He’s not alone, I’m sure. In an opinion piece in the NY Times, Brooks informs us that US education is going to hell in a handbasket. We’re falling behind.
America’s edge boosted productivity and growth. But the happy era ended around 1970 when America’s educational progress slowed to a crawl. Between 1975 and 1990, educational attainments [...]
I wrote a piece over at Coastsider.com on what is, in the event, a rather minor agenda item from the last meeting of our local school board.
The district’s middle school has reached the final stages of NCLB’s “Program Improvement” (that’s what California calls it; I think the Feds say “School Improvement”). Having failed to made [...]
Bob Herbert in the NY Times:
Our Schools Must Do Better
The latest federal test results showed some improvement in public school math and reading scores, but there is no reason to celebrate these minuscule gains. We need so much more. A four-year college degree is now all but mandatory for building and sustaining a middle-class standard [...]
Via Eduwonk, the NCLB discussion draft. All in all, an incremental improvement. See for example the sections on ELLs, growth model, and school improvement.
Derek Neal and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach (University of Chicago) discuss their recent paper, “Left Behind by Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-based Accountability”.
Roughly two decades ago, education policy makers in the United States began to rely more heavily on standardized test scores as performance metrics for teachers and schools. During the late 1980s and [...]
From today’s SF Chronicle:
California schools are in line for a $6 billion windfall over the next five years, and interest groups are already lining up to get their share, promoting ideas like improving high schools, paying teachers more, and helping urban districts with severely declining enrollment.
The money is anticipated because K-12 enrollment [...]
Last June, a parcel tax proposal by my local school district failed, for the fifth time in recent memory. This Tuesday, Californians will vote on Proposition 88, an initiative that seeks a perpetual statewide $50/year parcel tax.
Sidebar: California School Funding
California school districts are primarily funded by the state, through a complicated formula that needn’t concern [...]
In the previous post, we reviewed the ballot argument for Measure S, and its rebuttal. Here we look at the argument for the measure, and its rebuttal. See this post for an overview of CUSD’s latest parcel tax request.
Arguments Against Measure S
Cabrillo Unified School District wants another $875 from local homeowners with this proposed tax. [...]
(See the previous post for an overview of Measure S, CUSD’s latest parcel tax request.)
In this post, we look at the ballot argument for Measure S, along with its rebuttal. My intention is to refrain from taking sides, but to clarify ambiguous or potentially misleading language in the Measure S ballot arguments. Feel free to [...]
The Cabrillo Unified School District is asking for a $175 parcel tax on the upcoming June ballot. Measure S is the district’s fifth attempt at a parcel tax in recent memory; the preceding four all failed, more or less narrowly, to achieve the 2/3 vote required in California since Prop 13 for such taxes.
In this [...]
“The performance of private schools actually turns out to be worse or about the same as that of public schools, not better”
NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday had a nice piece by Claudio Sanchez; give it a listen.
Weekend Edition - Sunday, January 8, 2006 · Four years after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, test results show progress in some areas. But many schools are not reducing the achievement gap between white and minority students, and [...]
Yes, but which people?
“Faced with lagging test scores and pressure from the federal government, some school officials have embraced the dangerous but all-too-common view that millions of children are incapable of high-level learning.”
“The teachers union agreed. Why? Because it was brought into the discussion from the start as a partner.”
“Say it flat out: homework is most likely evil.”
Marsha Sutton, education writer for Voice of San Diego, has a four-part series, Unraveling the Mystery of Charter Schools, that takes an interesting, if somewhat uncritical, look at the role of charters and their recent proliferation.
Part One: Chartering a course for the future
Part Two: San Diego — A Leader in the Charter School Movement
Part [...]
“It appeared to me that regardless of what a student wrote, the longer the essay, the higher the score.”
Finland finishes first in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams that test 15-year-olds in all of the world’s industrial democracies.
A long-term study in the USA suggests children benefit from being taught in small classes over several years.