Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2002
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development2002
Leaving Safe Harbors: Toward a new progressivism in American education and public life
Terry RyanDennis Carlson2002
Tutor Quest: Finding Effective Education for Children and Adults
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Edward E. GordonSeptember 2002
Homeowners, Property Values, and the Political Economy of the School Voucher
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Eric Brunner and Jon Sonstelie, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityOctober 2002
Texas charter schools to close for poor academic performance
Texas education commissioner Felipe Alanis has ordered five charter schools in the Lone Star State (including two in Houston) to close by the end of the school year because they have failed for three years in a row to meet state standards. The closures would be the first to occur for purely academic reasons since the legislature authorized charters in 1995.
Yale, Stanford drop early decision
Yale and Stanford universities last week became the most elite campuses to end the early decision process, whereby successful applicants must accept offers of admission months ahead of schedule, no matter where else they are eventually accepted.
Ph.D.'s turn toward public schools
In a tough job market, people with doctorates in other disciplines are seeking employment in K-12 education, trading the high-wire uncertainties of university teaching for the stability of public school tenure. While their numbers are still small - about 1.7 percent of teachers held doctorates in subjects other than education as of 1996 - they are believed to be growing.
Post-election policy watch
While pundits dissect last week's election results - two-thirds of all education measures on the ballot were approved - policymakers sweat over where to find the money for smaller classes, after-school programs, school construction and, in Florida, universal preschool.
Raising standards in Massachusetts is a group effort
As Massachusetts high school students who failed the MCAS gear up for re-tests, schools must "get smarter" about developing ways to help them pass, quote the Globe in a recent editorial.
Dashed hopes: a brief, depressing history of research restructurings
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Once upon a time, I helped to create a new federal entity called the National Institute of Education (NIE). As the junior-most education staffer in the White House during the early Nixon administration (functioning mainly an aide to Pat Moynihan, then Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs), I helped draft Richard Nixon's 1970 message to Congress, wherein the NIE was conceived.
Top Chicago schools fail to close achievement gap, new analysis reveals
An analysis of new Illinois data revealed "startling disparities" between test scores of white and black students at some of the Chicago area's most esteemed suburban schools. Masked by strong average scores in years past, the disparities were forced to light by NCLB's mandate that schools disaggregate their performance data by race, income, etc.
What works?
Sunday's New York Times Magazine contained a brace of insightful pieces by crack journalist James Traub.