The cash-stressed New York City school system is spending about $70 million this year on paid sabbaticals for 1000 veteran teachers, the New York Post reported last week. The teachers are on six- and twelve-month leaves of absences, taking college courses part-time.
First elected to the Milwaukee school board in 1995, independent labor organizer John Gardner is best known for his passionate support of Milwaukee's voucher experiment.
Why is Edison Schools, a start-up firm that advanced a great idea to address a pressing need, an outfit with many talented people and lots of investor capital, still struggling to succeed in its core business of managing schools?
People for the American Way Foundation andDisability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)March 6, 2003
Samuel Meisels, Sally Atkins-Burnett, Yange Xue, Donna DiPrima Bickel, Seung-Hee Son, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesFebruary 28, 2003
Students for Teachers, Yale UniversitySpring 2003
Anne T. Henderson, ParentLeadership Associates2002An Action Guide for Community and Parent Leaders: Using NCLB to Improve Student AchievementPublic Education Network, 2002
Teachers (or prospective teachers) wishing to earn certification or degrees can now take advantage of an online program offered by Western Governors University (WGU) and partially financed by the U.S. Department of Education. The Teachers College at WGU, a virtual university that received accreditation last month, will offer associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees in education.
Two school voucher bills have won approval in the Colorado Legislature, one each in the House and the Senate. Both bills would make publicly-funded vouchers available to low-income, low-achieving students trapped in failing public schools who would like to switch to private school, including religious schools.
You might have thought that alternative certification of teachers was more vibrant, robust and widespread than ever, considering how many states now claim to have some form of it--45 of them plus D.C., reports alt-cert watcher Emily Feistritzer--and its warm embrace last June by Education Secretary Rod Paige. Think again.
Today, 88 percent of 8th graders expect to attend college, but many of these students will either not qualify for admission, not be permitted to enroll in credit-bearing courses, or never complete a degree. Why are so many high school graduates unprepared for college- level work?
Since Virginia introduced its Standards of Learning (SOL) curriculum and exams in 1995 and 1998, respectively, not only have pass rates on the state exams risen steadily for all ethnic groups, but students in the state have scored higher on several national achievement tests, according to a study conducted by StandardsWork.
With many states being forced to slash education budgets because of the overall economic downturn, opponents of charter schools are trying to seize the opportunity to kill new charter laws, to put a moratorium on the granting of new charters, and to reduce funding for already cash-strapped existing charter schools.
New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein has been getting a lot of grief from reading experts about Month by Month Phonics, the reading curriculum he has selected for all but the top 200 of New York City's elementary schools. Now he's beginning to hear from math experts about problems with Everyday Math, the math curriculum he has mandated for all but the top schools in the system.
In 1999 Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and billionaire Eli Broad helped elect a new reform-minded school board for the L.A Unified school district. The teachers unions have fought back, though, and on March 4, two union-backed candidates defeated reformist incumbents supported by Riordan and Broad (and their political action committee, the Coalition for Kids) for seats on the school board.
Paul T. Hill, Kelly Warner-King, Christine Campbell, Meaghan McElroy, Isabel Mu??oz-Col??n, The Center on Reinventing Public Education, The University of WashingtonDecember 2002
Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform2002
Randall Reback, University of MichiganNational Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teacher's College, Columbia UniversityDecember 3, 2002
The American Federation of Teachers December 2002
The Governor's Commission on Teaching Success, OhioFebruary 20, 2003
Kieran Egan, Yale University PressSeptember 2002
Marie Gryphon, The Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 466February 4, 2003
Following the lead of three major foundations in Pittsburgh, which suspended funding to the school system in July 2002 because of a decline in district leadership, governance and fiscal discipline [for more see "Foundations withdraw grants to Pittsburgh school district," a private foundation in Memphis has vowed not to dona
exam presents an impossibly high barrier, yet more than 80 percent of 12th graders have already passed it and many more are expected to pass later this year. Further, the evidence suggests that many students who failed the test did so for simple reasons: they missed many days of school and did not attend any of the tutoring sessions that have been offered to help them clear the bar.
Four New England states - Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont - will be working together to develop common standards and tests in English and math for grades 3-8 in order to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. Test development is a costly undertaking and, by joining forces, these states will be able to cut costs.
A long article in this month's American School Board Journal examines whether the tremendous growth in students taking AP courses has been accompanied by slackening of that program's lofty academic standards. Today nearly 950,000 students worldwide take AP courses, more than double the number a decade ago.
How well I recall a day in 1987 when Teachers College, Columbia University, was celebrating its centennial as our nation's premier school of pedagogy. One of the events marking this grand occasion was a panel discussion of the topic: "Do we need a national curriculum?" On one side, arguing the affirmative, was Checker Finn and a Teachers College faculty member.
