- Congratulations to the expanded, energized Chiefs for Change, with new members Janet Barresi (OK), Stephen Bowen (ME), Chris Cerf (NJ), Kevin Huffman (TN), and Hanna Skandera (NM). Never have you been more needed.
- Michael Winerip raised heads, eyebrows, and even fists with his Sunday Times piece on the high school alma maters of various ed reformers. Why? Because many of them attended private schools. Shelving the important debate on whether or not this matters (look to Liam Julian for that), Gadfly conducted a little survey on Flypaper. His findings? About 80 percent of reformers (who read our blog, at least) are public-school alums.
- If legislation already approved by the California Senate makes its way through the House and Governor Moonbeam’s desk, the Golden State would be the first to mandate gay history in K-12 social-studies classes. The bill would also add disabilities studies to the curriculum.
- Detroit’s newest shot in the arm is pink. The district is sending all 5,466 DPS teachers layoff notices, and is planning to use new legal powers to modify the onerous Motown teacher contract.
- New York districts are looking for a skeleton key to free themselves from the handcuffs of tight budgets. Their current targets are a host of costly state mandates imposed in response to myriad social concerns (e.g. calculating students’ body-mass index). Smart thinking, if the single-issue constituencies get out of the way.
