Commentary
Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It
Nancy Hoffman, Joel Vargas, Andrea Venezia, and Marc S. Miller, edsSeptember 2007
Commentary
Education at a Glance 2007
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Directorate of Education September 2007
Commentary
More books,??fewer lawyers
Things are changing at the St. Louis Public Schools. The special administrative board (which now oversees the city's schools; see here) replaced Kenneth Brostron, the district's longtime lawyer. An in-house lawyer--one who is much cheaper than Brostron and his firm--will begin work in October.
Commentary
Father Paul
When Superintendent Paul Vallas left Philadelphia to take over New Orleans' Recovery School District, he wasn't just changing cities--he was also changing worlds.
Commentary
Five questions for NAEP
The government released the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores on Tuesday, and Mark Schneider, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, summed up the news in these words: "We're making slow and steady progress in reading, and we're doing much better in math."
Commentary
Hare-brained
Sugar Bunny of Spokane, Washington once enjoyed a contented life as the pet rabbit in Lori Peters's preschool class at the Community Building Children's Center. Then some animal rights activists apparently had issues with Sugar Bunny's lifestyle--so they stole him.
Commentary
Between a Little Rock and a hard place
The most distinctive thing about Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, a documentary that debuted Tuesday night on HBO, is that it actually adds something valuable to the discussion about race and education. Worthwhile contributions to that discussion are all too rare.
Commentary
Important, But Not for Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk About Math, Science, and Technology Education
Alison Kadlec, Will Friedman, and Amber OttPublic AgendaSeptember 2007
Commentary
All in
Are charter schools the new bargaining chips in parent/school board negotiations? It would seem so. After the Palo Alto school board told parents that, sorry, they weren't going to start a Mandarin-immersion program, the parents threatened to start their own Mandarin charter school.
Commentary
When progression is regression
The Denver teachers union has proposed to end social promotion in the Mile High City schools and instead tie students' progress to their scores on standardized tests in third, fifth, and eighth grades. Opponents of the plan worry that it will harm the self-esteem of students who are held back and could encourage those youngsters to drop out.
Commentary
Commentary
Achievement Trap: How America is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families
Joshua S. Wyner, John M. Bridgeland, and John J. Dilulio, Jr.Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Civic EnterprisesSeptember 2007
Commentary
Continental divide
Michigan's state Department of Education last week finally introduced its proposed curriculum for k-12 social studies. Although the plan has strong points--greater rigor and more focus on preparing students for college--it is also a classic case of political correctness run amok.
Commentary
Cowboy Dann
If there's one thing Gadfly is not, it's an apologist for bad schools, and he therefore cannot quibble much with Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's contention that two chronically-failing Buckeye charter schools should be closed.
Commentary
Just say no
When it comes to merit pay, Florida's teachers are about as ill-tempered as a gator buzzed by an Everglades airboat. The state legislature launched the STAR (Special Teachers are Rewarded) program in 2006, which gave 25 percent of public-school teachers five-percent bonuses, based primarily on student scores on the Sunshine State's standardized assessment.
Commentary
See Government Grow: Education Politics from Johnson to Reagan
Gareth DaviesUniversity Press of Kansas2007
Commentary
Improving Student Achievement? (Working paper)
Martha Abele Mac Iver and Douglas J. Mac IverNational Center for the Study of Privatization in EducationSeptember 2007
Commentary
An imperfect improvement, but a measurable one
Regarding last week's editorial ("The case against comparability") by Kate Walsh: The perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Comparability requirements are flawed.
Commentary
Billions by the bucket full: How much can school kids afford for teacher retirees?
Ohio taxpayers and school children have been dealt another dose of bad news with the revelation that almost $10 billion in expected health-care costs for retired teachers could be added to the already staggering $19 billion in liabilities of the State Teachers Retirement System.
Commentary
Alternative certification's Pyrrhic victory
At first glance, the explosive growth of "alternative" teacher certification--which is supposed to allow able individuals to teach in public schools without first lingering in a college of education--appears to be one of the great success stories of modern education reform.
Report
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative
At first glance, the explosive growth of 'alternative' teacher certification--which is supposed to allow able individuals to teach in public schools without first passing through a college of education--appears to be one of the great success stories of modern education reform. But, as this report reveals, alternative certification programs have so far failed to provide a real alternative to traditional education schools. In fact, they represent a significant setback for education reform advocates.
Commentary
Dann: Right struggle, wrong tactics
There is a right way and many wrong ways to crack down on poorly performing charter schools. This week, Ohio's attorney general decided, unfortunately, that it's better to hold a few hundred children hostage in court than to let established law operate to cure what ails two Dayton-area charter schools (see here).
Commentary
The case against "comparability"
Two items in the Miller-McKeon NCLB reauthorization bill seem to be shoe-ins for making their way into federal law. The impetus behind both is to ensure that districts spend as much on schools serving poor students as they do on schools serving more affluent children.
Commentary
Slimy
People with clear, strong views usually attract critics as well as admirers, and Bill Evers is no exception.
Commentary
Mahatma Kozol
Pray for Jonathan Kozol, who today enters the 70th day of his "partial fast" in protest over NCLB and, one assumes, to promote his new book. What is a "partial fast"?
Commentary
The Effects of NBPTS-Certified Teachers on Student Achievement
Douglas N. Harris and Tim R. SassNational Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education ResearchMarch 2007
Commentary
Choosing More Time for Students: the What, Why, and How of Expanded Learning
Elena RochaCenter for American ProgressAugust 2007
Commentary
Suburbia blues
Do you think of the achievement gap as an inner-city phenomenon? Think again. The Baltimore Sun reports that an alarming number of middle-class African-American students in suburban schools are having a difficult time passing the state's high school exit exams in algebra, English, biology, and government.
Commentary
Grand cru thinking
Fifteen years ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, then mayor of Neuilly, walked into a nursery school where a bomb-strapped man was holding students hostage and strolled out 30 minutes later with all the children.
Commentary
An inspired trend
Gadfly has been called a lot of things, but never a prophet--until now. It was a mere four years ago that we asked, "Why not religious charter schools?" The world's three great monotheistic religions heard us.