Topics

Displaying 211-240 of 1489 results
Commentary
11.4.2009

Upwards, not outwards

Last week’s editorial “Remembering Ted Sizer” misidentified the outreach program at Harvard Graduate School of Education as "Outward Bound," a well-known outdoors program.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Texas two-step

Arne Duncan may continue lambasting teacher preparation programs nation-wide, but Texas could soon give him something to smile about. The State Board for Teacher Certification recently gave initial approval to a proposal authored by veteran state Senator Florence Shapiro that would impose stricter standards on the state’s 177 traditional and alternative teacher prep programs.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Ed schools, hallowed no more

Stafford Palmieri

Education schools are under attack--yet again. But don’t yawn and assume that this, too, shall pass. For unlike innumerable previous assaults, which these institutions withstood with awesome obstinacy, this one may actually crack their fortified walls. That’s no sure thing, of course, given the history of failed attempts at reform in this area.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Look-a-likes

When the Gates Foundation announced in July that it would give up to $250,000 grants to fifteen states to help them with their Race to the Top applications, it was exercising the right of a private organization to be selective with its funds. But then the neglected 35 cried “unfair.” And the financial floodgates opened.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Digital blunder

Call before you print--that’s the lesson for Linda Vista Elementary School in Yorba Linda, California. That school’s PTA recently made tee-shirts for a student jog-a-thon that featured the school mascot (a lion) and an inspiring seven-letter slogan transformed into a 1-800 number.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Mom-and-pop edureform

The Parent Revolution in Los Angeles continues to bring home the bacon, having managed to put organized parents squarely in the center of local education politics.

Commentary
11.4.2009

Contextual literacy

“I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep…Those numbers completely changed my professional life,” says Sarah Fanning, referring to 1999 test scores that revealed a full third of freshmen at Buckhorn High School in New Market, Alabama, where Fanning oversees curriculum and instruction, read at or below the seventh-grade level. In response, Buckhorn became an earl

Commentary
11.4.2009

High school diplomas go retro

In perhaps the worst decision since the resurrection of the legwarmer, the North Carolina General Assembly has effectively granted retroactive diplomas to scores of high school seniors who failed graduation tests.

Commentary
11.3.2009

Turnaround conversation

National Journal's "education experts" are having a discussion about my Ed Next article on turnarounds and the Obama administration's fidelity to this strategy.

Commentary
11.2.2009

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "I don't see any other state that has thrown the brunt of its budget shortfall onto the laps of our students." - Celia Molina, Hawaii parent

Commentary
10.30.2009
Curriculum & Instruction

Flypaper readers debate Education Schools and MUCH more

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

A week ago, I posted this in response to Secretary Duncan's speech about education schools at Teachers College. Over the course of several days, there were 11 comments posted that, when printed out, clocked in at 20 pages (single spaced, mind you).

Commentary
10.30.2009

G-rated only, please

Stafford Palmieri

Just in time for Halloween, schools around the country sent letters home to parents about what constitutes an "appropriate" costume. Out are masks, fake weapons, and gory make up. In are innocuous food items (carrots! pumpkins!) and cute furry animals.

Commentary
10.30.2009

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "I'm talking about the law. Why bother to have a legislative body if the people in the executive branch do whatever they choose because they don't like the decision of the legislative body?" -D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D)

Commentary
10.29.2009

Only one piece of the puzzle

A new study on school closures in Chicago reports an unsurprising but important finding: the quality of the school a student attends after he/she is displaced by a closure is extremely important.

Commentary
10.29.2009

Illusion of proficiency continues to shed its veil

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

As Amy indicates, the latest findings from the just-released National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report contain few surprises, especially since we're well

Commentary
10.29.2009

Today's Quotable and Notable

Quotable: "There are places in America where if you really saw what was going on, as Americans, we would be totally embarrassed. It's Katrina happening without the floods....It's so ugly we have decided not to look at it." -Geoff Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone

Commentary
10.28.2009

The content of a great reformer

In this excellent biographical article in City Journal, Sol Stern takes a closer look at the life and works of E. D. Hirsch, Jr. Father of the Core Knowledge movement (and foundation by the same name), Hirsch started as a scholar of English.

Commentary
10.28.2009

Teaching the teachers

Having touted teacher quality as an important spoke of his reform wheel, it was only a matter of time before Education Secretary Arne Duncan took on the largest purveyor of teacher training: education schools.

Commentary
10.28.2009

Education lifts election doldrums

After the pomp, circumstance, and hope we can believe in of 2008, you may have an election hangover. And if you don’t live in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, or Boston, you may not have even realized that next Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day. But of four big races (and a few ballot initiatives) due next week, education is a common theme in all of them.

Commentary
10.28.2009

Remembering Ted Sizer

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Theodore R. (Ted) Sizer, who passed away last week after a long and valiant battle with cancer, was a towering figure in American education--and a wonderful guy.