Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 1999-2000
National Center for Education Statistics, October 2001
National Center for Education Statistics, October 2001
New Jersey Department of Education, October 2001
Dan D. Goldhaber, from Selected Papers in School Finance 2000-01, National Center for Education Statistics, August 2001
Last Monday, Massachusetts announced that 82% of its class of 2003 passed the state's English test and 75% passed the math test. On Wednesday, Achieve, Inc. released an evaluation of the state's standards and tests.
Parents in two states finally have the information they need to evaluate their school systems, thanks to the analytical skills of Standard & Poor's and the willingness of Gov. John Engler and ex-Gov.
We've heard a lot about the dire shortage of math and science teachers that has forced educators trained in other disciplines to teach those subjects "out of field." But we've heard much less about shortages in field of history.
The charter-school idea is now ten years old. Which is to say, it's completed the "elementary" grades and is ready for "middle school" - and the onrushing storms of adolescence. It's a hopeful but precarious time. And some worrisome issues lie ahead.Meanwhile, expansion continues. The Center for Education Reform reports several hundred new charters this fall.
A new front has opened up in the battle over the SAT, and the combatants are profiled in a long (14 page) article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. The new critics of the SAT don't argue that it's biased; they're upset that it's not based on the school curriculum.
John Marks, Centre for Policy Studies, June 2000
Larry Cuban, Institute for Educational Leadership, September 2001
National Education Goals Panel, September 2001
Dan Koretz and Mark Berends, RAND, 2001
Last week's 24-hour National Education Summit was surely pleasant. IBM's Lew Gerstner is a fine host and his company's conference facility is exceptionally comfortable.
In this month's issue of Philanthropy, Michael Poliakoff asks some pointed questions about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), the nonprofit organization created in 1987 to identify and reward "master teachers." First, do the students of board-certified teachers achieve more than students whose teachers have not achieved this "distinction"? Second,
If you're a serious education reformer and want to make yourself angry, have a look at the "11th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education" written by none other than Gerald W. Bracey. You'll probably agree with nothing in it. It's mostly an anti-testing rant leavened by ad hominem attacks.
It's getting more and more difficult to generalize about religious schooling in America. An article in last week's Wall Street Journal reports that Catholic, Jewish, and other faith-based schools are seeing a wave of interest from students of other religions. Christian parents may pick a Jewish or Islamic school for their child (or vice versa) for a wide range of reasons.
Policymakers in Massachusetts have long faced ferocious testing critics wailing that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is harming public education and worsening dropout rates. They endured myriad protests organized by opponents who claimed that MCAS was forcing educators to "teach to the test." They winced at the high percentage of kids who failed each year.
Another state whose pursuit of standards-and-accountability based reform has been doubted by testing opponents had good news this week. According to results released on Tuesday, Virginia schools nearly doubled their rate of success on the state's Standards of Learning exams this year, with 40 percent meeting this year's state benchmarks and an additional 30 percent of schools reaching tar
The United States General Accounting Office, August 31, 2001
Kevin J. Sullivan, Alliance for Excellent Education, September 2001
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, September 2001
National Commission on the High School Senior Year, October 2001
Richard Nadler deconstructs Alfie Kohn in this week's National Review. While many others embrace the same pedagogical ideas that he does, what distinguishes Kohn, the author argues, is his single-minded struggle to place the elements of that pedagogy beyond criticism.
In a new book, Free Agent Nation, Daniel Pink explores how self-employed knowledge workers are increasingly transforming the American workplace as they abandon traditional jobs and reinvent themselves as freelancers, independent contractors, and proprietors of home-based businesses.
Every state wants to ensure that its public schools are staffed by excellent teachers, and to this end, most require that teachers complete a state-approved course of study at a school of education before receiving a teaching license. Defenders of these systems of certification (and those who would add to their requirements) contend that studies show that certified teachers are more effec
(1) In praise of public education. You may think I'm no fan of public education, and it's true that the U.S. version often exasperates me. But recent world news has underscored society's obligation to see that its young get educated, acculturated and socialized.
Without fanfare, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the country's largest constituency-based Hispanic organization, is embarking on a $25 million project to open 50 new Latino charter schools over the next five years. Behind the effort is Anthony Colon, who worked for 20 years in the bureaucracy of the New York City school system before becoming principal of a charter school in Oakland.