Last year, the Colorado Education Association - the statewide teacher union - filed suit alleging that the newly adopted statewide voucher program violated eight provisions of Colorado's constitution. Last December, Denver judge Joseph E. Meyer struck down the program on the grounds that it violated Colorado's constitutional guarantee of "local control" over instruction.
The Massachusetts charter scene reminds us of Dorothy's observation in the Wizard of Oz: people come and go so quickly around here!
Last September, 44 states and the District of Columbia reported that they had no schools they considered "persistently dangerous," a classification required under NCLB - this despite NCES data released in October 2003 showing that 7 percent of schools in the nation - or roughly 6,000 - accounted for half of the almost 1.5 million violent incidents in s
For the past 50 years, the United States has actively supported the expansion and improvement of higher education through a generous funding system that encourages autonomy, choice, and competition. Our institutions of higher education have helped produce the research that has been responsible for creating half our new jobs since World War II.
Richard Kazis, Joel Vargas, and Nancy Hoffman, editors, Harvard Educational Press2004
Tories in Britain have caused a ruckus with a school choice plan that would give ??5,500 to more than 100,000 parents to spend at independent schools that control their own budget and enrollments.
Kevin Carey, The Education TrustMay 2004
This summer is bound to get hot due to the escalating controversy surrounding No Child Left Behind. Once this year's state test results designate a number of schools and districts as needing improvement, election year political pressure will blow across always-warm embers and spark August fires.
Alliance for Excellent Education June 2004
It's almost impossible to get a decent grasp of Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, William Blake, the Mayflower Compact, the speeches of Lincoln or King, or hundreds of other topics, writers, and historical events, without knowing something about the Bible.
Many states are currently embroiled in court battles arising from lawsuits that challenge them, usually on constitutional grounds, to provide "adequate" funding for their public schools.
A new survey from Educational Testing Service (which has not yet been posted online by ETS but has already been reported in the USA Today) finds Americans souring somewhat on their public schools-and divided about the merits of No Child Left Behind. The percentage of parents who give U.S.
Linda Seebach reports that a Colorado teacher hit upon a strange and potentially destructive way of teaching Othello to her students. The teacher divided her students up in groups, those who had blue cards and those who had yellow cards. Blue-carded students were required to smile ingratiatingly, bow their heads, and beg people to tie their shoes.
Paul T. Decker, Daniel P. Mayer, Steven Glazerman, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.June 2004
The U.S. Department of Education: Office of Innovation and Improvement2004
We're pleased to note the publication of a new installment of the Education Department's Innovations in Education book series (see below for our review of some earlier iterations), this one entitled Successful Charter Schools.
Maria McCarthy and Ellen Guiney, Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public SchoolsApril 2004
The American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence announced last week that Florida will join Idaho and Pennsylvania as the third state to accept the American Board's Passport to Teaching as a new route to full certification for the state's public school teachers.
Bryan C. Hassel and Michelle Godard Terrell, Progressive Policy Institute June 3, 2004
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine includes a spellbinding account of Geoffrey Canada and his extraordinary effort to change the lives of all of the children who live in one Harlem community.
The Christian Science Monitor is a somewhat unlikely source for this story, but it recently ran a fascinating account of the continuing debate over medicati
I know that authors are never quite satisfied with reviews, even ones as respectful and careful as yours, so permit me to respond to some points you make in a recent Gadfly (http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=151#1853).
Is the new D.C. voucher program half full or half empty? Depends on where one turns for information. According to the Washington Post, "the D.C.
Robin Jacobowitz, Institute for Education and Social Policy, New York University, Jonathan S. Gyurko, Office of New Schools Development, New York City Department of EducationMarch 2004
This week, the SEED school (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) in Washington, D.C. - America's only urban charter boarding school (click here for more) - is celebrating the success stories of its first graduating class.
During a recent visit, I was, frankly, wowed by the comprehensiveness and courage of Florida's education reforms, and depressed by the crummy coverage they're getting in both state and national press, not least the heat they are now taking for holding their schools to high standards under NCLB and accepting the sanctions meted out to schools for not meeting adequate yearly progress.
The Malaysian government has recently undertaken a voucher experiment aimed at leveling the education playing field between wealthy and underprivileged students. According to the New Straits Times, the plan's goal is creation of a "social market" in which "parents will be empowered by choice . . .
Achieve, Inc.June 10, 2004
Anyone who's ever lived through a tornado knows the provenance of the phrase "calm before the storm." There's that eerie, pregnant moment before the wind picks up, when the sky turns pea-green, the wind dies down, and everything seems muffled, almost pleasant. Then all hell breaks loose.
