School Vouchers: Settled Questions, Continuing Disputes
Pew Forum on Religion and Public LifeAugust 2002
Pew Forum on Religion and Public LifeAugust 2002
The public school choice provision of the No Child Left Behind act isn't all that different from a federal choice program created two years ago, writes Alexander Russo in this month's Washington Monthly, and the lesson of that Clinton-era program is that providing viable transfer options for children in failing schools is far harder than it sounds.
John Wenders, Idahoans for Tax ReformAugust 2002
Mary SolidaySeptember 2002
National Commission on Teaching and America's FutureAugust 2002
Committee for Economic DevelopmentAugust 2002
Craig Jerald and Richard Ingersoll, Education TrustAugust 2002
Education Writers AssociationJune 2002
The average math score on the SAT rose two points (to 516) this year, while the average verbal score dropped two points to 504, according to figures released this week by the College Board.
As America readies itself for the "anniversary" of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, innumerable education groups and experts are again bestirring themselves to tell schools and teachers what to teach their students on this topic. Unfortunately, much of that advice is bad and some is awful.
Test scores in Los Angeles elementary schools are rising nicely and many view such gains as evidence that state and district reforms in math and reading are working. Turning its back on a hodgepodge of exploratory math programs, L.A.U.S.D. standardized its math program and now uses only two textbooks in the elementary grades, both of which stress fundamental skills.
Almost half of New York City's 1200 principals have been on the job for less than three years, and principal retirements are expected to grow in the next few years.
It has often been noted that high-poverty schools tend to be staffed by less experienced teachers. In an online piece at WashingtonPost.com, the always-thoughtful Jay Mathews examines some of the reasons for this and some of the proposed solutions.
The dropout rate for Massachusetts high school students in 2000-2001 stayed steady at 3.5 percent, possibly disappointing critics of the state's new high-stakes graduation exam (MCAS), who had predicted that making the test a graduation requirement would cause dropout rates to skyrocket. In Boston, the rate declined from 9.4 percent in 1999-2000 to 8.5 percent in 2000-2001.
This month's Worth magazine ranks the public and private high schools with the best records of placing graduates at the most elite colleges. Roxbury Latin, Brearley, and Collegiate top the list: at all three schools, at least 20 percent of graduates over the last four years attended Harvard, Yale or Princeton.
In an essay in this month's Commentary, Paul Peterson reflects on whether the Supreme Court's Zelman decision will be a turning point in how Americans think about education, akin to the Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision half a century ago.