You might have thought that alternative certification of teachers was more vibrant, robust and widespread than ever, considering how many states now claim to have some form of it--45 of them plus D.C., reports alt-cert watcher Emily Feistritzer--and its warm embrace last June by Education Secretary Rod Paige. Think again.
Teachers (or prospective teachers) wishing to earn certification or degrees can now take advantage of an online program offered by Western Governors University (WGU) and partially financed by the U.S. Department of Education. The Teachers College at WGU, a virtual university that received accreditation last month, will offer associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees in education.
Two school voucher bills have won approval in the Colorado Legislature, one each in the House and the Senate. Both bills would make publicly-funded vouchers available to low-income, low-achieving students trapped in failing public schools who would like to switch to private school, including religious schools.
A long article in this month's American School Board Journal examines whether the tremendous growth in students taking AP courses has been accompanied by slackening of that program's lofty academic standards. Today nearly 950,000 students worldwide take AP courses, more than double the number a decade ago.
How well I recall a day in 1987 when Teachers College, Columbia University, was celebrating its centennial as our nation's premier school of pedagogy. One of the events marking this grand occasion was a panel discussion of the topic: "Do we need a national curriculum?" On one side, arguing the affirmative, was Checker Finn and a Teachers College faculty member.
Two decades after the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its celebrated "A Nation at Risk" report, how much progress has the U.S. made in averting that risk and bringing excellence to its schools? Not much, says the Hoover Institution's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, one of whose eleven members I am.
Intrigued by a report on CBS suggesting that today's kids are burdened with too much homework, ace Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews did some digging.
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, The Business Roundtable, AccountabilityWorksFebruary 2003
Richard Ingersoll, Harvard University PressFebruary 2003
Following the lead of three major foundations in Pittsburgh, which suspended funding to the school system in July 2002 because of a decline in district leadership, governance and fiscal discipline [for more see "Foundations withdraw grants to Pittsburgh school district," a private foundation in Memphis has vowed not to dona
Four New England states - Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont - will be working together to develop common standards and tests in English and math for grades 3-8 in order to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. Test development is a costly undertaking and, by joining forces, these states will be able to cut costs.
exam presents an impossibly high barrier, yet more than 80 percent of 12th graders have already passed it and many more are expected to pass later this year. Further, the evidence suggests that many students who failed the test did so for simple reasons: they missed many days of school and did not attend any of the tutoring sessions that have been offered to help them clear the bar.
Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & EngagementFebruary 2003
As Congress begins work on updating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) this spring, expect funding, vouchers, and discipline issues to emerge as major sticking points, according to a neat summary of the special ed debate appearing at Stateline.org.
Over the past thirty years, per-pupil spending on education has doubled. Almost half of this increase was caused by the hiring of many more teachers. As a result, the number of students per U.S. teacher has shrunk from 22 to 15 since the early 1970s. Oddly, this hasn't led to a reduction in class size; instead, the average teacher simply faces fewer classes per day.
Breaking up a popular, high-achieving neighborhood elementary school because it doesn't have enough white students, even though the suburban black parents who send their children there are pleased with the school. Trying to shut down charter schools, though they cost less to run than traditional public schools, their students' performance may be superior, and they have long waiting lists.
Having read Chester Finn's commentary last week ("Part II: Rethinking Vocational Education"), I wonder if perhaps Mr. Finn, in his effort to review federal education policy, simply overlooked current special education law. IDEA specifically calls for transition services to be provided while disabled children are still in public school.
In a recent Gadfly, Chester Finn reviewed All Else Equal by Benveniste, Carnoy, and Rothstein. Those authors claim that private schools are very similar to public schools. They base their findings on case studies of sixteen private schools, only some of which are Catholic.
You won't see any references to bookworms, busybodies, craftsmanship, cults, dialects, dogma, extremists, fairies, heroines, huts, jungles, lumberjacks, limping, Navajos, one-man bands, slaves, snowmen, straw men, or yachts in today's textbooks.
Kalman R. Hettleman, Abell FoundationFebruary 2003
Robert Holland, The Lexington InstituteDecember 2002
Robert J. Marzano, The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development2003
A revised SAT being developed by the College Board and psychologist Robert Sternberg produces smaller test score gaps across racial groups and can help colleges achieve diversity without using affirmative action, its developers claim.
Last week, New York City chancellor Joel I. Klein released the list of 208 schools that will be exempt from the new citywide math and reading curricula that go into effect next year in the rest of the country's largest school system.Ignore for now the issue of whether a uniform citywide curriculum is a good idea.
A review of world history textbooks used in U.S. classrooms found that they routinely sanitize the problems of Islam while treating events in Western history and Christianity more critically.
Anthony Bryk, Paul Peterson, and E.D. Hirsch have won the first annual Fordham prizes for excellence in education, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation announced this week. Bryk and Peterson will split a $25,000 prize for distinguished scholarship while Hirsch will receive his own $25,000 prize for valor.
Anthony Alvarado, brought in by Superintendent Alan Bersin to lead a curriculum overhaul in San Diego, will leave the district by September. Bersin called his departure a mutual decision.
Even before the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act shot across the sky, many districts and states had embarked upon heroic efforts to identify failing schools and set them right.
