Why Schools Matter: A Cross-National Comparison of Curriculum and Learning
William H. Schmidt et al.2001
William H. Schmidt et al.2001
Yong Zhao and Paul Conway, Teachers College RecordJanuary 27, 2001
At the risk of falling into the trap of instant expertise, let me offer some impressions-brought home from a recent trip-about why Singapore keeps coming in at the top on international tests of student achievement, at least in science and math. This week, I sketch the basic structure of that small but vibrant country's education system.
Principals are under increasing pressure to raise student test scores. The vast majority of their teachers are committed and competent, principals say, but an unknown number stifle learning. Given the extreme difficulty of terminating a tenured teacher, what's a principal to do once she has tried without success to help the teacher improve? According to Dr.
After learning of a $5 million donation made by Florida Power to a private school scholarship program under the Sunshine State's new education tax credit law, the teachers union in Pinellas County, Florida has urged the local school board to shut off all power in county schools for a day as payback for the utility company.
Is installing a "whole school" reform model the best way to turn around a struggling school? Since 1997, Uncle Sam has given U.S. public schools over $480 million to put school-wide reform designs in place through the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program (also known as Obey-Porter).
Seven provocative new papers examining key challenges of implementing the new federal education law-particularly its testing and accountability provisions-and strategies for meeting them will be available tomorrow on the Fordham Foundation website (www.edexcellence.net).
Pedro Reyes and Joy C. Phillips, University of Texas at AustinAugust 2001
James Catterall and Richard Chapleau, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityDecember 2001
Jay P. Greene, Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan InstituteJanuary 2002
Neal McCluskey, Center for Education ReformJanuary 2002
Gary Miron and Christopher Nelson, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityDecember 2001
As they flew back to Washington earlier this month after celebrating their joint education bill, the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush and Senator Edward M. Kennedy held an extended conversation about the need to boost early childhood education, and that conversation may soon lead to legislation, according to reporter Anne Kornblut of The Boston Globe.
In an earlier report and Gadfly editorial-available at http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=75#1062-the Manhattan Institute's Jay Greene explained that official high school graduation rates published by the federal government understate the problem of dropouts because they treat the General Education Developm
Important education insights sometimes arise from developments in other fields. This happened to me twice in recent weeks. Both episodes bear on results-based accountability, how it works, what can go awry-and what's wrong with the usual substitutes.First, a new study of hospital accreditation looked into whether it makes any difference for the quality of patient care.
A New York Times article last week described how a young teacher in Brooklyn helped her students achieve test score improvements large enough to help get the school off the state's "registration review" list of failing schools.
Allan Odden, Carolyn Kelley, Herbert Heneman, and Anthony Milanowski, Consortium for Policy Research in Education, November 2001
Lisa Graham Keegan, National Center for Policy Analysis, December 18, 2001
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, December 2001
Chris Patterson, Texas Public Policy Foundation, January 2002
Clarence Stone, Jeffrey Henig, Bryan Jones and Carol Pierannunzi, 2001
edited by Joy A. Palmer, 2001
A careful reader of The New York Times would by now be very confused about the state of reading research. In the past few weeks, three different writers in the newspaper have offered differing interpretations of the issue.
Until this year, virtually all school districts in California participated in the state's class size reduction program, with the state footing most of the cost.
"Years of vouchers and competition-based reforms mean it's no longer a novelty to see MPS [Milwaukee Public Schools] promoting schools the way Procter & Gamble sells Tide," writes Sam Schulhofer-Wohl in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but "the public school system's promotional efforts are reaching newly feverish heights this winter" with free chili dinners at MPS open houses, radio
Howard Fuller and Kaleem Caire, National Center for Policy Analysis 2001
Beatriz Chu Clewell and Ana Maria Villegas, The Urban Institute December 2001
Governor's Task Force on Efficiency and Accountability in K-12 Education December 18, 2001