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Commentary
12.14.2005

The problem with politics

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.

Commentary
12.14.2005

Dispatch from Soft America

Enterprising journalist Scott Reeder has proven what critics of K-12 teacher tenure have long surmised: it's nearly impossible to fire a tenured teacher. He collected every instance of disciplinary action, which no doubt includes everything from moral turpitude to ineffectiveness in the classroom, taken against a tenured teacher in Illinois's 876 districts over the past 18 years.

Commentary
12.14.2005

Eat pea pod, get iPod

The New York City schools are converting junk-food-loving children one soybean at a time. Jorge Leon Collazo, executive chef of SchoolFood, which provides 860,000 breakfasts and lunches per day to Big Apple public school students, has introduced nutritious, flavorful options into the district's cafeterias. But the transition hasn't been a bowl of cherries.

Commentary
12.14.2005

Every school a charter school?

An effort is gaining steam in California to grant charter status to all ten of Grossmont Union High School District's schools.

Commentary
12.14.2005

What if competition doesn't work?

Michael J. Petrilli

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.

Commentary
12.7.2005

Getting serious about science

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Science education in America is in trouble. "Discovery learning" is attacking on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of our just-released State of State Science Standards 2005 appraisal by the eminent biologist Paul R. Gross, former head of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and former provost of the University of Virginia.

Commentary
12.7.2005

Going down with the ship

Baltimore's school district performed dismally on this past spring's state standardized tests but, rather than address the problem seriously, school administrators decided to go trendy. "When the boat is sinking," says the district's Frank DeStefano, "you don't follow the manual.

Commentary
12.7.2005

The trouble with teachers

Mike Petrilli's recent editorial, Tough choices on teacher quality, spawned lots of letters. Here are a few.From Dave Taggart, U.S. Army, Retired, Calhoun, G.A.

Commentary
12.7.2005

Urban brawl

People typically try to avoid unintended consequences, but there are exceptions. This might be one. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's move to take control of the L.A. Unified School District is leading some activists again to call for the break-up of the sprawling system, which serves at least 27 municipalities other than Los Angeles proper.

Commentary
12.7.2005

Verboten goodies

Pity the grandmother who sends a bounty of oven-fresh cupcakes to the school bake sale. Grandma may have good intentions, but she and others of her ilk are inadvertently condemning America's school children to an obesity 'epidemic.' At least, that's what University of Minnesota professor Martha Kubik argues.

Commentary
12.7.2005

Starting fresh

On November 30, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco signed legislation that transferred control of 102 New Orleans schools to state management. For now, most of the Big Easy's public schools remain closed. But when they re-open in the fall, many will do so as charter schools.

Report
12.7.2005
Standards

The State of State Science Standards 2005

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Martha Schwartz, Lawrence S. Lerner, Susan Haack, Paul Gross, Richard Schwartz, Ursula Goodenough

Science education in America is under attack, with "discovery learning" on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of this comprehensive review of state science standards, the first since 2000. Written by pre-eminent biologist Paul R. Gross, The State of State Science Standards 2006 finds that even though the majority of states have reworked, or completely re-written, their science standards over the past five years, we're no better off now than before. The good news is that many of the standards are easily fixed. The public's anxiety about the future of our nation's scientific prowess is palpable,and reasonable. How serious are we in addressing their concerns?

Commentary
12.6.2005

News Round-up

Declining enrollment due to, among other things, the burgeoning of charter school options, the exodus of families to the suburbs, and smaller Catholic families, has conspired to force five Dayton Catholic schools to consolidate into two buildings. The effort will allow the schools to share the costs of staffing, building space, and other services.

Commentary
12.6.2005

Charters' Day in Court

On November 29th, the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in State Ex Rel. Ohio Congress of Parents & Teachers v. State Bd. of Education, a case that may ultimately determine the fate of Ohio's charter school program. Issues of school oversight and funding dominated the session.

Commentary
12.6.2005

So, What's A Former Teacher Like You&?

When I began my career as a public school teacher some 25 years ago, I had no crystal ball to see how education theory and practice would evolve. Back then, no one talked about charter schools, highly qualified teachers, or value-added assessments. But in retrospect, I recognize that I was witness to choice in action.

Commentary
11.30.2005

Mind the gap

Four years ago, when Congress enacted NCLB, it showed uncommon wisdom in requiring all states to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Commentary
11.30.2005

Growing pains

Michael J. Petrilli

Margaret Spellings's November 18th announcement of an NCLB "growth model" pilot project capped a busy year of new-found flexibility for the Secretary and her policy minions.

Commentary
11.30.2005

The Iceman cometh

Sensitive readers: Avert your eyes. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that 15-year-old Davie Miles of Kentucky's Nicholas County High School urinated in his gymnasium's ice machine. Some 30 students and staff reportedly consumed ice from the dispenser before the contamination was reported and the machine was quarantined. Panic ensued shortly thereafter.

Commentary
11.30.2005

Education goes to court

It's been an eventful two weeks for education in the nation's courtrooms. A lawsuit organized by the National Education Association - that argued that NCLB improperly forced school districts to spend their own funds to implement the law - was dismissed by a federal judge in Michigan.

Commentary
11.30.2005

No choices on teacher quality

Even if you don't believe that principals should have unfettered choices when it comes to hiring new teachers (see here), surely few people would defend a system whereby principals have no choice over the individuals who teach in their

Commentary
11.30.2005

To close or not to close?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Paul Hill's National Charter School Research Project at the University of Washington recently issued a wide-ranging, nicely balanced appraisal of the charter-school movement circa 2005 - emphasizing how loosely coupled it is, how different from state to state and school to school, indeed how it's not fairly termed a national movement at all.

Commentary
11.16.2005

Supremely sensible

Parents who contend that schools are failing their special needs children will now have to do more than make the claim in order to get the additional services they desire. They'll have to prove their case.