National Assessment of Vocational Education: Final Report to Congress
U.S. Department of Education Office of the Under Secretary 2004
U.S. Department of Education Office of the Under Secretary 2004
Harold C. Doran and Lance T. Izumi, Pacific Research InstituteJune 2004
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make any noise? If the nation's governors talk about education reform yet it has no effect on what they do, do the words matter? That's the question that arises from the just-concluded summer meeting of the National Governors Association.
Treat yourself to two fascinating features in the Chicago Tribune about a young girl who takes advantage of the NCLB transfer option to move to a new school on the North Side.
We earlier reported that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had vetoed a one-year moratorium on new charter schools, but that it looked like the General Assembly would have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Romney's veto.
Sol Stern pens a long article in City Journal on the Bush education agenda and why the President deserves the moniker "Education President." It's interesting to note, Stern recounts, that time and again opponents of various Bush initiatives seemed nonplussed (to say the least) to discover that the administration actually meant what it said.
More challenges loom for Hizzoner Bloomberg's controversial bid to require third graders to pass reading and math tests before advancing to the next grade (see Gadfly, Volume 4, Number 7).
The New York legislature may well have overstepped its bounds this week when it passed a bill that would limit state and city universities from using the SAT or other "high-stakes tests" as major criteria for acceptance into the schools.
Richard Kazis, Joel Vargas, and Nancy Hoffman, editors, Harvard Educational Press2004
This summer is bound to get hot due to the escalating controversy surrounding No Child Left Behind. Once this year's state test results designate a number of schools and districts as needing improvement, election year political pressure will blow across always-warm embers and spark August fires.
Alliance for Excellent Education June 2004
Kevin Carey, The Education TrustMay 2004
Last year, the Colorado Education Association - the statewide teacher union - filed suit alleging that the newly adopted statewide voucher program violated eight provisions of Colorado's constitution. Last December, Denver judge Joseph E. Meyer struck down the program on the grounds that it violated Colorado's constitutional guarantee of "local control" over instruction.
The Massachusetts charter scene reminds us of Dorothy's observation in the Wizard of Oz: people come and go so quickly around here!
For the past 50 years, the United States has actively supported the expansion and improvement of higher education through a generous funding system that encourages autonomy, choice, and competition. Our institutions of higher education have helped produce the research that has been responsible for creating half our new jobs since World War II.
Tories in Britain have caused a ruckus with a school choice plan that would give ??5,500 to more than 100,000 parents to spend at independent schools that control their own budget and enrollments.
Last September, 44 states and the District of Columbia reported that they had no schools they considered "persistently dangerous," a classification required under NCLB - this despite NCES data released in October 2003 showing that 7 percent of schools in the nation - or roughly 6,000 - accounted for half of the almost 1.5 million violent incidents in s
The U.S. Department of Education: Office of Innovation and Improvement2004
Maria McCarthy and Ellen Guiney, Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public SchoolsApril 2004
Paul T. Decker, Daniel P. Mayer, Steven Glazerman, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.June 2004
Bryan C. Hassel and Michelle Godard Terrell, Progressive Policy Institute June 3, 2004
It's almost impossible to get a decent grasp of Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, William Blake, the Mayflower Compact, the speeches of Lincoln or King, or hundreds of other topics, writers, and historical events, without knowing something about the Bible.
Linda Seebach reports that a Colorado teacher hit upon a strange and potentially destructive way of teaching Othello to her students. The teacher divided her students up in groups, those who had blue cards and those who had yellow cards. Blue-carded students were required to smile ingratiatingly, bow their heads, and beg people to tie their shoes.
The American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence announced last week that Florida will join Idaho and Pennsylvania as the third state to accept the American Board's Passport to Teaching as a new route to full certification for the state's public school teachers.
We're pleased to note the publication of a new installment of the Education Department's Innovations in Education book series (see below for our review of some earlier iterations), this one entitled Successful Charter Schools.
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine includes a spellbinding account of Geoffrey Canada and his extraordinary effort to change the lives of all of the children who live in one Harlem community.
A new survey from Educational Testing Service (which has not yet been posted online by ETS but has already been reported in the USA Today) finds Americans souring somewhat on their public schools-and divided about the merits of No Child Left Behind. The percentage of parents who give U.S.
Many states are currently embroiled in court battles arising from lawsuits that challenge them, usually on constitutional grounds, to provide "adequate" funding for their public schools.
Robin Jacobowitz, Institute for Education and Social Policy, New York University, Jonathan S. Gyurko, Office of New Schools Development, New York City Department of EducationMarch 2004
Achieve, Inc.June 10, 2004