The trouble with teachers
Mike Petrilli's recent editorial, Tough choices on teacher quality, spawned lots of letters. Here are a few.From Dave Taggart, U.S. Army, Retired, Calhoun, G.A.
Mike Petrilli's recent editorial, Tough choices on teacher quality, spawned lots of letters. Here are a few.From Dave Taggart, U.S. Army, Retired, Calhoun, G.A.
On November 30, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco signed legislation that transferred control of 102 New Orleans schools to state management. For now, most of the Big Easy's public schools remain closed. But when they re-open in the fall, many will do so as charter schools.
Science education in America is in trouble. "Discovery learning" is attacking on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of our just-released State of State Science Standards 2005 appraisal by the eminent biologist Paul R. Gross, former head of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and former provost of the University of Virginia.
Baltimore's school district performed dismally on this past spring's state standardized tests but, rather than address the problem seriously, school administrators decided to go trendy. "When the boat is sinking," says the district's Frank DeStefano, "you don't follow the manual.
People typically try to avoid unintended consequences, but there are exceptions. This might be one. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's move to take control of the L.A. Unified School District is leading some activists again to call for the break-up of the sprawling system, which serves at least 27 municipalities other than Los Angeles proper.
Pity the grandmother who sends a bounty of oven-fresh cupcakes to the school bake sale. Grandma may have good intentions, but she and others of her ilk are inadvertently condemning America's school children to an obesity 'epidemic.' At least, that's what University of Minnesota professor Martha Kubik argues.
When I began my career as a public school teacher some 25 years ago, I had no crystal ball to see how education theory and practice would evolve. Back then, no one talked about charter schools, highly qualified teachers, or value-added assessments. But in retrospect, I recognize that I was witness to choice in action.
Declining enrollment due to, among other things, the burgeoning of charter school options, the exodus of families to the suburbs, and smaller Catholic families, has conspired to force five Dayton Catholic schools to consolidate into two buildings. The effort will allow the schools to share the costs of staffing, building space, and other services.
On November 29th, the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in State Ex Rel. Ohio Congress of Parents & Teachers v. State Bd. of Education, a case that may ultimately determine the fate of Ohio's charter school program. Issues of school oversight and funding dominated the session.
United States Government Accountability OfficeNovember 2005
National Association of State Boards of EducationOctober 2005 Henry I. Braun, Educational Testing Service September 2005
Sensitive readers: Avert your eyes. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that 15-year-old Davie Miles of Kentucky's Nicholas County High School urinated in his gymnasium's ice machine. Some 30 students and staff reportedly consumed ice from the dispenser before the contamination was reported and the machine was quarantined. Panic ensued shortly thereafter.
Even if you don't believe that principals should have unfettered choices when it comes to hiring new teachers (see here), surely few people would defend a system whereby principals have no choice over the individuals who teach in their
Margaret Spellings's November 18th announcement of an NCLB "growth model" pilot project capped a busy year of new-found flexibility for the Secretary and her policy minions.
It's been an eventful two weeks for education in the nation's courtrooms. A lawsuit organized by the National Education Association - that argued that NCLB improperly forced school districts to spend their own funds to implement the law - was dismissed by a federal judge in Michigan.
Four years ago, when Congress enacted NCLB, it showed uncommon wisdom in requiring all states to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Paul Hill's National Charter School Research Project at the University of Washington recently issued a wide-ranging, nicely balanced appraisal of the charter-school movement circa 2005 - emphasizing how loosely coupled it is, how different from state to state and school to school, indeed how it's not fairly termed a national movement at all.
Philanthropy magazine by Joanne JacobsOctober 2005
National Association of Secondary School Principals2005 National Association of State Boards of EducationOctober 2005
Greg ForsterThe Milton and Rose D. Friedman FoundationOctober 2005
No Child Left Behind was recently highlighted by two conservative columnists, David Brooks and George Will. In the Times, Brooks tweaked NCLB by arguing that the future is in human capital - that is, the cultural, social, moral, cognitive, and aspirational aspects of each individual. Skills and knowledge, "the stuff measured by tests," are but one part of this.
While gubernatorial races hogged election-day press coverage, a couple of local races in Michigan and California have raised eyebrows. In the Great Lakes State, 18-year-old Michael Sessions is making a case for "hands-on" learning. Why study civics? Just do it! He won the Hillsdale mayoral race, as a write-in candidate, by two votes.
In Penfield, N.Y., high-flying math whiz Jim Munch looked to be the poster child for constructivist math curriculum. He scored a 5 on the A.P. Calculus exam, and hopes to become a theoretical mathematician. Turns out, he succeeded in spite, not because of, his school's progressivist training.
My friend, colleague, and boss Gaynor McCown died this week, leaving this earth far too soon at the age of 45. Gaynor started as Executive Director of The Teaching Commission during the same month that I started at the National Council on Teacher Quality. She set up a lunch so that we could meet and talk about how our two organizations could work together.
Parents who contend that schools are failing their special needs children will now have to do more than make the claim in order to get the additional services they desire. They'll have to prove their case.
OK, school reformers, it's pop-quiz time. Take out your # 2 pencils and circle the answer with which you agree.To boost teacher quality, policy makers should:a. Allow principals to hire the best teachers they can find, regardless of credentials; or
In the first issue of the Ohio Gadfly, we said that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a charter school sponsor; in fact, it's the Institute's organizational cousin, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, that's responsible for our efforts on that front.
School Choice Demonstration Project, Georgetown UniversityThomas Stewart, Ph.D., Patrick J. Wolf, Ph.D., and Stephen Q. Cornman, Esq.October 2005
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is looking for talent.
In Ohio, approximately 42 percent of school districts have student enrollments less than 1,500.