California Education Report Card, Index of Leading Indicators, Third Edition
Lance T. Izumi with Matt Cox, Pacific Research InstituteAugust 2003
Lance T. Izumi with Matt Cox, Pacific Research InstituteAugust 2003
Louis G. Tornatzky, Harry P. Pachon, and Celina Torres, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and the Tomas Rivera Policy InstituteAugust 2003
Bryan Goodwin, Mid-continent Research for Education and LearningJuly 2003
The No Child Left Behind rubber is hitting the education road, where it's producing a lot of screeching brakes, skid marks and, especially, honking. A flock of noisy Canadian geese makes less noise than American public education griping about NCLB, the changes it is forcing, the injustices it is said to be inflicting and the difficulties of implementing it as Congress intended.
Around the country, the economic downturn and state and local budget shortfalls are forcing some schools to charge students to participate in activities that used to be open to all, free of charge.
As part of No Child Left Behind, states are now required to report what percentage of their teachers are "highly qualified" - in other words, what percentage has a bachelor's degree, state certification and clear knowledge of the subject they teach. It's that last clause that has many teachers and union officials up in arms.
So the news is good from the College Board: SAT scores are up sharply. That suggests that the strategies of recent years have been paying off, that students are taking more academic courses, and that they have greater incentive to prepare for tests like the SAT.
While many people hope that mayoral control will fix what ails big city school systems, reformers in New York City are beginning to realize that this Great Man approach may not, in fact, get the job done. Mayor Michael Bloomberg won control of the school system but what is he doing with it?
In the last Gadfly, we reported (without pleasure) on a South Carolina school district that was promoting grade inflation by mandating that no student could receive less than a 62 (out of 100) in his or her first semester.