Displaying 16741-16770 of 17021 results
Commentary
10.17.2001

A hard case for supporters of religious schools

Marci Kanstoroom, Ph.D.

It's getting more and more difficult to generalize about religious schooling in America.  An article in last week's Wall Street Journal reports that Catholic, Jewish, and other faith-based schools are seeing a wave of interest from students of other religions. Christian parents may pick a Jewish or Islamic school for their child (or vice versa) for a wide range of reasons.

Commentary
10.17.2001

Vindication for the MCAS: dramatic improvement in student scores in MA

Policymakers in Massachusetts have long faced ferocious testing critics wailing that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is harming public education and worsening dropout rates.  They endured myriad protests organized by opponents who claimed that MCAS was forcing educators to "teach to the test."  They winced at the high percentage of kids who failed each year.

Commentary
10.17.2001

Virginia schools post record gains on SOLs

Another state whose pursuit of standards-and-accountability based reform has been doubted by testing opponents had good news this week.  According to results released on Tuesday, Virginia schools nearly doubled their rate of success on the state's Standards of Learning exams this year, with 40 percent meeting this year's state benchmarks and an additional 30 percent of schools reaching tar

Commentary
10.10.2001

Launching 50 new Latino charter schools

Without fanfare, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the country's largest constituency-based Hispanic organization, is embarking on a $25 million project to open 50 new Latino charter schools over the next five years. Behind the effort is Anthony Colon, who worked for 20 years in the bureaucracy of the New York City school system before becoming principal of a charter school in Oakland.

Commentary
10.10.2001

The case against Alfie Kohn

Richard Nadler deconstructs Alfie Kohn in this week's National Review.  While many others embrace the same pedagogical ideas that he does, what distinguishes Kohn, the author argues, is his single-minded struggle to place the elements of that pedagogy beyond criticism.

Commentary
10.10.2001

The new age of individualized education

In a new book, Free Agent Nation, Daniel Pink explores how self-employed knowledge workers are increasingly transforming the American workplace as they abandon traditional jobs and reinvent themselves as freelancers, independent contractors, and proprietors of home-based businesses.

Commentary
10.10.2001

Four Observations

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

(1) In praise of public education. You may think I'm no fan of public education, and it's true that the U.S. version often exasperates me. But recent world news has underscored society's obligation to see that its young get educated, acculturated and socialized.

Commentary
10.10.2001

Putting teacher certification under a microscope

Every state wants to ensure that its public schools are staffed by excellent teachers, and to this end, most require that teachers complete a state-approved course of study at a school of education before receiving a teaching license.  Defenders of these systems of certification (and those who would add to their requirements) contend that studies show that certified teachers are more effec

Commentary
10.3.2001

National credential for teachers who master their subjects and help students learn

The National Council on Teacher Quality and the Education Leaders Council have teamed up to launch a new project which will offer credentials to expert teachers and able would-be teachers.  The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence will award a beginning teacher credential to highly skilled individuals just entering teaching who have mastered an academic subject and can de

Commentary
10.3.2001

New research on merit pay

The London-based Centre for the Economics of Education held a conference on teacher pay and incentives last week and several new research papers are available from the conference website.  "Paying Teachers for Performance: Incentives and Selection," by Edward Lazear of Stanford University explores arguments about the effect of incentives on teacher behavior, discusses different ways of def

Commentary
10.3.2001

Teaching history in a time of terrorism

Diane Ravitch

Some educators have reacted to the mass murders in New York City and Washington, D.C. by calling for changes in the curriculum. Their immediate response to September 11 was that "we have to change the curriculum to make our students more tolerant," as if our students were the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

Commentary
10.3.2001

A liberal case for vouchers

 A long essay in this week's New Republic reviewing Terry Moe's new book, Schools, Vouchers and the American Public, Diane Ravitch explains why liberals should be pro-choice.

Commentary
10.3.2001

Patriotism revisited

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Leo Casey must be beside himself. Just a few miles from his office at the United Federation of Teachers on lower Park Avenue, The New York Times was publishing an article about surges of patriotism in American classrooms (Kevin Sack, "School Colors Become Red, White and Blue," 9/28/01).

Commentary
9.25.2001

College sports and the decline of higher education

There is nothing new about the charges raised by a trio of recent publications on college athletics: that campus sports once fostered values like teamwork and perseverance, but now promote crass commercialism while contributing to a campus atmosphere of play and partying that distracts students from academic pursuits. Yet some of the details might shock you.