Commentary
Public School Graduation Rates in the United States
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, Center for Civic Innovation, Manhattan InstituteNovember 2002
Topics
Commentary
Church schools beat public in UK
Students in Anglican and Roman Catholic schools bested their public-school counterparts on this year's national English, math and science exams, new figures from the British Department of Education show.
Commentary
Ohio dips its toe into the creationist pond
The standards committee of the Ohio Board of Education has approved a new set of science standards that includes a compromise over how to teach evolution in the state's schools, one that will please creationists more than scientists.
Commentary
The hazards of local control: one New York school's experience
Effectively reversing its 1969 decision to grant control over elementary and middle schools to local school boards, the New York legislature earlier this year gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg control of those schools by granting him power over a citywide Board of Education.
Report
Accountability & Testing
Dayton Charter School Assessment Report 2001-2002
This report presents a summary of the administration and results of annual pre- and post-testing of pupils enrolled in charter schools in Dayton and Springfield, Ohio during the 2001-2002 school year. The assessment activities were a project of the Education Resource Center of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce (DACC). The efforts of the DACC were supported in part via philanthropic gifts from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and other sources. The primary purposes of the assessment project were: 1) to help classroom teachers monitor individual student achievement and adapt instruction to promote learning; 2) to provide data for schools to assist them in gauging and improving their overall effectiveness; and 3) to foster public accountability and model the use of data to inform educational decision making.
Commentary
2001 State Policies on Assessment Participation and Accommodations
National Center on Education OutcomesJuly 2002
Commentary
Why Jews should embrace school choice
American Jews were strong supporters of equal educational opportunity for all children in the civil rights era, but the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee oppose school vouchers (and therefore the Supreme Court's recent Zelman verdict), equating support for this reform with rejection of public education.
Commentary
How other countries use choice to benefit learning disabled students
Voucher opponents argue that allowing some children to exit public schools for private schools will burden the public system with the most difficult to educate children, who are presumed to be left behind by school choice.
Commentary
Going Charter: New Models of Support
Carol Ascher et al., Charter School Research Project, New York UniversityDecember 2001
Commentary
Opponents of evolution challenge science standards in Ohio
Before a packed house earlier this week, the Ohio board of education hosted a two-hour panel discussion on the teaching of evolution and how it should be handled within the state's new science standards.