Better Pay for Better Teaching: Making Teacher Compensation Pay Off in the Age of Accountability
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Bryan C. Hassel, Progressive Policy InstituteMay 29, 2002
Overhaul of teacher certification systems needed, says Secretary Paige
Releasing a new report on teacher quality, Education Secretary Rod Paige last week called upon states to radically transform their teacher certification systems by raising standards while lowering the barriers that deter many qualified candidates from entering the public-school classroom. States and universities need to focus on bringing "smart teachers with solid content knowledge" into U.S.
Report card on state testing programs shows North Carolina as number one
North Carolina, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Arizona have America's best testing programs, according to Testing the Testers 2002, a new report from the Princeton Review.
Special ed from the parents' perspective
Chester E. Finn, Jr.American parents are famously content with their own children's schools even while deploring the state of schools in general. Many have speculated on why this is so. The likeliest explanation, I believe, is that parents have an emotional need to believe that they're providing well for their kids and have made suitable educational arrangements for them.
States have spotty track record of intervening in troubled school districts
States may find it tempting to take over failing school systems, but their track record in turning those districts around is mixed. According to the Education Commission of the States, 10 states have intervened in 49 school districts since the late 1980s.
More students eligible for vouchers in Florida after 10 schools fail
The Florida "exit voucher" program that allows students in failing public schools to transfer to private schools at public expense will expand this year. Last week, 10 Sunshine State schools received their second F rating in four years, which makes their pupils-roughly 8,900 in all-eligible for the voucher program.
Another Look at How Members of Congress Exercise School Choice
Janet HeffnerA new Heritage Foundation Backgrounder contains the findings of a 2001 survey that looked at how members of Congress practice school choice. (A similar survey was conducted in 2000.) It turns out that forty-seven percent of House members and fifty-one percent of senators have children who attend or have attended private schools-percentages far higher than those of the general populace.
Why the black-white test score gap persists
Berkeley linguist John McWhorter has made his name in policy circles by arguing, among other things, that black students do poorly in school due to a strain of anti-intellectualism in African American culture that is a by-product of racism.
The High School Diploma: Making It More Than An Empty Promise
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Russlyn Ali, The Education Trust-WestApril 2002
School Reform: The Critical Issues
Chester E. Finn, Jr.edited by Williamson M. Evers, Lance T. Izumi and Pamela A. Riley, Hoover Institution and Pacific Research Institute, 2001
Beyond instructional leadership
What does it take to be a successful principal? In the 1980s, "effective schools" research introduced the idea of instructional leadership.
Mayoral Influence, New Regimes, and Public School Governance
Terry RyanMichael W. Kirst, Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of EducationMay 2002
To Assure the Free Appropriate Public Education of All Children With Disabilities
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education2001
Education in the Twenty-first Century
Chester E. Finn, Jr.edited by Edward P. Lazear, Hoover Institution2002
Bringing in a New Era in Character Education
Chester E. Finn, Jr.edited by William Damon, Hoover Institution2002
School Boards at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Conditions and Challenges of District Governance
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Frederick Hess, National School Boards Association2002
Illiberal critics of school choice
While the debate over school choice tends to focus on things like whether vouchers weaken public schools by draining away state funds or creaming the best students, most such contentions can be refuted by evidence.
What's with Edison Schools?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Dozens of times in recent weeks, people have asked what I expect will happen to Edison Schools, formerly known as the Edison Project, considering the parlous state of the company's stock price, other signs of financial woe, the gnarly situation in Philadelphia, and the recent separation of Edison from one of its first schools (Boston's Renaissance charter school).No doubt I get asked thi
Children as Pawns: The Politics of Educational Reform
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Timothy A. HacsiMarch 2002
A Decade of Charter Schools: From Theory to Practice
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Katrina Bulkley and Jennifer Fisler, Consortium for Policy Research in EducationApril 2002
Building a Plane While Flying It: Early Lessons from Developing Charter Schools
Terry RyanNoelle C. Griffin and Priscilla Wohlstetter, Teachers College RecordApril 2001
No Child Left Behind Act: A Description of State Responsibilities
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Council of Chief State School OfficersApril 2002 (draft)
Teaching American students to hate America
In the belief that public understanding of the Middle East will strengthen American security, the government subsidizes the work of Middle Eastern studies programs at universities around the country. But while trying to encourage the study of foreign languages and areas of the world that pose a challenge to U.S.
The pitfalls of value-added analysis
In recent months, policymakers and policy wonks alike have been singing the praises of value-added analysis, which focuses on the achievement gains that a school or teacher elicits rather than just looking at how high the students score, since high or low scores of students in a school may reflect the socioeconomic makeup of the student body (and other "input" variables) rather than the quality
Putting the memorial back in Memorial Day
Secretary of Education Rod Paige is asking teachers to help reclaim Memorial Day for its intended purpose of honoring those who have died in service to our country.
Collective bargaining and education policy
Michael PodgurskyConsiderable attention has recently focused on a bill (AB 2160) working its way through the California legislature that would expand the scope of collective bargaining beyond wages and working conditions to include matters of education policy such as curriculum and textbooks. The bill has the strong support of the California Teachers Association, the state's largest teacher union.