On standards, the status quo strikes back
According to the California state board of education's definition of a "persistently dangerous" school, there are no persistently dangerous schools in the state.
According to the California state board of education's definition of a "persistently dangerous" school, there are no persistently dangerous schools in the state.
The driving premise behind this Annenberg funded report is this: Districts need help in meeting the student achievement goals now being established by state and federal policies.
It's hardly news to say that students complain about school being boring. But it ought to give us pause that such a wide and varied range of students report, contemptuously, that America's high schools are almost uniformly incapable of sparking their intellectual interest.
As the number of charter schools has grown across the country, so has the number of bureaucratic requirements and red tape surrounding charter school operation.
In case you were wondering, the National Education Association has decided that it opposes the No Child Left Behind Act. Meeting in New Orleans this week, union members approved a plan to lobby Congress to drop or amend major portions of the law, allow states control over when its accountability measures will - if ever - take effect, and provide new federal funding for its implementation.
Richard Fry, Pew Hispanic CenterJune 2003
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation2003
One of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's grand campaign promises was a pledge to reform bilingual education.
James Tooley and Pauline Dixon, Centre for British TeachersMay 2003
National Center for Education StatisticsJune 2003
Last week the Washington Post ran a two-part series (by Justin Blum and Jay Mathews) on the state of D.C. charter schools. It's a good summary of how the schools are doing compared to traditional public schools (mixed) and the effect they're having on the D.C. school system (scant).
Special ed reform is in the air. The House has passed and the Senate has introduced bills to overhaul the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
While you're right that more than 80 percent of Americans support graduation requirements in theory [see "Resist urge to 'refine' graduation testing"], when faced with the reality of the impact on their communities and children, support will inevitably drop.
In what may prove a classic case of unintended consequences, California school districts, in a supposed effort to raise standards, are launching "No-D" grading policies, which require students to earn a C or better to pass a course.
Senator Lamar Alexander's excellent bill to create national academies to strengthen education in civics and history for both teachers and high school students has sailed through the Senate.
Color us na??ve, but it seems like the stars may be aligning for a serious test of school vouchers in the District of Columbia. Tuesday, the House Government Reform Committee held hearings on a bill (H.R. 2556) that would provide private school tuition scholarships of up to $7,500 to low-income children in the nation's capital. Testifying in support were Secretary of Education Rod Paige, D.C.
It happens that the Supreme Court's decision in two affirmative action cases came out just days after the release of the latest reading results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The latter show clearly that America still faces a wide education achievement gap between white and minority students.
Margaret E. Raymond, CREDO, Hoover Institution at Stanford UniversityMay 2003
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown UniversityMarch 2003
Dorothy Siegel, ERIC Digest 168 May 2003
Gregory Camilli and others, National Institute for Early Education
This week, the national service program AmeriCorps announced that it has been forced to make drastic cuts in its grant programs, due to past-year overruns and a continuing impasse on how it accounts for the education awards earned by members.
In an effort to refocus attention on high schools - "the weakest link in a troubled education system" - the reform group Research for Democracy compiled this series of short essays on high school reform. Though their recommendations and research are not earth shattering, they underscore the need for higher standards and increased accountability for student achievement and teacher quality.
An unintended consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act is that, due to the pressure to boost pupil achievement in reading, math, and science (the subjects tested under the federal law), schools are neglecting other valuable subjects, not least of which are history, civics, and geography - aka "social studies." Maryland, for example, no longer mandates assessments in history and social studie
No, this is not about Iraq but about four raging education battles, three in Washington and one in academe, all with mega policy implications. On the surface, each looks like a conflict between "keep it the way it is even though it isn't working" and "change it even though that'll be disruptive." Not far below is a tussle over - what else? - jobs, power, money, influence, and legitimacy.
Last month a study predicted that 20 percent of California's class of 2004 may fail the state's high school exit exam due to inadequate preparation.
Matthew Miller thinks he's got the answer to teacher shortages in America's toughest schools - and maybe he does, since he's brought to the table both teacher union president Sandra Feldman and Fordham president Chester Finn.
Tuesday, President Bush announced that all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico now have federally approved accountability plans in place and thus are in formal compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act.