Arne Duncan recently talked about charter schools on Democracy Now. The segment could have been called "Arne in Wonderland." Some of what he said:

Duncan: "We also need to work together to help people better understand charters. Many people equate charters with privatization, and part of the problem is...

Engineers have made great advances in robotics in recent years. Everyday-robots can vacuum rugs and mop floors. More advanced models can act as secretary of education. Call it the Arne model. Boot it up and it talks and talks and talks. But it appears to lack two functions, the ability...

On February 1, 2008, President George W. Bush said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong; we're just going through a rough patch right now" (UPI). Even while the economy was crumbling all around him, presidential candidate John McCain insisted on September 15, 2008, "the fundamentals of our economy are...

How can the Obama administration get it right in education when its data are all wrong and its assumptions about its faulty data are flawed?

President Obama told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "8th graders have fallen to 9th place." That statistic comes from the 2008 round of the Trends...

About 30 years ago, Boston College professor, George Madaus, called for an "FDA for testing." The point was--and, sadly, is--that school testing was a huge industry totally unregulated. Since Madaus' proposal, the testing industry has exploded in size. And there is still no regulation, no oversight. "Tests are regulated less...

OK, there were some good things in the talk to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I especially liked an expansion of early childhood education having worked in the field and recently surveyed a meta-analysis of how well it works. It works, but overall it produces nowhere near the $10...

They might have great jump shots, but on education they're both tossing air balls. While both have visited charter schools, neither has entered a regular public school. Their oratory has been uninspiring and sometimes downright scary.

At the New York City charter school that Duncan visited, he said,...

I have not the expertise to address the merits of President Obama's speech to Congress on the issues of the economy. I do claim some expertise on education. He blew it.

He accepted the same garbage that the propagandists, fear mongers such as Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob...

The schools were blamed for letting the Russians orbit the first man-made satellite. Declassified memos, though, indicate that the U. S. could have had an orbiting satellite over a year before Sputnik circled the earth:

During an October 8, 1957 meeting with governors and generals, President Dwight Eisenhower...

The February 7 Wall Street Journal quoted secretary of education, Arne Duncan, saying, "Educationally, we used to lead the world, and we have sort of lost our way in the last couple of decades. We just have to educate ourselves to a better economy."

Supposedly, Mr. Duncan came to Washington...

When Senator Clinton was still a candidate for president, both she and Senator Obama sought counsel from an educator friend of mine. He told them both not to say anything about education. No matter what you say, he told me that he told them, you're going to make a lot...

Principle 23 of the "principles of data interpretation" that organize "Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered," reads "If the situation really is as alleged ask, 'So what?'" The question does not call for some smart-ass response, it calls for an evaluation of the consequences of...

The next round of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) hits the street a week from today. A TIMSS staffer tells me I will find them "interesting." No further revelations.

It might be good to keep a few things in mind when considering the data:

1. The Institute...

"It's dangerous to make predictions, especially about the future," said Sam Goldwyn or Will Rogers or maybe both. Still, it is hard to imagine any prognosticator being so stunningly wrong as William Kristol in "Why Bush Will Be a Winner," a Washington Post op-ed 15 July 2007.

Kristol divides...

The U. S. Produces the Lion's Share of Top Scoring Students

The United States has more than double the number of students scoring at the highest level in the science assessment of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) than any other OECD nation. That's right, more than double. We...

At the Wall Street Journal, Firewall Crumbling?

The best newspapers try to establish a firewall between the reporting staff and the editorial folk. Over the years, no paper has excelled at maintaining this barrier better than the Wall Street Journal. The reporters were first rate. The editorial page was called,...

What Makes Bobby Run?

Bob Wise thinks I impugned his motives. Wise is the former governor of West Virginia who now runs something call the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Whatever, he is given to spouting frightening statistics about public schools (there is a cadre of people like this and...

First Lady Follies

Laura Bush says that, come what may, No Child Left Behind will be a part of her husband's legacy. Absolutely. Some of us think it will be right up there with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, homeless Iraqis and Afghanis, Blackwater, and the shredded Constitution. She should talk to...

Those who dispense anxiety about America's schools have got it all backwards. Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Bill Bennett and many others look at the results of international test-score studies and make dire predictions about the future of the U. S. economy. Instead, they should brag about the U....

The Washington Post pimping for an ad. Can you believe it? The pimpiness appeared Sunday, July 13. Who put them up to that? The ad in question is from an organization that has become the most irresponsible source of disinformation about public schools since Bill Bennett (in fact, it recently...