Education Next articles from January 2007

Education Next archives from January 2007

Misdirected energy: schools get an a in resisting reform.(from the editors)(Editorial)
January 1, 2007... How is it that a system can simultaneously master the art of resisting reform and stick to the path of least resistance? Such is the conundrum facing public education. That our schools are impervious to fundamental change...

Teacher gender.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... Let's agree that you can't generalize from 8th graders, in the throes of puberty, to the effects of matching student and teacher gender at other ages. More research is needed. Now let's move on. What if Professor Dee ("The Why Chromosome,"...

Hope in New Orleans.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... Kathryn Newmark and Veronique de Rugy's brief mention of the comparatively rapid rebound of Catholic schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina ("Hope after Katrina," features, Fall 2006) casts the private school sector as "more nimble"...

Miracle Math.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... In "Miracle Math" (features, Fall 2006), Barry Garelick contends that the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) briefly piloted Singapore Math and then abandoned the math curriculum for budgetary reasons. Nothing could be further from the...

PE in schools.(correspondence)(physical education)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) is pleased that research ("Not Your Father's PE," research, Fall 2006) is being done to study the impact of physical education on individuals' participation in physical activity...

Newark's Cory Booker.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... David Skinner's article ("Home Is Where the Heart Is," features, Fall 2006) provides excellent coverage of the challenge facing Cory Booker, the newly elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in his effort to revitalize the school district....

National standards.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... The appeal of national standards for K-12 public education is understandable ("National Standards," forum, Fall 2006). The notion of a set of academic aspirations for all America's children is neat and clean and simple. And it provides an...

Affirmative action docketed: the supreme court takes up race-based school assignment.(the legal beat)
January 1, 2007... A relatively small proportion of the nation's school districts--fewer than 1000 out of 13,500--practice affirmative action, voluntarily using race in the design of attendance zones or in deciding who is admitted to selective schools. The...

Games charter opponents play: how local school boards--and their allies--block the competition.
January 1, 2007... Considerable attention has been paid to the most blatant barriers that public charter schools face. By lobbying against good charter legislation and fair funding (see Figure 1), financing anti-charter studies and propaganda, filing lawsuits,...

Courtroom alchemy: adequacy advocates turn guesstimates into gold.(feature)
January 1, 2007... Beginning in the late 1960s, and accelerating unabated through to the present, plaintiffs have filed more than 125 court cases questioning the constitutionality of school district and school spending levels. In 2005 alone, high-court decisions...

New Leaders for troubled schools: Jacquelyn Davis works with D.C.'s education bureaucracy.(feature)(New Leaders for New Schools)(Biography)
January 1, 2007... In recent years Frank W. Ballou Senior High School in Washington, D.C., has suffered some well-publicized traumas, including the on-campus murder of a 17-year-old and a deliberate mercury contamination by students that forced the school to...

Learning facts: the brave new world of data-informed instruction.
January 1, 2007... In just the last ten years, goaded by broad and still unsettled cultural shifts, education practices have changed dramatically. Schools are no longer just recording and analyzing inputs--dollars spent, number of days of instruction, numbers of...

Preschool is school, sometimes: making early childhood education matter.
January 1, 2007... Democrat Tim Kaine, the current governor of Virginia, campaigned on a platform that included universal pre-K education. In Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Eddie Perez established an Office for Young Children within his cabinet. At the federal...

The NCLB restruct-a-tron: does the law's great big machine for overhauling schools produce anything worthwhile?(No Child Left Behind Act)
January 1, 2007... Schools that fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress for six consecutive years are subject to the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind. The restructuring options prescribed by law include strong measures, such as turning failing...

Photo finish: certification doesn't guarantee a winner.
January 1, 2007... The July 2006 deadline came and went for states to comply with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate to have a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom. To meet the standard, teachers must have a bachelor's degree, be state-certified,...

Judging money: when courts decide how to spend taxpayer dollars.
January 1, 2007... Since the 1970s, proponents of greater spending in disadvantaged school districts have pursued their goal through litigation in state courts. They have brought suits in 45 of the 50 states. These suits began with claims of equity, which sought...

The NCES private-public school study: findings are other than they seem.(check the facts)
January 1, 2007... Checked: Henry Braun, Frank Jenkins, and Wendy Grigg. 2006. "Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling," U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education...

The triumph of look-say: dumbing-down reading instruction.(Let's Kill Dick & Jane: How the Open Court Publishing Company Fought the Culture of American Education)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Let's Kill Dick & Jane: How the Open Court Publishing Company Fought the Culture of American Education By Harold Henderson St. Augustine's Press, 2006, $26.00; 168 pages. This book tells the story of Blouke Carus's heroic but...

The "crits" capture presidential power: top education researchers denounce scientific research.(Education Research in the Public Interest: Social Justice, Action, and Policy)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Education Research in the Public Interest: Social Justice, Action, and Policy By Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate (editors) Teachers College Press, 2006, $27.95; 274 pages. There is not much research to be found or...

Cutting Through the Hype: A Tax-payer's Guide to School Reforms.(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Cutting Through the Hype: A Taxpayer's Guide to School Reforms. Jane L. David and Larry Cuban (Education Week Press). Silver bullets come not here. In this slender, readable volume, veteran educators Jane David (now head of the Bay Area...

What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families.(Book review)
January 1, 2007... What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families. Louise Derman-Sparks and Patricia G. Ramsey (Teachers College Press). Many Education Next readers have long wrestled with that burning...

School Money Trials: The Legal Pursuit of Educational Adequacy.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... School Money Trials: The Legal Pursuit of Educational Adequacy. Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson, editors (Brookings Institution Press). While high-profile reforms like No Child Left Behind and charter schools get most of the attention...

Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm Our Children.(Reforming Education in Florida: Recommendations from the Koret Task Force)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm Our Children. Eric A. Hanushek, editor (Hoover Institution Press). Reforming Education in Florida: Recommendations from the Koret Task Force. Paul E....

Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods. Chris Dede, editor (Harvard Education Press). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sensible use of online and distance education is at the vanguard of today's efforts to...

No business like show business: Hollywood and hip-hop discover charter schools.(what next)
January 1, 2007... Hollywood and hip-hop have discovered charter schools. In June, A-list stars including Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Jon Stewart performed at a fundraiser for a New York City charter school sponsored by the Robin Hood Foundation, whose board includes...