How Well Are American Students Learning?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Tom Loveless, Brown Center on Education Policy, Brookings InstitutionSeptember 2002
Who Should We Help? The Negative Social Consequences of Merit Scholarships
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Harvard Civil Rights ProjectAugust 23, 2002
The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College
Allison ColeJacques Steinberg2002
Postsecondary Progression of 1993-94 Florida Public High School Graduates
Chester E. Finn, Jr.John Wenders, Idahoans for Tax ReformAugust 2002
On being an American
September 3, 2002I just finished reading a sampling of the essays contained in your report on September 11 and can only hope that the report gets the wide circulation that it deserves.
Spelling bee mania
This week's New York Times Magazine contained a fascinating profile of the quirky Goldstein family of West Hempstead, NY-the von Trapps of the spelling bee world.
New York bishops demand school choice
Cardinal Edward Egan and other New York bishops have charged state politicians with violating poor parents' "fundamental rights" by condemning kids to failing public schools and denying them the option to attend parochial schools.
Declining graduation rates masked by official statistics
While the National Educational Goals Panel and others have reported high school graduation rates remaining essentially stable (around 86 percent) over the last decade, the graduation rate has actually fallen if students receiving GEDs are not included in those numbers, according to an article by Duncan Chaplin of the Urban Institute that appears in the new issue of Education Next.
Fast-track applicants fail Massachusetts teacher test
Aspiring teachers in the Bay State did not do as well on their tests. More than half of the applicants who were accepted into the state's fast-track teacher certification program contingent upon their passing the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure failed the test, according to an analysis by a critic of the fast-track program.
MCAS scores improve, achievement gap narrowed
One year after pass rates on the MCAS exam rose significantly-a gain which was dismissed as a fluke by opponents of Massachusetts' high-stakes testing program-scores on the test have risen yet again, though this round of gains is smaller than last year's.
New hope for urban schools
Terry RyanContrary to many people's glum assumption, urban school systems are not all education disaster zones. Nor are they all alike. Some, in fact, are far more effective than others at educating children-and we're beginning to understand why that is and what might enable other urban school systems to turn themselves around.
A mini-history of the school choice movement
As he ends his tenure as president of Children First America, a private scholarship program, school choice icon Fritz Steiger offers some closing remarks and thanks to his allies. His final "Voice for Choice" statement reads like a mini-history and who's who of the school choice movement. "A Voice for Choice," Fritz S.
Why aren't there more suburban charter schools?
Why haven't charter schools taken greater hold in suburban areas in most states?