In June, Education Secretary Rod Paige issued an important report, the first "Secretary's Annual Report on Teacher Quality." What a splendid fuss it has kicked up-and hurrah for Paige for standing his ground.Entitled "Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge" (and previously noted by the Gadfly at http://www.edexc
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Zelman that the Cleveland voucher program does not offend the First Amendment, The Christian Science Monitor reports that state legislatures in California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kansas, Minnesota, and Maine will introduce voucher legislation this year.
Elaine M. Walker, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesAugust 4, 2002
Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard UniversityAugust 2002
In an article in this summer's Harvard Educational Review, Dan Goldhaber and Eric Eide summarize research on the impact of school choice on minority students in urban settings. They write that relatively little evidence exists that school choice is having a clear-cut impact, and conclude that the mixed results suggest that choice alone will not transform urban school systems.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded an $18.5 million contract to develop a national What Works Clearinghouse to summarize and disseminate evidence on the effectiveness of various education interventions.
With New York City focused on the question of what it takes to be an effective school system leader for the 21st century, the Times published profiles of four respected superintendents in this Sunday's Education Life section: Alan Bersin (San Diego), Carmen Russo (Baltimore), Joseph Olchefske (Seattle), and Barbara Byrd-Bennett (Cleveland).
The Advanced Placement (AP) program has taken a beating this year, with Harvard announcing that it would only give credit for scores of 5 on AP tests and several prominent private schools withdrawing from the program altogether.
USA Today reports that 19 schools designated as "Blue Ribbon Schools" of excellence by the U.S. Department of Education also appear on states' lists of failing schools.
Three weeks ago, we directed readers to an article in The Wall Street Journal by Jay Greene arguing that, contrary to what was reported by the Harvard Civil Rights Project, private schools are actually more integrated than public schools.
When evaluating schools and education reform initiatives, analysts (and the policymakers who depend on them) are often hampered by poor data. Conclusions about school and program effectiveness would be far more robust if states had a mechanism for linking student test scores over time.
New research shows that, despite a decade of federal efforts to promote them, the three most popular programs that schools use to discourage kids from using drugs are ineffective or unproven. "Anti-drug programs like D.A.R.E. called a bust," by Greg Toppo, Chicago Sun-Times, August 4, 2002
Core Knowledge Foundation2002
Dan Lips, Goldwater InstituteAugust 1, 2002
Shazia Rafiulla Miller and Robert M. Gladden, Consortium on Chicago School ResearchJune 2002
The Center for the Future of Teaching and LearningMarch 2002
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family StatisticsJuly 2002
Paul L. Kimmelman and David J. Kroeze2002
Andrew J. Coulson, Mackinac Center for Public PolicyJuly 2002
Putting a wrinkle into Governor Jeb Bush???s plans to allow students trapped in failing schools to transfer to private schools, a Tallahassee judge earlier this week struck down Florida???s three-year-old voucher program, ruling that it violated the state constitution by aiding religious schools with tax dollars - and following very different jurisprudential reasoning than the U.S.
While the superintendent???s job is being rethought, their lieutenants are still part of the old order, at least in Connecticut. Even assistant superintendents are protected by the state???s teacher tenure laws and cannot be fired without the hearings and process afforded to teachers, according to a state supreme court ruling in Connecticut.
Religious leaders in Pakistan are blasting a government plan to crack down on that nation???s 10,000 madrasas, Islamic schools that often foster religious extremism, and the government has been too nervous to press for reforms, according to an article in The New York Times.
States are revving up to carry out the No Child Left Behind Act. At the leadership level, dozens of them are eager and energized. And several sources of help have lately become available. The Business Roundtable has chosen seven states to assist with policy and communications.
Budget shortfalls have led California to abandon its $100 million cash reward program for teachers in schools that demonstrate significant improvements in test scores. While the state will continue to rank schools based on academic gains, state lawmakers have not included any funding for these awards in the 2002-03 budget bill.
California has been in the hot seat since the U.S. Department of Education noticed that it was planning to meet the ???highly qualified teachers??? requirement of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act by labeling teaching interns and those with emergency certification as ???highly qualified.???
