Quality Counts 2003: Ensuring a Highly Qualified Teacher for Every Classroom
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Education Week, January 2003
Younger pupils becoming more violent
Elementary school principals and safety experts say they're seeing more violence and aggression than ever among their youngest students, according to an article by Greg Toppo in USA Today.
Philadelphia eliminates budget deficit, considers outsourcing more schools
In the midst of depressing financial news elsewhere, Philadelphia district officials announced last week that belt-tightening will eliminate a $28.3 million deficit and, in fact, produce an estimated $2 million surplus by the end of the fiscal year.
State budget shortfalls could mean tough times for schools
As states encounter major revenue shortfalls (due to the sagging economy) and impose freezes or cuts in aid to education, many schools and districts are facing tough decisions about how to allocate their shrinking budgets.
California legend to retire from state board
This week, Marion Joseph will attend her last meeting as a member of the California state board of education, and a column by Peter Schrag makes clear how large a gap her departure will leave. It was Joseph, a liberal Democrat, who in 1994 sounded the alarm that millions of California schoolchildren were not learning to read.
Charter school laws rated anew
The Center for Education Reform this week released the latest edition of its ranking of the "strength" of the nation's 40 charter school laws. Arizona retains the top ranking this year as Minnesota moves into second place. New charter laws in Tennessee and Iowa garner a C-minus and F respectively.
Finn misses the boat on vouchers
Checker Finn begins "Reforming Education: The Hard Part Lies Ahead," (The Education Gadfly, January 9, 2003) by observing, "&[B]y and large we haven't yet caused many people or institutions to alter their ways." Later, he applies this reasoning - not much has changed - to an assessment of the voucher movement:"The evidence," he writes, "suggests that helping disadvantaged blac
Neuman resigns as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige accepted the resignation of Susan Neuman as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. While the office she directed is the organizational home of the No Child Left Behind Act, much of the implementation of that law has been orchestrated from elsewhere in the Department and White House.
Defining "Highly Qualified Teachers": What Does "Scientifically-Based Research" Actually Tell Us?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Linda Darling-Hammond and Peter YoungsEducation Researcher, December 2002
Debunking the Middle-Class Myth: Why Diverse Schools are Good For All Kids
Terry RyanEileen Gale Kugler 2002
Strengthening Pennsylvania's Charter School Reform: Findings From the Statewide Evaluation and Discussion of Relevant Policy Issues
Eric OsbergGary Miron, Christopher Nelson, and John RisleyThe Evaluation Center, Western Michigan UniversityOctober 2002
The Cat in the Hat and the reading wars
Frustration with the books used in public schools to teach children how to read is nothing new. An article in The New Yorker recounts how an attack on primers in the 1955 best-seller Why Johnny Can't Read ultimately led to publication of The Cat in the Hat and other classics by Dr. Seuss.
Reforming Education: The Hard Part Lies Ahead
Chester E. Finn, Jr.As 2003 opens, hollow public treasuries will make it tougher than ever to revitalize American K-12 education - not because more money will improve our schools but because the most painful parts of the reform process lie ahead and, without dollars to cushion the discomfort, politicians will be loath to ask people to endure it.
Burning High-Stakes Testing at the Stake
Greg ForsterThe New York Times recently gave lavish attention to a "study" conducted by Arizona State University's David C. Berliner and Audrey L. Amrein, and funded by the teachers' unions, that purports to show that high-stakes tests don't promote student learning. In fact, however, the Times has called our attention to a perfect example of how not to study high-stakes testing.
Consequences-intended and not-of merit scholarships for college
Merit scholarship programs like Georgia's HOPE scholarships - which pay full tuition and fees at any public university or community college in the state (or an equivalent amount for students attending private institutions) for state residents who maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in high school and college - get criticized because they tend to benefit students from well-off families more th
Dems to President: Show us the money!
While the President and First Lady celebrated the first anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act at the White House with school principals and superintendents, education leaders, and members of Congress on Wednesday, critics of the law gripe that it will be impossible for states and districts to comply unless the path is greased with $7.7 billion in additional federal education funds.
Is the teacher shortage over?
School districts across the country are having an easier time finding and keeping qualified teachers at the very time that shortages were expected to grow more severe.
Autism on the rise, or just its diagnosis?
Sandra StotskyWhile some have blamed skyrocketing expenditures for special education on an increase in children with disabilities, it has been hard to find solid evidence that the number of students with certain disabilities has increased; it seems more likely that the diagnosis of those disabilities is what has increased. A recent New York Times article about autism illustrates the problem.
Power to Parents and The True Cost of State Education
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Rt. Hon. John Redwood and Nick Seaton, Centre for Policy StudiesSeptember 2002
New-Teacher Excellence: Retaining Our Best
Allison ColeScott Joftus and Brenda Maddox-Dolan, Alliance for Excellent EducationDecember 2002
K-12 Voucher Programs and Education Policy: An Exploratory Study of Policy Maker Attitudes and Opinions
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Dan Laitsch, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesDecember 4, 2002
Teaching Service and Alternative Teacher Education: Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education
Allison ColeEdited by Michael Pressley2002
Per-Pupil Spending Differences between Selected Inner City and Suburban Schools Varied by Metropolitan Area
Eric OsbergGeneral Accounting OfficeDecember 2002
How to Get Straight A's in School and Have Fun at the Same Time
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Gordon W. Greene, Jr.
Texas pressured to lower the bar on new high school graduation test
Students in the Lone Star state's class of 2005 - today's 10th graders - will have to pass the new Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) in order to graduate from high school. A report released by the Texas Education Agency earlier this month indicates that more than 53 percent of students will have trouble passing the test and risk being denied a diploma.
Publicity, training critical to success of NCLB school report cards
I enjoyed Checker's recent piece on school report cards. [See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=31#438] But he neglected two big issues: First, the need for huge amounts of PUBLICITY to make parents aware that these report cards even exist.
Reinventing education, IBM-style
A recent article in The World & I examines how computer giant IBM's massive Reinventing Education initiative - which seeks to bring classroom-and school-level successes to scale - is transforming not only the company's culture, but also the way teachers do their jobs.
Counting our blessings
Chester E. Finn, Jr.As readers may have noticed, these "desk" messages tend toward the crotchety and Cassandra-ish. That's because we see plenty still not working well in U.S.
D.C. teachers union leaders alleged to have enriched selves to the tune of $2 million
FBI agents have seized fur coats, alligator shoes, a $57,000 Tiffany tea set, a $13,000 plasma TV set, and hundreds of other luxury items from the homes and offices of the former president of the Washington (D.C) Teachers' Union and her assistant as part of an investigation into the disappearance of over $2 million in union funds over the past several years.