Commentary
Commentary
Buzzworthy?
The winner of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee will be crowned tonight, and all the pomp will be broadcast live on ABC. But it's worth wondering whether the Scripps bee still merits such publicity while the estimable National Geographic Bee (held last week, and hosted by Alex Trebek) goes relatively unnoticed.
Commentary
Creative destruction
Last week's editorial, "The death and life of great American education organizations" captures well the reality of institutional responses to societal conditions, as well as the circumstances-some external, others internal-that cause public organizations to change. Some adjust or adapt, some make radical shifts (which often speed their decline), while still others simply implode.
Commentary
Florida Charter Schools: Hot and Humid with Passing Storms
Bryan C. Hassel, Michelle Godard Terrell, and Julie KowalEducation Sector May 2006
Commentary
Bad schools : SAT scores :: reality television : American culture
Colleges are reporting that this year's SAT results were significantly lower than those of years past. A problem with the test? Is poor Susie fatigued by the new writing portion? David Kahn, head of a private tutoring company in New York City, doesn't think so.
Commentary
Whither the Washington Consensus?
Editor's note: This commentary is drawn from No Child Left Behind: A Primer (Peter Lang, 2006), available here.
Commentary
Commentary
No diploma, no GED, no problem!
Nationwide, fully 2 percent (400,000) of college students never finished high school. A few schools even cater to the dropout crowd. Ninety-four percent of students at Interboro Institute in Manhattan, for example, carry that dubious title. It's a hot-button issue in New York, because these students are still eligible for state financial aid. Governor George Pataki thinks that's a problem.
Commentary
Reading first
The No Child Left Behind Act makes no bones about the primacy of reading. According to Bloomberg News, a forthcoming NCES report shows that schools are responding to the law's signals by boosting the instructional time in reading while reducing it in everything else, at least in grades 1-4.
Commentary
What Education Schools Aren't Teaching About Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning
National Council on Teacher QualityMay 2006
Commentary
Local control, out of control
Last month, when Chicago's South Loop School held elections for its local school council, voters were surprised to witness "a ‘smelly' crew of disheveled men, some reeking of alcohol," punching ballots. The situation further deteriorated when one man asked the school's principal, "Where do we get our five dollars for voting?" Some foul play was afoot.
Commentary
Can you comprenderme now?
Massachusetts's most recent test results show that non-native English speakers have trouble functioning in a regular classroom, and bilingual education activists are hyping the news like Don King promoting a Tyson fight.
Commentary
Strengthening Transition by Encouraging Career Pathways: A Look at State Policies and Practices
Katherine L. Hughes and Melinda Mechur KarpAmerican Association of Community Colleges2006
Commentary
Funding secession
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford thinks he's found the solution to the state's school funding disparities. The Palmetto State's current model, he says, "disadvantages rural South Carolina." But a system "where you were funding kids and you put the money in the kid ... would lead to complete portability ...
Commentary
The death and life of great American education organizations
Why do the woes of the Education Commission of the States (ECS) put me in mind of the late Jane Jacobs?
Commentary
Commentary
Science experiment
The latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in science are out, and they provide compelling evidence that accountability works. The old saying goes that "what gets tested gets taught." That's not quite right; what schools are held accountable for gets taught-and learned.
Commentary
Slavery sleuth
Few chapters in American history are more painful than the Atlantic slave trade. Historian Sheldon Stern, author of Fordham's Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card, is certainly aware of that.
Commentary
Soul sisters
Education bigfeet Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have been at odds on school-related issues over the last thirty years. But when they recently met over lunch to prepare for a debate about No Child Left Behind, both were surprised by how much common ground they shared.
Commentary
Politics of Charter Schools: Competing National Advocacy Coalitions Meet Local Politics
Occasional Paper 119Michael KirstFebruary 2006
Commentary
Title I Accountability and School Improvement From 2001 to 2004
U.S. Department of EducationPolicy and Program Studies ServiceApril 2006
Commentary
California judge fails his exam
Last week, an Oakland superior court judge struck down the Golden State's mandate that all high school students pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) to graduate. The class of 2006 is the first to face the requirement.
Commentary
"Highly Qualified teachers" not so special
Regarding last week's Gadfly editorial ("Highly qualified data," May 11), I am a special education teacher and have been following for some time the highly qualified (HQ) bandwagon. Only special education teachers must be HQ in both core areas and in special education.
Commentary
Horror High
Michael Maxwell, a high school teacher in St. Joseph, Missouri, was suspended from work this week after asking his class to write an essay about the person they would most like to murder and how they would do it.
Commentary
Take this job and shove it
A recent St. Petersburg Times survey found that last year over half of the Tampa Bay metro area's teachers considered leaving their jobs, and that "41 percent of teachers with 15-plus years' experience look back on their careers and wish they had chosen another profession." The dissatisfied teachers' complaints weren't all about salaries, either.
Commentary
Far-flung tutors
A lot of American students are firing up their computers to get the tutoring help they need. A typical session goes something like this:An instant messaging-type window opens, and the conversation-often an audio one--begins. "Hello, Brian. This is Ralph. Let's continue last week's review of algebra."
Commentary
Pass the roach, and pass on college?
As the law now stands, young adults convicted of a drug-related offense are ineligible for federal student aid. It sounds reasonable on the surface. But ultimately, the policy fails on both economic and moral grounds.
Commentary
Spellings stiffens spine
This past week brought three signals that Secretary Spellings and her team are emerging from their "flexibility" phase and ready to rumble with the education establishment.
Commentary
Keep so-so schools afloat
Regarding last week’s Gadfly editorial (“It’s all about the authorizers,” May 4), I'm still fuzzy on why authorizers should close popular, legally operating charter schools. The abysmal state of traditional public schools often makes even mediocre charter schools choice-worthy.
Commentary
L'tat aux folles
Richard the Lionheart is best known as England's "Absent King," and for being the leader of the Third Crusade. Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, is credited with inventing the modern American crime novel. And any number of Greek thinkers are remembered for creating the intellectual framework of Western civilization.