Schools News Around the Blogosphere

New Orleans schools chief chips away at big issues
Associate Press
Paul Vallas recently passed his first major milestone when fourth- and eighth-graders in the city's woeful public schools posted significantly higher test scores on state tests.

Winston Churchill was right: education is too important to be left to politicians
Daily Telegraph
Just as hundreds of thousands of pupils, including my own children, sat down this week to start their A-levels, Imperial College, London, declared that what they were doing was, from its point of view, "almost worthless".

Milwaukee Public Schools ordered to do more for special needs
Milwaukee Journa-Sentinel
BY ALAN J. BORSUK
A federal judge has ruled full-force in favor of potentially historic changes that would require Milwaukee Public Schools to provide more services sooner to thousands of struggling students.

Part 2: America had the world's best school system.
Keith Baker
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
The idea that America was being harmed because our schools were not keeping up with other advanced nations emerged after Sputnik, took hold of educational policy after the Reagan Administration's "A Nation At Risk" report, and continues today. This concern is justified by evidence showing that within the USA, test scores predict a number of important life advantages, such as going on to college and making more money as an adult.

Peer review system for teachers spreads
By Claudio Sanchez, National Public Radio (Audio)
The teachers' union in Toledo, Ohio, has spearheaded a controversial policy to purge the school district of incompetent teachers. It's called "peer review" and no school system in the country has been doing it longer than Toledo.