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Judging schools
It's fairly widely agreed nowadays that schools should be judged by, and accountable for, their results, not just their intentions, services, or inputs.
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Understanding NAEP: Inside the Nation's Education Report Card
Margery YeagerEducation SectorOctober 2007
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Don't be fooled
Michael Petrilli's assessment of national testing is good as far as it goes. Conservative enthusiasm for national testing is favorable as long as there is a presumption that the things tested are rigorous and the grading objective.
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Bay watch
The Bay Area's science and technology sectors are booming. But in the public schools, it's a different story. Some 80 percent of 923 area elementary-school teachers surveyed said they spend less than one hour per week teaching science, and 16 percent said they spend no time on science at all.
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All in the family?
The latest report from ETS, The Family: America's Smallest School, is packed with data that show how a child's educational achievement is correlated with his family situa
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World's best school systems look for the best and brightest to teach
The Ohio teacher misconduct scandal is moving forward in predictable ways with the governor and the General Assembly scrambling to do something, the state teacher unions asking them not to go too far, and the Ohio Department of Education and various local school boards looking befuddled at best.
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Public district graduation rates deserve closer look
A version of this analysis appeared October 28, 2007, as an op-ed in the Dayton Daily News (see here).
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Fixing the Milwaukee Public Schools: the Limits of Parent-driven Reform
Wisconsin Policy Research InstituteOctober 2007
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FREE charter school board member training November 30
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, the Educational Service Center of Franklin County, and the Ohio Department of Education are presenting "Charter School Board Governance 101" in Columbus on Friday, November 30.
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Brave new world: Right and left flip-flop on testing
This commentary originally appeared in slightly different form in the October 21, 2007, Washington Times.
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The sun shines on charters
The Florida Board of Education last week granted the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission the new power to authorize charter schools in almost every district in the state. Bravo. Authorizing in Florida had, until now, been the domain exclusively of local school boards.
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Simpler than it seems
At the end of every school year, many parents compare notes about teachers and then start lobbying to get their children into the best instructors' classrooms during the next year. Principals hate it, but a new report by the private consulting firm McKinsey & Co. indicates yet again that parents have the right idea. Great teachers make a difference.
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The Next Generation of Antipoverty Policies
The Future of ChildrenPrinceton University and the Brookings Institution Vol. 17, No. 2, Fall 2007
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Top 10 Charter Communities by Market Share (2nd Edition) and Charter School Achievement: What We Know (4th Edition)
Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007Bryan C. Hassel, Michelle Godard Terrell, Ashley Kain, Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007
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Education Policy, Academic Research, and Public Opinion
William G. HowellAEI Future of American Education Project, Working Paper 2007-01
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Conservatives love national testing
A decade ago, when President Bill Clinton's "voluntary national test" proposal was crashing on the rocky shores of a Republican-controlled Congress, Fordham's Checker Finn quipped that national testing was doomed because "conservatives hate national and liberals hate testing."
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Education creep
A fortnight ago in the Wall Street Journal, the outgoing president of the American Enterprise Institute, Chris Demuth, wrote, "It is a great advantage, when working on practical problems, not to be constantly doubling back to first principles."
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Forgetting those who are left behind?
In the October 11th Gadfly, Michael Petrilli reviews what he calls a "blockbuster" report. Although quite valuable, the report in question falls well short of blockbuster status.
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The core of a good idea
There's plenty not to like about No Child Left Behind, and its various loopholes and limits are getting lots of attention as Congress works to reauthorize the law. One issue that has finally moved to the fore is the watering down of the k-12 curriculum--a process that began long ago but has become more acute under NCLB-generated pressures.
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Transitions
In recent few days, two vital armies in the idea wars announced plans to change generals. First, Chris DeMuth will leave the command of the American Enterprise Institute by the end of 2008, after 22 remarkable years at the helm of this crucial Washington-based think tank and research organization.
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Sickos in the classroom
If your child's teacher was previously disciplined for inappropriate behavior, you would insist, as a parent, that you had the right to this information. The Ohio Department of Education, however, might disagree. The Columbus Dispatch is running a series of exposés showing that the department has sealed from public disclosure 80 cases of educators who were disciplined.
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Loose lips sink scholarships?
Call Patrick Fitzgerald. We've got a mole in the Government Accountability Office, an anti-voucher mole at that. The Washington Post this week reported on a leaked draft GAO evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which is spending $12.9 million annually to send 1,900 low-income students to private schools.
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Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?
Center on Education PolicyOctober 2007
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Don't tweak it, transform it
Liam Julian's review of my book, Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, offered the kind of dismissive response to libertarian thought that's al
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Hope in the bayou?
Most 24-year-olds struggle to pull themselves out of bed in the morning. When Bobby Jindal was 24, he was struggling to reform Louisiana's healthcare system.
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A Nobel but naive notion on failing schools
It was Al Gore who said seven years ago, in a nationally televised debate with George W.
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Thorough and efficient...and unfair?
A lot has been written about the fiscal impact of charter schools on traditional districts (see here, here, and
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Political Education 101: Children cannot vote
Politicians in Ohio, Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, all too often use education and children as pawns for adult interests. Exhibit A is the recent lawsuit brought by Attorney General Marc Dann against three Dayton charter schools.