What to read while celebrating the holidays (besides your favorite education news site):

Shameless Self-Promotion (Jay Mathews Department): In his column today, the renowned Washington Post education columnist and I discuss what  aspects on which education reporters and school reformers should focus. Jay argues for focusing on what happens in classrooms; you know where I stand. Read, consider and take action.

Why Teacher Quality Matters, Florida Division: At RedefinEd, Doug Tuthill recalls one of his studies on the relationship between Florida’s school ratings system and teacher quality. As the Los Angeles Times showed in its series this year, and what has been determined by CALDER in its own study released last month, Tuthill learned that there were greater variations between teachers within schools than across schools. Which furthers the point that there is a critical need to reform how teachers are recruited, trained and compensated. Principals must also have power to shape their teaching staffs to improve student achievement, a problem that the reform efforts at a school in Los Angeles, Edwin Markham Middle School, demonstrates to the max. Tuthill also notes that part of the problem in Florida in improving teacher quality in schools lies with the state’s class size laws, which require principals to bring is as many teachers as needed to keep student-teacher ratios low. Chances are that other state laws, along with collective bargaining agreements — which often reserve control of staffing to central districts and allow for seniority-bumping of younger teachers — are also part of the problem.

The Democratic Party Divide Over School Reform, California Department: The Sacramento Bee has finally noticed a topic of discussion here at this site and in my American Spectator columns: The growing divide between centrist and progressive Democrat school reformers and the affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. The piece offers a short, but comprehensive primer on what once-and-future governor Jerry Brown faces when he returns to office in two weeks. Given that Brown will also have to cut education spending in order to deal with the state’s virtual insolvency (and his own work co-founding two charter schools during his tenure as Oakland mayor), expect him to end up more on the side of school reformers than on the side of the teachers unions who helped get him elected.

Diane Ravitch Still Can’t Find Her Brain: Part XIX: The man who helped write the No Child Left Behind Act into reality, Sandy Kress, gives the one-esteemed education historian the business for failing to get the facts right on the impact of the law on student achievement. Meanwhile Andrew Blumenfeld of Students for Education Reform analyzes Ravitch’s appearance with Pedro Noguera and other status quo defenders on campus and calls out the university for hosting a teachers “union rally”. Enough said.

While you are enjoying your holiday, listen to this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast on the economic gifts that come with education, and check out the This is Dropout Nation and Education As a Civil Right collections on school reform. And enjoy some Aretha for Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all! And thanks for reading, linking and participating!