At a time of budget crunching, why would teacher unions, legislators, and state education officials turn down free money? Yet under pressure from these groups, that is exactly what Michigan's governor is about to do. Governor Jennifer Granholm has vowed to veto a bill that would enable a local Detroit businessman to donate $200 million to build 15 new charter schools in the Motor City.
The New York Times recently published a two-part series on the newly discovered problem of "push-outs" in the New York City public schools. The articles charged that principals were pushing out low-performing students in order to protect their school's performance scores and attendance rates.
Please note, this is not our April's Fools edition. Officials in Beaufort County, South Carolina have decided to institutionalize grade inflation by mandating that no student receive less than a 62 (out of 100) in the first semester of any class, so that students will not be prevented from passing the class if they improve in the second semester.
With schools re-opening, daily attacks in the middle east, and the second anniversary of 9/11 hard upon us, teachers can expect another round of nonsense from experts who think it's more important to boost children's self-esteem and tolerance than to instruct them in the history of their own and other countries, the wellsprings of citizenship, and the price of defending freedom.Worse, th
A new Ohio law removes the state's Department of Education from the charter school authorizing business and allows school districts, county education service centers, public universities AND qualified nonprofits to sponsor charter schools in the Buckeye State.
Last fall, 52 percent of Florida voters supported a constitutional amendment that would cap class sizes in public schools throughout the state. Now, given the severe budget crunch and high cost of class-size reduction - more than $1 billion this year and next - Florida's State Board of Education has voted to join Governor Jeb Bush in an effort to roll back part of the amendment.
Partnership for 21st Century SkillsAugust 2003
William G. Ouchi, Simon and SchusterSeptember 2003
Jay Greene and Marcus Winters, Manhattan InstituteAugust 2003
Keith Gayler, Naomi Chudowsky, Nancy Kober, and Madlene Hamilton, Center on Education PolicyAugust 2003
Lowell C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup, Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallup OrganizationAugust 20, 2003
When hizzoner Michael Bloomberg gained control of Gotham's crippled school system, many had high hopes. Perhaps at last New York City would muster the strength to free itself from the establishment monopoly over education reform, curriculum, and pedagogy--and the innumerable underperforming schools it has created.
On January 8, Indiana became one of five states singled out by the U.S. Department of Education for early approval of its No Child Left Behind accountability plan. These states were depicted as leaders that had set aside excuses and committed themselves to educating all students.
A teacher takes Post education columnist Jay Mathews to task for his rankings of America's best public schools, which he bases on the number of students within a school who take Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.
The American Federation of Teachers is out with the 2002 edition of its Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends, and this year's report is even cheekier than usual. Acknowledging that, according to the union's own data, "average teacher salaries improved faster than inflation for the fourth time in five years," the authors demand yet more money for teacher pay.
In June, Gadfly voiced some skepticism when the Department of Education announced with great fanfare that it had approved the NCLB accountability plans of all fifty states, as well as the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We noted that the "victory" was at best pyrrhic, since many states cut corners to comply and at least one (Iowa) was approved despite lacking state standards.
Patrick Murphy, Michael DeArmond, and Kacey Guin, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesJuly 2003
Andrew J. Wayne and Peter Youngs, Review of Educational Research Spring 2003, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 89-122
Though the phrase "don't know much about history" is now a clich?, we can't argue with the sentiments of this article in National Journal, which argues that the well-intentioned No Child Left Behind act is perversely marginalizing subjects like history.
Carol Ascher et al., Institute for Education and Social Policy2003
David A. Goslin, The Scarecrow Press, Inc.2003
This new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation consists of penetrating critiques by renegade social studies educators who fault the regnant teaching methods and curricular ideas of their field and suggest how it can be reformed. While nearly everyone recognizes that American students don't know much about history and civics, these analysts probe the causes of this ignorance-and lay primary responsibility at the feet of the social studies 'establishment' to which they belong.
This new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation includes the voices of 29 political leaders, education practitioners, and cultural analysts who discuss what schools should teach about U.S. history, American ideals, and American civic life in the wake of 9/11, the war on terror, and the liberation of Iraq.
A good, well-organized social studies curriculum seeks to teach students the key events, issues, and people in America's past, how our government works, our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and how our predecessors fought to defend democracy. How can parents tell whether their children are getting such a curriculum in school?one that is rich in historical content and provides a solid base for future learning? The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation suggests asking teachers and principals these six questions on back to school night.
