Displaying 1-30 of 55 results
Commentary
10.30.2003

A way out for D.C. schools?

Earlier this month, D.C. mayor Anthony Williams began to lobby for mayoral control over District schools - a move that has been tried in other big cities with mixed results.

Commentary
10.30.2003

Big apple's big charter plans

We are heartened by news that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to dramatically expand the number of Gotham's charter schools from two dozen to more than 50.

Commentary
10.30.2003

Partly right on NCLB

The GOP is responding to allegations that No Child Left Behind is an "unfunded mandate" and that not enough federal dollars are being appropriated for it.

Commentary
10.30.2003

Reader feedback: two cheers for the grassroots

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

In the October 16 Gadfly, I cited a "sage observer" of the school choice scene who suggested that grassroots activism and the large sums being spent thereon are not actually influencing votes in the halls of Congress or state legislatures and that all this money and energy might better be deployed to elect different candidates rather than struggling to change minds of those alr

Commentary
10.30.2003

New standards, old complaints

As reported earlier, Minnesota's swell new social studies standards are out for public comment [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=114#1433]. Now you can read some of these comments and, alas, many are both harsh and moronic.

Commentary
10.30.2003

Chipping away at CA's content requirements

In 1970, on the reasonable assumption that teachers need to know something before they can teach it, California legislators passed the Ryan Act, mandating that people training to become teachers in the Golden State must earn a bachelor's degree before taking classes in pedagogy and suchlike.

Commentary
10.30.2003

Walking on eggshells at P.C.U.

The lack of intellectual diversity on college campuses today is not just an issue for conservatives. On Wednesday, four witnesses, three of them self-proclaimed liberals, talked with the Senate HELP Committee about the dangers of the one-sided education being provided at America's colleges and universities.

Report
10.24.2003
Accountability & Testing, School Finance, Charter Schools

The State Testing Program for Ohio and How It Works: A Primer for Charter Schools

Amy Germuth

With the passage of the politics-governance Act (NCLB), states have had to adjust their accountability systems to comply with federal law. As a result, in the summer of 2003 Ohio's Governor Taft signed House Bill 3, which dramatically changed the state's assessment system and what it means for charter schools. This report helps charter school leaders coordinate their testing and data reporting procedures to meet state and federal guidelines, in the hope that all students might surpass Ohio's academic expectations.

Commentary
10.22.2003

Terrorists are to witches as&

Just as TIME reported that the College Board plans to drop the analogies section from the SAT, education blogger Joanne Jacobs recounts a story about a Kennewick, Washington high school teacher who, after a lesson on the Salem Witch Trials, asked his students to write a "Mass Hysteria Essay" in which they "expose injustices caused by mass hysteria" and "compare the causes and effects o

Commentary
10.22.2003

Setting a low bar for highly qualified teachers

No Child Left Behind requires that, by 2005-6, all classes must be taught by "highly qualified" teachers. That means a teacher must have a college degree, state certification, and demonstrated mastery of the subject s/he teaches. But as with many NCLB provisions, it's up to the states to set their own benchmarks for certification and subject-area mastery.

Commentary
10.22.2003

Faced with stiff penalties, teachers vote to end strike

We recently reported on a group of resourceful students and parents in Marysville, Washington who lobbied the governor, held a press conference, and went to court to try to get their teachers to end the longest teachers strike in state history.

Commentary
10.22.2003

Federal grants support teachers, charters and choice

To help states comply with the highly-qualified teacher and school-choice provisions of NCLB, the Department of Education recently awarded more than $13 million in grants to several organizations to help attract able professionals into teaching, to inform families of their educational options under NCLB, and to expand and study charter school achievement.

Commentary
10.22.2003

Who needs school boards?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Eighteen long years ago, Denis Doyle and I wrote this in the New York Times:

Commentary
10.22.2003

Who put test makers and newsweeklies in charge?

With application deadlines looming, popular magazines have recently devoted much space to college admissions. TIME's cover story this week highlights changes the College Board has made to the new SAT, noting that it is "an exhaustive revision largely intended to mold the U.S.

Commentary
10.15.2003

The politics of foreign policy funding

A few weeks ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks penned an editorial in which he talked about academe's not-so-subtle bias against center-right or conservative viewpoints [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=117#1474].

Commentary
10.15.2003

Seeds of hope

The latest in Jay Mathews's Washington Post series on innovative teachers features Rafe Esquith, a middle school teacher in Los Angeles who has created an oasis of excellence inside his educationally arid public school.

Commentary
10.15.2003

Show them what they've won!

The European Union, in what Gadfly can only call a retrograde move, recently awarded a grant to a school in Italy that teaches young Italian women the skills they need to become game show hosts and showgirls.