Expect Miracles: Charter Schools and the Politics of Hope and Despair
Peter Cookson, and Kristina Berger2002
Peter Cookson, and Kristina Berger2002
Sara Mead, Progressive Policy InstituteSeptember 12, 2002
Scott Joftus, Alliance for Excellent EducationSeptember 2002
Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider2002
Earlier this month, the Gadfly reviewed a study of the effectiveness of Teach for America participants and other teachers without full certification in Arizona, a study that we found to be severely flawed.
Even more big guns were brought out by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) to evaluate a small study that examined the effectiveness of teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in Tennessee. That study (actually a 4-page brief followed by 4 pages of data), by J.E.
Some businesses and corporate foundations are limiting or withdrawing their funding of public education after seeing little improvement as a result of their support. Companies complain that education's bureaucracy, internal squabbling and foot-dragging prevent corporate dollars from reaching and impacting students and classrooms.
The Supreme Court's decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris will not bring an end to the challenges faced by publicly funded voucher programs.
Private schools are increasingly feeling the heat to release data about their students' achievement, acceptances into college, and other vital performance statistics, though some contend that these schools need only be accountable to parents, not to the general public.
Did you ever wonder how they think about politics, policy and the future of teacher education at the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), principal trade association of the ed schools? See for yourself by surfing to http://www2.gasou.edu/coe/july.htm ("Contextual Scan -- July 2002").
For those tracking Washington's handling of federal education research, statistics and assessment (you can find previous Gadfly commentaries on this subject at http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=66#983 and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/
The public-school choice provisions of No Child Left Behind have been getting plenty of attention in recent weeks, mostly negative. It's time to reflect more broadly and candidly on the potential of public-school choice to solve vexing education problems.That potential seems limited at best.
Jay Mathews of The Washington Post is generally a fan of standards and tests, but in a recent column in Washingtonpost.com he praises Deborah Meier's newest anti-testing book, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization.
In Massachusetts, 81 percent of the class of 2003 has already passed the state's high-stakes MCAS test and is scheduled to graduate next spring, but the 19 percent of students who have not yet passed it are now the subject of a federal lawsuit.