Taking Charge: Urban High School Students Speak Out About MCAS, Academics and Extra-Help Programs
Mass Insight EducationMarch 2002
Mass Insight EducationMarch 2002
National Center for Education StatisticsMarch 2002
Brian Gong, Council of Chief State School OfficersJanuary 2002
edited by Richard J. Shavelson and Lisa Towne, National Research Council Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research, National Academy of Science2002
General Accounting OfficeApril 2002
James Traub visits the front lines in the class war over standardized testing in a cover story in this week's New York Times Magazine. First he reports from a low-achieving school in Mount Vernon, New York, where he observes "test preparation with a vengeance," but, he notes, test prep that seems to work.
Over the objections of parents and local officials, the Japanese government announced last week that the school week would be scaled back to five days, with the curriculum pared back as well. See "Public Schools Start 5-day Week," Yomiuri Shimbun, April 6, 2002.
Which are in worse shape, high schools or middle schools? Jay Mathews writes that one thing he has learned from talking to parents for the past 20 years is that "there are no good middle schools," even in the wealthiest neighborhoods. But a small group of schools being launched under the KIPP banner may be changing that.
High school Advanced Placement (AP) classes have long been viewed as the gold standard for secondary education, something that more high schools should offer and more students, especially disadvantaged students, should avail themselves of. But this respected program has taken some hits in recent months, according to an article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times.
There's wide agreement that U.S. high schools urgently need reforming, due to their dismaying drop out rates, paltry test scores and the testimony of employers and college professors that their graduates are ill-prepared for adult challenges. There is also wide agreement that the sprawling "comprehensive" high school devised by James B.