Commentary
Charter School Accountability in New York
Carol Ascher et al., Institute for Education and Social Policy2003
Commentary
Historical ignorance, continued
Though the phrase "don't know much about history" is now a clich?, we can't argue with the sentiments of this article in National Journal, which argues that the well-intentioned No Child Left Behind act is perversely marginalizing subjects like history.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?
This new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation consists of penetrating critiques by renegade social studies educators who fault the regnant teaching methods and curricular ideas of their field and suggest how it can be reformed. While nearly everyone recognizes that American students don't know much about history and civics, these analysts probe the causes of this ignorance-and lay primary responsibility at the feet of the social studies 'establishment' to which they belong.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
Terrorists, Despots, and Democracy: What Our Children Need to Know
This new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation includes the voices of 29 political leaders, education practitioners, and cultural analysts who discuss what schools should teach about U.S. history, American ideals, and American civic life in the wake of 9/11, the war on terror, and the liberation of Iraq.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
Six Questions to Ask on Back to School Night
A good, well-organized social studies curriculum seeks to teach students the key events, issues, and people in America's past, how our government works, our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and how our predecessors fought to defend democracy. How can parents tell whether their children are getting such a curriculum in school?one that is rich in historical content and provides a solid base for future learning? The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation suggests asking teachers and principals these six questions on back to school night.
Commentary
The merits of uncertified teachers
Gadfly readers know that teacher certification is no guarantee of teacher effectiveness. So our interest was piqued by a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that spotlights a summer school program run largely by students with no formal education training.
Commentary
What's a "qualified" teacher and how can we get more of them?
With states aflutter over how to meet NCLB's mandate that they must guarantee a "highly qualified teacher in every classroom," two recent reports are illuminating.Last month, Education Secretary Rod Paige issued his second annual report on teacher quality ("Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge" or
Commentary
Catching the Wave: Lessons from California's Charter Schools
Nelson Smith, Progressive Policy InstituteJuly 9, 2003
Commentary
No Child Left Behind Act: More Information Would Help States Determine Which Teachers Are Highly Qualified
United States General Accounting OfficeJuly 2003
Commentary
New head for Ed center
Gadfly is pleased to note that Phoebe Cottingham has been named commissioner of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Department of Education (within the new Institute for Education Sciences that replaced the old Office of Educational Research and Improvement).
Commentary
Dead stop on Head Start reform
First, there was the Bush administration's proposal to reform Head Start. [See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=10#350.] That proved too strong for the House, which watered the measure down.
Commentary
Let our superintendents go
If you're planning some summer reading, allow us to suggest "An Impossible Job?
Commentary
Teaching Reading in Social Studies
Jane K. Doty, Gregory N. Cameron, and Mary Lee Barton, Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)2003
Commentary
Closing the Education Achievement Gap: Is Title I Working?
Marvin Kosters and Brent Mast, American Enterprise Institute Press2003
Commentary
Young to head CA charter org
Former Los Angeles school board president Caprice Young, who warmed the hearts of education reformers during her four years in office and accomplished more than anyone expected with that sprawling, balky school system, has agreed to head a newly formed organization that will support the 400+ charter schools in California and help others get started.
Commentary
Poor increase education spending in India
James Tooley has spent years documenting how private education can work wonders for low-income students in international settings.
Commentary
Commentary
Kill the Messenger: The War on Standardized Testing
Richard P. Phelps, with a foreword by Herbert J. Walberg and a preface by J.E. Stone, Transaction Publishers2003
Commentary
Choice expands in FL
Florida's Opportunity Scholarship program, which lets students in persistently failing schools use a publicly funded voucher at the school of their choice, is doubling in size as more and more families in the (so far) nine failing Florida schools become aware of their options.
Commentary
Kudos for assessment courage
With encouragement from the Council of Great City Schools and various dispensations and special funding from the powers that be at NAEP, a handful of America's big-city school systems are doing something gutsy and important: administering the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests to representative samples of their 4th and 8th graders and allowing the results to be reported just as i
Commentary
Listening to teachers
Those who would change the teaching profession by instituting pay incentives tied to performance can learn some things about teacher attitudes toward the issue from the latest Public Agenda study, Stand By Me. Here, I'd like to focus on what teachers told us was a glaring flaw in the public schools and what they would support to solve it.
Commentary
Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education
Erika Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard UniversityJuly 2003
Commentary
The Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing
Gail Jones, Brett Jones, and Tracy Hargrove, Rowman and Littlefield2003
Commentary
Dem defection on D.C. vouchers
Gadfly tries not to read the political tea leaves, preferring a just-the-facts approach. But when the senior Senator from California, Democratic impresario, and teachers' union darling Dianne Feinstein comes out in favor of private school vouchers, something important is going on. Feinstein has emerged as a potential swing vote in the Senate, where foes of the D.C.
Commentary
Fighting music and arts cuts
Across the country, art and music programs in schools are being squeezed by contracting budgets and the demands of No Child Left Behind, which places the curricular focus on reading and math. Devotees of these programs are fighting back with letter-writing campaigns and a website, http://www.supportmusic.com/index-home.html.
Commentary
Art of the possible
We don't always agree with every single thing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has to say about education but they're growing wiser with age, particularly when it comes to charter (and private) schools.
Commentary
Commentary
TFA short $13 million in AmeriCorps cuts
As reported in Gadfly several weeks ago, Teach for America has feared for some time that it would be wounded by the drastic funding cuts for the national service program AmeriCorps.
Commentary
Ready to rumble over Ready to Teach
By an overwhelming margin, the U.S. House of Representatives has raised the stakes on teacher preparation. The Ready to Teach Act, passed last week by a 404-17 vote, would make the passage rate of graduates of teacher training colleges a factor in awarding federal dollars to those institutions.
Commentary
National Assessment of Educational Progress: The Nation's Report Card: Writing 2002
National Center for Education StatisticsJuly 2003