Commentary
Outcomes of Learning: Results from the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment of 15-Year-Olds in Reading, Mathematics and Science Literacy
National Center for Education Statistics, December 2001
Commentary
More debate over teacher certification
In October 2001, the Abell Foundation released a study on teacher certification which included a comprehensive review of all studies that investigate whether certified teachers are more effective than teachers without traditional state certification (and a related question, whether formal teacher training from a school of education is correlated with greater student achievement).
Commentary
The real problem with large, urban high schools and how to solve it
In an article in Adolescent Medicine, Paul Hill explains why most large, urban high schools are not only ineffective but actually harmful to adolescents - especially low-income and minority students - and what can be done about them. These schools are widely known to be plagued by low standards, poorly qualified teachers, frequent leadership changes, violence and a lack of decorum,
Commentary
BIA and DOD Schools: Student Achievement and Other Characteristics Often Differ from Public Schools'
The General Accounting Office issued this report at the behest of four Senators. It offers the first close look we've ever seen at the federal government's own two "school systems," the one run by the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) with 47,000 pupils and the one run by the Defense Department (DOD) with 108,000 students.
Commentary
Raising Minority Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices
Donna Walker James, Sonia Jurich and Steve Estes, American Youth Policy Forum, 2001
Commentary
Leaving No Child Behind: Lessons from the Houston Independent School District
edited by Don McAdams, Paul Hill and Jim Harvey, Center for Reform of School Systems, 2001
Commentary
Charters, Vouchers & Public Education
edited by Paul Peterson and David Campbell, The Brookings Institution, 2001
Commentary
Why Public Schools Lose Teachers
Eric A. Hanushek, John F. Kain and Steve G. Rivkin, National Bureau of Economic Research, November 2001
Commentary
On E.S.E.A., entrepreneurship, patriotism, and Islam
It's nice to reoccupy this space after making room for two terrific guest editorials and a week's hiatus at Thanksgiving. Allow me to bend your ear, as it were, on a quartet of important issues.* * * *The long Elementary and Secondary Education Act (E.S.E.A.) drama appears at long last to have reached its final act.
Commentary
Performance-based pay for teachers is considered in Arizona
Arizona could become the second state (after Iowa) to do away with its seniority-based pay scale for teachers and replace it with a system in which teachers are paid based on how effective they are. But daunting obstacles lie ahead.
Commentary
Scientists investigate class size reduction and find it lacking
Reducing class size is a reform that is popular with teachers, parents, and the education establishment, but policymakers need more solid information about the costs and benefits of other reform options before they commit billions more dollars to across-the-board class-size reduction.