Here’s a quick look back, by the numbers, at the week’s commentary on the Gadfly Daily blogs:
- 9: From ages zero to eighteen, Americans spend only 9 percent of their lives in classrooms, making it more likely that their innovativeness is developed outside the classroom, Mike observed on Flypaper.
- 134: Adam writes on Choice Words that the Georgia House is right to challenge 134 years of the status quo by trying to amend the state constitution to reinstate the state’s charter authorizing commission.
- 1,050: A bill pending in the Ohio General Assembly would redefine the school year from 182 days to 1,050 hours of instruction in grades 7-12. Emmy writes on the Ohio Gadfly Daily that the proposal could increase flexibility and autonomy in the Buckeye State—if only it didn’t also require five-day weeks and longer summers.
- 75,000: The United Federation of Teachers, which represents 75,000 of New York City’s educators, negotiated a deal to include “third-party, independent validation of teacher ratings”—a deal that is unlikely to do much more than sew seeds of dissent, writes Peter on Board’s Eye View.
- 1,000,000: New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf’s decision to award $1 million in funding to districts based on the high performance of special education students is admirably ambitious, argued Chris Tessone on Stretching the School Dollar, but the Garden State must proceed with caution when it comes to performance-based funding.
- 5,260,000,000: A recent Pioneer Institute estimated Common Core implementation would cost states $5.26 billion, but Kathleen wrote on Common Core Watch that those projections are based on some very shaky assumptions.
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