Removing the wrong barrier
Until last week, out-of-state and newly graduated teachers who wanted to work in North Carolina were required to pass a subject-area test to teach in that state's middle and high school classrooms.
Until last week, out-of-state and newly graduated teachers who wanted to work in North Carolina were required to pass a subject-area test to teach in that state's middle and high school classrooms.
A fascinating article from The Oregonian outlines one of the most troubling aspects of American education - the dramatic drop-off in pupil achievement from elementar
If you've ever struggled to decipher a graphics-only IKEA instruction manual while putting together a large piece of furniture with the help of only a miniature wrench (and who hasn't?), you will be relieved to know that Northampton College in England has recently announced a new course: flat-pack furniture assembly 101.
The Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York (SUNY) has recommended that two of New York State's first three charter schools, which were opened five years ago under the state's 1998 charter law, should be granted only partial renewal because of mixed academic results, and that the third should be closed because, based on the "totality of evidence . . .
Robert Holland, Lexington InstituteDecember 2003
Basmat Parsad, Laurie Lewis, and Bernard Greene, National Center for Education StatisticsNovember 2003
The SEED school (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) in Washington, D.C.
Happy birthday, NCLB! Bells are ringing today at the White House, the Education Department, and the Capitol as the drafters, enactors, implementers, and enforcers of No Child Left Behind observe the second anniversary of its enactment.
This week, after closed-door negotiations with union leaders, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger convinced the California Teachers Association to support a $2 billion cut in education spending to help resolve the state's massive budget deficit. The move is part of Schwarzenegger's plan to curb the "spending crisis" that he says caused this huge hole in the budget.
The fate of the nation's second statewide voucher program - the first since the landmark Zelman decision was handed down - was called into question again this week, when Denver judge Joseph E. Meyer upheld his own decision to slap a temporary injunction on the state's fledgling voucher program.
One never ceases to be amazed by the inanity of many so-called "experts" in testing and instruction.
Last January, Gadfly warned that New York City stood to lose millions in federal dollars if Mayor Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein insisted on mandating the unproven and academically dubious "Month by Month Phonics" as the citywide reading curriculum.
At the second anniversary of NCLB, it is useful to think about the historical evolution of the law that NCLB is meant to reform - Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Media coverage of all the unresolved problems of NCLB's design and implementation may engender a shortsightedness.
The Education TrustDecember 2003
There are many ways that states, schools, and districts can work to "beat" No Child Left Behind.
Paul Peterson and Martin West, editors, The Brookings Institution 2003
Barnett Berry, Laura Turchi, and Dylan Johnson, Southeast Center for Teaching Quality, Inc.; Dwight Hare and Deborah Duncan Owens, Mississippi State University; and Steve Clements, Kentucky Professional Standards BoardNovember 2003
This coming year, I have resolved to quit smoking, lose weight, and spend more time with my children. I strongly suspect that, by late January, my waistline will continue to expand like a special-ed budget, my lungs will still be in hock to Phillip Morris, and my children will still weep for their absentee father and curse the day he met the slave driver who employs him.
From our neighbor to the north, a heart-warming story of the nerd striking back. Andrew Ironside, an unpopular, bookish, unathletic high school senior in Ontario, was elected valedictorian by his classmates, who thought it would be funny to put him in the spotlight. A classmate introduced him at the ceremony by saying cruelly, "I'm pretty happy to say I've spent time with almost all of you.
Faced with budget shortfalls and No Child Left Behind requirements, many states are looking to cut funding for gifted and talented classes to free up extra cash for programs aimed at struggling students.
In November, we reported on a Brookings conference, "Is law undermining public education?" (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=122#1533 for more details), where education reformers and researchers gathered to discuss ways that excessive litigation has tied school districts in knots.
Center for Education Research and Policy at MassINCFall 2003
Department of Health and Human ServicesDecember 2003
Education Innovation ConsortiumFall 2003
At the holidays, it's traditional to count your blessings. This essay in the Houston Chronicle reminds us that, whatever its flaws, America remains a bulwark of freedom, a blessing, and a shining ideal. The author, a Cuban mother, is pained when her five-year-old son returns from school singing the praises of five Cuban spies imprisoned in America for espionage.
Southeast Asian countries seem to be learning a lesson that's taking Americans longer to understand: bureaucracy should not get in the way of needed education improvements and the most important reforms are grounded in new forms of accountability, not larger budgets.
A recent report from the British government's Office of Standards in Education attributes the schools' continued failure to meet proficiency targets in math and English to "a stubborn core" of badly trained teachers with a poor grasp of subject knowledge
There is good news, bad news, and troubling nonsense associated with the 2003 big-city NAEP results (for 4th and 8th grade reading and math) released yesterday by the Department of Education.