Now that the fanfare of selecting the winning states for Race to the Top is behind us, we turn to the trickier business of implementing its requirements. An early flashpoint: how implementation of Race to the Top ironically could impair the autonomy of charter schools.

In New York State, implementation...

Diane Ravitch is an inspired writer, one of the few education analysts with a historical perspective, and a professional skeptic and contrarian. These admirable traits are in short supply these days but in full display in her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

The...

This week, as the deadline approached for filing New York's application for $700 million in federal Race to the Top Dollars, the New York State Legislature did nothing. That's right, nothing.

At the end of last year, New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Regents Chancellor Merryl...

For months, rumors have circulated in New York political and educational circles that U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has received assurances from the Obama administration that New York will receive a "round one" grant from the highly competitive federal $4 billion Race to the Top competition for educational dollars. This could...

The starting gun has been fired in the federal $4 billion Race to the Top competition, with final guidelines released today by the U.S. Department of Education.

State applications to compete for these federal education dollars will be due by mid-January 2010, with winners announced in April 2010. Losers...

The election of Chris Christie as New Jersey's governor will thrust New Jersey into the national spotlight as a key battleground state on education reform. Christie is strongly committed to strengthening New Jersey's weak charter-school law, and pushing through an education tax credit focused on low-income students trapped in failing...

New York Governor David Paterson just ceded any claim to be leading the state's effort to compete for federal Race to the Top dollars. This week Paterson flippantly indicated, through a spokesperson, that he had no interest in forwarding a legislative package to help ensure New York was well...

A contract for New Haven public school teachers is being hailed as a pathbreaking model worth replicating across the nation.

In the words of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: "This is a really important progressive labor agreement. It's one that folks around the country should take note of."...

This past week, New York Governor David Paterson proposed $686 million in mid-year cuts in state aid to public schools. While New York clearly continues to face challenging fiscal and economic times, the cuts -- unaccompanied by any education reforms whatsoever -- underscore that Paterson remains AWOL on educational issues.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record as an education reformer continues to be a central issue of the New York City mayoral campaign, a race in which his challenger is Bill Thompson, the president of the New York City board of education in the pre-mayoral control days.

One of the central differences...