Education Next articles from March 2005

Education Next archives from March 2005

The children left behind: NCLB is a giant step forward--but a mid-course correction is needed.(from the editors)(Editorial)
March 22, 2005... Now it is certain, on its third anniversary, that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a monumental achievement. The accountability provisions of the law shine a bright light on the performance of schools across the nation, forcing many of them to...

Tough love at the Hyde schools.(correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... Shortly after his initial visit, I asked James Traub whether he planned to evaluate Hyde according to how effectively we honor our mission or on the basis of how closely we embody his perception of the good school. Reflecting the latter,...

Chicago's proven results.(correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... Regarding your two stories about Chicago's ending of social promotion ("Retaining Retention" and "Teachers and Students Speak," Features, Winter 2005), it should be noted that one of the most important policy decisions that Chicago mayor...

Teaching teachers.(correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... However flawed David Steiner's study of the syllabi and texts used in three clusters of teacher education courses (foundational studies, reading, and methods of teaching), we agree with his basic argument that future teachers need more exposure...

Reading, writing, and willpower.(correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2005... I liked Diane Ravitch's review of Paul Zoch's Doomed to Fail (Winter 2005), which I also read with great interest. The myopia that overlooks student effort is, in my view, the biggest flaw in our current approach to education reform. Teachers,...

What's a teacher worth?(correspondence)
March 22, 2005... In "The Uniform Salary Schedule" (Forum, Winter 2005), Brad Jupp cites Public Agenda research and identifies us as a "pro-teacher group." While I believe most of us at Public Agenda admire teachers, Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy...

Do we need to repair the monument? Debating the future of No Child Left Behind.(forum)
March 22, 2005... With the re-election of George W. Bush and the appointment of Margaret Spellings as his new secretary of education, many are wondering whether now is the time to revisit No Child Left Behind. The historic law, passed by Congress with broad,...

Good? Bad? or none of the above? The time-honored, unavoidable mandate to teach character.(feature)
March 22, 2005... It is an odd mark of our time that the first question people ask about character education is whether public schools should be doing it at all. The question is odd because it invites us to imagine that schooling, which occupies about a third of...

The new, a-maze-ing approach to math: a mathematician with a child learns some politics.(feature)
March 22, 2005... I am not a mathematics teacher, but I have a degree in mathematics and an intense interest in how the subject is taught. When I retire, I would like to teach math, which is why I started tutoring high school students in my spare time three...

Uncivil disobedience: violating the rules for breaking the law.(feature)
March 22, 2005... A new kind of civil disobedience came to Missoula, Montana, recently. On a bridge over the Clark Fork River, a group from Wild Rockies Earth First! blocked a truck carrying logs from the Bitterroot Forest. Two of the protesters tied ropes to...

Magnet schools: no longer famous but still intact.(whatever happened to ...?)
March 22, 2005... The year was 1968. Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and American cities were erupting in flames because of King's violent death and the decades-long smoldering resentments from racism. In a small city far away from the churning ghettos...

Wage distortion: why America's top female college graduates aren't teaching.(research)
March 22, 2005... Though exceptions undoubtedly exist, women with higher aptitudes can ordinarily be expected to be more effective classroom teachers than those with lower aptitudes. It is therefore troubling to think that in the United States those entering the...

Incentives to learn: merit scholarships that pay kids to do well.(research)
March 22, 2005... Proposals for education reform generally focus on teachers and curricula. But the most important factor in education may be the student himself or herself. A growing number of states, including Georgia, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts,...

Mind over matter: a popular pediatrician stretches a synapse or two.(check the facts)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Checked: The Myth of Laziness (Simon & Schuster, 2003) A Mind at a Time (Simon & Schuster, 2002) By Mel Levine Mel Levine writes about learning disabilities in a way that sometimes invites satire. The premise of his...

School reform economics: what options are worth the price?(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? By James J. Heckman and Alan B. Krueger, edited and with an introduction by Benjamin M. Friedman MIT Press, 2003, $40.00; 370 pages. In the first half of the 20th...

Subordinate clauses without any pauses: why we need a language with some lawses.(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation By Lynne Truss Gotham Books, 2004, $17.50; 240 pages. The War Against Grammar By David Mulroy CrossCurrents, 2003, $20.00; 144 pages. When I was a...

A method to his mastery: James Comer's enigmatic model for school success.(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World By James P. Comer, M.D. Foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Yale University Press, 2004, $28.00; 327 pages. Leave No Child Behind is the most recent and perhaps...

Book alert.(A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn, by Peter Perret & Janet Fox (Dana Press). Before the advent of recorded sound, most homes could enjoy music only if a family member played an instrument. Skill at the...

A story of two children: why can't our schools acknowledge them?(school life)
March 22, 2005... Emma attends a school where more than 95 percent of the students achieve at grade level, including Emma. But listen to Elaine, her mother: "This is such a bad school. I'm sorry, but it is." A bold statement made by a small, stay-at-home mother...

Testing student learning, evaluating teaching effectiveness.(Education Books from the Hoover Institution)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... More than ever, parents want to know how much their children are learning and how their childrens' schools rank compared to others. And even though some education experts may disagree, politicians and the public are increasingly insistent that...

The Future of School Choice.(Education Books from the Hoover Institution)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 22, 2005... In the most anticipated decision of its 2002 term, the Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, that the school voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio, did not violate the Constitution's ban on the "establishment" of religion....