Murphy Educational Consulting (MEC)

I was fortunate enough to teach in a school that Dennis Litkey had been the principal of, and to have Elliot Washor as my 6th grade math teacher.  I admired them both and was not at all surprised to learn that they were the creative and intellectual force behind the ‘Big Picture Schools’.  I am still learning more about them, and would like to visit one in person.  For those not familiar with these schools, click here for a good article, and click here for the Big Picture Company website.

A new study finds that states with genuinely alternative teacher certificationprograms have greater representation of minority teachers inschools and higher achievement gains among students.  The report is authored by Paul E. Peterson, the director of the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Daniel Nadler, a PEPG research associate.  Peterson and Nadler found that students attending schools in states with genuine alternative certification programs gained 4.8 points in 4th grade math, and 7.6 points in 8th-grade math, than did students in the other states.   Test-score gains were also larger among African Americans in the states with genuine alternative certification. 

Click here to read more.

The layout is a little rough around the edges right now, but Alexander Russo is on to something with his new blog of blogs, called the ‘Big Bad Edu-Blog’.  It’s a collection of blog entires and news reports from around the world.  In one glance I saw interesting topics that I never would have seen otherwise, even with the 20+ blogs that I read regularly!  Check it out: http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/bigbadedublog/