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Report
11.30.2006
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools

2006 Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report

Terry Ryan, Kathryn Mullen

For information on Fordham's unique role as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, there's no better source than The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report 2005-06. The report offers a comprehensive account of Fordham's sponsorship policies and practices-as well as individual profiles of all Fordham-sponsored schools. Included in the profiles are descriptions of each school's educational program, school philosophy, and overall academic performance based on state achievement data.

Commentary
11.29.2006

The loopy world of NCLB

As far as legislative loopholes go, few are more preposterous than NCLB's provision that districts, rather than submit to serious reform prescriptions for their chronically failing schools, may undertake "any other major restructuring of the school's governance that produces fundamental reform." But while this invitation to tread the path of least resistance usually results in

Commentary
11.29.2006

The flightless agenda

People are up in arms over a book about... gay penguins? Written for children ages 4 to 8, And Tango Makes Three is an illustrated children's book about two male penguins raising a chick as their own.

Commentary
11.29.2006

Rocky Mountain low

Linda Seebach takes Gadfly to task in her recent Rocky Mountain News column for dumb demographic data and for leaving key questions unanswered. She's right that our generalizations about Middle America--made in last issue's "Heartland blues"--don't hold up very well in Colorado.

Commentary
11.29.2006

"Just Do It" won't do it

Martin A. Davis, Jr.

The No Child Left Behind Act has 7 more years to meet its incredibly ambitious goal of educating 100 percent of U.S. school children to no less than "proficient" in reading and math.

Commentary
11.29.2006

Cannot compute

What are the odds of being able to grade 45 million standardized reading and math exams without error? If you said less than 1 percent, you're right. In just one recent example of a testing snafu, an Alabama school had a dozen students leave for greener pastures after state tests wrongly labeled it a failing institution.

Commentary
11.29.2006

Hire reasoning

Common sense says principals should be able to hire the teachers they want and need. But in the realm of public education, where common sense is scant, school leaders, entangled in webs of collective bargaining and union-created staffing rules, are often forced to hire teachers that other schools reject. California is the first state to do something about it.

Commentary
11.28.2006

Science Blues

Quentin Suffren

The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will do little to calm growing fears about students' lack of science content knowledge.

Commentary
11.28.2006

Discover Fordham Charter School Sponsorship

For information on Fordham's unique role as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, there's no better source than The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report 2005-06.

Commentary
11.28.2006

Mr. Strickland's Challenge

Quentin Suffren

No one can fault governor-elect Ted Strickland's ambitions. After handily winning the governor's seat, Mr. Strickland has promised to reform the state's flawed education funding system--going so far as to stake the success of his administration on it (see here).

Commentary
11.28.2006

Columbus Selected for New KIPP Public School Expansion Site in 2008

Due to broad-based community interest and support, Columbus has been selected by KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) as a new national expansion site in 2008. KIPP officials and leaders in the Columbus community will partner to explore the essential next steps to bring KIPP to Columbus--recruiting qualified school leaders and building a local board of directors.

Commentary
11.15.2006

Flighty

NEA President Reg Weaver must have been flying high without much oxygen when he lauded Southwest Airlines' no-merit-pay policy.

Commentary
11.15.2006

OMG!

New Zealand high school students are getting a break on their national exam this year.

Commentary
11.15.2006

Smart money

Despite its posturing, the Ivy League remains out of reach for most high schoolers.

Commentary
11.15.2006

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman died today at 94. The Nobel-prize winning economist was, among innumerable other accomplishments, the intellectual father of school choice in America. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his life and work.

Commentary
11.15.2006

NCLB: Who will run the table?

Martin A. Davis, Jr.

Making sense of mid-term elections is akin to making sense of the opening break in a pool game. Casual observers sometimes believe that if the person breaking puts several balls into the pockets, he has the inside track on winning. But experienced players know it's how the remaining balls set up that determines the victor.

Commentary
11.15.2006

Heartland blues

Michael J. Petrilli

Not only did the Democratic Party take control of Congress in last week's election; it also captured a majority of the nation's governorships. And not just on the coasts; Democrats Chet Culver and Bill Ritter won open seats in Iowa and Colorado, and Democratic incumbents held onto their jobs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Commentary
11.8.2006

Barr none

The charter school menagerie is bright and varied, and so too are the people who run it. Take Steve Barr, for example.

Commentary
11.8.2006

Long division

The muddle coming from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is troubling.

Commentary
11.8.2006

Dear Chairman Miller

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Hon. George MillerChairman-to-be, House Committee on Education & the WorkforceUnited States CongressDear Mr. Chairman:

Commentary
11.8.2006

More excuses?

Left-leaning folks who rail against vouchers better start stretching, because justifying their uncompromising stance is going to take added verbal gymnastics. Already this crew is hard-pressed to explain its opposition to lifting low-income and minority students out of failing urban schools, improving public schools through competition, and trying to level the educational landscape.

Commentary
11.8.2006

Vision 2015

Coby Loup

Vision 2015October 2006

Commentary
11.7.2006

Reclaiming the American Dream

Jane Schreier Jones

Few can argue that college completion rates are depressingly low. Just 35 percent of the 4.1 million students entering high school will go on to earn a college degree. Luckily, pursuing a rigorous academic curriculum in high school (as set forth in Governor Taft's Ohio Core plan) greatly increases the likelihood high school students will obtain a college degree.