Commentaries and Reports

WHAT IS THE REALITY OF SCHOOL COMPETITION?
Thursday, September 14, 2006
NATIONAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATIZATION IN EDUCATION
By Cathy Wylie
New Zealand Council of Educational Research
Research from countries with broad school choice initiatives has become particularly relevant to the U.S. with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the potential for all students in failing schools to gain access to new schooling options.
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Anti-Alzheimer’s, Foreign-Language Flash Cards, and Crossword-Style Testing — A Practical Option for Baby Boomers and Beyond
Thursday, September 14, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
Is there anyone in this Alzheimer’s-conscious country, including Ellen de Generes, who doesn’t want to learn a foreign language?  Plaques and tangles aside, most of us still feel our mind is a “muscle” that needs electro-cephalically measurable personal-best exercise to keep us from going blank on proper names, ordinary words, and topic connectedness (e.g., “What were we just talking about?”). 
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A 92 Percent Homework Turn-in Rate
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Harry and Rosemary Wong
The most effective time to assign homework is during the lesson; otherwise it has no relevance to the student. The other effective time is at the end of the lesson when the homework can bring summary to what has been learned and provide transition to the next lesson....
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National Experts Assess Florida PreK-12 Education
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Hoover Institute
Report Praises Successes, Calls for Continued Reform
ORLANDO, Fla.--After undertaking a rigorous assessment of Florida’s education policies and programs, the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education presents its findings and recommendations to Governor Jeb Bush on Tuesday, September 12.
The eleven-member task force will join Governor Bush in a press conference in Orlando highlighting the group’s report: Reforming Education in Florida (Hoover Press, 2006).  Earlier in the year, Governor Bush and Board of Education Chairman Philip Handy invited the expert group to examine the state’s PreK-12 education system and offer suggestions for strengthening it.
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An Interview with Raymond Ravaglia : Regarding EPGY (Education Program for Gifted Youth)
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tammy-Lynne Moore
Michael F. Shaughnessy
First, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
I am 41 years old, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. I showed up at Stanford in 1983 as an undergraduate and never left. While an undergraduate, I studied mathematics and philosophy and in doing so took computer-based courses in Logic and Set Theory, which I found most enjoyable. After graduating, while waiting a year to begin graduate work in philosophy, I had the opportunity to work with Professor Patrick Suppes on a computer-based calculus course that was patterned after the courses in logic and set theory.
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In Defense of Testing Series
Evaluating Computer Automated Scoring: Issues, Methods, and an Empirical Illustration
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Yang, Buckendahl, Juszkiewicz, Bhola
ATP Journal
With the continual progress of computer technologies, computer automated scoring (CAS) has become a popular tool for evaluating writing assessments. While research has generally shown a high agreement of CAS system generated scores with those produced by human raters, concerns and questions have been raised about appropriate analyses and validity of decisions/interpretations based on those scores.
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An Interview with Cheryl Carrier, Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies Program Manager, Ford Motor Company Fund
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
1) First of all, what exactly is a career academy and how many of them are out there in the U.S. ?
Career academies are considered to be the leading and most wide-spread high school redesign strategy in the U.S. that encourage high school students to pursue post-secondary education and build successful careers. Career academies draw together education, business, and industry to develop an education model that uses career themes to bring contextual relevance to academic instruction.
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Licensure Tests and Effective Reading Instruction
Monday, September 11, 2006
By Diana W. Rigden, PhD
Reading Matters. The Reading First Teacher Education Network (RFTEN) knows well the stark realities announced by the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment. NAEP defines the "basic" level of reading as partial mastery of fundamental skills and knowledge and reported that thirty-three percent of U.S. fourth graders read at this level. Moreover, another thirty-eight percent of fourth graders in the United States read at a "below basic" level. In eight of the 16 RFTEN states, the percentage of nine-year-olds reading below basic exceeds this national average.
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272 Wisconsin Projections of Employment 2004 to 2014: Education and Training
Monday, September 11, 2006
By Dennis W. RedovichThe great numbers of high paying jobs of the future that are claimed to require college graduation and high academic skills for all high school students are a hoax. The majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin and the United States are low or average paying jobs that require short term or moderate-term on the job training and do not require high-level academic skills in any academic areas, particularly in higher mathematics.
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9-11: treason in the academic comfort zone?
Monday, September 11, 2006
There has been a scandalous lethargy among the Australian intelligentsia in terrorism research.
Five years after the September 11 attacks on America and nearly four years after the Bali bombings, it is appropriate to make an assessment of the state of research into terrorism in Australia. In this article, this will be done in terms of three areas of critical concern.
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Honest Military Recruiters Not Wanted For USA High Schools
Sunday, September 10, 2006
The Kentroversy Papers
As the Bush administration continues to deny the reinstatement of the military draft, many high-schools across this nation are fighting the problems of dishonest military recruiters. A source in a Fort Lauderdale has personally told me of many problems faced by the students in her school.
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Alfie Kohn's Homework gets failing grade
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Providence Journal
BY LUTHER SPOEHR
To paraphrase a comment about Thomas Babington Macaulay, the famously self-confident 19th-century British historian, I wish I were as sure about anything as Alfie Kohn is about everything.
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Universities and tolerance
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Boston Globe
By Alan Dershowitz
THE KENNEDY SCHOOL of Government at Harvard University should not cancel the scheduled speech by former president Mohammad Khatami of Iran. Universities must never submit to censorial pressures by individuals or groups that disagree with, or are deeply offended by, a speaker's ideas.
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Using Data To Drive Policy
Sunday, September 10, 2006
American Association of School Administrators
By Terri Duggan Schwartzbeck
"U sing data to drive instruction” is a phrase that is tossed around a lot today in education. In Washington, we could all use more data to drive policymaking.
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Education: Free and Compulsory
Saturday, September 9, 2006
By Murray N. Rothbard
The Individual's Education
Every human infant comes into the world devoid of the faculties characteristic of fully-developed human beings. This does not mean simply the ability to see clearly, to move around, to feed oneself, etc.; above all, it means he is devoid of reasoning power - the power that distinguishes man from animals.
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America's Throw-Away Children
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Like reform schools of yesteryear, today's "boot camps" reflect a culture where "anything goes" in dealing with children labeled "incorrigible"
They make the headlines when something goes terribly wrong: A child dies at the hands of guards administering "tough love." A child collapses from dehydration during an outing of "character building." For the most part, these are children-predominantly boys-who have not been convicted of crimes serious enough to warrant imprisonment.
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Merit Pay: Feasible or Folly?
Friday, September 8, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow
A recurring theme in public education is the desirability of merit/performance/incentive  pay.  It has been promoted off and on for years, and tried at various times and places. but only in limited ways.
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Higher Education has been Oversold
Friday, September 8, 2006
Pope Center
by George Leef
It was just this time of year - the beginning of a new academic year - in 1980, when it first occurred to me that higher education in America had been oversold.
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MU Helps Create New Leaders in St. Louis Public Schools
Friday, September 8, 2006
First Class Graduates from Intense Program Committed to Improving School District
COLUMBIA , Mo. - Peggy Starks has been keeping very busy as the new principal of Phillip J. Hickey Elementary School in St. Louis . Her journey to reach this point started in 1977 and more recently put her through an intense program that partners the University of Missouri-Columbia with St. Louis Public Schools to create new leaders for the district. The New Leaders Project (NLP) is modeled after the New York City Leadership Academy.
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NEW NIMH RESEARCH PROGRAM LAUNCHES AUTISM TRIALS
Friday, September 8, 2006
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched three major clinical studies on autism at its research program on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
These studies are the first products of a new, integrated focus on autism generated in response to reported increases in autism prevalence and valid opportunities for progress. Initial studies will define the characteristics of different subtypes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Free Textbooks!
Thursday, September 7, 2006
LewRockwell.com
In the tradition of Wikipedia.
Free textbooks for everyone-that's the goal of the Global Text Project , an initiative spearheaded by Rick Watson, a professor in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. Watson's goal is to produce a library of 1,000 textbooks that will be created with wiki technology and will be made available to students around the world.
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Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education
Thursday, September 7, 2006
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
Measuring Up 2006 consists of the national report card for higher education and fifty state report cards. Its purpose is to provide the public and policymakers with information to assess and improve postsecondary education in each state. Measuring Up 2006 is the fourth in a series of biennial report cards.
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Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education
Thursday, September 7, 2006
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
Measuring Up 2006 consists of the national report card for higher education and fifty state report cards. Its purpose is to provide the public and policymakers with information to assess and improve postsecondary education in each state. Measuring Up 2006 is the fourth in a series of biennial report cards.
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An Interview with Education Rights Attorney, Steven E. Glink
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Dr. K. P. Loftus
Dr. K:   What led you to concentrate your legal practice in the area of students' rights?
Steve: It started out as a bit of a fluke. At the time, I was a school board lawyer in my father's firm. An acquaintance of mine asked me to help his son in an expulsion case. I did so, but then realized how much power the schools have over the kids and their parents. I felt, at that moment, that the kids and the parents needed a voice.
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Commentary : In Memorium: Steve Irwin
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales , New Mexico
As many of you know, Steve Irwin, the famous "Crocodile Hunter" died in a tragic accident while swimming with a sting ray off the Great Barrier Reef .
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SCHOOLS NOT COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS ABOUT SPECIAL EDUCATION LEGAL RIGHTS
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
The Advocacy Institute
If parents and schools are to be partners in the education of children with disabilities, clear communication is essential. Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to tell parents about their rights under the law - referred to as "procedural safeguards notice" - in "understandable language," most are falling short of this requirement, says a study reported in the research journal Exceptional Children. Read this special report about the study and find out how your state's Procedural Safeguards Notice scored.
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Freedom of Assembly in NYC
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Ron Isaac
In New York City there has been talk lately of imposing restrictions on the right and freedom of assembly. Hearings on this matter were scheduled at the Police Department recently. In my view, the police here have generally exercised excellent professionalism, but they are sworn to enforce laws not of their making.
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As Goes Harvard. . .
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Commentary Magazine
Donald Kagan
Harvard University has been much in the public eye in recent years, especially during the brief but eventful presidency (2001-2006) of Lawrence Summers. Two well-known law professors were accused of misusing the words of others in books they had written, and a famous professor of economics was charged by the U.S. government with fraud while working on a Harvard project.
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In Defense of Testing Series
College Board Announces Scores for New SAT® with Writing Section
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
"We're pleased that we now have a cohort of students who have taken the new writing section of the test. The addition of writing has made the SAT a better measure of the skills students need to succeed in college and later in life. We will continue to work with schools and colleges to encourage high standards and a greater focus on writing in the classroom," said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board.
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An Interview with Mark Herring: Why the Library is STILL better than the Internet
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You are somewhat well known for your poster on why the library is better than the Internet. What prompted you to do that poster?
The poster has an interesting history, at least to me. In 2001, after I had been in my current job just over a year, the president of our institution sent word that he wanted talking points for his visits with the legislature, vis-à-vis libraries and the impact of the Web on them. I saw this as a chance to dispel an extraordinary notion I was then recently encountering: that libraries were already, or were becoming, obsolete because of the Web.
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We Can't Close the Academic Achievement Gap
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
By Marty Solomon
For over a decade now, our public schools have been focused---almost paralyzed---over eliminating the Academic Achievement Gap in test scores between poor and more affluent students. But it has been to no avail because the schools cannot eliminate this gap. There are hundreds of legislators, teachers and researchers who will tell you that they have the secret program of study or the magic bullet. And although almost all "solutions" have been attempted, none have generally worked while, at the same time, the gap persists in every state.
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Immigration Milestones: The 1986 Amnesty
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
by Tom Shuford
No society is immortal . . . Even the most successful societies are at some point threatened by internal disintegration and decay . . . Yet some societies, confronted with serious challenges to their existence, are also able to postpone their demise and halt disintegration . . . (Samuel P. Huntington)
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The No Child Left Behind Accountability Bomb
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
by Kevin R. Kosar
During her tenure as Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has spent a good deal of time brokering deals with states. This is because states have been trying to craft their testing programs to avoid the sanctions imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
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A quarter century of US 'maths wars' and political partisanship
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
David Klein, California State University, Northridge, USA
This article traces the history of the US 'maths wars' from 1980, and discusses the political polarizations that fuelled and resulted from the disagreements
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CRESST ANALYSIS OF CALIFORNIA ACCOUNTABILITY PROGRESS REPORT
Monday, September 4, 2006
Los Angeles, CA – Researchers at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) released today an analysis of results from the 2005/2006 California’s Accountability Progress
Report.
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The U.S. Edge In Education
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Washington Post
By Richard H. Brodhead
Even as they welcome students back to campus, our country's colleges and universities are deluded by their own historical excellence, and their many contributions to U.S. strength may be eroding. That, at least, is how a special commission of the U.S. Education Department sees it.
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An Interview with Kurt F. Geisinger: About Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook and Center
Monday, September 4, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Who should be receiving "accommodations" for tests like the SAT or ACT and why? Should all students with a documented disability receive accommodations on standardized tests?
Accommodation rules need to be set specific to the purpose of the test and the testing program, within the legal constraints of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other relevant laws, including those at the state and local level.
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CRESST ANALYSIS OF CALIFORNIA ACCOUNTABILITY PROGRESS REPORT
Monday, September 4, 2006
Los Angeles, CA – Researchers at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) released today an analysis of results from the 2005/2006 California’s Accountability Progress
Report.
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Social Class, Schooling and Achievement...Again
Monday, September 4, 2006
Education Policy Institute
On August 9th, 2006  New York Times reporter Diana Jean Schemo wrote a column, It Takes More Than Schools to Close Achievement Gap [PDF] , which raised the issue of how much non-school factors determine student educational success. In her column she reflected on EPI Research Associate Richard Rothstein's work in  Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap . Schemo's article generated many responses, including an important one by Chester E. Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, in its publication,  Gadfly . Rothstein has in turn written a response to Finn (a shorter version is being published in  Gadfly , but his full response [PDF]  is available online).
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The ABCs of Public Education in North Carolina
Monday, September 4, 2006
John Locke Foundation
By Terry Stoops
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines an acronym as "a word formed from the initial letters of other words, e.g., radar, laser." Acronyms are indispensable rhetorical tools because they allow us to communicate efficiently without jeopardizing our message.
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In the Best Interests of the Children
Monday, September 4, 2006
LewRockwell.com
Linda Schrock Taylor
Educational priorities in America's schools, public and private, are rarely based on definitive long-range goals to meet the complete needs of students. There are certainly many fine educational examples, but too often those are limited in scope and not district-wide.
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Where's the courage in education reform?
Monday, September 4, 2006
Town Hall
Star Parker
Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa soon will exercise more control over Los Angeles' deeply troubled school system as result of legislation that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign.
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Why All This Secrecy About the SAT?
Monday, September 4, 2006
BeLogical.com
Terri Leo
Texans have a right to know where their students stand on reading and grammar usage on the SAT. The College Board decided not to release any data regarding the 49 multiple-choice grammar/usage questions. This is outrageous since this part of the Writing test is worth close to 70% of a student's Writing score. 
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Children At Risk
Monday, September 4, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Nick Jackson
"The fear of the religious right is that the schools of today will be the governments of tomorrow. And you know, they're right. If we do our jobs right, we're going to raise a generation of kids who don't believe the claims of the religious right.".....
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Detroit Teaches Another Lesson in Special Interest Politics
Sunday, September 3, 2006
By Dan Lips
A teachers' union strike is threatening to delay the start of the school year in Detroit's public schools. It's just the latest lesson about how special interest politics disserves kids.
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Rebuild. Rebirth. Renew.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Naomi Dillon and Kathleen Vail
One year after Katrina, New Orleans embarks on a great experiment to radically reshape
its schools, but will the effort succeed?
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Recover.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Lawrence Hardy
Gulf Coast schools are struggling through red tape, devastation, and declining enrollment
in an effort to return to `normal.'
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Response.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Noel Hammatt
For a longtime board member, East Baton Rouge's management of post-Katrina challenges is an example of how to do it right.
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The Future Is Flat
Saturday, September 2, 2006
By Victor Rivero
For students to have the necessary skills to succeed in a global world, districts must embrace technology -- now
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'I Pledge Allegiance.'
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Lewrockwell.com
Now can I teach?
by Mark R. Crovelli.
It would appear that the State of Colorado has suddenly developed a new-found appreciation for the Constitution of the United States. At least, that's the impression the State legislature is trying to give with it's new law requiring professors and teaching assistants at state colleges and universities to take an oath promising to "uphold the constitution of the United States and the State of Colorado."

Providing the Big Picture
Saturday, September 2, 2006
By Victor Rivero
Selling the public on your district's 21st century needs is an onerous -- but necessary task
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Teaching Your Staff
Saturday, September 2, 2006
By Victor Rivero
Professional development programs are critical, but the method of training is what truly matters
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Teaching Your Students
Saturday, September 2, 2006
By Victor Rivero
Building connections -- through online learning and a rigorous curriculum -- is a must for today's students
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Hurricane Katrina Still Leaves a Wake in Schools Children's Traumatic Stress Impairs Academic Performance
Saturday, September 2, 2006
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Durham, NC - A year after Hurricane Katrina, research led by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) suggests that many children returning to school in New Orleans this week and next may still have a hard time concentrating and studying.
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Smearing education choice
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Bluegrass Institute
By John Stossel
This month, papers all around America reported that according to the U.S. Department of Education, "children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools."
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Double dose of standards
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Education Gadfly
Standards-based reform is one of the two driving engines of education improvement in the United States and has been at least since 1989. (The other engine, of course, is school choice in its infinite variety.) Though many states commenced this process on their own, federal encouragement--beginning with the Improving America's Schools and Goals 2000 Acts, both passed in 1994, then NCLB in 2001--has caused them all to do so.

21st Century High Schools
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Texas Public Policy Foundation
New Designs Produce New Results
By Jamie Story
This paper provides a real-world account of some of the most successful schools in Texas. These schools are capitalizing on the benefits of school choice, parental involvement, academic rigor, and high expectations.
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College Rankings: Pay Your Money, Take Your Choice   
Friday, September 1, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow   
In his 2000 book, Off Camera, Ted Koppel wrote, "The nation is pregnant with lists...we are madly prioritizing events, people, accomplishments." There tends to be an aura of credibility and authority about lists, even if not justified.  
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Young Children at Risk for Failure in School Need Early Intervention
Friday, September 1, 2006
New Book Details Tactics for General Educators to Use in the Classroom
COLUMBIA, Mo. - School reforms and the No Child Left Behind Act have made it more important than ever to take a preventative approach to young children at risk for failure, according to a new book released this week by a researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
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CUBE Survey Says Safety is Critical Issue as Urban Students Return to School
Friday, September 1, 2006
National School Boards Association
Experts Offer Tips to Students, Parents on Maintaining Safe Climate
Alexandria, Va. - The recent uptick in violence involving young people in several cities, including Boston, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., has raised concerns about the kind of classroom environment that urban school students face as schools open.
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CURING THE NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER
Friday, September 1, 2006
Edutopia
By Milton Chen
Years ago, a San Francisco educator told me a startling fact: There are children who live in that seven-square-mile city bordering the Pacific Ocean who have never seen it. Teachers tell me that some high school students have never put their hands in soil and have never grown a plant. It's very disturbing how small the worlds of many children are -- and that their parents, caregivers, and teachers have not taken them to nearby places of interest.
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SHOULD PUBLIC SCHOOLS REQUIRE UNIFORMS?
Friday, September 1, 2006
Edutopia
By Sara Bernard
The first day of the new school year is fast approaching (or, in some cases, already past), and many students have begun asking themselves that burning question: "What should I wear?" But in more and more schools across the country, this issue is no longer a worry. An increasing number of public schools require that all students dress in school-prescribed outfits
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An Interview with Molly Griffis: Paradise on the Prairie
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
I understand that you have a new book about to be released entitled " Paradise on the Prairie". What is this new book all about?
" Paradise on the Prairie" is what 6th Oklahoma Territorial Governor Thompson Ferguson called the land which on November 16, 1907 , became the western half of the state of Oklahoma . It is also the title of my 8th and newest book, which recently received the coveted Seal of Approval from the Oklahoma Centennial Commission.
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Dr. Leonard Shlain: What the Alphabet Engenders
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Children of the Code
Dr. Shlain is a popular science writer not a scholar of the history of writing. Consequently, this interview does not have the level of academic authority as other COTC interviews. However, though the theories discussed are controversial, the interview provides an opportunity to explore some of the many fascinating implications of becoming 'code users'. Whether agreeing or disagreeing with the theories posited, this interview should prove thought-provoking to anyone interested in learning about the role of alphabetic literacy in shaping the history of western civilization.
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Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) new Web site
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education will launch its new Web site devoted to information and resources on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) as amended by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004.
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NEW RESEARCH SHOWS BOYS LEARN MORE FROM MEN, GIRLS LEARN MORE FROM WOMEN TEACHERS
Thursday, August 31, 2006
EducationNext
"Learning from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students' academic progress.  My best estimate is that it lowers test scores for both boys and girls by approximately 4 percent of a standard deviation and has even larger effects on various measures of student engagement," said the study's author, Thomas S. Dee, an economist at Swarthmore College
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MAJOR FLAWS FOUND IN HARVARD ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED PUBLIC, PRIVATE SCHOOL RESEARCH
Thursday, August 31, 2006
The Think Tank Review Project
TEMPE, Ariz. - A new report from Harvard's Program for Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), "On the Public-Private School Achievement Debate," claims that private schools outperform public schools. According to University of Illinois professors Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski, the report applied inappropriate models to account for the demographic differences between students.
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NEW WHITE PAPER: "CAREER PATHWAYS" MODEL HELPS REGIONS AND STATES INTEGRATE ECONOMIC AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION SYSTEMS-AND YIELD GREATER RETURN ON PUBLIC INVESTMENTS
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Study details how approach is ideally suited for communities focused on economic growth and creating opportunities for incumbent workers, jobseekers, and students
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CALL FOR PAPERS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STUDENT DISCIPLINE:
Thursday, August 31, 2006
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON STUDENT CONDUCT 
2 to 5 APRIL 2007 , Potchefstroom , South Africa 
INVITATION TO PRESENT A PAPER AT AN UPCOMING CONFERENCE
The Research Project on student discipline in schools at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) takes pleasure in providing academics and Education practitioners an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas on a burning, current national and international issue in education, namely discipline in schools.
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Education spending decisions shouldn't be made without facts
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Evergreen Foundation
Marsha Michaelis , Director, Education Reform Center
It's easy to have an opinion. It takes a little more work to have an informed opinion.
A recent survey of 400 registered voters in Washington shows that almost everyone has opinions about whether or not the state is spending enough on its K-12 public schools, but almost nobody knows how much is actually being spent.
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Findings From the 2-year-old Follow-up of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort
Thursday, August 31, 2006
NCES report, Age 2: (NCES 2006-043) shows the wide range of skills and abilities demonstrated by children at an early age. For example, 84 percent of children recognize and understand certain spoken words at about 2 years of age, while 4 percent show beginning counting skills.
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Do vouchers encourage different types of schools to enroll different mixes of students?
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Gregory Elacqua
A major challenge to education vouchers is how to increase freedom of choice without increasing student stratification by achievement, income, or race. For more than a quarter-century, Chile has operated a universal voucher system and produced research data that addresses this issue.
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Saving America
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Institute for Democracy from Mathematics
Colin Hannaford
I can save America . But I need your help to do it. My background is to have taught school mathematics for twenty-five years. Before this I was a soldier. Perhaps because soldiers are expected to think for themselves nowadays, eventually I made a surprising discovery as a teacher. It is this discovery that can save America.
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An Interview with Marv Marshall : Discipline without Stress ® Punishments or Rewards
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
How can Principals, Teachers, and Parents Promote Responsibility & Learning?
Understand that although an adult can temporarily CONTROL a young person, no one can change how another person feels, thinks, or wants to be. Control is only temporary, as are external rewards and punishments. Also, it is a fact of life that no one can change another person; people change themselves. The least effective approach to influencing another person to change is through coercion. This negative focuses on obedience rather than on collaboration and promoting responsibility.
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Los Angeles Mayor's Supporters Plan Victory Rally
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Jennifer Solis
With passage of AB1381, and signing by the Governor all but certain, the supporters of the mayor's plan to take over the LAUSD will rally Wednesday morning at Animo High School.
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Transitive-Verb Surfers, Sentence Comprehension, and Do-It-Yourself Testing
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
What's more delightful than watching a two-year old, just on the verge of speech, who can understand and comply with a request like, "Please pick up a cookie and take it over to Uncle Oscar"? Or conversely what's more terrifying than to reach the bottom of a printed page (often late at night) and realize you HAVEN'T UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU JUST READ - even though you knew the meaning of each word one by one.
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NCLB Outrages
Reading First, Science Last
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
In 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act. It contained a radical idea, long overdue: That schools receiving federal dollars should use programs and practices that have been proven to be effective in scientifically based research, defined as studies in which
programs were compared to matched or randomly assigned control groups.
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Another School Year: Another Hostile Environment
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Nancy Levant
Given another year or two, perhaps the public school system will simply eliminate the need for parents altogether via the mandatory volunteer service and pending legislation to enforce mandatory military service for both genders. ....
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Schools need competition now
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Town Hall
John Stossel
It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves.
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California's Educational Content Standards and Their Implications for Basic Educational Conditions and Resources
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
by William S. Koski & Hillary Anne Weis
This article examines the statutory and policy framework for California's standards-based reform and accountability scheme and argues that this scheme, not unlike others throughout the country, fails to ensure that all children are provided with the necessary resources and conditions to achieve at the high levels prescribed by the state's content standards.
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In Defense of Testing Series
The Commission on No Child Left Behind
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
NASBE Legislative Brief
Foundation-funded commission holds national hearings, solicits public input prior to NCLB reauthorization.  Everyone, it seems, is already gearing up for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act scheduled for 2007.
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An Interview with Jakub Voboril: About Doing Well on the ACT'S and SAT'S.....
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have recently been in the news as you have done quite well on the ACT test and the SAT test. Tell us about it.
This past June, I took both the SAT and the ACT within eight days of each other.  In late June, I checked the online unofficial score result of my SAT and discovered that I had received a perfect score.  A few weeks later, I received my official ACT result and found that I had aced the ACT as well.  A few weeks after that, I received the official SAT score results confirming my perfect score.  I certainly did not expect these scores, but I always believed that I was capable of doing something like this, so receiving these results was a very fulfilling experience.
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AMERICANS SAY EDUCATION SHOULD BE THE TOP PRIORITY FOR LOCAL LEADERS
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Public Education Network
New campaign - Give Kids Good Schools - aims to empower Americans and provide tools and information needed to help improve our nation's public schools
WASHINGTON, DC- In a recent national poll released today, the American public said public education is the number one issue local leaders should address, edging out health care, the economy and fears of terrorism at the local level. The poll was released at the launch of Give Kids Good Schools , a campaign aimed at helping the public improve America's public schools. Give Kids Good Schools is sponsored by Public Education Network, a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to quality public education for all children.
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IMPACT SCHOOLS MAY DISCOURAGE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Fordham University Policy Center
A centerpiece of New York City Department of Education (DOE) efforts to overhaul the public schools, in its initial implementation, at least, appears to have pushed students away from their high schools rather than creating the “safe environments for learning” predicted by City Hall, according to a Fordham University policy center.
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Stopping the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Pipeline By Enforcing Federal Special Education Law
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
By Jim Comstock-Galagan, Esquire Executive Director, Southern Disability Law Center and Rhonda Brownstein, Esquire Legal Director, Southern Poverty Law Center
David Smith (not his real name) was a 15 year-old, 7th grader at a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, junior high school who was headed for juvenile detention and, most likely, a life of prisons and jails. The fact that David had been identified as a child with an educational disability (Emotional Disturbance) and had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in place did not stop his school from suspending him for 79 days during the abbreviated, post-Katrina 2005-2006 school year.
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And "W" takes the Series!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
By Nancy Salvato
It is the bottom of the ninth inning in game seven of the World Series. The score: 3-3, with two strikes, and runners positioned on 1 st and 3 rd .  The stadium is quiet.  And here we go. the windup.and the pitch; it's a fast b.he swings, walloping that ball right over the 1 st base line.  Runners advance and.
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RESEARCH FINDS SCHOOL PHYS-ED CLASSES DO LITTLE TO PROMOTE EXERCISE, FIGHT OBESITY
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
STANFORD --Increasing the number of required physical education (PE) courses in school has no detectable effect on weight or the likelihood of obesity among students, according to a new study in the fall issue of Education Next. These findings come as state legislatures grapple with concerns over how best to address increasing rates of childhood obesity. 
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Early start crucial to tackle financial aid for college
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Town Hall
Lynn O'Shaughnessy
If you're the parents of a student who has just one more year to go in high school, you might be telling yourself the worst is over.
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Prison School Administration
Monday, August 28, 2006
LewRockwell.com
Oh, sorry, make that public school. Linda Schrock Taylor.
When a fellow teacher stopped me in the hall to whisper a brief description of the book he was reading, I listened. The book, he explained, discussed individuals in positions of authority who abuse the trust that they have been given, as well as the lives over which they rule .

Meritocracy - used, misused and abused chaos
Monday, August 28, 2006
By Daniel Pryzbyla
With high-stakes testing disputes still at flood level, you'd think "meritocracy" - as it has been perceived - would be the least debatable squabble in education circles. "Take out your dictionaries, class."
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271 Jobs and Education: The Big Hoax in Wisconsin and the United States
Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin And United States
Monday, August 28, 2006
By Dennis W. Redovich
The great numbers of high paying jobs of the future that are claimed to require college graduation and high academic skills for all high school students are a hoax. The majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin and the United States are low or average paying jobs that require short term or moderate-term on the job training and do not require high-level academic skills in academic areas, particularly in higher mathematics.

An Interview with Rebecca Hagelin: About Beginning the School Year
Monday, August 28, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Rebecca, what is the most important gift that parents can give their kids during the coming school year?
The greatest gift we parents can give their children is always the same - our time. We need to spend time explaining the cultural dangers, understanding peer pressure and our kid's fears, helping them create solutions to challenges and just listening and being there!
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The Pedagogy of Oppression: A Brief Look at 'No Child Left Behind'
Monday, August 28, 2006
Monthly Review
by Peter McLaren and Ramin Farahmandpur
The origins of the current standards-based movement in public education can be traced back to the early twentieth century when curriculum theorists like Ellwood Cubberley and others attempted to align school curricula to the needs and demands of the U.S. economy by developing a scientific approach to designing and planning them. 1 From the 1950s to the 1970s, with the Cold War in full swing, the "back to basics" movement gained momentum in teacher education programs and graduate schools of education.
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NEW KIPP PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS IN NEW ORLEANS
Monday, August 28, 2006
THE BROAD FOUNDATION AND U.S. FUND FOR UNICEF
ANNOUNCE $2.45 MILLION TO FUND
NEW ORLEANS - A year after Hurricane Katrina, The Broad Foundation and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF announced today a total of $2.45 million to fund two current and three planned KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) public charter schools in New Orleans . Based on a model that has improved achievement for students across 16 states and last year raised student achievement for New Orleans evacuees on average more than two grade levels in reading and math, the five KIPP New Orleans schools aim to eventually serve more than 2,400 students.
An Interview with Michael Feinberg: About KIPP

How to Raise an A+ Student
Three very different families reveal their secrets to success.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Readers Digest
By William Beaman
When it comes to education, our children are in trouble. Up to a quarter of them don't finish high school. Of those who do and go on to college, more than four in ten need remedial classes. That's hardly a surprise given the results of a recent U.S. Department of Education study, which found that just one in three eighth-graders scored at grade level in reading, math or science.
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Texans Need Another Dose of Property Tax Relief
Monday, August 28, 2006
Empower Texans
By:Marc Levin and Sachiv Mehta
When Americans think of protests, liberal college students in tie-dyed shirts may come to mind, but Texas property taxpayers are now reclaiming the revolutionary legacy of colonists who protested British taxes and Texas settlers who rose up against the tyrannical rule of Santa Ana. With an August 16 demonstration at the Texas Association of Counties annual conference and hundreds of thousands formal protests inundating appraisal districts, property taxpayers throughout the state are revolting against de facto property tax increases resulting from ballooning appraisals.
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ECS Online Redesigned Teacher Compensation Database Goes Live
Monday, August 28, 2006
DENVER, CO -- The Education Commission of the States (ECS) Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute announces the launch of its Redesigned Teacher Compensation Database, the newest contribution in a line of products providing quality resources to policymakers on teacher compensation redesign through a project supported by The Joyce Foundation.
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Some Reflections On the Education of Ms. Groves: All Systems Go?
Monday, August 28, 2006
ABC Dateline
Featuring One Teach for America Intern
Vicky Dill & Delia Stafford
We don't blame Ms. Groves; it's not her problem. She just wanted to teach. She self-selected into a profession which bases admission on grade point average, transcripts, and desire which, research suggests, predicts nothing. Minimal training from Teach for America was followed by nine months of increasing and daily struggle while Ms Groves was learning to teach on the nation's neediest and most vulnerable youth.
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Pedagogy of Poverty
The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching
Sunday, August 27, 2006
BY MARTIN HABERMAN
Haberman Foundation
Recognizing the formidable difficulty of institutionalizing new forms of pedagogy for the children of poverty, Mr. Haberman nonetheless believes that it is worthwhile to define and describe such alternatives.
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Exploding the Charter School Myth
Sunday, August 27, 2006
New York Times
Congress needs to grasp the obvious: the quality of the teacher corps is more crucial to school reform than anything else.
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A Break From Reality
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Boston Globe
By Tom Keane
Do incoming freshmen really need a year off before beginning the rigors of college? Please.
Followers of the zeitgeist say the "gap year" is the hot, new fad in collegiate life. Instead of stepping right from high school senior to college freshman, kids are applying to college but then taking a year off .
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Rain On The Charter School Parade
Saturday, August 26, 2006
TomPaine.com
There is more evidence that "school choice" isn't much of a choice at all.
The charter school evangelists, including their high priests in the Bush administration, keep getting doused by the cold rain of reality. The  latest report  from the Department of Education's own National Center for Education Statistics puts a further dent in the Bush administration's attempt to sell charter schools as a panacea for the woes of public education.
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P-20 Councils
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Democratic Leadership Council
Ensuring student success from preschool through entering the workforce
A well-educated workforce provides a strong foundation for a flourishing economy. Though state and community leaders may know and agree with this, we continue to send students through an education system that may barely prepare them for each consecutive grade level and may not begin to prepare them for the business world.
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With Feminized Men, Who will Fight The War on Terror?
Saturday, August 26, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
Carey Roberts
Forty years ago the National Organization for Women was founded. That marked the beginning of an unholy jihad to deconstruct masculinity. Now, a low-level hostility to all things macho pervades our culture.....
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A Breakthrough Year for School Choice
Saturday, August 26, 2006
By Dan Lips and Evan Feinberg
As American students prepare for school, millions of families are benefiting from an opportunity that once would have been unimaginable to them-the power to choose their children's school. Political trends suggest that even more parents will enjoy that same opportunity in the years ahead. That's a major win for parents.
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Pre-K: Shaping the System That Shapes Children
Saturday, August 26, 2006
The Manhattan Institute
By Stephen Goldsmith and Rhonda Meyer
This year, states will add almost one billion additional education tax dollars to their budgets as politicians in more than twenty states consider moving toward a Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) system.
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Lesson Learned
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Jan Larson
The school year has barely gotten started, but the teachers in my local Texas school district have already taught students a valuable lesson. You can get your way if you scream, cry and hold your breath until you're blue in the face...
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An Unknown School Reform: The Four-Day Week 
Friday, August 25, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation 
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow
Public schools are perhaps the most reform-resistant of all institutions.  One reason is that, as some studies have shown, individual educators tend to be unusually conservative (small c), tradition-bound and averse to change.  At the same time, parents and the general public have an image of what schools should be like and they are not very receptive to anything they regard as experiments with children.
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Towards a Unified Theory of Grading
Friday, August 25, 2006
(original post Jan-2005)
Jonathan Dresner
Grading is a form of communication. The problem is that it's a shorthand form of communication used by people who do not agree (or even discuss) what the symbols mean. Worse, each recipient of these symbolic communications has their own rough idea of what they mean, based on their own experience and anecdotal evidence, and often interpret them much more broadly and personally than they are intended.
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Back-To-School Kit 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Schwab Learning
The new school is around the corner! Going back to school can be stressful, but even more so for kids with learning disabilities. SchwabLearning.org's Back-to-School Kit delivers the information you need now and to plan for the coming school year. 
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NIH RESEARCHERS COMPLETE UNPRECEDENTED GENETIC STUDY THAT MAY HELP IDENTIFY PEOPLE MOST AT RISK FOR ALCOHOLISM
Friday, August 25, 2006
Scan of human genome may provide important new tools for prevention and treatment
Researchers at the Molecular Neurobiology Branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, have completed the most comprehensive scan of the human genome to date linked to the ongoing efforts to identify people most at risk for developing alcoholism.
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'User’s Guide to Computing High School Graduation Rates, Volume 1:
Friday, August 25, 2006
Review of Current and Proposed Graduation Indicators' and the 'User’s Guide to Computing High School Graduation Rates, Volume 2: Technical Evaluation of Proxy Graduation Indicators.'
To download, view and print Volume 2

Involving Families in High School and College Expectations
Friday, August 25, 2006
Education Commission of the States
A synthesis of the research on the college aspirations of many students and their parents today, as well as the documented lack of information far too many families possess on the necessary steps to make the transition from high school to postsecondary.
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Universal Preschool study committee packed with pro-u-pre-k ringers.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Vermont Education Reporter
Should Vermont expand the K-12 public school system to include two years of taxpayer financed preschool for all 3 & 4 year olds regardless of special or financial need? The debate has been raging fiercely for over a year.
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WHAT'S NEXT?
Friday, August 25, 2006
Edutopia
By Grace Rubenstein
The prospect of a new school year brings both hope and gnawing questions. For students (Can I pass algebra? Will I keep or lose my friends?) and their teachers (Can I reach the troubled student assigned to my class? Will I be able to handle the new demands heaped on
me?), the future, contemplated in the final sizzling days of summer, can seem murky. This blank slate often inspires fresh goals and sharpened senses, but even the most ambitious agenda can't erase the fact that so much of what is to come cannot be known.
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PRACTICING LEARNING BY LEARNING
Friday, August 25, 2006
Edutopia
By Jim Moulton
When one-to-one computing comes to a school, teachers, librarians, administrators, and technical staff have plenty to learn. A project's kiss of death can easily arrive in the form of feeling completely prepared, of already knowing everything that needs to be known.
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An Interview with Dr. Marion Blank: About New Ways to View Reading and Reading Instruction
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
In The Reading Remedy, you cite government figures showing that approximately 40% of normal, healthy children are failing in learning to read. Is this really the case nationwide?
The figure is so unbelievably high that the immediate feeling is "It can't be true." Unfortunately it is. For example, in a report on the past decade titled Reading : The Nation's Report Card, the National Assessment for Educational Progress found 37 percent to 40 percent of fourth graders to be reading "below basic levels.
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Roy Romer's Farewell
Thursday, August 24, 2006
By Jennifer Solis
While The LAUSD superintendent still has a few weeks remaining on the job, before retiring after six years at the helm of the Los Angeles Unified School District , he gave his farewell address this morning before the LAUSD administrators' annual gathering.
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The Divided Self
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Psychotherapy Networker
by Ron Taffel
Media-saturated millennium kids live in a disconnected world that spawns intense inner fragmentation. If we are to help them heal these splits, we need to move beyond the constraints imposed by our business-as-usual methods.
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Cyberspaced
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Psychotherapy Networker
by Mary Sykes Wylie
Hanging out with the in crowd on MySpace.com.
Some weeks ago, The New York Times reported on a group of Amazonian Indians-the Nukak-Maku-who wandered, nearly naked, out of the jungles into a small Colombian town and declared their intention of settling down there. The Nukak, the article said, had no last names, no concept of money, property, government, the future, or the existence of a country called "Colombia," the nation they inhabited.
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Title IX According to the Dixie Chicks
Thursday, August 24, 2006
By Debbie Schlussel

Football player Eric Butler may be America's new sex symbol.
But don't look for him in People Magazine or in provocative poses on pin-up posters. Butler is a symbol of equal rights for the male sex in college and high school sports.
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A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (NCES
2006-460)
Thursday, August 24, 2006
A special oversample of charter schools, conducted as part of the 2003 fourth-grade NAEP assessments, permitted a comparison of academic achievement for students enrolled in charter schools to that for students enrolled in traditional public schools. The school sample comprised 150 charter schools and 6,764 traditional public schools
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The History Wars: now for the hard part!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Mervyn Bendle
Australia desperately needs to promote a unifying sense of national identity.
The Australian History Summit was convened in Canberra last Thursday to find a solution to the crisis in the study and teaching of history that has blighted intellectual and cultural life in Australia.
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An Interview with Paul Chimera: About Nuts, Bolts and Anecdotes!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
I understand that you have recently written a book entitled Nuts, Bolts and Anecdotes. Briefly, what is your book about?
Well, the full title is Nuts, Bolts & Anecdotes: Journalists Discuss Interviewing and Note Taking in Their Own Words. It's further sub-titled A Handbook for Journalists and Students of Journalism and Media Writing .
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BOW WOW ET AL
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
by Will Fitzhugh, The Concord Review
If your friends look at you strangely if you don't seem to know who Bow Wow or Busta Rhymes is, you are probably an American teenager. If your friends look at you strangely because you do know who Ruth Bader Ginsburg is, you are probably an American teenager.
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The Hidden Draft in Our Schools
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
A Case Study: Klein High
Prologue on a Reckless Recruiting
Captain Eric H. May, MI/PAO, USA
Last year the big scandal in the Houston-area recruiting racket was Sergeant Thomas Kelt, who threatened those he was recruiting with arrest if they didn't enlist into the Army, thereby giving a new meaning to "impressing potential recruits." 
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NSBA Notes This Year's PDK/Gallup Poll Delivers Strong Message About Importance of Local Governance
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Alexandria, Va. - Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, said that the 38th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward Public Schools released today delivers a strong message about the importance of local communities and local governance.
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Hurrah! Education Communism
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
LewRockwell.com
Christian Sandström on Swedish progress.
Schooling presents no exception to this rule. In Sweden, the amount of A-students is increasing rapidly. At the same time, the results in tests of their knowledge get worse each year.

Can't See the Schools for the Children...
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
By Jason Moore
As I have traveled around Texas speaking to groups about the amount of money wasted each year on school construction, I am often amazed that parents and teachers have not been on the bandwagon demanding less money be spent on the building and more dollars be directed toward actually educating our children.
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FIFTH YEAR IN OFFERING THE axa achievement scholarships
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
U.S.News & World Report IN ASSOCIATION WITH the AXA foundation celebrate
$670,000 to Be Awarded to Students Across the Country
Applications Available in September
For the fifth consecutive year, U.S.News & World Report in conjunction with the AXA Foundation announce the offering of the AXA Achievement sm Scholarships. Dedicated to providing resources that help make college possible, AXA Achievement sm will award $670,000 in annual scholarships to students throughout the nation.
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In Defense of Testing Series
ETS on the Issues
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
ETS regularly publishes research on such topics as education reform, minority access to higher education, and technology in the classroom. Read ETS CEO and President Kurt M. Landgraf's opinion and analysis articles drawing upon this research.
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An Interview with Lindsay Greco: About SmartBrain Games
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Your organization offers a number of "SmartBrain Games". What exactly do these "SmartBrain Games "attempt to do?
To clarify, SMART BrainGames does not sell 'games'. It offers a NASA-Based Neurofeedback technology that connects directly with off-the-shelf video game consoles like Sony PlayStations and Microsoft XBOX. Our technology allows individuals who want to improve overall cognitive processing challenges, the ability to immerse themselves in an engaging and enjoyable 'brain/game play' that provides instantaneous feedback based upon the measurement of brainwave activity to improve the symptoms of their condition.
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WELFARE IS KILLING STUDENT MOTIVATION: Removing Model of Hard Work Keeps Black Students from Doing their Best
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Dr. K. P. Loftus
The statistics don't lie, at least not entirely. High school student achievement scores for African-American students remain consistently depressed when compared to all of their non-black counterparts, including students whose first language is not English.
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Wal-Mart: Always Low Prices without Union Vices
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
By Nancy Salvato
On any given day, copious amounts of anti Wal-Mart sentiment circulate in the media.  Out of the spotlight, though, is past criticism of the Walton families' support of school choice.  Union detractors have settled on a different strategy and are achieving a certain degree of success influencing public opinion to observe the company in a negative light.
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Interview: Dr. Mark Greenberg Language, Emotion and Learning to Read
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Children of the Code
Dr. Mark Greenberg is the Chair of Prevention Research in the College of Health and Human Development and the Director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University .  He is also a member of the leadership team of CASEL , the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Dr. Greenberg is the author of more than 100 articles and chapters on development and understanding aggression, violence, and externalizing disorders. Since 1981, he has been examining the effectiveness of school-based curricula ( The PATHS Curriculum ) to improve the social, emotional, and cognitive competence of elementary-aged children.
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Schools and universities - coming soon to a court near you!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
James McConvill
Education is a product, and its suppliers should be awake to the risk of litigation by angry consumers.
The big story in education last week is that a confidential settlement has been reached between a leading grammar school in Victoria and the parents of a child unhappy with the school's literacy teaching.
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Criticism of evolution can't be silenced
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Town Hall
Jack Kemp
The liberal press is reporting that the seesaw battle for control of the Kansas Board of Education just teetered back to pro-evolutionists for the second time in five years.
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Interview with Edward Davis about the National Education Foundation's CyberLearning Project
Monday, August 21, 2006
by Delia Stafford
This is an unusual philanthropic project. Can you give me a little history?
Dr. Appu Kuttan, founder of NEF and the CyberLearning Project, is originally from India . He advised Rajiv Gandhi in the 80's on the future of education in India . His strong suggestion was for India to focus on gearing itself up to become a leader in information technology, taking advantage of India's three strengths namely, English language, large pool of math and science graduates and Indians' love of computers.
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270 Just Another Big Con: Public Schools - Public Menace
Monday, August 21, 2006
By Dennis W. Redovich
Joel Turtel is the author of the book "Public Schools: Public Menace".
Joel Turtel claimed in an interview with Michael Shaughnessy in a August 3 EducationNews.org, article  that: "Teachers might also blame the poverty of low-income families or broken families for the miserable performance of kids in inner cities. That might be partially true. However, when these same kids from poverty backgrounds get a voucher to transfer to a private school, like they do in Milwaukee, all of a sudden these same kids do much better in school."
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An Interview with Jan and Bob Davidson: About The Davidson Academy of Nevada
Monday, August 21, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
On Tuesday, August 22, 2006, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will be at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno , Nevada to celebrate the opening of The Davidson Academy of Nevada, a public school for profoundly gifted students located on the University of Nevada , Reno campus.
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An Interview with Stacy De Broof: Get Those Kids Organized !!
Monday, August 21, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Why is good organization important for kids?
Teachers and parents overwhelmingly agree that good organization is important to school performance. Yet, almost 60 percent of parents can't help their kids get organized because they don't know how or believe it takes too much time.
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Newsweek's New Ivies and Commodity-Education Consumers: A Public-Record Guide
Monday, August 21, 2006
EducationNews.org
By Robert Oliphant
Newsweek's current (8/21/06) article on the "new Ivies" is clearly on the side of America's collegiate angels via vendor-friendly statements like, "The demand for an excellent education has created an ever-expanding supply of big and small campuses that provide great academics and first rate faculties " [emphasis added]. But for parents facing ever-increasing tuition outlays, this kind of hype raises considerations of how much they're going to get for their money, including the risk of total loss in the event their youngster drops out of a high-priced school.
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Arab Nationalism Run Rampant at Middlebury
Monday, August 21, 2006
Campus Watch
By Franck Salameh At Middlebury College's Arabic Summer School, where I recently taught Arabic, students were exposed to more than intensive language instruction. Inside the classroom and across campus, administrators and language teachers adhered to a restrictive Arab-nationalist view of what is generically referred to as the "Arab world."
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Exposing Religious Monopoly in Public School Science Classes
Monday, August 21, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Dr. Patrick Johnston
Evolutionists claim that they are not against religion they just want religious ideas kept out of science classes. What they fail to acknowledge and want to keep the public from realizing is that their own pre-commitment to naturalism is just as religious as biblical creationism.....
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"Studies Prove..." Part 3 of 3
Monday, August 21, 2006
By Thomas Sowell
Often we hear that "all the experts agree" that A is better than B or that "studies prove" A to be better than B. But one of the reasons for this can be that only people who favor A over B are likely to get the money to conduct studies or be given access to the data needed for a study.
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Mental Health, Education & Social Control, Part 33
Monday, August 21, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Dennis Cuddy, PH.D
According to SEATTLE TIMES medical reporter Warren King in " State to check on residents' health " (July 20, 2006), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has heavily financed surveys (NOT using volunteers) in Washington State, Kansas and Arkansas that ask detailed personal health questions about diet, medication, other risks for disease, and a blood sample will be taken (from which DNA can be obtained?). Specifically regarding mental health....

If education pays, pay the students
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Cash prizes link learning, earning
By SCOTT FELDMANN
Why do we eliminate incentives from our public education system? We all agree that educating our children is important, but we fail to use the most proven performance-enhancement tool of the marketplace - cold, hard cash.
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Domino's Illuminatio Mea
Tom Monaghan goes from pizza delivery to educational deliverance.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Wall Street Journal
BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
NEW YORK--"To get as many people into heaven as possible." That is Tom Monaghan's (arguably immodest) goal. I sat down last week with Mr. Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, to find out how he planned to accomplish it. Since selling his delivery empire in 1998 for an estimated $1 billion, he has given over his life to philanthropy. A trim man with a soft voice, he explains his "philosophy of giving."
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Decision to play horrific 911 call shakes up classrooms.
Death Call Played For Preteens
Sunday, August 20, 2006
C1N adds a picture of the dying woman so children can visualize who is being burned alive. Is there no one at Channel One News that has preteen children? Is there anyone there who understands that some children may not be able to handle this terror?
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Homeschooling, Can I Do It?
Sunday, August 20, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Joel Turtel
Many parents would like to homeschool their children but are afraid they don't have the training or ability to be their children's teacher. This is certainly understandable, because most parents never had any formal training to be a teacher. However, most parents don't have to worry about this issue. There is literally a supermarket of education resources available for parents to choose from to help them homeschool their children.....
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Brainwashing The Children: A Global Effort
Sunday, August 20, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Jill Walker, JD
As the battle for total control over our children escalates, the bastions of social services in almost every nation are working overtime to steal them and turn them into state property. This is a global effort, not just an assault on American children, and no effort is too great to those who want to brainwash the children and make them citizens of the new global order...
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Xandros Desktop - Home Edition Offers Easy-to-Use Linux Alternative for "Disenfranchised" Windows 98 & ME Users
Sunday, August 20, 2006
NEW YORK, NY - Xandros, the leading provider of easy-to-use Linux alternatives to Windows, today announced an immediate solution for the 50 million 'disenfranchised' Windows 98, 98SE and ME customers left without support and security patches
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Enterprising Education: Doing Away with the Public School System
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Mises
by Walter Block and Andrew Young
Besides national defense, no government-provided service enjoys as much exemption from scrutiny as the provision and subsidization of primary public education. Even presumed champions of the free market, such as Milton Friedman, support the government subsidization of education through high school:
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The Six Habits of Fiscally Responsible Public
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
An Assessment of What Michigan Public School Districts Can Do to Save Money Without Laying Off Teachers or Other Essential Staff
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The WhyTry Program
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The goal of the WhyTry Program is to help youth answer the question, "Why try in life?" (when they are frustrated, confused, or angry with life's pressures and challenges.) The WhyTry Program teaches youth that "yes", it is worth trying hard in life.
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An Interview with Emily Browlee: On The Water in the Chesapeake Bay
Friday, August 18, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Emily Brownlee of Prince Frederick, Maryland has been named the winner of the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP), organized by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and sponsored by ITT and the Coca Cola Company. Brownlee, a student at The Calvert High School, was recognized for her project, "A Tale of Two Oysters," which examines the controversial proposal to introduce an Asian species, Crassostrea ariakensis, into the Chesapeake Bay to counteract the decline of the region's native oyster Crassostrea virginica.
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Teacher Union Solidarity. A Sometime Thing
Friday, August 18, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow
Unions like to talk about "solidarity." They often refer to themselves as a brotherhood, as in the Brotherhood of Teamsters.  The implication is that a union is a magnified version of the three musketeers with "one for all and all for one."  Sometimes they act that way - when it is to the advantage of the union.
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The Michigan Education Association: Is Michigan's Largest School Employee Union Helping or Hurting Education?
Friday, August 18, 2006
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Please note that what follows is a discussion of the Michigan Education Association (MEA), not the many fine teachers, custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers the union purports to represent.
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Disadvantages of the common practice of keeping students back in kindergarten or delaying the start of kindergarten an extra year.
Big Kids - Little Kids
Friday, August 18, 2006
Dr. Sheldon H. Horowitz
"Redshirting" is a term that, until recently, has been associated almost exclusively with college sports. A student athlete who is redshirted is kept out of varsity competition for a year, sometimes due to legitimate medical concerns (e.g., an injury that needs more time to heal properly), sometimes for academic reasons (e.g., the need to improve academic standing or fulfill other college enrollment requirements), and sometimes simply to extend eligibility to play college sports.
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March of the pessimists
Friday, August 18, 2006
Education Gadfly
Backward reeled my mind upon discovering that the New York Times's liberal education writer Diana Jean Schemo and conservative icon Charles Murray (writing recently in the Wall Street Journal ) share essentially the same defeatist view of education: that schools aren't powerful enough instruments to boost poor kids' achievement to an appreciably higher academic plane due to the many other forces (family, neighborhood, poverty, heredity, etc.) tugging them downward. 
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Do student shifts from public to private schools increase racial segregation?
Friday, August 18, 2006
Critics of private school choice fear that education vouchers will lead to increased racial stratification. White families will seek schools with fewer minorities, and African-American and Hispanic families will prefer the security found in schools that enroll high proportions of their own racial groups.
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All U.S Students Benefit from Growth in Immigrant Populations, Say Teachers and Students in Diverse Schools
Friday, August 18, 2006
Schools with diverse student bodies - rich in immigrants from other nations and cultures - offer unique opportunities for academic and social learning, reports Eileen Kugler, president of Embrace Diverse Schools.
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An Interview with Elizabeth Peterson: Every 21 Seconds.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales , New Mexico
Elizabeth Peterson is Director of the New Mexico Brain Injury Advisory Council.
She is extensively involved in issues related to head injury, brain trauma and traumatic brain injury. She advocates on behalf of individuals who have suffered a head injury or brain trauma and attempts to assist these individuals and their families. In this interview, she discusses a movie entitled " Every 21 Seconds." which is an informative documentary about individuals who have suffered a head trauma or brain injury.
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After Katrina, School Reforms Make New Orleans Most Chartered City in U.S.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Education Next
STANFORD--One year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has become one of the most chartered cities in America , with nearly 70 percent of its public school students in schools of choice, according to a new report in the forthcoming issue of Education Next , on newsstands September 1.
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Preparing Teachers for Children in Poverty
School Administrator
The Nashville district picks up the mantle for qualified instruction in high-needs schools
By By Camille B. Holt and Pedro Garcia
Several years ago Gray Davis, former governor of California, asked young people to consider teaching in the same vein they would view the Peace Corps: They could teach for a couple of years, then go get a "real job."
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STUDENT TRACKING
SURREPTITIOUSLY BEING SLIPPED IN?
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Ether Zone
By: Joan E. Battey
This is a short column about very long-rumored, long-in-the-works, massive data tracking of students.
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You're Fired!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
by Matthew Ladner

Imagine that I was on "The Apprentice," and Donald Trump gave me a very special project: teach 100 children how to read. Because of the vital nature of this project, Trump gives me five years and $4 million to get the job done. $4 million is equivalent to the total revenue provided to Arizona public schools for 100 non-special education students for five years.
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BACK TO SCHOOL: A TIME TO RETHINK TIME
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Edutopia
By Milton Chen
In June 2005, I wrote a column at the start of the summer vacation, describing its roots in our agrarian past, when children were needed to harvest the crops. I referred to a twelve-year-old report from the U. S. Department of Education's National Education Commission on Time and Learning, entitled "Prisoners of Time." The report concluded, "Our schools...are captives of the school clock and calendar

Will Buffett's billions transform education or be wasted?
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Bluegrass Institute
By Bob Williams
Warren Buffett is giving more than $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has education reform high on its list of priorities.
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No Teeth in "Back End" Referendum
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Commonwealth Foundation
Mary F. Yoder
The recent enactment of Special Session Act 1 of 2006, the so-called "Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act", came as a disappointment to taxpayers throughout the Commonwealth who are fed up with increasing school property taxes. When given the opportunity to tighten the "back-end" referendum provisions that existed under Act 72 of 2004 (the previous law that was to distribute the gambling tax revenues),
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Researchers Gain Insight Into Why Brain Areas Fail To Work Together in Autism
Thursday, August 17, 2006
NIH
Basis Identified For Why People With Autism Think In Pictures
Researchers have found in two studies that autism may involve a lack of connections and coordination in separate areas of the brain.
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Parents...or pimps?
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Town Hall
Rebecca Hagelin
Any parent who doubts the need for great vigilance in our Internet age should take note of a recent survey conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

An Interview with Maurice Fisher: Gifted Education Press and Gifted Education Press Quarterly
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, what initially got you interested in gifted education?
My original academic training was in the experimental psychology of learning at Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison . After completing my Masters degree at Wisconsin , I taught at a small college in Virginia . Here I became interested in how gifted students learn by observing the students there.
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The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention: Strategies that Promote Graduation and School Achievement
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
National Center on Secondary Education and Transition
Students who drop out of school face a difficult future. They are more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated, and/or impoverished. For students with disabilities, the risks are intensified. Their dropout rate is about 40 percent-more than twice that of their peers without disabilities.

Paving the Way to Work: A Guide to Career-Focused Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth
The creation of the Mentoring Guide is rooted in the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy's (ODEP) charge to find and promote the most effective research-based policies and practices to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities. Mentoring is recognized as one of the most important strategies for assisting youth in making a positive transition into adulthood.

The Fiscal Impact of the D.C. Voucher Program
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas
by Susan L. Aud and Leon Michos
In August 2004 the first ever federally funded school voucher program began in Washington, D.C. Eligible students could attend a private school of their choice in the District of Columbia. Each participant received up to $7,500 for school tuition, fees, and transportation. In addition, the D.C. Public School System (DCPS) and D.C. charter school system each received $13 million in federal grants to improve their programs.
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Massachusetts' Hancock Case and the Adequacy Doctrine
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas
by Robert M. Costrell
The Hancock school finance case put the adequacy doctrine to its strictest test yet, to see if even a national educational leader such as Massachusetts could be found in constitutional violation.  The doctrine failed this test, as the court found in favor of the defendants due to the vigorous reform program since 1993.
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In Defense of Testing Series
From Goals to Results: Improving Education System Accountability
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Southern Regional Education Board
SREB's Challenge to Lead goals call for states to encourage early childhood programs, K-12 schools, community and technical colleges, two- and four-year colleges, universities and adult education to work together as a system. This includes focusing on helping students make smooth transitions to the next education level (especially first grade, ninth grade and college), building statewide education data systems that can track individual students and teachers over time, and achieving real-dollar growth in state budgets for K-12 and higher education. This report concludes the first series of reports on each Challenge to Lead goal. It includes recommendations and an action agenda, >From Goals to Results . Making It Happen, that can help your state make progress toward all of the goals.

An Interview with Martin Davis
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Martin Davis is Senior Writer and Editor at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institute in Stanford, California
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Tammy-Lynne Moore
Eastern New Mexico University
There was a recent press release about how well the United States schools are teaching our students about world history. First of all, how would you define "world history" and secondly, how well do you think the U.S. is doing in terms of teaching about the world and world history?
World history is the study of the major cultures, civilizations, events, and people which have shaped the world we share today. The real question for world history teachers is, how does one cover this much material? World history is so broad, you can't reasonably expect students to learn everything. Consequently, one of three things occur in K-12 courses.
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Transforming High School Teaching and Learning
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Aspen Institute
The paper draws on the expertise of teachers, principals, superintendents, policymakers and researchers and offers a framework and suggestions for a different approach to high school improvement.

NCD Youth Advisory Committee Seeks Four Members
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
National Council on Disability
The Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) for the National Council on Disability (NCD) announces the opening of a nationwide search for four new members. One of the positions is reserved specifically for high school students. NCD is an independent federal agency, headed by 15 Council Members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
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The Gap Clap Trap
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
AASA
By Paul D. Houston
No Child Left Behind forces schools to educate children as a group instead of as individuals with unique ways of learning.
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Districts Delivering Online
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
AASA
By Ruth Sternberg
School districts ranging from tiny Branson, Colo., to urban systems such as Minneapolis are investing in offering online courses, catering to students' specific learning needs and to remote locations.
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From Bricks to Clicks: Blurring Classroom/Cyber Lines
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
AASA
By Liz Pape
Blended classrooms provide the best of traditional brick-and-mortar school programs with the use of online tools. This is leading to two new breeds: the web-based classroom and the hybrid classroom, according to the president of Virtual High School.
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An Interview with Alfie Kohn: About the Homework Book
Monday, August 14, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have recently written a book about homework. What have you found?
AK: Well, I began with the premise that, as parents know, homework is often responsible for stress and family conflict, that it gets in the way of other things kids would like to do after they finish six or seven hours of school, and that homework is viewed so negatively by children that it may diminish their interest in learning. But teachers continue to assign homework (in ever greater amounts, in fact, at least in the elementary grades) and parents continue to put up with it - presumably because they assume that the benefits outweigh the costs.
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New Jersey Voucher Lawsuit Is Latest Clint Bolick Cut-and-Paste Job
Monday, August 14, 2006
People For the American Way
By Kevin Franck
Last month, Alliance for School Choice president and general counsel Clint Bolick promised a fundamental change in the world of education reform which would serve as a powerful catalyst for improving America's struggling public schools. Bolick's rhetoric piqued the interest of those dedicated to strengthening public schools, but it was no surprise when he merely offered more of the same: vouchers and privatization.
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Brain growth link to schizophrenia
Monday, August 14, 2006
New Scientist
A gene mutation that alters the shape of the brain in some people with schizophrenia could help explain why the disease often strikes at adolescence.
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U. of Colorado Report Recommends 40 Changes in Tenure, Not a Sweeping Overhaul
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Chronicles of Higher Education
Peter Fogg
A University of Colorado committee in charge of a large-scale review of the tenure process at the system's four campuses has released a final report that calls for 40 changes in the tenure system.
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Why 981 bad-apple teachers is too few
Sunday, August 13, 2006
New York Daily News
Louis V. Gerstner Jr.: This week, New York got good news and bad news about teachers in its public school system. They were hidden in one and the same fact: the number of teachers getting failing grades increased last year, to 981 systemwide.
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Federal voucher program proposed
Sunday, August 13, 2006
NSBA
U .S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joined Republican members of Congress July 18 in announcing federal legislation to create a $100 million voucher program.
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Student Achievement: In the Eye of the Beholder
Friday, August 11, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation 
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow
The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics recently released a study, "Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling."  Considering math and reading scores for 4th ands 8th grades, the study suggests that the differences between public and private schools for 4th grade reading and 8th grad math "were not significantly different from zero." 
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WHO IS RIGHT ABOUT EDUCATION REFORM?
Friday, August 11, 2006
Stanford Alumni Magazine asked two experts for their perspectives on school reform and NCLB testing and accountability policies. Terry Moe says that a consensus of policymakers believes that public schools are not delivering the goods. Why are our public schools so difficult to improve?
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High test scores spark CPS, state to dig deeper
Friday, August 11, 2006
Catalyst
by Elizabeth Duffrin
Chicago's gains likely higher than other districts, but many question whether gains are real on new state tests that lower standards, give kids more time to finish
Chicago Public School officials and Mayor Richard Daley incited a barrage of media ridicule when they touted the district's dramatic state test score gains as "historic" without acknowledging that revisions in the test might have contributed to the increase.
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Midsummer musing
Friday, August 11, 2006
Chester Finn
Muzzling Alfie Kohn is noble work for education reformers, and it's a pity that a misguided Massachusetts judge doesn't get it. Five long years ago, the Bay State's Department of Education threatened to withdraw its funding from an education conference if Kohn were allowed to address it on the topic of standardized testing, which he hates. In the event, Kohn was paid his nontrivial honorarium but not permitted to speak.
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It's time to empower low-income parents
Friday, August 11, 2006
Howard Fuller
When President Bush addressed the NAACP recently, his praise for charter schools and other forms of education choice was met with a mixed chorus of boos and applause.
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Can Districts Help Schools Improve? Three-year Study Clarifies District Role
Friday, August 11, 2006
(San Francisco) - A new WestEd book offers practical advice for districts engaged in continuous school improvement. Building on a three-year study, the authors have created a district action guide with concrete activities designed to help district personnel understand whether they are on track to help -- and not hinder -- their local schools' efforts to raise student achievement.

Do-It-Yourself Fixing for Things That Are Hard to Fix - The Case for Prudence
Thursday, August 10, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
As of August 7, 2006 , Education News has issued a friendly challenge to concerned Americans under the heading of "Things That Are Hard to Fix" in our K-12 educational system. For what it's worth, here's my take on five of the ten topics that Delia Stafford and Michael Shaughnessy have very properly listed as worth serious attention from all of us, not just professional educator
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Sandra Feldman Memorial Garden Dedication
Thursday, August 10, 2006
by Ron Isaac
Sandra Feldman never left us even when she left us last year. Today she is here, as we dedicate this garden to her living inspiration. Tomorrow, or next when we hear cries for justice, Sandy will be with us still. And again, through the infinity of days that we fight for the prosperity of hope for our schools and our nation, Sandy will keep watch that the children are safe. Sandy Feldman's legacy is a continuous state of being.
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Top 10 Rules for Success in School (and in life)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
TeachingMoments.com
New book bags, clothes, sneakers will not guarantee a child's success in school.
Thirty days after school starts the book bag will be torn, the clothes will be dirty and the new pens lost. Now what? These things may give a child a good first impression with a new teacher, but they will not insure their success during the entire school year
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Back to School Shopping
Thursday, August 10, 2006
By Dan Lips
The back-to-school shopping season is upon us. Americans are expected to spend more than $17 billion, or $527 per child, preparing for the school year. Parents will select gadgets and clothes in hopes of making the year a success. Merchants are blitzing the airwaves offering sales on everything from lunchboxes to laptops in hopes of scoring big during the year's second biggest shopping season.
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Mom and Dad, where are you?
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Rebecca Hagelin
As I travel the country speaking to civic, religious and education organizations about how to protect today?s youth in a culture gone crazy, it?s obvious that the problem isn?t parental worry -- it?s parental ignorance and inaction.
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A Contrarian View of the Testing Industry
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
FairTest argues that standardized tests are a poor predictor of student success
By Robert A. Jones
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Monty Neill, the executive director of FairTest, stood in an empty room on an empty floor of a vintage office building near Harvard University. He motioned to a corner. That's where a FairTest researcher once worked. And over there, along the wall, stood a row of file cabinets packed with research materials going back 20 years.

The Freedom to Reject the Best
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Jim Fedako
A new study suggests that private schools are not inherently better than public schools. Surprised? Enough people were such that the study, funded by the US Department of Education, has created a stir in the education arena, as well as in the national news . But I want to argue that the results are meaningless, and for reasons not having to do with the methodology employed in the study.

NEA Outlines NCLB Role in Preparing Students for College
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
National Education Association
Becky Pringle of NEA's Executive Committee discussed critical high school improvements needed to prepare students for college and beyond in her testimony to the Aspen Institute Commission on No Child Left Behind. She also described four key principles for designing better comprehensive accountability systems for the NCLB education law.

Address by Dr. Timothy Knowles on Underperforming Schools
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
On behalf of the Great Schools Campaign, presented to state and municipal leaders
presented at The Boston Foundation
Over 50 years ago, a University of Chicago president Robert Hutchins remarked, "Perhaps the greatest idea that America has given the world is the idea of education for all." And certainly, since that remark, there are things to be proud of.  Across the globe, more people than ever before have access to basic education, and more Americans than ever have the opportunity to attain some form of higher education.

Children's Rights Files Lawsuit On Behalf Of Kids Abused And Neglected In Michigan Custody
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Today in Detroit Federal Court, the advocacy group Children's Rights filed suit against Governor Jennifer Granholm and Marianne Udow, Director of the Department of Human Services (DHS), for failing to take the necessary steps to protect the nearly 19,000 foster care children in the custody of the state. The state immediately agreed to enter into settlement negotiations with plaintiffs to resolve the lawsuit.

Intern threatened with arrest
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Bluegrass Institute
By Lauren Miller
My research as an intern with the Bluegrass Institute this summer has opened my eyes to the ability of school choice to improve the dismal quality of public education in Kentucky. However, my research

Almost Half of Kids With ADHD Go Without Treatment
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
(AXcess News) Washington - In contrast to claims that children are being overmedicated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that a high percentage of kids with ADHD are not receiving treatment. In fact, almost half of the children who might benefit from ADHD drugs were not getting them.
Therapy lacking for antidepressant users

In Defense of Testing Series
Edspresso debate on standardized testing
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Join the debate, in progress all this week . Dana Rapp , education professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, debates researcher and author (and EducationNews.org columnist) Richard Phelps on standardized testing.  Edspresso is affiliated with the Alliance for School Choice . 

The Shocking Private vs. Public School Debate--Peterson vs. ETS
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
By Marty Solomon
The Educational Testing Service recently released a study comparing the academic performance of students in public and private schools, "Comparing Private and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling." It is based on analysis of 2003 NAEP test data of 4th and 8th grade students in math and reading.

Undermining the Covenant between Mother and Child
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
By Nancy Salvato
This is a piece written for divorced parents.  It needs to be written on behalf of the non-custodial parent; who wants a relationship with the kids, yet finds the relationship compromised by the other parent.  All too often, the non custodial parent is written about as if he/she is deadbeat and has no interest in the children -when that couldn't be farther from the truth.  I am one such parent and the tears I have shed over this situation are far too many to count. 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE COMMUNITY
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Marsh Kaminsky
The immense power and learning abilities of the human brain must not be ignored or denied any longer. It's imperative that we find out how intelligent we can become.

Teaching Your Child Music
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Lew Rockwell.com
Brad Edmonds on what to do, and what not to do.
I've been asked two excellent questions recently by a young parent: "Is my child, at age 3, old enough to begin music lessons? If so, do you recommend the Suzuki method?" As with all good questions, there aren't simple answers. But there is always helpful information out there.

RAND STUDY FINDS ADOLESCENTS WHO LISTEN TO A GREAT DEAL OF MUSIC WITH DEGRADING SEXUAL LYRICS HAVE SEX SOONER
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
A RAND Corporation study issued today presents the strongest evidence yet that sexually degrading lyrics in music encourage adolescents to more quickly initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities.

Which Way L.A.? School Reform, Campaign Money and the Law
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
LA Weekly
Debate over who should control Los Angeles schools has produced some nasty political rhetoric from both sides, becoming LA's hottest political issue since the ill-fated drive for Valley succession. Now it's devolving into disputes about fundraising, and legislative analysts in both the State Capitol and City Hall say Mayor Villaraigosa's plan might be unconstitutional.

Public Servants.or.Public Masters?
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Americans For Prosperity
Janice Brauner
When Americans For Prosperity got the proverbial "boot" yesterday from a conference hotel (read the tawdry story here ), the thought that should be uppermost in the minds of taxpayers is that our "public servants" have morphed into our "public masters."

Cutting Through Right-Wing Spin on Public Education
When the Going Gets Tough, Privatization Proponents Get Paul Peterson
Monday, August 7, 2006
People For the American Way
By Kevin Franck
Let's say that someone invented a pill that supposedly makes children grow faster. To measure its effectiveness on children from two different countries, you would assemble a sample group of each and measure their growth over time. But what if the children in one of the countries already tended to grow at a faster rate? This would certainly skew your results. The question would be how to isolate the effects of the pill by accounting for pre-existsing differences in growth rate.

Using a Parent Provided Sensory Integration Program to Lesson the Stereotypical Behaviors of Children with Asperger's Syndrome
Monday, August 7, 2006
by Analisa L. Smith
The study examined the impact of sensory treatment options and was designed to determine if participants with Asperger's Syndrome would display fewer stereotypical behaviors after implementation of a Sensory Integration Program and exhibit increased academic function and social development. Children with Asperger's participated in home-based Sensory Integration activities for ten weeks. Pre and post-test Sensory Profiles were completed by parents and teachers to measure decreases of sensory deficits. Parent completed Sensory Profiles showed a statistically significant decrease in sensory deficits. Results provided needed groundwork information re a promising method of treatment for sensory deficits in children with Asperger's Syndrome.

FACULTY PARTISAN AFFILIATIONS IN ALL DISCIPLINES: A VOTER-REGISTRATION STUDY
Monday, August 7, 2006
Christopher F. Cardiff and Daniel B. Klein
ABSTRACT: The party registration of tenure-track faculty at 11 California universities, ranging from small, private, religiously affiliated institutions to large, public, elite schools, shows that the "one-party campus" conjecture does not extend to all institutions or all departments. At one end of the scale, U.C. Berkeley has an adjusted Democrat:Republican ratio of almost 9:1, while Pepperdine University has a ratio of nearly 1:1. Academic field also makes a tremendous difference, with the humanities averaging a 10:1 D:R ratio and business schools averaging 1.3:1, and with departments ranging from sociology (44:1) to management (1.5:1). Across all departments and institutions, the D:R ratio is 5:1, while in the "soft" liberal-arts fields, the ratio is higher than 8:1. These findings are generally in line with comparable previous studies.

PROFESSORS AND THEIR POLITICS: THE POLICY VIEWS OF SOCIAL SCIENTISTS
Monday, August 7, 2006
Daniel B. Klein and Charlotta Stern:
ABSTRACT: Academic social scientists overwhelmingly vote Democratic, and the Democratic hegemony has increased significantly since 1970. Moreover, the policy preferences of a large sample of the members of the scholarly associations in anthropology, economics, history, legal and political philosophy, political science, and sociology generally bear out conjectures about the correspondence of partisan identification with left/right ideal types; although across the board, both Democratic and Republican academics favor government action more than the ideal types might suggest. Variations in policy views among Democrats is smaller than among Republicans. Ideological diversity (as judged not only by voting behavior, but by policy views) is by far the greatest within economics. Social scientists who deviate from left-wing views are as likely to be libertarian as conservative.

An Interview with Alyse Ritvo: Sure You Drink Bottled Water, But Do You Know Why?
Monday, August 7, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have recently received an award regarding water. What was your research all about?
I focused on evaluating the quantity and quality of drinking water on a global scale to see how clean drinking water availability affects people's drinking habits. After preliminary research, I discovered that while many people in developing countries lack access to safe drinking water, people in developed countries such as the U.S. consume massive amounts of bottled water instead of clean, and often safer, tap water.

FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR PROFOUNDLY GIFTED STUDENTS
Monday, August 7, 2006
U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION TO ATTEND OPENING OF NATION'S
(Reno , Nev.) - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will be in Reno Tuesday, August 22 at Lawlor Events Center to celebrate the opening of The Davidson Academy of Nevada, on the University of Nevada , Reno campus.

Learning From Boston: How a Mayor Can Reform Schools
Monday, August 7, 2006
Los Angeles Times
Menino took authority, raised private money and achieved revolutionary results.
WITH HIS WORKING-CLASS DICTION and penchant for malapropisms, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino doesn't exactly sound like an education wonk.

Commentary: Things Hard to Fix!
Monday, August 7, 2006
Delia Stafford
President, Haberman Educational Foundation
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
The authors believe that there is a sincere on-going effort to improve America 's schools. Many people write books, offer ideas, have theories, but there are some things that are simply difficult, if not impossible to fix. We will here discuss the TOP TEN things that are difficult to fix in American education. We are not saying these things are impossible to "fix", but they may not be malleable, pliable, or there may not be very many quick easy answers. If we ever intend to get better, here are some ideas about where to start! We even have a few solutions entertained here in this document.

Using Hypertext Navigation to Deepen Learning
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
Hypertext learning environments hold great promise, but they also present challenges for learners and designers. As part of her research into designing optimal learning environments, UW-Madison education professor Sadhana Puntambekar developed the project she calls CoMPASS (Concept Mapped Project-based Activity Scaffolding System).

HELP DROPOUTS RETURN TO SCHOOL
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Houston A+ Challenge
Aldine ISD and Houston A+ Challenge are looking for volunteers to walk Houston area neighborhoods on Saturday, August 26 and convince high school dropouts to return to school

The Real Score on School Choice Research
Sunday, August 6, 2006
By Dan Lips
When statistical research makes the headlines, it's important to read beyond the politically charged conclusions and take a look at the fine print. Interest groups often seize on a part of a study's findings but leave the larger truth buried.

What do you say when your child uses the "new" raunchy language? (video)
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Gary Direnfeld

Don't think outside the college box
Debra J. Saunders
Imagine, if you can, that slightly more than half of the public voted Democratic in the last presidential election, yet some 80 percent of higher education's social scientists voted Republican.

"10 Reasons Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library"
( American Libraries , April, 2001) has been turned into a 4-color, 22" x 36" poster (ALA "READ" size poster) and is available for $10 each (this includes shipping and handling).  Bulk orders are available on request and begin at 15 or more orders for $8 each. (South Carolina residents, add applicable sales tax.)

Colleges' open minds close door on sense
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Atlanta Journal Constitution
By MARY GRABAR
Most parents who send their children off to college have no idea of what is being taught in the humanities classes: pornography appreciation, analyses of the clothing of transvestites, Native American scalp dances, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I am not kidding.

Why Don't Bad Public Schools Go Out of Business?
Saturday, August 5, 2006
NewsWithViews
by Joel Turtel
Many public schools force children to learn math and reading with teaching methods that can cripple children's math and reading abilities, such as "whole-language" reading instruction (called "balanced literacy" or "language arts" today), or "fuzzy" or "new" math. If and when parents complain about these teaching methods, public schools can and often.....

Beware Knee-Jerk Local-Control Arguments
Friday, August 4, 2006
by Lance T. Izumi
If you want a conservative knee to jerk, mention local control. Conservatives believe that it s better to have policy decisions made by government units closest to the people because this gives the public more control over those decisions. This argument is usually sensible, but not always.

On the Public Private School Achievement Debate
Friday, August 4, 2006
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Paul E. Peterson and Elena Llaudet

"Appointing the Foxes To Guard the Henhouse"
Friday, August 4, 2006
by Donna Garner
I love these task forces!  They make all of us Texans feel so secure in the knowledge that we have the "foxes guarding the henhouse." 

School Inequity is Both Blatant and Deliberate
Friday, August 4, 2006
Dr. Kathleen Loftus
Neil Steinberg's 7/31 column chastised Rev. Meeks for blaming Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Daley for the inequities in poor and minority kids' education, instead of blaming obviously poor parenting, but he's only half right.  He cites evidence of learning deficits and delays with which many CPS students enter school in the first place. 

Kansas Voters Support Quality Science Education
Friday, August 4, 2006
People For the American Way
Kansas voters yesterday supported school board candidates committed to providing quality science education in Kansas schools.  People For the American Way Deputy Legal Director Judith Schaeffer issued the following statement:

Education absent in NBC/WSJ political poll
Thursday, August 3, 2006
By Daniel Pryzbyla
Teachers know what's going on personally and politically outside school can have a profound effect inside their school and classrooms. Undaunted, they are expected to put on their "miracle worker" costumes to adjust to any respective fallout. The recent July 2006 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll will add to their costume wardrobe.

An Interview with Joel Turtel: What Does John Kasich REALLY Know About What Goes On In The Schools?
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Recently you appeared on Heartland and were interviewed by John Kasich. I wonder if he had even read your book "Public Schools: Public Menace". Did it seem like he had read your book?
I can't say for sure. He's a busy TV news commentator, so I don't believe he had time to read the book. I'm not even sure if he skimmed the book. When I went to the Fox News TV station office in New York City , I gave Kasich a copy of my book before I went on the air. My interview segment only lasted about five minutes. Kasich asked me a few questions about the recent cheating scandal investigation of over 600 public schools in Texas , and about other cheating scandals that I knew of.

Grade Retention: What's the Prevailing Policy and What Needs to be Done?
Thursday, August 3, 2006
UCLA School Mental Health Project/
Center for Mental Health in Schools
What should be done with students not meeting expected achievement standards? This is a long-standing problem in our "age-graded" school system. And, it continues to be one of the most contentious issues in public education. In response to the last two reauthorizations of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, grade retention has emerged as the prevailing policy in most states and localities.

Now is the Time to Develop Ways to Avoid Burnout
Thursday, August 3, 2006
UCLA School Mental Health Project/
Center for Mental Health in Schools
As the above news stories indicate, school staff are under increasing pressure to show improved outcomes for all students. Many schools are in various phases of school improvement planning.

TEXAS FLIM FLAM: WHERE 35 IS A PASSING GRADE
Thursday, August 3, 2006
The Lone Star Report
Will Lutz
Only at the Texas Education Agency is 35 percent a passing grade.
That's right, schools rated "acceptable" this week by the Texas Education Agency only needed to have 35 percent of their students pass the science portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

College stupidity
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Town Hall
Walter E. Williams
Colleges and universities will start their fall semester soon. You might be interested in what parents' and taxpayers' money is going for at far too many "institutions of higher learning."

Battle Against Bullying (video)
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Fox News

An Interview with John Lloyd Young: On Being Frankie Valli and Education
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
John Lloyd Young is currently on Broadway in New York City playing the role of Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons in the hit Broadway musical "Jersey Boys". Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons are one of the most successful rock groups of all time. The Broadway play takes us from the early years of the Four Seasons when they were cranking out hit after hit (Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like a Man, Save it For Me to Grease, Oh, What a Night and Who loves You?)
Post your comments

Why Kids Can't Read: Challenging the Status Quo in Education
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
A book review by Nancy Salvato
When employed, research-based teaching methods and approaches can assure that our children will read proficiently. 2 In a new book, Why Kids Can't Read: Challenging the Status Quo in Education (edited by Phyllis Blaunstein and Reid Lyon), are twelve essays which explain not only how to identify problematic methods commonly employed to teach children to read in our nation's schools, but also include a number of scientifically proven methods of reading instruction which can help resolve the crisis of inappropriately prepared teachers using poor pedagogy to teach reading.
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BUCKEYE INSTITUTE CHARTER SCHOOL REPORT IS ERRONEOUS, EXPERT REVIEWER FINDS
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solution's report, "The Financial Impact of Ohio's Charter Schools," erroneously attributes cost savings in Ohio's public schools to the presence and effectiveness of the state's charter schools, according to Arizona State University Professor Gene V Glass, who reviewed the report.
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Keeping Student Athletes Safe
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
American School Board Journal
Naomi Dillon
Smart rules, knowledgeable coaches, certified trainers, and careful monitoring add up to sound school sports programs.
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Coaching for Life
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
American School Board Journal
Bruce Buchanan
Young people need the personal guidance and attention that coaches can provide, but the relationship faces increasing challenges.
Post your comments

Commentary: The College Board versus Stephen King
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Recently, I was forwarded an e-mail from Will Fitzhugh about the College Board's 101 Great Books that are recommended for College-Bound Readers. The list follows:
Post your comments

In Defense of Testing Series
Want U.S. Students To Learn More Math?  Convert to Metric .
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Of the several subareas of mathematics covered in international tests, U.S. students perform worst in measurement.  Unlike all other countries, where students learn one simple, elegant, measurement system in the schools, U.S. students are thrown the polyglot non-system of archaic British measures that even the British don't teach anymore.  If we simply stopped teaching the "inch-pound" system in the schools-and it's doubtful that students "learn" it there anyway-a substantial amount of instructional time could be freed up for teaching other mathematics topics.
For more:  The U.S. Metric Association   #  Metrication Matters Web site

An Interview with Joseph B. Tulman: On Incarceration and Special Education in America
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Joseph B. Tulman is Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Portlaes , New Mexico
First of all, tell us about yourself and your background.
I grew up in North Carolina , and I attended college and law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . After graduating from law school in 1979, I moved to Washington , DC and began working in a non-profit organization focused on equalizing access to justice. In January of 1982, I began representing children in delinquency cases; I also represented both children and parents in child welfare cases.
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Parents, Mind Your Own Business
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
By Bernard Gassaway
"School business is for educators, not parents. Parents need to focus more on raising their children than getting too involved in what goes on in schools."
Post your comments

Open Letter to Mr. Morton Kondracke, Columnist
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
I was intrigued but not taken in by your Roll Call postmortem of New York City public schools chancellor Joel Klein's vetting before the Aspen Institute's prestigious "Ideas Festival." Sounds like a ball. No doubt the guests at this banquet of thoughts feasted on red herrings and treated the ensuing mental ptomaine poisoning with applause and self-congratulation.
Post your comments

Panel seeks more than just another study highlighting systemic problems in U.S. education
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
The National Science Board, the 24-member independent advisory body to the President and Congress on matters of national science and engineering policy, recently established a commission to set new directions for U.S. education from early childhood through undergraduate education (preK-16).
Post your comments

Effective Teachers Are Proactive
Monday, July 31, 2006
by Harry and Rosemary Wong
Barbara De Santis can get the attention of her students in less than five seconds.  And she can do this just by saying three words accompanied with a smile-because she knows it works every time.
Post your comments

Voting with Your Feet? The Fallacy of the Tiebout Effect.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Jim Fedako
Since Paul Samuelson defined the term some fifty odd years ago, public goods has entered the popular lexicon and become an established belief. From the simple technical definition as a good that is non-excludable and non-rivalrous, thus subject to free riders, and therefore can only be produced by government or through governmental action, public goods now encompass almost any good that a statist desires, whether neo-con or liberal. To question the concept of public goods is to attack mom and apple pie.
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NO CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND? LOOK AGAIN
Monday, July 31, 2006
Dr. K.P. Loftus
Much celebrating and high-fiving has been taking place amongst Chicago Public School hierarchy and Chicago city government this summer for their having purportedly managed to raise students' test scores by "historic" levels, according to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. It's unclear whether those busy tooting their own horns are doing so because they actually believe the data, or because they know they have succeeded in fooling most of the voting public once again.
Post your comments

The Lure of Education (subscription required)
Monday, July 31, 2006
The Atlantic
by Clive Crook
We know how to improve education, and, politics aside, it is not even that difficult: It's clear that competition among schools raises standards.
am just back from the Aspen Ideas Festival , an event organized by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic , one of our sister publications. It is a grand gathering of what Britain calls the Establishment: a convergence of the intellectually dominant, the politically prominent, and the financially over-endowed.
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Making education better, one house, one classroom, at a time
Monday, July 31, 2006
By Dorothy Rich
When it comes to good education, there are lots of opinions.  Before school starts up again is a good time to think about what we each need to understand in order to help our own children and their schools.
Post your comments

KidTrex: Another Invasion Into Your Family
by Tricia Smith Voughan
According to its site, KidTrax makes it easy to track virtually any information . . . from basic demographics, such as birth date, sex and ethnicity, to more targeted types of data like participation in government assistance programs, jersey sizes, and non-insured status. Yes, jersey sizes. Nice. The government schools in Kentucky are buying this marketing ploy; in fact, they cant wait to start tracking: .....
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Globally-Acceptable Truths in The Land of Eden
by Tom DeWeese
Ive written many times of the assault on individual thought through behavior modification techniques such as Critical Thinking as a tool to lash out at ones values system, and the use of situation ethics problems to challenge attitudes, values and beliefs.....
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The Charter School Wars
Sunday, July 30, 2006
NewsWithViews
by Joel Turtel
Charter schools therefore spotlight regular public schools' failure to give children a decent education with more tax money at their disposal. Doing so exposes the lie that public schools would give our kids a better education, if only we gave them more billions of dollars to waste.....
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Make the ACT count
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Bluegrass Institute
Success of new testing policy hinges on the response of the Kentucky Department of Education
By Steve Newman
The new law created by Senate Bill 130 (SB 130) requiring all Kentucky public-school students to take the Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) tests from Act, Inc. is the most important education development in our state since passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in 1990.
Post your comments

Labor Pains
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Commonwealth Magazine
By Michael Jonas
Teens face growing competition from lower-skilled immigrants in landing entry-level jobs.
Post your comments

AFT Report: Many State K-12 Tests Don't Align With Strong Content Standards
Results of Unaligned Tests Often Lead to Inaccurate Judgments about School Performance
Saturday, July 29, 2006
AFT
BOSTON -According to a new report on statewide testing released today by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), most states have made progress in developing clear grade-by-grade standards, but many have not aligned their high-stakes math, reading and science tests with a strong set of content standards, which leads to a distorted picture of how students, schools and teachers are performing.
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Ferberizing Your Child
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Slate
Ann Hulbert on how Dr. Richard Ferber became an icon.
Nobody sleeps like a baby anymore-or perhaps the problem is that everybody sleeps like a baby now. Americans are up at all hours, fretting and foraging for food, upsetting schedules, and keeping experts busy worrying over strategies for improving the nation's rest.
Post your comments

Outlaw Educators
Creative teachers mix unconventional methods into their lesson plans.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Edutopia
By Grace Rubenstein
On May 1, the ninth graders in Camsie Matis's South Bronx classroom were supposed to study how to graph and solve inequalities. The teens would need those skills to pass the state exit exam and, ultimately, secure a diploma.
Post your comments

Educational Hypocrisy and a "Level Playing Field"
Friday, July 28, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow
There they go again.
Supporters of the public school status quo continue to bleed ink because, they say, these schools can't compete fairly with nonpublic schools because of the supposed lack of a "level playing field."
Post your comments

The Expert Mind
Friday, July 28, 2006
Scientific American
By Philip E. Ross
Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well
Post your comments

Clarion Call
An Essential Book on Education
Friday, July 28, 2006
Pope Center
By George Leef
Does education matter? That is the title of an absolutely essential book by Professor Alison Wolf.
Yes, of course education matters. The author, who holds the Sir Roy Griffiths professorship of public sector management at King's College, London, is not questioning whether education is good at all. Rather, she questions whether governmental efforts to expand "access" to higher education and public training programs are justified.
Post your comments

States step in to fill feds' role
Friday, July 28, 2006
By Pamela M. Prah
Statehouses afloat in budget surpluses in 2006 ventured into new projects, from the first-in-the-nation statewide preschool for 3-year-olds in Illinois to a space pad in New Mexico, and also made strides on issues that stymied Congress, including health care, immigration and the minimum wage.
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Survey Finds Most After-School Programs Now Taking Place in Schools
Friday, July 28, 2006
Less than 9 Percent Occur in Traditional After-School Settings
Colorado Springs , Colo. - A new survey of 1,200 teens conducted by JA WorldwideT (Junior Achievement) shows that nearly two-thirds (62.1%) of students who were asked do participate in after-school programs held at their schools, such as in a gym or cafeteria, and not in after-school centers
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Dropping Acid
Friday, July 28, 2006
Education Gadfly
Charles Murray has a beef with the No Child Left Behind Act. He's angry that his children's public schools in bucolic Frederick County, Maryland, have "turned themselves inside out to try to produce the right test results, with dismaying effects on the content of classroom instruction and devastating effects on teacher morale." So he did what any distinguished conservative scholar would do--he took to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal (read his piece, "Acid Tests," here ).
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Beauprez Looks to the States to Move Beyond No Child Left Behind
Friday, July 28, 2006
By Dan Lips
It's been said that everything old becomes new again. This is proving true in the federal education reform debate. A conservative congressman has introduced new legislation based on an old idea: local control over education.
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A CONVERSATION WITH TEACHER OF THE YEAR KIMBERLY OLIVER
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Edutopia
By Grace Rubenstein
The key to Kimberly Oliver's success may lie as much in her vision of personalized, family-focused education as in the quiet way she pursues it. As the 2006 National Teacher of the Year, the twenty-nine-year-old recounts accomplishments that could fill a career several times longer than hers -- but she does so humbly. She speaks bold, articulate words -- softly.
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A Modest Proposal To Abolish Universities
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Fred Reed
I think it is time to close the universities, and perhaps prosecute the professoriat under the RICO act as a corrupt and racketeering-influenced organization. Universities these days have the moral character of electronic churches, and as little educational value. They are an embarrassment to civilization.
Post your comments

In Praise of the First and Second Amendments
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Brussels Journal
In a true, totalitarian society such as the old Soviet Union, crime rates are usually low because of the crushing state control of all its citizens. Supposedly, street crime in Moscow in the USSR was rare, probably because the state itself was the biggest criminal.

21st Century Paul Revere Ride, Part 9
Thursday, July 27, 2006
NewsWithViews
by Frosty Wooldridge
At the same time, as I drive my motorcycle across our country, Im struck dumb at the apathy, docility and outright non-interest exhibited by the majority of Americans. Over 80 percent of Americans want this illegal alien invasion stopped, but few speak up as if it will go away by itself. As long as they are not directly affected, they wont budge off their couch....
Post your comments .

BLACK MALE STUDENTS DO OFFEND MORE . . . NOW, HOW DO WE FIX IT?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Dr. K. P. Loftus
Poor and minority high school students, particularly Black males, are often identified as being the most frequent recipients of the short end of the education "stick." Teachers and other school personnel have been cited most often for contributing to these students' academic downfalls by failing to adapt their instruction to these students' behavioral and learning needs. This failure to educate is then, in turn, cited as the chief cause of this group's representing only 17% of the U.S. population but 86% of all U.S. prisoners.
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"Automatic Birthright Citizenship": An Emerging Crisis
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
by Tom Shuford
"Anchor babies" are the American-born children of illegal aliens or of visiting foreign nationals: These babies, under current interpretation of U.S. law, automatically become U.S. citizens and most qualify immediately for a variety of benefits . . . Over time, they can open the door to citizenship to other family members. Last week, there was a flurry of national news stories announcing the current estimate that 300,000 such babies are born each year in this country. (Al Knight, columnist, Denver Post , June 22, 2005)
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An Interview with Gary Germann: About Response to Intervention and AIMSweb Progress Monitoring System
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Increasingly, school systems are moving toward computer based data management systems. Why is this occurring?
For a number of reasons: First, the technology is now in place and available for the task. Schools have traditionally used desktop computer technology for two purposes - the provision of instruction and as a communication tool (Internet and email).
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Chris Anderson's Long Tail and the National Standard Vocabulary Test - The Importance of Authoritative Difficulty Rankings
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
Lexicographers ("harmless drudges," Dr. Johnson called us) have good reason to thank Chris Anderson, editor of "Wired" and author of "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More," for invoking "long tail" word-frequency distributions as an analogy more productive than those boring Bell curves that have bedeviled educational discourse these many years.
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The Truth About Boys and Girls
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
On many measures American boys are achieving more than ever, but girls have improved their performance even faster. A careful look at the evidence shows the boy crisis hype is overblown and benefits neither boys nor girls.
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Survey Finds White Students More Likely to Drink, Smoke, and Take Drugs
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
While white students outpace blacks and Hispanics on most measures of academic achievement, a federally-funded study shows that they're not doing as good a job avoiding cigarettes, alcohol, and illegal drugs.
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Smearing education choice
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Town Hall
John Stossel
This month, papers all around America reported that according to the U.S. Department of Education, "children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools."

NEA keeps tilting to the left
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Town Hall
Phyllis Schlafly
Parents who wonder why the public schools teach so many things parents don't approve of need look no further than the official policies of the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association. Meeting in Orlando, Fla., this year in annual convention over the Fourth of July weekend, the NEA adopted a long series of left-liberal resolutions.

Just the facts, Ma'am: U.S. graduation rates highest in our nation's history
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
By Caroline Grannan
Education opponents have been winning large amounts of newsprint and airtime with a supposed "graduation crisis" that is simply bogus. It's time to set the record straight.
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In Defense of Testing Series
A Status Report on the NCLB Standards and Assessments Peer Reviews
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Ellen Forte, edCount LLC
from the June 2006 NCME Newsletter
Anyone who works on large-scale state assessment issues is aware that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to implement systems of standards and assessments for reading/language arts, mathematics, and science. However, the federal criteria and the process for determining how well states' systems meet them aren't quite so well understood by those outside of the U.S. Department of Education and state education agencies.
Post your comments

An Interview with Michael Sullivan : About Mayhem at Mount Moosilauke
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have written a book, almost specifically for boys. What led you into this arena?
I have been writing, speaking, and teaching on the topic of helping boys to become better readers for years. The well known children's author Gordan Korman challenged me to put that expertise to work and come up with a book that would appeal to boys.
Post your comments

Saving the American Dream
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Progressive Policy Institute
A college education and training are key to individual advancement, and a workforce of college graduates and highly trained workers is the key to giving America a competitive edge.
Post your comments

How to spend limited taxpayer education dollars
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Town Hall
Star Parker
The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education, has just released a study comparing the performance of fourth- and eighth-graders in public and private schools.
Post your comments

10 Reasons Why It's Important to Learn (and Teach) English
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Don Soifer
Possessing strong English language skills is critically important to succeeding in the United States. Research has demonstrated decisively that regardless of where an immigrant lives, what level of schooling he or she attains, or how long they have lived in this country, no factor contributes more to their success than fluency in English.
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An Interview with Rod Paige: About No Child Left Behind
Monday, July 24, 2006
EducationNews.org
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Delia Stafford
Haberman Foundation
What impact do you think 'No Child Left Behind' has had?
I think that the No Child Left Behind Act was a turning point in public education in America and the most significant change in federal public education policy since the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Post your comments

Public Schools and Lobsters
Monday, July 24, 2006
By Marty Solomon
The American public school system is analogous to a lobster in a pot of water, where the heat is turned up very slowly, a click at a time. The rising heat is so gradual that the lobster does not realize that it is being boiled alive until the last moments, when it is too late.
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The insidious danger in explaining school failure as inevitable because of "Damaged Goods."
Monday, July 24, 2006
After two days of articles and editorials in Columbus , Ohio I have to vent.  Over I year ago I observed as eager staff were hired by an enthusiastic principal as part of an effort to reconstitute a failing school which had not come close to meeting AYP.  Bright enthusiastic teachers were hired by a "roll up your sleeves" principal.  Looked good, but  when I found out that the curriculum would stress project learning and discovery, I sadly told the eager teacher embarking on the project that this high poverty school would fail.
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Journal of Youth Development: Bridging Research and Practice
Monday, July 24, 2006
This journal focuses on the development of school-aged youth through the transition to adulthood (ages 6-22).  With funding support from the National 4-H Leadership Trust, this refereed journal will feature original research, best practices in youth development programming, innovative research and evaluation methods and strategies, and reviews of resources of interest to youth development researchers and practitioners.
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RESEARCHERS GAIN INSIGHT INTO WHY BRAIN AREAS FAIL TO WORK TOGETHER IN AUTISM
Monday, July 24, 2006
Basis For Why People With Autism Think In Pictures
Researchers have found in two studies that autism may involve a lack of connections and coordination in separate areas of the brain.
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Teachers for a New Era
Monday, July 24, 2006
Recent research based on large datasets linking individual pupil records with specific teachers in many different cities and states has established beyond doubt that the quality of the teacher has a profound influence on pupil learning. Some researchers assert that this "teacher effect" is so large that it can be considered the single most important factor in student achievement gains in schools.
Teachers for a New Era Principles

Appropriations Committee Sends Mixed Message to America 's Poorest Students
Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organizations Continues Perkins Loan Efforts
Monday, July 24, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC - The Senate Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education sent a mixed message to more than 700,000 students who need Perkins Loans to help pay for college.  While the subcommittee did not eliminate the Perkins Loan Program and funded loan cancellations at approximately $65 million, it provided no funding for the Federal Capital Contribution for FY2007.  This funding ensures continued growth and support for this vital student aid program. 
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More College Graduates
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Democratic Leadership Council
A college education is increasingly essential to a middle-class lifestyle for Americans in many occupations, and is increasingly essential to the country as we meet the challenge of a highly competitive global economy. But rapidly rising tuitions are making it harder than ever to go to college, and harder to stay there until the sheepskins are handed out.
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"AFT Calls Higher Education Teaching the Wal-Mart of the Professions."
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Education Intelligence Agency
That was the headline one delegate wanted to avoid when he offered an amendment to Resolution 29 - Addressing the Academic Staffing Crisis. The resolution asserted that more than 70 percent of all college and university instructors are part-time or temporary. The resolution then stated that "this trend makes higher education one of the most extreme examples nationwide of the trend toward decreasing job security and benefits - the Wal-Mart of the professions."
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4-H vs. Big Brother
by Joyce Morrison
NewsWithViews.com
Will this great tradition of 4-H and FFA draw to an end when the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is mandated and every animal is tagged and tracked? Many say yes. There is a strong feeling among small producers and hobby farmers that if the National Animal ID is forced upon them, George Orwells quote will become reality when he said, If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever." Post your comments

Unfunded Mandates: Expense? Or Excuse?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation  
David W. Kirkpatrick  Senior Education Fellow
Perhaps the two most common complaints of school boards is that they don't have enough money, and they face too many "unfunded mandates."
Post your comments

Learnings per Share
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Dennis Doyle
The holy grail of school finance reform is a metric that will tell you what you're getting in outputs for a given mix of inputs. ROI. Productivity analysis. P=I/O. The efficiency of resource allocation. Does program "x" produce "better" results than program "y?" Does teacher Smith get better results than teacher Jones?
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Believe in Government, Believe in Me
Saturday, July 22, 2006
LewRockwell.com
by Jim Fedako
If you believe that Government provides the solutions, then you have to believe in me. As a member of an elected board of education I have been granted the power to mandate solutions to local education and health issues, real or perceived.
Post your comments

Can Harvard be punished?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Education Gadfly
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Harvard may forfeit nearly $400 million in alumni gifts this year as a consequence of ex-president Lawrence H. Summers' abrupt exit. Even for mega-bucks Harvard, that begins to qualify as real money, a palpable hit in the pocketbook--a ''significant setback'' in Journal ese.
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Schools of Hate
Friday, July 21, 2006
By Lynn Woolley
At a time when the United States could use a stiff dose of unity, some students are being taught just the opposite in a new phenomenon called "Schools of Social Justice." The idea here is that the United States has a sordid history of racism and prejudice and that young people - particularly Latino kids - should rise up
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Rationing Education In an Era of Accountability
Friday, July 21, 2006
By Jennifer Booher-Jennings
The push for accountability was originally cast as a way to ensure that schools would leave no child behind. Ironically, as Ms. Booher-Jennings points out, the NCLB system of requiring schools to demonstrate adequate yearly progress through test scores has created incentives to neglect the very students who need the most help.
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NIH Funds Seven Science Education Programs
Friday, July 21, 2006
More Than $8.5 Million Will Help Engage the Public in Medical Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced it will grant $8.5 million in Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) for projects that will engage the public in medical research, stimulate interest in science, and encourage the next generation of health professionals.
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GOP "Values Agenda"- Schools Division
Friday, July 21, 2006
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings marched up to the Hill yesterday to show her support for a new $100 million dollop of school vouchers that Republicans say will "deliver" low-income students from failing public schools and allow the victims to attend private and religious schools of their choice.
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Walls to No Avail
Friday, July 21, 2006
By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
House Republicans insist that border enforcement must be proved successful before Congress deals with the millions of immigrants now in America illegally, as well as with future immigrants. Otherwise, House Republicans claim, there will be a further influx of illegal immigrants.
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Private Performance
The New York Times gets excited.
By Chester E. Finn Jr.
Predictably, Diana Jean Schemo and the New York Times found front-page, above-the-fold space on Saturday to cover on a new National Center for Education Statistics report, drawn from 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress data, that finds private schools only slightly more effective than public when analysts control for income, race, parent education, and such. (The exception is eighth-grade reading where the private-school advantage is marked.)
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A Lifeline for Students in Persistently Failing Public Schools
Friday, July 21, 2006
By Dan Lips
Millions of students are trapped in persistently failing public schools. On Tuesday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joined congressional Republicans to unveil the America's Opportunity Scholarships initiative-a plan to give thousands of these at-risk children a chance to receive a quality education.
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Degrees of misunderstanding
Friday, July 21, 2006
James Wilkinson
Passing courses and getting a degree doesn't guarantee a thing.
It is a curious fact that most discussions about undergraduate curricula focus almost exclusively on content. What seems to become easily lost in the debate is any real discussion about pedagogy.
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Editor's Note:
A study by the National Council on Teacher Quality (May, 2006) found that only 15% of US colleges of education are even including the five principal components of research-based reading instruction (Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000) in their syllabi and recommended course textbooks for teacher-candidates. Clearly, our US colleges of education are not yet making the changes needed to provide sufficient numbers of adequately trained teachers to meet the needs of the current generation of students.
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Spellings AWOL for national education report
Thursday, July 20, 2006
By Daniel Pryzbyla
"Public schools perform near private ones in study," blared the July 15, 2006 New York Times headline. "Long-delayed education study casts doubt on value of vouchers," claimed the Wall Street Journal. As Secretary of U.S. Department of Education, you'd think Margaret Spellings would be blowing her public education bugle. Nope. AWOL - military jargon for "absent without leave."
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Teachable moments
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Al Haskvitz
Nothing can create instant interest more than something on the news that can be related to a student's life. Weather, elections, civil disobedience, holidays, sports events, and world record attempts all fall into the teachable moment category and can all be used to make some life long learning opportunities.
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An Interview with Maria Veloso: Midwinter Turns to Spring
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Maria has written the reportedly first-ever novel with its own music soundtrack of songs that she wrote. In this interview, she responds to questions about her book and her music.
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Learning From Longitudinal Research in Criminology and the Health Sciences
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Steven L. VanderStaay
Literacy scholars commonly cite barriers to the effective dissemination and sharing of research as impediments to advances in the field. Disciplinary boundaries shore up these barriers, as do "strong stances" within styles of research (Stanovich, 2003, p. 105) , the tendency of paradigmatic communities to insulate themselves (Mosenthal, 1985) , and a "lack of regular and easy channels" connecting educational researchers with scholars in other fields (Lagemann, 2000, p. 233) . Dillon, O'Brien, and Heilman (2000) noted that such insulation, although common in academe, is particularly harmful to reading research.
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Handcuff Me, Too!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Ms. Chenfeld puts herself in the shoes of an eager, curious, hopeful kindergartner and finds that it's a sadly scary place to be.
By Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld
IN OUR STEADY diet of shocking daily news stories, one item I saw recently was particularly shocking. A 5-year-old kindergarten child just "lost it" in her classroom, went a little berserk, threw violent fits, and had to be restrained with handcuffs. Such an incident seems to beg for analysis, and countless columnists offered their insights and explanations for an event so rare and so frightening.   
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It's the Curriculum, Stupid: There's Something Wrong with It
Thursday, July 20, 2006
By Dave F. Brown
Educators, parents, and employers all seem to agree on the types of skills they believe students should be developing. But Mr. Brown finds that the traditional curriculum, divided up into separate subjects, neither engages students nor prepares them for productive lives. He believes that the answer to both problems is to have students design their own curricula.
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Support mounts for new school funding model
Thursday, July 20, 2006
"100% Solution" yields fair spending for needy children and promotes education choice
WASHINGTON, DC--Weighted student funding, a bold new model for public-school finance, is winning remarkable support from a broad spectrum of policymakers, education organizations, parents and school leaders. Since the Thomas B. Fordham Institute unveiled this plan on June 27, 2006 with 76 signers, more than 120 additional individuals across the political and ideological spectrum have added their names.
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An Interview with Robin Castle: About Head Injury and Brain Trauma
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
I understand that you have recently constructed five "Concussion=Brain Injury " Tip Cards. Can you tell us about them?
The laminated card is really part of an overall education effort to alert the general public (as well as healthcare workers and service providers) to the seriousness of concussion and its potentially lasting symptoms. The card lists signs and symptoms of mild brain injury and also gives a toll-free help-line in Vermont for information, referral, and assistance.
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An Interview with Bob Falls : About "Poetry Alive"!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, what exactly is " Poetry Alive!" ?
Poetry Alive! is a theatrical touring organization that brings actors to schools for performances and classroom follow-ups. Poetry Alive! also provides workshops and in-services for teachers throughout the country.
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REPORT: A SNAPSHOT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Center on Education Policy is pleased to release a new report on the important facts concerning the U.S. education system and how things have changed- and will continue to change - over time. The primer, A Public Education Primer: Basic (and Sometimes Surprising) Facts about the U.S. Education System , provides a comprehensive picture of the nation's public schools by answering the following questions:

"Education's Inconvenient Truth"
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
National Education Knowledge Industry Association
By Jim Kohlmoos
Adapted from an article in the School Improvement Industry Weekly
The education community can learn a thing or two from Al Gore's acclaimed documentary and best selling companion book, both titled "An Inconvenient Truth". In fact the lessons from "An Inconvenient Truth" have almost as much relevance to education as they do for the environmental movement.
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The Good News on Public Schools’ Progress is Bad News for Bush’s Agenda
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Black America Web
By Deborah Mathis
Any other administration would have made a big deal of it: A fresh, “meticulous” study by the U.S. Education Department has found that, in reading and math, public school students are performing as well or better than private school students.
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NCES Study: Friedman Foundation Responds
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Greg Forster
On July 14, the U.S. Department of Education released a study that the teachers' unions are holding up as evidence that public schools are better than private schools. The study doesn't actually show this, and is riddled with methodological flaws anyway. If you tell the average American that public schools are better than private schools, she's likely to respond, "What have you been smoking?" In this case, the evidence shows that the average American is right.
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What Education Schools Aren't Teaching about Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON TEACHER QUALITY
Over the last 60 years, scientists from many fields including psychology, linguistics, pediatrics, education, neurobiology, and even engineering have been studying the reading process. This sci­ence of reading has led to a number of breakthroughs that can dramatically reduce the number of children destined to become functionally illiterate or barely literate adults. By routinely applying the lessons learned from the scientific findings to the classroom, most reading failure could be avoided. It is estimated that the current failure rate of 20 to 30 percent could be reduced to the range of 2 to 10 percent.
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Voucher Bill Misleads Parents, Funnels Money from Public Schools
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
National Education Association
Republican House and Senate leaders joined Education Secretary Margaret Spellings today to introduce national school voucher legislation dubbed "opportunity scholarships." Find out why NEA president Reg Weaver calls it, "the same old school voucher song with a different verse."
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In Defense of Testing's Greatest Hits
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Richard Phelps
IDT is six years old this month.  In celebration, we link some of the more popular columns posted in the series, dating all the way back to the year 2000.
Call for Papers

An Interview with John Jacobson: A Place in the Choir
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
John , first of all, what inspired you to write this book ?
A Place In The Choir isn't really the kind of book that you wake up one morning and decide to pen. Instead it is a reflection of the 26 years or so that I have been gallivanting around the world teaching music and dance to anyone who was willing to participate. Over the course of those years and miles there is a lot to teach, but even more a lot to learn and "marvel at."
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An Interview with Marilyn Haight: About Maturity and Development Across the Life Span
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have just finished your doctoral dissertation. What was it all about?
The dissertation primarily evaluated an existing instrument, Measures of Psychosocial Development (MPD), in an effort to assess inter-correlation of positive and negative scales based on Erik Erikson's eight stages of development. What we hoped to find was that in fact each of the scales would demonstrate strong content validity, but also be highly correlated with each other.
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Give your child our Red Flag Reading Screening to gain a quick, informal measure of reading fluency on grade level material.
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Media Miss Mark on Education Study
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Cato Institute
In an article titled "Long-Delayed Education Study Casts Doubt on Value of Vouchers," the Wall Street Journal reports: "Students in public schools perform just as well as their private-school peers when test scores are adjusted for race, socioeconomics and other factors, according to a long-delayed study released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education." In " The School Choice Movement's Greatest Failure ," a recent post on Cato's daily weblog, Cato@Liberty , Andrew Coulson, director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom, argues that the Journal's headline is wrong because the point of voucher programs is to create a competitive education industry, and the existing population of U.S. private schools does not constitute such an industry. He concedes that it is a failure of the school choice movement as a whole that the media don't yet understand why.
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An Interview With Daniel Domenech: About Teaching in Urban Areas
Monday, July 17, 2006
Tammy Lynne Moore
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
What are you currently working on?
I lead McGraw-Hill Education's Urban Advisory Resource, a service dedicated to serving the unique needs of educators guiding large school districts of 35,000 students or more. My colleagues and I offer counsel to district leaders based on our own decades of experience in similar jobs. This is one of McGraw-Hill's ways of giving back to its customers.
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An Interview with George Boelcke : About Personality, Color, and Achievement
Monday, July 17, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have written a number of books about leadership, personality, parent/child dynamics and relationships. What is your basic premise?
Throughout history, man has been studying man in an effort to find some common denominators or lots of answer to why we do what we do - and how we do it.
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Fitting Software to Students
Monday, July 17, 2006
USC Viterbi School of Engineering Information Sciences Institute
Some students "game" computer-based teaching programs (Intelligent Tutoring Systems, or ITS). New research at the USC Information Sciences Institute is looking at ways of predicting this behavior, and using such predictions to adapt the systems to fit individual student needs. Early results are promising.
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Press 1 For English, Press 2 to Hang up and Call Back When You Learn English
Monday, July 17, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Frosty Wooldridge
Our language defines us as one nation, one people, one spirit. A nation needs one language like it needs one currency, one traffic system, one weights and measuring system, one set of rules for baseball, basketball, football and tennis. English defines our success for 230 years. If we lose it, we'll fracture faster than.....
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Free speech is loser where religious expression is concerned
Monday, July 17, 2006
Town Hall
John Leo
Brittany McComb's microphone went dead at her high school commencement because school officials thought she was talking too much about religion.
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What's Really Going on in Lebanon
Monday, July 17, 2006
LewRockwell.com
by Eric Margolis
The Bush administration, Israel and U.S.-aligned Arab states have been blaming Iran and Syria for igniting the worst Mideast fighting in many years.
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Closing the Parent Gap
Monday, July 17, 2006
Progressive Policy Institute
by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead
Democrats should go on the offense with a progressive cultural populism. They can do so by taking the side of parents against the cultural forces that make it more difficult to "teach kids right from wrong."
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Helping Children Move from Bad Schools to Good Ones
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Century Foundation
TCF Education Fellow Richard D. Kahlenberg offers a guide for specific changes to the No Child Left Behind Act that would provide more children with the opportunity to attend economically integrated middle-class public schools. The first installment in the Security and Opportunity Agenda, a new initiative from TCF.
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"Reading Instruction for Arithmetic Word Problems: If Johnny can't read and follow directions, then he can't do math"
Sunday, July 16, 2006
By Jerome Dancis
Comprehending (Arithmetic) word problems correctly and then translating them into organized mathematical expressions and equations, is a crucial part of doing math and science. Although all state math standards repeatedly mention problem solving, there is also a critical need for instruction in the reading and comprehension of word problems and for instruction in following directions, with increasing levels of sophistication in higher grades.
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Inside the Mind of Hezbollah
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Washington Post
Robin Wright
| Hasan Nasrallah is a man of God, gun and government, a cross between Ayatollah Khomeini and Che Guevera. Now, he is also exactly where he always wanted to be.
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"$14 Million Study Proves Student Laptops Ineffective Academically"
Saturday, July 15, 2006
by Donna Garner
Our country has been waiting for a scientifically conducted study on laptops.  Now we have it.  Presented below are excerpts from the $14 Million Texas Technology Immersion Pilot (April 2006 report -- funded by the U. S. Department of Education) which is supposed to prove whether student immersion on laptops by middle-school students will raise their academic achievement.
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The Rationale for Preparing Mature Adults as Teachers of  Diverse Children in Urban Poverty
Monday, November 8, 2004
Martin Haberman
Distinguished Professor
U. Wisconsin Milwaukee
Three thousand  youth drop out of school everyday. The achievement gaps between racial groups and economic classes continues to widen. The persistent  shortage of teachers who can be effective in 120 failing urban school systems guarantees that the miseducation of seven million diverse children in urban poverty will continue.
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Parents -- Don't Depend on Vouchers
by Joel Turtel
NewsWithViews.com
For all the above reasons, parents who want to give their children a decent education now, cannot and should not depend on vouchers coming to their local neighborhood anytime soon. Parents, don't wait around for another fifty years while voucher advocates fight drawn-out lawsuits and fierce opposition by teacher unions, public-school bureaucrats.....
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School Reform: Onward and Upward
Friday, July 14, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation  
David W. Kirkpatrick  Senior Education Fellow
The war over charter schools goes on but, despite the opposition, the outcome is no longer in doubt.
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Reception for Chapter Leaders: July 13, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
by Ron  Isaac
Chapter leaders may get varying receptions from their principals when they go back to work, but they all got the same reception at UFT Headquarters on July 13 th . A gala affair, attended by over 300 new and returning chapter leaders, was the perfect chance to shoot the breeze with old friends, get the ball rolling to make new ones, and share strategies for tackling the inevitable challenges of the coming school year. Missions accomplished!
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After School Evaluation Symposium
Friday, July 14, 2006
Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP)
On September 22-23, 2005, Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), with support from the C. S. Mott Foundation, convened the After School Evaluation Symposium, with over 100 researchers, evaluators, policymakers, and practitioners in Washington, D.C. The goal of the 2-day meeting was to bring together the perspectives of diverse stakeholders to inspire new ideas and foster stronger links between research, practice, and policy.
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Children and Teens Ages 9-18: Enter the Parent Relocation Council Essay Contest
Friday, July 14, 2006
The Parent Relocation Council is seeking essays of no more than 500 words from students ages 9-18 who have overcome difficulties during a family relocation. The essay question is: "Tell us about how your friends, family, and others helped you overcome challenges as you relocated to your new area and transitioned into a new school and community." The winner will receive a $500 Target gift card, and 10 runner-ups will each receive $50 Target gift cards. Entry deadline: September 15, 2006.
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Creeping credentialism
Friday, July 14, 2006
By Mercurius Goldstein
An unwarranted and counterproductive sense of entitlement pervades middle-class attitudes towards education.
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The trouble with ''The Trouble With Boys''
Friday, July 14, 2006
Education Gadfly
Look around you--everywhere, even on the front page of the New York Times , boys are failing. Young men are in trouble. And everyone's trying to figure out why.
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An Interview with Sarina Roffe: About Cued Speech
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, what exactly is " cued speech " and how does it differ from ASL ( American Sign Language)?
Cued Speech is a mode of communication used in English or any one of 57 languages and major dialects to visually convey language so its users 'see-hear' language.
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Memo to a School Board Member
Thursday, July 13, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
If Beardsley Ruml (he invented the withholding tax) were alive today, I'm certain he would follow his famous "Memo to a College Trustee" by suggesting some appropriate steps for American school boards to take when external events, natural or manmade, compel them to close down the schools in their community for an extended period of time - especially in a disaster-conscious nation where crisis-management (as of 7/8/08) gets 8 million hits on the internet, while its combination with school-closings gets 629,000, and the inclusion of homework gets 33,000.
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No Patient Left Uncured
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Jerry Jesness 
Dateline July 20, 2012
The centerpiece of President ______'s socialized medicine program was the No Patient Left Uncured Act, the aim of which was to assure that no patient would die of an ailment for which he or she was admitted to a government hospital.
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It's The Conservatism, Stupid
Thursday, July 13, 2006
TomPaine.com
Paul Waldman
Ask a conservative what the biggest problem in America is today, and you'll get answers like overtaxation, a sexualized culture, lack of respect for authority, insufficient church-going or big government running amok. But if you then asked the conservative what the real source of the problem was-the beating heart pumping blood to each and all of these socio-politico-cultural wounds-you'd get the same answer: liberalism.
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Impact of an adolescent sex education program that was implemented by an academic medical center
Presurveys and postsurveys from over 25,000 middle-school students
Thursday, July 13, 2006
American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Patricia J. Sulak, MD
Conclusion: Implementation of a sex education curriculum by an academic medical center to adolescents resulted in increased knowledge and a shift in attitude toward delaying sexual activity.
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Please take a moment to fill out the survey by July 21 at the following link.
NCLD and the GRTR! program are constantly striving to improve our programs and make informed decisions throughout our strategic planning process. So, we are reaching out to you with the following survey to gather feedback from those using the GRTR! program.

What do you say when your child asks: Am I Fat?
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Most husbands would agree that to hear that question from their wife is akin to being asked to boil oneself in oil. However, what about when a child asks or needs to be informed?
Watch the video discussion: Childhood Obesity

Getting Parents Interested in Science
Thursday, July 13, 2006
NPR
America may be losing its technological edge because fewer U.S. students are studying science.
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Proposition 187: "Last Gasp of White America in California"
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
by Tom Shuford
The derailing of Proposition 187 by a federal judge was a victory for Torres and those like-minded. (1) The American judicial system is an ideal vehicle for effecting a transfer of power. See "Plyler v. Doe (1982) Transforms American Public Schools."
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An Interview with Jim Nelson: About Avid
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, congratulations on your new position. Could you tell us about how this came about?
Thanks for the kind words. Mary Catherine Swanson founded AVID, the college-prep system, in 1980 and led its expansion for the next 26 years. And so when it was time for her to retire and find a successor, AVID Center's board of directors conducted a national search.
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Outcomes we can do without
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Kevin Donnelly
Confused about the conflict that is raging between traditional and student-centred teaching in schools?
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Parents Sue After Child Assaulted by "Peer Tutor" - Expert Hired by District Claims Assault "Pleasurable"
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Wrights Law
In September 2004, 18 year old Kalie McArthur was a student at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, CO. She had an IQ of about 50 and several medical problems.

Teaching anxiety
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Jennifer Aberhart
Surrounding children with overly anxious parents and teachers is not the best way to ensure they grow up mentally healthy.
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The Schools Attuned® Program Achieves Milestone in Helping Teachers and Students Succeed in the Classroom
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Professional Development Initiative Reaches a Total of 30,000 K –12 Educators—
More than Half-a-Million Students in U.S.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.— An acclaimed, research-based program that educates America’s K–12 teachers about the science of learning has met a critical mark in its rollout. The Schools Attuned Program, which is based on the neurodevelopmental work of the All Kinds of Minds Institute and Dr. Mel Levine, has enrolled more than 30,000 educators since the program began in 1987.
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In Defense of Testing Series
An Analysis of Merit Pay Reforms in Educational Institutions
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Third Education Group Review
Jared Honeycutt, Steven Loomis, and Andrew Brulle, Hongshen ZHANG
With roots in behaviorist philosophy, performance pay for teachers is often linked to accountability regimes in school reform. The theory girding such programs suggests that pay as an economic incentive can help cause teachers to increase student outcomes as measured by standardized test scores.
Eyes Talk
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Hongshen ZHANG
Third Education Group Review
I was personally sensitized to the importance of eye contact for the first time when I felt marginalized by the professor's neglect of my presence in a refresher course. The trainees of the course, in batches, were required to sit in a graduate class of a university as a course requirement.
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An Interview with Michael L.Umphrey: About the Montana Heritage Project
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, tell us a bit about the Montana Heritage Project. Who started it, when and why?
The Heritage Project was started as a partnership between the Library of Congress and Montana 's leading cultural agencies-the Montana Historical Society, the Montana Committee for the Humanities, the Montana Arts Council and the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
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Sent to The Principal: Students Talk About Making High Schools Better .
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
For the past few years What Kids Can Do has been documenting the good work of young people and collaborating with students on books, curricula, and research to expand our view of what constitutes challenging learning and achievement. This volume, put together by Kathleen Cushman, features the voices of students from around the country and is a great read for any principal (or parent or teacher for that matter) getting ready for a new school year. It includes a preface by Forum Convener Deborah Meier .
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Egypt
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Town Hall
Armstrong Williams
One of my hobbies is to study new places by experiencing the traditions, meeting the natives, and immersing myself in the culture. Over the last two weeks I was able to tour the streets of Luxor and Alexandria in Egypt and learn all about the history of this great country.

Born to be digital
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Town Hall
Suzanne Fields
Luddites of the world, awake. Pixels have been working magic while you've slept. Pixels have not replaced the word, but preserved it in a different form. Scanned books are not burned books. Digitized information has opened learning to a new generation of readers.

The greatest revolution
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Town Hall
Bill Bennett
The tenth in a series of exclusive excerpts from Bill Bennett's next bestseller, America: The Last Best Hope.
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Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Winner of the 2006 ECS Corporate Award
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
DENVER, CO -- PBS is this year's recipient of the ECS Corporate Award, which recognizes sustained commitment to and substantial investment in improving public education. The award will be given by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) on July 12, in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of the ECS 2006 National Forum on Education Policy .

Everybody is accountable in the new education army
Monday, July 10, 2006
By Jennifer Solis
We may never learn what happened in the back room in Sacramento to get the teachers' unions, both Los Angeles and state, to switch their position and endorse Mayor Villaraigosa's plan to take over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
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An Interview with Steve Hinshaw: About ADHD in Females
Monday, July 10, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
You have recently completed a major research study about ADD and ADHD in females. What have you found?
In short, we performed an unprecedented, 5-year prospective, longitudinal follow-up-from childhood into adolescence-of our large sample of girls with ADHD as well as our matched comparison sample of girls without ADHD.
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Culture, Discipline, and Schooling
Monday, July 10, 2006
by Kevin R. Kosar
In a previous column [Culture, Discipline, and the No Child Left Behind Act], I mentioned Edward C. Banfield's notion of "lower class culture" and the negative affects it can have on a child's ability to succeed in school. I received some interesting reader responses to this column that have encouraged me to further explore the topic.
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Down, Down, Down
Reflections On The Boy Crisis
Monday, July 10, 2006
One hears often now that boys flounder in school, drop out, generally perform less well academically than girls, and don't go to college. A certain amount of this commentary comes from women who seem quietly to enjoy the spectacle. Given that women control the schools, this might suggest that, if they are not actually causing the problem, neither are they in a hurry to do anything about it.
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ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES: AN ISSUE BRIEF
Monday, July 10, 2006
Prepared for the Virginia Department of Education by
Anne J. Atkinson, Ph.D., PolicyWorks, Ltd., Richmond
A National Center for Education Statistics study found that 94 percent of public schools had zero tolerance policies in effect for firearms, 91 percent for other weapons, 88 percent for drugs, 87 percent for alcohol, 79 percent for tobacco, and 79 percent for violence (NCES, 1998). No study examining the nature and prevalence of zero tolerance policies in Virginia has been conducted, but there is no evidence to suggest that Virginia differs markedly from other states.
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Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools?
An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations 
Monday, July 10, 2006
Russell Skiba, Cecil R. Reynolds , Sandra Graham , Peter Sheras, Jane Close Conoley, & Enedina Garcia-Vazquez 
A Report by the American Psychological Association
Zero Tolerance Task Force
There can be no doubt that schools have a duty to use all effective means needed to maintain a safe and disciplined learning environment. Beyond the simple responsibility to keep children safe, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn in a climate marked by chaos and disruption. About this there is no controversy.
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A Call to Action for the School Improvement Industry: Getting Involved in the Next Reauthorization of ESEA
Monday, July 10, 2006
By Jim Kohlmoos
National Education Knowledge Industry Association (NEKIA)
It is not too soon to get involved in the next reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). After all, the current authorization ----in the form of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002--- is set to expire September 30, 2007. While most policy makers predict that NCLB will be extended for at least two more years---until after the Presidential election in 2008, the buzz around Washington these days is all about reauthorization and getting ready for a long, complex and contentious process.
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A Fair Wage
Sunday, July 9, 2006
by Jim Fedako
You hear it from them all the time; teachers just want a fair wage. Oh, well who doesn't? This line of thought begs two questions: How are wage rates established in a free market? And, are market wage rates fair?
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"The Battle over Bilingual Education"
Sunday, July 9, 2006
by Donna Garner
Because bilingual education (BE) has been in place in this country for many years and millions of dollars have been spent to implement it, the U. S. should have solid evidence to prove that bilingual education actually works in raising students' English skills. No such research exists.  We certainly do not have solid research in Texas to prove BE's superiority. 
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More than 3,000 Teachers Postpone Fun in the Sun to Improve Student Writing
Sunday, July 9, 2006
Berkeley, CA - While their students are enjoying summer fun in the sun, more than 3,000 teachers are spending four weeks studying teaching strategies that improve the way students of all ages write and learn. 
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Science Promising Practices for Afterschool Programs Featured Online
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Imagine students excited about science-so excited they prefer to attend an afterschool program rather than go straight home when the bell rings every afternoon. That's the way it is at Kingsley Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia; at the Brighton-Allston Afterschool Enrichment Program in Boston, Massachusetts; and Morales Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
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Making Reading Count
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Districts are trying many strategies- from more time on task, extra non-fi ction texts and reading coaches-to boost scores for struggling students
By Ron Schachter
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Useless Colleges: Your Letters
Saturday, July 8, 2006
By TomPaine.com Readers
Football, flag love and globalization: Readers respond in this week's letters.
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Public Opinion
Saturday, July 8, 2006
No Teacher Held Back
By Scott McNealy
We need to get over the idea that education is somehow about textbooks
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School Choice Spreads with State Tax Credits
Saturday, July 8, 2006
By Dan Lips and Evan Feinberg
In 2001, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge battled with Democratic state legislators to create a corporate scholarship tax credit program to bring the state's families school choice. Five years later, Ridge's tax credit has strong bipartisan support and is a model for other states. And just this week, Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, signed legislation expanding the program.
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Nicholas Negroponte Updates NECC Attendees on $100 Laptop Project
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Working Prototype on Display for Public Demonstration for First Time
San Diego - National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) keynote speaker Nicholas Negroponte on Thursday told more than 6,000 educators that the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) is alive and well, and is set to put laptops in the hands of millions of children around the world next year.

NECC Poll Results: Educators Want Visionary Leadership
Saturday, July 8, 2006
San Diego ---Nearly half of the 2,000 educators attending a keynote session at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) said that visionary leadership is the most essential element to transform education and lifelong learning for the digital generation.
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Reforming Public Education: Educators vs Theorists  
Friday, July 7, 2006
U.S. Freedom Foundation
David W. Kirkpatrick Senior Education Fellow       
The National Education Association's Representative Assembly, traditionally held each year during Fourth of July week, is currently meeting in Orlando, Florida.  More than 8,000 delegates are in attendance at the event which opened Monday, July 2nd with a keynote speech by current NEA president Reg Weaver.
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Nailed and Screwed
Friday, July 7, 2006
by Ron Isaac
My life and career are in a tailspin. I am threatened with crippling fines, or firing from the teaching position I have held with honors for more than thirty years, solely because a parent of one of my students, who happens to be from the Middle East, disagreed with one statement I had made on a respected, mainstream political web log. His indignation alone was enough to move the Department of Education to accuse me of "employee misconduct."
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Congressman Young Introduces the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2006
Friday, July 7, 2006
New Legislation Consistent with NSBA's Recommended Improvements to NCLB
Alexandria, Va. - U.S. Representative Don Young (R-Alaska) has introduced the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2006, H.R. 5709, which contains many improvements previously recommended by the National School Boards Association. 
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"Lack of Interest" Among Leading Reasons Teens Don't Participate in After School Programs, According to New Poll
Friday, July 7, 2006
Cost and Transportation Not Cited as Major Factors
Colorado Springs , Colo. - Four-in-ten teens (40.5%) who do not attend after-school programs say it is because they simply are not interested in what is being offered, according to a new poll from JA WorldwideT. In contrast, about one-in-ten teens say they do not participate because of cost (11.9%) or lack of transportation (11.6%).
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Helping Children Move from Bad Schools to Good Ones
Friday, July 7, 2006
The Century Foundation
Richard D. Kahlenberg
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Aligning Alternate Assessments
Friday, July 7, 2006
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
Some students have disabilities that make their participation in state- and district-wide tests impractical. In many cases, students with disabilities who participate in alternate assessments receive curriculum and instruction that differ significantly from those received by other students. The mainstream tests don't accurately measure their academic achievement. It's important know how well alternate assessments align with the curriculum and instruction provided to students with disabilities.
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Is Your Child Being "Mentally Screened" At Your School?
Friday, July 7, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Mary Collins
TeenScreen's aim is to locate more children that can be identified as mentally ill and routed into "mental health" treatment. Many of these would be "treated" with psychiatric drugs, ignoring the fact that many of these very same drugs carry FDA-mandated Black Box warning labels because they are known to cause violence and suicide.....
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BIBLIOPHOBIA
Thursday, July 6, 2006
The Concord Review
by Will Fitzhugh
The Boston Globe reported recently that Michelle Wie, at 16, in addition to getting out now and then for a good game of golf, not only speaks Korean and English, but has also taken four years of Japanese, and is starting Mandarin Chinese. She is planning to apply early to Stanford. I would venture the opinion, however, that in her high school, not only has her academic writing been limited to the five-paragraph essay, but it is very likely that she has not been assigned a complete nonfiction book and will not be given such an assignment at any time in her high school years.
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Commentary: You Just Might Be A ..
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of catching Jeff Foxworthy in concert. He was funny and he told a lot of jokes. And of course, you know his catch all line: "You just might be a red neck if.." Or something like " If you think a woman who is out of your league, bowls on a different night, you might be a redneck " ( please don't sue me Jeff, you oughta thank me for the free publicity!)
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"Constant Change Contributes to Chaos and Confusion"
Thursday, July 6, 2006
By Bernard Gassaway
No one seems to miss the chaos and confusion that came along with having a central Board of Education, thirty-two community school districts, a high school division, a special education district, a chancellor's district and an alternative schools district. Constant political infighting among the various school boards and the constant battles between the mayors and various chancellors created an education system that failed to educate the city's children. By nearly all objective accounts, the New York City Board of Education was the largest dysfunctional system in America .
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An Interview with Emma Curran Donnelly Hulse
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Emma Curran Donnelly Hulse has published "Behind Petticoats and Pinafores : The Ladies Land League and Political Activism in 19 th Century Ireland" in The Concord Review. In this interview, she reflects on her scholarship and the importance of writing.
You have recently had a paper published in The Concord Review. What led up to you submitting a paper to that journal?
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Teaching Moments - 5 Responsibility Words
Yes, I Can and I Will
Thursday, July 6, 2006
These can be the five scariest words in the English language because once said they define your commitment. For example, " I will do the book report for extra credit," or " I can commit to coming to soccer practice every day," or " Yes , I will help you on Saturday's project."
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Believe in Government, Believe in Me
Thursday, July 6, 2006
LewRockwell.com
by Jim Fedako
If you believe that Government provides the solutions, then you have to believe in me. As a member of an elected board of education I have been granted the power to mandate solutions to local education and health issues, real or perceived. My qualifications: I was elected to my position by receiving sufficient votes to beat enough of the other candidates.
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Beyond College Debt
Thursday, July 6, 2006
TomPaine.com
by Anya Kamenetz
Degrees won't help graduates unless we make sure there are good jobs waiting for them.

Under Assessment Plan, States Could Lose Funds to Districts
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Title1online.com
San Francisco -- As many as 30 states stand to lose a large chunk of their Title I administrative funds and have them diverted directly to local school districts, under a bold Education Department (ED) plan to ensure that testing systems meet federal requirements
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EIA Exclusive: Data from NEA's Most Recent Member and Local President Survey.
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Last October, EIA brought you the results of NEA's annual and local president surveys, encapsulating them in a report titled, The NEA Pyramid: The View Changes As You Rise to the Top of the Nation's Largest Union . Today, I can bring you preliminary results from the union's 2006 survey, accumulated just prior to the convention.

House Panel Approves Education Spending Measure
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Title1online.com
Washington — A House appropriations subcommittee today passed a spending bill for fiscal 2007 that would essentially level fund the vast majority of federal K-12 programs, with the exception of increases for special education and a new program to boost state capacity to help struggling schools. The fiscal 2007 funds would be available in the 2007-08 school year.

Attorney Fraud
Thursday, July 6, 2006
A Federal Civil Rights Suit has been filed in the Southern District of Illinois naming attorneys from the firms of Tueth, Keeney, Cooper, Mohan, & Jackstadt, P.C. and Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd. in an alleged conspiracy to gain financially for legal advice to thwart the Individuals with Disabilities Confidentiality Act (IDEA).  The suit seeks punitive damages and the disbarment of the attorneys.
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Children Left Behind
Thursday, July 6, 2006
"The pace of improvement in the reading abilities of elementary school students appears to have slowed in a number of states since enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, a study by researchers at UC Berkeley says," according to The Los Angeles Times . In " Falling Behind: How Can U.S. Students Get a Top-rate Public Education? ," Neal McCluskey, a Cato education policy analyst, writes, "Public schooling has no future. However, there is hope for public education -- but only if we stop thinking of it as synonymous with public schooling, which is a rusted, crumbling relic of 19th century thinking."
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SALUTE TO OUR MODERN
MINUTEMEN
By Peyton Wolcott
Presumably I'm not alone in my wrong assumption that most of our
forebearers were busy 230 years ago
today running around the East Coast, the women busily sewing  "Don't Tread On Me" and Old Glory flags and the men hoisting their muskets to drive out the British.
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An Interview with Steve Higgins: About White Boards/Smart Boards and Instruction
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Steve, some of your recent research seems to indicate that when teachers incorporate "white boards" or "smart boards" and other technologies into their classrooms, that these new fangled inventions have little impact on student learning. IS this a fair summary of your latest work?
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The 405 Best Biographies in English for Aspiring High Speed Readers - An Authoritatively Ranked List
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
Reading is for Americans today what the weather was for Mark Twain.  We all talk about it but nobody does anything, especially when it comes to recapturing our traditional recreational-reading pace of 600 words per minute.  By way of giving aspiring high speed readers, young and Chile's teenagers make their voices heard old, some productive tools to work with, here's a book list that can fairly be described as authoritative, practical, and testable (A-P-T).
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Children's Magazine Month
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Children's Magazine Month is a special annual celebration to inspire family literacy events across America during October. Tell us how you will celebrate this year - whether reading with a child or storytelling or with skits or arts and crafts, or by adopting a school or setting up a learning center in a homeless or domestic violence shelter or by reaching out to help a foster child know the joy of receiving their very own magazine.

International Baccalaureate (IB) Feeling the Heat
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
EdWatch
Julie M. Quist
"Federal funding for International Baccalaureate has been allocated from the Advanced Placement Program for a number of years." (See "Federal 2007 Appropriations Bill" below.) New resources opposing IB are popping up across the country.
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Students as Researchers
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
American School Board Journal
When kids are encouraged to dig for data on a topic they care about, the results can be enlightening -- and empowering.
Susan Black
F or many kids, summer camp means pitching tents and listening to spooky stories around a campfire.
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Learning Supports and Reauthorizing the "No Child Left Behind Act"
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
UCLA School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools
A variety of matters were raised by those responding to the Center's draft report: "For Consideration in Reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act . . . Promoting a Systematic Focus on Learning Supports to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching."
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CITIZEN MOBILIZATION & COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
This new independent study analyzes the results of a bold set of initiatives designed to stimulate and support public responsibility for public education in 14 locales around the country supported by Public Education Network (PEN). Local education funds (LEFs) designed and led these initiatives, which received support from the Annenberg Foundation and other national and local funders.
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In Defense of Testing Series
Newsweek 's Flawed School Ratings
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
by William L. Bainbridge
Newsweek 's national list of "America's Best High Schools" unfortunately has become a one-stop shop for both fact and fiction in school ratings. Since Americans love ratings, the May 16th issue of the newsmagazine created wide interest. It was their 4th tabloid-like attempt to identify the top high schools across the states.
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An Interview with Michael Satarino: Principal of the Number One School In America!
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Recently, in Newsweek magazine, on May 8, 2006, there was an article about the Top One Hundred Schools in America. The article by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Winger ran from page 50-62. Dallas's Talented and Gifted School was named number one. These public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews which involves the number of AP ( Advanced Placement ) classes and/or International Baccalaureate Tests taken by the pupils in a school in 2005, divided by the number of graduating seniors.
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Equitable Education is Possible
(A summary, with comments, of Fund the Child: Tackling Inequity & Antiquity in School Finance released by Fordham Institute, June 2006)
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
By Nancy Salvato
The Fordham Institute recently released a report, Fund the Child: Tackling Inequity & Antiquity in School Finance , which advocates reforming the current system of school funding.  This is a long time coming.  A convincing argument is made that schools should not be funded based on number of staff; formulas which do not adequately address local variables; politically savvy local school advocates; or property wealth.
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Does America Need a New National Anthem?
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
By Robert Oliphant
American flag wavers, on the surface at least, have plenty to be proud of . True, the flag desecration amendment has been defeated. But the margin was reassuringly close and President Bush himself has recently asserted in public that we should learn "all the words to the Star Spangled Banner in ENGLISH" [emphasis added].
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Fourth of July Salute to America's Modern Minutemen
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
By Peyton Wolcott
Presumably I'm not alone in my wrong assumption that most of our forbearers were busy 230 years ago today running around the East Coast, the women busily sewing  "Don't Tread On Me" and Old Glory flags and the men hoisting their muskets to drive out the British.  Imagine my surprise to learn recently (thank you, History Channel) that of resident Colonists in 1776, a full half were in a state of apathy, wanting nothing to do with the conflict, and of the other half, half of them wanted to stay with the British monarchy and the other half were in favor of revolution--only 25% of the total population. 
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July 4 in Japan
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Joe Nathan
Perhaps the most unusual July 4 of my life was spent in Japan. Imagine several young Americans on Japanese streets singing “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America,” and stopping occasionally to read from the Declaration of Independence.
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Cued Speech Conference Draws International Attention
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Conference celebrates unprecedented literacy rates among deaf children
For the first time in a decade, top international researchers as well as visitors from around the United States , will attend Cued Speech: Celebrating Language, Literacy, and Excellence - a major national conference that celebrates the enormous progress in the education of deaf/hard of hearing students since Cued Speech was invented 40 years ago. Cued Speech is a mode of communication that visually represents the sounds of language.
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NEA's Accountability Plan: Money to Reward Success, Money to Correct Failure. Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Education Intelligence Agency
I'm not going to spend much time on "NEA's Positive Agenda" for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently referred to as No Child Left Behind.
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NAPTA UPDATE
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Karen Horwitz
As you know, I am not a big fan of turning to the courts to resolve the issue of teacher abuse.  The Illinois Appellate decision I received today reinforced my misgivings. Basically, the courts view abused teachers today as the Southern courts viewed African Americans after the Civil War. 
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A Fresh Start
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
American School Board Journal
A bold reform gives these St. Louis ninth-graders a school of their own -- and a new
chance for success.
Lawrence Hardy
In-school detention is an unlikely place for Darnisha Perry, a soft-spoken 15-year-old with a sweet smile and long brown hair. But on this quiet Monday morning she made a rude gesture to a boy who was bothering her in homeroom, and now she has to explain it all to Assistant Principal LeCresha Loving Mosley.
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A Tool for Reform
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
American School Board Journal
Technology is transforming our nation's high schools, but districts must think first about
graduates, not gadgets.
Kathleen Vail
Kristina Hogstrom takes a delicate bite of her purple marshmallow Peep and then puts it down next to her Apple PowerBook. She waves her hands in front of the screen, demonstrating how she made a graph of the data from an experiment of mass versus acceleration.
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Terrorists and Mullahs
Monday, July 3, 2006
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
"When those men got on the plane, I was really worried," confesses one of the female Muslim students I took on a service learning trip to India . The rest of the students, three, erupt into giggles and nod. I shake my head. These girls are so full of life almost everything is greeted with what can only be described as a giggle. They are girls and not women quite simply because their culture dictates that women are married females who have known the company of men
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Editors Note: Mike Feinberg received the 2006 Southwest Juvenile Defender Center Believer Award.
An Interview with Michael Feinberg: About KIPP
Monday, July 3, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Mike, what exactly do you do in your present position?
I lead the cluster of KIPP schools in Houston , and I assist the KIPP Foundation in its national efforts to start and support more schools in underserved communities.
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A Letter from Berlin , then Aachen
Monday, July 3, 2006
Colin Hannaford
I can't remember if any of you said you have visited Berlin . If so, some of the places I might mention you might know. Otherwise I think nearly everyone will know the shape of the great jagged tooth of the Gedächtnis Kirche, the Memorial Church , on the Kurfürstendamm, one of Berlin 's most famous landmarks.
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NYC Unions: Holy Alliance
Monday, July 3, 2006
by Ron  Isaac
New York has always been a union town and a fair town. In exchange for an honest hard day's work, city employees could depend on a timely and decent deal in terms of wages and benefits. This "social contract" was the legacy of American core values, which guaranteed not only a higher standard of living for each succeeding generation, but also a better quality of life for all citizens. But then came Mayor Bloomberg.
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Texas Grievance - Gatekeeper to the Superintendent/School Board!
Monday, July 3, 2006
A large Texas school district, Killeen ISD, has a policy that permits school administrators who are the subject of a grievance to investigate themselves even if the complaint filed against them involves violations of law. No kidding, this is true. It actually happened to me. I filed a grievance against my campus administrator for violations of law/statute and actions against the care, welfare, and safety of students and staff.
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The Murphy Decision - Marilyn Arons Responds
Monday, July 3, 2006
Parent Information Center of New Jersey
PIC has asked me to write this piece for the website from a personal perspective. In that I have refused to discuss the Murphy decision with anyone else, the question that confronts me is how honest I should be about what led to it- a decision that has been predictable since at least 2000.
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HOW IMPORTANT ARE SUPES' PRIVATE LIVES?
Sunday, July 2, 2006
By Peyton Wolcott
Is what a superintendent does behind the front door of his/her
home his/her own business?  How relevant are his/her personal
habits and proclivities, faults and failings?  What about incidents
of lawbreaking not directly involving his/her own students?
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America Needs A Declaration of Dependence
Sunday, July 2, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
by Betty Freauf
The Fourth of July will soon be here and as I draft this article, I can't help but wonder how many more Fourths we'll still be able to celebrate as independent, sovereign citizens. In Democracy and Education (1916) John Dewey, the most influential American educator of the 20th century, wrote "dependence denotes a power rather than a weakness. There is always a danger that increased personal independence will decrease the social capacity of an individual." Does that mean.....
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