Topics

Displaying 511-540 of 610 results
Commentary
3.13.2002

Department of Education seeks to be held accountable

Secretary Rod Paige has just released a five-year strategic plan for the U.S. Department of Education that seeks to bring real accountability to the Department's own functions. Combining elements of the No Child Left Behind Act with the President's management agenda, the plan sets six strategic goals for the agency, each with specific objectives and performance measures.

Commentary
3.6.2002

Teaching democracy in Afghanistan

Recent events make painfully clear that we cannot take the spread of democracy for granted, writes American Federation of Teachers president Sandy Feldman in her monthly "Where We Stand" column. Devotion to human dignity and freedom, to equal rights, and to the rule of law must be taught and learned and practiced.

Commentary
3.6.2002

Reform prospects in Dayton

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

As readers may recall, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation keeps one eye focused on education reform issues at the national level and the other trained on K-12 education developments in Dayton, Ohio, where the Foundation had its origins and is engaged in a number of projects.Dayton is more interesting than you might think for education reformers.

Commentary
3.6.2002

Sticking with standards-based reform in Massachusetts and across the country

While opponents of standardized testing continue to attract attention in the media, a national survey released by Public Agenda this week found that support for turning back the clock on the standards movement is virtually nonexistent among parents (2 percent), teachers (1 percent), employers (2 percent), and college professors (1 percent), with very large majorities among each group also viewi

Commentary
3.6.2002

Scientifically based research on education has its moment in the sun

The new federal education law, the No Child Left Behind Act, demands in many places that programs funded by federal dollars be supported by "scientifically based research," but among practitioners, and even some researchers, there is great uncertainty about what this means. To clarify what scientifically based research is and to explain why it is so crucial, the U.S.

Commentary
2.27.2002

On Leaving No Child Behind

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is less than two months old but it's already yowling and a lot of people are nervous about it, not unlike new parents unsure how best to soothe a crying infant.This is an enormous piece of legislation that possibly nobody has read from cover to cover.

Commentary
2.27.2002

Reading researchers find, yet again, that children need instruction in phonics

Heated arguments about the most effective form of reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community, but yet another review of the research has found beyond dispute that "teaching that makes the rules of phonics clear will ultimately be more successful than teaching that does not." So conclude five professors of psychology, linguistics and pediatrics in a cover story in this month

Commentary
2.27.2002

Justices hear arguments on vouchers

If you spent last week on another planet and missed the press coverage of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on the Cleveland voucher program, you can catch up with the help of The Economist ("School Vouchers: A Supreme Opportunity," February 23, 2002.)

Commentary
2.27.2002

Diverse voices call for accountability in special education

President Bush's commission on special education, charged with recommending areas of reform to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), held hearings in Houston this week. Some expected the hearings to be attended only by representatives of special education advocacy groups opposed to any changes in IDEA, which is soon up for reauthorization.

Commentary
2.27.2002

Great teachers turn up on top no matter how they are evaluated

Two years ago, the Cincinnati Public Schools launched a teacher evaluation system in which teachers were measured against 17 standards, with the results to be linked to compensation and career advancement for individual teachers. Last week, the district announced that teachers who rated the highest under the evaluation system also produced the greatest gains in student achievement.

Commentary
2.19.2002

Winners and losers in DC's special ed lottery

Just because the D.C. public schools are failing to provide special education services for many children doesn't mean the school district isn't spending pots of money on special ed. A pair of articles in this week's Washington Post shed unhappy light on where some of that money is going.

Commentary
2.19.2002

AP, IB programs teach too much, critics say

Diane Ravitch

For years, the advocates of standards-based reform have held up Advanced Placement tests and the International Baccalaureate as models: a clearly defined syllabus; a teacher who is prepared to teach that syllabus; a course based on the syllabus; an end-of-course examination.

Commentary
2.19.2002

Rethinking teacher professionalism

The big problem with the usual approaches to improving schools is that we fiddle with all kinds of things except the one thing that really matters, which is instructional practice, according to Harvard's Dick Elmore. Putting pressure on schools to improve won't work unless teachers know what to do at the level of practice, and Elmore says they don't.