Tough Choices for Tough Times: Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
National Center on Education and the Economy2006
National Center on Education and the Economy2006
Christopher B. Swanson and Janelle BarlageEditorial Projects in Education Research CenterDecember 2006
"Homophily." The word means "love of the same," and it recently landed in the New York Times Magazine's 6th Annual Year in Ideas, listed directly after "Hidden-Fee Economy, The" and directly before "Human-Chimp Hybrids."
Spokane business teacher Scott Carlson doesn't think the Washington Education Association (WEA), of which he is not a member, should be able to raid his paycheck to fund its political causes without his permission. Oddly, the Washington state Supreme Court disagrees.
Too bad Jimmy Carter is busy deflecting charges that he's anti-Israel and a plagiarizer--his prowess as an election observer was recently needed in Roseville, Minnesota. By most accounts, Jasmine White should be student council president of Central Park Elementary in said town.
Last week, Gadfly noted Philadelphia Mayor John Street's bold strategy of threatening parents of truant students with jail time. Forget the students--what about the teachers?
Though many critics continue to decry them, charters are not only here to stay, but expanding rapidly (to over 3600 nationwide in 2005-06). And this year’s National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) report explores, among other topics, the impact they are having on parents, districts, and other education stakeholders.
With so many voices singing KIPP’s praises over the last few months (see here, here, and
The General Assembly is now debating House Bill 695, which would create a new system of secondary schools dedicated to stronger science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.
Internet schools or “e-schools” are a rapidly expanding sector of Ohio’s charter schools. Taking their inspiration from myriad distance learning programs across the country, the state’s e-schools provide parents another viable option for educating their children.
Principal Al Sanchez thought he was doing the student a favor. When Fidel Maldonado Jr.--a 15-year-old at Rio Grande High School and a boxer--showed up on campus with what Sanchez took to be a gang-style haircut, he gave the student a choice. Shave it off or face suspension.
National Conference of State Legislatures, Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher EducationOctober 2006
Bryan C. Hassel, Emily Ayscue-Hassel, and Julie KowalNational Association of Charter School Authorizers2006
Regarding last week's editorial ("‘Just Do It' just won't do it," November 30th) about bringing every child to proficiency in reading and math by 2014, it should be noted that not even KIPP (or Amistad or Northstar) has achieved 100 percent proficiency. Neither has Singapore or Sweden.
At last week's American Enterprise Institute-Fordham conference on the No Child Left Behind Act's "remedies" for low-performing schools, paper after paper reported how little use is being made of that law's "public school choice" option for kids whose present schools
Teachers union, which have defended the "single salary schedule" like the Rock of Gibraltar, are beginning to sign on to "combat pay", i.e. bonuses for teaching in high-poverty schools. Both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Bay State's AFT chapter recently announced their support for this form of "differential" pay.
Who knew that the New Republic's Jonathan Chait had such love for the free market? But there he was the other day in the Los Angeles Times, the liberal writer doing his best imitation of F.A. Hayek.
Forget the sleek and powerful PS3. Designers for the nonprofit project One Laptop Per Child have modified a conventional computer and made it ultra portable, energy efficient, and incredibly cheap. The new $150 laptop will be making its way into the hands of millions of students in developing countries in mid-2007.
"Anti-poverty paternalism." Applied to education, it means teaching "middle class" habits to poor children and rewiring the dysfunctional behaviors and values imparted by neighborhoods and, sometimes, parents (see
So many insights, memories, and tributes have been lavished upon the late great Milton Friedman since his death on November 16th that we can add little. We suspect, however, that many Gadfly readers are acquainted primarily with Friedman's extraordinary contributions to education policy. He was, quite simply, the intellectual and spiritual father of school choice in America.
For information on Fordham's unique role as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, there's no better source than The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report 2005-06. The report offers a comprehensive account of Fordham's sponsorship policies and practices-as well as individual profiles of all Fordham-sponsored schools. Included in the profiles are descriptions of each school's educational program, school philosophy, and overall academic performance based on state achievement data.
Krista KaferGoldwater Institute Policy Report #212October 17, 2006
People are up in arms over a book about... gay penguins? Written for children ages 4 to 8, And Tango Makes Three is an illustrated children's book about two male penguins raising a chick as their own.
As far as legislative loopholes go, few are more preposterous than NCLB's provision that districts, rather than submit to serious reform prescriptions for their chronically failing schools, may undertake "any other major restructuring of the school's governance that produces fundamental reform." But while this invitation to tread the path of least resistance usually results in
Linda Seebach takes Gadfly to task in her recent Rocky Mountain News column for dumb demographic data and for leaving key questions unanswered. She's right that our generalizations about Middle America--made in last issue's "Heartland blues"--don't hold up very well in Colorado.
Common sense says principals should be able to hire the teachers they want and need. But in the realm of public education, where common sense is scant, school leaders, entangled in webs of collective bargaining and union-created staffing rules, are often forced to hire teachers that other schools reject. California is the first state to do something about it.
What are the odds of being able to grade 45 million standardized reading and math exams without error? If you said less than 1 percent, you're right. In just one recent example of a testing snafu, an Alabama school had a dozen students leave for greener pastures after state tests wrongly labeled it a failing institution.
The No Child Left Behind Act has 7 more years to meet its incredibly ambitious goal of educating 100 percent of U.S. school children to no less than "proficient" in reading and math.
Do you do whatever it takes for children to learn? Do you want to have a lasting impact?Do you want the power to make it happen?