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Who's in Charge Here? The Tangled Web of School Governance and Policy
Noel Epstein, Editor, Brookings Institution Press and Education Commission of the States 2004
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Progress on IDEA reauthorization
At the end of a 108th Congress plagued by partisan rancor and seemingly more devoted to symbolic than substantive progress on a host of issues, a lame duck session just before Thanksgiving managed to produce an unexpectedly promising bill to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which governs special education.
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Man bites dog while NPR speculates
In Fremont, California, the local school board was determined to reroute elementary and middle school students from the posh Mission Hills neighborhood away from high-performing Mission Hills High School to lower-performing schools in the area. Mission Hills parents objected, and even weighed splitting off to form their own school district, though in the end they did not.
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Money, money, money, money, and yet more money
It was perhaps a foregone conclusion, but one cannot help but be struck by Tuesday's recommendations from a court-appointed panel of referees in the New York City school financing case: increased state aid eventually reaching $5.63 billion extra for Big Apple schools each year, plus an additional $9.17 billion for capital improvements.
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National Board for Education Sciences
The Education Department's new Institute for Education Sciences was set up to take policy guidance and expert advice from a fifteen member National Board for Education Sciences, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
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Upholding minimum standards in Japan
There are achievement gaps and then there are achievement gaps. A Japanese elementary school teacher with decades of experience was fired this month for repeatedly failing a writing exam designed for his students. According to an Osaka education official, the teacher had been placed in a training program to improve his teaching skills in March, but "failed to show any signs of improvement.
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Where all students are above average&
When the Advanced Placement (AP) program was established in 1955, it was designed to distinguish high-achieving high school students by giving them access to more rigorous, college-level coursework. Nearly a half-century later, enrollment in AP courses is expanding to include not just the highest-achieving students, but virtually anyone who wants in.
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Creating the Capacity for Change: How and Why Governors and Legislatures are Opening a New-Schools Sector in Public Education
Ted Kolderie, Education/EvolvingSeptember 2004
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Educating Citizens: International Perspectives on Civic Values and School Choice
Patrick J. Wolf and Stephen Macedo, editors, The Brookings Institution2004
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Good news is no news on home schooling
On Wednesday, just after noon, I typed the term "teacher" into the Google news alert search engine. Here are five of the 10 headlines that came back:
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Coming soon: Value-added assessment?
Has the time come for value-added assessment? That's what some are suggesting in this Ed Week article by Lynn Olson. She reports that 16 states have written to the Education Department requesting permission to explore value-added assessments as a way of meeting NCLB requirements, with Ohio and Pennsylvania moving ahead to install such systems for state testing purposes.
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Defining failure down
According to the National Education Association, of the 41 states that have reported their NCLB test results from spring 2004, 32 showed improvement in the number of schools meeting their adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals. Cause for celebration? Perhaps. But before anyone makes grand claims, take a careful look at what those numbers mask.
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Ed Next, hot off the presses
The latest issue of Education Next came our way this week, and it's a good one. The cover story - Jim Traub's fascinating profile of the Hyde schools, where the focus is on rigorous character education - is a must-read. There's also a trio of articles about options for reworking the antiquated teacher pay schedule.
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Three cheers for Rod Paige
Outgoing education secretary Rod Paige is a great education reformer and distinguished public servant who leaves office after four years of accomplishment, candor, nonstop dedication to America's children, and loyal service to the Bush administration.
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Three strikes for vouchers in the Sunshine State?
For the third time since the law was enacted in 1999, Florida's Court of Appeals ruled that the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows students in failing schools to use vouchers to attend a public or private school of their choice, violates the state constitution's controversial Blaine Amendment.
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When Schools Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, New Findings
U.S Department of Education / Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Prepared by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Institute of Education ServicesOctober 2004
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Charter Schools and Oversight: Where is the Line Between Effectively Holding Schools Accountable and Overregulation?
National Association of Charter School AuthorizersOctober 2004
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Starting Fresh: A New Strategy for Responding to Chronically Low Performing Schools
Bryan C. Hassel & Lucy Steiner, Public ImpactDecember 2003
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The G.O.P. education opportunity
Will President Bush and his invigorated Republican allies in Congress seize their new opportunity to reshape federal education policy for the 21st century?One can hope.
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The old is new in Japanese schools
A debate over constructivist versus traditional pedagogy seems to be brewing in Japan, of all places. In the 1990s, Japanese officials partially decentralized the nation's education system and began touting a teaching system that moved away from the drill-and-memorization approach that had marked Japanese education for decades.
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High noon for D.C. charters
In October, Congress enacted a D.C. appropriations bill that includes a "right of first offer" to charter-school operators to buy or lease surplus public school facilities at a 25 percent discount.
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Fighting for the best
The Washington Post Magazine presents a must-read profile of a single mother from D.C. who has made immense sacrifices to get her two children the best education possible. Sheila Hutton is dogged beyond belief in her quest: "Every morning Hutton would call [her daughter's principal] to ensure her daughter was accounted for.
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Anti-Americanism 101
Yesterday, education blogger Joanne Jacobs wrote about a contest, jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and Dickinson College, designed to help teachers address the subject of the September 11 attacks in particular and terrorism in general.
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Measured Progress: Achievement Rises and Gaps Narrow, But Too Slowly
The Education TrustOctober 2004
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The Road to Nowhere: The Illusion and Broken Promises of Special Education in the Baltimore City and Other Public School Systems
Kalman R. Hettleman, The Abell FoundationOctober 2004
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The future of high school reform
In this month's American School Board Journal, Kathleen Vail articulates the need for a dramatic transformation of the American high school.
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Yearning for choice
On October 16, the New York Daily News reported that "Parents of students in failing city schools filed a class action lawsuit against the Education Department yesterday, arguing the city plans to illegally deny transfers." The suit "seeks to stop the city from denying transfers under the federal No Child Left Behind law." Said one mother (of five-year-old twins) who is party to the cl
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Election wrap re-wrap
Last week, we highlighted three races with education implications (click here). Here's what happened. In Florida, former state superintendent and university president Betty Castor was narrowly defeated by former Cabinet Secretary Mel Martinez.