Opinion
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‘I Wasn’t Taught to Read–I Was Taught to Play Games’
Opinion -Until February 18, when she testified at a District of Columbia Council hearing on special education, few people--apart from her fellow students at Coolidge High School in northwest Washington, DC--had heard of high school senior Saundra Lemons. -
How Is Reading Measured?
Opinion -The 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation assesses student performance on three types of reading material that represent reading for different purposes: Reading for literary experience (e.g., What is the plot? Describe the main characters.). -
KC Plans to Reward, Penalize Schools
Opinion -Although exact details of the plan remain to be worked out, the Kansas City school board in January approved a measure that would demand greater accountability of the city's schools by rewarding or penalizing them based on student performance, -
Paycheck Protection Upheld in Idaho
Opinion -Although labor unions derailed a paycheck protection initiative in California last year, union officials in Idaho were not so successful. -
State Officials Fined for Tardy Response in Union Case
Opinion -The Washington Education Association is not the only organization in the state of Washington to be fined for responding tardily to court-imposed deadlines for handing over documents to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF). -
Ron Paul: Ventura Right about Education
Opinion -Instead of fighting over what type of federal intervention is best for the nation's schools, "Congress should recognize that Governor Ventura is right" and get Washington out of education, says Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). -
Ohio Judge Overrules Voter Rejection of Higher Taxes
Opinion -Although Ohio voters last year decisively rejected a proposal to hike taxes for increased education funding, the courts have demanded that state legislators there develop a new school funding formula to increase per-pupil spending and eliminate -
Who Will Pay?
Opinion -Two U.S. Supreme Court justices dissented from the high court's March 3 ruling that school districts must pay for the continuous, one-on-one nursing care some disabled students require to go to school. -
Congress Takes Up Education Bills
Opinion -With elected officials from all points of the political compass eager to demonstrate that their interest in schooling is as great as that of the American public, education has recently been the focus of substantial legislative activity in the nation's -
Political Propaganda in Elementary Reading Texts
Opinion -Losing Our Language: How Multicultural Classroom Instruction Is Undermining Our Children's Ability to Read, Write, and Reason Sandra Stotsky The Free Press, New York, 1999 316 pages, $26.00 What could be more innocent than a basal reader? -
What Can Parents Do?
Opinion -Parents can work for better reading instruction using the ideas offered by Sandra Stotsky in the concluding chapter of her book, Losing Our Language. Assess Textbooks and Teachers Parents should assess their children's textbooks and teachers. -
Who Benefits From Title I?
Opinion -Passed in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," Title I, Aid to Disadvantaged Children, receives the bulk of the $13 billion spent by the federal government to aid K-12 education. A new report from the U.S. -
Washington Union Fined $15,000 for Non-Disclosure
Opinion -The Thurston County Superior Court fined the Washington Education Association (WEA) $15,000 on February 26 for failing to turn over a document detailing the union's political plan for the 1996 elections. -
By the Numbers: Holding Teachers Accountable
Opinion -Educators in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Ohio are weighing the introduction of a value-added approach to teacher and school performance evaluation already used in Tennessee to analyze how well schools and individual teachers are doing their jobs. -
Class Size Here and Abroad
Opinion -In 1806, the Free School Society opened a school in New York City where one teacher, using student monitors, was in charge of a school of 1,000 students. That was the Lancasterian, or monitorial system, developed in England. -
Bills to Promote Educational Freedom
Opinion -Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) will introduce the following three bills to give American parents and communities direct control over their education dollars. Family Education Freedom Act. -
Class Size Reduction: Costly and Ineffective
Opinion -With education a major public concern and the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) up for reauthorization, many reforms are being put forward. Most of them reduce simply to "more of the same. -
National Reading Scores Show Some Improvement
Opinion -While Vice President Al Gore praised what he characterized as the "great progress" made by American students in national reading tests, a Department of Education official offered a much more sober assessment of recent test results, saying only that -
Education Savings Accounts Reintroduced
Opinion -Joined by a group of schoolchildren and a banner reading "Save for Students," Representatives Kenny Hulshof (R-Missouri) and William Lipinski (D-Illinois) introduced on March 10 the House version of Georgia GOP Senator Paul Coverdell's Education Savings -
04/1999 Parental Freedom in the States and Nation
Opinion -California Part of the effort to organize school choice activities in California is now under the care of venture capitalist Timothy Draper. Last year Draper created a Web site designed to mobilize grassroots support for school choice (http://www. -
NM Governor Vetoes Schools Budget Over Vouchers
Opinion -With the state legislature scheduled to adjourn on March 20, New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on March 11 vetoed the $1. -
Spelling Problems
Opinion -How much of a problem can a minor spelling error be? -
New Hampshire Court Bars Voter Input on Income Tax
Opinion -The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled on March 11 that legislators, not voters, must decide on a new tax system to resolve the state's public school funding crisis . . . -
Ventura to Feds: Butt Out of Education
Opinion -"My view is, if Washington didn't overtax us so much on their end, we would have much more money to spend as individual states, and allow us to take care of our own education system.
