The USDE Flunks a ‘Significance Test’

Can someone please explain what the policy makers at the U.S. Department of Education were thinking when they set the eligibility requirements for participation in the American Recovery Plan – Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools program? ARP-EANS is a federal emergency assistance program for which Congress appropriated $2.75 billion “…to provide services or assistance…

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Heartbreak, Health and Politics

Every so often a piece of journalism breaks through the flotsam and jetsam that is the contemporary Twitterverse, and compels digestion, contemplation, and discussion. If you’ve given any thought to the trade-offs involved in extending distance learning or resuming campus-based instruction and have yet to read Alec MacGillis’, “The Students Left Behind by…

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No Time for Games

Here’s how the game is played. First, public education special interest groups vigorously oppose any and all constitutionally permissible arrangements that would place public funds in the hands of low-income parents for the purpose of enabling them to send their children to the schools of their choosing, whether public, public charter, or private. Then,…

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Test Scores, Finger-Pointing, and Poverty

With declining NAEP scores in both math and English following closely on the heels of disappointing Common Core assessment results, can full frontal finger-pointing be long in the offing? Speaking of the statistically significant scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Acting Commissioner of the National Center for Education…

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