Education Next articles from June 2004

Education Next archives from June 2004

What mandates? School districts have little to gripe about.(From the Editors)
June 22, 2004... It's been said, more than once, that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a mandate that the federal government has failed to fund. Not true, in either respect. The law is neither unfunded nor, with one exception, much of a mandate. The...

Costly estimates.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In the article "Exploring the Costs of Accountability" (Feature, Spring 2004), James Peyser and Robert Costrell discuss the critical question in K-12 education finance today: How much will it cost for a school with a particular set of student...

The new Head Start.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Ron Haskins asks whether Democrats should go along with the Bush administration's new vision for the Head Start program ("Competing Visions," Feature, Winter 2004). I am one Democrat who will concede that the administration is on the right...

Inventing an ideology.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Jonathan Burack argues that a "global education ideology" has "captivated" social studies experts in recent years, resulting in a curriculum that is "deeply suspicious" of both American institutions and our role in the world ("The Sun Sets on...

Benefits of the C-minus.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... It was a pleasure to read "The Gentleman's A" (David N. Figlio and Maurice E. Lucas, Research, Spring 2004), in part because it accords with common sense. The teacher you remember from your youth is not the easy grader who let you get away with...

Why not choose teachers?(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Paul E. Peterson and William G. Howell's article, "Voucher Research Controversy" (Check the Facts, Spring 2004), was informative regarding the academic debate over school choice. I am struck, however, by how the debate has focused on parental...

The future of school boards: agents of reform or defenders of the status quo?(Forum)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... A cross the nation, urban officials are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the performance of elected school boards. The examples of mayors Richard Daley in Chicago and Michael Bloomberg in New York City--both of whom sought and won...

Steering a true course: school boards are coming under increasing attack, yet they are needed now more than ever. Who else will set the agenda for reform?(Forum)
June 22, 2004... HAVE SCHOOL BOARDS OUTLIVED THEIR USEFULNESS? ARE THEY AN ANACHRONISM? To answer these questions, we must consider why most school districts consistently perform at mediocre levels--and why some districts fail children in vast numbers. The...

Lost at sea; Time to jettison one of the chief obstacles to reform: the local school board.(Forum)
June 22, 2004... EARLY 20TH CENTURY PROGRESSIVE REFORMERS established elected school boards as a means of shielding public school systems from the politics and patronage of corrupt city governments. Citizens, rather than political dons or their favored...

Reframing the mind: Howard Gardner became a hero among educators simply by redefining talents as "intelligences".(Check the Facts)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Basic Books, 1983) Multiple Intelligences: The Theory into Practice (Basic Books, 1993) Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century (Basic Books,...

Where the rubber meets the road: school districts confront the challenges of rolling out No Child Left Behind's school choice and supplemental services provisions.(Feature)
June 22, 2004... THE 2003-04 SCHOOL YEAR saw the first widespread implementation of the new federal education law's chief accountability measures. Districts with schools that had persistently failed to make "adequate yearly progress" in their test-score...

One child at a time: an inside look at one city's efforts to offer families the opportunities promised by No Child Left Behind.(Feature)
June 22, 2004... JAMES CARADONIO CAN BARELY CONTAIN HIS ODIUM for the federal government's latest efforts at education reform. The mere mention of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) sparks a tirade: "Reductio ad absurdum, you know. But this is what we're...

Driving change: a progress report on urban school districts' efforts to execute the mandates of No Child Left Behind.(Feature)
June 22, 2004... The leadership of America's large urban school systems supported the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the legislation was heading to the House and Senate floors because of its intent to improve performance and close achievement gaps. But at...

Putting parents in charge: let's promote competition, high standards, and autonomy in K-12 education. After all, it worked for America's colleges and universities.(Feature)
June 22, 2004... In 1990, as the new president of the University of Tennessee, I was trying to understand what had made American colleges and universities the best in the world. I asked David Gardner, then the president of the University of California, why his...

The waiting game: graduates of new leaders for new schools sport enviable resumes and a zeal for education reform. But will school districts give them the key to the principal's office?(Feature)
June 22, 2004... ON THE FIRST Monday of the 2003-04 school year, Pablo Sierra was not where he hoped to be. Instead of greeting students as the new principal of a Chicago public school, Sierra was driving downtown for another round of meetings with district...

The British experience.(Feature)
June 22, 2004... IT HAS BEEN 16 years since Britain's Conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced the Education Reform Act. The law created a national curriculum for all state-supported schools as well as a national system of...

With strings attached: the notion of "local control" has an enduring resonance in American education, yet the law gives state officials the upper hand.(Research)
June 22, 2004... In a December 2003 decision, a Colorado trial court judge invalidated the state's new school voucher program. The decision was unusual in that the court relied not on traditional separation-of-church-and-state concerns, but instead on a...

Competition passes the test: still more evidence from Florida that public schools improve when threatened with the loss of students and money.(Research)
June 22, 2004... Do public schools respond to competition from private schools by improving the quality of instruction? This is one of the key questions in the voucher debate. Advocates of vouchers believe that public schools facing the threat of losing...

Portfolio assessment: carrying less weight in the era of standards-based accountability.(Whatever Happened to ...?)
June 22, 2004... At the Beacon School in Manhattan, the teachers and administrators thought they had resolved, at least to their satisfaction, the long national debate over how best to assess students' work. From the school's outset in 1993, Beacon's educators...

Equally mediocre: the ineptitude of court-driven school reform.(Book Review)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Final Test: The Battle for Adequacy in America's Schools By Peter Schrag New Press, 2003, $25.95; 288 pgs. Peter Schrag's Final Test describes how judicial rulings in state courts are transforming the way American public schools...

Quality curricula: the timeless technology.(Book Review)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved By Todd Oppenheimer Random House, 2003, $26.95; 512 pgs. In 1997 Todd Oppenheimer published a widely read Atlantic Monthly...

Creative accounting: measuring the true cost of K-12 education.(Book Review)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Public Education as a Business: Real Costs and Accountability By Myron Lieberman & Charlene Haar Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, $32.95; 248 pgs. The focus of Public Education as a Business comes after the colon: the real costs of K-12...

Book alert.(Book Review)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Common Sense School Reform, by Frederick M. Hess (Palgrave Macmillan). Common sense suggests that educators, like everyone else, are more effective when given the flexibility to innovate and held accountable for their performance....

Faith in the law: the Supreme Court upholds religious discrimination.(School Life)
June 22, 2004... On February 25, I lost a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. I had lost at the district court level as well, but a victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had lifted my hopes. What's more, a ruling in my favor seemed a natural extension...