Displaying 31-51 of 51 results
Commentary
8.14.2007

Economists respond to the STRS's attack on pension-system report

Mike Lafferty

In June, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a study of Ohio's teacher pension system entitled Golden Peaks and Perilous Cliffs: Rethinking Ohio's Teacher Pension System. This report has triggered much overdue public debate in Ohio and beyond regarding teacher pension systems and their interaction with school-improvement efforts.

Commentary
8.8.2007

Northern frights

There was much to praise in Judge Sharon Gleason's late June decision rejecting claims that Alaska's schools are underfunded, and noting that traditional concepts of "local control" must be abandoned when schools repeatedly fail to educate kids. But there was much to criticize, too. In her ruling in Moore v.

Commentary
8.8.2007

Not by geeks alone

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Diane Ravitch

In a globalizing economy, America's competitive edge depends in large measure on how well our schools prepare tomorrow's workforce.And notwithstanding the fact that Congress and the White House are now controlled by opposing parties, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are bent on devising new programs and boosting education spending.

Commentary
8.8.2007

Princi-pals

Who knows schools better, outside consultants or internal operatives (principals and teachers)? The British government is betting on the latter. It's experimenting with a program that pairs principals ("head teachers") of successful schools with their counterparts in less-successful ones.

Commentary
8.8.2007

Trapped in persistent danger

Last Saturday in Newark, three young people--two of them enrolled in college, one just months away--were fatally shot, execution-style, on the playground of Mount Vernon School, where six-year-olds attend class during most of the year.

Commentary
8.8.2007

Ed reform editors

The editors at the Indianapolis Star have written many a perceptive piece about the shortcomings of Indiana's schools (see here and here, for example). Their latest pair of education-related editorials is similarly spot-on.

Commentary
8.1.2007

"Buying in" with Obama

Michael J. Petrilli

Two weeks ago, I escaped from Washington's oppressive humidity and headed with my wife's family to New Hampshire's Lake Sunapee. Like any Granite State vacationer I hoped for sunny days, cool, relaxing nights, and, of course, a visit from a major presidential candidate.

Commentary
8.1.2007

Cash only

Maryland has taken a profound and laudable step. At least the judiciary has. The state's Court of Appeals ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that charter schools should receive as much money per pupil as regular public schools.

Commentary
8.1.2007

Clearing out the rubbish

When Gadfly did graduate work in Britain, he was subjected to English teaching strategies ostensibly suited to his personality, lifestyle, and compound eyes.

Commentary
8.1.2007

AYP, HQT, etc.

In last week's News and Analysis ("NCLB Watch: Will the center rise again?"), Michael J. Petrilli inaccurately characterized the reauthorization bill put forward by Senators Lieberman, Landrieu, and Coleman.

Commentary
8.1.2007

Bad timing

At exclusive Mills College in the upscale Oakland foothills, arriving fashionably late to meetings, lattes in hand, is considered good form. At American Indian Charter School in crime-ridden downtown Oakland, tardiness brings a swift kick in the derrière--latte or no.

Commentary
8.1.2007

Big George's big speech

Just as a centrist consensus around NCLB reauthorization appeared to be in sight (see

Commentary
8.1.2007

Norton v. parents

Gadfly has heretofore expressed no opinion about the District of Columbia's lack of representation in Congress. But the latest crusade of Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives, makes one think that perhaps D.C. shouldn't have a vote. Norton is trying to kill the D.C.