Shifting Trends in Special Education
Janie Scull, Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.In this Fordham Institute paper, analysts examine public data and find that the proportion of students with disabilities peaked in 2004-05 and has been declining since. At the state level, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts have the highest rates of disability identification, while Texas, Idaho, and Colorado have the lowest. Read on to learn more.
Bill Bennett, James Madison, and national curricular materials
Chester E. Finn, Jr.The big fuss about "national curriculum" has lately slid into an argument about whether the federal government may?and should?have anything to do with "curriculum." Actually, it's an argument?limited to the Education Department, which has in its founding legislation a specific prohibition on "controlling or directing" curriculum.
The South will embarrass itself again
Tennessee is determined, it seems, to sully its reputation when it comes to matters educational. The state that in the 1920s began the anti-evolution battles by bringing?teacher John Scopes to trial for allegedly?speaking of?evolution in his high-school biology class has moved the so-called ?Don't Say Gay? bill along the path from notion to law.
A war of words: "Nationalize" versus "Privatize"
Peter MeyerOne of the more interesting characteristics of the recent curriculum counter-manifesto was its lead sentence, which had this lovely turn of phrase: we ?oppose the call for a nationalized curriculum.??
Fordham responds to the Common Core "counter-manifesto"
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr.The ???counter-manifesto??? released this week in opposition to national testing and a national curriculum is full of half-truths, mischaracterizations, and straw men. But it was signed by a lot of serious people and deserves a serious response. [quote]
Re: A Pegagogy of Practice
This is a guest post by Diane Ravitch, in response to "A Pedagogy of Practice" by Kathleen Porter-Magee.
Alfie Kohn: Read your Lisa Delpit
Michael J. PetrilliAlfie Kohn's Education Week commentary about the "pedagogy of poverty" has sparked a renewed debate about which kind of education is "best" for poor kids?and whether it's the same as what affluent children get.
Save the interns: Part 1
Ross Perlin's new book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy?removes the comedy from the tableau of the keen,?fresh-faced intern, set on changing the world yet?so far struggling to change even the toner in the office copy machine.
Osama bin Laden: What our children need to know
Chester E. Finn, Jr.The U.S. didn't triumph over terrorism today but its brave fighting men won a crucial battle when they rid the world of Osama bin Laden. Bravo for them?and may his soul suffer eternal damnation.
Pedagogy of the lost: Alfie Kohn strikes again
Peter MeyerAlfie Kohn is the latest to weigh in on ?the pedagogy of poverty,? as he calls it, with his ?How Education Reform Traps Poor Children? commentary in Education Week ?
Opinion: On pushing the ESEA boulder up the hill
Michael J. PetrilliThis article originally appeared in the April 21 edition of The Education Gadfly newsletter.
And furthermore: David Steiner on curriculum
Peter MeyerIn my interview with outgoing New York education commissioner David Steiner, whose passion for curriculum has been no secret, I asked about curriculum and the common core and I think it is worth excerpting some of our conversation:
ESEA Briefing Book
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr.Political leaders hope to act soon to renew and fix the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, also known as No Child Left Behind). In this important paper, Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Executive Vice President Michael J. Petrilli identify 10 big issues that must be resolved in order to get a bill across the finish line, and explore the major options under consideration for each one. Should states be required to adopt academic standards tied to college and career readiness? Should the new law provide greater flexibility to states and districts? These are just a few of the areas discussed. Finn and Petrilli also present their own bold yet "reform realist" solutions for ESEA. Read on to learn more.
Why are we surprised?
A New York Times-Chronicle of Higher Education collaboration yields a story about the lowly undergraduate business department, where slackers slack with impunity.
Around the bend on Common Core
Peter MeyerI was just re-reading sections of The Making of Americans by Don Hirsch, preparing to send out some encouraging words to my local district Board of Ed Curriculum Committee, when a new
A quandary resolved or restated?
The humanities are under attack, writes Nicholas Dames in the latest N+1.
No love-in for Finland here
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Rick Hess strongly implies that I'm a Finland lover just because I signed the AFT plea for better curricular materials for teachers to use in connection
Field notes: Saving song and dance
Peter MeyerI cried. It was only Babes in Arms, but the kids sang and danced as if on Broadway?and some of them actually had Broadway genes in their vocal chords and gambly arms and legs.? A lazy Sunday afternoon and I caught the last performance of the high school play.?
LAUSD drops open court in favor of "California Treasures"
Kathleen Porter-MageeSeveral years ago, then superintendent Roy Romer mandated that elementary teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District use Open Court?a proven literacy program that he believed would help drive reading achievement in the district.
In defense of mandating Betamax
Kathleen Porter-MageeToday, Jay Greene has an Ed Next column arguing against government mandated standards and curriculum. ?Most of the important elements of American education are already standardized,? he argues.
Learning from the Golden State
Kathleen Porter-MageeOne of the many reasons I think that states should get out of the curriculum- and textbook-adoption business is that, when state governments start to dive too deep into the implementation weeds, they tend to do far more harm than good.
CA districts take the lead on curriculum and instruction
Kathleen Porter-MageeCatherine Gewertz (via John Fensterwald of the "Educated Guess" blog) has a post today about a group of seven California districts who are coming together to draft Common
Getting back on track
Michael J. PetrilliOne of the dirtiest words in American education today is ?tracking.? Reformers and ed-school types alike deride the approach as racist, classist, and worthy of eradication. And if they are talking about the practice of confining some kids?typically poor or minority or both?into dead-end tracks with soulless, ditto-driven instruction, they are absolutely right.
Decision science and information overload
Peter MeyerWhile having a very interesting conversation over at my post about The Digital Divide and the Knowledge Deficit (about the recent MacArthur sponsored conference at Hechinger), I noticed a fascinating story by Sharon Begley at Newsweek called ?
Finish the standards first
Kathleen Porter-MageeThe CCSS ELA standards are, as you may remember, heavily (though certainly not exclusively) skills driven. The choice to focus on skills rather than content was deliberate and the standards authors themselves acknowledged that states would likely want to enhance these skills-driven standards with additional content.
Field notes: Curriculum in the trenches
Peter MeyerI emerged from our Board of Ed Curriculum Committee meeting yesterday smiling.?
Curricular confusions
Peter MeyerYou shouldn't need 3-D glasses to see the need for a good curriculum. So why, then, does Neal McClaskey at Cato think that a national curriculum is ?not possible in this dimension??
Reading skills and strategies are a means to an end
Kathleen Porter-MageeCatherine Gewertz has a piece in this week's Education Week describing a New York City pilot program that has teachers analyzing the complexity of the texts they will be assigned in their classrooms. As you probably remember, text complexity features prominently in the Common Core standards.
Do we really want a common curriculum?
Kathleen Porter-MageeRobert Pondiscio over at Core Knowledge wrote a very thoughtful response to my post the other day.