This past November, school violence again made headlines. The latest federal data was released in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005, which tallied and analyzed the incidence of theft, violent crime, and teacher victimization in 2003.
As if the NEA's pretending to care about helping schools and students wasn't bad enough, we now know it doesn't really care that much about helping teachers, either.
Todd ZiebarthProgressive Policy InstituteDecember 2005
Frederick M. Hess, editorHarvard Education Press2005
National Center for Education StatisticsDecember 2005
Ohio's new statewide voucher program - set to begin in fall 2006 (see here and here for a brief history) - is showing early signs of over-regulation.
With Gadfly taking next week off, and with me heading for distant places about the time you receive this issue, allow me this opportunity to reflect briefly on the key education events of 2005 and to venture a thought or two for the year ahead.Over the past twelve months, eight happenings shaped the K-12 education story.
Is America's growing concern about falling behind internationally in science and math instruction inadvertently driving aspiring engineers and doctors out of the field? According to a new report from Duke University, the answer is yes. Vivek Wadhwa, a software entrepreneur and the report's co-author, posits that the U.S.
Science class is for real science—and "intelligent design" isn't that. It's more akin to religion. So concluded Judge John E.
Prestigious universities value the letters AP (i.e., Advanced Placement) on an applicant's transcript, maintaining that success in AP courses is the best indicator of success in college. But students looking to score points with admissions officers have begun gaming the system. Many enroll in AP courses but never sit for the accompanying AP exam.
NCB Development Corporation2005
American Institutes for ResearchNovember 2005
Everyone knows that the Kansas Board of Education, to the dismay of the scientific community, recently voted to adopt new science standards that attack evolution, validate intelligent design, and re-define science itself. The real mystery is why they did it. Scott Canon, writing in the Kansas City Star, thinks he knows: Politics.
Enterprising journalist Scott Reeder has proven what critics of K-12 teacher tenure have long surmised: it's nearly impossible to fire a tenured teacher. He collected every instance of disciplinary action, which no doubt includes everything from moral turpitude to ineffectiveness in the classroom, taken against a tenured teacher in Illinois's 876 districts over the past 18 years.
The New York City schools are converting junk-food-loving children one soybean at a time. Jorge Leon Collazo, executive chef of SchoolFood, which provides 860,000 breakfasts and lunches per day to Big Apple public school students, has introduced nutritious, flavorful options into the district's cafeterias. But the transition hasn't been a bowl of cherries.
An effort is gaining steam in California to grant charter status to all ten of Grossmont Union High School District's schools.
Ten years ago, many school choice and charter school advocates (including yours truly) pointed to the American automobile industry as a powerful example of the free market's ability to transform unwieldy bureaucracies. The "Big 3" Detroit automakers had grown complacent. By the early 1980s, their quality was low and costs (and prices) were high.
Joanne JacobsPalgrave Macmillan2005
Naomi Chudowsky and Victor ChudowskyCenter on Education Policy November 2005
Mike Petrilli's recent editorial, Tough choices on teacher quality, spawned lots of letters. Here are a few.From Dave Taggart, U.S. Army, Retired, Calhoun, G.A.
On November 30, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco signed legislation that transferred control of 102 New Orleans schools to state management. For now, most of the Big Easy's public schools remain closed. But when they re-open in the fall, many will do so as charter schools.
Science education in America is in trouble. "Discovery learning" is attacking on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of our just-released State of State Science Standards 2005 appraisal by the eminent biologist Paul R. Gross, former head of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and former provost of the University of Virginia.
Baltimore's school district performed dismally on this past spring's state standardized tests but, rather than address the problem seriously, school administrators decided to go trendy. "When the boat is sinking," says the district's Frank DeStefano, "you don't follow the manual.
People typically try to avoid unintended consequences, but there are exceptions. This might be one. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's move to take control of the L.A. Unified School District is leading some activists again to call for the break-up of the sprawling system, which serves at least 27 municipalities other than Los Angeles proper.
Pity the grandmother who sends a bounty of oven-fresh cupcakes to the school bake sale. Grandma may have good intentions, but she and others of her ilk are inadvertently condemning America's school children to an obesity 'epidemic.' At least, that's what University of Minnesota professor Martha Kubik argues.
Science education in America is under attack, with "discovery learning" on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of this comprehensive review of state science standards, the first since 2000. Written by pre-eminent biologist Paul R. Gross, The State of State Science Standards 2006 finds that even though the majority of states have reworked, or completely re-written, their science standards over the past five years, we're no better off now than before. The good news is that many of the standards are easily fixed. The public's anxiety about the future of our nation's scientific prowess is palpable,and reasonable. How serious are we in addressing their concerns?
When I began my career as a public school teacher some 25 years ago, I had no crystal ball to see how education theory and practice would evolve. Back then, no one talked about charter schools, highly qualified teachers, or value-added assessments. But in retrospect, I recognize that I was witness to choice in action.
Declining enrollment due to, among other things, the burgeoning of charter school options, the exodus of families to the suburbs, and smaller Catholic families, has conspired to force five Dayton Catholic schools to consolidate into two buildings. The effort will allow the schools to share the costs of staffing, building space, and other services.
