Education Next articles from March 2009

Education Next archives from March 2009

What is good for General Motors ... is good for education.(from the editors)
March 22, 2009... "What is good for the country is good for General Motors--and vice versa," pronounced proud Charlie Wilson, the former GM chief who became secretary of defense to President Eisenhower. Now we might say it a bit differently, "If...

Choice benefits.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... The most intriguing aspect of the study of the relationship between the proportion of pupils in nongovernment schools and achievement on the PISA international comparisons ("School Choice International," research, Winter 2009) is its use of...

IES under Whitehurst.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... When Andrew Rudalevige interviewed me for his recent article ("Juggling Act,"features, Winter 2009), the National Board for Education Sciences, an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) advisory board that I chaired, had not yet completed its...

Milwaukee choice finance.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... Robert Costrell's analysis of school choice finance in Milwaukee ("Who Gains, Who Loses?" research, Winter 2009) fills a gaping void. Throughout the 18-year history of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, misinformation about its fiscal...

Home schooling.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... I read Milton Gaither's fine piece on home schooling ("Home Schooling Goes Mainstream " features, Winter 2009) as I was preparing for an evening meeting of the board of directors of the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools...

Alternative certification.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... I applaud Education Next for its research on ways in which nontraditional programs are recruiting individuals of color into the teaching field. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has accredited Western Governors...

Union watch.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... Linda Seebach ("Same Old, Same Old," features, Winter 2009) asserts that new leadership at both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) signifies no change in these organizations' policies or...

Technology for learning.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... Regarding the article "How Do We Transform Our Schools?" (features, Summer 2008), I agree that as organizations continue successful integration of software and web-based solutions into existing teaching methods, the software applications will...

Timeout: schools win in court.(the legal beat)
March 22, 2009... When a lawsuit charges a school with violating the Constitution by using timeouts to control a violent child, judicialization of education has arguably reached a new extreme. Yet federal appellate judges resisted intervention, and instead...

Straddling the Democratic divide: will reforms follow Obama's spending on education?(feature)
March 22, 2009... Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Senate confirmation hearing in January was thick with encomiums. He was praised by Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa for the "fresh thinking" he brought to his post as Chicago schools chief for seven years....

Accountability overboard: Massachusetts poised to toss out the nation's most successful reforms.(feature)
March 22, 2009... President Barack Obama and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick are both brilliant orators who espouse the "politics of hope." Both know about hope firsthand, having overcome less-than-privileged backgrounds to achieve great success. Patrick...

Work Hard. Be Nice: the roots and reality of the Knowledge Is Power Program.(feature)(excerpt from Work Hard, Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America)(Excerpt)
March 22, 2009... In 1994, fresh from a two-year stint with Teach For America, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin inaugurated the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) in Houston with an enrollment of 49 5th graders. By this Fall, 75 KIPP schools will be up and running,...

Teacher cooperatives: what happens when teachers run the school?(feature)
March 22, 2009... Cris Parr stands in a sunny room in an old high school surveying rows of drill presses, saws, and other outmoded industrial behe moths. Clearly no one has taught shop here in a long time, not since the goal was to prepare kids from the...

Teacher training, tailor-made: top candidates win customized teacher education.(feature)
March 22, 2009... One May afternoon in Boston, 85 teachers in training arrived at the bayside campus of the University of Massachusetts for a three-hour class called Family Partnerships for Achievement. The instructors had invited several public school parents...

E Pluribus Unum? Two longtime school reformers debate the merits of the national curriculum.(forum)(Chester E. Finn Jr. and Deborah Meier)(Interview)
March 22, 2009... The push for a national curriculum is gaining momentum as reformers press states to acknowledge "world class" benchmarks for student achievement. The topic had been dormant since Clinton-era efforts to promote "voluntary national standards"...

Teacher retirement benefits: even in economically tough times, costs are higher than ever.(research)
March 22, 2009... The ongoing global financial crisis is forcing many employers, from General Motors to local general stores, to take a hard look at the costs of the compensation packages they offer employees. For public school systems, this will entail a...

For-profit and nonprofit management in Philadelphia schools: what kind of management does better than the district-run schools?(research)
March 22, 2009... The federal law No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires states to "restructure" any school that fails for six years running to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward full proficiency on the part of all students by the year 2014. The law...

The education factor: schooling once drove the nation's rise to the top, but things have changed, unfortunately.(The Race Between Education and Technology)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Race between Education and Technology By Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz Belknap Press, 2008, $39.95; 496 pages. Many of the briefs for American exceptionalism, from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to Louis Hartz's...

Finding the right remedy: when court-ordered magnet schools don't work, try charters.(Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins By Joshua M. Dunn University of North Carolina Press, 2008, $37.50; 226 pages. If there are any school districts still under tight federal supervision of efforts to desegregate...

More money for less accountability? I don't think so!(Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right By Richard Rothstein, Rebecca Jacobsen and Tamara Wilder Economic Policy Institute and Teachers College Press, 2008, $19.95; 263 pages. Some may take this wrong-headed book seriously,...

The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right Has Framed the Debate on America's Schools.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right Has Framed the Debate on America's Schools. Kevin K. Kumashiro (Teachers College Press). This is a book that does not live up to its provocative title. For sure, some of the author's analysis...

Real Leaders, Real Schools: Stories of Success Against Enormous Odds.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Real Leaders, Real Schools: Stories of Success Against Enormous Odds. Gerald C. Leader with Amy F. Stern (Harvard Education Press). The great frustration of books about heroic principals "succeeding against enormous odds," five of whom are...

Mobilizing the Community to Help Students Succeed.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Mobilizing the Community to Help Students Succeed. Hugh B. Price (ASCD). Hugh Price, former head of the National Urban League, licensed attorney, and former editorial writer for the New York Times, begins by recalling that he thought it...

School Accountability, Autonomy, and Choice Around the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... School Accountability, Autonomy, and Choice Around the World. Ludger Woessmann, Elke Lude-mann, Gabriela Schutz, and Martin R. West (Edward Elgar). Education reforms based on accountability, autonomy, or choice became popular long before...

The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for School Reform.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for School Reform. Frederick M. Hess, ed. (Harvard Education Press). This wide-ranging collection asks what it will take for educational entrepreneurship to foster broad improvement...

The anti-intellectual environment of American teens: books and ideas have no deep impact.(American Teen)(Movie review)
March 22, 2009... Something in the achievement of American students doesn't add up. One-quarter of the students graduating from public high schools in 2007 took an Advanced Placement (AP) exam, up from 18 percent for the Class of 2002. College attendance is...

The passing of a gentle giant: a personal tribute to John Brandl.(in memoriam)(In memoriam)
March 22, 2009... The education reform community lost a champion in August when John E. Brandl died of cancer on the eve of his 71st birthday. John was many things in his lifetime: gas station attendant, Army ROTC officer, Harvard-trained economist, McNamara...