Commentary
Summer reading from the AFT
The summer issue of the American Federation of Teacher's magazine, American Educator, has several must-read articles. E.D.
Commentary
High Student Achievement: How Six School Districts Changed into High-Performing Systems
The Educational Research Service's new study of high-performing districts expands on an appraisal of high-performing schools that it published three years ago.
Commentary
Testing Teacher Candidates: The Role of Licensure Tests in Improving Teacher Quality
The National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council is at it again, taking money from the (Clinton) Department of Education to advance the education profession's conventional wisdom while claiming to be engaged in serious analysis.
Commentary
Affirmative action for speakers of second languages
A year after the University of California system made changes in its admissions policy designed to increase campus diversity, Hispanic admissions soared 18%.
Commentary
Voucher researchers defend their turf
School choice researchers and critics discuss the strengths and weaknesses of studies analyzing the effects of vouchers in "The Problem With Studying Vouchers," by D.W. Miller, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 13, 2001 (Article is available only to subscribers.)
Commentary
Paige Nonsense
I was out of the country last week and expected to return to find an end to the media frenzy about Education Secretary Rod Paige being (a) unhappy with his job, (b) "out of the policy loop" and (c) on the verge of quitting. Alas, this foolishness seemed, if anything, to have intensified.
Commentary
Privatizing Education: Can the Marketplace Deliver Choice, Efficiency, Equity, and Social Cohesion?
Long-time education policy analyst Henry M. Levin now heads the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, based at Teachers College, Columbia. That center held its kick-off conference in April 1999. The conference papers have now been collected in this volume, which Levin edited.
Commentary
Report card on report cards
Nearly all states post report cards on the internet that show parents (and others) how their children's schools are doing, but some of these report cards are more useful than others. The Heritage Foundation has created a web site that highlights the 10 best internet-based school report cards, explains why such measures are important, and includes links to school report cards in all the states.
Commentary
School Choice in New Zealand: Sixteen Years of Unprecedented Success
Children First America has issued an eight-page brief describing bold reforms that the Kiwis have made to their education system over the past decade and a half.