Displaying 15991-16020 of 17757 results
Commentary
6.23.2004

The Bible in schools

It's almost impossible to get a decent grasp of Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, William Blake, the Mayflower Compact, the speeches of Lincoln or King, or hundreds of other topics, writers, and historical events, without knowing something about the Bible.

Commentary
6.23.2004

Sensitivity run amuck

Linda Seebach reports that a Colorado teacher hit upon a strange and potentially destructive way of teaching Othello to her students. The teacher divided her students up in groups, those who had blue cards and those who had yellow cards. Blue-carded students were required to smile ingratiatingly, bow their heads, and beg people to tie their shoes.

Commentary
6.23.2004

Florida's new Passport for aspiring teachers

The American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence announced last week that Florida will join Idaho and Pennsylvania as the third state to accept the American Board's Passport to Teaching as a new route to full certification for the state's public school teachers.

Commentary
6.23.2004

New chapters on charters

We're pleased to note the publication of a new installment of the Education Department's Innovations in Education book series (see below for our review of some earlier iterations), this one entitled Successful Charter Schools.

Commentary
6.23.2004

Aiming high, and accepting no excuses for failure

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine includes a spellbinding account of Geoffrey Canada and his extraordinary effort to change the lives of all of the children who live in one Harlem community.

Commentary
6.23.2004

U.S. schools get a C

A new survey from Educational Testing Service (which has not yet been posted online by ETS but has already been reported in the USA Today) finds Americans souring somewhat on their public schools-and divided about the merits of No Child Left Behind. The percentage of parents who give U.S.

Commentary
6.23.2004

Who could be against "adequate" school funding?

Eric Hanushek

Many states are currently embroiled in court battles arising from lawsuits that challenge them, usually on constitutional grounds, to provide "adequate" funding for their public schools.

Commentary
6.16.2004

Take your meds - or else

The Christian Science Monitor is a somewhat unlikely source for this story, but it recently ran a fascinating account of the continuing debate over medicati

Commentary
6.16.2004

Social change AND school improvement

I know that authors are never quite satisfied with reviews, even ones as respectful and careful as yours, so permit me to respond to some points you make in a recent Gadfly (http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=151#1853).

Commentary
6.16.2004

So, which is it?

Is the new D.C. voucher program half full or half empty? Depends on where one turns for information. According to the Washington Post, "the D.C.

Commentary
6.16.2004

Chartering success

This week, the SEED school (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) in Washington, D.C. - America's only urban charter boarding school (click here for more) - is celebrating the success stories of its first graduating class.

Commentary
6.16.2004

Florida: Getting it all together?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

During a recent visit, I was, frankly, wowed by the comprehensiveness and courage of Florida's education reforms, and depressed by the crummy coverage they're getting in both state and national press, not least the heat they are now taking for holding their schools to high standards under NCLB and accepting the sanctions meted out to schools for not meeting adequate yearly progress.

Commentary
6.16.2004

Free market education, Malaysian-style

The Malaysian government has recently undertaken a voucher experiment aimed at leveling the education playing field between wealthy and underprivileged students. According to the New Straits Times, the plan's goal is creation of a "social market" in which "parents will be empowered by choice . . .

Commentary
6.2.2004

Pay no attention to the bias behind the curtain

Anyone who's ever lived through a tornado knows the provenance of the phrase "calm before the storm." There's that eerie, pregnant moment before the wind picks up, when the sky turns pea-green, the wind dies down, and everything seems muffled, almost pleasant. Then all hell breaks loose.

Commentary
6.2.2004

Steiner on one-sided syllabi

In recent weeks, David Steiner, a professor at Boston University, has roiled the ed school world with his article, "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: An Analysis of Syllabi from a Sample of America's Sc

Commentary
6.2.2004

High quality education at cut-rate prices

According to the Independent, surveys consistently show that more than 50 percent of British families would like to send their kids to private schools, which cost on average ??7,000 per year, but fewer than 7 percent can actually afford to do so. Does a quality education have to be so expensive?

Commentary
6.2.2004

eRate is eWrong

Back in January, Todd Oppenheimer published a devastating article on eRate, the federal tax on phone service that funds wiring schools for and to the Internet.

Commentary
6.2.2004

Minimum grades, minimum motivation

Every teacher has a story about a smart kid who failed because she just refused to do even the bare minimum to pass. Well-intentioned teachers also learn the hard way that lowering expectations and letting shoddy work slide by only makes things worse. The moral is apparently lost, though, on some school districts.