Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk
Richard H. Hersh and John Merrow, editorsPalgrave Macmillan, publishers2005
Richard H. Hersh and John Merrow, editorsPalgrave Macmillan, publishers2005
Alicia Diaz and Joan Lord, Southern Regional Education Board2005
Lauren E. Allen, Eric Osthoff, Paula White, and Judy Swanson, Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform2005
National Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsAugust 2005
What could possibly be nasty enough to slash recess, eliminate gym class, demolish the arts, cause childhood obesity, increase anxiety, and now, slight of all slights, trim little Susie's summer vacation? But of course: the evil No Child Left Behind Act!
The Dukes of Hazzard isn't the only Southern revival this summer: the recent NAEP scores show southern states accelerating faster than the General Lee.
At their mid-summer meeting last month, the governors rededicated themselves to high school reform - and sought to demonstrate that commitment by asserting near-consensus on a uniform definition of completion rates, one that, properly done, could go a distance toward standardizing America's miserably uneven and often dishonest data on high school graduates and dropouts (see Gadfly comm
Gadfly can only imagine the expressions of shock and awe as ed school profs and deans awoke at their favorite summering spots to find the Grey Lady of Times Square asking, "Who Needs Education Schools?" The answer, according to this expansive and mostly astute article by Anemona Hartacollis, is pretty much nobody.
Last week's Time was all about "being 13." Its conclusion: "Today's 13-year-olds, growing up in a world more connected, more competitive, more complex than the one their parents had to navigate as kids, so far show every sign of rising to the challenge." Perhaps, but are their schools "rising to the challenge," too?