Displaying 16801-16830 of 17758 results
Commentary
11.20.2002

Texas, Michigan wrestle with standards

Noting that it's better to raise standards than to back down from a higher benchmark, Texas's board of education approved a motion to set a moderate but rising standard for passing the rigorous new TAKS exam. This replaces the celebrated TAAS test, on which many Lone Star students and schools had bumped against the ceiling.

Commentary
11.20.2002

Young Americans clueless about geography

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 earned a "D" average on a recent National Geographic survey of geography and current events. Only 13 percent could identify Iraq on a map of the Middle East, and an astonishing 11 percent failed to locate the U.S. on a global map!

Commentary
11.20.2002

On private schools and urban schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Unless you've been wholly absorbed trussing your turkey, you have read of the recent flap concerning Sanford Weill's assistance to Jack Grubman in gaining admission of the latter's twin tykes to the 92nd Street Y's pre-school program in 2000. This ultra-exclusive Upper East Side pre-school program enrolls 175 youngsters and accepts just 65 annually.

Commentary
11.20.2002

Pennsylvania adopts sensible teacher quality reforms

Eliminating a major barrier to classroom entry for recent college graduates and career-switchers, the Keystone State's board of education last week voted to deem "qualified" those teachers who receive training from Teach for America and other national alternative programs.

Commentary
11.20.2002

Portland principal wishes one-fourth of his teachers would leave

If ever there were a case to be made for allowing principals to hire and fire their staff, Portland's Whittaker Middle School is it. Principal Tom Pickett told The Oregonian that, until a quarter of his current teachers are replaced, pupils in his failing school won't stand much chance of being adequately educated.

Commentary
11.20.2002

Professional development dollars down the drain

Chicago's public schools reaped little reward for their nearly $200 million investment in professional development last year because the money was spent "without any 'overarching strategy' for improving instruction," and without a demand for proof of improvement. So concludes an outside audit.

Commentary
11.20.2002

Reformers, not teachers, lack a funny bone

Checker Finn asked why there is so little humor among educators in America. [See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=35#1480.] Three reasons come to mind.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Texas charter schools to close for poor academic performance

Texas education commissioner Felipe Alanis has ordered five charter schools in the Lone Star State (including two in Houston) to close by the end of the school year because they have failed for three years in a row to meet state standards. The closures would be the first to occur for purely academic reasons since the legislature authorized charters in 1995.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Yale, Stanford drop early decision

Yale and Stanford universities last week became the most elite campuses to end the early decision process, whereby successful applicants must accept offers of admission months ahead of schedule, no matter where else they are eventually accepted.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Ph.D.'s turn toward public schools

In a tough job market, people with doctorates in other disciplines are seeking employment in K-12 education, trading the high-wire uncertainties of university teaching for the stability of public school tenure. While their numbers are still small - about 1.7 percent of teachers held doctorates in subjects other than education as of 1996 - they are believed to be growing.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Post-election policy watch

While pundits dissect last week's election results - two-thirds of all education measures on the ballot were approved - policymakers sweat over where to find the money for smaller classes, after-school programs, school construction and, in Florida, universal preschool.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Dashed hopes: a brief, depressing history of research restructurings

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Once upon a time, I helped to create a new federal entity called the National Institute of Education (NIE). As the junior-most education staffer in the White House during the early Nixon administration (functioning mainly an aide to Pat Moynihan, then Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs), I helped draft Richard Nixon's 1970 message to Congress, wherein the NIE was conceived.

Commentary
11.13.2002

Top Chicago schools fail to close achievement gap, new analysis reveals

An analysis of new Illinois data revealed "startling disparities" between test scores of white and black students at some of the Chicago area's most esteemed suburban schools. Masked by strong average scores in years past, the disparities were forced to light by NCLB's mandate that schools disaggregate their performance data by race, income, etc.

Commentary
11.13.2002

What works?

Sunday's New York Times Magazine contained a brace of insightful pieces by crack journalist James Traub.

Commentary
11.6.2002

The United States of Italy

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Election post-mortems typically take three forms: congratulations to the winner for their success and efforts to understand what caused it; soul-searching among the losers; and prognostications by pundits about the legislative and policy agendas that await the new Congress, reconfigured state legislatures, governors, etc.

Commentary
11.6.2002

Reforming schools in a civic vacuum

Watched by an oversight board and chief operating officer more powerful than the mayor, hundreds of millions of state tax dollars stand to flow through Camden, New Jersey - a city so forlorn that the drug trade may be its single largest employer - as part of a massive recovery plan and a state supreme court decision equalizing public-school funding.