Opinion
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Education and Choice: What Does America Think?
Opinion -Pollsters are working overtime these days, plumbing the public's attitudes towards Presidential candidates in upcoming primary states. But many other important polls have taken place. -
TAAS Tests Nudge Up Achievement
Opinion -In his January 7 ruling on the case involving the tenth-grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test, U.S. District Court Judge Edward C. Prado made it clear that "unequal education is a matter of great concern and must be eradicated. -
Texas Academic Standards Upheld
Opinion -Who should issue driver's licenses to teenagers? Should it be the driving instructors who are responsible for teaching teens to drive? -
Math Lite Feels Better
Opinion -A recent Wall Street Journal editorial noted that the Everyday Math program not only promotes the use of calculators from kindergarten on but also brings a new set of feelings to math classes. -
Why NASA Lost the Mars Probe?
Opinion -“What will be the effect on all of us when we must deal with the consequences of physicians, airplane designers, or architects who were indoctrinated in school with hostility to mathematical precision?” This question was raised recently by U.S. -
Time for Whole Language to Surrender?
Opinion -"Whereas speaking is natural, reading is not. Children do not automatically read. They have to learn how to do it. . . . There really is a difference in brain activation patterns between good and poor readers. -
Cheating to the Test
Opinion -Last June, New York City's Special Commissioner of Investigations, Edward F. Stancik, issued a report titled "How to Succeed Without Really Trying. -
Real Math: Sexist, Racist, or Just Hard?
Opinion -A group of 200 prominent mathematicians and scientists has called on U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. -
03/2000 School Choice Roundup
Opinion -Georgia * Illinois * Michigan * New York North Carolina * Ohio * Pennsylvania * Texas * Wisconsin GEORGIA GOP Senators Announce Voucher Plan Although the education reform bill Georgia Governor Roy Barnes introduced on January 13 included -
Boom Continues in New Charter Schools
Opinion -A record number of new charter schools--more than 550--opened across the nation at the start of the 1999-2000 school year, bringing the total to 1,682, all created since 1991. -
Federal Coverup of $2.4 Billion Bungle
Opinion -If Members of Congress want to know what to expect from approving the Clinton-Gore plan to increase federal oversight of public education, they need look no further than the federal government’s record on educating American Indians for the past 100 -
Teacher Text Demonizes Phonics
Opinion -A Whole Language textbook currently in use in a state university in New York warns budding educators that teaching children to read by sounding out the syllables of the English language is a "conspiracy" of the "Far Right" to "promote a religious -
Test Cheats
Opinion -A dozen teachers in Los Angeles County's Banning High School face disciplinary action after school officials in January determined they helped students cheat on the Stanford-9 exam last spring. -
The Controversial Top 10
Opinion -The 10 mathematics programs endorsed by the Department of Education are described at http://www.enc.org/ed/exemplary/. A list of Expert Panel members is found at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/ORAD/KAD/expert_panel/mathmemb. -
‘There They Go Again, Bashing Vouchers’
Opinion -When a commentator reports on a problem in the public schools or proposes an alternative to the current means of delivering public education, defenders of the public school system are quick to characterize such commentary or proposals as "bashing -
Clinton Education Programs Promote Mission Creep
Opinion -With the 1994 approval of the Clinton administration's education policy vehicles--Goals 2000, the School-to-Work Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)--the U.S. -
Catholic Schools Outperform Lower Class Sizes
Opinion -Do Catholic schools really outperform public schools? -
Governors’ Panel Calls for School Choice
Opinion -In a clear indication of how school choice has become accepted as a key strategy in the public policy debate over education reform, a blue-ribbon panel that advises state officials says parental choice in education could help improve and strengthen -
‘Excuse’ Factories vs. Training Centers
Opinion -While schools that can turn poor and minority children into high achievers are generally credited with having visionary leaders and top-notch teachers, those in charge of failing schools frequently seem to view the students themselves as the major -
Schools Fail to Meet Goals for 2000
Opinion -Unlike the end of the 1960s, when a decade of "can-do" effort had achieved President John F. -
Barking up the Wrong Tree: an interview with William A. Fischel
Opinion -“The reason that this [anti-property tax] movement, starting with Serrano, has been so bad for education is that it's barked up the wrong tree, and incidentally destroyed the good things about the local property tax without really addressing the -
Gore Schools Plan: More Dollars, More Demands
Opinion -A proposal by Vice President Al Gore to boost federal spending on public schools by $115 billion over the next 10 years was criticized by House Education Committee Member Rep. -
Lessons for Choice Legislation
Opinion -Claudia Rebanks Hepburn's report for The Fraser Institute, The Case for School Choice: Models from the United States, New Zealand, Denmark, and Sweden, contains a wealth of information about the benefits that school choice has brought to different -
Teachers Not Academic Stars
Opinion -National Education Association president Bob Chase complained that John Stossel's 20/20 program, "Public Schools in Bad Shape," was "a shocking attack on America's public school teachers, portraying them as poorly educated, incompetent, and dim.
