Teacher Labor Market Imbalances in Massachusetts: A Review of the Evidence The New England Council
Kelly ScottCommission on High Technology Workforce Development August 14, 2001
Teacher Workload Survey: Interim Report
Kelly ScottDepartment for Education and Skills (UK) August 2001
Taking aim at AIMS
Diane RavitchMy older sister lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, for many years and her six children attended the public schools there. Her oldest child, my niece, took most of her public schooling in Texas and is now a teacher in Florida. The rest are graduates of the Arizona school system.
On the road with the KIPP Academy Orchestra
Can you think of anything more fun than chaperoning 76 junior high school kids on a bus trip across America?
Summer school in New York City
Diane RavitchI read the results of the summer school program in New York City with a growing sense of dismay, in part because so many kids gained so little from the experience, but also because I had predicted this would happen in a New York Times op-ed a year ago, when the school system rashly threatened to send 325,000 kids to summer school.
How can one science education system produce elites and illiterates?
The US has the finest scientists in the world but the rest of the population is abysmally ignorant of science. Why? Because science education in the US today exists as a kind of mining and sorting operation in which existing scientists search for diamonds in the rough who can be cut and polished into elite scientists, according to David Goodstein, a professor of physics at Caltech.
Is the GED as good as a high school degree?
Since 1975, the percentage of young adults who have gotten their diploma through the GED program has risen from less than 3 percent to 12 percent. Since the Census Bureau includes GED holders as high school completers, these statistics mask a steady rise in the nation's dropout rate. But does the GED measure up as a high school equivalence exam?
Charter Schools as laboratories for personnel policy experiments
Charter schools have come under criticism in some quarters for failing to realize one of the goals emphasized by proponents: that they would serve as laboratories in which novel ideas and methods could be tested and best practices identified for dissemination among traditional public schools. For example, a recent study of California charter schools concluded: "...
About Harold O. Levy
Diane RavitchIn recent weeks, the Chancellor of the New York City public school system has been heavily criticized, especially about cost overruns in school construction. The sharks have been circling, and the New York Times ran an editorial defending him (a sure sign that he is in big trouble). I'd like to say a few things in his behalf. Harold O.
Why new teachers leave (and what would make them stay)
Almost 75 percent of new teachers in the Cleveland Municipal School District either were considering leaving or were unsure whether they would stay, according to the results of a survey administered this spring.
Teacher training programs face new competition
For the past hundred or so years, the training and certification of public school teachers has been largely in the hands of colleges of education, but this monopoly is now being challenged by private sector entrants into the teacher training business, explains Robert Holland in "The Rise of Private Teacher Training," an issue brief published by the Lexington Institute on August 10. Sylvan
The art of polling
This week, Phi Delta Kappa (an "honorary fraternity" of professional educators) and Gallup released their 33rd annual poll of the public's attitudes toward the public schools. Normally polls bring good news or bad news, depending on which side you are on.
How applying to college can warp your mind
Two articles in the September issue of The Atlantic Monthly take a sausage-factory-like look at the college application and admissions process. In "The Early Decision Racket," James Fallows explores how early-decision programs have distorted the admissions process and added an insane level of intensity to middle-class obsessions about getting into college.
Crazy things districts do to attract teachers
States and school districts struggling to hire teachers in the final days before school opens are offering all kinds of creative incentives to attract applicants. Among them: redesigning teachers' lounges to resemble quaint New England inns, replacing degree requirements with height requirements, offering free tickets to school plays, and promising unlimited bathroom passes.
Evaluating teachers using value-added analysis
"Doesn't it make sense to link teacher evaluation and measures of student learning?" ask Pamela Tucker and James Strong in an article in the September 2001 issue of the American School Board Journal. Hardly a radical idea, though the NEA is officially opposed.
Crusade in the Classroom: How George W. Bush's Education Reforms will Affect Your Children, Our Schools
Jacob LoshinDouglas B. Reeves
Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Harvard University Press
The Next Generation of Citizens: NAEP Civics Assessments-1988 and 1998
Chester E. Finn, Jr.National Center for Education Statistics
Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Chester E. Finn, Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Gregg Vanourek
Teachers learn to gamble, massage in order to maintain certification
Teachers in many states must accumulate professional development credits to maintain their certification, but those who pushed hard for a recently-enacted recertification program in Illinois were horrified to learn that some teachers are satisfying this requirement by taking courses in Tai Chi, massage, and gambling (conducted at a racetrack, no less).
Opposition to character education from an unlikely source
In this week's Weekly Standard, former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and Boston University Ed School Dean Edwin J. Delattre take aim at the character education program included in the education bills now before Congress.
How to keep good principals
Diane RavitchTime magazine and other national media have recently featured the work of a program called "New Leaders for New Schools," which is preparing 15 people to become school principals. This is most certainly a valuable activity and it deserves commendation if, in fact, the 15 people do someday turn out to be not only principals but good principals.
Confusion about commercialism in schools
Pizza Hut offers free pizza to students who read a certain number of books while rival Domino's rewards schools with free books if the school community buys pizza from its outlets. Do these deals harm students by commercializing schools, as critics suggest?
Make ed schools sing for their supper
In a piece in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation and former president of Brown University argues that we should stop blaming teachers for their professional shortcomings and start pointing fingers at the universities and colleges that train them.