Friends,

Recently on The NewsHour we shared the continuing struggles of school superintendents Michelle Rhee in DC and Paul Vallas in New Orleans. We are now editing episode four of both series. This week we bring you two new podcasts from that series.


DC Mayor Weighs in on Reform
Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chancellor Rhee are moving quickly to make big changes in DC's failing schools. But their controversial proposal to fire central office employees and close 23 schools has left some feeling that that they are moving too fast. In this podcast, Mayor Fenty gives Chancellor Rhee an interim performance grade on a 'report card.' He also talks candidly about their controversial plan.
Listen to the podcast >>>



Just One of Me and A Lot of Them
Helen Miller, a single mother in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, works full time to provide for her family of five. While she applauds Superintendent Paul Vallas' initiatives to keep youth in school and out of the street, Ms. Miller is afraid that her 16 year-old son, Antoine, will become one of New Orleans' notorious statistics. In this podcast, Ms. Miller shares her concerns for her kids and, ultimately, the schools of New Orleans. Listen to the podcast >>>


Missed the original broadcasts? Watch them online.


Best wishes,




Questions? Comments? Email me.


Funding for our podcasts is provided by the Annenberg, William & Flora Hewlett, Bill & Melinda Gates and Wallace Foundations.

Friends,


I have two items that I hope you will be interested in. The first is our new podcast, a lively back-and-forth between the current Chancellor of the New York schools and a former Chancellor. Last September Rudy Crew, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Board of Education, talked with Jay Mathews of the Washington Post. In this audio podcast, these two superintendents say some things that may surprise you. The panel was part of the Broad Foundation Urban Education Award Ceremony in Washington, DC.



LMI Appoints New Board Chair
I am delighted to announce that Joshua J. Kaufman has been unanimously selected as Chair of the Board of Directors of Learning Matters, Inc. He succeeds the late William E. McAnulty, Jr., the founding Chair, who succumbed to cancer in August 2007. Josh, a Washington attorney specializing in copyright, intellectual property, media and literary law at Venable, has been a member of the LMI Board since its founding in 1995.



Best wishes,




P.S. My colleagues at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching have recently put out a valuable new resource, The Formation of Scholars: Re-thinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century (Jossey-Bass, Jan 2008). The book explores the state of U.S. doctoral education and shows how doctoral programs can be made more powerful. The Formation of Scholars is the fruit of five years of research by the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. Find out more or order the book.


Questions? Comments? Email me.


Funding for our podcasts is provided by the Annenberg, Hewlett, Gates and Wallace Foundations.