Absence Unexcused: Ending Teacher Shortages in High-Need Areas
Terry RyanBeatriz Chu Clewell and Ana Maria Villegas, The Urban Institute December 2001
Improving Student Achievement in Arizona: A Call to Action
Governor's Task Force on Efficiency and Accountability in K-12 Education December 18, 2001
No Child Left Behind: the untold story
"Phonics and testing, we're meant to believe, are an intensive therapy set to turn around laggard schools," writes Stephen Metcalf in The Nation, "But administrators, teachers, parents and children know better." The real story behind President Bush's education plan, says Metcalf, is that "The big players now at the education table, some with a considerable financial stake in the new regi
Reform-minded philanthropists need a strategy for education reform
Education giving is also taking a hit as philanthropists' bank accounts shrink and some redirect their resources toward fighting terrorism and supporting domestic relief efforts in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
State budgets for education to shrink in lean economic times
The faltering U.S. economy has put an end to a decade of budgetary good times for schools, with the recession opening a $40 billion hole in many states' general funds on which schools rely heavily, reports Daniel Wood in The Christian Science Monitor. Among the hardest-hit states are New York, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, and California, where Gov.
Double Standard in Voucher Research
Jay P. GreeneAs Supreme Court justices weigh the constitutionality of Cleveland's voucher program in the next few months, their assessment of the benefits of school choice is apt to influence their decision.
Using information to enhance the bottom line of schools
Data warehousing, data-driven decision making, or business intelligence - whatever its name, it's the latest thing for managing school systems, according to a short article in this Sunday's Education Life supplement to The New York Times.
Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortages: An Organizational Analysis
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Richard M. Ingersoll, American Educational Research Journal, Fall 2001
The Heart of a High School: One Community's Effort to Transform Urban Education
Kelly ScottHolly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli, 2001
Not a ParodyWhy education research struggles for respect
Members of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) who attend the organization's annual meeting in 2002 are invited to attend a professional development course (for only $70!) that will train them to engage "with poetic representation of data as a way of focusing, interpreting, clarifying, and communicating the results of qualitative research," according to a note in the December 2
How not to secure a qualified teacher for every classroom
While the testing and reading provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act have been monopolizing the spotlight, the requirement that all teachers in core academic subjects be fully qualified within four years is starting to attract its share of unfriendly attention.
Data everywhere, but useful analysis is in short supply
Scientific American reports that data on the effects of class size reduction are inconclusive. According to Education Week, the same is true of data on the "whole school" reform effort. While education data exist in oversupply, they are of little use for policymaking, writes E.D. Hirsch in a column for the Hoover Institution.
ESEA, IDEA: It's all about phonics
While the debate over special education tends to focus on its cost - and how much money it takes away from regular education - Congress will get nowhere on this topic until lawmakers begin to view special and regular education as part of a single system, one that is hampered by an all too pervasive problem: that schools are teaching reading in a way that fails to effectively reach millions of c
A new year for education?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Now that George W. Bush has signed the "No Child Left Behind" act, the flashbulbs have just about stopped popping, and the policy (and media) focus shifts back to terrorism and the economy, the education world will turn to the low profile but crucial matter of translating this thousand-page bill's dozens of programs and hundreds of provisions into schoolhouse practice.
New bill puts value-added analysis in the spotlight
While the costs and benefits of annual tests were debated at great length last year, analysts of the new "No Child Left Behind" education legislation are getting more excited about an opportunity created by those tests: the ability to identify effective schools and teachers using annual test scores. In a 9-page paper for the Lexington Institute, Robert Holland explains how statistical ana
A Small but Costly Step Toward Reform: The Conference Education Bill
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Krista Kafer, Heritage Foundation, December 13, 2001
Add It Up: Using Research to Improve Education for Low-Income and Minority Students
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Anne Lewis, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, 2001
Information Technology and the Goals of Standards-Based Instruction: Advances and Continuing Challenges
Kelly ScottDouglas A. Archbald, Education Policy Analysis Archives, November 2001
Beginning Teacher Induction: The Essential Bridge
Judy GossEducational Issues Policy Brief, American Federation of Teachers, 2001
America's Meltdown: Why We Are Losing the Skills Wars and What We Can Do About It
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Edward E. Gordon, Imperial Consulting Corporation, November 2001
The high schools left behind by choice in Chicago
In Chicago, 55 percent of public high school students attend schools outside their neighborhoods. The mobile students are often the better students, who can today apply to a growing array of magnet schools and programs throughout the school district. A series of articles in last month's Catalyst take a close look at the schools left behind. The 12 least popular neighbor
Multiculturalism and assimiliationism after September 11
Will the new feeling of national unity in the aftermath of terrorist attacks set the stage for a turn away from multicultural education, which de-emphasizes the common American culture and teaches children to take pride in their own racial ethnic and national origins instead?
New bill puts value-added analysis in the spotlight
While the costs and benefits of annual tests were debated at great length last year, analysts of the new "No Child Left Behind" education legislation are getting more excited about an opportunity created by those tests: the ability to identify effective schools and teachers using annual test scores. In a 9-page paper for the Lexington Institute, Robert Holland explains how statistical ana
Why is Education So Hard to Reform?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Welcome to 2002. Allow me to open it by recalling nine great obstacles to serious education reform in America - and the (mostly obvious) changes we must make to break through them. You may, if you like, regard the latter as New Year's resolutions.We know more about the quality of our dishwashers than the quality of our children's schools.
Standard & Poor's adds value in Michigan
If you feel amused or provoked by anything you read in the Education Gadfly, write us at [email protected]. From time to time, we publish correspondence that we think might interest other readers, such as the following letter.
Career Academies: Impacts on Students' Initial Transitions to Post-Secondary Education and Employment
Terry RyanJames J. Kemple, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, December 2001