Displaying 16741-16770 of 17817 results
Commentary
2.5.2003

President boosts budget for American history program

While support for many federal agencies will remain flat, President Bush has proposed a large increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities in his FY 2004 budget, with nearly all of the new dollars going to the "We the People" program. Created last year to encourage better understanding of U.S.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Private school vouchers in D.C.?

Kathleen Porter-Magee

This week, the Bush Administration released its proposed multi-trillion dollar federal budget for 2004. Included is $75 million for a new Choice Incentive Fund that would allow the Department of Education to make competitive awards directly to states, local education agencies and community-based non-profit organizations with proven records of securing educational opportunities for children.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Rewriting literature for the NY Regents exam

Last June, the parent of a high school senior in New York City examined reading passages on the state's high-stakes Regents exams and discovered that somebody was sanitizing literary excerpts - doctoring the reading passages by literary greats to make sure that nothing offensive was included.

Commentary
2.5.2003

S&P issues second report on Michigan schools

Standard & Poor's this week released its second comprehensive analysis of Michigan's K-12 education system. The report, reviewing both academic and financial data from districts in the state, covers a five year period: 1996-97 through 2000-01.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Skepticism about ADHD, Ritalin use misplaced

Educators and parents are sometimes blamed for using medications like Ritalin to make overactive kids compliant and faulted for their inability to control their children without chemical assistance.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Most students still need remediation in Cal State system

California State University officials report that 59 percent of freshman entering the university system this fall needed remediation in math or English, despite ranking in the top third of their high school classes and having a B average in high school.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Head Start Re-Start

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

President Bush is in trouble with the Head Start establishment again, if you can believe The Washington Post, whose reporters on this beat seem to have swallowed the view that Head Start is swell and ought not be pushed to do anything different from what it's always done.

Commentary
2.5.2003

Affirmative action may reduce faculty diversity

A new book aimed at discovering why there are so few black and Hispanic professors points the finger at undergraduate affirmative action policies that steer minority students to schools where they don't achieve high grades.

Report
2.1.2003
Curriculum & Instruction

The Best of Both Worlds: Blending History and Geography in the K-12 Curriculum

David W. Saxe, David J. Rutherford, Richard G. Boehm

Geography plays a crucial role in shaping history, and the study of history provides an important context for students learning geography, but teachers rarely take advantage of the complementary nature of these subjects. This report shows how the study of U.S. history can be enriched by blending geography into the curriculum. The centerpiece is an innovative curriculum framework in which each historical period is supplemented and enriched by the introduction of relevant geography.

Commentary
1.29.2003

Washington Teachers' Union scandal update

Since last year, top Washington (D.C.) Teachers' Union officials have been under investigation for having embezzled more than $5 million and using those funds to purchase luxury goods for themselves.

Commentary
1.29.2003

NYC phonics program not scientifically based

Since New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced last week that the city will require all but its top elementary schools to use a reading curriculum called Month by Month Phonics [see "Letters From New York City: Bloomberg's Reforms" in last week's Gadfly], top reading experts have raised doubts about the t

Commentary
1.29.2003

Results from value-added assessment of schools in England

Last week, the British government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) released its annual "league tables," which rate schools in England based on student performance on national tests. For the first time, DfES also issued a value-added analysis of school performance.

Commentary
1.29.2003

Canada gets first private voucher program

Last week, the Fraser Institute in British Columbia announced the launch of Children First: School Choice Trust, Canada's first privately-funded voucher program, which is aimed at helping poor families send their children to private schools. The program will provide grants paying 50 percent of tuition, up to a maximum of $3,500 per year, for up to 150 students in Ontario.

Commentary
1.29.2003

Give Bloomberg a chance

I must say I am thoroughly intrigued by the education reform experiment being conducted in New York as reported by Diane Ravitch. ["Letter from New York City: Bloomberg's Reforms,"] I certainly wish them well.

Commentary
1.29.2003

High school seniors study less but earn higher grades

While a survey of college freshmen reveals a continuing decline in the time they spend studying or doing homework during their senior year of high school, their high school grade point averages continue to climb.

Commentary
1.29.2003

Homework for parents

Clever as always, Miss Manners this week chides parents who neglect their "homework" of teaching children the ability to sit still for short periods of time, to listen to what other people say, and to refrain from hitting.

Commentary
1.29.2003

A Pell grant for K-12 education?

Fingering localized school funding as the cause of the persistent incompetence of many schools (as well as the source of great inequalities in per pupil spending), writer (and former White House aide) James Pinkerton proposes what he calls a grand compromise to address both these problems and please both Republicans and Democrats to boot: a Pell grant program for K-12 education.

Commentary
1.29.2003

Adequate Yearly Progress or Balloon Mortgage?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

You know how a balloon mortgage works: you pay a low interest rate at the beginning, but a few years out the rate soars. So you hope to refinance on more favorable terms - or offload the real estate onto someone else - before that painful day arrives.As tomorrow's deadline hits for states to file their No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability plans with the U.S.