March Toward Excellence: School Success and Minority Achievement in Department of Defense Schools
Kelly ScottNational Education Goals Panel, September 2001
Changes in High School Grading Standards in Mathematics, 1982-1992
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Dan Koretz and Mark Berends, RAND, 2001
Summits are for mountaineers
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Last week's 24-hour National Education Summit was surely pleasant. IBM's Lew Gerstner is a fine host and his company's conference facility is exceptionally comfortable.
Is National Board certification worth the $200 million that's been invested in it?
In this month's issue of Philanthropy, Michael Poliakoff asks some pointed questions about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), the nonprofit organization created in 1987 to identify and reward "master teachers." First, do the students of board-certified teachers achieve more than students whose teachers have not achieved this "distinction"? Second,
Newest Bracey Report full of rotten apples
If you're a serious education reformer and want to make yourself angry, have a look at the "11th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education" written by none other than Gerald W. Bracey. You'll probably agree with nothing in it. It's mostly an anti-testing rant leavened by ad hominem attacks.
A hard case for supporters of religious schools
Marci Kanstoroom, Ph.D.It's getting more and more difficult to generalize about religious schooling in America. An article in last week's Wall Street Journal reports that Catholic, Jewish, and other faith-based schools are seeing a wave of interest from students of other religions. Christian parents may pick a Jewish or Islamic school for their child (or vice versa) for a wide range of reasons.
Vindication for the MCAS: dramatic improvement in student scores in MA
Policymakers in Massachusetts have long faced ferocious testing critics wailing that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is harming public education and worsening dropout rates. They endured myriad protests organized by opponents who claimed that MCAS was forcing educators to "teach to the test." They winced at the high percentage of kids who failed each year.
Virginia schools post record gains on SOLs
Another state whose pursuit of standards-and-accountability based reform has been doubted by testing opponents had good news this week. According to results released on Tuesday, Virginia schools nearly doubled their rate of success on the state's Standards of Learning exams this year, with 40 percent meeting this year's state benchmarks and an additional 30 percent of schools reaching tar
School Vouchers: Publicly Funded Programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee
The United States General Accounting Office, August 31, 2001
Investing in Excellence: Making Title I Work for All Children
Kelly ScottKevin J. Sullivan, Alliance for Excellent Education, September 2001
The Effects of Competition on Educational Outcomes: A Review of U.S. Evidence
Chester E. Finn, Jr.National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, September 2001
Raising Our Sights: No High School Senior Left Behind
Kelly ScottNational Commission on the High School Senior Year, October 2001
The case against Alfie Kohn
Richard Nadler deconstructs Alfie Kohn in this week's National Review. While many others embrace the same pedagogical ideas that he does, what distinguishes Kohn, the author argues, is his single-minded struggle to place the elements of that pedagogy beyond criticism.
The new age of individualized education
In a new book, Free Agent Nation, Daniel Pink explores how self-employed knowledge workers are increasingly transforming the American workplace as they abandon traditional jobs and reinvent themselves as freelancers, independent contractors, and proprietors of home-based businesses.
Putting teacher certification under a microscope
Every state wants to ensure that its public schools are staffed by excellent teachers, and to this end, most require that teachers complete a state-approved course of study at a school of education before receiving a teaching license. Defenders of these systems of certification (and those who would add to their requirements) contend that studies show that certified teachers are more effec
Four Observations
Chester E. Finn, Jr.(1) In praise of public education. You may think I'm no fan of public education, and it's true that the U.S. version often exasperates me. But recent world news has underscored society's obligation to see that its young get educated, acculturated and socialized.
Launching 50 new Latino charter schools
Without fanfare, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the country's largest constituency-based Hispanic organization, is embarking on a $25 million project to open 50 new Latino charter schools over the next five years. Behind the effort is Anthony Colon, who worked for 20 years in the bureaucracy of the New York City school system before becoming principal of a charter school in Oakland.
Why not multiple state tests instead of just one?
Without some form of standardized testing, there's no way to ensure that students are learning what they should.
The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family
Chester E. Finn, Jr.William J. Bennett, 2001
Assessing the Best: NAEP's 1996 Assessment of Twelfth-Graders Taking Advanced Science Courses
Chester E. Finn, Jr.National Center for Education Statistics, August 2001
Understanding Dropouts: Statistics, Strategies, and High-Stakes Testing
Kelly ScottCommittee on Educational Excellence and Testing Equity, National Research Council, 2001
Teaching history in a time of terrorism
Diane RavitchSome educators have reacted to the mass murders in New York City and Washington, D.C. by calling for changes in the curriculum. Their immediate response to September 11 was that "we have to change the curriculum to make our students more tolerant," as if our students were the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
Patriotism revisited
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Leo Casey must be beside himself. Just a few miles from his office at the United Federation of Teachers on lower Park Avenue, The New York Times was publishing an article about surges of patriotism in American classrooms (Kevin Sack, "School Colors Become Red, White and Blue," 9/28/01).
Impostor teacher gains National Board certification
A Mississippi fourth-grade teacher used a series of phony identities to gain a teaching license, buy a car, and attain national board certification, according to authorities in Mississippi.
New research on merit pay
The London-based Centre for the Economics of Education held a conference on teacher pay and incentives last week and several new research papers are available from the conference website. "Paying Teachers for Performance: Incentives and Selection," by Edward Lazear of Stanford University explores arguments about the effect of incentives on teacher behavior, discusses different ways of def
National credential for teachers who master their subjects and help students learn
The National Council on Teacher Quality and the Education Leaders Council have teamed up to launch a new project which will offer credentials to expert teachers and able would-be teachers. The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence will award a beginning teacher credential to highly skilled individuals just entering teaching who have mastered an academic subject and can de
A liberal case for vouchers
A long essay in this week's New Republic reviewing Terry Moe's new book, Schools, Vouchers and the American Public, Diane Ravitch explains why liberals should be pro-choice.