As federal officials gear up to implement the No Child Left Behind Act, state policymakers are all over the map in their plans for addressing the requirements of that complex new law. In Vermont, Governor Howard Dean said he will ask state officials to consider rejecting federal education funds to avoid having to meet the new federal testing requirements.
Another new Koret Task Force volume from Hoover, this one is edited by Paul Hill, runs 222 pages and, in seven chapters, closely examines the issue of children alleged to be "left behind" by school-choice programs.
And now for something completely different, not a book or report but a website. Surf to the MegaSkills website to learn about this education training program, developed in 1972 by Dorothy Rich, a champion of parental involvement in education and founder and president of the Home and School Institute.
The New York Times is gaga once again over America's "new philanthropists" and the giant "wealth transfer" that is said to be transforming American philanthropy.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's first-ever Five-Year Report reviews our major education reform activities, products and expenditures, both in the national reform arena and in Dayton, from 1997 through 2001 and sums up the work of the Foundation from its rebirth in the mid-1990s until today. In the report, we endeavor to show what we think we've accomplished, where our efforts have fallen short, and what we've learned.
Kariane Mari Welner, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityMarch 2002
Bill Hangley, Jr. and Wendy S. McClanahan, Public/Private VenturesFebruary 2002
Christopher W. Hammons, Milton & Rose D. Friedman FoundationFebruary 2002
David Monk, John W. Sipple and Kieran Killeen, New York State Educational Finance Research ConsortiumSeptember 10, 2001
Opponents of high-stakes testing in Massachusetts are running out of time to convince a public that has largely accepted testing and academic standards, according to reporter Ed Hayward of the Boston Herald.
President Bush introduced the 2002 teacher of the year-a retired Army colonel from southern California-at a Rose Garden ceremony yesterday.
Both standards-based and market-style reforms come from outside the system but they follow different theories and many people believe they are incompatible.
What effect do charter schools have on school districts as a whole? Do they inspire improvements in regular district schools or merely drain money from the district's budget?
Vi-Nhuan Le, RAND Corporation2002
Devotees of professional development for teachers will be interested in this thoughtful paper by Harvard education professor Richard F. Elmore, published by the Albert Shanker Institute.
Lynn Cornett and Gale Gaines, Southern Regional Education Board2002
National Education Association2002
Charter Schools Institute, State University of New YorkMarch 2002
San Francisco made headlines last year when it announced that it would begin integrating some schools on the basis of income. This year, the school board in Cambridge, Massachusetts voted to do the same thing. Many experts are excited about this new strategy for diversifying schools, particularly since courts have begun to limit the use of race in student assignments.
I'm not prone to paranoia but lately I see an awful lot of folks bent on stopping the charter movement dead in its tracks and I also see them making much headway. I don't think it exaggerates to say that a war is being waged against charter schools. As with many wars, however, both sides have something to answer for.
Researchers believe that teenagers who feel "connected" at school are less likely to be violent or suicidal, to abuse drugs or to get pregnant. A major study released last week tried to identify features of schools where teenagers are likely to feel connected.
Mass Insight EducationMarch 2002
National Center for Education StatisticsMarch 2002
Brian Gong, Council of Chief State School OfficersJanuary 2002
edited by Richard J. Shavelson and Lisa Towne, National Research Council Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research, National Academy of Science2002
General Accounting OfficeApril 2002
James Traub visits the front lines in the class war over standardized testing in a cover story in this week's New York Times Magazine. First he reports from a low-achieving school in Mount Vernon, New York, where he observes "test preparation with a vengeance," but, he notes, test prep that seems to work.
Over the objections of parents and local officials, the Japanese government announced last week that the school week would be scaled back to five days, with the curriculum pared back as well. See "Public Schools Start 5-day Week," Yomiuri Shimbun, April 6, 2002.
