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Commentary
Atlanta Public Schools: On the road to recovery
Last week's editorial ("Education's Sweet Dream") inspired me to write. Over the last five years, I have worked closely with Superintendent Beverly Hall of the Atlanta School System in support of her efforts to improve student achievement at Atlanta Public Schools (APS). I was so inspired by the efforts of Dr.
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Boy bandaids
What explains the chasm in achievement between boys and girls - and the decline in the percentage of males on college campuses - and why isn't anyone paying attention? Richard Whitmire, who by day writes perceptive editorials for USA Today, explores the issue in this New Republic article. Whitmire identifies poor reading skills as the major culprit.
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Will's poor disposition
George Will has had it with ed schools and their insatiable desire to inject political bias into tomorrow's teachers. "Many education schools discourage, even disqualify, prospective teachers who lack the correct 'disposition,' meaning those who do not embrace today's 'progressive' political catechism," he writes.
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Show me the race to the bottom
When Gadfly suggested that NCLB encourages states to lower standards to make their schools look better, certain readers were critical. But the Show-Me State has shown us.
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School choice is for rural communities, too
To the list of locales hosting high-profile debates over school voucher programs (e.g. Ohio, Florida, Milwaukee), you can now add the decidedly low-profile town of Westford, Vermont.
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Stunting Growth: The Impact of State-Imposed Caps on Charter Schools
Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsJanuary 2006
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Evaluation of Title I Accountability Systems and School Improvement Efforts: Findings from 2002-03
U.S. Department of Education; Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy DevelopmentNovember 2005
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Taft's latest education initiative still leaves dropouts in the lurch
Governor Taft's most recent education advisory commission (his fifth) is looking to make Ohio's high school graduates better prepared for college and the 21st century workforce.
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A.P.: In or out?
Are A.P. courses gateways to college and a better life, or roadblocks to high-level learning? Maybe it depends. For many school districts, especially those serving middle-class communities, A.P. classes are the pinnacle of their academic offerings, as well as something of a status symbol. So they vigorously promote A.P.
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Florida vouchers: What comes next?
Now that the Florida Supreme Court has struck down the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program (which provided students in repeatedly failing public schools vouchers for use at private schools), it's important to evaluate that decision's implications for education in the Sunshine State and beyond.
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Education's sweet dream
There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
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Fresh faces and new blood
With the start of the new year, several of Ohio's biggest school districts are facing change. Cincinnati is adding two new board members who hope to bring peace to that fractious board. In Columbus, controversial veteran board President Stephanie Hightower is on her way out.
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Quality Counts at 10
Ohio's education reforms have received a generally favorable review from Quality Counts at 10, the Education Week annual report released last week, but there is still significant room for improvement. Ohio received an overall reform grade of B-.
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Steps in the right direction
It's not often that Ohio education makes national news for positive items, so when Gadfly found this article detailing the methods Shaker Heights school district - just outside of Cleveland - is using to close the achievement gap, we had to share it.
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Second thoughts about second chances
This week, the Wall Street Journal published an essay by a Nobel-laureate economist - and it wasn't Milton Friedman espousing the benefits of vouchers! Indeed, it was a column undercutting the school reform movement that Friedman helped spawn. James J.
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Skin is in
Michigan's West Ottawa Public Schools has instituted a no-tolerance policy that's stunning in its immediacy, breadth, and severity. Because of safety and allergy concerns, every furry classroom pet will be summarily removed from schools. Assistant Superintendent David Zimmer justified the decision by citing a "need to be sensitive to the concerns of the whole community....
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Privatization "Philly Style": What Can Be Learned from Philadelphia's Diverse Provider Model of School Management
Jolley Bruce Christman, Eva Gold, and Benjamin HerodResearch for ActionDecember 2005
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The Effects of State Prekindergarten Programs on Young Children's School Readiness in Five States
The National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers UniversityW. Steven Barnett, Cynthia Lamy, and Kwanghee JungDecember 2005
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Cheaper by the dozen
The new alternative certification program (which turns mid-career professionals into public school teachers) in Pinellas County, Florida, has hit some bumpy patches. In this year, the program's first, it had a 25 percent attrition rate. District superintendent Clayton Wilcox admirably took responsibility, saying that administrative commitment to the program was lacking.
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Happy New Year! Now get out.
Remember when we reported that, despite major budget concerns, Columbus Public Schools planned to keep its closed school buildings rather than sell them to charter schools? (See here.) It seems that sentiment has reached Cincinnati, too.
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Get with it
Taking Spanish, French, or German is so 20th century: today's savvy students are all about learning Mandarin Chinese, one of the most difficult foreign languages to master. With China poised to dominate tomorrow's market (and many of Ohio's manufacturing jobs already departed for the Asian superpower), the U.S.
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Responses to Mike Petrilli's editorial, "What if competition doesn't work?"
Michael J. Petrilli's editorial, "What if competition doesn't work?" garnered some response:From John Merrifield, Professor of Economics, University of Texas at San Antonio
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Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground: How Some High Schools Accelerate Learning for Struggling Students
The Education TrustNovember 2005
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Reassessing U.S. International Mathematics Performance: New Findings from the 2003 TIMSS and PISA
American Institutes for ResearchNovember 2005
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Let them eat cake!
As if the NEA's pretending to care about helping schools and students wasn't bad enough, we now know it doesn't really care that much about helping teachers, either.
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Defining school violence down
This past November, school violence again made headlines. The latest federal data was released in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005, which tallied and analyzed the incidence of theft, violent crime, and teacher victimization in 2003.
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Christmas miracle
Just before the holiday season, some 5,500 Birmingham middle school students received an early gift: the option to leave their failing schools. The city's school system was planning to offer students in its 17 low-performing middle schools voluntary tutoring, rather than the option of transferring to one of the district's better-performing schools. A community group complained to the U.S.
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Counting to ten
It's that time once again. Education Week has released its major (and as always, a bit unwieldy) annual Quality Counts report.