Displaying 1-30 of 40 results
Commentary
1.25.2006

Religion and schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Recently I found myself both mourning the Florida Supreme Court decision that invalidated the Sunshine State's Opportunity Scholarship (aka exit voucher) program and applauding the federal court ruling in Pennsylvania that barred intelligent design from the science classroom.

Commentary
1.25.2006

The religion police

Christian creationists aren't the only devout Americans expressing angst over K-12 school curricula. Of late, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims have joined them. In California, for example, Hindus are pressing to change how their faith is described in state history texts.

Commentary
1.25.2006

Do-it-yourself education diversifying

Time was that "diversity" in the home-school movement referred to the handful of hippies that showed up at meetings and protests along with throngs of white Christian fundamentalists. No more, says Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute. "There's an obvious ...

Commentary
1.25.2006

FERPA: As bad as it sounds

Though the Bush Administration talks nonstop about the essential role of rigorous research in informing education policy and practice (see here for example), it has made little progress removing one of the biggest barriers to such research.

Commentary
1.18.2006

Atlanta Public Schools: On the road to recovery

Last week's editorial ("Education's Sweet Dream") inspired me to write. Over the last five years, I have worked closely with Superintendent Beverly Hall of the Atlanta School System in support of her efforts to improve student achievement at Atlanta Public Schools (APS). I was so inspired by the efforts of Dr.

Commentary
1.18.2006

Boy bandaids

What explains the chasm in achievement between boys and girls - and the decline in the percentage of males on college campuses - and why isn't anyone paying attention? Richard Whitmire, who by day writes perceptive editorials for USA Today, explores the issue in this New Republic article. Whitmire identifies poor reading skills as the major culprit.

Commentary
1.18.2006

Show me the race to the bottom

When Gadfly suggested that NCLB encourages states to lower standards to make their schools look better, certain readers were critical. But the Show-Me State has shown us.

Commentary
1.18.2006

Will's poor disposition

George Will has had it with ed schools and their insatiable desire to inject political bias into tomorrow's teachers. "Many education schools discourage, even disqualify, prospective teachers who lack the correct 'disposition,' meaning those who do not embrace today's 'progressive' political catechism," he writes.

Commentary
1.18.2006

School choice is for rural communities, too

Libby Sternberg

To the list of locales hosting high-profile debates over school voucher programs (e.g. Ohio, Florida, Milwaukee), you can now add the decidedly low-profile town of Westford, Vermont.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Cheaper by the dozen

The new alternative certification program (which turns mid-career professionals into public school teachers) in Pinellas County, Florida, has hit some bumpy patches. In this year, the program's first, it had a 25 percent attrition rate. District superintendent Clayton Wilcox admirably took responsibility, saying that administrative commitment to the program was lacking.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Get with it

Taking Spanish, French, or German is so 20th century: today's savvy students are all about learning Mandarin Chinese, one of the most difficult foreign languages to master. With China poised to dominate tomorrow's market (and many of Ohio's manufacturing jobs already departed for the Asian superpower), the U.S.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Happy New Year! Now get out.

Remember when we reported that, despite major budget concerns, Columbus Public Schools planned to keep its closed school buildings rather than sell them to charter schools? (See here.) It seems that sentiment has reached Cincinnati, too.

Commentary
1.11.2006

A.P.: In or out?

Are A.P. courses gateways to college and a better life, or roadblocks to high-level learning? Maybe it depends. For many school districts, especially those serving middle-class communities, A.P. classes are the pinnacle of their academic offerings, as well as something of a status symbol. So they vigorously promote A.P.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Second thoughts about second chances

This week, the Wall Street Journal published an essay by a Nobel-laureate economist - and it wasn't Milton Friedman espousing the benefits of vouchers! Indeed, it was a column undercutting the school reform movement that Friedman helped spawn. James J.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Skin is in

Michigan's West Ottawa Public Schools has instituted a no-tolerance policy that's stunning in its immediacy, breadth, and severity. Because of safety and allergy concerns, every furry classroom pet will be summarily removed from schools. Assistant Superintendent David Zimmer justified the decision by citing a "need to be sensitive to the concerns of the whole community....

Commentary
1.11.2006

Steps in the right direction

It's not often that Ohio education makes national news for positive items, so when Gadfly found this article detailing the methods Shaker Heights school district - just outside of Cleveland - is using to close the achievement gap, we had to share it.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Quality Counts at 10

Ohio's education reforms have received a generally favorable review from Quality Counts at 10, the Education Week annual report released last week, but there is still significant room for improvement. Ohio received an overall reform grade of B-.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Education's sweet dream

Martin A. Davis, Jr.

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.   

Commentary
1.11.2006

Florida vouchers: What comes next?

Libby Sternberg

Now that the Florida Supreme Court has struck down the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program (which provided students in repeatedly failing public schools vouchers for use at private schools), it's important to evaluate that decision's implications for education in the Sunshine State and beyond.

Commentary
1.11.2006

Fresh faces and new blood

With the start of the new year, several of Ohio's biggest school districts are facing change. Cincinnati is adding two new board members who hope to bring peace to that fractious board. In Columbus, controversial veteran board President Stephanie Hightower is on her way out.