For charter schools in Chicago, accountability is simple: you don't perform, you don't survive. Last week, the city's charter czar shut down Nuestra America Charter School, where test scores had plummeted, as had attendance. But an editorial in The Chicago Tribune argues that the school's involuntary closure demonstrates how well the charter model works.
Laurence A. Toenjes and A. Gary Dworkin, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesMarch 21, 2002
Amy M. Hightower, Center for the Study of Teaching and PolicyJanuary 2002
Audrey Amrein and David Berliner, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesMarch 28, 2002
In Chicago, the teachers' union is creating a graduate program in teacher leadership aimed at making teachers "agents of change." Teachers who earn the two-year degree will be eligible for a $6,000 pay hike.
The California Teachers' Union is receiving a lot of press lately-most of it bad-for its forceful effort to expand the scope of collective bargaining in the state to include matters of curriculum and instruction. There is much pushback, including hostile editorials in every major newspaper in the state.
A year ago, a Vanderbilt-based research team submitted to the federal Education Department a study titled "The Study of Special Education Leadership Personnel With Particular Attention to the Professoriate." (You can request a copy by emailing lead author Deborah Deutsch Smith at [email protected].) In 50 pages (plus appendices), it concluded tha
In this space two weeks ago (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=66#983), I reported that Congressman Michael Castle's (R-Delaware) bill to remake the federal education research enterprise had much merit but also posed some problems, especially regarding the future of the National Assessment of Educationa
On Monday, opponents of school choice from Arizona State University released a report attacking the state's 1997 education tax credit law, which grants taxpayers a dollar-for-dollar credit against their state tax obligation for donations they make either to public schools or to "school tuition organizations" that award scholarships for use at private schools.
No matter how much pre-service training they have been armed with, new teachers begin their first assignments with a range of urgent, school-specific questions about curriculum, instruction, and classroom management. Yet few schools offer induction programs that give new teachers the kind or level of support they require.
edited by MaryAnn Byrnes2002
Jie Chen and Thomas Ferguson, University of MassachusettsFebruary 20, 2002
Jolley Bruce Christman, Consortium for Policy Research in EducationDecember 2001
Simeon Slovacek, Antony Kunnan and Hae-Jin Kim, Program Evaluation and Research Collaborative, Charter College of Education, California State University at Los AngelesMarch 11, 2002
Last August in The Gadfly (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=93#1209), I reviewed the results of the New York City summer school program for 2001, the second time that the giant school system had attempted to corral more than 300,000 kids to return during the hot months for remediation or enrichment or
C. Emily Feistritzer and David T. Chester, National Center for Education Information2002
Center on Education PolicyJanuary 2002
I had the good fortune to take part last week in an international symposium hosted by Japan's National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER). The topic was "New Schools for the 21st Century." I was asked to talk about charter schools.
The state of Pennsylvania has recently taken control of Philadelphia's schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants control of New York's schools and the Maryland legislature will probably replace Prince George's County's dysfunctional elected school board with an appointed one. There's a big debate in Cleveland about whether mayoral control should continue.
Mark Berends, Joan Chun, Gina Schuyler, Sue Stockly and R. J. Briggs, RAND Corporation2002
Alex Molnar, Glen Wilson, Melissa Restori and John Hutchison, Education Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State UniversityJanuary 17, 2002
Should education schools lose their monopoly on teacher certification? Rick Hess, Mary Diez, and James Fraser debate the proposition in the Spring 2002 issue of Education Next (www.educationnext.org).
Concerned about nine city schools on Tennessee's watch list for poor academic performance, Mayor Bob Corker of Chattanooga was determined to come up with a way to bring in a critical mass of high performing teachers to transform the culture of low expectations and low achievement in these schools-and keep them there.
Should teacher unions be given a bigger say on academic issues? This is the question that the California Assembly is grappling with as they debate Assembly Bill 2160.
Carol Innerst, The Center for Education ReformMarch 2002
Christine H. Rossell, Public Policy Institute of CaliforniaFebruary 20, 2002
Yesterday, a House education subcommittee "marked up" H.R. 3801, which was recently introduced by subcommittee chairman Michael Castle (R-Delaware), committee chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) and several other GOP congressmen.
Philanthropist Eli Broad has engaged Michigan Governor John Engler and Detroit Public Schools CEO Kenneth Burnley in an effort to recruit and train dynamic leaders from business, the military, and other backgrounds to run urban school districts. Three dozen executives and educators are enrolled in the Broad Center for Superintendents' first class of aspiring school system executives.
Edited by Iris Weiss, Michael Knapp, Karen Hollweg and Gail Burrill, National Research Council2001
