Commentary
Urban legends: out with the old, in with the new
Though they didn't make the Education Week list, surely two of the most influential studies of recent years were reports from The New Teacher Project about the impact
Commentary
Religious ignorance
It's the time of year when columnists sharpen their pencils and launch the annual bashing of public schools and other governmental institutions for taking Christ out of Christmas.
Commentary
Culture of acheatment
Cheating has traditionally been the domain of desperate students. Now, desperate districts are joining the deceitful ranks. For years, pockets of teachers and administrators in Camden, New Jersey, have cultivated an "informal culture of cheating" as a means to boost test scores.
Commentary
Just hold it
Schools used to have problems with students spinning bottles. Now the youngsters pee in them. That's what happened at Salisbury Middle School in Salisbury, Maryland, which recently enacted regulations requiring every student be escorted to and from restrooms by a staff member.
Commentary
Teacher Pay Reforms: The Political Implications of Recent Research
Dan GoldhaberCenter for American ProgressDecember 2006
Commentary
Student Achievement and National Economic Growth
Francisco O. Ramirez, Xiaowei Luo, Evan Schofer, and John W. MeyerAmerican Journal of Education 113 November 2006
Commentary
Gold-studded apples for the teacher
This holiday season, P.C. comes to holiday gifting. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, school administrators around the country are cracking down on gift-giving from students and parents to teachers.
Commentary
Inadequate understanding
When Fordham released Fund the Child, a manifesto proposing weighted student funding (WSF), we knew the concept was attracting unaccustomed sleeping companions. After all, WSF's supporters include those seeking better resources for poor and minority students, those wishing to foster innovations such as charter schools, and those aiming to empower school leaders.
Commentary
Benevolent makeover
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." So spake Emerson. Let us hope that District of Columbia mayor-elect Adrian Fenty possesses a great soul, for he certainly lacks consistency.
Commentary
Where's the teach?
Last week, Gadfly noted Philadelphia Mayor John Street's bold strategy of threatening parents of truant students with jail time. Forget the students--what about the teachers?
Commentary
Tough Choices for Tough Times: Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
National Center on Education and the Economy2006
Commentary
Compulsory education
Spokane business teacher Scott Carlson doesn't think the Washington Education Association (WEA), of which he is not a member, should be able to raid his paycheck to fund its political causes without his permission. Oddly, the Washington state Supreme Court disagrees.
Commentary
Miss fortune
Too bad Jimmy Carter is busy deflecting charges that he's anti-Israel and a plagiarizer--his prowess as an election observer was recently needed in Roseville, Minnesota. By most accounts, Jasmine White should be student council president of Central Park Elementary in said town.
Commentary
Influence: A Study of the Factors Influencing Education Policy
Christopher B. Swanson and Janelle BarlageEditorial Projects in Education Research CenterDecember 2006
Commentary
Homophily-phobia
"Homophily." The word means "love of the same," and it recently landed in the New York Times Magazine's 6th Annual Year in Ideas, listed directly after "Hidden-Fee Economy, The" and directly before "Human-Chimp Hybrids."
Commentary
Charter High Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap
Innovations in Education SeriesU.S. Department of EducationOctober 2006
Commentary
The Future of Educational Leadership
With so many voices singing KIPP’s praises over the last few months (see here, here, and
Commentary
E-School Primer
Internet schools or “e-schools” are a rapidly expanding sector of Ohio’s charter schools. Taking their inspiration from myriad distance learning programs across the country, the state’s e-schools provide parents another viable option for educating their children.
Commentary
House Bill 695: Admirable Ends, Redundant Means
The General Assembly is now debating House Bill 695, which would create a new system of secondary schools dedicated to stronger science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.
Commentary
Hopes, Fears, and Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006
Though many critics continue to decry them, charters are not only here to stay, but expanding rapidly (to over 3600 nationwide in 2005-06). And this year’s National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) report explores, among other topics, the impact they are having on parents, districts, and other education stakeholders.
Commentary
On goals
Regarding last week's editorial ("‘Just Do It' just won't do it," November 30th) about bringing every child to proficiency in reading and math by 2014, it should be noted that not even KIPP (or Amistad or Northstar) has achieved 100 percent proficiency. Neither has Singapore or Sweden.
Commentary
School choice in America
At last week's American Enterprise Institute-Fordham conference on the No Child Left Behind Act's "remedies" for low-performing schools, paper after paper reported how little use is being made of that law's "public school choice" option for kids whose present schools
Commentary
Transforming Higher Education: National Imperative--State Responsibility
National Conference of State Legislatures, Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher EducationOctober 2006
Commentary
Call to arms
Teachers union, which have defended the "single salary schedule" like the Rock of Gibraltar, are beginning to sign on to "combat pay", i.e. bonuses for teaching in high-poverty schools. Both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Bay State's AFT chapter recently announced their support for this form of "differential" pay.
Commentary
Lapping it up?
Forget the sleek and powerful PS3. Designers for the nonprofit project One Laptop Per Child have modified a conventional computer and made it ultra portable, energy efficient, and incredibly cheap. The new $150 laptop will be making its way into the hands of millions of students in developing countries in mid-2007.
Commentary
Loco parentis
"Anti-poverty paternalism." Applied to education, it means teaching "middle class" habits to poor children and rewiring the dysfunctional behaviors and values imparted by neighborhoods and, sometimes, parents (see
Commentary
Milton Friedman, in memoriam
So many insights, memories, and tributes have been lavished upon the late great Milton Friedman since his death on November 16th that we can add little. We suspect, however, that many Gadfly readers are acquainted primarily with Friedman's extraordinary contributions to education policy. He was, quite simply, the intellectual and spiritual father of school choice in America.
Commentary
Fantasyland
Who knew that the New Republic's Jonathan Chait had such love for the free market? But there he was the other day in the Los Angeles Times, the liberal writer doing his best imitation of F.A. Hayek.
Commentary
Starting Fresh in Low-Performing Schools
Bryan C. Hassel, Emily Ayscue-Hassel, and Julie KowalNational Association of Charter School Authorizers2006
Commentary
Bowled over
Principal Al Sanchez thought he was doing the student a favor. When Fidel Maldonado Jr.--a 15-year-old at Rio Grande High School and a boxer--showed up on campus with what Sanchez took to be a gang-style haircut, he gave the student a choice. Shave it off or face suspension.