Commentary
More Math, Please: The Surprising Consensus on Math Among Parents, the Public, and Business Leaders in Two "New Economy" States
Mass Insight EducationApril 2004
Commentary
Manipulating history teachers
If America's history teachers were broadly educated, deeply knowledgeable about the content that they're responsible for imparting to students, and free to draw their information, textbooks, and other instructional materials from whatever sources they judge best, all within a framework of sound academic standards and results-based accountability - under that dreamy scenario there'd be no reason
Commentary
Nebraska: Mo' money, less accountability
It's no secret that some states and districts have threatened to decline federal Title I funding to avoid the accountability provisions of NCLB. That is, of course, their choice to make. The state of Nebraska, however, has taken a more underhanded route, working hard since the passage of the law to have it
Commentary
Curbing grade inflation at the Ivies
Between 1971 and 2000, the average GPA at Princeton rose from 2.99 to 3.66. By 2002, only 5 percent of seniors graduating from that eminent institution earned less than a B-minus cumulative GPA.
Commentary
Tax credits over vouchers?
Brian Anderson, editor of the estimable quarterly City Journal, argues here that tax credits for private school tuitions have a brighter political future than vouchers. He's also sensitive to new roadblocks placed in the way of vouchers by the Supreme Court's ruling in Locke v.
Commentary
Opportunity and Responsibility for National Board Certified Teachers
Andrew J. Rotherham, Progressive Policy InstituteMarch 2004
Commentary
When in doubt, spend more money
In 1993, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) in New York City filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that New York State had failed to live up to its constitutional obligation to provide a "sound, basic education" to all its students.
Commentary
Redefining gifted education
Most people can agree on two propositions: that programs for gifted youngsters are a good thing, challenging the fast learner more than the standard curriculum, so long as they have high standards and expectations for participating students. And that such programs should be readily accessible to students of every race. But what happens when those two principles come into conflict?
Commentary
School discipline, revisited
Checker Finn's editorial on "The Discipline Paradox" discussed several difficulties of maintaining classroom order - particularly when a classroom contains some students who don't want to learn.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers
Widely used supplemental materials may be dangerous to educational health! These works often include hefty doses of political manipulation and ideological bias, courtesy of their authors. This study casts a wary glance toward materials that seldom come under scrutiny. This study is the fifth in a series dedicated to reforming social studies education.
Commentary
Grading Vouchers: Ranking America's School Choice Programs
Robert C. Enlow, Milton & Rose Friedman FoundationMarch 2004
Commentary
Keeping her eye on the prize
Lately, it seems that just about everyone has a bone to pick with No Child Left Behind. Critics on right and left complain that the law's provisions are causing too many headaches, and schools, districts, and legislators are vowing to reject federal funding so as to avoid some of its tricky accountability provisions.
Commentary
Military schools deliver
More high praise for the Defense Department's school system, where last year black and Hispanic 8th graders outperformed their peers in every single state. To be sure, the DoD system has built-in advantages, such as a unified command structure and ability to enforce parental involvement that other schools can't match.
Commentary
Comparison of Traditional Public Schools and Charter Schools on Retention, School Switching, and Achievement Growth
Lewis C. Solmon, Human Resources Policy Corporation, and Pete Goldschmidt, Center for the Study of Evaluation, UCLAMarch 2004
Commentary
Drunken sailors in our schools
The Bush administration has recently come under fire for insufficient education spending.
Commentary
And nothing but the truth
The latest issue of American Educator has a fantastic series of stories urging high school teachers and counselors to level with students about a basic truth: if you don't do well in high school, you won't do well in college or in the labor market.
Commentary
A school run amuck
Juvenal said, "Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and circuses." Even that famously cynical Roman poet might have been taken aback by some quarters of American K-12 education.
Commentary
Commentary
One bad apple doesn't spoil the barrel
This week, headlines lit up with the news that "one school [in Milwaukee, Wisconsin] that received millions of dollars through the nation's oldest and largest voucher program, was founded by a convicted rapist" and that "another school reportedly entertained kids with Monopoly while cashing $330,000 in tuition checks for hundreds of no-show students." Voucher critics were quick to charge that "
Commentary
Vouchers for disabled youngsters
It's apparent by now that Congress is not going to follow most of the excellent recommendations of the Bush administration's commission on the reform of IDEA, least of all its suggestion that federal funds be able to be used by states for special-ed vouchers a la Florida's "McKay Scholarships." (See
Commentary
Beating the Odds IV: A City-by-City Analysis of Student Performance and Achievement Gaps on State Assessments
Michael Casserly, Council of the Great City SchoolsMarch 2004
Commentary
Buy a degree, get a raise
Two months ago, Georgia's Professional Standards Commission (PSC) - the committee that is responsible for "certification, preparation, and conduct of certified, licensed, or permitted personnel employed in the public schools of the State of Georgia" - quietly launched an investigation into "diploma mill" teachers.
Commentary
Control for cash a bad deal
In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the board of education, with decidedly mixed results so far (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=140#1730).
Commentary
Commentary
Homeschooling comes of age, and under fire
Homeschooling - once considered the education option of choice for gun-toting religious fanatics or a haven for social misfits - is coming of age as home-schooled students begin to find themselves welcomed at prestigious colleges and universities. It's hardly surprising that many homeschooled students, who get personalized attention in a nurturing educational environment, are doing well.
Commentary
The discipline paradox
Just about everyone - principals, parents, students, the general public - knows that many U.S. schools have a discipline problem, that kids are often out of control, not to mention rude, inattentive, and sometimes violent. Nearly every survey of problems facing U.S. schools puts discipline near the top of the list.
Commentary
Ending Social Promotion: The Response of Teachers and Students
Consortium on Chicago School ResearchFebruary 2004
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Working out the details in Denver
In any reform of anything, the devil is always in the details. And the Old Deceiver lurks still in the fine print of the pay-for-performance plan approved last week by Denver teachers. How realistic is a plan that won't fully take effect for another eight years? How will the inevitable tension between teachers on the old tenure-based system and teachers on the new plan be resolved?
Commentary
Violence, mismanagement, and apathy in D.C.
Evidence that D.C. Public Schools are in crisis is not hard to come by.