The UnSchool

Did you hear the one about the school where the students are in charge and the parents pay $6000 for the privilege? The thing about students not taking standardized tests kinda hit me right between the grade books.

Bonus Envy

CNN has a little story about how a variety of people will be spending this year's bonus. Including this clown who's getting somewhere between $50,000 - $70,000.Meanwhile, your EdWonk, who has spent years in the classroom, received a 1% pay cut and increased state income and sales tax rates. The result will be that my take-home pay will be about what it was in 2003.Even though I never knew that

Obama Takes An EduTrip

And now President Obama is going to Wisconsin, of all places, to talk-up public education. ABC News has the story: Tomorrow, on the anniversary of his election, President Barack Obama heads to Madison, Wisconsin to speak at a local middle school. He’ll address education policy, with a focus on the ‘Race to the Top’ initiative. That $4.35 billion dollar program, funded through the Recovery Act, is

Note To U.S. Dept. Of Ed: Improve Thyself

Heh.Secretary Arne Duncan of The United States Department of Education says "Colleges of Education must improve for reforms to succeed." U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today called for America’s colleges of education to dramatically change how they prepare the next generation of teachers so that they are ready to prepare their future students for success in college and careers.Noting

Let Me Guess

A 15-year-old female student leaves a dance at her Richmond, California high school. She apparently drinks some alcohol. Then gets beaten and gang-raped by a bunch of hoods while other students stand-by and do nothing for two hours.Wanna take a guess who ends up being sued for a huge amount of money?Yep. Dollars to donuts that it's going to be the school district that ends-up coughing up the cash

Wonkitorial: Cutting To The Front Of The Lunch Line

All of her adult life, Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy emphatically stated that she wanted to be a "private" person, and therefore completely out of the public's eye but free to attend countless social events with her pals from New York City's Social Register.But now, JFK's deep-blue-blooded daughter has changed her mind and wants to claim what some would believe to be her rightful inheritance by

L.A.'s Boondoggle High

This is bad, even for California: LOS ANGELES (AP) - A decade behind schedule, a $350 million downtown high school finally opened on Wednesday after years of environmental, seismic and legal troubles."We've been waiting a long time to get this," said Uriel Rivera, an 18-year-old senior at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center. "A lot of people in the community were supposed to graduate from here,

Skipping The First Day Of School

Many pupils in Chicago's troubled public school system decided that truancy was the best way to protest alleged unequal funding: NORTHFIELD, Ill. (AP) — More than 1,000 Chicago public school students skipped the first day of classes Tuesday to protest unequal education funding, a boycott organizers said would continue through the week with help from retired teachers who will turn office lobbies

Labor Day 2008: What Was Old May Be New Again

All is quiet; campuses around the country are closed.Meanwhile, it has been brought to our attention that at least one Arizona school board member is advocating a return to the good old days, when school started after Labor Day:One member of the Scottsdale School Board claims a lot of money could be saved if schools statewide started after the Labor Day weekend.Many schools, including those in

Administrative Buffoonery Or Crazy Like A Fox?

Oftentimes, stupidity needs no explanation:Iowa Central Community College President Robert Paxton will collect $400,000 from the school in return for his resignation.After 13 years as president of the Fort Dodge school, Paxton resigned Wednesday, one day before the school’s board of trustees was scheduled to discuss an undisclosed “personnel matter.”The special meeting was called after The Des

Those Pistol-Packing Texas Teachers

Did you hear the one about the School District who wants their teachers to pack heat? AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicated Monday that he supports a school district's decision to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes start this month.Trustees of the Harrold Independent School District approved a policy change last year to allow employees to carry

Los Angeles' Combat High School

Instead of concentrating on their reading, writing, and arithmetic, it seems as though a large number of "students" in one of our publicly-funded high schools have other priorities:"A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs.The

Texas Teacher Shortage?

They're crying out for teachers in the Lone Star State:Each day, students of different races, genders, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds enter the nation's classrooms. Unfortunately, for some, these factors may work against them - especially in urban areas.According to TCU's [Texas Christian University] Center for Urban Education, urban schools - those schools with low socioeconomic and/

When Girls Go Stupid

What more can be said about this crime? And what can be done to stop the stupidity of this type of made-for-video violence?

Gender Bender Elementary

What were they thinking in Wisconsin? REEDSBURG, Wis. (AP) - An elementary-school event in which kids were encouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of a Christian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to the district office.Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition

D.C.'s Gangster Education

In today's Washington Post, Colbert I. King let's us know how bad it has gotten in many of the public schools in our nation's capital:"Security at Wilson High to Be Tightened" announced a headline in The Post's March 21 Metro section. More stringent measures were being put in place after 13 students were arrested because of two fights that week, the story said.I first visited Woodrow Wilson High

'Tis The Season For Parents And Kids To Be Scammed

As the parent of a 16-year-old (the TeenWonk) high school junior that has a 4.35 G.P.A., we've been getting a number of so-called "nominations" for inclusion in this or that "national honor roll," "who's-who book," and, of course, the United States Achievement Academy.The "nominations" were made by her well-intentioned (but unknowing) teachers, who think that they are doing the kids a favor by so

Virgina Taxpayers Made To Pay For Criminal's Rampage

Remember when Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho went on a murderous rampage and killed 32 innocent students and staff back in April of 2007?The miscreant went on to video tape a confession, which he then mailed it to NBC. Finally, Cho saved the commonwealth the expense of a trial (and endless appeals) by blowing his own brains out.Now it seems as though the people of Virginia are about to be

Helicopter Parents Vs. Stinger Teachers

When are "involved parents" too involved? In one Maryland district, the fur is flying between some parents and a number of teachers: The Baltimore Sun ran an article on Tuesday about parental involvement taken to the extreme. The trigger was an annual survey by the Howard County Education Association that shows a majority of teachers say they have been subjected to harassment, and most of the

Please Don't Bite The Students!

It seems as though the employment standards of the Tifton, Georgia's Len Lastinger school could use some revision: Vivian Hightower, a paraprofessional at the school, was suspended without pay for five days by the school’s principal, Dr. Kim Ezekiel. The board confirmed last week that Hightower bit a child she understood had bit another as punishment on Jan. 10. Unconfirmed reports Monday are