classes or use tough grading practices to improve the appearance of their top students. The effects of these practices on the average -- but still strong -- student at these schools is not good.