During the 2001-2001 school year, nearly one-fifth of the nation's superintendents were newcomers to this demanding role. The American Association of School Administrators contacted six of these rookies with diverse backgrounds and asked each to keep a journal of his or her experiences as a first-year superintendent.
An unintended consequence of a 1994 rule governing Title I - the largest federal education aid program - is that New York City's poorest boroughs receive far less money per disadvantaged student than other boroughs with lesser concentrations of poor kids.
California's budget crisis has dried up funds for the state's highly touted education awards program, which will not be distributed this academic year, Governor Gray Davis's administration announced last week.
The Department of Education has released a helpful "desktop reference" manual to the No Child Left Behind Act.
This week, the Massachusetts' Board of Education unanimously approved new K-12 history standards despite criticism that the guidelines were rushed and weighted more heavily toward facts than concepts. The state maintains that the public had ample time to offer input, as the standards' two-year development included numerous meetings with teachers and community groups.
Statement of Cornelia M. AshbyOctober 2002
No states have voucher initiatives on the ballot this November, but a range of other education issues will be presented directly to voters this fall in different states.
Achieve, Inc.Summer 2002
American Youth Policy ForumDecember 12, 2001
National Center for Public Policy and Higher EducationOctober 2002
Dana Markow and Marc Scheer, MetLife2002
edited by George C. Leef, The American Council of Trustees and AlumniJune 2002
The Gadfly has buzzed repeatedly about pending legislation to reorganize the federal government's education research, statistics, assessment and evaluation functions. This week, the U.S. Senate put the finishing legislative touches on H.R.
Earlier this week, the California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) unveiled a new accreditation program in an attempt to introduce a measure of self-evaluation and -regulation among the network's 300 charter schools.
On Saturday, Diane Ravitch challenged chancellor Joel Klein to "bust the monopoly" of New York City's mammoth school system, noting that Klein has thus far dismissed the idea of school choice despite his reputation as a trustbuster.
Everyone agrees that the weak performance of U.S. urban education poses a national crisis. Far too many low income and minority youngsters attend bad schools where they learn too little, are sometimes in danger and are understandably inclined to drop out.Yet not everyone appreciates the contribution that charter schools can make to easing the urban-education crisis. To the contrary.
I write to clarify four issues regarding Edison Schools in a recent Gadfly article written by Allison Cole, "Edison's Year has a Rocky Start" [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=38#546]:
The current issue of Phi Delta Kappan contains both a screed by the infamous Alfie Kohn on the subject of corporate involvement in education and the latest of Gerald Bracey's annual rants about who he likes and who he doesn't like in American education. Just about everyone who wants to boost standards or foster choice manages to land in the latter category.
A long article by Diana Schemo in Monday's New York Times outlined some of the ways in which the No Child Left Behind Act is being weakened or skirted by federal, state, and local officials. Several states are moving to ease their standards for academic proficiency to ensure that more children are able to reach them.
Writing this time in Educational Leadership, Diane Ravitch offers seven lessons for educators in the aftermath of September 11th. The first of these: it's okay to be patriotic.
U.S. Department of CommerceSeptember 2002
Jolley Bruce Christman and Amy Rhodes, Consortium for Policy Research in Education and Research for ActionJune 2002
George C. Leaf and Roxana Burris, American Council of Trustees and AlumniOctober 2002
While the Manhattan Institute survey described above presents discouraging evidence that many teachers have not bought into standards-based reform, there are some points of light out there. In Illinois, two elementary schools are testing new report cards that replace A's, B's, and C's with indications of whether the student exceeds, meets, or has not met certain state academic standards.
The strongest argument for vouchers is moral, Jonathan Rauch writes in the October Atlantic Monthly. It's wrong for rich, white liberals to insist that poor children attend dysfunctional schools that they'd never allow their own children to set foot in.
To hardly anyone's surprise, the Houston Independent School District won the first $500,000 Broad Prize for Urban Education. Funded by Los Angeles billionaire education reformer Eli Broad, the prize recognized Houston for improving student achievement and narrowing its achievement gaps, gains achieved largely through the leadership of then-superintendent Rod Paige.
