Brown in the classroom
As all know, Monday was the golden anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, and in honor of that epochal decision we have seen literally scores of articles celebrating and appraising it and its legacy.
As all know, Monday was the golden anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, and in honor of that epochal decision we have seen literally scores of articles celebrating and appraising it and its legacy.
Kevin Chavous, Capital Books 2004
Anthony Carnevale and Donna Desrochers, Educational Testing ServiceMay 2004
Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond, and Abigail Schumwinger, Center for Reinventing Public EducationApril 2004
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is pushing a bill to create a statewide charter district that could authorize charter schools anywhere in the state, which would then fund these schools directly, bypassing local districts entirely.
In the flood of dismaying statistics about American education, every once in while one bubbles to the surface that is so shocking it can scarcely be believed - even if you know it's true. Thus we learn that, among 8th grade New York City special ed students, the pass rates on state tests are 5 percent in math and 3.5 percent in reading.
Jon Schroeder, Progressive Policy InstituteMay 2004
David Salisbury and Casey Lartigue, editors, Cato InstituteMay 2004
Writing in the centrist Democrat magazine, Blueprint, Andrew Rotherham is characteristically perspicacious in warning that the left's opposition to NCLB may make its worst fears of "privatization" come true.
New York Times reporter Diane Jean Schemo wrote a fine profile of Denver's new teacher pay-for-performance scheme (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=141#1740).
The summer 2004 issue of Education Next is out and contains many items worthy of your attention. For example, Jay Greene and Marcus Winters's account of how Florida's A+ voucher program has spurred failing schools to improve. Voucher-eligible schools, they found, made gains 15.1 percentile points higher on the FCAT math test than the Florida average.
On Monday, Governor Bill Owens signed the nation's first-ever college voucher program. It will award a stipend usable at any state university to all Colorado undergraduates who qualify for in-state tuition, with a smaller stipend made available for low-income students attending three private universities. The state already spends about $700 million on higher education each year.
Last week was "education week" for John Kerry's campaign, during which he unveiled a series of proposals that likely comprise the main education plank of his platform.
Based on your critique of Nebraska's approved state accountability plan (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=144#1771), it's clear that you know nothing about our system of assessment and accountability. You know nothing about the data supporting its validity and reliability.
Education officials in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island announced last week that they were joining forces to create the New England Compact Assessment Program. In October 2005, all three states will begin using a common reading and math test in grades 3-8 and a common writing test in grades 5 and 8 to fulfill their NCLB accountability requirements.
Washington State's Academic Achievement and Accountability Commission voted unanimously this week to lower the passing score in reading and math for fourth- and seventh-graders, and recommended lowering the pass score for the tenth-grade reading test on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), the statewide accountability test.
Richard J. Coley, Educational Testing ServiceNovember 2003
The Albert Shanker Institute and the New Economy Information ServiceApril 20, 2004
Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform is her usual blunt self in a recent exchange with the editors of USA Today, who bemoan financial, curricular, and administrative scandals among charter schools and call for greater accountability for them.
Martha McCall, Gage Kingsbury, and Allan Olson, Northwest Evaluation AssociationApril 2004
Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel, Armchair Press May 2004
Clifford Adelman, Institute of Educational Sciences, U.S. Department of Education April 2004
Katherine Mangu-Ward penned a super essay in the March 29 Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/003/881iitwp.asp) that accurately describes NCLB's virtues, acknowledges its shortcomings, responds thoughtfully to several oft-voiced criticisms, and s
Last week, the National Collegiate Athletics Association approved reforms intended to improve graduation rates among college athletes, amid an outcry over the horrendous rates at many schools, particularly in men's basketball and football (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=140#1725).
A pair of excellent articles in Education Week by Lynn Olson point to the UK for lessons on the pitfalls of standards-based reform on the one hand, and value-added analysis on the other.
Big news for Colorado charter schools. That state's legislature has just passed two bills packed with useful charter law reforms. One creates a Colorado State Charter Institute to sponsor charter schools, removing local districts from their monopoly over that key role.
A rosebud to our friends at the Progressive Policy Institute for the launch of "Eduwonk," a daily blog on education issues. It's peppered with smart and witty comments on the education news of the day, perfect for those who just can't wait the full seven days for the next Gadfly. Check it out at http://www.eduwonk.com.
Sobering thoughts from Frederick Hess on why the new D.C. voucher program won't have the hoped-for effect of reforming the public school system by exposing it to competition. In fact, the new program shields public schools from real competition by capping enrollment at 3 percent of the school-age population, while actually adding dollars to the woeful D.C.
Considering all the bad news and negative comments you sometimes hear about charter schools, you wonder why anyone would ever choose them for their child.