Commentary
Why American Students Do Not Learn to Read Very Well: The Unintended Consequences of Title II and Teacher Testing
Sandra StotskyThird Education Group ReviewVol. 2, No. 2, 2006
Commentary
Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines
The Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel; Julian Betts and Paul T. Hill, Principal DraftersCenter on Reinventing Public EducationMay 2006
Commentary
Lose a mile, give an inch
Give them credit for progress-even if it's painfully incremental. In a decidedly uncharacteristic move, the Washington D.C. Teachers' Union approved a new contract that will introduce bonus incentives for teachers and give principals more autonomy at a handful of pilot schools.
Commentary
Buzz kill
A new front has opened in the cell phone wars. In a ring tone realm once ruled by Fur Elise and the latest jam from 50 Cent (aka Fiddy), a new craze has taken center stage-"Teen Buzz," the almost-silent cell phone alert.
Commentary
Condition of education 2006
The National Center for Education Statistics doesn't always do right by its annual "Condition of Education" report (COE), which has sometimes been humdrum and sometimes dizzy from pro-administration spin.
Commentary
Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality
Heather G. Peske and Kati HaycockThe Education TrustJune 2006
Commentary
Friendly advice
Editor's note: Last week's issue, especially the News and Analysis, generated a number of letters; we've included two, both from Minnesota.
Commentary
Group think
In last Sunday's New York Times, Jeffrey Rosen, a well-known legal scholar, wrote a longish article related to the Supreme Court's decision to hear tw
Commentary
Test tubes
Education Week recently reported that, though the 2005 Science NAEP exam showed more low-achieving 4th grade students scoring at the "basic" level, results are stagnant or worse in all grades at the "proficient" and "advanced" levels. What does that mean?
Commentary
10,000 Lakes love
I generally avoid blogs, podcasts and the like. But I was drawn by the text version of last week’s print Gadfly to the The Education Gadfly Show, and couldn’t help but notice the over-representation of my home state of Minnesota.
Commentary
Spicy Chile
Chile's country-wide education protests are now over. The fallout from the three-week crucible that saw nearly 800,000 students take to Chile's streets (sometimes violently), however, will not be soon forgotten. The walkouts began innocently enough, with students asking the government to provide free bus passes and to waive university entrance exam fees.