Making Sense of Test-Based Accountability in Education
edited by Laura Hamilton, Brian Stecher and Stephen Klein, RAND2002
edited by Laura Hamilton, Brian Stecher and Stephen Klein, RAND2002
edited by Lawrence Mishel and Richard Rothstein, Economic Policy Institute2002
In many states, teachers (and other state or local government employees) are prohibited by federal law from collecting "spousal retirement benefits" from the Social Security system when they retire if they have state or local government pensions. But a loophole in the law allows them to receive such benefits if they spend a single day-their last working day-in a different job.
The American Federation of Teachers and some other educators are scrambling to distance themselves from the "blame America" lesson plans produced by the National Education Association for use on and around September 11, 2002. The NEA's lessons urge teachers to discuss instances of American intolerance but avoid suggesting that any group is responsible for last September's terrorist attacks.
While many are suspicious of the changes that the College Board and ETS are planning for the SAT (changes made largely to placate the University of California, which had threatened to stop requiring the test), college admissions counselor John Harper argues in the cover story of this week's Weekly Standard that the new test is a big improvement.
The results of the 34th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the public's attitudes toward the public schools were released on Tuesday, and as in other years, early attention has focused on what those results show about public support for vouchers.
In a long essay in the Summer 2002 issue of Daedalus, Diane Ravitch ponders whether the current round of standards-based reform can solve the endemic education problems that undermine effective teaching of history and literature.
School and classroom websites, once hailed as a way to let parents know what their kids are doing in school, often languish today, with students and parents likely to find only outdated information such as school menus or homework assignments from the previous year.
A memo issued by the California Department of Education last month warned parents that they may not home-school their children unless they have professional teaching credentials, the Washington Times reports.
The Heritage Foundation's Krista Kafer has compiled an education "CliffsNotes" of sorts, drawing from data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics and others.
Teachers and administrators at a Florida elementary school hope to convince students that the "F" their school received from the state's accountability system really means "fantastic" and "fun." Pep rallies and t-shirts declaiming "F = Fantastic" are just some of the strategies this failing school is using to boost everybody's sense of self-esteem and complacency.
Don't think for a minute that June's Supreme Court decision upholding Cleveland's school-voucher program has opened the floodgates of education choice for American families.
Currently about 25 percent of 8th graders complete algebra or a higher-level math course, but students who don't complete first-year algebra by 8th grade are seldom able to take calculus in high school, which colleges like to see on transcripts.
Jonathan SchorrAugust 2002
Stephen Sugarman, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesAugust 9, 2002
Patrick Murphy and Erin Novak, Annie E. Casey Foundation2002
Elaine M. Walker, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesAugust 4, 2002
Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard UniversityAugust 2002
Harvard Law School professor Martha Minow is ambivalent about the Supreme Court's decision in Zelman, but she has come to believe that the left's opposition to the privatization of social services is simplistic.
In June, Education Secretary Rod Paige issued an important report, the first "Secretary's Annual Report on Teacher Quality." What a splendid fuss it has kicked up-and hurrah for Paige for standing his ground.Entitled "Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge" (and previously noted by the Gadfly at http://www.edexc
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Zelman that the Cleveland voucher program does not offend the First Amendment, The Christian Science Monitor reports that state legislatures in California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kansas, Minnesota, and Maine will introduce voucher legislation this year.
In an article in this summer's Harvard Educational Review, Dan Goldhaber and Eric Eide summarize research on the impact of school choice on minority students in urban settings. They write that relatively little evidence exists that school choice is having a clear-cut impact, and conclude that the mixed results suggest that choice alone will not transform urban school systems.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded an $18.5 million contract to develop a national What Works Clearinghouse to summarize and disseminate evidence on the effectiveness of various education interventions.
The larger a class is, the more student misbehavior reduces teaching effectiveness, suggests research by Edward Lazear, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
The Pacific Research Institute has issued a brief guide to improving public education in the Golden State. The mini-report advocates 10 commonsensical but hard-to-implement reforms including: providing a school-choice accountability option, adopting value-added testing, introducing merit/ differential pay and testing for teachers, and ensuring the use of proven teaching methods and curricula.
Shazia Rafiulla Miller and Robert M. Gladden, Consortium on Chicago School ResearchJune 2002
The Center for the Future of Teaching and LearningMarch 2002
USA Today reports that 19 schools designated as "Blue Ribbon Schools" of excellence by the U.S. Department of Education also appear on states' lists of failing schools.