As their tuitions escalate, public colleges and universities are experimenting with formulas and incentives to attract strong students. For nearly a decade, Georgia has granted free tuition to high school graduates with a B or better average - regardless of financial need - to stop the brain drain of top students who left the state for college and never returned.
Writing for American Outlook, Checker Finn examines the potential for chaos and fraud inherent in the fast-growing market of virtual higher education, aka distance learning-which has evolved from its Pony Express origins into wildly varying offerings by universities, non-profits and for-profits far and wide.
The handwriting is on the wall for ed schools, writes UNC-Wilmington education professor Martin Kozloff in a hard-hitting summary of criticisms leveled at them. Kozloff explains reformers' attack on ed schools' validity, reliability, credibility and monopoly (not to mention dubious theories). Have a look at Kozloff's paper. You may even find yourself mentioned.
The winning candidates and ballot initiatives in Tuesday's election reflected voters' conflicting priorities and education philosophies, and reveal a nearly evenly divided electorate. Florida voters returned Jeb Bush to the governor's office by a healthy margin, but also approved Democratic challenger Bill McBride's pet initiative to limit class sizes statewide.
Since the beginning of the school year, more than a quarter of voucher students in Miami-Dade County have returned to public schools. The reasons most kids and parents cite for abandoning their new private schools? Transportation difficulties, too tough a curriculum, too-strict discipline, culture shock and a lack of familiarity with new teachers, peers and school grounds.
The fall issue of American Experiment Quarterly (AEQ) contains a pair of pieces worth a look. The first is "The Making of Patriots," in which Leslie Lenkowsky, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, explains what it will take to reverse civic decline and inculcate in today's young people an understanding and appreciation for our system of government.
Few of America's thousands of middle schools are engaged in the "focused, demanding work necessary to serve all their students well," says veteran middle school analyst Hayes Mizell of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
The following are among the responses generated by last week's editorial, "Education's mirth dearth," which invited readers to proffer theories on why educators are a solemn bunch.
You may laugh at the antics and costumes of the youthful spooks who beat a path to your door this evening in search of sweets, but when's the last time you had a really good giggle sitting at an education conference or reading one of this field's innumerable journals and newsletters? Why is there so little humor in educator-land?
Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster, Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan InstituteOctober 2002
National Association of State Boards of EducationOctober 2002
Barbara Kent Lawrence, Steve Bingler, et. al.2002
Harold Doran and Darrel Drury, Education Performance Network, New American SchoolsOctober 2002
Democratic gubernatorial candidates in at least five key races - including Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas - are pledging to curtail their states' use of standardized tests to evaluate student and school performance and as accountability instruments.
Recently, the New York Times showered attention on a new study from the M.I.N.D. Institute at U.C. Davis, giving it front-page news play and devoting an editorial to hand-wringing over its findings. Numerous other publications accorded it prominent attention, too, and just this week Senator Barbara Boxer cited it while arguing for new federal initiatives on autism.
Last week, Education Secretary Rod Paige warned state officials not to attempt to skirt the intent of "No Child Left Behind" by lowering standards or redefining proficiency to ease the impact of the law's accountability provisions.
With the blessing of the Zelman decision, the last big civil rights battle - enabling poor minority children to attend good schools - can now begin in earnest, writes Sol Stern in the autumn issue of City Journal.
The American Federation of Teachers' quarterly, American Educator, often contains excellent material.
This incisive essay by E.D. Hirsch appears in the October-November 2002 issue of the Hoover Institution's Policy Review.
Aimee Howley, Edwina Pendarvis and Thomas Gibbs, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesOctober 16, 2002
Laura Goe, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesOctober 14, 2002
Brian P. Gill, Jake Dembosky, and Jonathan P. Caulkins, RAND 2002
Camille Esch and Patrick Shields, Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning2002
Charisse Gulosino and James Tooley, E.G. West Centre, School of Education, University of NewcastleAugust 2002
edited by Melanie Looney, Center for Education ReformOctober 2002
The Commonwealth of Virginia has joined Texas and California - which adopt textbooks on a statewide basis - in persuading major publishing companies to issue textbooks aligned with state history and social studies standards, a trend that may continue as other states seek texts aligned to their standards.
Some 12,000 students - or 19 percent - of the Bay State's high school class of 2003 may be denied diplomas after repeatedly failing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams.
