A Seussian circus descended on Sacramento last week, but center ring wasn't the state's infamously rancorous capitol building. It was the convention center, where more than 3,000 charter school leaders and supporters arrived for four days of panels, meet-and-greets, and keynote addresses-including one by The Terminator, who dropped by on Wednesday morning.
For most Americans, the transition from high school to college today is as chancy and vexing as crossing a bridge over a river where builders on one bank have ignored what those on the other are doing. Only the fortunate will be able to make it across.
If our students are to be prepared for the rigors of college and the workplace, high school curricula must be toughened. That's Governor Taft's thought, and he has a plan (the Governor's Core Initiative) to do just that. You?d think all Buckeyes would agree.
By Dale Patrick Dempsey American education stands at a crossroads. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 has the potential to have as big an impact on the quality of education in America as Brown vs. the Board of Education had on equality in education. Or not.
I had the good fortune of attending the National Charter Schools Conference in Sacramento last week with 3,600 other school reformers, including some 80 who hailed from Ohio.
Readers learn from a Los Angeles Times op-ed that all is not well with the kindergarten set. Meet Ricky, whose Mommy is worried because her son is being forced to write his name, not only in capital letters, but with a mixture of the upper and lower cases. It gets worse. Ricky’s mom is alarmed that kindergarten is becoming “a 30-hour-a-week job.
Michael Joyce, who died earlier this week at the too-young age of 63, was one of the most influential, if least visible, figures in education philanthropy and reform during the last quarter of the twentieth century. As head of the John M.
Julian R. Betts and Tom Loveless, EditorsBrookings Institution Press2005
The prevailing wisdom is that TV is no friend of education. (They don't call it the "Idiot Box" for nothing, right?) But two economists from the University of Chicago conducted a study and found that TV-watching makes "very little difference and if anything, a slight positive advantage" in student test scores.
Center on Education PolicyFebruary 28, 2006
U.S. students lag behind their peers in other modern nations-and the gap widens dramatically as their grade levels rise. Our high school pupils (and graduates) are miles from where they need to be to assure them and our country a secure future in the highly competitive global economy.
Editor' Note: Last month the Fordham Foundation announced the winners of its two annual prizes: Distinguished Scholarship, and Valor. This week, we profile the winners for Valor—Michael Feinberg and David Levin, founders of KIPP Academy.
Last week, Illinois's education board lowered the score needed to pass its eighth-grade math test, an exam that almost half the state's students flunked last year. Board member David Fields cautioned that the decision to ease the cut score, coming on the heels of last year's relaxing of standards, might be viewed as "gaming the system." Might be?
Statistical Analysis ReportNational Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of EducationFebruary 2006
Winner of the 2006 Prize for Distinguished Scholarship
Frederick M. HessThe AEI Press2006
In a President's Day op-ed, Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews makes a simple but strong case for that well-worn phrase, "teaching to the test," which has, according to Mathews, been undeservedly slandered. A Google search of "teaching to the test" yields over 59 million hits, almost all of which are negative.
At a time when schools of education are struggling to justify their very existence (see here), you might think they would seize on the No Child Left Behind Act as an opportunity.
Clifford AdelmanU.S. Department of EducationFebruary 2006
Terence Braxton is in trouble. The Escambia County, Florida, middle school gym teacher is accused of taking bribes from his students. Before his syndicate was shut down, individual youngsters could buy their way out of class activities by paying Braxton a dollar a day.
At what point does cultural sensitivity compromise standards? That's the question recently faced in St. Paul, Minnesota, by Higher Ground Academy, a charter school that has a 70 percent Muslim population. As many Westerners are now aware, visual depictions of Muhammad are strictly forbidden in Islam, and among more-traditional Muslims, the ban extends to all humans and animals.
An eleventh-hour compromise between Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and Republican state House Speaker John Gard just might resuscitate Milwaukee's voucher program. Following months of political stalling, the governor and speaker worked out an agreement that would expand the cap on students in the program from roughly 15,000 to 22,000.
David Ponitz, whom the Fordham Foundation is proud to call a board member, has certainly left his mark on education in Ohio. He played a key role in his 20-plus years as president of Sinclair Community College in turning that institution into one of the nation’s premier community colleges. Now he has a high school that bears his name.
Here is a fact to ponder: Americans spend $430 billion a year—from local, state and federal sources—on K-12 public education. That figure exceeds the budget of the Department of Defense.
Thomas TochEducation SectorJanuary 2006
For Jenna Helenski, the daily grind at Connecticut's Ellington High School can be exhausting. Thank goodness the senior has three study halls everyday to catch her breath.
Tonight, Chef Finn has prepared four courses. Bon Appetit! The "65 Percent Solution"
E-Comp-Florida's newly-announced performance pay plan that would give bonuses to the top 10 percent of the state's teachers-is an ambitious and promising reform proposal.
Is making preschool universally available a good idea? Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois thinks so. His proposal to offer universal preschool to all 3- and 4- year-olds in the Land of Lincoln would be the first of its kind in the nation (several other states have universal preschool for 4-year-olds), and he's adamant about seeing the legislature pass it.
Fritz EdelsteinThe United States Conference of Mayors2006
