When New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg won control over the city's long beleaguered school system, we were cautiously optimistic that this move might be the long-overdue change in governance that could help turn Gotham's failing schools around.
Columbia University president Lee Bollinger is full of folly. First, he offered the world a troubling vision of the future of journalism schools that would render them more like ed schools.
Peter Frumkin, Annie E. Casey FoundationOctober 2003
Ruth Curran Neild, Elizabeth Useem, Eva F. Travers, and Joy Lesnick, Research for Action2003
David Conley, Director, Standards for Success, Associate Professor, University of Oregon2003
Krista Kafer, The Heritage FoundationOctober 29, 2003
As reported earlier, Minnesota's swell new social studies standards are out for public comment [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=114#1433]. Now you can read some of these comments and, alas, many are both harsh and moronic.
In 1970, on the reasonable assumption that teachers need to know something before they can teach it, California legislators passed the Ryan Act, mandating that people training to become teachers in the Golden State must earn a bachelor's degree before taking classes in pedagogy and suchlike.
Earlier this month, D.C. mayor Anthony Williams began to lobby for mayoral control over District schools - a move that has been tried in other big cities with mixed results.
We are heartened by news that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to dramatically expand the number of Gotham's charter schools from two dozen to more than 50.
The GOP is responding to allegations that No Child Left Behind is an "unfunded mandate" and that not enough federal dollars are being appropriated for it.
In the October 16 Gadfly, I cited a "sage observer" of the school choice scene who suggested that grassroots activism and the large sums being spent thereon are not actually influencing votes in the halls of Congress or state legislatures and that all this money and energy might better be deployed to elect different candidates rather than struggling to change minds of those alr
The lack of intellectual diversity on college campuses today is not just an issue for conservatives. On Wednesday, four witnesses, three of them self-proclaimed liberals, talked with the Senate HELP Committee about the dangers of the one-sided education being provided at America's colleges and universities.
Paul T. Hill and Kacey Guin, University of WashingtonEducation Policy Analysis ArchivesOctober 2003
The American Enterprise Institute, the Progressive Policy Institute, and the National Council on Teacher Quality October 2003
AARP Knowledge Management, NRTA: AARP's Educator Community, and HarrisInteractive Inc.2003
Amanda K. Miller and Kathryn Chandler, National Center for Education StatisticsOctober 2003
With the passage of the politics-governance Act (NCLB), states have had to adjust their accountability systems to comply with federal law. As a result, in the summer of 2003 Ohio's Governor Taft signed House Bill 3, which dramatically changed the state's assessment system and what it means for charter schools. This report helps charter school leaders coordinate their testing and data reporting procedures to meet state and federal guidelines, in the hope that all students might surpass Ohio's academic expectations.
No Child Left Behind requires that, by 2005-6, all classes must be taught by "highly qualified" teachers. That means a teacher must have a college degree, state certification, and demonstrated mastery of the subject s/he teaches. But as with many NCLB provisions, it's up to the states to set their own benchmarks for certification and subject-area mastery.
Eighteen long years ago, Denis Doyle and I wrote this in the New York Times:
With application deadlines looming, popular magazines have recently devoted much space to college admissions. TIME's cover story this week highlights changes the College Board has made to the new SAT, noting that it is "an exhaustive revision largely intended to mold the U.S.
Just as TIME reported that the College Board plans to drop the analogies section from the SAT, education blogger Joanne Jacobs recounts a story about a Kennewick, Washington high school teacher who, after a lesson on the Salem Witch Trials, asked his students to write a "Mass Hysteria Essay" in which they "expose injustices caused by mass hysteria" and "compare the causes and effects o
We recently reported on a group of resourceful students and parents in Marysville, Washington who lobbied the governor, held a press conference, and went to court to try to get their teachers to end the longest teachers strike in state history.
To help states comply with the highly-qualified teacher and school-choice provisions of NCLB, the Department of Education recently awarded more than $13 million in grants to several organizations to help attract able professionals into teaching, to inform families of their educational options under NCLB, and to expand and study charter school achievement.
Tom Loveless, Brown Center on Education Policy, Brookings InstitutionOctober 22, 2003
Jay P. Greene, Greg Forster, Marcus A. Winters, The Manhattan InstituteOctober 9, 2003
Learning First Alliance2003
Life is getting harder for charter schools and those seeking to start them. In Massachusetts, word comes this week that new charter applications are down more than 50 percent--just 14, compared to 35 last year.
Earlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a somewhat unusual addition to its K-12 portfolio: nearly $19 million over five years to expand the "Cristo Rey" schools nationwide.On the surface, this announcement appeared to be no more than a new element in the $450 million Gates Foundation effort to promote
