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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
Occasional Paper 119Michael KirstFebruary 2006
U.S. Department of EducationPolicy and Program Studies ServiceApril 2006
