Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues:

How ‘platooning’ and data walls are changing elementary school is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven.”

I’ve previously posted about a series of excellent posts Marc Tucker has been writing at Education Week (see Several Excellent New Posts & Articles On Assessment). Well, he’s just written another one: Accountability: What the Top Performers Do. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments.

Hundreds of teachers at Fresno Unified meeting protest CORE waiver is from The Fresno Bee. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On The NCLB Waiver Given To Eight California School Districts (Including Ours).

Rick & Maddie on Sec. Duncan’s Earnest Call for Teacher ‘Leadership’ is from Rick Hess at Education Week. I think he’s right-on about Arne Duncan’s recent call for “teacher leadership.” I’m sorry, I think it’s too little, too late. Duncan’s actions have left him with little credibility among many, if not most, educators. I’d be happy to be wrong — check in with me a year from now to see what’s he’s actually done.

Check out Mary Tedrow’s blog post on the same topic.

A Primer for Engaging Teach For America Supporters is from Cloaking Inequity. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America.

Finnish Education Chief: ‘We Created a School System Based on Equality’ is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System.

Comparing Oak Trees’ “Apples to Apples,” by Stanford’s Edward Haertel is from VAMBoozled. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.

De Blasio Pushes a 9-Year Contract for Teachers is from The New York Times, and is pretty interesting.

Anyone involved with schools in California has to read the new Ed Source report, Reforming Testing and Accountability: Essential Principles for Student Success in California. There will be a lot changes in how the state will be dealing with us over the next few years, and this report gives a good overview, if not the best that I’ve seen. My only complaint is that it really glosses over problems with the CORE waiver given to eight school districts (see the article about Fresno earlier this post). And I do have to cringe a bit when they use Cambridge Education as an example of a school quality “team” to visit and help schools facing challenges (anyone who has had them visit their school knows how awful and useless they really are). But, of course, no report is perfect….

Ed Source also published a piece about the upcoming SMARTER Balanced field test we’ll be having in California next month. May God help us all…