At what point does cultural sensitivity compromise standards? That's the question recently faced in St. Paul, Minnesota, by Higher Ground Academy, a charter school that has a 70 percent Muslim population. As many Westerners are now aware, visual depictions of Muhammad are strictly forbidden in Islam, and among more-traditional Muslims, the ban extends to all humans and animals.
At a time when schools of education are struggling to justify their very existence (see here), you might think they would seize on the No Child Left Behind Act as an opportunity.
An eleventh-hour compromise between Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and Republican state House Speaker John Gard just might resuscitate Milwaukee's voucher program. Following months of political stalling, the governor and speaker worked out an agreement that would expand the cap on students in the program from roughly 15,000 to 22,000.
Statistical Analysis ReportNational Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of EducationFebruary 2006
Winner of the 2006 Prize for Distinguished Scholarship
Frederick M. HessThe AEI Press2006
In a President's Day op-ed, Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews makes a simple but strong case for that well-worn phrase, "teaching to the test," which has, according to Mathews, been undeservedly slandered. A Google search of "teaching to the test" yields over 59 million hits, almost all of which are negative.
Clifford AdelmanU.S. Department of EducationFebruary 2006
Terence Braxton is in trouble. The Escambia County, Florida, middle school gym teacher is accused of taking bribes from his students. Before his syndicate was shut down, individual youngsters could buy their way out of class activities by paying Braxton a dollar a day.
David Ponitz, whom the Fordham Foundation is proud to call a board member, has certainly left his mark on education in Ohio. He played a key role in his 20-plus years as president of Sinclair Community College in turning that institution into one of the nation’s premier community colleges. Now he has a high school that bears his name.
Here is a fact to ponder: Americans spend $430 billion a year—from local, state and federal sources—on K-12 public education. That figure exceeds the budget of the Department of Defense.
The New York Times editorial page, pulling from a story by one of its own reporters, takes on NCLB's free tutoring provision, but swings and misses. It rightly expresses concern that only 12 percent of the eligible students nationwide are receiving tutoring services. But it excuses the primary culprits: most of the big urban districts.
Thomas TochEducation SectorJanuary 2006
Fritz EdelsteinThe United States Conference of Mayors2006
Tonight, Chef Finn has prepared four courses. Bon Appetit! The "65 Percent Solution"
For Jenna Helenski, the daily grind at Connecticut's Ellington High School can be exhausting. Thank goodness the senior has three study halls everyday to catch her breath.
E-Comp-Florida's newly-announced performance pay plan that would give bonuses to the top 10 percent of the state's teachers-is an ambitious and promising reform proposal.
Is making preschool universally available a good idea? Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois thinks so. His proposal to offer universal preschool to all 3- and 4- year-olds in the Land of Lincoln would be the first of its kind in the nation (several other states have universal preschool for 4-year-olds), and he's adamant about seeing the legislature pass it.
A self-avowed creationist booted intelligent design from Ohio's science program on Tuesday.
"What? Me Worry?" Alfred E. Newman, Mad Magazine's mascot since the late 1950s, delivered this signature line whenever the world around him was going, well, mad. So, too, it seems, those working in the field of educational research.
Introducing another bad idea in contemporary K-12 education. The New York Times reports that many schools, plagued by truancy (and attendant problems both with test scores and state funding formulae), now bribe kids to come to class. At Chelsea High School, located in an impoverished community outside Boston, students earn $25 for each quarter of perfect attendance.
Conventional wisdom posits that the President’s 2007 Budget is nothing but a collection of recycled education policies (and cuts). The same old private-school choice proposal that never goes anywhere. The same high school reform plan that crashed and burned in 2005.
Jay Mathews tells a touching story of struggle and triumph, chronicling a low-income Alexandria (VA) school’s battle to meet NCLB’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) definition. Since it found itself on the “needs improvement” list in 2004, and losing students to other, better-performing schools, Maury Elementary School embraced wide-reaching internal reforms.
Patricia GándaraPolicy Information Center, Educational Testing ServiceDecember 2005
Ed policy gurus are buzzing this week about Rep. John Boehner’s unexpected ascent to House Majority Leader. Boehner (R-Ohio) is the former House Education Committee chairman, and his departure has many wondering how this move will affect NCLB and its impending reauthorization, as well as scads of other programs. So far, the news is good. NCLB proponent Rep. Howard P.
In addition to ensuring that all kids succeed academically, No Child Left Behind aims to make schools safer. But when crafting this part of the law, the feds overlooked a major hazard: cheerleading. According to the Columbus Research Institute, cheerleading participation between 1990 and 2002 increased by a mere 18 percent.
Edited by J. Wesley Null and Diane RavitchInformation Age Publishing, 2006;Henry T. Edmondson IIIISI Books, 2006
Jens Henrik Haahr, et al.Danish Technological InstituteNovember 2005
Evidence of the positive effects of charter schools appeared in two recent articles. The Dayton Daily News reported that the dropout rate in Montgomery County was cut in half between 2000 and 2005, falling from 25.6% to 12.3% That is an impressive accomplishment, and it is the result of the county’s Out of School Task Force, a network of programs linked to charter schools.
Dayton is a leader in school choice. This city of just 165,000 residents provides families with educational options not typical of a city its size.
