Education Next articles from June 2007

Education Next archives from June 2007

Politics first, students last: a well-heeled commission issues a weak-kneed report.(from the editors)
June 22, 2007... From Aspen, Colorado, still another education commission reports. Armed with Gates and other foundation dollars and headed by two former governors, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, commission members tell us what to do about No Child...

Catholic education.(correspondence)
June 22, 2007... Peter Meyer ("Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?" features, Spring 2007) left us with plenty of challenging questions about the future of Catholic schools. At their peak in 1964, Catholic schools enrolled approximately 5 million students and served...

Teacher dispositions.(correspondence)
June 22, 2007... Laurie Moses Hines ("Return of the Thought Police?" features, Spring 2007) is surely right: present-day "dispositions" standards have their roots in much earlier efforts to measure and mold the "personality" of the American teacher. But...

Private placements.(correspondence)
June 22, 2007... The authors of "Debunking a Special Education Myth" (check the facts, Spring 2007) appear to misinterpret what school officials and education policymakers are saying about the cost of educating all children. Without question, school districts...

Regulating software.(correspondence)
June 22, 2007... The marketing and procurement practices Todd Oppenheimer describes ("Selling Software," features, Spring 2007) were in place decades before NCLB. Even 10 years ago, the largest school contracts were with multinational publishers for textbooks....

Preschool curriculum.(correspondence)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... While Dr. Pianta makes some excellent points ("Preschool Is School, Sometimes," features, Winter 2007), especially related to teacher training and classroom behaviors, I am concerned by his lack of focus on curriculum development and planning....

Teacher preparation.(correspondence)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... Authors Kane, Rockoff, and Staiger ("Photo Finish," research, Winter 2007) did not account for the difference that high-quality teacher preparation makes in teacher performance. They found that alternatively certified and uncertified teachers...

Adequately fatigued: court rulings disappoint plaintiffs.(the legal beat)
June 22, 2007... Staring into the political abyss of adequacy litigation has apparently prompted some state courts to step back from the edge. Over the past two years, the highest courts of New York, Texas, and Massachusetts have decided to end or limit their...

Texas hold'em: secretary Spellings--the ace in Bush's hand.(feature)
June 22, 2007... It's the final round for President Bush. He's a lame duck president with diluted power; Democrats control the U.S. House and Senate; and he's burned up much of his political capital with lawmakers wrangling over the war in Iraq. But his...

The education governor: an interview with Florida governor Jeb Bush.(feature)(Interview)
June 22, 2007... Governors from New York to California aspire to be known as the "education governor." Few hold better claim to the title than Florida governor Jeb Bush, who left office in January after two action-packed terms. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

The Lucy Calkins project: parsing a self-proclaimed literacy guru.(feature)
June 22, 2007... Once upon a time there was a thoughtful educator who raised some interesting questions about how children were traditionally taught to read and write, and proposed some innovative changes. But as she became famous, critical debate largely...

Indianapolis mayor Bart Peterson: the Peyton Manning of charter schools.(feature)
June 22, 2007... "I have never found much redeeming social value in Indianapolis outside of the St. Elmo steakhouse," wrote political reporter Jack Germond a few years back. It would, indeed, take an exceptional town to live up to the pugnacious character of...

Pre-K 101: who should control a four-year-old's education--the government or parents?(feature)(pre-kindergarten)
June 22, 2007... A vivid illustration of good intentions poised to go awry is the public policy debate now raging over the education of pre-schoolers. This year legislators in more than a dozen state capitals will decide how to spend hundreds of millions of new...

Power struggle in Los Angeles: Mayor Villaraigosa battles the public school bureaucracy.(forum)(Antonio Villaraigosa)(Brief article)
June 22, 2007... The Los Angeles Unified School District once again finds itself positioned for great things--or grave disappointment. The district has an ambitious building plan, and a tough-talking retired admiral sits in the superintendent's chair. The...

A murky picture: an attempted takeover goes awry.(forum)
June 22, 2007... From a distance, it probably looks as if Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is about to take control of his city's schools, giving him the kind of clout over education that the mayors of New York, Chicago, and Boston have enjoyed for years....

A ray of hope: politics may still save L.A. schools.(forum)(Los Angeles )
June 22, 2007... Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's attempt to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) can be seen as an act of pure political hubris: a charismatic, progressive newcomer running with the big dogs of urban politics. Daley...

In low-income schools, parents want teachers who teach: in affluent schools, other things matter.(research)
June 22, 2007... Recent government education policies seem to assume that academic achievement as measured by test scores is the primary objective of public education. A prime example is the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires schools to bring all...

Civics exam: schools of choice boost civic values.(research)
June 22, 2007... Do assigned public schools have a comparative advantage over public schools of choice and private schools in steeping their charges in the civic values necessary for democratic citizenship? The theoretical argument in favor of such an advantage...

The confidence men: selling adequacy, making millions.(check the facts)(Checked: An Evidence-Based Approach to School Finance Adequacy in Washington)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Checked: Picus and Associates. 2006. An Evidence-Based Approach to School Finance Adequacy in Washington. Lawsuits aimed at compelling legislatures to increase school funding have been filed in some 42 states. Courts have found...

Pressure cooker: teens at the top pay a price.(The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids By Alexandra Robbins Hyperion, 2006, $24.95; 448 pages. When I was in public high school about a thousand years ago, life was very different. Half of my classmates at San Jacinto...

Three Rs and a v: schools should teach the importance of voting.(Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life By David E. Campbell Princeton University Press, 2006, $39.50; 267 pages. Why We Vote is a provocative interpretation of the factors that determine participation in our...

Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56. Rafe Esquith (Viking Press). This is a book for teachers, by a teacher--a next-generation Jaime Escalante, who achieves tremendous results in his inner-city Los Angeles...

Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education. Neal P. McCluskey (Rowman & Littlefield). In this volume, the Cato Institute's Neal McCluskey has penned an energetic attack on all things...

The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 22, 2007... The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial. Susan Eaton (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill). Journalist Susan Eaton's latest book on education tells two related stories--and tells them quite well. She first traces the still-running...

Curriculum wars: ancient and modern.(The History Boys)(Theater review)
June 22, 2007... The History Boys By Alan Bennett Broadhurst Theatre, New York, June 2006. Characterized by dry syntactical puns, flat humor, and a bested Socrates, the Euthydemus is not one of Plato's better-known works. Yet it is here that, for...

Teacher's little helper: new technologies target teacher performance.(what next)
June 22, 2007... Can technology turn well-meaning but ill-prepared teachers into effective instructors? A new breed of education business is betting on it. While none claim that they are "teacher proofing" the classroom, several are building tools that aim to...

Confessions from the classroom: how do teachers know they're working hard enough?(school life)
June 22, 2007... Two years ago I lived at the edge of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Each weekday morning at 6:30 I caught the uptown train, which shuttled me through subterranean corridors to the enormous Bronx public school where I taught kindergarten. Most...