Groups in two states are using the No Child Left Behind Act as the basis for lawsuits aimed at forcing states and districts to provide better teachers and school choices.
Last week, the British government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) released its annual "league tables," which rate schools in England based on student performance on national tests. For the first time, DfES also issued a value-added analysis of school performance.
Lance T. Izumi, K. Lloyd Billingsley and Diallo DphrepaulezzPacific Research InstituteNovember 2002
The National Education AssociationJanuary 2003
Heinrich Mintrop, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesJanuary 15, 2003
Last week, the Fraser Institute in British Columbia announced the launch of Children First: School Choice Trust, Canada's first privately-funded voucher program, which is aimed at helping poor families send their children to private schools. The program will provide grants paying 50 percent of tuition, up to a maximum of $3,500 per year, for up to 150 students in Ontario.
While a survey of college freshmen reveals a continuing decline in the time they spend studying or doing homework during their senior year of high school, their high school grade point averages continue to climb.
Clever as always, Miss Manners this week chides parents who neglect their "homework" of teaching children the ability to sit still for short periods of time, to listen to what other people say, and to refrain from hitting.
I must say I am thoroughly intrigued by the education reform experiment being conducted in New York as reported by Diane Ravitch. ["Letter from New York City: Bloomberg's Reforms,"] I certainly wish them well.
After The New York Times ran a front-page story on an anti-testing study by Audrey Amrein and David Berliner last month, there was an immediate response from researchers across the political spectrum noting the many shortcomings of the study.
Several articles in the January 2003 Phi Delta Kappan are worth a peek. The special section on teacher education includes seven articles addressing the challenges faced by education schools in the 21st century.
New Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced last week that he planned to kill the state's wimpy "Profile of Learning" - a set of academic standards that focus more on hands-on discovery learning projects than academic content - and that he had appointed Minnesota native Cheri Yecke as his education commissioner.
David Myers and Mark Dynarski, Mathematica, Inc.January 2003
When Michael Bloomberg ran for election as mayor of New York City, he pledged to make the improvement of the public schools his first priority. After he was sworn into office on January 1, 2002, he said that he wanted to be judged by whether the public schools improved.
Just as the teacher shortage has been declared over [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=6#414], states are reporting shortages of qualified candidates to become principals.
This first-hand account of a recent Yale graduate's first - and last - year teaching in a DC public school paints a frightening picture of the chaos that has become an accepted part of daily life in an urban school that lacks effective leadership.
Elementary school principals and safety experts say they're seeing more violence and aggression than ever among their youngest students, according to an article by Greg Toppo in USA Today.
Checker Finn begins "Reforming Education: The Hard Part Lies Ahead," (The Education Gadfly, January 9, 2003) by observing, "&[B]y and large we haven't yet caused many people or institutions to alter their ways." Later, he applies this reasoning - not much has changed - to an assessment of the voucher movement:"The evidence," he writes, "suggests that helping disadvantaged blac
In the midst of depressing financial news elsewhere, Philadelphia district officials announced last week that belt-tightening will eliminate a $28.3 million deficit and, in fact, produce an estimated $2 million surplus by the end of the fiscal year.
As states encounter major revenue shortfalls (due to the sagging economy) and impose freezes or cuts in aid to education, many schools and districts are facing tough decisions about how to allocate their shrinking budgets.
Education Week, January 2003
Sherman DornEducation Policy Analysis ArchiveJanuary 2003
Tom Corcoran and Jolley Bruce ChristmanConsortium for Policy Research in EducationNovember 2002
Audrey Amrein and David BerlinerArizona State UniversityDecember 2002
The Center for Education Reform this week released the latest edition of its ranking of the "strength" of the nation's 40 charter school laws. Arizona retains the top ranking this year as Minnesota moves into second place. New charter laws in Tennessee and Iowa garner a C-minus and F respectively.
