Most people can agree on two propositions: that programs for gifted youngsters are a good thing, challenging the fast learner more than the standard curriculum, so long as they have high standards and expectations for participating students. And that such programs should be readily accessible to students of every race. But what happens when those two principles come into conflict?
In 1993, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) in New York City filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that New York State had failed to live up to its constitutional obligation to provide a "sound, basic education" to all its students.
Checker Finn's editorial on "The Discipline Paradox" discussed several difficulties of maintaining classroom order - particularly when a classroom contains some students who don't want to learn.
Andrew J. Rotherham, Progressive Policy InstituteMarch 2004
Between 1971 and 2000, the average GPA at Princeton rose from 2.99 to 3.66. By 2002, only 5 percent of seniors graduating from that eminent institution earned less than a B-minus cumulative GPA.
If America's history teachers were broadly educated, deeply knowledgeable about the content that they're responsible for imparting to students, and free to draw their information, textbooks, and other instructional materials from whatever sources they judge best, all within a framework of sound academic standards and results-based accountability - under that dreamy scenario there'd be no reason
It's no secret that some states and districts have threatened to decline federal Title I funding to avoid the accountability provisions of NCLB. That is, of course, their choice to make. The state of Nebraska, however, has taken a more underhanded route, working hard since the passage of the law to have it
Mass Insight EducationApril 2004
Widely used supplemental materials may be dangerous to educational health! These works often include hefty doses of political manipulation and ideological bias, courtesy of their authors. This study casts a wary glance toward materials that seldom come under scrutiny. This study is the fifth in a series dedicated to reforming social studies education.
It's apparent by now that Congress is not going to follow most of the excellent recommendations of the Bush administration's commission on the reform of IDEA, least of all its suggestion that federal funds be able to be used by states for special-ed vouchers a la Florida's "McKay Scholarships." (See
Juvenal said, "Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and circuses." Even that famously cynical Roman poet might have been taken aback by some quarters of American K-12 education.
The Bush administration has recently come under fire for insufficient education spending.
The latest issue of American Educator has a fantastic series of stories urging high school teachers and counselors to level with students about a basic truth: if you don't do well in high school, you won't do well in college or in the labor market.
This week, headlines lit up with the news that "one school [in Milwaukee, Wisconsin] that received millions of dollars through the nation's oldest and largest voucher program, was founded by a convicted rapist" and that "another school reportedly entertained kids with Monopoly while cashing $330,000 in tuition checks for hundreds of no-show students." Voucher critics were quick to charge that "
Lewis C. Solmon, Human Resources Policy Corporation, and Pete Goldschmidt, Center for the Study of Evaluation, UCLAMarch 2004
Robert C. Enlow, Milton & Rose Friedman FoundationMarch 2004
Lately, it seems that just about everyone has a bone to pick with No Child Left Behind. Critics on right and left complain that the law's provisions are causing too many headaches, and schools, districts, and legislators are vowing to reject federal funding so as to avoid some of its tricky accountability provisions.
More high praise for the Defense Department's school system, where last year black and Hispanic 8th graders outperformed their peers in every single state. To be sure, the DoD system has built-in advantages, such as a unified command structure and ability to enforce parental involvement that other schools can't match.
Evidence that D.C. Public Schools are in crisis is not hard to come by.
Just about everyone - principals, parents, students, the general public - knows that many U.S. schools have a discipline problem, that kids are often out of control, not to mention rude, inattentive, and sometimes violent. Nearly every survey of problems facing U.S. schools puts discipline near the top of the list.
In any reform of anything, the devil is always in the details. And the Old Deceiver lurks still in the fine print of the pay-for-performance plan approved last week by Denver teachers. How realistic is a plan that won't fully take effect for another eight years? How will the inevitable tension between teachers on the old tenure-based system and teachers on the new plan be resolved?
Consortium on Chicago School ResearchFebruary 2004
Michael Casserly, Council of the Great City SchoolsMarch 2004
Two months ago, Georgia's Professional Standards Commission (PSC) - the committee that is responsible for "certification, preparation, and conduct of certified, licensed, or permitted personnel employed in the public schools of the State of Georgia" - quietly launched an investigation into "diploma mill" teachers.
In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the board of education, with decidedly mixed results so far (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=140#1730).
Homeschooling - once considered the education option of choice for gun-toting religious fanatics or a haven for social misfits - is coming of age as home-schooled students begin to find themselves welcomed at prestigious colleges and universities. It's hardly surprising that many homeschooled students, who get personalized attention in a nurturing educational environment, are doing well.
