Displaying 1-30 of 78 results
Commentary
7.31.2002

Checking up on charter schools

Fueled by an active business community, frustrated parents, reform-minded local legislators, dedicated entrepreneurs (and some assistance from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation), charter schools have flourished in Dayton, Ohio, which some term "ground zero" of the national charter movement.

Commentary
7.31.2002

Further fiddling with standards and tests

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Some weeks back, I used this space to describe ways that a state's academic standards may be lowered, including several that occur out of public view.

Commentary
7.31.2002

The clock is ticking on urban school reform

A host of opposing forces-not a failure of will, goals or effort-is what's retarding urban schools, writes ace journalist Richard Whitmire in the Democratic Leadership Council's Blueprint Magazine.

Commentary
7.31.2002

Adding value to the "Blue Ribbon" school award

The Department of Education has given the Blue Ribbon School award since 1982, but attention has recently been drawn to the fact that not all honored schools can actually claim stellar records of student achievement. Accordingly, the DOE recently announced that test scores and test score improvements will become a major component of the selection process.

Commentary
7.31.2002

Treating teachers like professionals

As the editor of Teachers As Owners, I couldn't be happier with the conclusion in the recent Gadfly review, namely that "one can't put the book down without noting the chasm between these ideas and the reality of most American schools." (See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=51#770.) Notwithst

Commentary
7.31.2002

Turn surplus PhDs in math and science into teachers

A new report from the National Research Council proposes that math and science Ph.D.s, who face fewer job openings in academia, should instead try teaching in K-12 schools, which are in dire need of math and science teachers.

Commentary
7.31.2002

Vouchers may debut in the Northeast

Last week, the Camden city council unanimously approved a resolution asking the New Jersey legislature to award hefty $6,000 vouchers to students in the city's notoriously low-performing schools. The measure-which faces steep opposition from the governor and teachers union-marks the first time a Northeastern municipality has endorsed a publicly funded voucher program.

Commentary
7.31.2002

Reins of New York City school system given to a new breed of leader

On Monday, July 29th, New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg named Joel I. Klein, the chairman and chief executive of Bertelsmann Inc., and a former assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration-where he led the antitrust prosecution of Microsoft-as chancellor of the city's public school system.

Commentary
7.31.2002

States, districts struggle to implement No Child Left Behind

Seven months after President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, and one month after the U.S. Department of Education announced that children at 8,652 low-performing schools are now eligible to transfer to higher-performing schools, some states and school districts are giving the new law's approach to failing schools a chilly embrace.

Commentary
7.24.2002

New poll shows most blacks support school choice

Nearly two thirds of blacks would enroll their children in a charter or private school if given the chance, according to a poll by the Black America's Political Action Committee. Conducted during the week before the Zelman decision, the poll also showed that the majority of blacks surveyed gave public schools a "C" grade or lower when asked to evaluate their condition.

Commentary
7.24.2002

Creating a test that doesn't offend anyone, anywhere, anytime

With rewards and punishments now tied to test scores, states can't afford to risk complaints about bias in their test questions, so sensitivity guidelines adopted in the 1960s to address the "culturally lopsided" view of America presented in the reading passages of standardized tests have now stretched to cover "almost everyone in almost every situation." Testing companies avoid mentioning anyt

Commentary
7.24.2002

Defining a knowledge base for teachers

In "A Knowledge Base for the Teaching Profession: What Would It Look Like and How Can We Get One?" James Hiebert, Ronald Gallimore and James Stigler acknowledge that the U.S. teaching profession does not draw heavily upon a shared base of solid "craft knowledge" grounded in the analysis and communication of what effective teachers have learned. "Practitioner knowledge," they call it.

Commentary
7.24.2002

Defining educational accountability

"Making School Reform Work" is the slightly misleading title of an essay by Checker Finn on the subject of educational accountability in the summer 2002 issue of The Public Interest. It distinguishes three distinct forms of accountability and seeks to evaluate them.

Commentary
7.24.2002

Teachers prepare for September 11 anniversary

Teachers nationwide are scrambling to create lesson plans in observance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, turning for help to new university workshops like "Understanding the World After September 11" and tolerance-heavy lesson plans such as a National Council for the Social Studies lesson about "Osama," a young Iraqi immigrant to the US who is teased at school because of his name.

Commentary
7.24.2002

Teaching teenagers to read using phonics

A remedial reading program with basic phonics instruction and sentences like "Dad had a sad lad," is being taught to 35,000 middle and high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District this year, much to the embarrassment of students in the program, who landed in these classes due to their low Stanford 9 reading scores.

Commentary
7.24.2002

The battle over Success for All

Is Success for All (SFA) the leading example of evidence-based education in America or is it all smoke and mirrors?

Commentary
7.24.2002

Finding new leaders from the suburbs for failing schools

Most failing schools desperately need new principals, but talented leaders are in short supply. Maryland superintendent Nancy Grasmick has inaugurated an effort to bring well-regarded principals from suburban districts to lead failing schools in inner city Baltimore.

Commentary
7.24.2002

Charter Districts

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Bryan Hassel, Education Commission of the StatesMay 2002