Opinion
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School Choice Advocate Raps Back
Opinion -The school choice movement has grown accustomed to demagoguery on the issue, particularly from those who believe public education is a jobs program. -
Private, Charter School Performance Questioned
Opinion -A January 2006 report from the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education has stoked a debate about the veracity of the claim that private school students outperform their public school counterparts. -
Sen. Clinton Raps School Vouchers
Opinion -Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton slammed private school voucher proposals [February 21], predicting that vouchers would eventually lead to the creation of taxpayer-financed white supremacist academies or even a government-funded "School of the Jihad. -
SAT Scores or State-Mandated Standards?
Opinion -Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in a seven-part series showing why charter schools do not have the freedom needed to create significant educational improvements through innovation. The SAT has long been controversial. -
4,000 Rally to Support School Vouchers
Opinion -Speaking to a crowd of 4,000 parents, students, and educators gathered at the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee on February 15, Florida Gov. -
Researchers to Study Milwaukee Choice Program
Opinion -The School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) at Georgetown University will conduct a five-year longitudinal study of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), the nation's oldest and largest school voucher program for low-income families. -
California Pre-K Plan in Trouble
Opinion -Californians won't vote until June on television-actor-turned-movie-director Rob Reiner's initiative to create statewide, government-funded, universal preschool. But his "Preschool for All" ballot proposal, Prop. -
Creating a Voice for Choice
Opinion -Editor's note: In late October of last year, Virginia Walden Ford executive director of D.C. -
Hill Leadership Changes May Strengthen Education Reform Efforts
Opinion -When the chairmanship of a major congressional committee changes hands, policy wonks' antennae are activated immediately. As any civics student knows (or should know), many of the most significant decisions of any legislative body come in committee. -
Software Program Helpful to Beginning Literacy Teachers
Opinion -Substantial research suggests high-quality literacy instruction should include phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, reading fluency, and reading comprehension strategies. -
States Should Remove Charter Caps, Report Says
Opinion -A January report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) urges state leaders to focus on stronger oversight and application processes to improve charter schools, instead of imposing arbitrary limits on their size and number. -
Tax Increase for My Local Schools? Not Until Teachers Learn to Spell
Opinion -Editor's note: The following anecdote was sent to School Reform News by a reader in Illinois. A junior high in town here hosted a music contest for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I attended the contest because my daughter was in it. -
Union Opposes Bonuses for Florida Teachers
Opinion -The Florida Board of Education unanimously approved a merit bonus plan on February 21 for the state's public school teachers. It is the nation's first statewide performance pay plan based on student achievement. -
Florida Education Official Touts School Choice, Competition
Opinion -Florida's top school choice official, Virginia Gentles, addressed a group of school choice advocates in Chicago on March 16, 2006 at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower, describing the many school choice programs available to parents in the Sunshine -
Journal Helps Raise Historians, Scholars
Opinion -William Fitzhugh was on sabbatical from his job as a high school history teacher in Concord, Massachusetts in 1986 when he was struck with an idea. -
Keeping Teachers Well-Informed
Opinion -While the Houston Federation of Teachers, a local teacher union, claims teachers want higher base pay instead of merit bonuses, some teachers are pleased with the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) new plan, as well as how the district -
Stupid in America
Opinion -For "Stupid in America," a special report on ABC that [aired January 13], we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. -
Houston District OKs Teacher Merit Pay Plan
Opinion -During its January 12 meeting, the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) nine-member school board unanimously approved a merit pay "Teacher Performance Plan," which the board touted as a "pay plan based on how well students learn. -
Florida Group Pushes for Uniform School Start Date
Opinion -Following the lead of parent-activists in 11 other states, Sherri Sturner, a Miami mother, last year founded Save Our Summers, a nonprofit organization that is encouraging the Florida legislature to pass a bill requiring public schools to return from -
School Year’s Midpoint Doesn’t Have to Mean Playing Hooky
Opinion -With the halfway point in the school year quickly approaching, parents might begin to notice their children are suffering from "morning sickness"--headaches, sniffles, sore throats, or stomachaches--more and more often. -
Charter Schools: Being Seen Through the Eyes of a State
Opinion -Managing Editor's note: This is the third of a seven-part series showing why charter schools do not have the freedom needed to create significant educational improvements through innovation. -
Controversy Heats Up Over NEA Spending, Donations
Opinion -Education politics started the new year with a bang, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and the nation's largest labor union, the National Education Association (NEA). -
Bush Education Appointee Leaves Big Shoes to Fill
Opinion -Few people playing a word-association game would say "innovation" in response to the word "government." More likely, they'd say things like "bureaucratic" or just plain "big. -
Colorado Ed Board Votes to Improve Graduation Rate Accuracy
Opinion -The Colorado State Board of Education voted January 12 to require school districts to use a more precise method for calculating graduation rates in order to comply with a state law passed last June.
