Opinion
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The Dark Side of Suburban School Achievement
Opinion -In early November, parents in many New York communities were shocked to discover that buying an expensive home in an exclusive suburb hadn’t guaranteed a good education for their children in the local public schools. -
Helping Teachers Raise Student Achievement: an interview with William L. Sanders
Opinion -When a sports player wants to work on improving his or her game, it's not very productive to spend time simply looking at the scores of recent games. -
We’re Talking about the Future Here: an interview with Harold W. Stevenson
Opinion -If "mathematics is the gate and key to the sciences," as English scientist Roger Bacon put it in 1267, then many of today's public school students are being given an ill-fitting key to unlock the gate of the sciences. -
School Violence Prevention: Choice and Accountability Are Key: an interview with Alexander Volokh
Opinion -“Parents care about grades, they care about violence, they care about safety. School choice will tend to make any of those things go in the right direction. -
Brilliant Teachers + Good Administration + Concern Parents = The Best School You Can Get
Opinion -The State of North Carolina almost shut down Durham's predominantly African-American Healthy Start Academy last year because its demographics violated the state's requirements for racial balance. -
Vouchers Ruled Constitutional in Ohio
Opinion -In another victory for school choice, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled without dissent that the state's use of publicly funded vouchers to educate low-income children at private or religious schools does not violate provisions for the separation of -
Reading Is Anything But Natural
Opinion -Must children be taught phonics as part of learning how to read? Or do they learn to read in a natural process, simply by being exposed to the "whole language" of written literature? -
School Choice Is a Matter of Justice: an interview with Patrick J. Heffernan
Opinion -Although philosophers teach us that ideas have consequences, few of them have the range of practical experience required to illustrate the truth of that statement with an example from their own lives. -
What Works in Raising Student Achievement
Opinion -After hearing evidence of how parental choice programs can raise student achievement, some of those attending the November 1998 Wingspread conference in Racine, Wisconsin recommended that such efforts be expanded and evaluated. -
School Lessons
Opinion -Lessons on Vouchers from Milwaukee Although the title of Tamar Lewin's March 27 New York Times article was "Few Clear Lessons from Nation's First School-Choice Program," her account of the Milwaukee voucher program suggests that two fundamental -
ESEA: Congress Must Answer the Hard Questions
Opinion -A leading education expert says Congress must answer some tough questions about the purpose of federal aid to education when it reauthorizes the $13 billion Elementary and Secondary Education Act later this year. -
History Lesson: Market-Based Schooling Is Best
Opinion -While defenders of public schools argue that opening K-12 education to competition and the profit motive would destroy public education, author Andrew J. -
And the Winners Are
Opinion -While reform candidates rarely have the upper hand in elections with low voter turnout, that was not the case in Milwaukee’s recent school board election. -
05/1999 State Education Roundup
Opinion -Colorado * Florida * Hawaii * Illinois * Kentucky Nevada * Rhode Island * Utah * Vermont COLORADO Single-Sex Classes Prompt ACLU Probe When the principal of Denver's Mitchell Elementary School last fall suggested assigning the 170 -
Rx for Education: What Works and What Doesn’t
Opinion -Two months before President Clinton's State of the Union address urged lawmakers "to support what works, and to stop supporting what does not work" in education, a group of education leaders and scholars had tackled that very topic during a three-day -
Voters Oust Union-Controlled School Board in Milwaukee
Opinion -In a school board election widely regarded as a referendum on school choice, Milwaukee voters on April 6 rejected all five teacher union-backed candidates and installed a slate that gives a solid 7-2 majority of school board seats to reformers who want -
Expanding Access to Choice in Minnesota
Opinion -Since passage of former Governor Arne H. -
State Ousts Elected School Board in Detroit
Opinion -Delivering on legislative proposals made in his January State of the State Address, Republican Michigan Governor John Engler on March 26 signed into law a school reform bill that removes authority for schools in the City of Detroit from the -
Detroit Takeover Gives CEO Extraordinary Powers
Opinion -Having compared the 1999 Michigan legislation authorizing the takeover of Detroit's schools to Illinois legislation that in 1995 created the popular “Chicago model” for city school takeover, two Michigan researchers have concluded there are significant -
Can Mayors Solve School Problems?
Opinion -Granting Mayor Dennis Archer control of Detroit's failing government schools is unlikely to solve the district's financial and academic problems, according to two education policy researchers who suggest that school choice is a more promising--as well -
Private Schools: The Challenges Ahead
Opinion -As school choice gains ground, much attention has been focused on how the public schools will respond to a new competitive environment. Private schools also face major challenges in that market-based future. 1. -
New Rules for Special Ed Students in Private Schools
Opinion -Under new regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, it will be more difficult to provide services for special education students in private schools. -
Takeovers Don’t Bring Turnaround in Student Achievement
Opinion -Taking over district leadership from an elected school board is a popular solution to urban public education ills. Mayor Richard M. Daley took over the schools in Chicago in 1995, and now Mayor Dennis W. Archer has taken over the schools in Detroit.
