In D.C. Fenty and Rhee pen an open letter to the community via the WaPo.   Must-read.

Update: More weekend reading:  Mikey is high on Buffalo!

Baltimore teachers voted down the proposed contract there last night.  Turns out they didn’t like the promissory note nature of it either.

So make sure I have this straight:  Baltimore Superintendent Andres Alonso, who according to the narrative – parroted by Washington Post columnists – is apparently sweet, sensitive, loving, gentle, kind to old ladies, small children, and furry animals, and consequently an embodiment of collaborative-driven change has his contract go down even though it didn’t have many teeth to being with.  Meanwhile, in D.C. the mean and treacherous Michelle Rhee, who according to her detractors is constantly at-risk of having a house fall on her she’s so villainous, gets a genuinely pathbreaking contract passed with the support of 80 percent of teachers in DC.

For God’s sake, no one tell the Department of Education and ruin such a lovely Friday.

Department of Education’s “Labor Summit” snarky take: Wow, is the election really going to be that brutal?

Department of Education’s “Labor Summit” serious take: This labor summit the Department of Education is hosting is a good idea, there has certainly been some movement over the past few years and some risk taking.  But, the list of sites they’re highlighting reads like  interest group greasing and a set of talking points more than an analysis.  Some good ones, for instance New Haven and Denver.  But Detroit?  Baltimore? Delaware?  File those under, respectively, nope, nice try, and not yet.

And where is DC?  New York? Or how about having KIPP in?  Awkward!

At this point the field is a lot better at talking about breakthrough kinds of labor agreements than actually implementing them in meaningful ways.   The Department and the Secretary have a chance to move the ball on that but not if this is not an honest conversation.  Also, let’s hope management is in this conversation, too.  In too many places they’re no picnic either on this work so honest conversation is not code word for just beat up on the unions.

But, wow, is the election really going to be that brutal?

Deb Gist was just named one of Atlantic’s “Brave Thinkers.”

If you want the chance to work with her, there are several interesting openings at the Rhode Island Department of Education.

From Philly, further evidence of the accomplishments today’s reform efforts put in jeopardy. By the way, remember this the next time someone tells you the grad rate problem is overstated…

A couple of education names made TIME’s list of 40 under 40 in politics including Mike Johnston and Jared Polis.  Update: Missed Julian Castro who is active in EEP.

That’s the topic of my School of Thought column at TIME this week. This business about how charters are no better and no worse than other public schools, on average, is a deliberate distortion that obscures some learning over the past two decades that can be applied in policy.  Put a little differently, there is a lot of attention to the randomness of charter school lotteries these days but the fact is we’ve made charter policy pretty random, too.

A quick plug for ‘School of Thought’: It’s a weekly column I began writing in September, it appears Thursdays absent breaking news.  Here are some past ones.  What we can and can’t expect from Common Core, problems with the fetishizing of value-added scores for teachers, why it may take more than ‘Superman’ to save schools, the challenges facing Mark Zuckerberg (and I’m not talking about the film), and the Fenty defeat and Michelle Rhee.

So all day the question has been, what does it mean?  Best I can tell it means that Michelle Rhee is leaving her post in D.C. (she’s also starting a website) but not too much more.

Kaya Henderson is great but it seems premature to see today as any clear sign about future of reform in Washington one way or the other for a couple of reasons.  First, we really don’t know more today than we did a few days ago about the direction of school reform under Mayor (to be) Vincent Gray because we haven’t reached any of the real decision points yet. And second, Vincent Gray didn’t get where he is by being an idiot.   Some of the crazier scenarios people saw potentially happening simply defied common sense.

In other words, if reform starts to die in D.C. it’ll be through quiet whimpers not some grand stroke.   And it’ll be something that is apparent more in retrospect than through a pivotal moment.  I obviously hope that Gray can pull off his avowed goal of aggressive reform and keeping everyone happy.  But it’s too soon to tell.  Not too soon in the Mao and the French Revolution sense, just too soon in this school year.

Here’s my take on all this from before the election in the WaPo and afterward via my School of Thought column at TIME.

Be sure to check out Collegemeasures.org a new data website on college performance.  And while you’re there check out this new paper (pdf) by Mark Schneider about the costs of college attrition.

Gates Foundation rolls out a new ed tech initiative.

Don’t miss Parent Trigger:  The movie!

Paul Kihn and Matt Miller follow-up on the recent McKinsey report on teachers in the WaPo Outlook. Also in the WaPo, D.C. Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso lays down some markers to keep an eye on with regard to the schools going forward. In case you’ve been living in a cave, Rhee is leaving in DC as well.  Kaya Henderson will be sup’t on an interim basis.  My take on all that here.

Another “Superman” take via the NY Daily News. “I don’t know if our schools need Superman, but they sure don’t need Walter Duranty.”  John Fensterwald weighs-in on the same, also well worth reading.

And Sandra Stotsky takes a look at what high school students are reading and offers some recommendations (pdf).

With regard to the goings on at ICEF in Los Angeles two quick thoughts.

First, despite all the rhetoric about charter schools being about making money off kids and other nonsense (only 10 percent nationwide are for-profit anyway, ICEF is not) a cause of ICEF’s problems are all the services they pile on kids.  And those services got results, ICEF’s graduation rate, college-going and persistence rates, SAT’s, etc…are terrific.   So you’d think that the folks who want to see more money spent on education – especially in a basket case state like California – would be using schools like ICEF as an argument to do so, rather than naysaying.

Second, on the money, California doesn’t spend enough on any of its schools.  For their part charters then get 9.2 percent less than that insufficient amount according to the recent Ball State report (pdf). While 9.2 percent is better than charter finance in many states (the average shortfall for charters is 19 percent relative to other public schools and in 17 states its 15 percent less or more) it’s a killer in California when coupled with the overall low PPE there.  You simply cannot discuss charter school performance or sustainability absent these crippling public finance shortfalls.  What’s especially frustrating is that schools that struggle in California would thrive elsewhere.  More on that later.

Posting has been a little light lately, but that’s because I’ve been consumed with the new Education Next iPhone app.   OK, not really, but you should download it if you want to keep tabs on the Ed Next site.

Everyone is gaga over the new Baltimore teachers contract in this Washington Post Robert McCartney column but I can’t imagine they had time to read it since it’s pretty hard to find. Jay Mathews’ link, for instance, is to a flyer on ratification (maybe that’s a sly subversive joke?).  And because I’m sure everyone would be more measured in their takes given what’s in (and not in) the actual document.   Jay does to his credit, however, note the ambiguous nature of this.

But if you dig around enough it is there (pdf). You can judge for yourself if it’s as bold as the D.C. contract.  I think it’s fine, a step forward for Baltimore, and has some potential but not as far reaching as the D.C. contract based on, you know, what’s actually in the two agreements rather than how it’s being described and subsequently characterized based on talking points etc…It’s basically a promissory note but without the all the promise parts.  It could get really bold as it’s actually developed, the record on that is mixed and New Haven was a pleasant surprise.  But, it’s being overplayed right now and the political reasons for that are obvious.

Timing I: By the way, wasn’t the time for the Baltimore superintendent (and for that matter lots of urban superintendents), who I like and admire for among other things his thoughtfulness, to jam the union when they would have agreed to just about anything under the sun in order to make  Michelle Rhee look bad?  Now that the D.C. election is over and she’s seemingly on her way out what’s the point besides allowing a few people to make uninformed cheap shots?

Timing II: It’s a little inconvinient for all the Baltimore schools superintendent ‘Andres Alonso is so different than Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein’ types that there he is in the Washington Post today with a new op-ed saying, well, the exact same things as Rhee, Klein and host of other urban superintendents.

Heard today from a reliable source at Education Week that they finished the last fiscal year year in the black for the first time in a few years and are poised with some growth plans.  That’s good news if you care about having a newspaper of record for the field.

I’m not as convinced as many of my colleagues that revolutionary education change is at hand.   That’s this week’s TIME.com column.

Update: Justin Cohen amplifies the point on R & D.

Also, I didn’t mention this in the column for space but it’s also worth nothing that – as I understand it from someone close the film – An Inconvenient Truth did more box office overseas than it did here…And, last I looked we didn’t have a climate bill or sensible/sustainable energy policy.   And that movie and the ensuing social action they wanted people to take was more straightforward.  Would love to be wrong about all this though!

Keep an eye on the fallout from the LIFO lawsuit in Los Angeles big political and policy implications.

Smart report from The New Teacher Project on the “what now?” question with regard to teacher evaluation. Sensible design principles.

W.C. Fields is said to have remarked that you should, “always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.”  Those might be good words for Kevin Kosar, who’s a pretty accomplished education analyst but also an expert on all things whiskey.   His new book on the subject of booze gets a write-up in the WaPo.

Cool  new Aspen prize for community colleges from several foundations. The White House summit is leveraging some other activity as well, for instance this project from The Gap.

A lot of talk about teacher evaluations lately but important new report from NLNS on evaluating principals.

Joel Klein, Michael Lomax, and Janet Murguia respond to the recent Nicholas Lemann New Yorker essay.  Michelle Rhee discusses DC and what’s next. And, while you’re at the WaPo video site, check out Kevin Huffman’s advice for the next ‘Great American Pundit.’

If you’re looking for an edujob, Gotham Schools is launching a new jobs board.

*Sorry, fixed spelling.  No spellchecker on titles!

In case you missed it, the Charter School Growth Fund is on the move. Big impact.

New citizenship study from AEI. And if you haven’t checked out Big Citizenship from Alan Khazei yet, you should.

There is a “Waiting for Superman” social action campaign.  And, another “Waiting for Superman” social campaign is going strong, “Done Waiting” is a parallel effort.

You’ve heard about the School of One, you can see a demonstration in DC @ Aspen Institute on October 12th at 3pm by clicking here and reserving a spot.

On Tuesday (10/5) “Tutor our Children” a new advocacy campaign around supplemental services and federal policy is launching (pdf). Event is 9:30AM, HC-6 in the Capitol.  Speakers include PA State Sen. Tony Williams, Parent advocate Kim Shipp, Aspen’s Gary Huggins, as well as Hill staffers Cleary and Schaumberg.  My Education Insider colleague John Bailey will present some survey data as well.

Several openings at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, including Senior Research Manager.

My Time.com column this week is five cautions for Mark Zuckerberg if he wants his Newark donation to leverage change.

Three posts @ Flypaper worth your time, Liam Julian, Peter Meyer, and Terry Ryan.

Greatschools.netorg rolled out a new tool for parents this morning on the Today Show.  Check it out.

Uh oh, things must be worse on the campaign trail than it appears if the “they’re going to abolish the Department of Education” gambit is being unleashed by Dem candidates. This is the Hail Mary of Democratic education politics and it rarely works.  In fact, sizable numbers of Republicans have been elected in the face of this tactic some years.

In general it doesn’t work because – despite the rhetoric education -  doesn’t move a lot of voters by itself in national elections.   And this year, in particular, the big issue is jobs, jobs, and also jobs.  Don’t tell them this in Rockefeller Plaza, but right now education ranks very low in polls where Americans are asked to name issues of greatest concern.

Can’t say I’m a regular Oprah viewer but seeing James Wilcox get some props on the show could turn me into one….You can watch the entire segment from last week (in pieces) here.

Also, don’t miss Joel Klein on Waiting for Superman.

President Obama gives a candid answer on the ‘where/why do you send your kids to school’ question.

New Joyce Foundation* site on improving teacher quality. It’s interactive and a useful tool, it’s a must-click!

*Funds some BW work.

You can visit the site for all the ongoing activities so I won’t link it all here, but here’s a link to yesterday’s MTP panel with Bobb, Duncan, Rhee, and Weingarten. As opposed to the usual airy questions on most TV segments about education, NBC’s David Gregory asked some pointed ones.  Refreshing!  Of course, wasn’t enough to keep you from thinking that some of the panelists were being paid by the platitude but it was a good effort nonetheless.

Always some interesting opportunities at Teach For America but a couple of especially cool ones right now.  Wanna be Wendy Kopp’s chief of staff?  Lead advocacy and organizing for TFA?  Then click here.

And a few openings at the Broad Foundation including a managing director role at The Broad Residency.

50CAn, an ambitious EAO growth strategy, is launching and has a few roles to fill.

This week’s column at TIME.com is about value-added evaluations for teachers and how the field needs to go to get past the pure data fetish as well as the Ouija board approaches the unions like.

Wow.  Inflation.  Just last week we were talking about a million. Interesting play in New Jersey as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is giving Newark Public Schools $100 million and NJ Governor Christie is giving Newark Mayor Cory Booker more control over their operations.  Local coverage here. Mayoral control in Newark has been a contentious issue for some time.

Implications?  Well, it’s no secret that an unflattering movie about Zuckerberg is coming out next week.   Hard not to see the fine hand of providence in that, it’s a good misdirection play.  But, Zuckerberg has connected with the charismatic Booker, too.  So although it will be played by critics as 100 percent cynical, that doesn’t seem the case.

Most interesting implication is with regard to Booker’s political future.  What kind of a deal did he cut with Christie? There are only so many statewide offices in New Jersey and those two are heavyweights.