Are L.A.'s Children Ready for School?
Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, Anne R. Pebley, Mary E. Vaiana, Elizabeth Maggio, RAND Labor and Population2004
Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, Anne R. Pebley, Mary E. Vaiana, Elizabeth Maggio, RAND Labor and Population2004
Todd Ziebarth, Education Commission of the States2004
Bryan Hassel and Lucy Steiner, Education Commission of the States2004
In Alabama, a long and tortuous saga of teacher testing has gotten even more complicated. In 1981, the state began requiring new teachers to pass content tests in the subjects they teach. That law was challenged on grounds that it was racially discriminatory, and in 1985 the state dropped the test, though the lawsuit continued to wend its way through various courts for 15 years.
This week, former chief inspector of schools in England, Mike Tomlinson, released a report proposing sweeping changes to the nation's secondary-school accountability system, which currently requires students to pass achievement tests (A-levels) if they want to continue on to university. The changes would transform the A-levels into a new diploma system over the next decade.
In the midst of the ongoing debate over charter schools, this week's New Yorker includes a profile of one highly successful Boston charter school - the Pacific Rim Academy - that serves as a reminder that charters, while not a panacea, offer hope that the hardest-to-teach students don't have to be left behind.
The Washington Post reported on October 19 that PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) membership nationwide has fallen from 12.1 million four decades ago to fewer than six million today. Not even one in four U.S. public schools now has a PTA chapter.
The charter movement has long needed a national voice, a gap the new Charter School Leadership Council is looking to fill. And now the new voice has an old hand to lead it: Nelson Smith. We can't think of a better choice. Nelson has worked with New American Schools for several years, has experience as a federal, state, and local policy maker, is a crack researcher, and a helluva nice guy.
Out in Idaho, which came late to the charter school party (the state's charter school law was only passed in 1998), the public is being invited to comment on proposed new regulations that will significantly alter the charter scene there. They're a mixed bag.