Stalled in Secondary: A Look at Student Achievement Since the No Child Left Behind Act
Eric OsbergThe Education TrustJanuary 2005
Revisiting Statewide Educational Accountability under NCLB
J.E. StoneEllen Forte Fast and William J. Erpenbach, Council of Chief State School Officers2004
Road maps of charterland
You may be confused by the dueling charter school studies that have appeared in recent months. If so, two new articles try to beam a light through that tangled forest.
Dovrat back to the drawing board
The recommendations of a national panel looking at fixes to the ailing Israeli K-12 education system has the entire country up in arms.
Math standards don't add up
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Two decades after the U.S. was deemed "a nation at risk," academic standards for our primary and secondary schools are more important than ever - and their quality matters enormously.
Merit pay in CA?
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his State of the State address, has declared his intention to promote merit-based pay for Golden State teachers.
Aristocracy rising
Income inequality in the U.S., the Economist warns, "is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s.
Twentysomething and still a kid?
Are today's twentysomethings spoiled, coddled brats who sponge off their parents and wander aimlessly through an entertainment-addled existence? Or do they face unusual challenges that make it difficult to follow the time-honored high school-college-adulthood script? Both assertions were on view this week.
All Work and No Play? Listening to What Kids Really Want from Out-of-School Time
Public AgendaNovember 16, 2004
The Expectations Gap: A 50-State Review of High School Graduation Requirements
Eric OsbergAchieve, Inc. 2004
Private schooling for the poor booms in India
We've heard plenty about the outsourcing of American jobs to "Asian Tiger" economies and about the swell of graduate students from other countries (India especially) coming to the U.S. to take high-tech and research positions.
High school reform on deck
As Checker Finn noted last month, "the NEXT BIG THING in education reform is a serious focus on high school." (Click here for more.) Among the bipartisan chorus calling for high school reform are a few who ascribe America's staggering college drop-out problem to inadequacies in the high schools.
Literature left behind
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Two decades after being diagnosed as "a nation at risk," academic standards for U.S. primary and secondary schools are more important than ever-and the quality of those standards matters enormously.
1965 & 2005
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Why it seems like only yesterday. . . . Oops, sorry, this is not to be a sappy reminiscence by an aging fogey. (Well, aging, maybe.) But in greeting 2005, I want to explain some momentous changes these past four decades, for American education and for me.
2005 battle lines drawn in states
It's a new year and new fights loom in state legislatures. In Utah, buoyed by a study suggesting that it might save $1.2 billion in K-12 costs by allowing students to enroll in private schools, proponents plan to push a tuition tax credit plan. But they've got the state's biggest newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, against them, as well as the teacher unions.
A diversity of perversity
College and university campuses across the country claim to be bastions of diversity, where students of every sort come together to learn, socialize and solve the great issues of the day.
The State of State Math Standards 2005
W. Stephen Wilson, Bastiaan J. Braams, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Wilfried Schmid, Ralph A. Raimi, William Quirk, Thomas Parker, Lawrence Braden, David KleinStates still have far to go in setting rigorous, high quality expectations for K-12 math instruction. Although a majority have replaced or revised their math standards since 2000, many have failed to make substantial improvements. The review was led by David Klein, Professor of Mathematics at California State University-Northridge, and evaluates the content, writing quality, and clarity of K-12 math standards in each state. Klein and his team attribute many of the shortcomings to overuse and wrong applications of manipulatives and calculators; wrong-headed guidance from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; and lack of true mathematics competence among those writing the standards.
The State of State English Standards 2005
Chester E. Finn, Jr., Sandra StotskyDo states' current English/language arts and reading standards expect what they should? Are they demanding enough? Clear enough? Are states using them to guide not only the curriculum and assessment system for students but also their teacher-training programs? Sandra Stotsky, research scholar at Northeastern University and former senior associate commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Education, finds that most states have revised or replaced their standards since 2000 and made some improvements, especially to K-8 standards. However, major shortcomings remain in other areas including high school literature requirements.
Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001
Eric OsbergPhilip Kaufman and Martha Naomi Alt, MPR Associates, Inc. Christopher D. Chapman, National Center for Education Statistics November 2004 Issue Brief: Educational Attainment of High School Dropouts 8 Years Later National Center for Education Statistics November 2004
The Leadership We Need: Using Research to Strengthen the Use of Standards for Administrator Preparation and Licensure Programs
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Tim Waters & Sally Grubb, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning2004
The Perverse Incentives of the No Child Left Behind Act
Eric OsbergJames E. Ryan, New York University Law Review, Volume 79, Number 3 June 2004
Searching the Attic: How States are Responding to the Nation's Goal of Placing a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom
Kate Walsh & Emma Snyder, National Council on Teacher QualityDecember 2004
Good news on Colorado charters
The Denver Post reports that "Colorado's charter-school students have outperformed their traditional public-school peers on the state assessment test," with 46 percent of charters rated "excellent" or "high" on the state's accountability reports, compared to just 39.6 percent of traditional public schools.
Erasing accountability in Texas
Newspapers across the country were abuzz this week with reports of teachers cheating on behalf of their students.
2004 in Education-land
(To the tune of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland")Two-thousand-four starts as No ChildLeft Behind debates get wildThe unions yell, "Pay!"But Paige says, "No way!"And adds, "You terrorists are out of hand!"
Wishing does not make it so
North Dakota state legislators and school board members are shocked! shocked! to discover that the U.S. Department of Education has rejected the state's plan for designating elementary teachers as "highly qualified" pursuant to NCLB requirements.
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement2003