Commentary
The Advantage of Abstract Examples in Learning Math
Jennifer A. Kaminski, Vladimir M. Sloutsky, and Andrew F. HecklerScienceApril 25, 2008
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Revisionist Randi
We'd like to stop writing about Randi Weingarten, really we would. But her ongoing antics simply don't allow it--and as she nears the leadership of the national American Federation of Teachers she has to be taken seriously.
Commentary
Sorry, kids
If you're a wealthy philanthropist keen to expand AP courses and pay more to the teachers who do the best job of teaching AP classes, Washington state wants you to buzz off.
Commentary
Is fatalism the alternative to romanticism?
Charles Murray's forthcoming education book looks like a humdinger, as most of his have proven to be. Like the others, this one will be provocative, heterodox, and controversial. I look forward to August when we can see the whole thing.
Commentary
Classroom hero
It is not insignificant that John McCain, who may be the country's next president, has hanging in his office a photograph of William Bee Ravenel III, or that McCain recently called Ravenel "one of the best men I have ever known." Ravenel was one of
Commentary
Contemptuous monopoly
The Wake County school district, in Raleigh, North Carolina, is doing everything in its power to annoy parents and encourage those who can afford private schools to patronize them. A state appellate court ruled on Tuesday that Wake can force a pupil who is zoned for one of the county's year-round schools to attend it.
Commentary
Wishing for a Massachusetts miracle?
To receive a high-school diploma in Massachusetts, one must at least pass the MCAS (or make one's way through a reasonably challenging alternative path.) Nonetheless, according to the Boston Globe, "thousands of Massachusetts public high school graduates arrive at college unprepared for even the most basic math and English classes." Such students must therefore take remedial
Commentary
The Ed Week diaspora grows
The ranks of American education's "newspaper of record" are growing ever thinner.
Commentary
How Obama can move to the center
According to David Brooks, among others, yesterday's victory in North Carolina and near-tie in Indiana means Senator Barack Obama is almost assured the Democratic nomination.
Commentary
Different world, same debates
In Australia's state of Victoria, teachers are about to receive a mammoth pay raise. But Kevin Donnelly, the Australian-education guru, doesn't like it. He sees lots of other problems that need remedying.
Commentary
Potential teachers are waiting to be won over, too
Education Sector just released a new survey, Waiting to be Won Over, by Farkas Duffett Research--a top-notch policy research firm that's don
Commentary
Commentary
Choice is winning
Greg Anrig is smart, eloquent and likable, as was his dad, whose memory I cherish.
Commentary
Klein vs. Weingarten
There's more on the Absent Teacher Reserve and rubber room controversies in New York City.
Commentary
Roberts plans charter-school overhaul
State Senator Tom Roberts Tuesday introduced three bills he said were designed to strengthen transparency and accountability standards in charter schools (S.B. 331, S.B.
Commentary
Study says voucher competition helps special-ed kids
Showing again that competition is a tide that lifts all boats, the Manhattan Institute released a study last week that shows public school special-education students perform better when they attend public schools that are exposed to competition with voucher programs (see here).
Commentary
Choice is an important weapon in the educational arms race
Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher is right. Ohio is engaged in an "economic development arms race" with other states and nations for investment and jobs. But the state is also in an arms race to educate its children to compete successfully with young people in other states and countries.
Commentary
Dr. Z: We'll miss you, whenever you go
After months of jockeying with control-freak Governor Ted Strickland, Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Tave Zelman is on her way out, perhaps to the University of Oregon as ed-school dean (see here).
Commentary
Electronic compliance saves time, although it will never replace a ruler
A major job for Ohio's charter school sponsors is keeping track of stuff, the kind of stuff that, if a school doesn't have it, means serious problems. Not only does a sponsor have to show up and check out schools and classrooms, but a good sponsor also needs to keep track of all the state and federally required compliance data.
Commentary
KIPP's 2007 report card good reading
KIPP's 2007 report card is a good way to get to know the Knowledge is Power Program, which is scheduled to open its first Ohio charter school in Columbus in August.Here are a few samples from the report card:
Commentary
A few good ideas
Governor Ted Strickland is gathering ideas from businesses, academics, various interest groups, and even some ordinary Ohioans on K-12 education reform. At a recent regional Northeast Ohio "shareholder" meeting, everything from a single, uniform statewide property tax to making teachers work 12 months a year was suggested.
Commentary
A matter of principals
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee will fire somewhere between 24 and 30 principals at the end of the school year, in large part because under the rules of NCLB she's required to restructure 27 chronically-failing schools.
Commentary
Rubber rooms revisited
Sunday's Daily News revisits New York City's ridiculous "rubber room" policy, which was also featured a year ago in a Village Voice article. A taste:
Commentary
The pitfalls of collective bargaining
A group based in Dallas wanted to give schools in the state of Washington $13.2 million to strengthen their AP courses, but the plan fell through because state collective bargaining laws require that teacher pay be negotiated between unions and school districts.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Reclassify this
The Sacramento Bee's editorial page weighs in on the racial remix controversy at Will C. Wood Middle School, coming to the defense of the school's principal:
Commentary
Reid on Reading First
Reid Lyon, the Godfather of Scientifically Based Reading Instruction (so says Eduflack), provides a ton of important insights into RF's interim evaluation study in this