Anyone who thinks that the solution to the problems of big-city school districts is putting the mayor in charge may be disheartened by a trio of articles in the most recent issue of Education Next.
As the pundits keep reminding us, honesty is often a casualty of war.
Software giant Microsoft has proposed settling the myriad class-action lawsuits it faces by contributing a billion-plus dollars worth of software, computer equipment, technology training and cash to schools attended by low-income youngsters. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured an op-ed by Checker Finn explaining why the software giant's offer - if approved by the plaintiffs an
While the "whole language" approach to teaching reading has been widely discredited, that didn't stop the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) from organizing a series of seminars called "A Day of Whole Language" during its annual convention in Baltimore last week.
Public Education Network, November 2001
William W. Cutler III, 2000
Frederick M. Hess, Progressive Policy Institute, November 2001
Jennifer Buckingham, Centre for Independent Studies, 2001
Under a new accountability system being proposed by the Florida Department of Education, the progress of individual students will be tracked from year to year and this information will be used to determine letter grades for schools. An accountability system based on annual learning gains has been a major goal of Governor Jeb Bush.
Last month, much to my surprise, both the Education Gadfly and The Wall Street Journal touted the new Standard and Poor's School Evaluation Service. Such praise is premature.
A warm and reasonably accurate profile of E.D. Hirsch appeared in last Sunday's Washington Post Magazine under the subtitle "How a U-Va.
The report submitted by Edison Schools on Philadelphia's public education system paints a somewhat misleading picture of the condition that city's schools are in, writes Mike Casserly of the Council of the Great City Schools in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer. While agreeing that schools in the City of Brotherly Love need dramatic improvement, Casserly complains that t
Public Agenda, November 14, 2001
edited by Thomas C. Hunt, Ellis A. Joseph and Ronald J. Nuzzi, September 2001
Jay Greene, Black Alliance for Educational Options and the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute, November 2001
John E. Stone, George K. Cunningham and Donald B. Crawford, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, October 2001
Katrina Bulkley, Education Policy Analysis Archives, 9(37), October 1, 2001
Mark Y. Herring, Oklahoma Association of Scholars, October 2001
Matthew Ladner, Children First America, July 2001
The Los Angeles Unified School District's ambitious plan to reform secondary education and boost literacy in the upper grades has been derailed at least temporarily by the objections of teacher and administrator unions.
While there are increasing calls for principals to be held accountable for producing results, in few places are principals given much power over staffing their schools or spending school budgets.
On November 2, the American Federation of Teachers released a hefty (235-page) report entitled Making Standards Matter 2001. It's an ambitious effort to appraise academic standards, curriculum, assessments and accountability arrangements in each of the fifty states and for the country as a whole.
Thanks to a black minister and a retired marine, roughly 450 students in St. Louis are attending private schools financed by public dollars this fall - without vouchers. Determined to do something about the number of kids they encountered who couldn't read or write, Bishop Laurence Wooten and Marine Lt. Col.
With Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker on the verge of transferring control of the Philadelphia's school system from local officials to his own appointees, who would then put its management in the hands of Edison Schools, a pair of articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer examines two questions: Do state takeovers of school systems work?
A program aiming to place talented leaders from government, business, non-profits, higher ed, and the military as superintendents in urban school districts has been launched by the Broad Center for Superintendents, an organization established by the Broad Foundation and Michigan Governor John Engler.
Saul Geiser and Roger Studley, University of California, October 29, 2001
American Federation of Teachers, October 2001
Don Soifer, Lexington Institute, September 2001
