Longitudinal Assessment of Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes: First-Year Report
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Naida C. Tushnet et al., WestEdDecember 2004
Texas Roundup: Charter Schooling in the Lone Star State
Nelson Smith, Progressive Policy InstituteFebruary 2005
Buried Treasure: Developing a Management Guide From Mountains of School Data
Eric OsbergCenter on Reinventing Public EducationMary Beth Celio and James HarveyJanuary 2005
The blind men return
Conference after summit after symposium on high school reform have been held already this year (see Checker's editorial, "The Blind Men and the High School" for a laundry list of potential reforms). This week, Achieve and the National Governors Association chime in.
The Department of Education responds
Michael J. PetrilliWe appreciate the attention given to the U.S. Department of Education's priority published in the Federal Register on January 25 related to scientifically-based evaluation ("Science and nonscience: The limits of scientific research," February 17).
Philanthropies on the move
In a recent roundtable discussion excerpted in Philanthropy magazine, Kaleem Caire (project director at Fight for Children, Inc., and a mover/shaker in the District of Columbia's school choice movement) and Phoebe Boyer (executive director of the Tiger Foundation in New York City) provide perceptive insights on how philanthropies in those cities are driving education reforms.
Saving Catholic schools for everybody
Diane RavitchThese are interesting observations by Justin Torres. It may be true that in voucher cities, Catholic schools educate large numbers of non-Catholic children. And he is right to ask about their reason for existence if they are not educating Catholic children in the Catholic faith.
Saving Catholic schools for whom?
Last week, the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that 26 Catholic schools will be closed in Brooklyn and Queens, about 15 percent of what was once a thriving parochial school system in those boroughs. Days later, the Archdiocese of New York announced it will close six schools in Manhattan and the Bronx.
Just saying no to testing
Anti-testing types have taken up the cause of Mia Kang, a 14-year-old Texan who defied teachers and counselors and turned in a little essay announcing her opposition to standardized testing instead of completing a mandated practice TAKS test. She has vowed not to participate in the real thing this spring, even at the risk of not graduating from high school.
They'll pry my Pixie Sticks from my cold, dead hands
Gadfly has seen education fads come and go and rarely comments on them, life being too short for trivia and nonsense.
Board says bye-bye to Bersin reforms
Contrary to what you may have read, not everybody in San Diego wanted Superintendent Alan Bersin gone (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=179#2143). Less than a day after the school board bought out his contract, administrators and teachers praised the "courage and guts" of his reform efforts.
Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991-2002
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, Manhattan InstituteFebruary 2005
Building the Foundation for Bright Futures
Chester E. Finn, Jr.National Governors AssociationJanuary 2005
Excellence in Education: The Making of Great Schools
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Cyril Taylor and Conor Ryan, David Fulton Publishers 2004
Making College More Expensive: The Unintended Consequences of Federal Tuition Aid
Eric OsbergGary Wolfram, Cato InstituteJanuary 25, 2005
Teachers vs. parents
This week, Time reports that teachers have the toughest time managing their . . . students' parents.
Science and nonscience: The limits of scientific research
American education research has turned a corner.
California ELL scores on the rise
According to Daniel Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee, in California schools the phrase 'English Learner' is "finally starting to mean what it says." The latest results from the California English Language Development Test show that 47 percent of English Language Learner (ELL) students in the Golden State scored either "advanced" or "early advanced" (meaning at or approaching fluency) in 2
Cheeseheads and vouchers
The Wisconsin Senate last week moved to ease the enrollment cap on Milwaukee's successful voucher program. (See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=168#2039 for more on the debate.) The bill would raise the current limit of 15 percent of Milwaukee's K-12 students by 1,500 for one year, to 16,500 students.
Americans wooed by Canadian site-based management
American educators are streaming to Edmonton, Alberta to study that city's successful implementation of site-based management, which gives individual schools wide-ranging control over curriculum, budgets, and management.
Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work?
Kathleen Porter-MageePeter D. Hart Research Associates, Achieve, Inc.February 2005
Budget blues and b.s.
Much caterwauling has accompanied the president's new budget. Senator Kennedy thundered that the proposal, which reduces Department of Education funding about 1 percent, to $56 billion, is "the most anti-student, anti-education budget since the Republicans tried to abolish the Department of Education." Suffice to say he is exaggerating.
Building a Better School Funding System
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing Student Success in the State of OhioFebruary 2005
Performance pay: coming soon to a union near you
Despite unions' knee-jerk opposition to any plan that takes teacher performance into account when setting salaries and determining raises and bonuses, teachers around the country are warming to the idea.
Second verse, same as the first
The Washington Post's V. Dion Haynes reports on a "new" People for the American Way "study" of the D.C. voucher program.
Giving in to North Dakota
As recently as two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education reconfirmed in writing the message it had conveyed to North Dakota educators in December: the state's plan for designating elementary teachers as "highly qualified" does not meet NCLB requirements (click here for more).
High standards for thee but not for me
In Duvall, Washington, parents are objecting to a "senior project" graduation requirement for high school seniors that requires a report, an oral presentation, and a "product" of some sort. Sounds reasonable enough to us, especially since everybody knows that big chunks of senior year are pretty much wasted.
Confronting the madrassas
Any long-term strategy for peace in the Middle East has to include dealing with the pernicious influence of radical madrassas, the Islamic schools used to spread a venomous version of Islam and to grow new extremists and terrorists.