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Report
9.29.2004
Curriculum & Instruction

The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Diane Ravitch

Statewide textbook adoption, the process by which 21 states dictate the textbooks that schools and districts can use, is fundamentally flawed. It distorts the market, entices extremist groups to hijack the curriculum, enriches the textbook cartel, and papers the land with mediocre instructional materials that cannot fulfill their important education mission. Tinkering with it won't set it right, concludes this latest Fordham Institute report. Legislators and governors in adoption states should eliminate the process, letting individual schools, individual districts, or even individual teachers choose their own textbooks.

Commentary
9.22.2004

A renaissance in the Windy City?

In Chicago, teachers' unions and community agitators are howling over Renaissance 2010, Mayor Richard Daley's plan to remake the school system by closing consistently troubled schools, reopening others as charters, and rolling back regulations that stifle education innovation.

Commentary
9.22.2004

2004 Broad prize for urban education

The Broad Foundation announced this week that the Garden Grove Unified School District in Orange County, CA is the winner of its 2004 urban prize for education - the largest and most prestigious such award in public education. Each year, the Foundation awards $1 million in college scholarships to the most outstanding urban school districts in the nation.

Commentary
9.22.2004

Reform on the line in Washington State

Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson has been in the spotlight more than once this year for daring to support initiatives like charter schools, the suspension of teacher pay and class-size initiatives, and the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) graduation requirement.

Commentary
9.22.2004

When standing still is moving backward

Time magazine this week discusses the challenges, benefits, and pitfalls of "grade skipping" - moving extremely gifted students up to a higher grade. Critics have long maintained that moving children, however brilliant, into classes with older students will hurt them socially if not academically.

Commentary
9.22.2004

Round 4

Andrew J. Rotherham

Have thoughts you'd like to share with us? Send them to letters @edexcellence.net. And watch this space for more From our Readers as we hear more from you.

Commentary
9.22.2004

Liberals? What liberals?

Salon.com offers an against-the-grain article purporting to show that the accepted wisdom about college professors-that they're overwhelmingly liberal and generally vote Democrat-is overstated. This would be fascinating if true, but the piece contradicts itself.

Commentary
9.15.2004

Tinkering toward true merit pay

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced this week that three schools in the Land of 10,000 Lakes will pilot a new teacher pay-for-performance plan that he hopes will pave the way toward more ambitious merit pay schemes down the road.

Commentary
9.15.2004

Teacher policy follies: ten top errors

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Every person in America wants every child in America to have a terrific teacher every year. That much we can assume. Why, then, is it so hard to craft sound policies yielding that universally sought result? Excellent question.

Commentary
9.15.2004

It's the achievement gap, stupid!

Ask most parents to rate the American education system compared to the rest of the industrialized world, and they'd no doubt tell you it is second to none.

Commentary
9.15.2004

NCLB trifecta

The American Enterprise Institute's Frederick M. Hess and our own Checker Finn have three new and overlapping analyses of the No Child Left Behind Act, with particular reference to that law's accountability and choice provisions.

Commentary
9.15.2004

Happy ending for the CCA kids

The unfortunate saga of the California Charter Academy, closed for various improprieties last month (click here and here for more), has something like a happy ending.

Commentary
9.15.2004

Bush v. Kerry, round 3

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

We know you don't want Checker to write the From the Readers section, too! So give him a break. Send YOUR thoughts to [email protected]. And watch this space for more From our Readers as we hear more from you.

Report
9.7.2004
Charter Schools, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Fwd: Where Do Public School Teachers Send Their Kids to School?

Brian Diepold, Denis P. Doyle, David A. DeSchryver

Does it matter where public-school teachers send their own children to school? If so, how and why? What can we learn from them?

Commentary
9.1.2004

The Times gives charters a chance!

The Los Angeles Times, anyway. After the recent charter school dustup, we're happy to recommend a column on charters that strikes a good balance and gets the facts - even those that are painful for charter school proponents - right.

Commentary
9.1.2004

Everybody's above average

"Eighty-three percent of Michigan elementary and middle schools that failed federal achievement standards for at least four years . . . gave themselves As on self-evaluations worth a third of their overall grades" on a statewide assessment system designed to give parents more information about schools, reports the Detroit News.

Commentary
9.1.2004

Faith without works

Andrew J. Rotherham

Editor's note: As Democrats gathered in Boston to nominate John Kerry, Gadfly critiqued the Democratic education platform (see Napping 'til November).

Commentary
9.1.2004

Jumping the gun on voucher pronouncements

Even in a world awash in spin, we have to scratch our heads at the wildly conflicting storylines developing about the D.C. voucher program. In the Washington Times, vouchers are celebrated as a tremendous success, with demand far exceeding supply, especially in the middle and high school grades.