No one can deny the pitiful state of America’s education system. A college degree once signaled true academic achievement and set the recipient apart. Now it has become as banal as attaining a drivers license. The average high school diploma only qualifies the holder to work at Wal-Mart. Many colleges offer remedial classes in response to the ever-growing crop of ill-prepared high school grads. Plato surely would not approve of the lowering of standards and expectations at the Academy. Reforms enacted to remedy the situation, though noble in their intent, fail to address the real problem. Bipartisan legislation such as No Child Left Behind and Head Start accomplished nothing. Pouring money into underperforming school districts makes little to no difference. Charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay for teachers can only achieve negligible-to-marginal success. (more)
What if all the desperate problems in American education had already been solved? (more)
Since retiring from the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has been on a mission to overcome the ignorance of far too many students in our schools of the roots of their liberties in American history. (more)
In an election season marked by debates over the virtues of the public sector, and amidst claims by teachers’ unions and their allies that private schooling is inimical to good democratic citizenship, a new national study reports that private school teachers are at least as committed to promoting traditional notions of citizenship as their public school counterparts. (more)
When New York State made its standardized English and math tests tougher to pass this year, causing proficiency rates to plummet, it said it was relying on a new analysis showing that the tests had become too easy and that score inflation was rampant. (more)
“Waiting for Superman” (2010). Davis Guggenheim, director. Paramount/Vantage, 102 minutes. Documentary. (more)
Few people are likely happier about D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s loss yesterday in the Democratic primary than members of the Washington Teachers Union. (more)
Over the next several weeks, 54.4 million children will go back to school. For many children, the start of school marks the ceremonial end of summer, and a return to the excitement of a new school year. (more)
U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul is threatening to sue a magazine following a report that alleges he kidnapped a female friend and tried to force her to smoke marijuana as a college student at Baylor University. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — D.C.’s public school system will fire more than 200 employees for poor performance — 4% of its work force — and is putting another 700 employees on notice they will be fired in the next year if their performance doesn’t improve, the school system announced Friday. (more)
In a recent column, David Brooks, who fills the center-right slot on the New York Times opinion page, asserts that the Obama administration’s education agenda adheres to a “measured vision of a limited but energetic government.” Citing the president’s $4.5 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) education-funding program, Mr. Brooks argues that the administration “has used federal power to incite reform, without dictating it from the top.” (more)
Elizabeth Collins has blogged for more than two years about her personal life and experiences as a teacher. (more)
A recent lengthy New York Times article on charter schools, which are deregulated publicly funded schools of choice, came to the conclusion that the record of these schools was mixed, with some charters doing better than regular public schools, while others perform about the same or worse. That’s no surprise since even supporters acknowledge that there are good and bad charters. The real story that the Times overlooked is the ability of charter schools to use their freedom in order to transform themselves if they are not performing well. (more)
Several civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit in February against L.A. Unified and the state on behalf of students at Samuel Gompers, Edwin Markham and John H. Liechty. The complaint alleged that students were denied their legal right to an education because of the high number of budget-related layoffs at the schools. (more)
In the world of education, it was the equivalent of the cool kids’ table in the cafeteria. (more)
Ever heard of a union that doesn’t want to give its members the opportunity to earn more money? (more)
Rigid contracts, uniform pay schedules, and teacher-union dues ultimately protect poor teachers and mediocre performance. When even America’s education newspaper of record, Education Week, admits that newer teachers’ commitment to the union is “tentative at best” in large part because of these policies, it is clear that union leadership is out of touch with economic and educational reality. (more)
In 1954, a unanimous Supreme Court rendered its opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, effectively closing a tragic chapter in American public education that had confined disadvantaged minority students in substandard schools. Yet today—more than 50 years later—the Obama administration has erected new roadblocks on the path of equal opportunity paved by this landmark decision. (more)
My “Foundations of Education” class this week was very valuable. Our professor, Karen, a smart and funny thirtysomething Jewish lady, had us make up rules. She told us to pull out a piece of paper and said, “You are an elementary school teacher. Write down the 10 rules that will govern your classroom.” Then she made us do the same thing again, pretending that we were the Dean of the University of Maryland (I’m taking classes for teacher certification; they take place at a college in the Washington, D.C., metro area). (more)
