The Twin Challenges of Mediocrity and Inequality: Literacy in the U.S. from an International Perspective
Andrew Sum, Irwin Kirsch and Robert Taggart, Policy Information Center, Educational Testing ServiceFebruary 2002
Andrew Sum, Irwin Kirsch and Robert Taggart, Policy Information Center, Educational Testing ServiceFebruary 2002
Chang-Tai Hsieh and Miguel Urquiola, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityJanuary 2002
Edited by Iris Weiss, Michael Knapp, Karen Hollweg and Gail Burrill, National Research Council2001
Secretary Rod Paige has just released a five-year strategic plan for the U.S. Department of Education that seeks to bring real accountability to the Department's own functions. Combining elements of the No Child Left Behind Act with the President's management agenda, the plan sets six strategic goals for the agency, each with specific objectives and performance measures.
Yesterday, a House education subcommittee "marked up" H.R. 3801, which was recently introduced by subcommittee chairman Michael Castle (R-Delaware), committee chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) and several other GOP congressmen.
Jerry Ellig and Kenneth Kelly, Texas Review of Law & PoliticsSpring 2002
Committee on Economic Development2002
Recent events make painfully clear that we cannot take the spread of democracy for granted, writes American Federation of Teachers president Sandy Feldman in her monthly "Where We Stand" column. Devotion to human dignity and freedom, to equal rights, and to the rule of law must be taught and learned and practiced.
As readers may recall, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation keeps one eye focused on education reform issues at the national level and the other trained on K-12 education developments in Dayton, Ohio, where the Foundation had its origins and is engaged in a number of projects.Dayton is more interesting than you might think for education reformers.
The new federal education law, the No Child Left Behind Act, demands in many places that programs funded by federal dollars be supported by "scientifically based research," but among practitioners, and even some researchers, there is great uncertainty about what this means. To clarify what scientifically based research is and to explain why it is so crucial, the U.S.
While opponents of standardized testing continue to attract attention in the media, a national survey released by Public Agenda this week found that support for turning back the clock on the standards movement is virtually nonexistent among parents (2 percent), teachers (1 percent), employers (2 percent), and college professors (1 percent), with very large majorities among each group also viewi
Jerry P. Gollub, et al.National Academy of Science, Committee on Programs for Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in American High SchoolsFebruary 2002
Kalman Hettleman.The Abell Foundation February 2002
Paul Shaker and Elizabeth HeilmanPolicy Perspectives, American Association of Colleges for Teacher EducationJanuary 2002
Final Report, David Myers, Paul Peterson, et al.Mathematica Policy Research and the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance February 2002
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is less than two months old but it's already yowling and a lot of people are nervous about it, not unlike new parents unsure how best to soothe a crying infant.This is an enormous piece of legislation that possibly nobody has read from cover to cover.
Heated arguments about the most effective form of reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community, but yet another review of the research has found beyond dispute that "teaching that makes the rules of phonics clear will ultimately be more successful than teaching that does not." So conclude five professors of psychology, linguistics and pediatrics in a cover story in this month
Two years ago, the Cincinnati Public Schools launched a teacher evaluation system in which teachers were measured against 17 standards, with the results to be linked to compensation and career advancement for individual teachers. Last week, the district announced that teachers who rated the highest under the evaluation system also produced the greatest gains in student achievement.
President Bush's commission on special education, charged with recommending areas of reform to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), held hearings in Houston this week. Some expected the hearings to be attended only by representatives of special education advocacy groups opposed to any changes in IDEA, which is soon up for reauthorization.
If you spent last week on another planet and missed the press coverage of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on the Cleveland voucher program, you can catch up with the help of The Economist ("School Vouchers: A Supreme Opportunity," February 23, 2002.)
The National Commission on Service-LearningJanuary 2002
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Michael Cohen, Jobs for the Future and The Aspen InstituteDecember 2001
Paul E. Barton, Educational Testing ServiceJuly 2001
David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill2001
General Accounting OfficeFebruary 1, 2002
The big problem with the usual approaches to improving schools is that we fiddle with all kinds of things except the one thing that really matters, which is instructional practice, according to Harvard's Dick Elmore. Putting pressure on schools to improve won't work unless teachers know what to do at the level of practice, and Elmore says they don't.