People (myself included) who favor the radical overhaul of educators' training are wont to suggest that ed schools should become more like journalism schools: optional institutions that you attend if you think they add value but that you're not obliged to attend before entering this profession, so long as somebody wants to hire you and give you a chance.
The Indiana Center for EvaluationMarch 2003
The Learning First AllianceMarch 2003
The National Center for Education StatisticsApril 2003
Nobody likes having their budgets cut or income diminished. But my gracious, what a lot of griping, blaming and gnashing of teeth there has been in recent weeks with regard to public-school budgets. A blizzard of articles has chronicled the fiscal agonies of school systems whose revenues are pinched by the present downturn in state and municipal tax collections.
Andrew Zucker, Robert Kuzma, Louise Yarnall, Camille Marder, Teachers College PressJanuary 2003
Dan Goldhaber, The University of WashingtonMarch 2003
The challenge of basing education policy on sound researchEarlier this year, Mathematica Policy Research released a sophisticated study of federally funded after-school programs showing that such programs do not raise the academic achievement of participating students.
I read your comments about protests against standards-based, test-driven state accountability systems [see "The law people love to hate--and pretend to love,".
The April/May 2003 issue of American Enterprise, organized around the theme Race, Broken Schools, and Affirmative Action, contains several interesting articles on school choice.
Yesterday's New York Times reports on two new studies that challenge test critics' claims that high-stakes testing undermines learning and hurts struggling students. Both studies instead find that high-stakes testing brings about academic gains, particularly for minority students.
A plan developed with the assistance of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and backed by the school board would replace the traditional teacher salary schedule with a system of incentives based on performance if teachers vote to approve it next year.
Launched just over two years ago, New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS) recruits and trains outstanding prospective principals who lack conventional credentials and puts them on a fast track to public (and charter) school leadership positions.
The Philanthropy RoundtableJohn J. Miller2003
Alan B. Krueger and Pei ZhuPrinceton UniversityApril 2003
Margaret E. Raymond and Eric Hanushek, Education NextSummer 2003
National Board on Educational Testing and Public PolicyJanuary 2003
Center on Reinventing Public Education Marguerite Roza, Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey and Susan Wishon January 2003
While eliminating elected school boards and replacing them with appointed boards or mayoral control is all the rage, AEI resident scholar Rick Hess argues in the April issue of the American School Board Journal that there is no reason to expect improvements to follow from such changed forms of governance.
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Olchefske announced his resignation earlier this week, saying that a $34 million financial crisis that has unfolded in the district on his watch has made it impossible for him to lead effectively.
Checker was right to skewer Michael Winerip for his grouchy piece, "A Pervasive Dismay On a Bush School Law," [see "The Law People Love to Hate - and Pretend to Love," http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=16#242It is always annoying when reporters proclaim that grumblings are the manifestation of a zeitgeist (
College instructors value grammar more than high school teachers do While college instructors rank "grammar and usage" as a student's most important writing skill, high-school teachers rank it as least important, and only 69 percent of high-school English teachers say they teach their students grammar and usage skills, according to a new survey by ACT.
The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted unanimously last week to oppose the state's high school exit exam. The board, which has a new union-backed majority (at least for now - one union-backed incumbent still faces a run-off in May), hopes to influence the state board to postpone or drop the requirement that students pass an exit exam before being allowed to graduate from high school.
States and districts have much more flexibility to meet the "highly qualified teacher" requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act than most people acknowledge; in fact, states have an historic opportunity to revamp their teacher preparation and certification systems, according to Michael Petrilli, Associate Deputy Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.
Policy Analysis for California EducationApril 2003
Robert Holland, The Lexington InstituteMarch 2003
