Super Bowl Scheduling, Merit vs. Performance Pay, Tough Love in Kindergarten (Urban Education)

Last week it was snow storms, this week it’s the Super Bowl: Super Bowl parade an issue for schools (Philadelphia Inquirer). What’s an urban supt. to do? Well, apparently they’re a very special breed: Urban School Districts Present Challenges to Superintendents (Indianapolis Star).

Speaking of which, the immediate fallout of Alan Bersin’s departure from San Diego is chronicled here: Bersin, trustees act with civility (San Diego Union-Tribune), and Principals give Bersin emotional ovation (San Diego Union-Tribune).

In the meantime, the merit pay express keeps rolling along, at least in some peoples’ minds: A Minnesota district tests merit pay system (Minnesota Public Radio), and Catching Up With the Vaughn Express: Six Years of Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation and Performance Pay (EPAA).

From what I can tell, skeptics call it “merit” pay, which has a checkered history in teachers’ elephantine memories, while advocates prefer the re-branded phrase: “performance” pay.

Charter schools – they’re great, they’re awful. For a little bit of both, check out a couple of reviews of my profile of Ohio’s charter schools, which came out this week from the Progressive Policy Institute: Charter schools make grade (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Charter schools examined (Cincinnati Enquirer), and A Tough Nut to Crack in Ohio: Charter Schooling in the Buckeye State (The Gadfly).

For the rest of this week’s charter chatter: Mid-Renaissance Move In Chicago (This Week In Education), Romney plan would greatly boost charter schools (Boston Globe), Good Reasons To Push Charter Schools (Hartford Courant), Charter Authorizers Eye Rules on Closings (Education Week), The state of the charter movement, 2005 (The Gadfly), and When to shut the schoolhouse doors (The Gadfly).

Lots on the 'new' preschool, my current fascination:

Tough love, tougher goals from kindergarten teacher
Virginian-Pilot via the NewsBlast
Universal Pre-K Puzzles Schools, Parents Miami Herald
4-year-old Kindergartners Strain State
Preschool as cash cow Boston Globe
Preschool Quality Inconsistent for Poor Education Week

Best of the Rest:

Saving black boys School Administrator via the NewsBlast
A huge school with a cozy feel Philadelphia Inquirer
Substitutes’ union clears hurdle Star Bulletin via EIA
Opinion: Testing Teachers
Ed Schools Picks Former Clinton Official EdWeek
Voucher plan proposed for MPS and St. Paul Pioneer Press
Grade books go online USAT
Parents go online to grade teachers Lexington Herald Leader