It's not often that Ohio education makes national news for positive items, so when Gadfly found this article detailing the methods Shaker Heights school district - just outside of Cleveland - is using to close the achievement gap, we had to share it.
The National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers UniversityW. Steven Barnett, Cynthia Lamy, and Kwanghee JungDecember 2005
The new alternative certification program (which turns mid-career professionals into public school teachers) in Pinellas County, Florida, has hit some bumpy patches. In this year, the program's first, it had a 25 percent attrition rate. District superintendent Clayton Wilcox admirably took responsibility, saying that administrative commitment to the program was lacking.
Jolley Bruce Christman, Eva Gold, and Benjamin HerodResearch for ActionDecember 2005
There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
Now that the Florida Supreme Court has struck down the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program (which provided students in repeatedly failing public schools vouchers for use at private schools), it's important to evaluate that decision's implications for education in the Sunshine State and beyond.
Taking Spanish, French, or German is so 20th century: today's savvy students are all about learning Mandarin Chinese, one of the most difficult foreign languages to master. With China poised to dominate tomorrow's market (and many of Ohio's manufacturing jobs already departed for the Asian superpower), the U.S.
Remember when we reported that, despite major budget concerns, Columbus Public Schools planned to keep its closed school buildings rather than sell them to charter schools? (See here.) It seems that sentiment has reached Cincinnati, too.
Are A.P. courses gateways to college and a better life, or roadblocks to high-level learning? Maybe it depends. For many school districts, especially those serving middle-class communities, A.P. classes are the pinnacle of their academic offerings, as well as something of a status symbol. So they vigorously promote A.P.
With the start of the new year, several of Ohio's biggest school districts are facing change. Cincinnati is adding two new board members who hope to bring peace to that fractious board. In Columbus, controversial veteran board President Stephanie Hightower is on her way out.
Michael J. Petrilli's editorial, "What if competition doesn't work?" garnered some response:From John Merrifield, Professor of Economics, University of Texas at San Antonio
The Education TrustNovember 2005
Donald R. McAdamsTeachers College PressJanuary 2006
Just before the holiday season, some 5,500 Birmingham middle school students received an early gift: the option to leave their failing schools. The city's school system was planning to offer students in its 17 low-performing middle schools voluntary tutoring, rather than the option of transferring to one of the district's better-performing schools. A community group complained to the U.S.
It's that time once again. Education Week has released its major (and as always, a bit unwieldy) annual Quality Counts report.
As if the NEA's pretending to care about helping schools and students wasn't bad enough, we now know it doesn't really care that much about helping teachers, either.
This past November, school violence again made headlines. The latest federal data was released in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005, which tallied and analyzed the incidence of theft, violent crime, and teacher victimization in 2003.
It's better late than never; the thousands of children who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina are about to get federal assistance with their educations. While Congress took its time finalizing the package, the result is fair and reasonable. Importantly, it does not discriminate against parents who chose a non-public school for their displaced children.
American Institutes for ResearchNovember 2005
Ohio's new statewide voucher program - set to begin in fall 2006 (see here and here for a brief history) - is showing early signs of over-regulation.
With Gadfly taking next week off, and with me heading for distant places about the time you receive this issue, allow me this opportunity to reflect briefly on the key education events of 2005 and to venture a thought or two for the year ahead.Over the past twelve months, eight happenings shaped the K-12 education story.
National Center for Education StatisticsDecember 2005
Todd ZiebarthProgressive Policy InstituteDecember 2005
Science class is for real science—and "intelligent design" isn't that. It's more akin to religion. So concluded Judge John E.
Is America's growing concern about falling behind internationally in science and math instruction inadvertently driving aspiring engineers and doctors out of the field? According to a new report from Duke University, the answer is yes. Vivek Wadhwa, a software entrepreneur and the report's co-author, posits that the U.S.
Prestigious universities value the letters AP (i.e., Advanced Placement) on an applicant's transcript, maintaining that success in AP courses is the best indicator of success in college. But students looking to score points with admissions officers have begun gaming the system. Many enroll in AP courses but never sit for the accompanying AP exam.
Frederick M. Hess, editorHarvard Education Press2005
Ten years ago, many school choice and charter school advocates (including yours truly) pointed to the American automobile industry as a powerful example of the free market's ability to transform unwieldy bureaucracies. The "Big 3" Detroit automakers had grown complacent. By the early 1980s, their quality was low and costs (and prices) were high.
Everyone knows that the Kansas Board of Education, to the dismay of the scientific community, recently voted to adopt new science standards that attack evolution, validate intelligent design, and re-define science itself. The real mystery is why they did it. Scott Canon, writing in the Kansas City Star, thinks he knows: Politics.
