Federal Bilingual Education Programs in Massachusetts: "But Do They Help the Children?"
Don Soifer, Lexington Institute, September 2001
Don Soifer, Lexington Institute, September 2001
Gerald Bracey, 2001
While there are increasing calls for principals to be held accountable for producing results, in few places are principals given much power over staffing their schools or spending school budgets.
The Los Angeles Unified School District's ambitious plan to reform secondary education and boost literacy in the upper grades has been derailed at least temporarily by the objections of teacher and administrator unions.
On November 2, the American Federation of Teachers released a hefty (235-page) report entitled Making Standards Matter 2001. It's an ambitious effort to appraise academic standards, curriculum, assessments and accountability arrangements in each of the fifty states and for the country as a whole.
Thanks to a black minister and a retired marine, roughly 450 students in St. Louis are attending private schools financed by public dollars this fall - without vouchers. Determined to do something about the number of kids they encountered who couldn't read or write, Bishop Laurence Wooten and Marine Lt. Col.
A program aiming to place talented leaders from government, business, non-profits, higher ed, and the military as superintendents in urban school districts has been launched by the Broad Center for Superintendents, an organization established by the Broad Foundation and Michigan Governor John Engler.
With Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker on the verge of transferring control of the Philadelphia's school system from local officials to his own appointees, who would then put its management in the hands of Edison Schools, a pair of articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer examines two questions: Do state takeovers of school systems work?
The Commission on Instructionally Supportive Assessment, October 2001
Frank Martinelli, Charter Friends National Network, September 2001
If you feel amused or provoked by anything you read in the Education Gadfly, write us at [email protected].
Launched a decade ago by reform-minded corporate CEOs, the New American Schools (NAS) initiative was meant to kindle a revolution in American education. Ten years later, however, rather than igniting change, it has largely reverted to the norms of the education establishment, according to a new report by historian Jeffrey Mirel which was released by the Thomas B.
The education bill that Congress is likely to pass is a disaster in the making, and the White House and Capitol Hill insiders have known this for months, asserts veteran education journalist Tom Toch in this month's Washington Monthly. Still, the administration continues to press Congress to pass a bill by year's end - and Chairman Boehner says that this will indeed happen.
Begging your leave, this week I shall acquaint you with a new report from the wing of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation that's chiefly concerned with education reform in Dayton, Ohio, where Mr.
Homeschooling is hot and a new book, Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement, by Mitchell Stevens takes a fresh look at where the movement came from and what it means for American education and culture. Stevens, a professor of sociology at Hamilton College, spent ten years interviewing and observing homeschooling families and reading their publica
National Center for Education Statistics, October 2001
New Jersey Department of Education, October 2001
Dan D. Goldhaber, from Selected Papers in School Finance 2000-01, National Center for Education Statistics, August 2001
Last Monday, Massachusetts announced that 82% of its class of 2003 passed the state's English test and 75% passed the math test. On Wednesday, Achieve, Inc. released an evaluation of the state's standards and tests.
Parents in two states finally have the information they need to evaluate their school systems, thanks to the analytical skills of Standard & Poor's and the willingness of Gov. John Engler and ex-Gov.
We've heard a lot about the dire shortage of math and science teachers that has forced educators trained in other disciplines to teach those subjects "out of field." But we've heard much less about shortages in field of history.
The charter-school idea is now ten years old. Which is to say, it's completed the "elementary" grades and is ready for "middle school" - and the onrushing storms of adolescence. It's a hopeful but precarious time. And some worrisome issues lie ahead.Meanwhile, expansion continues. The Center for Education Reform reports several hundred new charters this fall.
A new front has opened up in the battle over the SAT, and the combatants are profiled in a long (14 page) article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. The new critics of the SAT don't argue that it's biased; they're upset that it's not based on the school curriculum.
Recommending sweeping changes in federal special ed policy, this new volume of 14 papers scrutinizes the education now being received by 6 million U.S. children with disabilities. Jointly published with the Progressive Policy Institute, the report will help shape discussion of the next reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It identifies the problems that now beset this important program, analyzes their causes, and suggests solutions. All who care about the education of children with special needs will want to read it for themselves.
John Marks, Centre for Policy Studies, June 2000