Illinois: The New Leader in Education Reform?

Describes Illinois education advocates' collaborative efforts to finalize legislation overhauling state policies on teacher hiring, tenure, layoffs, and dismissal, with a focus on effectiveness. Offers lessons learned about engaging multiple stakeholders

Putting a Price Tag on the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost?

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English language arts and mathematics represent a sea change in standards-based reform and their implementation is the movement's next -- and greatest -- challenge. Yet, while most states have now set forth implementation plans, these tomes seldom address the crucial matter of cost. Putting a Price Tag on the Common Core: How Much Will Smart Implementation Cost? estimates the implementation cost for each of the forty-five states (and the District of Columbia) that have adopted the Common Core State Standards and shows that costs naturally depend on how states approach implementation. Authors Patrick J. Murphy of the University of San Francisco and Elliot Regenstein of EducationCounsel LLC illustrate this with three models

These Are the People in Your Neighborhood

The 1997 St. Louis Rams media guide contains a glowing description of the team\u27s star rookie from the prior season. The guide highlights his brilliant college career, describes his solid first professional season, and mentions that he grew up in Los Angeles. In a gray box above his football statistics, it notes that he frequently visits the Emergency Children\u27s Home (ECHO) for troubled youth, where he talks to kids and plays basketball with them. The description would all look pretty normal if it wasn\u27t a portrait of Lawrence Phillips. Almost every other sporting publication has written of Phillips not as a mentor to underprivileged youth, but as the man who in 1995 savagely beat Kate McEwen, a University of Nebraska basketball player and Phillips\u27s former girlfriend. The Rams media guide story about Phillips helping children is apparently true. But, unfortunately, so are the stories of his driving recklessly, missing team meetings, and assaulting a woman in Florida in June 1998

Food Stamp Trafficking: Why Small Groceries Need Judicial Protection from the Department of Agriculture (And from Their Own Employees)

A neon sign in the window of 7-Van Drugs reads Food Stamps, but the contradictory truth is posted inside on a handwritten sign taped to a thick pane of bulletproof plastic. 7-Van Drugs sits at the intersection of Seven Mile Road and Van Dyke in northern Detroit, where it has serv[ ed] the community since 1948 at the same corner. Inside 7-Van is an array of staple foods and basic household cleaning items, and there is a small pharmacy in the back. Customers must use a turnstile to pass their purchases through the bulletproof plastic to the cashier. There are no open windows, which could afford a clean shot. There is, however, a small slot to pass money back and forth, and above it is taped a pink piece of paper that says in black magic marker We don\u27t accept food stamps

These Are the People in Your Neighborhood

The 1997 St. Louis Rams media guide contains a glowing description of the team\u27s star rookie from the prior season. The guide highlights his brilliant college career, describes his solid first professional season, and mentions that he grew up in Los Angeles. In a gray box above his football statistics, it notes that he frequently visits the Emergency Children\u27s Home (ECHO) for troubled youth, where he talks to kids and plays basketball with them. The description would all look pretty normal if it wasn\u27t a portrait of Lawrence Phillips. Almost every other sporting publication has written of Phillips not as a mentor to underprivileged youth, but as the man who in 1995 savagely beat Kate McEwen, a University of Nebraska basketball player and Phillips\u27s former girlfriend. The Rams media guide story about Phillips helping children is apparently true. But, unfortunately, so are the stories of his driving recklessly, missing team meetings, and assaulting a woman in Florida in June 1998

Food Stamp Trafficking: Why Small Groceries Need Judicial Protection from the Department of Agriculture (And from Their Own Employees)

A neon sign in the window of 7-Van Drugs reads Food Stamps, but the contradictory truth is posted inside on a handwritten sign taped to a thick pane of bulletproof plastic. 7-Van Drugs sits at the intersection of Seven Mile Road and Van Dyke in northern Detroit, where it has serv[ ed] the community since 1948 at the same corner. Inside 7-Van is an array of staple foods and basic household cleaning items, and there is a small pharmacy in the back. Customers must use a turnstile to pass their purchases through the bulletproof plastic to the cashier. There are no open windows, which could afford a clean shot. There is, however, a small slot to pass money back and forth, and above it is taped a pink piece of paper that says in black magic marker We don\u27t accept food stamps