Commentary
Commentary
Blood and cuts in Gotham
In the New York Sun, Andy Wolf reports that "virtually all schools [in New York City] received budget cuts that in some cases exceeded 20 percent," despite an increase of $264 million in total funding for Gotham's public schools in 2004-05. Where did the money go?
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The home schooling spectrum
Jay Mathews's latest column at washingtonpost.com offers selections from emails he received after confessing his "deep ignorance about the home-schooling movement" earlier this summer. He makes it clear that the stereotype of home schoolers - usually depicted as fundamentalist or right-wing zealots - doesn't bear much relation to reality.
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Full-day and Half-day Kindergarten in the United States
National Center for Education Statistics June 2004
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The unintended consequences of "adequate" funding
In 1994, the Lake View (AR) school district - a tiny, rural district with declining enrollment and a high proportion of poor and minority students - sued Arkansas, arguing that the state's system of education finance was inequitable.
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CBE, we hardly knew ye
When I learned recently that the Council for Basic Education had closed its doors, I felt terribly sad. According to an article in Education Week, some attributed its demise to a "tight fund-raising environment for education groups" and suggested that CBE had expired because it was swimming in a crowded pond.
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Direct instruction over "discovery learning"
Gadfly is pleased to report the results of a recent study, to be published in Psychological Science this fall, comparing the effectiveness of "direct instruction" (where teachers actually teach, rather than observe or facilitate) and "discovery learning" (where children are given certain materials and are expe
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Napping 'till November
On Tuesday, the Democratic Convention adopted a platform containing a 3-page education plank that offers something for everybody, but nothing in particular, save for a pointed 3-paragraph dig at George W. Bush. Insofar as one can detect policy impulses in the fog, however, many of them resemble what Republicans also say.
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Union grievances
According to a new report from the Capital Research Center - penned by Education Intelligence Agency sleuth Mike Antonucci (see http://members.aol.com/educationintel/) - an organization you've heard of "files unfair labor practice charges and restraining orders. Circumvents the other side's negotiators.
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State Higher Education Finance, FY 2003
State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) 2004The State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) produced this 92-page fact book dealing with the finances of higher education at the state level in 2003. It offers lots of important and sometimes counterintuitive information. For example:
Commentary
National Assessment of Vocational Education: Final Report to Congress
U.S. Department of Education Office of the Under Secretary 2004
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Putting Education to the Test: A Value-Added Model for California
Harold C. Doran and Lance T. Izumi, Pacific Research InstituteJune 2004
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The governors speak - but are they listening?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make any noise? If the nation's governors talk about education reform yet it has no effect on what they do, do the words matter? That's the question that arises from the just-concluded summer meeting of the National Governors Association.
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The transfer mess - and promise
Treat yourself to two fascinating features in the Chicago Tribune about a young girl who takes advantage of the NCLB transfer option to move to a new school on the North Side.
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Rolling back anti-charter bills in New England
We earlier reported that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had vetoed a one-year moratorium on new charter schools, but that it looked like the General Assembly would have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Romney's veto.
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Stern defense of Bush
Sol Stern pens a long article in City Journal on the Bush education agenda and why the President deserves the moniker "Education President." It's interesting to note, Stern recounts, that time and again opponents of various Bush initiatives seemed nonplussed (to say the least) to discover that the administration actually meant what it said.
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Lawsuit brewing in NYC
More challenges loom for Hizzoner Bloomberg's controversial bid to require third graders to pass reading and math tests before advancing to the next grade (see Gadfly, Volume 4, Number 7).
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Legislating admissions
The New York legislature may well have overstepped its bounds this week when it passed a bill that would limit state and city universities from using the SAT or other "high-stakes tests" as major criteria for acceptance into the schools.
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Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth
Richard Kazis, Joel Vargas, and Nancy Hoffman, editors, Harvard Educational Press2004
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The accountability firestorm
This summer is bound to get hot due to the escalating controversy surrounding No Child Left Behind. Once this year's state test results designate a number of schools and districts as needing improvement, election year political pressure will blow across always-warm embers and spark August fires.
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Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High Quality New Teachers
Alliance for Excellent Education June 2004
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A Matter of Degrees: Improving Graduation Rates in Four Year Colleges and Universities
Kevin Carey, The Education TrustMay 2004
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The battle over Colorado vouchers
Last year, the Colorado Education Association - the statewide teacher union - filed suit alleging that the newly adopted statewide voucher program violated eight provisions of Colorado's constitution. Last December, Denver judge Joseph E. Meyer struck down the program on the grounds that it violated Colorado's constitutional guarantee of "local control" over instruction.
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The Massachusetts mess
The Massachusetts charter scene reminds us of Dorothy's observation in the Wizard of Oz: people come and go so quickly around here!
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Pell Grants for Kids
For the past 50 years, the United States has actively supported the expansion and improvement of higher education through a generous funding system that encourages autonomy, choice, and competition. Our institutions of higher education have helped produce the research that has been responsible for creating half our new jobs since World War II.
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Choice in the UK?
Tories in Britain have caused a ruckus with a school choice plan that would give ??5,500 to more than 100,000 parents to spend at independent schools that control their own budget and enrollments.
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What does it take to be "persistently dangerous"?
Last September, 44 states and the District of Columbia reported that they had no schools they considered "persistently dangerous," a classification required under NCLB - this despite NCES data released in October 2003 showing that 7 percent of schools in the nation - or roughly 6,000 - accounted for half of the almost 1.5 million violent incidents in s
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Creating Strong Supplemental Educational Services Programs and Creating Strong District School Choice Programs
The U.S. Department of Education: Office of Innovation and Improvement2004
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Building a Professional Teaching Corps in Boston: Baseline Study of New Teachers in Boston's Public Schools
Maria McCarthy and Ellen Guiney, Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public SchoolsApril 2004
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The Effects of Teach for America on Students: Findings from a National Evaluation
Paul T. Decker, Daniel P. Mayer, Steven Glazerman, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.June 2004