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THE NICHD READING RESEARCH PROGRAM PUBLICATIONS (1981 - Present ) Block Scheduling Research Call for Papers "In Defense of Testing" Series Grammar History The National History Club Home School Math Media Links Reading ReadbyGrade3.com Science Special Ed Upcoming Conferences Education Organizations Grassroots Education Organizations Public Policy Organizations Education Forum New Zealand Education After the Culture Wars" Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education (2002) Texas Alternative Document for ELA and Reading |  | Previous Postings Commentaries and Report For today's postings In Defense of Testing Series My Encounter with the Politburo of the Peoples' Republic of the Web by Richard Phelps Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The World Wide Web is supposed to make the world more democratic, by making more information available to more people more easily. That assumes, of course, that information is disseminated throughout the Web in a fair, open, democratic, or, at least, random way. Is it? Post your comments on this article Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States Shared American Values in American Education and the Anti-assimilation of Common Values According to Diane Ravitch By Dennis W. Redovich Normally Appears Exclusively every Monday Diane Ravitch says in an article entitled “Ex Uno Plures” published in Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution, “In short, the public schools should teach a common culture. However, because of the political and social trends of the past generation, they are not doing so. The burden of multiculturalism has virtually eliminated any aspiration to teach a common culture in many, if not most, public schools. The mantra of public education, it sometimes seems, is “celebrate diversity”.” “Is it possible to teach a common culture while celebrating diversity? The idea of school choice would be far less compelling if public education were to reclaim its role as the agency responsible for transmitting the best of American culture.” Post your comments on this article One- size-fits-all standardized tests Standardized Tests: Not A Complete Picture by Sheila G. Flaxman, Ph.D. Is a guest contributor to EducationNews One- size-fits-all standardized tests assume that every child learns and tests in the same way at the same time. We know this is not true. A well-planned assessment program should include, but not be limited to, standardized testing. These types of tests can provide valuable information to support the decision-making process in many ways and at many levels: from the level of the individual to that of the class, the school, and the district. Assessment results can be used to help make important decisions that can affect school programs, the community, and the lives of students and their families. Assessments, in the way they are administered and the way the results are interpreted and used, all become critical aspects of any school district’s program. Unfortunately, many teachers are teaching to the test, thus eliminating real learning. Post your comments on this article Reason Magazine Schoolhouse Crock Why George W. Bush’s education reforms won’t change anything by Lisa Snell My son Jacob will be 5 years old this summer, and I have had to face every parent’s nightmare of discovering where and how to register him for kindergarten. As the director of an education policy program at a national think tank, I imagined that I had an advantage over the average parent. After all, my job is to evaluate charter schools and tax credits, public school choice and private school voucher programs, homeschooling efforts and privatized school management. Additionally, I am a member of a Los Angeles urban school improvement committee. Finding an acceptable school for my child, I assumed, shouldn’t be difficult. Post your comments on this article Response to Tom Watkins Commentary 9.3.04 To Michigan Supt of Schools Marilyn Keller Rittmeyer Will you work to create an accountability system that allows parents to legitimately compare how schools are doing? Will you work to create an accountability system that allows for the comparison of the achievement of similar types of children (e.g. above avg ability vs below avg ability), so that we can actually know which types of educational programs work best with different types of pupils? Will you work to require private/parochial schools to have their students take a fair assessment that is paid for out of public funds, so that these schools can be compared with publicly funded schools? Post your comments on this article Pew Internet & American Life Project The Internet and Education:pdf Findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project A Back-To-School Message from Michigan's Superintendent The Opening of School Still Brings Mixed Emotions Tom Watkins Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The anticipation, fear, exhilaration and excitement, all were building up in me like a kettle about to blow. I remember the feeling well. The push and pull that "the day" was quickly approaching choked me like a size 15 shirt around my size 16 neck. I wanted the day to get here, and yet I feared it would arrive - kind of like Mom saying "your Dad wants to see you, young man, NOW!" Post your comments on this article The Women's Quartley The Write Stuff: Christina Hoff Sommers believes schools should teach the lost art of penmanship There are exceptions, but here is the rule: Boys are graphologically challenged. That males have many more problems with penmanship than females is "not even a question," according to University of Maryland special education professor and distinguished scholar Steve Graham. "It is one of the better established facts in the literature." Handwriting is a basic skill that serves us all our lives. Unfortunately, a problem that primarily affects boys is rarely on anyone's list of educational priorities. This one could be solved readily enough, if schools would take the pains they once took to inculcate good handwriting. Howard Hughes Medical Institute An Undergraduate Education Challenge The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has issued a challenge to science professors across the United States: Show the same ingenuity in your undergraduate teaching that you do in your scientific research. While You Weren’t Watching By Bill Carlson Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Delaine Eastin, California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, wants to ensure all children the right to a safe and respectful learning environment and the opportunity to develop into healthy, productive adults. Most schools in America have long held these goals as a top priority. Even so, during April, 2001, Eastin sent a directive to all California county and local school district superintendents advising them that Assembly Bill (AB) 537, the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 (approved by outgoing Governor Pete Wilson on October 2, 1999), has brought revisions to the Education Code. Post your comments on this article The National Association for Neighborhood Schools has sent the following letter to Ralph Boyd regarding his position on the Baton Rouge situation as detailed in the above article. Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division U.S. Justice Department 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear Mr. Boyd We are in receipt of a copy of your correspondence to Lucian A. Mascarella of East Baton Rouge LA. While Mr. Mascarella did not seek our response to the letter he shared with us, as a national organization we are obligated to respond on behalf not only of the citizens of Baton Rouge, but of the entire nation. Post your comments on this article GOALS 2000 U.S. RESTRUCTURING SOCIETY THROUGH EDUCATION The U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring two very significant conferences during November and December 1997. They involve President Clinton's pledge to make education his number one priority for the next four years. All educators have a crucial role to play and the public has a compelling interest in understanding the plan, entitled Goals 2000. This is the program which the President has made his number one priority. Post your comments on this article Mises Institute Groupthink and You by Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds You see it in daycare centers, and you see it in the public schools, from kindergarten to high school. Group projects abound, shoving together individuals who have no formal bonds, yet are banded together for the purpose of collective decision-making. Post your comments on this article ISTE RESEARCH JOURNAL MARKS TRANSITION WITH FREE ONLINE ISSUE Free Online Issue of JRTE (31 August 2001) A free issue of the Journal for Research on Technology in Education (JRTE) is now available online at www.iste.org/jrte! The JRTE Summer 2001 issue marks the journal’s name change from the Journal of Research on Computing in Education (JRCE). National Education Association NEA MEMBERS PROFILED IN PBS DOCUMENTARY Don't miss "The First Year" Thursday, September 6 at 9:00 p.m. The 90-minute film shows the determination and commitment of five new teachers struggling to survive their first year in America's toughest schools. Children First America BISHOP LEADS FLOCK OUT OF ST. LOUIS SCHOOLS Fed up with decades of St. Louis public school failure, Bishop Lawrence Wooten of the Church of God in Christ (the second largest and fastest growing African-American church in the country) has begun the process of setting up new private schools with the goal of getting 3,000 children out of the dysfunctional government run system. The Bishop had been attempting to set up charter schools for years, but had run into a "Berlin Wall" of resistance from district authorities. Wooten told the Wall Street Journal that only 42% of students entering St. Louis government schools finish despite spending $10,000 per pupil. St. Louis has been spending at County Club rates without achieving Mickey Mouse Club results. "We wanted to open charter schools, but to save our kids we are going to do it all by ourselves," Tim Daniels, Wooten’s former marine point-man, told the Journal. The focus of the new schools will be on academics and parental involvement. The Bishop’s move is a dramatic sign of the extreme frustration felt by those left behind in urban school systems. I doubt that it will be the last... Center for Immigration Studies "American Unionism and U.S. Immigration Policy," by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. Throughout its lengthy history, few issues have caused the American labor movement more agony than immigration. It is ironic this should be the case as most adult immigrants directly enter the labor force. So eventually do most of their family members. But precisely because immigration affects the scale, geographical distribution, and skill composition of the labor force, it affects national, regional, and local labor market conditions. Hence, organized labor can never ignore immigration trends. Immigration has in the past and continues to affect the developmental course of American trade unionism. Labor’s responses, in turn, have significantly influenced the actual public policies that have shaped the size and character of immigrant entries. WorldNet Daily (2 articles) (2 articles) Salvation for government schools? What would you say if I told you there is a movement under way, endorsed by groups as diverse as People for the American Way and the Christian Legal Society, to bring the Bible back into government schools? The debate is engaged! Exclusive: Elizabeth Farah dialogues with reader on home schooling The following is the correspondence exchanged between a reader and myself regarding my last column. MY COLUMN: Government can't educate without destroying the very object of education: the search for truth. Either government employees dictate "truth" to the formative youth or the government employee insists that objective truth does not exist. Either alternative is ludicrous and unthinkable to the rational mind. Washington Times Schools, not government, should select textbooks I read with great interest the Aug. 8 story "School standards boost test success." As a publisher, I have a suggestion that I feel will further improve test scores: deregulate the state textbook selection process. Presently, twenty-one states have state-level textbook selection processes. RecordonLine Bowen quits SUNY New Paltz, will head museum NEW PALTZ: Within the faculty and the community, many people believe the SUNY board and chancellor forced Bowen's resignation. SUNY New Paltz President Roger Bowen resigned yesterday, leaving behind what he deemed a "great job in an ideal place," and ending an embattled five-year reign at this liberal college. TIMSS videotapes Professor Alan Siegel has looked anew at the TIMSS videotapes. In Japan, Siegel finds teacher-guided instruction (including a wide variety of hints and helps from teachers while students are working on or presenting solutions). In both Japanese algebra and geometry classes, he points out that the tapes contain no evidence of students inventing or discovering new mathematical principles or solution methods. The students do gain a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Japanese lessons do not include a significant amount of group work before students have worked on their own. The Japanese math teachers use an interactive teaching approach of "grappling and telling," together with subtle reinforcement techniques. Japanese lessons make extensive use of proof-based reasoning. Japanese instruction uses more lecturing and demonstrations than do traditionalist American math teachers. Siegel also finds that coding guidelines devised by nonmathematicians have distorted some aspects of previous studies of the videotapes. Post your comments on this article Lew Rockwell.com Compulsory Government Education, By What Standard? by Greg Perry An Aunt of mine recently wrote to me and reminded me that she's a former government school teacher and that I offend her with my comments on the government schools and, especially, the teachers. Post your comments on this article Rocklin parent challenges legality and propriety of Rocklin High School site council election: Improper ballot distribution charged; improper candidacy challenged ROCKLIN, California (27 August 2001): A Rocklin parent is challenging the legality of the recent Rocklin High School Site Council election, charging the school district with improper ballot distribution and untimely ballot counting. He is also challenging the legality and propriety of a district substitute teacher’s election to a parent position on the council. Post your comments on this article Gadfly Taking aim at AIMS Diane Ravtch My older sister lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, for many years and her six children attended the public schools there. Her oldest child, my niece, took most of her public schooling in Texas and is now a teacher in Florida. The rest are graduates of the Arizona school system. Whenever I visited her, which I especially liked to do in the winter, I always talked to my nieces and nephews about what they were doing in school. My most memorable exchange was about a dozen years ago, with my nephew Steve. Post your comments on this article NCES The NCES publication "Homeschooling in the United States: 1999" is now available in a web-enabled format. In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled. This report, based on data from the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Survey Program, 1999, contains information about the characteristics of homeschooled children and their families, parent's reasons for homeschooling, and public school support for homeschoolers. Lexington Institute SOL results pinpoint problems Use Virginia's universities to rescue failing schools By ROBERT HOLLAND AS VIRGINIA public schools prepare to start a new year, there's good news and bad news about their ability to meet the state-prescribed Standards of Learning. Washington Times Foes cite 'Dirty Dozen´ of collegiate PC By Andrea Billups College students this fall can enroll in a buffet of courses that tout "Marx, multiculturalism and malarkey," a conservative education organization says in its annual "Dirty Dozen" list of politically correct classes. Oklahoman Oklahoma City 'Online' - Schools Should Advance Academics THIS editorial page has, in the past year, often endorsed the progressive concept of distance learning for elementary and secondary education. Advanced Academics, a business based in Oklahoma City, is among the leading firms involved with this exciting new area in provision of educational services. Post your comments on this article Women's Quarterly (Independent Women's Forum) Summer 2001 "The Write Stuff" by Christina Hoff Sommers Christina Hoff Sommers believes schools should teach the lost art of penmanship There are exceptions, but here is the rule Boys are graphologically challenged. That males have many more problems with penmanship than females is "not even a question," according to University of Maryland special education professor and distinguished scholar Steve Graham. "It is one of the better established facts in the literature." Handwriting is a basic skill that serves us all our lives. Unfortunately, a problem that primarily affects boys is rarely on anyone's list of educational priorities. This one could be solved readily enough, if schools would take the pains they once took to inculcate good handwriting. Post your comments on this article OSEP held a National Summit on Learning Disabilities August 26 and 27th in Washington DC. CSPAN2 is running the opening session with addresses from the Secretary of Education, the new Ast. Secretary of OSERS and Lou Danielson. Many special education faces are in the audience. The executive Summaries of the papers presented can be downloaded from www.air.org/LDsummit or through www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP. By Friday afternoon webcast of the presentations will be available through the sites above. Full text of the papers will be available in early fall. EDUCATION - HAVE IT YOUR WAY? A Response to Time Magazine's "Home Sweet School" 8/27 cover story, by Roxanne Sitler We've all heard the slogan, Have it your way. Most Americans have no trouble understanding this concept when it comes to having their meal their way. But when it comes to education, we run headlong into a different mindset. "What? Have education your way? No way," they say. "The traditional, statist-style 'Whopper' of education might disappear from the menu! That just won't do. After all, it's delicious, nutritious and produces happy, healthy, well-adjusted citizens - 'good' citizens. It's one big, happy hamburger that's been concocted in the kitchen of government education and society would starve to death if we had it any other way." Post your comments on this article Let's Start a Revolution in Public Education Tom Watkins Michigan's Superintendent of Public Instruction Is a guest contributor to EducationNews As I begin this journey as Michigan's Superintendent of Public Instruction, I ponder Is the glass half full or half empty with regard to the quality of our public schools? Being an eternal optimist, I quickly conclude that the glass is half full. Yet, we have a long way to go to fill it to the top. Post your comments on this article Edison Faces More Political Than Performance Challenges By Philip Vassallo, Ed.D. Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Imagine having a child whom you are about to place in your district’s school, which has a history of low student performance. You do this because of the district’s promise that a new administration has contractually agreed to improve student performance. This is what is happening all over the country: parents place their children in educationally precarious situations in the hope that the schools will improve. Post your comments on this article Education Next Houston Takes Off PDF Will success survive the Paige promotion? Taking Measure PDF by JANE HANNAWAY & SHANNON MCKAY Balancing Act PDF by MARCI KANSTOROOM Digging Deeper PDF by PAUL T. HILL Choice, Testing, and the Jigsaw Society PDF Will school reform undermine the common culture? Ex Uno Plures PDF by DIANE RAVITCH High-Stakes Culture PDF by DAVID STEINER Seasons Change PDF by NATHAN GLAZER Identity Crisis Can teacher unions really promote reform? PDF A Union by Any Other Name PDF by TERRY M. MOE Deindustrialization PDF by CHARLES TAYLOR KERCHNER Reform or Be Reformed PDF by ADAM URBANSKI Bowling Together PDF Private schools, public ends by DAVID E. CAMPBELL Sciencephobia PDF Why education rejects randomized experiments by THOMAS D. COOK Education Next PDF 4 Military academies; do teachers matter? PDF All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice PDF by Richard D. Kahlenberg Reviewed by JOHN F. WITTE & JOHN E. COONS The Mismeasure of Learning PDF Review Essay by LAUREN B. RESNICK Life Lessons PDF by ADELA ACOSTA Reason Magazine Teaching the Bottom Line First came for-profit schools for kids. Are for-profit colleges for teachers next? Sam MacDonald Contra Costa Times (California) 2nd look at college fund cuts Contra Costa district applauds Davis' tentative plans to restore money SACRAMENTO - After hearing protests from community college officials and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Gray Davis has reversed course to consider restoring $98 million that he cut from community college budgets one month ago. The National Center for Alternative Certification Information The Mall is Quiet; School is Open. Now who is Minding the Kids? Shortage Update Almost everyone has heard about the shortage – that entropic mix of increased student enrollments, reduced student-to-teacher ratios, an aging teacher workforce, lack of support for novices and new-to-district teachers, low salaries, and relatively low unemployment. Sources estimate that 2.4 million teachers will be needed by 2012 (www.nea.org). The most severe shortages effect the neediest students bilingual, urban and rural, special education, and technology teachers are urgently needed. Over 73% of urban schools have immediate needs for bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instructors (www.recruitingteacher.com). Recruiting teachers for children of color remains an urgent challenge. Forty-two percent of all public schools in the US have no minority teachers while minority students make up 33% of total student body enrollment. To date, minority teachers comprise just 13.5% of the total teacher population. Post your comments on this article Big Brother is coming to your local school "Idea for an Investigative Reporter" by Donna Garner Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Here is an idea for a good investigative reporter Since Texas' public school accountability system seems to be the model that is being adopted as the "standard" for other states to use, why doesn't someone do an in-depth study of the PEIMS (Public Education Information Management System) which the Texas Education Agency has developed and utilized for many years? I have heard that over 250 pieces of information on every educator and every public school child are carried on this database; but to my knowledge, nobody has ever done an in-depth article on the subject. I know that most school districts have full-time PEIMS data entry clerks; therefore, there are many people who could be interviewed regarding the system. Post your comments on this article AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Appropriate Use of High-Stakes Testing in Our Nation's Schools How Should Student Learning and Achievement Be Measured? Measuring what and how well students learn is an important building block in the process of strengthening and improving our nation's schools. Tests, along with student grades and teacher evaluations, can provide critical measures of students' skills, knowledge, and abilities. Therefore, tests should be part of a system in which broad and equitable access to educational opportunity and advancement is provided to all students. Tests, when used properly, are among the most sound and objective ways to measure student performance. But, when test results are used inappropriately or as a single measure of performance, they can have unintended adverse consequences. Post your comments on this article Association of American Educators Empowering Teachers to Do Assessment By Linda Plattner Our dependence on high-stakes testing, particularly at the state level, continues to grow ("Quality Counts 2001," January 11, 2001, Education Week). As we begin to feel the impact of high-stakes testing—defined as testing that includes some subset or combination of rewards and punishment for students and educators—it has moved to the front pages of newspapers across the country. Association of American Publishers AAP Educational Assessment: A Primer American Association of School Administrators (7 articles) Your input is requested by Sept. 20 on the draft guidelines of Health, Mental Health and Safety in Schools. The Ultimate Stress By Ruth E. Sternberg Five superintendent's stories of coping with the most severe circumstances on the job. Also: Advice from experts. Ruth Sternberg is an education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch in Columbus, Ohio. When Pigs Fly and Cats Bark By Peggy Hinckley It's not improbable, says one veteran superintendent. You can take control of your life by managing stress. Also: Additional resources. Peggy Hinckley is superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township, Indianapolis, Ind. The Care and Feeding of the Superintendent By James F. Burgett A self-proclaimed wellness authority from the school leadership ranks advises colleagues how to stay alive long enough to draw retirement. Jim Burgett is superintendent in Highland, Ill. Physical Fitness for Busy Bodies By John Gratto A superintendent's strategy for getting fit in less time than you might think. John Gratto is superintendent of the Britonkill Central Schools, Troy, N.Y. More Than a Mascot By Paul Riede School system leaders are being drawn into emotional debates over proposals to replace long-held Indian names and logos as school mascots. Also: A Colorado principal's quest to find meaning behind the mascot. Paul Riede is an education writer with The Syracuse Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y. Leadership in the Want Ads By Irving H. Buchen The job postings can tell you a lot about the new realities of the superintendency. Irving Buchen is a professor of management and communication in the distance education doctoral program of Walden University, Fort Myers, Fla. Harvard Educational Review "The Poet, the CEO, and the First-Grade Teacher" Teachers talk about their practice in HER's Voices Inside Schools Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. An Education Sham in Wisconsin and the U.S.: Higher Education for All By Dennis W. Redovich What is the rationale for requiring all high school students to complete the requirements for entrance into a four college in order to graduate from high school? The fact that many, if not the majority, of the most extreme public proponents of this idiocy are four year college graduates makes me question the prudence of too many university graduates, professors and administrators. And an academically disadvantaged media dutifully reports all the hype and nonsense about the critical importance of “all” being prepared to attend a four-year college without any serious challenge or rebuttal. Post your comments on this article Achieve Statement of Achieve President Robert Schwartz on 2000 NAEP Math Results WASHINGTON -- The latest NAEP results in math are evidence that expecting more from students and measuring schools' performance can be important levers to raise student achievement. While we have a long way to go, the push to raise standards over the last decade has led to a doubling in the percentage of 4th- and 8th graders proficient in math. The American Educational Research Association Piaget's Early Theory of the Role of Language in Intellectual Development: A Comment on DeVries's Account of Piaget's Social Theory Joe Becker and Maria Varelas Education Commission of the States For-Profit Institutions: Policy Considerations for States A new ECS policy brief reviews issues and challenges posed by the rapid growth of the for-profit sector of postsecondary education. American Federation of Teachers Statement of Sandra Feldman, President of the American Federation of Teachers, on the Phi Delta Kappa Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools The Phi Delta Kappa poll showing an all-time high public approval rating for the public schools should take the wind out of the sails of opponents of public schools. Anytime you have seven out of ten people in favor of working with the existing public school system to make it even stronger and almost nine out of ten people saying that we must raise teacher salaries in order to address the critical teacher shortage, you don’t just have support, you have a mandate to keep pushing for the things that we know work in our public schools. Elementary Educators Rewards and Prizes: Should you use them? Some teachers love them, while others avoid them. What do you think about using material rewards in the classroom? See what worked for one third grade teacher. Journal American Medical Association Pay Attention: Ritalin Acts Much Like Cocaine Brian Vastag Washington Advanced imaging research has answered a 40-year-old question about methylphenidate (Ritalin), which is taken daily by 4 million to 6 million children in the United States: how does it work? The answer may unsettle many parents, because the drug acts much like cocaine, albeit cocaine dripped through molasses (J Neurosci. 2001;21:RC121). Post your comments on this article Cause on Line Michigan Board of Ed Out to Gut Special Ed Parent's Power Editorial pertaining to the Proposed Revised Administrative Rules for Special Education COMMENTARY By Kim Murphy for the FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Currently, the Michigan Department of Education is in the process of aligning their state administrative rules for special education with the federal regulations, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Within this process, the Department of Education is rescinding the majority of rules that have been relied upon to regulate special education services offered in Michigan. This process will shift the burden of enforcing special education laws from the state level down to the Individual Education Plan process where many parents are left helpless. There is a tremendous lack of enforcement here in Michigan, as there is in many states around the U.S. Parents and organizations alike are horrified that these changes are taking place and that our input is being given little credence. We are organizing and we are gaining strength to fight these changes and to hold on to the regulations that we feel are invaluable in securing appropriate services for our children. Post your comments on this article Freedom Forum Students suspended for survey comments sue school Five Massachusetts high school students have filed a lawsuit against their school after they were suspended early this year over comments they made on a confidential survey about race relations. Post your comments on this article Town Hall Summertime -- and the livin' ain't easy by Bill O'Reilly As summer winds down, America finds itself in a rather dubious place. The economy is terrible, the public-school system isn't much better, and Gary Condit is a household name. Children First American DESTINATION: BANGOR MAINE It was a great pleasure for me to travel to Maine this week to present a challenge grant to the Maine Children’s Scholarship Fund for its successful local fund-raising efforts. Washington Monthly Leave No Superintendent Behind: On July 12, The Washington Monthly and the Annenberg Public Policy Center hosted a panel discussion showcasing some leading urban superintendents and their concerns about current proposals for education reform. Participants included: Roy Romer, Superintendent of the Los Angeles City Schools, Harold Levy, Chancellor of New York City Schools, David Hornbeck, former Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia, Gene Hickok, Undersecretary of Education Post your comments on this article USA Today Arizona school-choice plan provides model By Carrie Lips Tinika Malone is a 31-year-old single mother with four beautiful daughters. Unbeknown to her, she's also on the front lines of a national debate over the future of public education. Cato Institute Arizona's Scholarship Tax Credit:A New Direction for School Choice? POLICY FORUM Monday, September 17, 2001 Featuring Sen. Jon L. Kyl (R-Ariz.), Introduced the Leave No Child Behind Tax Credit Act of 2001; Lisa Graham Keegan, Chief executive officer of the Education Leaders Council and former Arizona superintendent of public instruction; Carrie Lips, Author of "The Arizona Scholarship Tax Credit: Giving Parents Choices, Saving Taxpayers Money," to be released on September 17 by the Cato Institute. Salon Uncurious George There's a lot to be learned from the president's encounters with elementary school students by Arianna Huffington Gather 'round, little ones, it's story time. Today's is a scary one. It's about a president utterly lacking in imagination. It's called "The Very Uncurious President." WorldNet Daily The education tax racket LewRockwell.com So there's this guy named Ray Simon. He's director of the Arkansas Department of Education, and he's got a complaint about the boom in home schooling. The way he sees it, this trend is a threat to our, or at least his, way of life. Reason Magazine Teaching the Bottom Line First came for-profit schools for kids. Are for-profit colleges for teachers next? By Sam MacDonald When the Edison Project began as a controversial for-profit school venture in 1992, the first thing it had to do was find some students. Those were the good old days. Now that Edison is teaching the three R’s to 57,000 students in 113 schools across the country, it faces a tougher challenge: finding enough qualified teachers. The same is true for public schools, of course. But Edison thinks it has found a solution that might allow it to leap-frog its public education counterparts in the quest for instructors: The company is planning to open its own system of one-year teachers colleges. Post your comments on this article Hoover Institute What do tests tell us? by Bill Evers "One thing standardized tests can tell us is whether the grades that teachers give their students actually indicate how much the students know." Post your comments on this article Fordham Foundation (2 articles) Personnel Policy in Charter Schools When schools are held accountable for results and freed from red tape governing personnel decisions, they take advantage of their freedom by adopting innovative strategies for hiring and rewarding teachers, according to this new report by economists Michael Podgursky and Dale Ballou. This study is based on a survey administered to a random sample of 132 public charter schools that have been operating for at least three years. How Necessary is Ed School? Chester E. Finn, Jr. A fundamental issue and long-running debate in U.S. teacher policy—with profound implications for both the supply and the quality of our K-12 instructional force—is whether all public-school teachers must be "certified" by their states and, if so, whether they must spend a prolonged period of time in an "approved teacher preparation program" on a university campus before they can qualify for certification. Simply put, must people attend an ed school before they are permitted to teach? Maple River Education Coalition The NAEP Test (NAEP = National Assessment of Educational Progress) The NAEP test is commonly described as a national academic achievement test. It is actually far more, and far different, than that. It is a key tool for forcing the federal mandated value-system and political indoctrination into schools, under the guise of "measuring educational progress." Post your comments on this article Quick Observations Year 2000 NAEP Math Assessment Richard Innes California’s drop in 4th grade exclusion, combined with the state’s 5 point score increase, may be one of the biggest improvements in this assessment series. It is notable that the same situation did not occur for California 8th grade math. Post your comments on this article Columbus Dispatch SCHOOLS SHOULD 'DECOMMIT' TO GOBBLEDYGOOK By William L. Bainbridge There's a story that circulated for years among educators about the parent of a high-school student in Texas who received a notice from the school administration announcing a meeting for a new program. Post your comments on this article BioTech Knowledge Center "Science Education Paradox; How Can The Same System Produce Scientific Elites And Illiterates?" Science Education Paradox How Can The Same System Produce Scientific Elites And Illiterates? The United States by any conceivable measure has the finest scientists in the world. But the rest of the population, by any rational standard, is abysmally ignorant of science, mathematics and all things technical. That is the paradox of scientific elites and scientific illiterates: how can the same system of education that produced all those brilliant scientists also have produced all that ignorance? Post your comments on this article Fox News Do Costs of Sex Harassment Cases Affect College Tuition? Hundreds of thousands of parents are tightening their belts to write out huge college tuition checks. Others are taking money out of every paycheck for their younger children's education. America's Survival $15 Billion Missing From Education Department The report, "Government at the Brink," issued in June by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, says that the Education Department reported in its financial statements that it had $7.5 billion in the bank when it actually owed that money to the U.S. Treasury. This means that the department's books are off by $15 billion, about a third of what it spends annually. But this isn't just a case of bad accounting. Education department whistleblower John Gard suspects that "senior management officials" in the department had been "setting up the Agency to rip it off" and that millions of dollars or more have been embezzled. Gard says there was no security over the system to prevent embezzlement and no audit trail to find out where the money was going. Post your comments on this article Buckeye Institute (2 articles) Bargaining Away Teachers' Rights pdf Imagine you are a public school teacher in Ohio who is generally satisfied with the representation that your union provides, but don't like your dues going to support political issues that you oppose. Your options for relief may appear limited until you discover that Ohio law allows you to resign from the union and only pay dues for collective bargaining representation. Teacher unions in Ohio have become wise to this and made it increasingly difficult for teachers to exercise this right. Post your comments on this article Policy Note Let's Try That Again: Remedial Education in Ohio's Universities. Post-secondary remedial education is slowly on the rise in Ohio. During the 1998-99 school year, 26 percent of Ohio's recent high school graduates enrolled in math courses classified as "remedial" at Ohio's public universities. This represents a three percentage point increase over the 1978-79 school year, the first for which historical data is available. Post your comments on this article Howard Hughes Medical Institute "Overcoming the Intractable Problem" For many years, colleges and universities across the United States have sought to increase the numbers of African American, Hispanic and Native American students who pursue scientific careers. Yet the College Board reported in 1999 that underrepresentation of minority students had become even "more intractable."* Austin Review School Choice Benefits Public Schools Thomas Dawson debunks the conventional wisdom that choice would harm government schools. National Center for Learning Disabilities (2 articles) New Reading Guide for Teachers Teaching Reading: A Guide for First Grade is a new, FREE, 32-page, two-color guide for educators from the award-winning children's TV show BETWEEN THE LIONS. The show, which airs daily on PBS, uses music, humor, puppets, and live action to help teach reading to children ages four to seven. It features a family of lions-Theo, Cleo, Lionel, and Leona-who run a library like no other: stories come alive, vowels sing, and knights such as Sir H and Sir Op joust together to form Hop! Legislative News The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have each passed a bill that would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), revamping the nation's largest federal involvement in education. During the coming weeks, Senate and House conferees will meet to work out the final provisions. Issues related to learning disabilities include funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), discipline of children with disabilities, and improving reading. In Defense of Testing Series Educational Testing Service Testing, Accountability, and Funding Key to Education Reform Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews A quick glance at headlines from our nation’s newspapers would have you believe that Americans are sick and tired of standardized tests in schools. There are protests by parents and taunts from test takers in front of schools and state houses. And yet, a far-reaching national public opinion poll says quite the opposite. An overwhelming majority of Americans are in fact demanding greater accountability for our public education system—measurement that can be pro-vided through the proper use of fair assessments. Post your comments on this article Select California Schools made higher gains THREE YEARS OF PROGRESS IN COMMITTED DISTRICTS AND SCHOOLS Wayne Bishop Three districts that I know about, as well as a number of individual schools, have made a strong effort to get with the California Mathematics Content Standards. These districts are Azusa and Inglewood, pretty small, and Sacramento City, pretty large. I started this last year with two years and now there is another year of data. As last year, the year 2001 math numbers, SAT-9 average national percentile ranking (NPR), exceed their other SAT-9 scores for all of 2-6 and a 10-15 point spread is common, some as much as 20. Azusa's mathematics performance made the LA Times, Richard Lee Colvin's special insert "Report Card" of August 16, "two -thirds of the students are from low-income households and half are not native English speakers. Post your comments on this article The Guardian (UK) Tested to destruction Most of the 600,000 teenagers anxiously awaiting their results on Thursday will be hoping fervently never to have anything to do with GCSEs ever again. Exam burden may drop Houston Review Longhorn Overpopulation Beth Henary documents how the top ten percent rule has flooded the University of Texas at Austin and lowered admissions standards. National Bureau of Economic Research School Style Can Raise Achievement "Elementary school students with teachers who are 'tough' graders have fewer disciplinary problems and show greater improvements in their reading and math scores." Though state curricular standards have proliferated since 1983, there remains a stunning lack of consensus about what comprises a good education, an inability to agree on how one measures it, and a lack of evidence about whether particular teaching practices or school organizational forms do a superior job of imparting it. In Do High Grading Standards Affect Student Performance? (NBER Working Paper No. 7985), authors David Figlio and Maurice Lucas explore one of these questions. Post your comments on this article The American Enterprise The Tragedy of School Consolidation By Bill Kauffman As the school bells ring in another fall, let us recall those benighted days before the 2,000-student high school, with its Olympic-sized swimming pool, gleaming array of computers, and anonymous enrollees falling through gilded cracks. Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. The Big Con in Education in Texas and the United States By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is a big con. Schools have been bashed by politicians, the business interests and learned elite forever. Bashing schools is a worldwide phenomenon and is not confined to Texas. Texas just likes to do things big time. The con has been conceived by too many people, including educators and public officials feeding at the trough and is gleefully perpetuated without question by an academically challenged media. Post your comments on this article KeepTextbooks House Bill 759 would let children keep their math and science textbooks Mark Loewe, Ph. D. (Physics) The Texas Legislature is considering a bill that would let our youngest school children permanently keep their math and science textbooks. House Bill 759 by Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) provides that "For mathematics and science instruction in grades one through six, each textbook the State Board of Education adopts must have a cost that is low enough to permit a student to keep the book at the end of the school year, so that the student may review the core concepts of the essential knowledge and skills as necessary." Post your comments on this article Texas Public Policy Foundation (2 articles) A Challenge to Texas: Ethnic Chasm Remains in Mathematics Last week the National Center for Education Statistics released the 2000 Mathematics Report Card for 4th and 8th grade students in 40 states. The good news is that Texas is one of those leading the way. The bad news is that there is much more to be done. Post your comments on this article Upcoming Textbook Adoption for Middle and High School Science Chris Patterson, Director of Education Research Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (2 articles) The Need to Stand Firm on Flexibility By Mike Judge Is a guest contributor to EducationNews As President Bush’s education plan has worked its way through Congress over the past few months, many of the aspects touted by conservatives as the most beneficial have been removed from the bill. Vouchers, for instance, which were a hot topic during the election, were quickly cast aside due to their lack in popularity among Democrats, and even some Republicans. Bush ultimately sought to move along more bipartisan ground in order that some form of his education plan would pass Congress. Post your comments on this article Back To School - For Parents As Well By Daniel S. Konieczko Is a guest contributor to EducationNews At this time when parents are busily shopping for clothes and supplies to prepare their children to head back to school, they might want to take a break from the hustle and bustle to contemplate a more basic question: Can parents really have a positive impact upon the educational policies that affect their children? Post your comments on this article Citizen Magazine For the Children? The National Education Association says it's dedicated to educating children, so why is it so busy promoting abortion, homosexuality and a host of other liberal causes? By Dick Carpenter The teacher union boss was not happy. Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, had invested much of his political and professional capital in advancing homosexuality through the schools. He gave a controversial keynote address at the October 2000 convention of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network. 1 He had written a pro-gay open letter this year to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. 2 And he pushed for passage of a resolution at the NEA’s annual convention in early July that would have called for the “involvement of gay…educators in developing educational material,” and holding up “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender education employees as role models.” 3 Post your comments on this article Home School Legal Defense Association Federal Alert Update—Committee Considers Step Toward National Test HSLDA has been battling the expansion of the National Assessment Education Progrss (NAEP) for five years out of concern that it would eventually become America's national testing standard. Now our concern is threatening to become a reality. Many congressmen and senators on the Education Conference Committee for House Resolution 1 and Senate bill 1 are leaning towards a mandatory NAEP test for every state. A confident National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB—the board responsible for developing NAEP) is already making plans to change NAEP to match Congress' potential testing requirements. ASCD MAKE ME LAUGH: USING HUMOR IN THE CLASSROOM Tired of spending time after school in detention with students, a teacher decided to give "accordions" to those who acted out in class. An accumulation of three "accordions" would require the offending student to stay after school for a 10-minute session of the teacher practicing "Lady of Spain" on-what else?-her accordion. Creative teachers often use humor to deal with one of the more difficult chores they face-maintaining discipline. In fact, humor in the classroom can be an effective social tool that builds bridges with students and relieves stress, say educators and experts alike. Post your comments on this article CREDE FIVE STANDARDS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING In stark contrast to the dogmatic, reductionist, controlling, 'one-size-fits-all' curricular prescriptions that have gained so much favor in the field of education, this Web site proposes a pedagogy that actually respects the intellect of teachers and students, and that advocates building on their sociocultural resources in creating advanced, flexible, and diverse environments for learning. Post your comments on this article Children First America PENNSYLVANIA TAX CREDITS FILLING UP FAST Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge passed a $20 million tuition tax credit for corporate donations to private scholarship organizations, and Pennsylvania businesses responded by donating 39% of that amount on the first day, demonstrating strong business community support for school choice. Sacramento Bee Test results show that school reform is still a work in progress Dan Walters It's been nearly a decade since Californians were shocked to learn that in national tests of academic achievement, their children ranked near the bottom, right down there with the kids in Mississippi. Business Week What Makes Sally Learn In the drive to improve the quality of U.S. education, it's often assumed that shifting to tougher grading standards can enhance learning, and that "tracking"--putting high achievers in separate classes--hurts disadvantaged students. A pair of recent National Bureau of Economic Research studies, however, suggest that only one of these beliefs is borne out by the evidence. USA Today Guide gauges U.S. schools' strengths Stat sites are a go-to source for parents By Karen Thomas USA TODAY Whether parents are relocating to another state or just looking to make a change as the fall term begins, doing online research on the quality of schools has gotten a little easier. Post your comments on this article Heritage Foundation (2 articles) The Report Card Report: America's Best Web Sites for School Profiles Internet-based school report cards have been called "the cornerstone of our accountability system." That's why The Heritage Foundation has compiled information about, and links to samples of Internet-based report cards in each of the 50 states. Post your comments on this article New Tax Law Boosts School Construction with Public-Private Partnerships Fast-growing suburbs, deteriorating cities, and a demographic "echo boom" of school-aged children have left many communities struggling to provide adequate classroom space. Provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 will address that problem for some school districts by allowing a limited number of communities to transfer the responsibilities of financing, building, and owning public schools to private-sector investors who will lease schools to communities. Post your comments on this article Education Gadfly How to keep good principals Diane Ravitch Time magazine and other national media have recently featured the work of a program called "New Leaders for New Schools," which is preparing 15 people to become school principals. This is most certainly a valuable activity and it deserves commendation if, in fact, the 15 people do someday turn out to be not only principals but good principals. Of course, we won't know the answer to that question for several years. Post your comments on this article Texas Education Agency The 2001 Accountability Ratings for all Texas public schools and districts have been released. Colorado Business Magazine Change Agent Steve Schuck changed the landscape of Colorado - now he wants to change our schools By Alan Katz It’s natural for Steve Schuck to take an interest in schools. A master land developer who’s been involved in state politics for two decades, Schuck also is a onetime teacher and football coach who understood three decades ago the close connection between Colorado’s economic future and the quality of its public schools. Post your comments on this article Jewish World Review The "autism" dragnet Thomas Sowell The U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health have launched a campaign to get a government program created to "identify" children with autism at age two and then subject them to "intensive" early intervention for 25 hours a week or more. It sounds good, but so have so many other government programs that created more problems than they solved. Post your comments on this article Parents Advocating School Accountability 2001 Test Scores Drop at San Francisco's For-Profit Edison School Newly released spring 2001 STAR test scores for San Francisco's controversial, for-profit Edison Charter Academy show declines from the previous year in nearly every category. The school's test scores continue to rank far below districtwide averages. Post your comments on this article QUESTIA launched version 2.0 of Questia today. Version 2.0 includes a vastly improved user interface, better tools, and 60,000 titles. Questia has achieved their vision of putting a first-rate personal library that is always available and fully customizable online. PTO Today PTO vs. PTA National PTA faces key decisions as local groups increasingly turn to PTO By Tim Sullivan It was perhaps the loudest reaction on the first day of the 2000 national PTA convention in Chicago this past June. Illinois Superintendent of Schools Dr. Glenn McGee remembered a day earlier in his career when he made the “mistake” of referring to parent groups as “PTOs.” Post your comments on this article THE COUNCIL FOR BASIC EDUCATION'S STATEMENT ON ACT 2001 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE SCORES Christopher T. Cross, President of the Council for Basic Education (WASHINGTON DC) "The fact that ACT scores have remained stagnant for the past five years is really troublesome. There is a clear indication that the standards-based reform efforts, still in the implementation phase in many school districts, have not yet impacted our most recent graduates who did not benefit from a rigorous curriculum throughout their elementary and secondary school years. Post your comments on this article State of California California's STAR/SAT9 test scores JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS FOUNDATION SCORES TOUCHDOWN WITH PROGRAM AIMED AT LOW-INCOME YOUTH New Study Says Honor Rows Program Has Made a Difference For Jacksonville--Area Youngsters Princeton, NJ--A National Football League (NFL) team's foundation has developed a project that motivates economically and socially disadvantaged Jacksonville-area youth to improve behaviors and could be a national model for other sports foundations, says an independent assessment. A report from the Institute for Child Health Policy finds that the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation's Honor Rows Program supported school performance, inspired youth to improve personal behaviors, and enhanced self-confidence among participants. It also has elevated the Jaguars as a model corporate citizen that gives back to its community. Post your comments on this article Lexington Institute The Rise of Private Teacher Training By Robert Holland Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Executive Summary A shortage of teachers and the growing demand of parents for choices in their children’s education are combining to spur the entry of the private sector into teacher training, which has largely been left to a state monopoly. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations are putting resources into teacher preparation. Post your comments on this article Tennessee Institute for Public Policy Going Back to School: Improving Public School Food Service Operations J. C. Bowman Is a regular contributor to EducationNews NASHVILLE --Local school districts should be able to look to state government to provide research expertise, policy recommendations, and technical assistance to help them channel more tax dollars away from non-academic purposes and back into the classroom. If we are going to expect state agencies and educational organizations to assist with improving academic performance, doesn’t it make sense that non-academic functions receive similar assistance? Post your comments on this article Education Policy Institute AFT Union Neglects Teachers A Weekly Column by Myron Lieberman Inside AFT (the American Federation of Teachers on-line publication) for the week ending July 30 illustrates several points about this occupational conglomerate. The first item of six, trashes the Bush Administration's position on a patients' rights bill. The next item describes an AFT organization victory at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. Union strategy "featured one-on-one organizing at the work site, as well as house visits, distribution of two organizing videos, targeted mailings of flyers and newsletters, a special Web site linked from the state federations' web page, and media outreach through local radio interviews and letters to the editor." Post your comments on this article Parent Power Is this math fuzzy? Paul Clopton Fuzzy Math is one of the phrases used to refer to the many newer mathematics programs that are designed around current fads in mathematics education and often are inadequate for effective learning. The word fuzzy is used in the sense of warm and fuzzy or fuzzy thinking, and does not refer to advanced topics like fuzzy logic. Post your comments on this article NCES NCES has just released the report, "English Literacy and Language Minorities in the United States." This report provides an in-depth look at adult residents of the United States who were either born in other countries or were born in the United States but spoke a language other than English as young children. The report explores the English fluency and literacy of this population, their fluency and literacy in their native languages, and their employment patterns and earnings. Educational Testing Service Model Schools and Reading Networks – Education Reform That Works Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews The fundamental principles driving President Bush’s ambitious education reform agenda are clear – all children deserve a chance to succeed, the federal government should partner with states and schools to ensure success, and intervention programs can make a difference. Post your comments on this article The Case for Federal Policy to Raise Educational Standards by Kevin R. Kosar Is a guest contributor to EducationNews This article argues for federal policy to raise state educational standards. It does this in five steps. First, it reviews the evidence on student educational under-achievement. Second, it argues that under-achievement is worthy of a policy response. Third, it shows that states have thus far failed to raise standards. Fourth, it considers the evidence on standards reforms on improving educational achievement. Finally, it outlines a federal policy to raise state educational standards. Post your comments on this article Washington Times Teaching to the test Denise Barnes THE WASHINGTON TIMES Just imagine having to read a six-inch block of type, analyze it and then answer the question in 1.8 minutes. It's the equivalent of trying to read a Reader's Digest article in the grocery store line when the guy in front fo you is about to get his change. USA Today NEA takes stand against tests Anti-testing positions adopted by the National Education Association: * The NEA supports legislation allowing parents to opt their children out of all mandated standardized tests without penalty for students, parents, teachers or schools. Fort Bend Sun (Texas) More tests & classroom time won't solve our school ills By TRINH T. LE, Editor Boosting teacher pay and requiring universal pre-school are better ways to improve student performance in schools, not standardized tests and lengthening school days, according to a new survey of America's parents. Post your comments on this article UCLA SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT/CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS Teacher Turnover: Dropout or Pushout? Are there mental health implications? No one doubts there is a problem recruiting good teachers. It is becoming evident that retaining teachers is an even bigger problem. Researchers suggest that poor working conditions and lack of significant on-the-job training and support are causing many new teachers to leave within five years. Included in descriptions of poor working conditions are factors that, in motivational terms, can be seen as threatening feelings of competence, self-determination, and relatedness. Post your comments on this article Town Hall The war against competition hurts boys by Marvin Olasky At many schools, the classic competitions are dead. Dodge ball is out. Despite the high profile of the National Spelling Bee, classroom spelling bees are much less frequent. At some elementary school basketball games, no one keeps score. It's a mad, mad, world by John Leo More news from the annals of zero tolerance and the continuing campaign to make the culture ever more deranged: Publik skool biggotz by Michelle Malkin Nothing breeds sophomoric resentment like academic success. So it's no surprise that home schoolers and their children are the target of a spiteful T-shirt sold in retail stores and online. Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States The Phony Intellectualism of So-called School Reform in the United States Is Harmful to Children and Public Education By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday Wisconsin State Supt. of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster has received some national news media attention for her comments that the Bush education plan should be labeled "No Child Left Untested" rather than the official Bush title of "No Child Left Behind". Where are the priorities? “I think the federal plan takes us down the wrong road. The right road, she said, is to emphasize steps such as reductions in class size, improvement in early childhood educational programs and efforts to improve the overall quality of teaching.” The school reform of Bush and the conservative think tanks is phony intellectualism and elitism. Post your comments on this article The Tip of the Iceberg: SURR Schools and Academic Failure in New York City Introduction Joseph P. Viteritti Research Professor of Public Administration, New York University Data Assembly Kevin Kosar Ph.D. Candidate in Politics, New York University Since 1989 the New York State Education Department has been issuing a list of low performing public schools that are targeted for corrective action. They supposedly run the risk of being closed if significant improvements are not made. Over the years nearly ninety percent of the schools placed on the notorious SURR list (Schools Under Registration Review) have been located in New York City, even though only twenty percent of the schools in the state are New York City public schools. Presently 98 of 114 schools on the list are in the five boroughs. Previous reports have shown that a disproportionate number of the children assigned to these schools are African American or Hispanic. These schools also have a disproportionate number of teachers who are not fully certified and have less than five years of experience in the classroom. Post your comments on this article PediatricNeurology Martin L. Kutscher, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY; Pediatric Neurological Assoc., White Plains, NY. We’ve Been Missing the Point “Johnny is very active! He never stops moving. He gets distracted by any little noise, and has the attention span of a flea. Often, he acts before he thinks. His sister, Jill, is often in a fog. Sometimes, she’s just so spaced!” That is how we typically consider children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). OK, not so bad. But that is often only the tip of the iceberg. Here is another likely description of the whole picture for a child with ADHD: Post your comments on this article Here are some interesting conclusions taken from the results of the most recent (2000) NAEP scores in mathematics. 1. Calculator use "At grade 4 more frequent calculator use was associated with lower scores, while at grades 8 and 12 the opposite was generally true--students who said they used calculators more often tended to score higher than their peers who reported using calculators less frequently." 2. Computer availability There was no meaningful correlation apparent between computer availability and math performance in any grade. See Chapter 5, p. 147 3. Textbooks At all grades, students who reported doing problems from a textbook regularly scored higher than those who did not. In grades 8 and 12, "those who reported doing math problems from a textbook daily scored highest." (The average score was 281 for those answering "daily" versus 265 for those answering "weekly.") See Chapter 6, p. 157, 158 4. Cooperative learning At all grades, students who reported talking with other students during class about how to solve problems "every day" or "weekly" scored lower than those who reported doing it "MONTHLY." "Monthly" also scored higher than "hardly ever." Post your comments on this article New South Wales Department of Education and Training SUBMISSION TO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INQUIRY INTO THE EDUCATION OF BOYS The NSW Department of Education and Training welcomes this parliamentary inquiry into the education of boys. It is appropriate and timely for the Commonwealth to take a leadership role in this issue of national significance. The focus of the inquiry on the social, cultural and educational factors affecting the education of boys signifies the complexity of the issues facing schools and other educational institutions with regard to gender. Review of Teacher in NSW and the Report "Quality Matters" The review of teacher education in NSW provides an opportunity for teachers and the community to help create the conditions for improving the professional standing and quality of teaching in our schools and colleges. National Education Association NEW REPORT URGES POLICYMAKERS TO ADDRESS NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS "Why Rural Matters: The Need for Every State to Take Action on Rural Education" offers a state-by-state look at the education needs of our country's rural communities. NEA recently sponsored a congressional briefing on this report. See for yourself why it's so important. Post your comments on this article Children First America THE COMING DEMOCRATIC EMBRACE OF PARENTAL CHOICE. A report from the Federal Election Commission reveals the depth of teacher union political activity and power. The report reveals that the National Education Association essentially purchased not only seats on Democratic campaign committees in 1996 but also the right to approve or reject the Democratic agenda. However, Democrats have played leading rolls supporting school choice in Milwaukee, Cleveland and elsewhere. Post your comments on this article ABC News Looking for an Answer Home Schooling Offers Alternative, Challenge for Parents and Kids By Dean Schabner Aug. 10 — Five youngsters are drowned by their mother in their bathtub. Three teenagers are killed in a murder-suicide. A 14-year-old runner-up from a previous year wins a national spelling bee. A Web search for "home schooling" would have turned up all of these stories. Wichita Eagle OUR VIEW Problems at schools deserve hard look Over the past six years, the deal the for-profit Edison Project made with the Wichita school district has been: Give the corporation some schools, let it apply good management and know-how, add a mix of public and private funding, and they'd show us just how much more effective education can be. Post your comments on this article The Boring Institute How to Turn School into an Exciting Learning Experience Back to School Tips from The Boring Institute White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige Thank you, Mrs. Cheney, for that kind introduction. It is an honor to be a part of an administration that has so many strong advocates for education, and of those advocates, you are one of the most eloquent. I know you have been working on a book for the past few months, and I hear you are nearly finished. Like many people, I am eager to read your book, and also eager to have you working alongside us for America's children fulltime. Address by Susan B. Neuman Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education U.S. Department of Education "Access to Print: Problem, Consequences and Instructional Solutions" Mrs. Bush, thank you for the opportunity to speak at this important conference. Today, I want to take the opportunity to discuss some of my work in early literacy over the past ten years in Philadelphia at Temple University, and then at the University of Michigan. Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States The Corporate Conquest Of The University By Robert Miranda Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The debate over stem-cell research is missing the obvious deformity caused by university/corporate partnerships. While we are inundated with the moral and ethical aspects of the debate, a more profound and fundamental issue for us to contemplate continues to be ignored. Post your comments on this article Education Week Mentoring Can't Do It All Author and educator Harry K. Wong says that new teachers need systematic and sustained induction programs, not just mentors. Plano Parental Rights Council Media Bias in reporting Educational Progress By Susan Sarhady President, Plano Parental Rights Council Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Mathematics achievement has been in the news lately because of the recent release of the results of the 2000 National Mathematics Assessment. Results are reported on a state level as well as a national level. The assessment is administered to a sampling of 4th, 8th and 12th grade students. Here is the short list of some of the headlines the report generated: Post your comments on this article Section 504 Compliance Advisor Homeschool placement can trigger a special education obligation Copyright 2001 LRP Publications Section 504 Compliance Advisor...08/02/2001 By Perry Zirkel* When homeschooled children have one or more disabilities, it raises issues about the intersection of homeschooling under state law and special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This Q&A discusses that issue using published court and administrative rulings. Q: Is homeschooling under state law the same as homebound placement under the IDEA? Insight Magazine What Happened to the Great Ideas? By John Berlau jberlau@InsightMag.com Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler recently passed away, but his legacy lives on in the Great Books programs he inspired and succeeded in establishing across the nation. Hyper-Drugging of Active Kids By Kelly Patricia O’Meara komeara@InsightMag.com State legislatures are beginning to take action to rein in the widespread practice of drugging hyperactive children to control their undesirable behavior in the classroom. Students Confront Campus News Bias By Erik Baptist Despite the general lack of support from the liberal university establishment, conservative college newspapers nationwide continue to spark intellectual debate and challenge the left. Schooled for Life By Stephen Goode sgoode@InsightMag.com Christendom College is one of 30 distinguished colleges/universities which, Insight has found, still teach the fullness of the Western academic traditions. Schools Giving P.E. Short Shrift By Timothy W. Maier tmaier@InsightMag.com Schools across the country are decreasing class time, money and resources devoted to physical education, which critics claim is harming the health of U.S. children. A Lesson Learned the Hard Way By Sheila R. Cherry scherry@InsightMag.com After Washington public schools promised reforms, a mother and son found out firsthand that some teachers would sacrifice students’ futures to save their own jobs. The Public Interest The Surprising Consensus On School Choice By Jay P. Greene There has been a flurry of activity in school choice research in the last few years. As a result, where we used to have only theories and limited evidence we now have a relatively solid understanding of the likely effects of school choice. I say "relatively" because all research is necessarily imperfect and additional study can always improve the confidence with which we draw conclusions. But the research on school choice includes several random-assignment studies, the "gold-standard" of research design, where subjects are randomly assigned to treatment and control groups as in a medical study. I can think of only one other education policy issue (the effect of class-size reduction) that has been the subject of even one significant random-assignment experiment, let alone several "gold-standard" studies. Post your comments on this article The Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) presents The 5th Annual Fall Conference Understanding and Preventing Youth Violence: From Bullies to Bullets Texas Public Policy Foundation (2 articles) Losing the Race: The SAT and College Admissions by Chris Patterson Post your comments on this article Future of TAAS Test Hangs in the Balance Policy Action Update (Available in .html and .pdf format) Post your comments on this article PTO Today PTO Power Entire town in on the act for this group's special reading night. Celebrity Night Coaxes Kids to Read Pew Internet & American Life Project The Internet and Education:pdf Findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project A Back-To-School Message from Michigan's Superintendent The Opening of School Still Brings Mixed Emotions Tom Watkins Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The anticipation, fear, exhilaration and excitement, all were building up in me like a kettle about to blow. I remember the feeling well. The push and pull that "the day" was quickly approaching choked me like a size 15 shirt around my size 16 neck. I wanted the day to get here, and yet I feared it would arrive - kind of like Mom saying "your Dad wants to see you, young man, NOW!" Post your comments on this article The Women's Quartley The Write Stuff: Christina Hoff Sommers believes schools should teach the lost art of penmanship There are exceptions, but here is the rule: Boys are graphologically challenged. That males have many more problems with penmanship than females is "not even a question," according to University of Maryland special education professor and distinguished scholar Steve Graham. "It is one of the better established facts in the literature." Handwriting is a basic skill that serves us all our lives. Unfortunately, a problem that primarily affects boys is rarely on anyone's list of educational priorities. This one could be solved readily enough, if schools would take the pains they once took to inculcate good handwriting. Howard Hughes Medical Institute An Undergraduate Education Challenge The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has issued a challenge to science professors across the United States: Show the same ingenuity in your undergraduate teaching that you do in your scientific research. While You Weren’t Watching By Bill Carlson Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Delaine Eastin, California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, wants to ensure all children the right to a safe and respectful learning environment and the opportunity to develop into healthy, productive adults. Most schools in America have long held these goals as a top priority. Even so, during April, 2001, Eastin sent a directive to all California county and local school district superintendents advising them that Assembly Bill (AB) 537, the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 (approved by outgoing Governor Pete Wilson on October 2, 1999), has brought revisions to the Education Code. Post your comments on this article The National Association for Neighborhood Schools has sent the following letter to Ralph Boyd regarding his position on the Baton Rouge situation as detailed in the above article. Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division U.S. Justice Department 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Dear Mr. Boyd We are in receipt of a copy of your correspondence to Lucian A. Mascarella of East Baton Rouge LA. While Mr. Mascarella did not seek our response to the letter he shared with us, as a national organization we are obligated to respond on behalf not only of the citizens of Baton Rouge, but of the entire nation. Post your comments on this article GOALS 2000 U.S. RESTRUCTURING SOCIETY THROUGH EDUCATION The U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring two very significant conferences during November and December 1997. They involve President Clinton's pledge to make education his number one priority for the next four years. All educators have a crucial role to play and the public has a compelling interest in understanding the plan, entitled Goals 2000. This is the program which the President has made his number one priority. Post your comments on this article Mises Institute Groupthink and You by Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds You see it in daycare centers, and you see it in the public schools, from kindergarten to high school. Group projects abound, shoving together individuals who have no formal bonds, yet are banded together for the purpose of collective decision-making. Post your comments on this article ISTE RESEARCH JOURNAL MARKS TRANSITION WITH FREE ONLINE ISSUE Free Online Issue of JRTE (31 August 2001) A free issue of the Journal for Research on Technology in Education (JRTE) is now available online at www.iste.org/jrte! The JRTE Summer 2001 issue marks the journal’s name change from the Journal of Research on Computing in Education (JRCE). National Education Association NEA MEMBERS PROFILED IN PBS DOCUMENTARY Don't miss "The First Year" Thursday, September 6 at 9:00 p.m. The 90-minute film shows the determination and commitment of five new teachers struggling to survive their first year in America's toughest schools. Children First America BISHOP LEADS FLOCK OUT OF ST. LOUIS SCHOOLS Fed up with decades of St. Louis public school failure, Bishop Lawrence Wooten of the Church of God in Christ (the second largest and fastest growing African-American church in the country) has begun the process of setting up new private schools with the goal of getting 3,000 children out of the dysfunctional government run system. The Bishop had been attempting to set up charter schools for years, but had run into a "Berlin Wall" of resistance from district authorities. Wooten told the Wall Street Journal that only 42% of students entering St. Louis government schools finish despite spending $10,000 per pupil. St. Louis has been spending at County Club rates without achieving Mickey Mouse Club results. "We wanted to open charter schools, but to save our kids we are going to do it all by ourselves," Tim Daniels, Wooten’s former marine point-man, told the Journal. The focus of the new schools will be on academics and parental involvement. The Bishop’s move is a dramatic sign of the extreme frustration felt by those left behind in urban school systems. I doubt that it will be the last... Center for Immigration Studies "American Unionism and U.S. Immigration Policy," by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr. Throughout its lengthy history, few issues have caused the American labor movement more agony than immigration. It is ironic this should be the case as most adult immigrants directly enter the labor force. So eventually do most of their family members. But precisely because immigration affects the scale, geographical distribution, and skill composition of the labor force, it affects national, regional, and local labor market conditions. Hence, organized labor can never ignore immigration trends. Immigration has in the past and continues to affect the developmental course of American trade unionism. Labor’s responses, in turn, have significantly influenced the actual public policies that have shaped the size and character of immigrant entries. WorldNet Daily (2 articles) (2 articles) Salvation for government schools? What would you say if I told you there is a movement under way, endorsed by groups as diverse as People for the American Way and the Christian Legal Society, to bring the Bible back into government schools? The debate is engaged! Exclusive: Elizabeth Farah dialogues with reader on home schooling The following is the correspondence exchanged between a reader and myself regarding my last column. MY COLUMN: Government can't educate without destroying the very object of education: the search for truth. Either government employees dictate "truth" to the formative youth or the government employee insists that objective truth does not exist. Either alternative is ludicrous and unthinkable to the rational mind. Washington Times Schools, not government, should select textbooks I read with great interest the Aug. 8 story "School standards boost test success." As a publisher, I have a suggestion that I feel will further improve test scores: deregulate the state textbook selection process. Presently, twenty-one states have state-level textbook selection processes. RecordonLine Bowen quits SUNY New Paltz, will head museum NEW PALTZ: Within the faculty and the community, many people believe the SUNY board and chancellor forced Bowen's resignation. SUNY New Paltz President Roger Bowen resigned yesterday, leaving behind what he deemed a "great job in an ideal place," and ending an embattled five-year reign at this liberal college. TIMSS videotapes Professor Alan Siegel has looked anew at the TIMSS videotapes. In Japan, Siegel finds teacher-guided instruction (including a wide variety of hints and helps from teachers while students are working on or presenting solutions). In both Japanese algebra and geometry classes, he points out that the tapes contain no evidence of students inventing or discovering new mathematical principles or solution methods. The students do gain a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Japanese lessons do not include a significant amount of group work before students have worked on their own. The Japanese math teachers use an interactive teaching approach of "grappling and telling," together with subtle reinforcement techniques. Japanese lessons make extensive use of proof-based reasoning. Japanese instruction uses more lecturing and demonstrations than do traditionalist American math teachers. Siegel also finds that coding guidelines devised by nonmathematicians have distorted some aspects of previous studies of the videotapes. Post your comments on this article Lew Rockwell.com Compulsory Government Education, By What Standard? by Greg Perry An Aunt of mine recently wrote to me and reminded me that she's a former government school teacher and that I offend her with my comments on the government schools and, especially, the teachers. Post your comments on this article Rocklin parent challenges legality and propriety of Rocklin High School site council election: Improper ballot distribution charged; improper candidacy challenged ROCKLIN, California (27 August 2001): A Rocklin parent is challenging the legality of the recent Rocklin High School Site Council election, charging the school district with improper ballot distribution and untimely ballot counting. He is also challenging the legality and propriety of a district substitute teacher’s election to a parent position on the council. Post your comments on this article Gadfly Taking aim at AIMS Diane Ravtch My older sister lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, for many years and her six children attended the public schools there. Her oldest child, my niece, took most of her public schooling in Texas and is now a teacher in Florida. The rest are graduates of the Arizona school system. Whenever I visited her, which I especially liked to do in the winter, I always talked to my nieces and nephews about what they were doing in school. My most memorable exchange was about a dozen years ago, with my nephew Steve. Post your comments on this article NCES The NCES publication "Homeschooling in the United States: 1999" is now available in a web-enabled format. In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled. This report, based on data from the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Survey Program, 1999, contains information about the characteristics of homeschooled children and their families, parent's reasons for homeschooling, and public school support for homeschoolers. Lexington Institute SOL results pinpoint problems Use Virginia's universities to rescue failing schools By ROBERT HOLLAND AS VIRGINIA public schools prepare to start a new year, there's good news and bad news about their ability to meet the state-prescribed Standards of Learning. Washington Times Foes cite 'Dirty Dozen´ of collegiate PC By Andrea Billups College students this fall can enroll in a buffet of courses that tout "Marx, multiculturalism and malarkey," a conservative education organization says in its annual "Dirty Dozen" list of politically correct classes. Oklahoman Oklahoma City 'Online' - Schools Should Advance Academics THIS editorial page has, in the past year, often endorsed the progressive concept of distance learning for elementary and secondary education. Advanced Academics, a business based in Oklahoma City, is among the leading firms involved with this exciting new area in provision of educational services. Post your comments on this article Women's Quarterly (Independent Women's Forum) Summer 2001 "The Write Stuff" by Christina Hoff Sommers Christina Hoff Sommers believes schools should teach the lost art of penmanship There are exceptions, but here is the rule Boys are graphologically challenged. That males have many more problems with penmanship than females is "not even a question," according to University of Maryland special education professor and distinguished scholar Steve Graham. "It is one of the better established facts in the literature." Handwriting is a basic skill that serves us all our lives. Unfortunately, a problem that primarily affects boys is rarely on anyone's list of educational priorities. This one could be solved readily enough, if schools would take the pains they once took to inculcate good handwriting. Post your comments on this article OSEP held a National Summit on Learning Disabilities August 26 and 27th in Washington DC. CSPAN2 is running the opening session with addresses from the Secretary of Education, the new Ast. Secretary of OSERS and Lou Danielson. Many special education faces are in the audience. The executive Summaries of the papers presented can be downloaded from www.air.org/LDsummit or through www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP. By Friday afternoon webcast of the presentations will be available through the sites above. Full text of the papers will be available in early fall. EDUCATION - HAVE IT YOUR WAY? A Response to Time Magazine's "Home Sweet School" 8/27 cover story, by Roxanne Sitler We've all heard the slogan, Have it your way. Most Americans have no trouble understanding this concept when it comes to having their meal their way. But when it comes to education, we run headlong into a different mindset. "What? Have education your way? No way," they say. "The traditional, statist-style 'Whopper' of education might disappear from the menu! That just won't do. After all, it's delicious, nutritious and produces happy, healthy, well-adjusted citizens - 'good' citizens. It's one big, happy hamburger that's been concocted in the kitchen of government education and society would starve to death if we had it any other way." Post your comments on this article Let's Start a Revolution in Public Education Tom Watkins Michigan's Superintendent of Public Instruction Is a guest contributor to EducationNews As I begin this journey as Michigan's Superintendent of Public Instruction, I ponder Is the glass half full or half empty with regard to the quality of our public schools? Being an eternal optimist, I quickly conclude that the glass is half full. Yet, we have a long way to go to fill it to the top. Post your comments on this article Edison Faces More Political Than Performance Challenges By Philip Vassallo, Ed.D. Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Imagine having a child whom you are about to place in your district’s school, which has a history of low student performance. You do this because of the district’s promise that a new administration has contractually agreed to improve student performance. This is what is happening all over the country: parents place their children in educationally precarious situations in the hope that the schools will improve. Post your comments on this article Education Next Houston Takes Off PDF Will success survive the Paige promotion? Taking Measure PDF by JANE HANNAWAY & SHANNON MCKAY Balancing Act PDF by MARCI KANSTOROOM Digging Deeper PDF by PAUL T. HILL Choice, Testing, and the Jigsaw Society PDF Will school reform undermine the common culture? Ex Uno Plures PDF by DIANE RAVITCH High-Stakes Culture PDF by DAVID STEINER Seasons Change PDF by NATHAN GLAZER Identity Crisis Can teacher unions really promote reform? PDF A Union by Any Other Name PDF by TERRY M. MOE Deindustrialization PDF by CHARLES TAYLOR KERCHNER Reform or Be Reformed PDF by ADAM URBANSKI Bowling Together PDF Private schools, public ends by DAVID E. CAMPBELL Sciencephobia PDF Why education rejects randomized experiments by THOMAS D. COOK Education Next PDF 4 Military academies; do teachers matter? PDF All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice PDF by Richard D. Kahlenberg Reviewed by JOHN F. WITTE & JOHN E. COONS The Mismeasure of Learning PDF Review Essay by LAUREN B. RESNICK Life Lessons PDF by ADELA ACOSTA Reason Magazine Teaching the Bottom Line First came for-profit schools for kids. Are for-profit colleges for teachers next? Sam MacDonald Contra Costa Times (California) 2nd look at college fund cuts Contra Costa district applauds Davis' tentative plans to restore money SACRAMENTO - After hearing protests from community college officials and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Gray Davis has reversed course to consider restoring $98 million that he cut from community college budgets one month ago. The National Center for Alternative Certification Information The Mall is Quiet; School is Open. Now who is Minding the Kids? Shortage Update Almost everyone has heard about the shortage – that entropic mix of increased student enrollments, reduced student-to-teacher ratios, an aging teacher workforce, lack of support for novices and new-to-district teachers, low salaries, and relatively low unemployment. Sources estimate that 2.4 million teachers will be needed by 2012 (www.nea.org). The most severe shortages effect the neediest students bilingual, urban and rural, special education, and technology teachers are urgently needed. Over 73% of urban schools have immediate needs for bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instructors (www.recruitingteacher.com). Recruiting teachers for children of color remains an urgent challenge. Forty-two percent of all public schools in the US have no minority teachers while minority students make up 33% of total student body enrollment. To date, minority teachers comprise just 13.5% of the total teacher population. Post your comments on this article Big Brother is coming to your local school "Idea for an Investigative Reporter" by Donna Garner Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Here is an idea for a good investigative reporter Since Texas' public school accountability system seems to be the model that is being adopted as the "standard" for other states to use, why doesn't someone do an in-depth study of the PEIMS (Public Education Information Management System) which the Texas Education Agency has developed and utilized for many years? I have heard that over 250 pieces of information on every educator and every public school child are carried on this database; but to my knowledge, nobody has ever done an in-depth article on the subject. I know that most school districts have full-time PEIMS data entry clerks; therefore, there are many people who could be interviewed regarding the system. Post your comments on this article AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION Appropriate Use of High-Stakes Testing in Our Nation's Schools How Should Student Learning and Achievement Be Measured? Measuring what and how well students learn is an important building block in the process of strengthening and improving our nation's schools. Tests, along with student grades and teacher evaluations, can provide critical measures of students' skills, knowledge, and abilities. Therefore, tests should be part of a system in which broad and equitable access to educational opportunity and advancement is provided to all students. Tests, when used properly, are among the most sound and objective ways to measure student performance. But, when test results are used inappropriately or as a single measure of performance, they can have unintended adverse consequences. Post your comments on this article Association of American Educators Empowering Teachers to Do Assessment By Linda Plattner Our dependence on high-stakes testing, particularly at the state level, continues to grow ("Quality Counts 2001," January 11, 2001, Education Week). As we begin to feel the impact of high-stakes testing—defined as testing that includes some subset or combination of rewards and punishment for students and educators—it has moved to the front pages of newspapers across the country. Association of American Publishers AAP Educational Assessment: A Primer American Association of School Administrators (7 articles) Your input is requested by Sept. 20 on the draft guidelines of Health, Mental Health and Safety in Schools. The Ultimate Stress By Ruth E. Sternberg Five superintendent's stories of coping with the most severe circumstances on the job. Also: Advice from experts. Ruth Sternberg is an education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch in Columbus, Ohio. When Pigs Fly and Cats Bark By Peggy Hinckley It's not improbable, says one veteran superintendent. You can take control of your life by managing stress. Also: Additional resources. Peggy Hinckley is superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township, Indianapolis, Ind. The Care and Feeding of the Superintendent By James F. Burgett A self-proclaimed wellness authority from the school leadership ranks advises colleagues how to stay alive long enough to draw retirement. Jim Burgett is superintendent in Highland, Ill. Physical Fitness for Busy Bodies By John Gratto A superintendent's strategy for getting fit in less time than you might think. John Gratto is superintendent of the Britonkill Central Schools, Troy, N.Y. More Than a Mascot By Paul Riede School system leaders are being drawn into emotional debates over proposals to replace long-held Indian names and logos as school mascots. Also: A Colorado principal's quest to find meaning behind the mascot. Paul Riede is an education writer with The Syracuse Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y. Leadership in the Want Ads By Irving H. Buchen The job postings can tell you a lot about the new realities of the superintendency. Irving Buchen is a professor of management and communication in the distance education doctoral program of Walden University, Fort Myers, Fla. Harvard Educational Review "The Poet, the CEO, and the First-Grade Teacher" Teachers talk about their practice in HER's Voices Inside Schools Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. An Education Sham in Wisconsin and the U.S.: Higher Education for All By Dennis W. Redovich What is the rationale for requiring all high school students to complete the requirements for entrance into a four college in order to graduate from high school? The fact that many, if not the majority, of the most extreme public proponents of this idiocy are four year college graduates makes me question the prudence of too many university graduates, professors and administrators. And an academically disadvantaged media dutifully reports all the hype and nonsense about the critical importance of “all” being prepared to attend a four-year college without any serious challenge or rebuttal. Post your comments on this article Achieve Statement of Achieve President Robert Schwartz on 2000 NAEP Math Results WASHINGTON -- The latest NAEP results in math are evidence that expecting more from students and measuring schools' performance can be important levers to raise student achievement. While we have a long way to go, the push to raise standards over the last decade has led to a doubling in the percentage of 4th- and 8th graders proficient in math. The American Educational Research Association Piaget's Early Theory of the Role of Language in Intellectual Development: A Comment on DeVries's Account of Piaget's Social Theory Joe Becker and Maria Varelas Education Commission of the States For-Profit Institutions: Policy Considerations for States A new ECS policy brief reviews issues and challenges posed by the rapid growth of the for-profit sector of postsecondary education. American Federation of Teachers Statement of Sandra Feldman, President of the American Federation of Teachers, on the Phi Delta Kappa Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools The Phi Delta Kappa poll showing an all-time high public approval rating for the public schools should take the wind out of the sails of opponents of public schools. Anytime you have seven out of ten people in favor of working with the existing public school system to make it even stronger and almost nine out of ten people saying that we must raise teacher salaries in order to address the critical teacher shortage, you don’t just have support, you have a mandate to keep pushing for the things that we know work in our public schools. Elementary Educators Rewards and Prizes: Should you use them? Some teachers love them, while others avoid them. What do you think about using material rewards in the classroom? See what worked for one third grade teacher. Journal American Medical Association Pay Attention: Ritalin Acts Much Like Cocaine Brian Vastag Washington Advanced imaging research has answered a 40-year-old question about methylphenidate (Ritalin), which is taken daily by 4 million to 6 million children in the United States: how does it work? The answer may unsettle many parents, because the drug acts much like cocaine, albeit cocaine dripped through molasses (J Neurosci. 2001;21:RC121). Post your comments on this article Cause on Line Michigan Board of Ed Out to Gut Special Ed Parent's Power Editorial pertaining to the Proposed Revised Administrative Rules for Special Education COMMENTARY By Kim Murphy for the FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Currently, the Michigan Department of Education is in the process of aligning their state administrative rules for special education with the federal regulations, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Within this process, the Department of Education is rescinding the majority of rules that have been relied upon to regulate special education services offered in Michigan. This process will shift the burden of enforcing special education laws from the state level down to the Individual Education Plan process where many parents are left helpless. There is a tremendous lack of enforcement here in Michigan, as there is in many states around the U.S. Parents and organizations alike are horrified that these changes are taking place and that our input is being given little credence. We are organizing and we are gaining strength to fight these changes and to hold on to the regulations that we feel are invaluable in securing appropriate services for our children. Post your comments on this article Freedom Forum Students suspended for survey comments sue school Five Massachusetts high school students have filed a lawsuit against their school after they were suspended early this year over comments they made on a confidential survey about race relations. Post your comments on this article Town Hall Summertime -- and the livin' ain't easy by Bill O'Reilly As summer winds down, America finds itself in a rather dubious place. The economy is terrible, the public-school system isn't much better, and Gary Condit is a household name. Children First American DESTINATION: BANGOR MAINE It was a great pleasure for me to travel to Maine this week to present a challenge grant to the Maine Children’s Scholarship Fund for its successful local fund-raising efforts. Washington Monthly Leave No Superintendent Behind: On July 12, The Washington Monthly and the Annenberg Public Policy Center hosted a panel discussion showcasing some leading urban superintendents and their concerns about current proposals for education reform. Participants included: Roy Romer, Superintendent of the Los Angeles City Schools, Harold Levy, Chancellor of New York City Schools, David Hornbeck, former Superintendent of Schools in Philadelphia, Gene Hickok, Undersecretary of Education Post your comments on this article USA Today Arizona school-choice plan provides model By Carrie Lips Tinika Malone is a 31-year-old single mother with four beautiful daughters. Unbeknown to her, she's also on the front lines of a national debate over the future of public education. Cato Institute Arizona's Scholarship Tax Credit:A New Direction for School Choice? POLICY FORUM Monday, September 17, 2001 Featuring Sen. Jon L. Kyl (R-Ariz.), Introduced the Leave No Child Behind Tax Credit Act of 2001; Lisa Graham Keegan, Chief executive officer of the Education Leaders Council and former Arizona superintendent of public instruction; Carrie Lips, Author of "The Arizona Scholarship Tax Credit: Giving Parents Choices, Saving Taxpayers Money," to be released on September 17 by the Cato Institute. Salon Uncurious George There's a lot to be learned from the president's encounters with elementary school students by Arianna Huffington Gather 'round, little ones, it's story time. Today's is a scary one. It's about a president utterly lacking in imagination. It's called "The Very Uncurious President." WorldNet Daily The education tax racket LewRockwell.com So there's this guy named Ray Simon. He's director of the Arkansas Department of Education, and he's got a complaint about the boom in home schooling. The way he sees it, this trend is a threat to our, or at least his, way of life. Reason Magazine Teaching the Bottom Line First came for-profit schools for kids. Are for-profit colleges for teachers next? By Sam MacDonald When the Edison Project began as a controversial for-profit school venture in 1992, the first thing it had to do was find some students. Those were the good old days. Now that Edison is teaching the three R’s to 57,000 students in 113 schools across the country, it faces a tougher challenge: finding enough qualified teachers. The same is true for public schools, of course. But Edison thinks it has found a solution that might allow it to leap-frog its public education counterparts in the quest for instructors: The company is planning to open its own system of one-year teachers colleges. Post your comments on this article Hoover Institute What do tests tell us? by Bill Evers "One thing standardized tests can tell us is whether the grades that teachers give their students actually indicate how much the students know." Post your comments on this article Fordham Foundation (2 articles) Personnel Policy in Charter Schools When schools are held accountable for results and freed from red tape governing personnel decisions, they take advantage of their freedom by adopting innovative strategies for hiring and rewarding teachers, according to this new report by economists Michael Podgursky and Dale Ballou. This study is based on a survey administered to a random sample of 132 public charter schools that have been operating for at least three years. How Necessary is Ed School? Chester E. Finn, Jr. A fundamental issue and long-running debate in U.S. teacher policy—with profound implications for both the supply and the quality of our K-12 instructional force—is whether all public-school teachers must be "certified" by their states and, if so, whether they must spend a prolonged period of time in an "approved teacher preparation program" on a university campus before they can qualify for certification. Simply put, must people attend an ed school before they are permitted to teach? Maple River Education Coalition The NAEP Test (NAEP = National Assessment of Educational Progress) The NAEP test is commonly described as a national academic achievement test. It is actually far more, and far different, than that. It is a key tool for forcing the federal mandated value-system and political indoctrination into schools, under the guise of "measuring educational progress." Post your comments on this article Quick Observations Year 2000 NAEP Math Assessment Richard Innes California’s drop in 4th grade exclusion, combined with the state’s 5 point score increase, may be one of the biggest improvements in this assessment series. It is notable that the same situation did not occur for California 8th grade math. Post your comments on this article Columbus Dispatch SCHOOLS SHOULD 'DECOMMIT' TO GOBBLEDYGOOK By William L. Bainbridge There's a story that circulated for years among educators about the parent of a high-school student in Texas who received a notice from the school administration announcing a meeting for a new program. Post your comments on this article BioTech Knowledge Center "Science Education Paradox; How Can The Same System Produce Scientific Elites And Illiterates?" Science Education Paradox How Can The Same System Produce Scientific Elites And Illiterates? The United States by any conceivable measure has the finest scientists in the world. But the rest of the population, by any rational standard, is abysmally ignorant of science, mathematics and all things technical. That is the paradox of scientific elites and scientific illiterates: how can the same system of education that produced all those brilliant scientists also have produced all that ignorance? Post your comments on this article Fox News Do Costs of Sex Harassment Cases Affect College Tuition? Hundreds of thousands of parents are tightening their belts to write out huge college tuition checks. Others are taking money out of every paycheck for their younger children's education. America's Survival $15 Billion Missing From Education Department The report, "Government at the Brink," issued in June by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, says that the Education Department reported in its financial statements that it had $7.5 billion in the bank when it actually owed that money to the U.S. Treasury. This means that the department's books are off by $15 billion, about a third of what it spends annually. But this isn't just a case of bad accounting. Education department whistleblower John Gard suspects that "senior management officials" in the department had been "setting up the Agency to rip it off" and that millions of dollars or more have been embezzled. Gard says there was no security over the system to prevent embezzlement and no audit trail to find out where the money was going. Post your comments on this article Buckeye Institute (2 articles) Bargaining Away Teachers' Rights pdf Imagine you are a public school teacher in Ohio who is generally satisfied with the representation that your union provides, but don't like your dues going to support political issues that you oppose. Your options for relief may appear limited until you discover that Ohio law allows you to resign from the union and only pay dues for collective bargaining representation. Teacher unions in Ohio have become wise to this and made it increasingly difficult for teachers to exercise this right. Post your comments on this article Policy Note Let's Try That Again: Remedial Education in Ohio's Universities. Post-secondary remedial education is slowly on the rise in Ohio. During the 1998-99 school year, 26 percent of Ohio's recent high school graduates enrolled in math courses classified as "remedial" at Ohio's public universities. This represents a three percentage point increase over the 1978-79 school year, the first for which historical data is available. Post your comments on this article Howard Hughes Medical Institute "Overcoming the Intractable Problem" For many years, colleges and universities across the United States have sought to increase the numbers of African American, Hispanic and Native American students who pursue scientific careers. Yet the College Board reported in 1999 that underrepresentation of minority students had become even "more intractable."* Austin Review School Choice Benefits Public Schools Thomas Dawson debunks the conventional wisdom that choice would harm government schools. National Center for Learning Disabilities (2 articles) New Reading Guide for Teachers Teaching Reading: A Guide for First Grade is a new, FREE, 32-page, two-color guide for educators from the award-winning children's TV show BETWEEN THE LIONS. The show, which airs daily on PBS, uses music, humor, puppets, and live action to help teach reading to children ages four to seven. It features a family of lions-Theo, Cleo, Lionel, and Leona-who run a library like no other: stories come alive, vowels sing, and knights such as Sir H and Sir Op joust together to form Hop! Legislative News The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have each passed a bill that would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), revamping the nation's largest federal involvement in education. During the coming weeks, Senate and House conferees will meet to work out the final provisions. Issues related to learning disabilities include funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), discipline of children with disabilities, and improving reading. In Defense of Testing Series Educational Testing Service Testing, Accountability, and Funding Key to Education Reform Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews A quick glance at headlines from our nation’s newspapers would have you believe that Americans are sick and tired of standardized tests in schools. There are protests by parents and taunts from test takers in front of schools and state houses. And yet, a far-reaching national public opinion poll says quite the opposite. An overwhelming majority of Americans are in fact demanding greater accountability for our public education system—measurement that can be pro-vided through the proper use of fair assessments. Post your comments on this article Select California Schools made higher gains THREE YEARS OF PROGRESS IN COMMITTED DISTRICTS AND SCHOOLS Wayne Bishop Three districts that I know about, as well as a number of individual schools, have made a strong effort to get with the California Mathematics Content Standards. These districts are Azusa and Inglewood, pretty small, and Sacramento City, pretty large. I started this last year with two years and now there is another year of data. As last year, the year 2001 math numbers, SAT-9 average national percentile ranking (NPR), exceed their other SAT-9 scores for all of 2-6 and a 10-15 point spread is common, some as much as 20. Azusa's mathematics performance made the LA Times, Richard Lee Colvin's special insert "Report Card" of August 16, "two -thirds of the students are from low-income households and half are not native English speakers. Post your comments on this article The Guardian (UK) Tested to destruction Most of the 600,000 teenagers anxiously awaiting their results on Thursday will be hoping fervently never to have anything to do with GCSEs ever again. Exam burden may drop Houston Review Longhorn Overpopulation Beth Henary documents how the top ten percent rule has flooded the University of Texas at Austin and lowered admissions standards. National Bureau of Economic Research School Style Can Raise Achievement "Elementary school students with teachers who are 'tough' graders have fewer disciplinary problems and show greater improvements in their reading and math scores." Though state curricular standards have proliferated since 1983, there remains a stunning lack of consensus about what comprises a good education, an inability to agree on how one measures it, and a lack of evidence about whether particular teaching practices or school organizational forms do a superior job of imparting it. In Do High Grading Standards Affect Student Performance? (NBER Working Paper No. 7985), authors David Figlio and Maurice Lucas explore one of these questions. Post your comments on this article The American Enterprise The Tragedy of School Consolidation By Bill Kauffman As the school bells ring in another fall, let us recall those benighted days before the 2,000-student high school, with its Olympic-sized swimming pool, gleaming array of computers, and anonymous enrollees falling through gilded cracks. Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. The Big Con in Education in Texas and the United States By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is a big con. Schools have been bashed by politicians, the business interests and learned elite forever. Bashing schools is a worldwide phenomenon and is not confined to Texas. Texas just likes to do things big time. The con has been conceived by too many people, including educators and public officials feeding at the trough and is gleefully perpetuated without question by an academically challenged media. Post your comments on this article KeepTextbooks House Bill 759 would let children keep their math and science textbooks Mark Loewe, Ph. D. (Physics) The Texas Legislature is considering a bill that would let our youngest school children permanently keep their math and science textbooks. House Bill 759 by Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) provides that "For mathematics and science instruction in grades one through six, each textbook the State Board of Education adopts must have a cost that is low enough to permit a student to keep the book at the end of the school year, so that the student may review the core concepts of the essential knowledge and skills as necessary." Post your comments on this article Texas Public Policy Foundation (2 articles) A Challenge to Texas: Ethnic Chasm Remains in Mathematics Last week the National Center for Education Statistics released the 2000 Mathematics Report Card for 4th and 8th grade students in 40 states. The good news is that Texas is one of those leading the way. The bad news is that there is much more to be done. Post your comments on this article Upcoming Textbook Adoption for Middle and High School Science Chris Patterson, Director of Education Research Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (2 articles) The Need to Stand Firm on Flexibility By Mike Judge Is a guest contributor to EducationNews As President Bush’s education plan has worked its way through Congress over the past few months, many of the aspects touted by conservatives as the most beneficial have been removed from the bill. Vouchers, for instance, which were a hot topic during the election, were quickly cast aside due to their lack in popularity among Democrats, and even some Republicans. Bush ultimately sought to move along more bipartisan ground in order that some form of his education plan would pass Congress. Post your comments on this article Back To School - For Parents As Well By Daniel S. Konieczko Is a guest contributor to EducationNews At this time when parents are busily shopping for clothes and supplies to prepare their children to head back to school, they might want to take a break from the hustle and bustle to contemplate a more basic question: Can parents really have a positive impact upon the educational policies that affect their children? Post your comments on this article Citizen Magazine For the Children? The National Education Association says it's dedicated to educating children, so why is it so busy promoting abortion, homosexuality and a host of other liberal causes? By Dick Carpenter The teacher union boss was not happy. Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, had invested much of his political and professional capital in advancing homosexuality through the schools. He gave a controversial keynote address at the October 2000 convention of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network. 1 He had written a pro-gay open letter this year to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. 2 And he pushed for passage of a resolution at the NEA’s annual convention in early July that would have called for the “involvement of gay…educators in developing educational material,” and holding up “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender education employees as role models.” 3 Post your comments on this article Home School Legal Defense Association Federal Alert Update—Committee Considers Step Toward National Test HSLDA has been battling the expansion of the National Assessment Education Progrss (NAEP) for five years out of concern that it would eventually become America's national testing standard. Now our concern is threatening to become a reality. Many congressmen and senators on the Education Conference Committee for House Resolution 1 and Senate bill 1 are leaning towards a mandatory NAEP test for every state. A confident National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB—the board responsible for developing NAEP) is already making plans to change NAEP to match Congress' potential testing requirements. ASCD MAKE ME LAUGH: USING HUMOR IN THE CLASSROOM Tired of spending time after school in detention with students, a teacher decided to give "accordions" to those who acted out in class. An accumulation of three "accordions" would require the offending student to stay after school for a 10-minute session of the teacher practicing "Lady of Spain" on-what else?-her accordion. Creative teachers often use humor to deal with one of the more difficult chores they face-maintaining discipline. In fact, humor in the classroom can be an effective social tool that builds bridges with students and relieves stress, say educators and experts alike. Post your comments on this article CREDE FIVE STANDARDS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING In stark contrast to the dogmatic, reductionist, controlling, 'one-size-fits-all' curricular prescriptions that have gained so much favor in the field of education, this Web site proposes a pedagogy that actually respects the intellect of teachers and students, and that advocates building on their sociocultural resources in creating advanced, flexible, and diverse environments for learning. Post your comments on this article Children First America PENNSYLVANIA TAX CREDITS FILLING UP FAST Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge passed a $20 million tuition tax credit for corporate donations to private scholarship organizations, and Pennsylvania businesses responded by donating 39% of that amount on the first day, demonstrating strong business community support for school choice. Sacramento Bee Test results show that school reform is still a work in progress Dan Walters It's been nearly a decade since Californians were shocked to learn that in national tests of academic achievement, their children ranked near the bottom, right down there with the kids in Mississippi. Business Week What Makes Sally Learn In the drive to improve the quality of U.S. education, it's often assumed that shifting to tougher grading standards can enhance learning, and that "tracking"--putting high achievers in separate classes--hurts disadvantaged students. A pair of recent National Bureau of Economic Research studies, however, suggest that only one of these beliefs is borne out by the evidence. USA Today Guide gauges U.S. schools' strengths Stat sites are a go-to source for parents By Karen Thomas USA TODAY Whether parents are relocating to another state or just looking to make a change as the fall term begins, doing online research on the quality of schools has gotten a little easier. Post your comments on this article Heritage Foundation (2 articles) The Report Card Report: America's Best Web Sites for School Profiles Internet-based school report cards have been called "the cornerstone of our accountability system." That's why The Heritage Foundation has compiled information about, and links to samples of Internet-based report cards in each of the 50 states. Post your comments on this article New Tax Law Boosts School Construction with Public-Private Partnerships Fast-growing suburbs, deteriorating cities, and a demographic "echo boom" of school-aged children have left many communities struggling to provide adequate classroom space. Provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 will address that problem for some school districts by allowing a limited number of communities to transfer the responsibilities of financing, building, and owning public schools to private-sector investors who will lease schools to communities. Post your comments on this article Education Gadfly How to keep good principals Diane Ravitch Time magazine and other national media have recently featured the work of a program called "New Leaders for New Schools," which is preparing 15 people to become school principals. This is most certainly a valuable activity and it deserves commendation if, in fact, the 15 people do someday turn out to be not only principals but good principals. Of course, we won't know the answer to that question for several years. Post your comments on this article Texas Education Agency The 2001 Accountability Ratings for all Texas public schools and districts have been released. Colorado Business Magazine Change Agent Steve Schuck changed the landscape of Colorado - now he wants to change our schools By Alan Katz It’s natural for Steve Schuck to take an interest in schools. A master land developer who’s been involved in state politics for two decades, Schuck also is a onetime teacher and football coach who understood three decades ago the close connection between Colorado’s economic future and the quality of its public schools. Post your comments on this article Jewish World Review The "autism" dragnet Thomas Sowell The U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health have launched a campaign to get a government program created to "identify" children with autism at age two and then subject them to "intensive" early intervention for 25 hours a week or more. It sounds good, but so have so many other government programs that created more problems than they solved. Post your comments on this article Parents Advocating School Accountability 2001 Test Scores Drop at San Francisco's For-Profit Edison School Newly released spring 2001 STAR test scores for San Francisco's controversial, for-profit Edison Charter Academy show declines from the previous year in nearly every category. The school's test scores continue to rank far below districtwide averages. Post your comments on this article QUESTIA launched version 2.0 of Questia today. Version 2.0 includes a vastly improved user interface, better tools, and 60,000 titles. Questia has achieved their vision of putting a first-rate personal library that is always available and fully customizable online. PTO Today PTO vs. PTA National PTA faces key decisions as local groups increasingly turn to PTO By Tim Sullivan It was perhaps the loudest reaction on the first day of the 2000 national PTA convention in Chicago this past June. Illinois Superintendent of Schools Dr. Glenn McGee remembered a day earlier in his career when he made the “mistake” of referring to parent groups as “PTOs.” Post your comments on this article THE COUNCIL FOR BASIC EDUCATION'S STATEMENT ON ACT 2001 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE SCORES Christopher T. Cross, President of the Council for Basic Education (WASHINGTON DC) "The fact that ACT scores have remained stagnant for the past five years is really troublesome. There is a clear indication that the standards-based reform efforts, still in the implementation phase in many school districts, have not yet impacted our most recent graduates who did not benefit from a rigorous curriculum throughout their elementary and secondary school years. Post your comments on this article State of California California's STAR/SAT9 test scores JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS FOUNDATION SCORES TOUCHDOWN WITH PROGRAM AIMED AT LOW-INCOME YOUTH New Study Says Honor Rows Program Has Made a Difference For Jacksonville--Area Youngsters Princeton, NJ--A National Football League (NFL) team's foundation has developed a project that motivates economically and socially disadvantaged Jacksonville-area youth to improve behaviors and could be a national model for other sports foundations, says an independent assessment. A report from the Institute for Child Health Policy finds that the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation's Honor Rows Program supported school performance, inspired youth to improve personal behaviors, and enhanced self-confidence among participants. It also has elevated the Jaguars as a model corporate citizen that gives back to its community. Post your comments on this article Lexington Institute The Rise of Private Teacher Training By Robert Holland Is a regular contributor to EducationNews Executive Summary A shortage of teachers and the growing demand of parents for choices in their children’s education are combining to spur the entry of the private sector into teacher training, which has largely been left to a state monopoly. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations are putting resources into teacher preparation. Post your comments on this article Tennessee Institute for Public Policy Going Back to School: Improving Public School Food Service Operations J. C. Bowman Is a regular contributor to EducationNews NASHVILLE --Local school districts should be able to look to state government to provide research expertise, policy recommendations, and technical assistance to help them channel more tax dollars away from non-academic purposes and back into the classroom. If we are going to expect state agencies and educational organizations to assist with improving academic performance, doesn’t it make sense that non-academic functions receive similar assistance? Post your comments on this article Education Policy Institute AFT Union Neglects Teachers A Weekly Column by Myron Lieberman Inside AFT (the American Federation of Teachers on-line publication) for the week ending July 30 illustrates several points about this occupational conglomerate. The first item of six, trashes the Bush Administration's position on a patients' rights bill. The next item describes an AFT organization victory at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. Union strategy "featured one-on-one organizing at the work site, as well as house visits, distribution of two organizing videos, targeted mailings of flyers and newsletters, a special Web site linked from the state federations' web page, and media outreach through local radio interviews and letters to the editor." Post your comments on this article Parent Power Is this math fuzzy? Paul Clopton Fuzzy Math is one of the phrases used to refer to the many newer mathematics programs that are designed around current fads in mathematics education and often are inadequate for effective learning. The word fuzzy is used in the sense of warm and fuzzy or fuzzy thinking, and does not refer to advanced topics like fuzzy logic. Post your comments on this article NCES NCES has just released the report, "English Literacy and Language Minorities in the United States." This report provides an in-depth look at adult residents of the United States who were either born in other countries or were born in the United States but spoke a language other than English as young children. The report explores the English fluency and literacy of this population, their fluency and literacy in their native languages, and their employment patterns and earnings. Educational Testing Service Model Schools and Reading Networks – Education Reform That Works Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews The fundamental principles driving President Bush’s ambitious education reform agenda are clear – all children deserve a chance to succeed, the federal government should partner with states and schools to ensure success, and intervention programs can make a difference. Post your comments on this article The Case for Federal Policy to Raise Educational Standards by Kevin R. Kosar Is a guest contributor to EducationNews This article argues for federal policy to raise state educational standards. It does this in five steps. First, it reviews the evidence on student educational under-achievement. Second, it argues that under-achievement is worthy of a policy response. Third, it shows that states have thus far failed to raise standards. Fourth, it considers the evidence on standards reforms on improving educational achievement. Finally, it outlines a federal policy to raise state educational standards. Post your comments on this article Washington Times Teaching to the test Denise Barnes THE WASHINGTON TIMES Just imagine having to read a six-inch block of type, analyze it and then answer the question in 1.8 minutes. It's the equivalent of trying to read a Reader's Digest article in the grocery store line when the guy in front fo you is about to get his change. USA Today NEA takes stand against tests Anti-testing positions adopted by the National Education Association: * The NEA supports legislation allowing parents to opt their children out of all mandated standardized tests without penalty for students, parents, teachers or schools. Fort Bend Sun (Texas) More tests & classroom time won't solve our school ills By TRINH T. LE, Editor Boosting teacher pay and requiring universal pre-school are better ways to improve student performance in schools, not standardized tests and lengthening school days, according to a new survey of America's parents. Post your comments on this article UCLA SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT/CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS Teacher Turnover: Dropout or Pushout? Are there mental health implications? No one doubts there is a problem recruiting good teachers. It is becoming evident that retaining teachers is an even bigger problem. Researchers suggest that poor working conditions and lack of significant on-the-job training and support are causing many new teachers to leave within five years. Included in descriptions of poor working conditions are factors that, in motivational terms, can be seen as threatening feelings of competence, self-determination, and relatedness. Post your comments on this article Town Hall The war against competition hurts boys by Marvin Olasky At many schools, the classic competitions are dead. Dodge ball is out. Despite the high profile of the National Spelling Bee, classroom spelling bees are much less frequent. At some elementary school basketball games, no one keeps score. It's a mad, mad, world by John Leo More news from the annals of zero tolerance and the continuing campaign to make the culture ever more deranged: Publik skool biggotz by Michelle Malkin Nothing breeds sophomoric resentment like academic success. So it's no surprise that home schoolers and their children are the target of a spiteful T-shirt sold in retail stores and online. Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States The Phony Intellectualism of So-called School Reform in the United States Is Harmful to Children and Public Education By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday Wisconsin State Supt. of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster has received some national news media attention for her comments that the Bush education plan should be labeled "No Child Left Untested" rather than the official Bush title of "No Child Left Behind". Where are the priorities? “I think the federal plan takes us down the wrong road. The right road, she said, is to emphasize steps such as reductions in class size, improvement in early childhood educational programs and efforts to improve the overall quality of teaching.” The school reform of Bush and the conservative think tanks is phony intellectualism and elitism. Post your comments on this article The Tip of the Iceberg: SURR Schools and Academic Failure in New York City Introduction Joseph P. Viteritti Research Professor of Public Administration, New York University Data Assembly Kevin Kosar Ph.D. Candidate in Politics, New York University Since 1989 the New York State Education Department has been issuing a list of low performing public schools that are targeted for corrective action. They supposedly run the risk of being closed if significant improvements are not made. Over the years nearly ninety percent of the schools placed on the notorious SURR list (Schools Under Registration Review) have been located in New York City, even though only twenty percent of the schools in the state are New York City public schools. Presently 98 of 114 schools on the list are in the five boroughs. Previous reports have shown that a disproportionate number of the children assigned to these schools are African American or Hispanic. These schools also have a disproportionate number of teachers who are not fully certified and have less than five years of experience in the classroom. Post your comments on this article PediatricNeurology Martin L. Kutscher, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY; Pediatric Neurological Assoc., White Plains, NY. We’ve Been Missing the Point “Johnny is very active! He never stops moving. He gets distracted by any little noise, and has the attention span of a flea. Often, he acts before he thinks. His sister, Jill, is often in a fog. Sometimes, she’s just so spaced!” That is how we typically consider children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). OK, not so bad. But that is often only the tip of the iceberg. Here is another likely description of the whole picture for a child with ADHD: Post your comments on this article Here are some interesting conclusions taken from the results of the most recent (2000) NAEP scores in mathematics. 1. Calculator use "At grade 4 more frequent calculator use was associated with lower scores, while at grades 8 and 12 the opposite was generally true--students who said they used calculators more often tended to score higher than their peers who reported using calculators less frequently." 2. Computer availability There was no meaningful correlation apparent between computer availability and math performance in any grade. See Chapter 5, p. 147 3. Textbooks At all grades, students who reported doing problems from a textbook regularly scored higher than those who did not. In grades 8 and 12, "those who reported doing math problems from a textbook daily scored highest." (The average score was 281 for those answering "daily" versus 265 for those answering "weekly.") See Chapter 6, p. 157, 158 4. Cooperative learning At all grades, students who reported talking with other students during class about how to solve problems "every day" or "weekly" scored lower than those who reported doing it "MONTHLY." "Monthly" also scored higher than "hardly ever." Post your comments on this article New South Wales Department of Education and Training SUBMISSION TO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INQUIRY INTO THE EDUCATION OF BOYS The NSW Department of Education and Training welcomes this parliamentary inquiry into the education of boys. It is appropriate and timely for the Commonwealth to take a leadership role in this issue of national significance. The focus of the inquiry on the social, cultural and educational factors affecting the education of boys signifies the complexity of the issues facing schools and other educational institutions with regard to gender. Review of Teacher in NSW and the Report "Quality Matters" The review of teacher education in NSW provides an opportunity for teachers and the community to help create the conditions for improving the professional standing and quality of teaching in our schools and colleges. National Education Association NEW REPORT URGES POLICYMAKERS TO ADDRESS NEEDS OF RURAL SCHOOLS "Why Rural Matters: The Need for Every State to Take Action on Rural Education" offers a state-by-state look at the education needs of our country's rural communities. NEA recently sponsored a congressional briefing on this report. See for yourself why it's so important. Post your comments on this article Children First America THE COMING DEMOCRATIC EMBRACE OF PARENTAL CHOICE. A report from the Federal Election Commission reveals the depth of teacher union political activity and power. The report reveals that the National Education Association essentially purchased not only seats on Democratic campaign committees in 1996 but also the right to approve or reject the Democratic agenda. However, Democrats have played leading rolls supporting school choice in Milwaukee, Cleveland and elsewhere. Post your comments on this article ABC News Looking for an Answer Home Schooling Offers Alternative, Challenge for Parents and Kids By Dean Schabner Aug. 10 — Five youngsters are drowned by their mother in their bathtub. Three teenagers are killed in a murder-suicide. A 14-year-old runner-up from a previous year wins a national spelling bee. A Web search for "home schooling" would have turned up all of these stories. Wichita Eagle OUR VIEW Problems at schools deserve hard look Over the past six years, the deal the for-profit Edison Project made with the Wichita school district has been: Give the corporation some schools, let it apply good management and know-how, add a mix of public and private funding, and they'd show us just how much more effective education can be. Post your comments on this article The Boring Institute How to Turn School into an Exciting Learning Experience Back to School Tips from The Boring Institute White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige Thank you, Mrs. Cheney, for that kind introduction. It is an honor to be a part of an administration that has so many strong advocates for education, and of those advocates, you are one of the most eloquent. I know you have been working on a book for the past few months, and I hear you are nearly finished. Like many people, I am eager to read your book, and also eager to have you working alongside us for America's children fulltime. Address by Susan B. Neuman Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education U.S. Department of Education "Access to Print: Problem, Consequences and Instructional Solutions" Mrs. Bush, thank you for the opportunity to speak at this important conference. Today, I want to take the opportunity to discuss some of my work in early literacy over the past ten years in Philadelphia at Temple University, and then at the University of Michigan. Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States The Corporate Conquest Of The University By Robert Miranda Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The debate over stem-cell research is missing the obvious deformity caused by university/corporate partnerships. While we are inundated with the moral and ethical aspects of the debate, a more profound and fundamental issue for us to contemplate continues to be ignored. Post your comments on this article Education Week Mentoring Can't Do It All Author and educator Harry K. Wong says that new teachers need systematic and sustained induction programs, not just mentors. Plano Parental Rights Council Media Bias in reporting Educational Progress By Susan Sarhady President, Plano Parental Rights Council Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Mathematics achievement has been in the news lately because of the recent release of the results of the 2000 National Mathematics Assessment. Results are reported on a state level as well as a national level. The assessment is administered to a sampling of 4th, 8th and 12th grade students. Here is the short list of some of the headlines the report generated: Post your comments on this article Section 504 Compliance Advisor Homeschool placement can trigger a special education obligation Copyright 2001 LRP Publications Section 504 Compliance Advisor...08/02/2001 By Perry Zirkel* When homeschooled children have one or more disabilities, it raises issues about the intersection of homeschooling under state law and special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This Q&A discusses that issue using published court and administrative rulings. Q: Is homeschooling under state law the same as homebound placement under the IDEA? Insight Magazine What Happened to the Great Ideas? By John Berlau jberlau@InsightMag.com Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler recently passed away, but his legacy lives on in the Great Books programs he inspired and succeeded in establishing across the nation. Hyper-Drugging of Active Kids By Kelly Patricia O’Meara komeara@InsightMag.com State legislatures are beginning to take action to rein in the widespread practice of drugging hyperactive children to control their undesirable behavior in the classroom. Students Confront Campus News Bias By Erik Baptist Despite the general lack of support from the liberal university establishment, conservative college newspapers nationwide continue to spark intellectual debate and challenge the left. Schooled for Life By Stephen Goode sgoode@InsightMag.com Christendom College is one of 30 distinguished colleges/universities which, Insight has found, still teach the fullness of the Western academic traditions. Schools Giving P.E. Short Shrift By Timothy W. Maier tmaier@InsightMag.com Schools across the country are decreasing class time, money and resources devoted to physical education, which critics claim is harming the health of U.S. children. A Lesson Learned the Hard Way By Sheila R. Cherry scherry@InsightMag.com After Washington public schools promised reforms, a mother and son found out firsthand that some teachers would sacrifice students’ futures to save their own jobs. The Public Interest The Surprising Consensus On School Choice By Jay P. Greene There has been a flurry of activity in school choice research in the last few years. As a result, where we used to have only theories and limited evidence we now have a relatively solid understanding of the likely effects of school choice. I say "relatively" because all research is necessarily imperfect and additional study can always improve the confidence with which we draw conclusions. But the research on school choice includes several random-assignment studies, the "gold-standard" of research design, where subjects are randomly assigned to treatment and control groups as in a medical study. I can think of only one other education policy issue (the effect of class-size reduction) that has been the subject of even one significant random-assignment experiment, let alone several "gold-standard" studies. Post your comments on this article The Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) presents The 5th Annual Fall Conference Understanding and Preventing Youth Violence: From Bullies to Bullets Texas Public Policy Foundation (2 articles) Losing the Race: The SAT and College Admissions by Chris Patterson Post your comments on this article Future of TAAS Test Hangs in the Balance Policy Action Update (Available in .html and .pdf format) Post your comments on this article PTO Today PTO Power Entire town in on the act for this group's special reading night. Celebrity Night Coaxes Kids to Read In Defense of Testing Series ETS on the Issues Testing Snapshots Should Not Lead to Snap Judgments By Kurt M. Landgraf, President and Chief Executive Officer Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews The world of politics is often one of sound bites and snapshots, which may at times produce sweeping summations and snap judgments. When that occurs, the result is often a series of images bereft of context that linger like holograms. Unfortunately, that’s what too often happens in the course of political campaigns and debates when student test scores are used to generalize about the relative health and well being of education in the United States. Post your comments on this article The National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification Dr. Vicky Dill Among Key Panelists at the Education Consortium of the States (ECS); Rod Paige also Present. Panel Question: “Can Alternative Teacher Certification Appropriately Address the Teacher Shortage?” Dr. Vicky Dill, Senior Vice President of The National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification at the Haberman Educational Foundation, presented at and attended the Education Consortium of the States held in Philadelphia (PA) from July 18-21. Post your comments on this article Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Education reform: the endgame Why Bush’s School Testing Provisions Are Worth A Fight By Larry Parker Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Education reformers have, understandably, lost interest in President Bush’s school reform proposal, now being finalized by a Congressional conference committee after spending six months being de-toothed and diluted. Even so, decisions will be made in the coming weeks that could not only have a major impact on how the package plays politically in 2004 - but also, more importantly, will determine whether the proposal helps improve America’s lowest-performing schools in time to help this fall’s kindergarteners before they would graduate high school in 2014 (the year some actions to correct failing schools in the Senate version of the bill might actually take effect). So it might be worth the White House’s time, and that of supporters of real education reform, to pay attention and make their voices heard during this critical endgame. Post your comments on this article Insight Magazine The Dark Side of Nationwide Tests By B.K. Eakman President Bush’s education initiative calls for the testing of every student in the nation, but these ‘assessments’ in the past involved Big Brother-style psychological profiling. The proponents of President George W. Bush’s education initiative, called “No Child Left Behind,” believe that they can make schools accountable to parents as well as taxpayers. The centerpiece of this, as it appears in the amendments to the Elementary and Secondary School Act, still in House-Senate conference as Insight goes to press, is a massive nationwide program designed to test every student in grades three to eight in reading and math. Both House and Senate bills propose some $400 million in federal funds to be sent to the states to devise and administer the tests on a state-by-state basis. Post your comments on this article San Diego Union Tribune (California) ARIANNA HUFFINGTON Time for a revolution in education If it were a product, it would have been recalled. If it were a politician, it would have been impeached. If it were a horse, it would have been taken behind the barn and shot. Reed Martin DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE A "BEHAVIORAL" PROBLEM OR AN "EDUCATIONAL" PROBLEM? "Suspension or expulsion is not normally appropriate as a first-line response to behavior problems resulting from a student's disability, even if the conduct in question violates school rules....... Sometimes, with certain children, what looks like simple misbehavior is actually a more complicated problem whose remedy should be integrated into the child's overall program of special education." School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools Mental Health in Schools: Guidelines, Models, Resources, & Policy Considerations The Center is working with the Policy Leadership Cadre for Mental Health in Schools on an initiative for using the document to move the field forward. As a result of the initiative, various organizations have begun sharing the work with their members. It is being included in conference presentations and policy discussions. Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. An American Paradox and Tragedy- Math Test Results Are Much Ado About Nothing By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday The headline in the July 3 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Only 1 in 4 students moves beyond basic math, test finds”, summarizes what is being said in the popular media nation-wide and by politicians and education pundits critical of American public education. “The results of the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) known as the nations report card found that most students had trouble on a test involving measurement, geometry and algebra, as well as questions requiring them to think their way through statistics “ The reactions to the NAEP math test results are absolutely, “much ado about nothing”. Post your comments on this article National Bureau of Economic Research Favorable Long-Term Effects of Head Start In "Longer Term Effects of Head Start" authors Eliana Garces, Duncan Thomas, and Janet Currie find that Head Start generates long-term improvements in important outcomes such as schooling attainment, earnings, and crime reduction. They find that disadvantaged whites who had been enrolled in Head Start were more likely to graduate from high school and to have attended college than siblings who did not. White children of high school dropouts also had higher average earnings between the ages of 23 and 25 if they attended Head Start. African-Americans who attended Head Start were "significantly less likely to have been booked or charged with a crime" compared to siblings who did not participate in Head Start. Finally, the authors find that male African-Americans were more likely to complete high school and to participate in the labor force if they had attended Head Start. Post your comments on this article BeLogical The Myth of Self-Esteem July 30th edition of the Dallas Morning News. by Lynn Woolley The family psychologist John K. Rosemond tells the story of a banner placed over a mirror in an Alabama elementary school. It says: "You are now looking at one of the most special people in the whole wide world." You’ve probably seen this type of thing if you’ve visited your child’s school. It’s part of the education fad of "self-esteem." Post your comments on this article Children First America GEORGE WALLACE IS GONE BUT SEGREGATION LIVES Fritz S. Steiger, President Congratulations go out to Lesley Searcy of the Children’s Scholarship Fund Alabama for landing a very effective op-ed piece concerning segregation and choice in Sunday’s edition of the Birmingham News. With an accompanying picture of George Wallace guarding the door of a segregated government school, Lesley’s column read "In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to forcibly halt the desegregation of public schools. President Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock to enforce the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision, but several other Southern governors followed the Faubus example. Our own Gov. George Wallace ‘stood in the schoolhouse door’ to prevent desegregation and famously promised to maintain ‘segregation forever.’ Wallace and Faubus have passed away, but public school segregation continues. Segregation has been transformed from explicit racial segregation into de facto segregation based on income...Segregated housing patterns...have led to segregated public schools." Rand (2 articles) School Violence Prevention Testimony pdf Jaana Juvonen Nationally publicized school shootings have highlighted potential precursors of violence, such as persistent bullying. Although we lack substantial data on the long-term effects of being bullied, getting bullied or victimized by peers is now considered a warning sign of potentially violent students. Options for Restructuring the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Report with Background Papers and Focus Group Summary, Peter H. Reuter et al. This report contains all the outputs of a project undertaken to review the structure and performance of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) and to assess options for strengthening it. As part of this study, a conference was held at which practitioners, researchers, and government officials considered the findings and conclusions presented in three commissioned papers, the proceedings of focus groups of knowledgeable practitioners in two school districts, and a review of the literature describing the program established by SDFSCA and its performance to date. This volume contains the executive summary of the study,1 the backgound paper prepared to provide information for the conference participants, a summary of the focus group discussions, and the commissioned papers. Achieve Standards: How High is High Enough? (Spring 2001) States have used different strategies to phase in higher standards. And higher education and businesses need to send more explicit signals to students that higher standards matter. They can do this by aligning their admissions and hiring decisions to students' high school performance. S TA N DA R D S Policymakers and educators want students to graduate from high school with the HIGH Is ENOUGH? New Democrats School Construction Sara Mead A Third Way solution to the problem of infrastructure challenges faced by schools: state or regional infrastructure banks capitalized by the Federal Government to leverage state and local funding. Too many of America's children attend school in overcrowded and even unsafe conditions. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), nearly $127 billion in repair and renovation are needed to upgrade our nation's schools to good condition. Over the next decade, billions more will be needed to accommodate growing enrollments and remedy the overcrowding that hampers one-quarter of our schools. States and localities are struggling to meet the challenge of providing safe, decent facilities for their students. As a result parents, educators and state and local governments are increasingly turning to Washington for help meeting this challenge. Hoover Institute Privatization: A Solution for School Inequities? by John E. Chubb Economically disadvantaged students suffer a number of financial inequities in public education. The school districts in which poor children live often have fewer tax dollars to spend on education than do districts in which middle-class children live. Poorer districts also tend to pay lower teacher salaries than richer districts and have difficulty attracting and retaining teachers. Testing Is about Openness and Openness Works by Caroline M. Hoxby In the past decade, forty-nine of the fifty states have adopted some form of statewide testing, which they are beginning to report in user-friendly "school report cards." Most of the report card programs have no stakes or low stakes, so what purpose do they serve? Do American Students Study Enough? by Herbert J. Walberg Americans spend more on schooling students than nearly all other affluent countries. Yet our students make the fewest gains in reading, mathematics, and science. Although they score about average on tests in the early grades, they come in last in high school. How can the most productive country on the planet have the least productive schools? Phi Delta Kappan Leadership in Education: Five Commonalities, by Mark F. Goldberg What Did the Massachusetts Teacher Tests Say About American Education?, by R. Clarke Fowler Coaching Isn't Just for Athletes: The Role of Teacher Leaders, by Ellen Guiney Education Contracting System "Reinventing Public Education" Provides More Privatizing Erasers by Daniel Pryzbyla Is a guest contributor to EducationNews "The report shows in detail how a contracting system would work and how it can be established, replacing the entire existing public education governance system School boards in the big cities can be the first to take advantage of the new opportunity by contracting out for operation of their lowest performing schools Success in the most difficult places will make the case for the widespread adoption of contracting" Post your comments on this article Harvard Education Letter Retaining the Next Generation of Teachers: The Importance of School-Based Support Clever incentives may attract new teachers, but only improving the culture and working conditions of schools will keep them By Susan Moore Johnson, Sarah Birkeland, Susan M. Kardos, David Kauffman, Edward Liu, and Heather G. Peske of The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Throughout the United States, school officials are either anticipating or already experiencing a teacher shortage. The projected need to fill 2.2 million vacancies by 2010 will be intensely felt in high-poverty schools and in certain subjects (math, science, and foreign languages) and programs (bilingual and special education). Recognizing this, policymakers are devising ways to make teaching more attractive, and the competition for high-quality teachers is fierce. Recruiters in various districts can now waive preservice training, offer signing bonuses, forgive student loans, and even provide mortgage subsidies or health club memberships. While such strategies may well increase the supply of new teachers to schools, they provide no assurance of keeping them there, for they are but short-term responses to long-term challenges. Post your comments on this article COUNCIL FOR BASIC EDUCATION'S STATEMENT ON NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) MATHEMATICS 2000 RESULTS BEYOND BASIC ROBERT C. RICE, Sr. Vice President of the Council for Basic Education, and Christopher T. Cross, President of the Council for Basic Education (WASHINGTON DC) "The release of today's NAEP math results show a continuing improvement in scores for fourth-grade and eighth-grade students across the nation. This is good news, but it's no more than what we should expect. Our sights should not be focused on a basic level of achievement, but on looking forward to meeting the challenges of proficient and advanced achievement in math," said Robert C. Rice, Sr. Vice President at the Council for Basic Education (CBE). Post your comments on this article Citizen Magazine P is for Politically Correct Think Parent Teacher Associations uphold family values in the public schools? Think again. By Heather Koerner Think Parent Teacher They're involved in everything from back-to-school night to teacher appreciation lunches, from classroom volunteering to shelving library books. They raise money through dances, golf tournaments, cookbooks and, yes, even pig-kissing contests. Post your comments on this article A Direct and Focused Approach Necessary Conditions for Fundamental Reform of Schools of Education Martin A. Kozloff Is a regular contributor to the EducationNews Bulletin Board I. What is Needed The history of schools of education is a history of remarkable mediocrity and resistance to change in the face of research on effective instruction (i.e., what new teachers really need to know), scholarly criticism of faddish "pedagogies," consumer dissatisfaction, low status in universities, and billions of dollars spent on reform "initiatives." It is virtually certain that there will be no fundamental change in how education schools train new teachers unless a more direct and focused approach is used. Such an approach would involve three components. Post your comments on this article NCES The NAEP mathematics results for the nation at grades 4, 8, and 12, and for 46 states and other jurisdictions at grades 4 and 8 will be released today, August 2 at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Also to be released at that time will the new NAEP Data Analysis Tool, designed for a wide range of NAEP data users and permitting them to create custom tables from all major national and state NAEP assessments since 1990. The 2000 results will add further information to results from the NAEP 1990, 1992, and 1996 mathematics state and national assessments. Links for all of these products and tools will be available through: Additionally, please participate in StatChat Live on today, August 2, at 2 p.m. EDT, when Associate Commissioner Peggy G. Carr will answer your questions about the NAEP 2000 national and state mathematics results. NCES has just released "Home Schooling in the United States: 1999." In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled. This report, based on data from the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Survey, 1999, contains information about the characteristics of home schooled children and their families, parent's reasons for homeschooling, and public school support for homeschoolers. Evergreen Freedom Foundation Washington Education Association is found guilty...again By Lynn Harsh, Evergreen Freedom Foundation Olympia - Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor today issued a “guilty” verdict against the Washington Education Association (WEA) for what he characterized as intentional violations in the union’s use of mandatory teacher dues and fees for politics. The combined penalties, sanctions and reimbursements ordered by the court make this the largest fine ever levied against the WEA - likely more than $500,000. Environmental education is under assault SMOKE AND MIRRORS By John F. Borowski Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Florida's Orange County Convention Center is big. Big enough to hold the Sears Tower, if you laid it on its side. So big you could walk 10 miles and never leave the cement behemoth. A hulking structure like this was necessary to host the recent National Science Teachers Convention, the largest gathering of educators in the nation more than 14,000 science teachers, and hundreds of exhibitors passing out armloads of pamphlets, packets, books, stickers, posters, and other goodies. Post your comments on this article World Game Institute Middle School and Museum Program What if it were up to middle school students to determine the fate of the world? How would they respond? What would happen? Would their actions lead to the destruction of the world? Or a gameboy in every backpack? Guess again! Middle school students playing the World Game are recommending more efficient energy consumption, better distribution of food and increased access to education. These fairly remarkable insights are all embedded in a process that is filled with learning - and it's fun! Post your comments on this article Behaviorism to Cognitivism Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education John R. Anderson Lynne M. Reder Center for the Study of Jobs and Education In Wisconsin and U.S. An American Paradox and Tragedy- Math Test Results Are Much Ado About Nothing By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday The headline in the July 3 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Only 1 in 4 students moves beyond basic math, test finds”, summarizes what is being said in the popular media nation-wide and by politicians and education pundits critical of American public education. “The results of the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) known as the nations report card found that most students had trouble on a test involving measurement, geometry and algebra, as well as questions requiring them to think their way through statistics “ The reactions to the NAEP math test results are absolutely, “much ado about nothing”. Post your comments on this article National Bureau of Economic Research Favorable Long-Term Effects of Head Start In "Longer Term Effects of Head Start" authors Eliana Garces, Duncan Thomas, and Janet Currie find that Head Start generates long-term improvements in important outcomes such as schooling attainment, earnings, and crime reduction. They find that disadvantaged whites who had been enrolled in Head Start were more likely to graduate from high school and to have attended college than siblings who did not. White children of high school dropouts also had higher average earnings between the ages of 23 and 25 if they attended Head Start. African-Americans who attended Head Start were "significantly less likely to have been booked or charged with a crime" compared to siblings who did not participate in Head Start. Finally, the authors find that male African-Americans were more likely to complete high school and to participate in the labor force if they had attended Head Start. Post your comments on this article BeLogical The Myth of Self-Esteem July 30th edition of the Dallas Morning News. by Lynn Woolley The family psychologist John K. Rosemond tells the story of a banner placed over a mirror in an Alabama elementary school. It says: "You are now looking at one of the most special people in the whole wide world." You’ve probably seen this type of thing if you’ve visited your child’s school. It’s part of the education fad of "self-esteem." Post your comments on this article Children First America GEORGE WALLACE IS GONE BUT SEGREGATION LIVES Fritz S. Steiger, President Congratulations go out to Lesley Searcy of the Children’s Scholarship Fund Alabama for landing a very effective op-ed piece concerning segregation and choice in Sunday’s edition of the Birmingham News. With an accompanying picture of George Wallace guarding the door of a segregated government school, Lesley’s column read "In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to forcibly halt the desegregation of public schools. President Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock to enforce the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision, but several other Southern governors followed the Faubus example. Our own Gov. George Wallace ‘stood in the schoolhouse door’ to prevent desegregation and famously promised to maintain ‘segregation forever.’ Wallace and Faubus have passed away, but public school segregation continues. Segregation has been transformed from explicit racial segregation into de facto segregation based on income...Segregated housing patterns...have led to segregated public schools." Rand (2 articles) School Violence Prevention Testimony pdf Jaana Juvonen Nationally publicized school shootings have highlighted potential precursors of violence, such as persistent bullying. Although we lack substantial data on the long-term effects of being bullied, getting bullied or victimized by peers is now considered a warning sign of potentially violent students. Options for Restructuring the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Report with Background Papers and Focus Group Summary, Peter H. Reuter et al. This report contains all the outputs of a project undertaken to review the structure and performance of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) and to assess options for strengthening it. As part of this study, a conference was held at which practitioners, researchers, and government officials considered the findings and conclusions presented in three commissioned papers, the proceedings of focus groups of knowledgeable practitioners in two school districts, and a review of the literature describing the program established by SDFSCA and its performance to date. This volume contains the executive summary of the study,1 the backgound paper prepared to provide information for the conference participants, a summary of the focus group discussions, and the commissioned papers. Achieve Standards: How High is High Enough? (Spring 2001) States have used different strategies to phase in higher standards. And higher education and businesses need to send more explicit signals to students that higher standards matter. They can do this by aligning their admissions and hiring decisions to students' high school performance. S TA N DA R D S Policymakers and educators want students to graduate from high school with the HIGH Is ENOUGH? New Democrats School Construction Sara Mead A Third Way solution to the problem of infrastructure challenges faced by schools: state or regional infrastructure banks capitalized by the Federal Government to leverage state and local funding. Too many of America's children attend school in overcrowded and even unsafe conditions. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), nearly $127 billion in repair and renovation are needed to upgrade our nation's schools to good condition. Over the next decade, billions more will be needed to accommodate growing enrollments and remedy the overcrowding that hampers one-quarter of our schools. States and localities are struggling to meet the challenge of providing safe, decent facilities for their students. As a result parents, educators and state and local governments are increasingly turning to Washington for help meeting this challenge. Hoover Institute Privatization: A Solution for School Inequities? by John E. Chubb Economically disadvantaged students suffer a number of financial inequities in public education. The school districts in which poor children live often have fewer tax dollars to spend on education than do districts in which middle-class children live. Poorer districts also tend to pay lower teacher salaries than richer districts and have difficulty attracting and retaining teachers. Testing Is about Openness and Openness Works by Caroline M. Hoxby In the past decade, forty-nine of the fifty states have adopted some form of statewide testing, which they are beginning to report in user-friendly "school report cards." Most of the report card programs have no stakes or low stakes, so what purpose do they serve? Do American Students Study Enough? by Herbert J. Walberg Americans spend more on schooling students than nearly all other affluent countries. Yet our students make the fewest gains in reading, mathematics, and science. Although they score about average on tests in the early grades, they come in last in high school. How can the most productive country on the planet have the least productive schools? Phi Delta Kappan Leadership in Education: Five Commonalities, by Mark F. Goldberg What Did the Massachusetts Teacher Tests Say About American Education?, by R. Clarke Fowler Coaching Isn't Just for Athletes: The Role of Teacher Leaders, by Ellen Guiney Education Contracting System "Reinventing Public Education" Provides More Privatizing Erasers by Daniel Pryzbyla Is a guest contributor to EducationNews "The report shows in detail how a contracting system would work and how it can be established, replacing the entire existing public education governance system School boards in the big cities can be the first to take advantage of the new opportunity by contracting out for operation of their lowest performing schools Success in the most difficult places will make the case for the widespread adoption of contracting" Post your comments on this article Harvard Education Letter Retaining the Next Generation of Teachers: The Importance of School-Based Support Clever incentives may attract new teachers, but only improving the culture and working conditions of schools will keep them By Susan Moore Johnson, Sarah Birkeland, Susan M. Kardos, David Kauffman, Edward Liu, and Heather G. Peske of The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Throughout the United States, school officials are either anticipating or already experiencing a teacher shortage. The projected need to fill 2.2 million vacancies by 2010 will be intensely felt in high-poverty schools and in certain subjects (math, science, and foreign languages) and programs (bilingual and special education). Recognizing this, policymakers are devising ways to make teaching more attractive, and the competition for high-quality teachers is fierce. Recruiters in various districts can now waive preservice training, offer signing bonuses, forgive student loans, and even provide mortgage subsidies or health club memberships. While such strategies may well increase the supply of new teachers to schools, they provide no assurance of keeping them there, for they are but short-term responses to long-term challenges. Post your comments on this article COUNCIL FOR BASIC EDUCATION'S STATEMENT ON NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS (NAEP) MATHEMATICS 2000 RESULTS BEYOND BASIC ROBERT C. RICE, Sr. Vice President of the Council for Basic Education, and Christopher T. Cross, President of the Council for Basic Education (WASHINGTON DC) "The release of today's NAEP math results show a continuing improvement in scores for fourth-grade and eighth-grade students across the nation. This is good news, but it's no more than what we should expect. Our sights should not be focused on a basic level of achievement, but on looking forward to meeting the challenges of proficient and advanced achievement in math," said Robert C. Rice, Sr. Vice President at the Council for Basic Education (CBE). Post your comments on this article Citizen Magazine P is for Politically Correct Think Parent Teacher Associations uphold family values in the public schools? Think again. By Heather Koerner Think Parent Teacher They're involved in everything from back-to-school night to teacher appreciation lunches, from classroom volunteering to shelving library books. They raise money through dances, golf tournaments, cookbooks and, yes, even pig-kissing contests. Post your comments on this article A Direct and Focused Approach Necessary Conditions for Fundamental Reform of Schools of Education Martin A. Kozloff Is a regular contributor to the EducationNews Bulletin Board I. What is Needed The history of schools of education is a history of remarkable mediocrity and resistance to change in the face of research on effective instruction (i.e., what new teachers really need to know), scholarly criticism of faddish "pedagogies," consumer dissatisfaction, low status in universities, and billions of dollars spent on reform "initiatives." It is virtually certain that there will be no fundamental change in how education schools train new teachers unless a more direct and focused approach is used. Such an approach would involve three components. Post your comments on this article NCES The NAEP mathematics results for the nation at grades 4, 8, and 12, and for 46 states and other jurisdictions at grades 4 and 8 will be released today, August 2 at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Also to be released at that time will the new NAEP Data Analysis Tool, designed for a wide range of NAEP data users and permitting them to create custom tables from all major national and state NAEP assessments since 1990. The 2000 results will add further information to results from the NAEP 1990, 1992, and 1996 mathematics state and national assessments. Links for all of these products and tools will be available through: Additionally, please participate in StatChat Live on today, August 2, at 2 p.m. EDT, when Associate Commissioner Peggy G. Carr will answer your questions about the NAEP 2000 national and state mathematics results. NCES has just released "Home Schooling in the United States: 1999." In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled. This report, based on data from the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Survey, 1999, contains information about the characteristics of home schooled children and their families, parent's reasons for homeschooling, and public school support for homeschoolers. Evergreen Freedom Foundation Washington Education Association is found guilty...again By Lynn Harsh, Evergreen Freedom Foundation Olympia - Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor today issued a “guilty” verdict against the Washington Education Association (WEA) for what he characterized as intentional violations in the union’s use of mandatory teacher dues and fees for politics. The combined penalties, sanctions and reimbursements ordered by the court make this the largest fine ever levied against the WEA - likely more than $500,000. Environmental education is under assault SMOKE AND MIRRORS By John F. Borowski Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Florida's Orange County Convention Center is big. Big enough to hold the Sears Tower, if you laid it on its side. So big you could walk 10 miles and never leave the cement behemoth. A hulking structure like this was necessary to host the recent National Science Teachers Convention, the largest gathering of educators in the nation more than 14,000 science teachers, and hundreds of exhibitors passing out armloads of pamphlets, packets, books, stickers, posters, and other goodies. Post your comments on this article World Game Institute Middle School and Museum Program What if it were up to middle school students to determine the fate of the world? How would they respond? What would happen? Would their actions lead to the destruction of the world? Or a gameboy in every backpack? Guess again! Middle school students playing the World Game are recommending more efficient energy consumption, better distribution of food and increased access to education. These fairly remarkable insights are all embedded in a process that is filled with learning - and it's fun! Post your comments on this article Behaviorism to Cognitivism Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education John R. Anderson Lynne M. Reder Herbert A. Simon Department of Psychology Carnegie Mellon University There is a frequent misperception that the move from behaviorism to cognitivism implied an abandonment of the possibilities of decomposing knowledge into its elements for purposes of study and decontextualizing these elements for purposes of instruction. We show that cognitivism does not imply outright rejection of decomposition and decontextualization. We critically analyze two movements which are based in part on this rejection--situated learning and constructivism. Situated learning commonly advocates practices that lead to overly specific learning outcomes while constructivism advocates very inefficient learning and assessment procedures. The modern information-processing approach in cognitive psychology would recommend careful analysis of the goals of instruction and thorough empirical study of the efficacy of instructional approaches. Post your comments on this article K-6 Educators Avoid Burnout?!? Is It Possible? Who ever said teaching was easy and unstressful? Believe it or not, someone said that to me recently. I'll tell you why teaching is one of the hardest jobs on earth and what you can do to avoid career burnout. In Defense of Testing Series Educational Testing Service Education Reform Reasons for Positive Thinking By Kurt M. Landgraf, President and Chief Executive Officer Educational Testing Service Is a regular contributor to EducationNews The bipartisan support President George Bush has received in making education reform his first priority reflects the hope that our leaders have in our educational system. Educational Testing Service has consulted with the Bush team and others as various proposals have been debated and refined. The consensus emerging from the discussions surrounding education reform initiatives provides a unique oppor-tunity to avoid the negativity and finger-pointing that in the past clouded the issues and inhibited progress. Post your comments on this article Stoney Brook News GROVER WHITEHURST SWORN IN AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF EDUCATION Will Serve as Director of Educational Research and Improvement Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, Ph.D., a nationally-recognized authority on early childhood education and language development who serves as Lead Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University, was sworn in today as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Education Matters Do Preschoolers Need Academic Content? Grover J. Whitehurst Brianna and the other four-year-olds are sitting in a circle around their preschool teacher. The teacher says, "Let's plan what we're going to do next. Who can tell me what they're going to do when we go to our play centers?" Brianna says, "I going to work with playdoe." The teacher says, "Tell us what you're going to make." "I want to make a plate for my Mom," says Brianna. "That's wonderful," says the teacher, "I'm sure your Mom will really like that." Several other children chime in with similar plans. Circle time breaks up, and the children go to the interest center of their choice. Commonwealth (free registration require) Testing the Test Scores are up, but doubts remain about the exam that determines who can teach in public schools By Andreae Downs The headlines shocked the public and rocked the education establishment: It was the first time the state ever tested would-be teachers to weed out who did--and did not--belong in front of a public school classroom, and almost 60 percent failed. House Speaker Thomas Finneran threw rhetorical fuel on the fire by deriding the test-flunkers as "idiots." But the dismay over a pipeline of future teachers that seemed clogged with candidates of dubious ability ran deeper than the legislative leader's inflammatory remark. Post your comments on this article Tennessee Institute of Public Policy Background on “Knowledge Based” versus “Performance Based” Debate NASHVILLE— Here are just a few notes I have been able to put together from responses I received on the “Knowledge Based” versus “Performance Based” debate taking place in the “conference committee” on HR1 and S1. I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who helped me assemble background information. Center Director of the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin Math Mania and the GED Certificate By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday Math mania and high stakes testing initiated by math aficionados and elitists of all persuasions are harming K-12 students nationwide. So-called math illiteracy is being used as a major weapon to belittle schools and teachers. Students are required to take college entrance tests in math they have forgotten because they have never used it and then are required to take useless remedial courses. School bashers and an educationally challenged media then gleefully use the percentage of students required to take so-called remedial math courses as “the statistic” to claim the dummying down of American education. And now the final outrageous mortal blow to poor students is being planned, requiring useless higher math requirements for a GED certificate which is the salvation for millions of the working poor to improve their status in life. Why? Post your comments on this article White House Early Childhood Cognitive Development Summit SUMMARY COMMENTS G. Reid Lyon Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Good morning. I want to take this opportunity to thank the First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush, Secretary Paige and Secretary Thompson for their extraordinary leadership and inspiring dedication to one of the most important goals set forth by this administration - a goal that seeks to ensure that all of our Nation's children develop, learn, and thrive to the maximum extent possible in their homes, in their school settings, in their communities, and in their lives at every age, including their time in the prenatal world. This is a goal that states clearly that no child will be left behind. Post your comments on this article Should English teachers be held accountability for math scores? Changing the Subject or would you hire a good clarinet teacher to teach your child the violin? By Jerome Dancis Roughly, the first (milder) half of this article appeared in the Forum column of the Prince George's Extra Section of the Washington Post , April 21, 1999, Page 4. Parts enclosed in [] were not included. Post your comments on this article Ariannaonline Books Not Bars: The Anti-Prison Backlash The last 20 years have been a boom time for America's jailers. New prisons have been popping up at a rate even McDonald's would envy, while the number of people living behind bars has quadrupled: "Over 2 million dissatisfied customers served." National Education Association NATION'S EDUCATORS SEE GAPS IN EARLY CARE FOR CHILDREN The nation's educators July 25 challenged President Bush to fill the gaps in early child care. "Our members see firsthand which children receive the nourishment and social building blocks required to start school and which children have not," said NEA President Bob Chase. Texas Home School Coalition RICE CHANGES ADMISSION POLICY FOR HOME SCHOOLERS THSC learned this week that the admission policy for home school graduates at Rice University in Houston has been changed very recently. Prior to this change, home school graduates were required to take five SAT II exams for in addition to the other requirements imposed on public school graduates. Post your comments on this article WorldNet Daily Baylor U. pulls 'bait and switch' College accepts home-schoolers, then abruptly rescinds admission By Diana Lynne © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Home-school advocates are challenging an apparent bait and switch by Baylor University, saying it "smacks of discrimination." Mathematica Policy Research Making Schools Career-Focused, Final Report, March 1, 2001, pdf Black-White Differences in Education Read about educational achievement and inequality. Early Head Start Positive impacts noted for children and families. ‘What Kids Can Do’ Student Learning, Work, and Voices Featured on Web as ‘What Kids Can Do’ PROVIDENCE, RI—High schoolers are making history in the Rio Grande Valley, on the South Dakota prairie, and on the wind-whipped coast of downeast Maine. Mentored by adults in school and out, they are turning around their small-town economies and meeting new academic challenges as they do it. Education Policy Institute First Lady Hosts White House Summit on Learning and Reading First Lady Laura Bush convened a summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development at Georgetown University’s majestic Gaston Hall on Thursday and Friday. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson co-chaired the White House Summit which featured researchers, practitioners, and government leaders who agreed that each of us has a duty to help children achieve their full potential. Speaker after speaker emphasized the significance of parents and care-givers in early learning experiences. Post your comments on this article “Balanced” Reading Instruction Does It Make Sense? By Bill Carlson Is a guest contributor to EducationNews “Almost every premise advanced by whole language (WL) proponents about how reading is learned has been contradicted by scientific investigations,”1 says Louisa Cook Moats, one of the world’s foremost voices for the application of reading research. Moats received her doctorate in reading from Harvard University and currently serves as Project Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project in Washington, D.C., a multi-year study of early reading instruction. Post your comments on this article Town Hall BAD TIME FOR CHILDREN IN AMERICA by Kathleen Parker "It's a good time to be a child in America," said Tommy Thompson, secretary of Heath and Human Services, about a new statistical report on children. University of Pittsburgh/NCEE NYC First Editions of The New Standards Performance Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts "Stop the Presses! Nothing More Important Than This" by Donna Garner Is a regular contributor to EducationNews *Because education is at the top of nearly everyone's worry list and children only come this way once in their lives, we as a nation must get this issue right! Nothing is more important to the future of this nation than the education of its children. Nothing could be more important than the "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Please take the time to read over these talking points and then contact the appropriate legislators. (See list below.) Post your comments on this article The Great Grade Inflation Non-Debate Part VIII: Deafening Silence By Nicholas Stix Is a regular contributor to EducationNews "What do you call a black man with a Ph.D.?" Malcolm X famously asked, forty years ago. He answered, "A nigger!" What was once true of an educated black man, is today true in academia of an educated white man with the outcast status of adjunct professor. For in academia, caste rules. Post your comments on this article Council for Basic Education (CBE) All Children Can Learn, If We Focus on Each Child Christopher T. Cross, CBE President, and William E. Brock, CBE Board Member, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, and Chairman, Bridges Learning Systems Join Leaders at The White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development (WASHINGTON DC) All children can learn -- a philosophy which the Council for Basic Education (CBE) has championed for over 45 years. American School Board Journal Learning Without School Who home-schools and why? A growing movement raises questions for your district. By Lawrence Hardy Accountability for Home-Schoolers Who's responsible for making sure home-schooled students get the best possible education? By Rebecca Talluto Research Shall We Dance? National dance standards recognize that not all expression is verbal. By Susan Black School Law Testing the Limits on Drug Tests: School boards should tread cautiously in adopting drug-testing policies. By Benjamin Dowling-Sendor Your Turn Vote in this month's survey! You say: Superintendents should be educators. We ask: Should you open the door to home-schoolers? Texas Public Policy Foundation Future of TAAS Test Hangs in the Balance Future of TAAS Test Hangs in the Balance As the TAAS test and Texas school accountability system has become part of a national debate over standards, so has scrutiny of the TAAS and what it measures. A number of recent studies have revealed flaws in TAAS questions and grading standards. A prime opportunity to fix these flaws is being considered by Texas Education Commissioner Jim Nelson as the new "TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills)" test is being written. The new TAKS will measure totally different knowledge and skills than those formerly measured by TAAS. Post your comments on this article Reed Martin The school says they want to retain my learning disabled son in 3rd grade because of his poor reading. They say their new policy is "no social promotion." Is retention a good idea for him? Retention is only a good idea for the politicians. It would probably hurt your son is five ways. Town Hall A NEW LOOK AT REFORM While Congress and President Bush wrangle over the shape of education reform, one group in Washington has decided to launch a revolution in the education of poor children on its own. The Washington Jesuit Academy won't open its doors until 2004, but when it does, 75 poor middle school students will be given an unparalleled opportunity to escape poverty through a first-rate education. But the process won't be easy. Students will attend school 12 hours a day, taking all their meals at the school, completing homework assignments in supervised study halls, and attending classes on Saturdays, as well as spending summers at Jesuit-supervised summer camps. The key will be commitment from students and parents, and a willingness to work hard. Lew Rockwell Homeschool Your Children It's vital for their well-being, and society's. Article by Brad Edmonds. In Defense of Testing Series Education Testing Service on the Issues (2 of 5 in this series) Teachers Hold the Key to Education Reform By Kurt M. Landgraf, President and Chief Executive Officer Educational Testing Service In the ongoing debate about how best to improve education today, the work of great teachers must be acknowledged. They hold the key to successful reform. Post your comments on this article Join the lively discussion on the Bulletin Board Require GED for all American College Admissions Marilyn Keller Rittmeyer, Northwestern University has raised some very good points regarding this topic. Please join in with your thoughts pro or con. San Diego Union Tribune (California) Lifting shroud of secrecy on tests Fifth in a series on the back-to-balance movement in education. In 1999, George Schmidt went to war with the testocracy. That's his term for the collection of politicians, educators and testing companies that exert increasing power over the future of public school children. As a teacher in the Chicago public schools, Schmidt was especially disturbed by the secretive nature of the standardized testing industry. Parents Advocating School Accountability Edison Schools' San Francisco Rent Concession Sparks Hope Elsewhere For-profit Edison Schools' new agreement to pay rent on a San Francisco Unified School District-owned site has given hope to York, Pa., school officials, who are engaged in their own heated dispute with Edison over rent. Post your comments on this article Ship of State The National Education Association 2001 Annual Meeting by William R. Darcy Is a guest contributor to EducationNews Earlier this month the National Education Association (NEA), the union that controls most of America's public schools and the Democratic Party, held its annual convention. As always, it had helpful suggestions on how to reform the public school system and expressed its collective opinion on the leading social and legal issues of our day. We received this report from our enthusiastic correspondent, Bobbi Chase, a diehard union member, teacher and delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly. She tells us about the courageous stands of NEA delegates and officers. Post your comments on this article National Bureau of Economic Research (2 articles) SCHOOL STYLE CAN RAISE ACHIEVEMENT David Figlio and Maurice Lucas "Elementary school students with teachers who are 'tough' graders have fewer disciplinary problems and show greater improvements in their reading and math scores." Though state curricular standards have proliferated since 1983, there remains a stunning lack of consensus about what comprises a good education, an inability to agree on how one measures it, and a lack of evidence about whether particular teaching practices or school organizational forms do a superior job of imparting it. In "Do High Grading Standards Affect Student Performance?" Post your comments on this article "School Choice and the Distributional Effects of Ability Tracking: Does Separation Increase Equality?" David Figlio and Marianne Page note that along with tougher grading standards, schools traditionally have sought to challenge high achievers by putting them in classes, or "tracks," with peers of similar ability. Proponents of ability tracking argue that grouping students with similar abilities fosters learning by allowing teachers to fine tune instructional levels. Critics of ability tracking have argued that it deprives low aptitude students of positive peer effects arising from contact with more able students, that schools with tracking programs redistribute resources towards more able students, and that less capable teachers are assigned to low ability tracks. These criticisms, along with two decades of empirical studies that seem to suggest that ability grouping has benefited high-ability children and harmed low-ability ones, led to an estimated 7 percent drop between 1987 and 1993 in the number of gifted programs in the United States. Post your comments on this article ETHAN ALLEN INSTITUTE "Ideas for Vermont's Future" Statement by Ethan Allen Institute President John McClaughry I have been informed by a member of the news media that liberal Democratic Senators Shumlin, Rivers and McCormack held a news conference this afternoon to denounce the Ethan Allen Institute's new report, Schoolchildren First. Post your comments on this article Welcome to Viewpoint, a live discussion forum Tuesday, July 24, Noon EDT School Choice: Destroying or Saving Public Schools? Parental school choice is widespread in America, unless you're poor. But when low-income families have access to more educational choices, the prospects that their children will succeed and the public schools will improve increase. This is the position of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) and what it is attempting to educate America about through its national public information campaign that began in November 2000. BAEO supports charter schools, tax-supported vouchers and tuition tax credits that benefit low-income families, private scholarship programs, home schooling, supplementary education programs and other innovations in existing public schools as a means to improve the educational success of black children. Kaleem Caire will be here to answer your questions concerning this ongoing national debate about American education policy. Post your comments on this article Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And the United States American Education and the Spurious Education Reform Charter Schools An Analysis of the Wisconsin Third Grade Comprehensive Reading Test Results: Milwaukee Public Schools & Milwaukee Charter Schools By Dennis W. Redovich Appearing Exclusively every Monday It is unbelievably ironic that the City of Milwaukee, where the exemplary Milwaukee Public Schools have developed since the 1970’s a unique system of public school choice, is also the Mecca of the anti-public school movement, charter schools and private school choice, including religious schools. The anti-public school movement has been successful in defaming MPS schools and their teachers who have the gall to belong to a union. How is it possible that a School District that for 30 years has provided more choice of schools than any in the U.S. or the world can be the Mecca of private school choice? Big time money from the Bradley Foundations holier than thou Michael Joyce who believes that public education is an evil form of socialism, the political power of too many politicians, including both conservative Republicans and so-called Democrats feeding at the trough of the gluttonous business interests, and the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel is the answer. Post your comments on this article Town Hall W.'s Strange Flirtation by William F. Buckley, Jr. It! is, alas, hard to measure the collapse of the Bush administration in the matter of education. The bill that is making its way through Congress has good points in it, even as it can be said, with Christian resolution, that Senator Kennedy has good points in him -- indeed it is mostly a Kennedy bill. Post your comments on this article New South Wales Department of Education and Training An education plan for inner Sydney Proposal for change to public schools in the eastern suburbs, inner city, inner west, inner south west, Ryde and Chatswood School to Work School to Work Planning is a process which assists students to understand and plan for the employment, education and training options available to them. Teacher professional learning portfolios Teacher professional learning portfolios are playing an increasingly important role in facilitating learning by teachers and in demonstrating the outcomes of practitioner research and reflective inquiry into teaching practice. There is a growing recognition of this role in preservice teacher education programs and in continuing professional development. US News & World Report Are boys the weaker sex? Scientists are discovering very real biological differences that can make boys more impulsive, more vulnerable to benign neglect, and less efficient classroom learners. Post your comments on this article Time Magazine A Cowboy Takes L.A. to School Roy Romer thought he’d mastered politics—but that was before he took over the nation’s worst school system. Now he’s making waves on the coast It felt like fight night inside Holman’s Methodist Church in South Los Angeles. Hundreds of surly teachers, furious and frustrated over their spurned demand for a double-digit pay raise, had packed the church just after Thanksgiving to blast the city’s new school superintendent, Roy Romer. Post your comments on this article Media Transparency Public School Privatization & Commercialization Introduction The conservative movement, being thoroughly anti-union, has at its heart a desire to rid the United States of the two remaining unionized sectors of the national economy: Public Education (teachers unions), and Public Employees. In service of these goals, the movement has moved aggressively against both public schools and public school teachers. Of course, the movement is also interested in converting to private profit the estimated $300+ billion annually spent on public primary and secondary education. NCES This brief NCES publication, "Statistics in Brief: Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1998-99," contains basic revenue and expenditure data, by state, for public elementary and secondary education for school year 1998-99. It contains state level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function, including expenditures per pupil. Tennessee Institute for Public Policy Invention Becomes the Mother of Necessity Technology in the Classroom by J.C. Bowman, Tennessee Institute for Public Policy Invention Becomes the Mother of Necessity: Technology in the Classroom There is a great deal of continued emphasis on technology as a tool for improving education. Even former Secretary of Education William Bennett is getting into the act, by creating an online K-12 school through the Internet. Internet-based schools could provide new choices to families, and compete against the monopoly of public education. A leading authority in this field, Sean Duffy of the Pennsylvania-based Commonwealth Foundation, believes in order to survive these schools “must be flexible, responsive, and fixated on cutting-edge quality.” The 21st century marriage of technology and educational freedom does hold much promise. Maryland Public Television Middle and High School Teachers Tackle Cancer Issues and Technology Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Maryland Public Television team-up on “BioHealth Link: Questions of Cancer” summer institute BALTIMORE -- Seventy middle and high school educators will spend the week of July 23 through 26 on the medical campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, learning about cutting-edge cancer research and prevention and integrating educational technology tools at the “BioHealth Link: Questions of Cancer” summer institute. The institute is a partnership of Maryland Public Television (MPT) and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. National Education Association NEA, KEY EDUCATION GROUPS MAKE PLEA FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION In an extraordinary show of educator unity, NEA, the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association vowed to hold Congress accountable for the federal promise to adequately fund special education. Rural School and Community Trust Featured Project: Rural Action Strengthens Ties between School and Community in Appalachian Ohio by Elisabeth Higgins Null Grassroots action to improve school facilities and assure educational funding equity is the hallmark of the Rural School and Community Organizing Project (RSCO) in Ohio's Appalachian region, where rural citizens are eagerly awaiting the state Supreme Court's next ruling on the long-running DeRolph lawsuit. The work of RSCO to engage rural citizens on school funding and facilities issues mirrors the equity battles going on throughout the country, and is this month's featured project. TC Record Instructional Policy and Classroom Performance: The Mathematics Reform in California David K. Cohen, Heather C. Hill | 2000 Drawing upon a teacher survey, this article proposes that successful instructional policies are themselves instructional: teachers’ opportunities to learn about and from policy influence both their practice and, at least indirectly, student achievement. Reworking the Student Departure Puzzle John Thelin, Amy E. Wells | 2002 Schooling the Symbolic Animal: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Education Edmund T. Hamann | 2002 Educational Research Journal "An Open Letter to Reid Lyon" pdf file by Steven Strauss M.D., Ph.D. Dear Dr. Lyon: Over the last several years, you have obtained notoriety in the popular media and elsewhere as a leading spokesmen for a certain viewpoint on the psychology of reading, how reading is learned, and how best to teach it. Post your comments on this article The Civil Rights Project...Harvard University Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation New Research Findings from The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University Almost half a century after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that Southern school segregation was unconstitutional and “inherently unequal,” new statistics from the 1998-99 school year show that racial and ethnic segregation continued to intensify throughout the 1990s. This resegregation is happening despite the nation’s growing diversity, in particular the rapid expansion in the Latino student population, and is contributing to a growing gap in quality between the schools being attended by white students and those serving a large proportion of minority students. Although public schools in the South remain more integrated than they were prior to the civil rights revolution, they are resegregating at accelerating rates. In the decade between 1988 and 1998, most of the progress made toward increasing integration in the region during the previous two decades was lost. Post your comments on this article National Education Research Policy & Priorities Board Paige Names Five To National Research Advisory Board U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige has appointed five new members to the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board. The 15-member board works with the Education Department's assistant secretary for educational research and improvement to develop the agency's long-term research and development agenda. Post your comments on this article Howard Hughes Medical Institute HHMI Awards $12 Million for Informal Science Education Twenty-nine science museums, nature centers, aquariums, zoos and other informal science education centers will receive new grants totaling $12 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The awards support programs to strengthen science literacy and enhance science education. In Defense of Testing Series Educational Testing Service Education Reform This Time, Let’s Do it Right Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO Educational Testing Service Is a guest contributor to EducationNews President Bush’s reform proposals will fundamentally transform American education in the 21st century. In the near future, school districts in each state will be held to a high standard of excellence and will be asked to measure up. Student achievement will be monitored by standardized tests administered every year in grades three through eight. Post your comments on this article In Defense of Testing Series Committee for Economic Development Measuring What Matters Using Assessment and Accountability to Improve Student Learning EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Americans assign unprecedented importance to the task of reforming public education so that all children are prepared for college, for the workplace, for participation in the nation’s civic life, and for lifelong learning to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the 21st century. Achieving this goal requires an educational system that focuses first and foremost on learning and achievement. Solid measures of academic achievement are essential to such a system. Post your comments on this article Alexis de Tocqueville Institution The Bush education reform: learning from experience By Gregory Fossedal Is a guest contributor to EducationNews President Bush and his Secretary of Education have an important choice in the coming weeks as they grapple with HR-1 and S-1, the school reform bills that have passed their respective houses of Congress but now need to be reconciled before a House-Senate conference committee. If it wants to, the administration can score cheap debater’s points by criticizing Democrats for trivial delays as the newly reorganized Senate appoints members to the joint committee. There is, however, an alternative. Post your comments on this article Previous Commentaries and Reports