The Quantum Opportunity Program Demonstration: Implementation and Short-Term Impacts
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Myles Mayfield, Allen Schirm, and Ruria Rodriguez-Planas, Mathematica Policy Research August 2003
Administrative Costs of Education Voucher Programs
Carolyn ConnerPaul T. Hill, Center on Reinventing Public Education September 2003
The Economics of School Choice
Eric OsbergCaroline M. Hoxby, editor, National Bureau of Economic Research2003
What New "AYP" Information Tells us About Schools, States, and Public Education
Carolyn ConnerDaria Hall, Ross Wiener, and Kevin Carey, Education Trust2003
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].
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.
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.
Charter challenges all over
Life is getting harder for charter schools and those seeking to start them. In Massachusetts, word comes this week that new charter applications are down more than 50 percent--just 14, compared to 35 last year.
A new investment in school choice?
Alexander RussoEarlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a somewhat unusual addition to its K-12 portfolio: nearly $19 million over five years to expand the "Cristo Rey" schools nationwide.On the surface, this announcement appeared to be no more than a new element in the $450 million Gates Foundation effort to promote
Are school-choice funders wasting their money?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Observing Congressional vote-counting for the beleaguered D.C. voucher bill, one of America's sagest observers of the school choice scene asked the other day if I had noticed that the tireless and costly grass-roots efforts of innumerable pro-choice organizations seem to be having absolutely no effect on the willingness of individual Senators and Representatives to vote for the measure?
Unions fight virtual academy
Education Minnesota, the state teachers' union, filed suit on Thursday to shut down the Minnesota Virtual Academy, an online school that is a partnership between a small Minnesota school district and K12, the online curriculum provider founded by former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett.