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Commentary
12.1.2004

Man bites dog while NPR speculates

In Fremont, California, the local school board was determined to reroute elementary and middle school students from the posh Mission Hills neighborhood away from high-performing Mission Hills High School to lower-performing schools in the area. Mission Hills parents objected, and even weighed splitting off to form their own school district, though in the end they did not.

Commentary
12.1.2004

Money, money, money, money, and yet more money

It was perhaps a foregone conclusion, but one cannot help but be struck by Tuesday's recommendations from a court-appointed panel of referees in the New York City school financing case: increased state aid eventually reaching $5.63 billion extra for Big Apple schools each year, plus an additional $9.17 billion for capital improvements.

Commentary
12.1.2004

National Board for Education Sciences

The Education Department's new Institute for Education Sciences was set up to take policy guidance and expert advice from a fifteen member National Board for Education Sciences, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Three cheers for Rod Paige

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Outgoing education secretary Rod Paige is a great education reformer and distinguished public servant who leaves office after four years of accomplishment, candor, nonstop dedication to America's children, and loyal service to the Bush administration.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Three strikes for vouchers in the Sunshine State?

For the third time since the law was enacted in 1999, Florida's Court of Appeals ruled that the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows students in failing schools to use vouchers to attend a public or private school of their choice, violates the state constitution's controversial Blaine Amendment.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Ed Next, hot off the presses

The latest issue of Education Next came our way this week, and it's a good one. The cover story - Jim Traub's fascinating profile of the Hyde schools, where the focus is on rigorous character education - is a must-read. There's also a trio of articles about options for reworking the antiquated teacher pay schedule.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Defining failure down

According to the National Education Association, of the 41 states that have reported their NCLB test results from spring 2004, 32 showed improvement in the number of schools meeting their adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals. Cause for celebration? Perhaps. But before anyone makes grand claims, take a careful look at what those numbers mask.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Coming soon: Value-added assessment?

Has the time come for value-added assessment? That's what some are suggesting in this Ed Week article by Lynn Olson. She reports that 16 states have written to the Education Department requesting permission to explore value-added assessments as a way of meeting NCLB requirements, with Ohio and Pennsylvania moving ahead to install such systems for state testing purposes.

Commentary
11.17.2004

Good news is no news on home schooling

On Wednesday, just after noon, I typed the term "teacher" into the Google news alert search engine. Here are five of the 10 headlines that came back:

Commentary
11.10.2004

The old is new in Japanese schools

A debate over constructivist versus traditional pedagogy seems to be brewing in Japan, of all places. In the 1990s, Japanese officials partially decentralized the nation's education system and began touting a teaching system that moved away from the drill-and-memorization approach that had marked Japanese education for decades.

Commentary
11.10.2004

The G.O.P. education opportunity

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Will President Bush and his invigorated Republican allies in Congress seize their new opportunity to reshape federal education policy for the 21st century?One can hope.

Commentary
11.10.2004

Fighting for the best

The Washington Post Magazine presents a must-read profile of a single mother from D.C. who has made immense sacrifices to get her two children the best education possible. Sheila Hutton is dogged beyond belief in her quest: "Every morning Hutton would call [her daughter's principal] to ensure her daughter was accounted for.

Commentary
11.10.2004

Anti-Americanism 101

Yesterday, education blogger Joanne Jacobs wrote about a contest, jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and Dickinson College, designed to help teachers address the subject of the September 11 attacks in particular and terrorism in general.

Commentary
11.10.2004

High noon for D.C. charters

In October, Congress enacted a D.C. appropriations bill that includes a "right of first offer" to charter-school operators to buy or lease surplus public school facilities at a 25 percent discount.

Commentary
11.3.2004

The future of high school reform

In this month's American School Board Journal, Kathleen Vail articulates the need for a dramatic transformation of the American high school.

Commentary
11.3.2004

Yearning for choice

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

On October 16, the New York Daily News reported that "Parents of students in failing city schools filed a class action lawsuit against the Education Department yesterday, arguing the city plans to illegally deny transfers." The suit "seeks to stop the city from denying transfers under the federal No Child Left Behind law." Said one mother (of five-year-old twins) who is party to the cl

Commentary
11.3.2004

Election wrap re-wrap

Last week, we highlighted three races with education implications (click here). Here's what happened. In Florida, former state superintendent and university president Betty Castor was narrowly defeated by former Cabinet Secretary Mel Martinez.