Commentary
The Limits of Sanctions in Low-Performing Schools: A Study of Maryland and Kentucky Schools on Probation
Heinrich Mintrop, Education Policy Analysis ArchivesJanuary 15, 2003
Commentary
Testing critics use fuzzy math to prove their point
After The New York Times ran a front-page story on an anti-testing study by Audrey Amrein and David Berliner last month, there was an immediate response from researchers across the political spectrum noting the many shortcomings of the study.
Commentary
Signs of real commitment to school reform in Minnesota
New Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced last week that he planned to kill the state's wimpy "Profile of Learning" - a set of academic standards that focus more on hands-on discovery learning projects than academic content - and that he had appointed Minnesota native Cheri Yecke as his education commissioner.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Nightmare for a novice teacher in DC
This first-hand account of a recent Yale graduate's first - and last - year teaching in a DC public school paints a frightening picture of the chaos that has become an accepted part of daily life in an urban school that lacks effective leadership.
Commentary
Letter from New York City: Bloomberg's reforms
When Michael Bloomberg ran for election as mayor of New York City, he pledged to make the improvement of the public schools his first priority. After he was sworn into office on January 1, 2002, he said that he wanted to be judged by whether the public schools improved.
Commentary
Random Assignment in Program Evaluation and Intervention Research: Questions and Answers
David Myers and Mark Dynarski, Mathematica, Inc.January 2003
Commentary
Commentary
How not to attract effective principals
Just as the teacher shortage has been declared over [see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=6#414], states are reporting shortages of qualified candidates to become principals.
Commentary
A Mixed bag in this month's Kappan
Several articles in the January 2003 Phi Delta Kappan are worth a peek. The special section on teacher education includes seven articles addressing the challenges faced by education schools in the 21st century.
Commentary
Younger pupils becoming more violent
Elementary school principals and safety experts say they're seeing more violence and aggression than ever among their youngest students, according to an article by Greg Toppo in USA Today.
Commentary
Philadelphia eliminates budget deficit, considers outsourcing more schools
In the midst of depressing financial news elsewhere, Philadelphia district officials announced last week that belt-tightening will eliminate a $28.3 million deficit and, in fact, produce an estimated $2 million surplus by the end of the fiscal year.
Commentary
State budget shortfalls could mean tough times for schools
As states encounter major revenue shortfalls (due to the sagging economy) and impose freezes or cuts in aid to education, many schools and districts are facing tough decisions about how to allocate their shrinking budgets.
Commentary
High-Stakes Testing and the History of Graduation
Sherman DornEducation Policy Analysis ArchiveJanuary 2003
Commentary
The Limits and Contradictions of Systematic Reform: The Philadelphia Story
Tom Corcoran and Jolley Bruce ChristmanConsortium for Policy Research in EducationNovember 2002
Commentary
Commentary
Neuman resigns as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige accepted the resignation of Susan Neuman as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. While the office she directed is the organizational home of the No Child Left Behind Act, much of the implementation of that law has been orchestrated from elsewhere in the Department and White House.
Commentary
California legend to retire from state board
This week, Marion Joseph will attend her last meeting as a member of the California state board of education, and a column by Peter Schrag makes clear how large a gap her departure will leave. It was Joseph, a liberal Democrat, who in 1994 sounded the alarm that millions of California schoolchildren were not learning to read.
Commentary
Charter school laws rated anew
The Center for Education Reform this week released the latest edition of its ranking of the "strength" of the nation's 40 charter school laws. Arizona retains the top ranking this year as Minnesota moves into second place. New charter laws in Tennessee and Iowa garner a C-minus and F respectively.
Commentary
Quality Counts 2003: Ensuring a Highly Qualified Teacher for Every Classroom
Education Week, January 2003
Commentary
Finn misses the boat on vouchers
Checker Finn begins "Reforming Education: The Hard Part Lies Ahead," (The Education Gadfly, January 9, 2003) by observing, "&[B]y and large we haven't yet caused many people or institutions to alter their ways." Later, he applies this reasoning - not much has changed - to an assessment of the voucher movement:"The evidence," he writes, "suggests that helping disadvantaged blac
Commentary
An Analysis of Some Unintended and Negative Consequences of High-Stakes Testing
Audrey Amrein and David BerlinerArizona State UniversityDecember 2002
Commentary
Commentary
The Cat in the Hat and the reading wars
Frustration with the books used in public schools to teach children how to read is nothing new. An article in The New Yorker recounts how an attack on primers in the 1955 best-seller Why Johnny Can't Read ultimately led to publication of The Cat in the Hat and other classics by Dr. Seuss.
Commentary
Reforming Education: The Hard Part Lies Ahead
As 2003 opens, hollow public treasuries will make it tougher than ever to revitalize American K-12 education - not because more money will improve our schools but because the most painful parts of the reform process lie ahead and, without dollars to cushion the discomfort, politicians will be loath to ask people to endure it.
Commentary
Burning High-Stakes Testing at the Stake
The New York Times recently gave lavish attention to a "study" conducted by Arizona State University's David C. Berliner and Audrey L. Amrein, and funded by the teachers' unions, that purports to show that high-stakes tests don't promote student learning. In fact, however, the Times has called our attention to a perfect example of how not to study high-stakes testing.
Commentary
Consequences-intended and not-of merit scholarships for college
Merit scholarship programs like Georgia's HOPE scholarships - which pay full tuition and fees at any public university or community college in the state (or an equivalent amount for students attending private institutions) for state residents who maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in high school and college - get criticized because they tend to benefit students from well-off families more th
Commentary
Is the teacher shortage over?
School districts across the country are having an easier time finding and keeping qualified teachers at the very time that shortages were expected to grow more severe.
Commentary