Commentary
Looking for Leadership: Assessing the Case for Mayoral Control of Urban School Systems
Frederick M. HessShow-Me InstituteFebruary 6, 2007
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One cheer for Utah vouchers
An expansion of parental options in education is a wonderful thing. But before we break out the champagne (or, for good Mormons, fruit juice) to fete the recent school choice victory in the Beehive State, let us raise a few concerns. Instead of a well-funded program that targets needy kids, Utah's new voucher law is both universal and cheap.
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Tooley, Templeton, and tots
"If good ideas were all that mattered, everybody who has heard of Jeffrey Sachs would have heard of James Tooley as well--but they aren't, and you almost certainly haven't." So begins Clive Crook's perceptive tribute to
Commentary
Toward a National Education Ministry?
The bi-partisan, governor-led, Gates-funded, Aspen-housed Commission on No Child Left Behind has produced a report that should be called No Idea Left Behind. Unfortunately, only a fraction of those ideas are sound.
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Profiles in excellence
On Monday, the Fordham Foundation awarded its 2007 Prizes for Excellence in Education. This year's winners numbered four. Kati Haycock won the award for valor, while Paul Hill shared the prize for scholarship with Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom.
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How Much are Public School Teachers Paid?
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. WintersManhattan Institute's Center for Civic InnovationJanuary 2007
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Taking transparency too far?
Merit pay is controversial, especially when tied to student test scores. But if you really want to engulf the teacher lounges in acrimony, make the list of individual bonus winners (and losers) public for all the world to see.
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The next best thing to a Super Bowl ring
This past week, as the temperature in Chicago dipped below zero, the Chicago Tribune's editorial board warmed itself by the ed reform fire.
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Fie on fatalism
School reforms come and go. But educational determinism, it appears, goes on forever. By which I mean the view that schools are essentially powerless to accomplish much by way of learning gains, no matter what is done to or about them.
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State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia
Brian Gill, Ron Zimmer, Jolley Christman, Suzanne BlancRAND CorporationFebruary 2007
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Nonbinding resolutions
California Assemblyman Joe Coto apparently believes that the Golden State doesn't have enough problems getting kids to graduate from high school; he wants to tack on more requirements for the diploma. That's fine when the requirements are academic.
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The sum of the evidence
Supporters of traditional math instruction were dealt a blow recently when the What Works Clearinghouse released its evaluation of elementary math curricula.
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Remedying remedial learning
And you thought trying to compute high school graduation rates was complicated. Try figuring out the percentage of students who need "remedial" work once they enter the hallowed halls of higher education.
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DPS Levy Deserves to Pass
It’s no secret that my colleagues and I at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation have been critics of the Dayton Public Schools (DPS) over the past decade and have done our best--not good enough--to help create sound educational alternatives for kids whose prospects were blighted by the system’s disabilities.
Commentary
Equity on the Horizon in Arizona
A new bill making its way through the legislature in Arizona would provide state charter schools with the same amount of funding as traditional public schools. The proposed legislation would increase per-pupil funding by $852 for charters serving K-8 students, and $993 for charter high schools. All additional funding would be provided by the state.
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Fordham West Wants You
Fordham’s Dayton office is looking for a talented Project Administrator to join its small team of dedicated Ohio staffers. The Project Administrator will support Fordham’s charter school sponsorship efforts and perform general office management duties.
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Special Education Solutions for Charters
One of the toughest challenges facing charter schools, in Ohio and elsewhere, is the demands of serving children with special needs. Charter schools, like their district counterparts, educate any and all students who come to them (a fact still lost on many critics).
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Next time, use Kinko's
To instruct students on the artistic technique of chiaroscuro, a Renaissance innovation that contrasts dark colors with intense whites, a typical teacher might display Baglione's Sacred Love versus Profane Love or Rembrandt's
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Dumbing Down: Outcomes-based and politically correct--the impact of the Culture Wars on our schools
Kevin DonnellyHardie Grant Books2007
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Commentary
Great Schools for All: A Plan Big Enough to Close America's Largest Achievement Gap
Connecticut Coalition for Achievement NowJanuary 2007
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A reformer is born (or so one hopes)
When New York elected Democratic attorney general Elliot Spitzer to succeed Republican George Pataki as governor, nobody knew exactly what tack he would take on education.
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Vouchers over Easy
As we reported a few weeks ago ("Nothing easy in the Big Easy,"), every day brings new challenges to New Orleans's schools.
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Reading wars redux
For more than three decades, advocates of "whole-language" reading instruction have argued--to the delight of many teachers and public school administrators--that learning to read is a "natural" process for children.
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School bored politics
School board meetings are the choicest venues to stage a culture war this side of the O'Reilly Factor. The best battles, of course, pit religion against science, faith against fact. And just when you thought this struggle was going stale, here comes Al Gore and his global warming docu-drama An Inconvenient Truth.
Report
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
Whole-Language High Jinks
If you thought whole-language reading instruction had been relegated to the scrap heap of history, think again. Many such programs (proven to be ineffective) are still around, but they're hiding behind phrases like 'balanced literacy' in order to win contracts from school districts and avoid public scrutiny. Louisa Moats calls them out in Fordham's new report, Whole-Language High Jinks.
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Mr. Fix-It
Though it's not the fundamental rethinking of No Child Left Behind that we would have preferred, the President's reauthorization proposal represents a pretty decent repair attempt.