The teacher as civic agitator
Amy KassFor more than 30 years, I've been - or at least, have tried to be - an agitator. The classroom has been my bailiwick, unsuspecting and complacent students my target. I am the sort of teacher who aims less to please than to annoy, to stir things up, to agitate.
On standards, the status quo strikes back
According to the California state board of education's definition of a "persistently dangerous" school, there are no persistently dangerous schools in the state.
Reforming Relationships: School Districts, External Organizations, and Systemic Change
Terry RyanThe driving premise behind this Annenberg funded report is this: Districts need help in meeting the student achievement goals now being established by state and federal policies.
Students on high school: stupid, boring, waste
It's hardly news to say that students complain about school being boring. But it ought to give us pause that such a wide and varied range of students report, contemptuously, that America's high schools are almost uniformly incapable of sparking their intellectual interest.
Charters faced with increased regulation
As the number of charter schools has grown across the country, so has the number of bureaucratic requirements and red tape surrounding charter school operation.
NEA comes out swinging against NCLB
In case you were wondering, the National Education Association has decided that it opposes the No Child Left Behind Act. Meeting in New Orleans this week, union members approved a plan to lobby Congress to drop or amend major portions of the law, allow states control over when its accountability measures will - if ever - take effect, and provide new federal funding for its implementation.
Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools: Measuring the Challenge
Greg Forster, Marcus A. WintersRichard Fry, Pew Hispanic CenterJune 2003
Standards-based Middle Grades Reform in Six Urban Districts, 1995-2001
Kathleen Porter-MageeThe Edna McConnell Clark Foundation2003
Bloomberg gives up on English language immersion
One of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's grand campaign promises was a pledge to reform bilingual education.
Private Schools for the Poor: A Case Study From India
James Tooley and Pauline Dixon, Centre for British TeachersMay 2003
The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2002
Chester E. Finn, Jr.National Center for Education StatisticsJune 2003
The State of District charters
Last week the Washington Post ran a two-part series (by Justin Blum and Jay Mathews) on the state of D.C. charter schools. It's a good summary of how the schools are doing compared to traditional public schools (mixed) and the effect they're having on the D.C. school system (scant).
Special ed: close, but no reform
Patrick WolfSpecial ed reform is in the air. The House has passed and the Senate has introduced bills to overhaul the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Support for graduation requirements not what it seems
While you're right that more than 80 percent of Americans support graduation requirements in theory [see "Resist urge to 'refine' graduation testing"], when faced with the reality of the impact on their communities and children, support will inevitably drop.
Higher standards or grade inflation?
In what may prove a classic case of unintended consequences, California school districts, in a supposed effort to raise standards, are launching "No-D" grading policies, which require students to earn a C or better to pass a course.
Civics and history bill moves forward
Senator Lamar Alexander's excellent bill to create national academies to strengthen education in civics and history for both teachers and high school students has sailed through the Senate.
D.C. vouchers: past the point of no return?
Color us na??ve, but it seems like the stars may be aligning for a serious test of school vouchers in the District of Columbia. Tuesday, the House Government Reform Committee held hearings on a bill (H.R. 2556) that would provide private school tuition scholarships of up to $7,500 to low-income children in the nation's capital. Testifying in support were Secretary of Education Rod Paige, D.C.
Making the Michigan cases moot
It happens that the Supreme Court's decision in two affirmative action cases came out just days after the release of the latest reading results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The latter show clearly that America still faces a wide education achievement gap between white and minority students.
The Performance of California Charter Schools
Kathleen Porter-MageeMargaret E. Raymond, CREDO, Hoover Institution at Stanford UniversityMay 2003
Research Perspectives on School Reform: Lessons from the Annenberg Challenge
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown UniversityMarch 2003
Performance-Driven Budgeting: The Example of New York City's Schools
Eric OsbergDorothy Siegel, ERIC Digest 168 May 2003
Teaching Children to Read: The Fragile Links Between Science and Federal Education Policy
Kathleen Porter-MageeGregory Camilli and others, National Institute for Early Education
Teach for America caught in AmeriCorps cuts
This week, the national service program AmeriCorps announced that it has been forced to make drastic cuts in its grant programs, due to past-year overruns and a continuing impasse on how it accounts for the education awards earned by members.
High School Issue Papers: For Youth and Adult Groups Organizing to Transform High School Education in the United States
Kathleen Porter-MageeIn an effort to refocus attention on high schools - "the weakest link in a troubled education system" - the reform group Research for Democracy compiled this series of short essays on high school reform. Though their recommendations and research are not earth shattering, they underscore the need for higher standards and increased accountability for student achievement and teacher quality.
Is history, history?
An unintended consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act is that, due to the pressure to boost pupil achievement in reading, math, and science (the subjects tested under the federal law), schools are neglecting other valuable subjects, not least of which are history, civics, and geography - aka "social studies." Maryland, for example, no longer mandates assessments in history and social studie
Four Wars
Chester E. Finn, Jr.No, this is not about Iraq but about four raging education battles, three in Washington and one in academe, all with mega policy implications. On the surface, each looks like a conflict between "keep it the way it is even though it isn't working" and "change it even though that'll be disruptive." Not far below is a tussle over - what else? - jobs, power, money, influence, and legitimacy.
Accountability rollback in CA
Last month a study predicted that 20 percent of California's class of 2004 may fail the state's high school exit exam due to inadequate preparation.
A grand bargain on teacher pay?
Matthew Miller thinks he's got the answer to teacher shortages in America's toughest schools - and maybe he does, since he's brought to the table both teacher union president Sandra Feldman and Fordham president Chester Finn.