Paul T. Hill, Lydia Rainey, and Andrew J. RotherhamCenter on Reinventing Public Education's National Charter School Research ProjectOctober 2006
Susan Sclafani and Marc S. TuckerCenter for American ProgressOctober 2006
This October, the Halloween treats came early for supporters of Ohio's 300 charter schools. In a 4-3 decision handed down Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state's charter school program, much maligned by critics, is indeed constitutional. The ruling is consistent with decisions by other state courts across the nation.
"Grammar Greiner" suddenly has a following at Westfield High School in Northern Virginia. Although he's known as the toughest English teacher in the school, students who want to do well on the SAT's new essay-writing section know they have to improve their grammar. So they sign up and endure his lessons on commas, apostrophes, spelling, and sentence structure.
Low high school graduation rates have headlined the education woes of many urban districts, worrying educators and Oprah alike. But the data on dropouts have always been inadequate and rather one-dimensional, denoting that X out of every 100 students fail to graduate.
The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik, himself an Upper East Sider, believes "that a constant obsessive-compulsive anxiety about children--their health, their future, the holes in their socks, and the fraying of their psyches--is taken entirely for granted" in New York City.
During the past few years, scores of impoverished inner-city schools have shut their doors. On the surface, that could be a blessing. After all, one of the major problems with American education is that bad schools seem to live forever.
There is much to be said that's critical of charter schools that's also true.
It's no secret that Ohio needs more high-quality schools, especially for its poorest children. So why not shoot for the best--the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)?
For years, common wisdom held that aside from textbooks, the business sector had little to offer the world of education. But scores of educational entrepreneurs are now proving this belief false.
If you think Halloween is spooky, consider what Ohioans will face on November 7th--a slew of new school levy and tax issues at the polls.
Paul E. BartonAmerican Federation of TeachersSeptember 2006
Tom LovelessBrown Center on Education PolicyThe Brookings InstitutionOctober 2006
"It's a sordid business, this divvying us up by race," quoth Chief Justice John Roberts last year. The Department of Education is finally implementing a 1997 OMB mandate that students should be allowed to identify themselves as multiracial.
Last week, in "A dose of reality," Gadfly mistakenly wrote that a number of New Orleans charter schools were struggling. In fact, none of the fraught schools to which we referred were charters. Our mistake.
The first rule of combat is to avoid cross-fire. But the newly appointed Los Angeles superintendent, retired Navy Vice Admiral David L. Brewer III, already finds himself squarely in the middle of it.
Christopher B. SwansonEditorial Projects in Education Research CenterOctober 2006
Edited by Eric A. HanushekHoover Institution's Koret Task Force on Education2006
After five months of negotiations, the Buffalo Board of Education voted 5-4 last week to base 10 percent of students' report-card grades on attendance. Thus, kids with five or more unexcused absences will receive zeros, meaning the highest grade they can then receive in any subject is a 90.
The twenty-third permutation of the MetLife teacher survey series, which annually compiles data on teacher attitudes across a range of topics, recently emerged and was mostly ignored.
Regarding last week's News and Analysis ("An apple from the teachers," 10-12): Typically, you make it sound like it's an "either/or" situation.
After gunning down two kittens on the property of the K-12 Indus school, just west of International Falls, Minnesota, Principal Wade Pilloud told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "I am not a cat hater." Maybe not, but he's certainly a common sense hater.
Sarah Whittier, 53, has received a doctorate in English and a statewide award for excellence in teaching.
When New York's intermediate court decreed earlier this year that the state must appropriate upwards of five billion dollars more to the Big Apple's schools--thereby creating the conditions for "adequate" education--the state appealed. Oral arguments wrapped up Tuesday.
Hands-on learning can be a good thing. But when Candace Longworth, a biology teacher at Rocky Gap High School in Bland County, Virginia, snuck into a cemetery vault with two students and photographed them handling human bones, she may have taken the concept a bit too far.
Sadly, despite its promising name, Pablo Neruda's Elementary Odes contains no advice for improving his country's educational system. Too bad, because Chile could use some help. Once again, the country is being riled by sporadic protests--by students and teachers alike--over education.
American Institutes for ResearchOctober 2006
I live in Takoma Park, Maryland, a.k.a. "The People's Republic." An inner-suburb adjacent to the District of Columbia, it's generally known to be to the left of Berkeley, Madison, and Ann Arbor. In the 1980s, our town was home to a communist mayor. Even our local pet food store is organic.
Education reformers found a silver lining in the Katrina tragedy when Louisiana officials announced that charter schools would play a central role in the rebirth of New Orleans's education system.
Policymakers across the country are struggling with issues of charter school quality. Even well-intentioned, reform-minded leaders aren't sure what to do when many of their charters veer off track. Ohio is no exception.
