- Tacoma, WA students: Turn off the TV, sharpen your pencils, and pack up your knapsack. After seven days on strike, a court injunction to return to work, and day-long negotiations brokered by the governor, teachers in the Evergreen State’s third largest city may head back to class tomorrow. Teachers are voting on the agreement today; details about its specifics won’t be made available until those results are tallied.
- Virtual, digital, online. Blended, hybrid, supplemental. For those trying to piece together the jargon-filled arena that is digital, this new brief from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers will come in handy.
- Got some free time next week? NBC’s Education Nation is back. Cross your fingers it doesn’t rain.
- How about some free time right now (especially as you near the end of this very informative Gadfly)? The latest National Affairs is now available. With pieces in it by our own Checker Finn (on education governance), Rick Hess (on the achievement gap), and Marcus Winters (on special-ed vouchers), one could even dub it the “education edition.”
- Everyone’s a winner during National Child Passenger Safety Week (for those not up on motor-safety trivia, that’s this week)! Tuesday saw the announcement of the 2011 MacArthur Fellows (including Harvard economist Roland Fryer) and the 2011 Broad Prize (well deserved, Charlotte-Mecklenburg). The 2011 McGraw Prizes were awarded on Wednesday.
- Detroit Public Schools are leapfrogging the Slim Fast diet and going straight to Biggest Loser: The district is set to axe 40 percent of its teachers in the next four years in an attempt to close the deficit. An admirable notion indeed. But it’s still unclear how DPS will decide which teachers get sent to the chopping block—and that will make all the difference.
- Senator Lamar Alexander announced yesterday that in January he will step down from his no. 3-spot in the GOP Senate hierarchy. Why? Alexander wants his “independence back,” and wants to be able to push more initiatives through the Senate in a bipartisan fashion. A novel and praiseworthy pursuit—especially in today’s political climate. Let’s hope he starts with his recent set of smart education bills.
- Keep an eye on L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The union boss come politician is not just a straight-shooter, but smart on school spending too. Even Rick Hess is smitten.
