Commentary
Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies, Technology Administration
U.S. Department of CommerceSeptember 2002
Topics
Commentary
Not needed: two million new teachers
In a recent meeting with reporters in Detroit, Education Secretary Rod Paige spoke heresy to the education establishment. He asserted that the "teacher shortage" is "contrived" and that many individuals who would make good teachers are shut out by the current system. He's right.For more than a decade, educational Cassandras have been warning that the U.S.
Commentary
A school that helps learning disabled kids soar
While most special ed experts believe that including learning disabled children in regular classrooms is ideal, try telling that to parents whose kids attend the Lab School in Washington, DC. Each year, 400 applicants vie for 40 spots at this privately operated school, where all 310 students suffer from moderate to severe learning disabilities.
Commentary
On the spirit of patriotism
I am writing in response to Chester Finn's unfair characterization of the article "On the Spirit of Patriotism" written by Michalinos Zembylas and Megan Boler and published in the Teachers College Record (TCR) online edition. [See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=44#642 for Finn's editorial.
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When charities run charter schools
This week's Chronicle of Philanthropy features a trio of articles by Meg Sommerfeld on charter schools. "Nonprofit Lesson Plans" looks at charters launched by charities such as the YMCA, and some of the rewards and challenges for those schools and charities.
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States try to ignore supplemental services provisions of No Child Left Behind
Several states - Connecticut, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia included - recently announced that they were not yet required to offer supplemental services like tutoring to students in failing schools. Not so, says the U.S.
Commentary
The Future of School Facilities
Michael DeArmond, Sara Taggart and Paul Hill, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of WashingtonMay 2002
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Teaching as a Clinical Profession: A New Challenge for Education
Michael deCourcy Hinds, Carnegie Corporation of New York2002
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They Have Overcome: High Poverty, High Performing Schools in California
Lance T. Izumi with K. Gwynne Coburn and Matt Cox, Pacific Research InstituteSeptember 2002
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The New Schools Handbook
Robin Lake, Abigail Winger and Jeff Petty, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of WashingtonMay 2002
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More in the battle over who is qualified to teach
While Education Secretary Rod Paige and the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future battle over whether traditional teacher education and state certification guarantee teacher quality, Martin Haberman contends that both sides are missing the point.
Commentary
More seek disability label to gain extra time on SAT
Educational psychologists report a big increase in demand by middle class parents for diagnoses that will allow their teenage sons and daughters to receive extra time to take the SAT, particularly in well-off communities, now that the College Board is no longer "flagging" the scores of students who take the test under special conditions.
Commentary
Is the principal the key to a school's success?
Reporter Joshua Benton describes how principal Nancy Hambrick turned around a failing middle school in Texas in "Principal demands perfection, gets it," The Dallas Morning News, September 29, 2002. But it can work the other way, too.
Commentary
What Do Teachers Teach? A Survey of America's Fourth and Eighth Grade Teachers
Christopher Barnes, Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan InstituteSeptember 2002
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School Vouchers: Characteristics of Privately Funded Programs
United States General Accounting OfficeSeptember 2002
Commentary
Inequality at the Starting Gate: Social Background Differences in Achievement as Children Begin School
Valerie E. Lee and David Burkam, Economic Policy InstituteSeptember 2002
Commentary
Teacher certification study scrutinized by independent panel of experts
Earlier this month, the Gadfly reviewed a study of the effectiveness of Teach for America participants and other teachers without full certification in Arizona, a study that we found to be severely flawed.
Commentary
Attention focused on students who have not passed MCAS
In Massachusetts, 81 percent of the class of 2003 has already passed the state's high-stakes MCAS test and is scheduled to graduate next spring, but the 19 percent of students who have not yet passed it are now the subject of a federal lawsuit.
Commentary
Faux choice
The public-school choice provisions of No Child Left Behind have been getting plenty of attention in recent weeks, mostly negative. It's time to reflect more broadly and candidly on the potential of public-school choice to solve vexing education problems.That potential seems limited at best.
Commentary
Ed schools are running scared
Did you ever wonder how they think about politics, policy and the future of teacher education at the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), principal trade association of the ed schools? See for yourself by surfing to http://www2.gasou.edu/coe/july.htm ("Contextual Scan -- July 2002").
Commentary
Education statistics and research: 2 steps forward, 1.93 back
For those tracking Washington's handling of federal education research, statistics and assessment (you can find previous Gadfly commentaries on this subject at http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=66#983 and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/
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Early Returns: Tax Credit Bonds and School Construction?
Sara Mead, Progressive Policy InstituteSeptember 12, 2002
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Every Child a Graduate: A Framework for An Excellent Education For All Middle and High School Students
Scott Joftus, Alliance for Excellent EducationSeptember 2002
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Expect Miracles: Charter Schools and the Politics of Hope and Despair
Peter Cookson, and Kristina Berger2002
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Learning from critics of high-stakes testing
Jay Mathews of The Washington Post is generally a fan of standards and tests, but in a recent column in Washingtonpost.com he praises Deborah Meier's newest anti-testing book, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization.
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Demanding data from private schools
Private schools are increasingly feeling the heat to release data about their students' achievement, acceptances into college, and other vital performance statistics, though some contend that these schools need only be accountable to parents, not to the general public.
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Businesses send a message to schools: shape up or we'll ship out
Some businesses and corporate foundations are limiting or withdrawing their funding of public education after seeing little improvement as a result of their support. Companies complain that education's bureaucracy, internal squabbling and foot-dragging prevent corporate dollars from reaching and impacting students and classrooms.