Science Blues
The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will do little to calm growing fears about students' lack of science content knowledge.
The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will do little to calm growing fears about students' lack of science content knowledge.
Due to broad-based community interest and support, Columbus has been selected by KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) as a new national expansion site in 2008. KIPP officials and leaders in the Columbus community will partner to explore the essential next steps to bring KIPP to Columbus--recruiting qualified school leaders and building a local board of directors.
For information on Fordham's unique role as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, there's no better source than The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report 2005-06.
No one can fault governor-elect Ted Strickland's ambitions. After handily winning the governor's seat, Mr. Strickland has promised to reform the state's flawed education funding system--going so far as to stake the success of his administration on it (see here).
Ruth Curran Neild and Robert BelfanzProject U-TurnNovember 2006Turning it Around: A Collective Effort to Understand and Resolve Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis Project U-TurnNovember 2006
Sara MeadEducation SectorOctober 2006
Stacy Childress, Richard Elmore, and Allen GrossmanHarvard Business ReviewNovember 2006
National Center for Education StatisticsNovember 2006
Not only did the Democratic Party take control of Congress in last week's election; it also captured a majority of the nation's governorships. And not just on the coasts; Democrats Chet Culver and Bill Ritter won open seats in Iowa and Colorado, and Democratic incumbents held onto their jobs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
NEA President Reg Weaver must have been flying high without much oxygen when he lauded Southwest Airlines' no-merit-pay policy.
Milton Friedman died today at 94. The Nobel-prize winning economist was, among innumerable other accomplishments, the intellectual father of school choice in America. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his life and work.
Making sense of mid-term elections is akin to making sense of the opening break in a pool game. Casual observers sometimes believe that if the person breaking puts several balls into the pockets, he has the inside track on winning. But experienced players know it's how the remaining balls set up that determines the victor.
The charter school menagerie is bright and varied, and so too are the people who run it. Take Steve Barr, for example.
Hon. George MillerChairman-to-be, House Committee on Education & the WorkforceUnited States CongressDear Mr. Chairman:
The muddle coming from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is troubling.
Left-leaning folks who rail against vouchers better start stretching, because justifying their uncompromising stance is going to take added verbal gymnastics. Already this crew is hard-pressed to explain its opposition to lifting low-income and minority students out of failing urban schools, improving public schools through competition, and trying to level the educational landscape.
Few can argue that college completion rates are depressingly low. Just 35 percent of the 4.1 million students entering high school will go on to earn a college degree. Luckily, pursuing a rigorous academic curriculum in high school (as set forth in Governor Taft's Ohio Core plan) greatly increases the likelihood high school students will obtain a college degree.
It's no secret that Ohio's school funding system is deeply troubled (see here and here).
The charter community in the Buckeye State recently received some welcome news (see here and here ).
Passionate about increasing excellent schooling options for all children? Here's a chance to work with one of the leading charter school networks in the nation. The KIPP Foundation is seeking an accomplished leader to create a cluster of KIPP schools in Columbus, Ohio.
Too many of America's youngsters--Ohioans among them--are still being left behind.
Bryan Hassel, Charter School Leadership CouncilFebruary 2005
DC College Access Program, DC Education Compact, DC Public Schools, DC State Education OfficeOctober 2006
Any number of things can be said about next week's election and I will forbear from most of them. But one issue has surfaced that is genuinely alarming for education reformers: indications that some Democratic candidates (and office holders) are turning against standards-based reform and moving to roll back the assessment regimen that plays a crucial role in it.
Student Walter Petryk must have known when he donned a Hitler costume this past Tuesday morning that administrators at Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences wouldn't be pleased. Probably for that precise reason, or because he had grown a mustache for the occasion, he did it anyway.