Should schools alone be held accountable for student achievement?
What if schools didn't have to work alone to improve student achievement? That was the question we asked in a recent article about the miserable state of public…
Washington Post
Opinion: Why gifted students can be so challenging
What do Woody Allen and Steve Jobs have in common? Among other things (including brilliant, creative minds), they both hated school and were discipline problems, says Mark Phillips,…
Diocese letter pushed principals to promote vouchers
Just how involved did the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh get in the effort to promote vouchers? Very, the Washington Post reports.
Library group denounces book destruction at Occupy Wall Street
The American Library Association has denounced the destruction of books at a library set up by Occupy Wall Street when New York police raided a park where protesters…
6 common myths about hazing
At Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, hazing during homecoming week is quite the tradition. Older students pelt freshmen with paint and, sometimes, assault them, the Washington Post reports.
Opinion: How children’s ‘play’ is being sneakily redefined
1. Children should have plenty of opportunities to play. 2. Even young children have too few such opportunities these days, particularly in school settings. These two propositions—both of…
Opinion: Is the SAT the best way to spend a Saturday?
Admissions officers are charged by our institutions with the recruitment and selection of the students who will most enrich our respective collegiate communities, says Martha Allman, dean of…
Klout scores: Do they belong on résumés?
This morning CNN reported that some people list their Klout scores on their résumés. My first few thoughts: Really? Seriously? Is this true? And if true, is it…
Advertisements on report cards? Unfortunately, yes
A school board in Colorado is so desperate for revenue that it is selling advertising space on the report cards that students at 91 elementary schools take home,…
7 ways games may save our schools
I have never played video games. They cut into reading time. Today, I don’t even understand TV advertisements for games. Do you have to get inside an Xbox?…
Reports on charter schools expose new problems
Two new reports about public charter schools expose serious issues about the way they are run and their effectiveness, the Washington Post reports.
Five myths about ‘gifted and talented’ students
My colleague Kevin Sieff wrote about gifted and talented programs in this Washington Post story, which focuses on the racial enrollment gap, says Valerie Strauss, Washington Post columnist.
Five leaders of the robot revolution
In our upcoming Sunday magazine, I profile Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech and a leader in the movement to perfect the…
Anti-bullying legislation attacked for allowing bullying
Anti-bullying legislation just approved by the Michigan Senate has been denounced by the father of the teenager for whom it was named because, he said, it actually allows…
Principals rebel against ‘value-added’ evaluation
Scores of public school principals in New York are fighting the state’s new educator evaluation system, which ties the evaluations and pay of teachers and principals to how…
Four ways to teach students to write
Every summer for the past decade, we have conducted a writing program for college-bound, low-income minority students, say William G. Tierney, professor of higher education and director of…
How Zuckerberg’s money is being spent in Newark schools
Some of the $100 million that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated last year to help Newark Public Schools has now been spent, and you may be surprised to…
Opinion: The complete list of problems with high-stakes standardized tests
A few days ago, I went to a reunion of the surviving members of a class that picked up their diplomas 50 years ago, in 1961. They were…
Want to earn more money? Study STEM.
My colleague Peter Whoriskey, a math major, made a big splash last spring with a story that cited groundbreaking research by Georgetown University economist Anthony Carnevale. He showed…
Making school free through 14th grade
The Wilson Quarterly, published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the District, sounds like something you have to read for homework and find excuses not…
Guess what Michelle Rhee charged a school to speak
How much money do you think Michelle Rhee, former Washington D.C. schools superintendent who now runs an organization called StudentsFirst, charged a regional 11,000-student campus in the Kent…
Business leaders inject themselves in school reform
It’s hard to think of a profession other than teaching about which everybody thinks they are an expert, the Washington Post reports.
Why a school district rejected $2.5 million federal grant
In these troubled economic times, it would take a lot for a school district to turn down a gift of $2.5 million. But that’s just what the Oregon…
Study raises questions about virtual schools
As an increasing number of cash-strapped states turn to virtual schools—where computers replace classmates and students learn via the internet—a new study is raising questions about their quality…
Opinion: The impact of Michelle Rhee’s ‘culture of urgency’
It is an almost universal tribute offered about Michelle Rhee’s 3 1/2 -year tenure of the Washington D.C. school district—that if she accomplished one thing, it was to…
Student: How I know trainees aren’t highly qualified teachers
I traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for the first time in my life last May. It was exciting to visit the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington…
Listen: Why teachers cheat and how to deal with the problem
In response to the profusion of cheating scandals surfacing across the country, the Washington Post in July created a digital roundtable of experts to discuss their views on…
Teaching in the world’s most isolated classroom
Last summer, I spent a month teaching academic English skills to North Korean university students at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, the country’s first privately funded…
Veteran teacher on what ‘highly qualified’ really means
As Congress wrestles with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), they have a chance to address the issue of teacher quality, once again, says…
Opinion: What “no excuses” model really teaches us about reform
“Apollo 20” is a Houston pilot program in which a group of low-performing regular public schools are implementing the so-called “no excuses” education model common among high-profile charter…
More than 100 cities, counties agree to push early literacy
Washington D.C., Baltimore and six communities in Virginia are among the more than 150 cities and counties across the country that are pledging to concentrate on early literacy…
Ravitch: Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t)
I recently returned from a trip to Europe. In Berlin, I spoke at an international education research conference. Researchers from Europe, Asia, and Latin America were very alarmed…
Opinion: Better ways to deal with achievement gap need to be found
Frederick M. Hess’s long essay in the latest issue of the quarterly National Affairs pleased those of us who share the American Enterprise Institute scholar’s dislike for politicians’…
Opinion: A new look at the CREDO charter school study
Most people involved in education policy know exactly what you mean when you refer to “the CREDO study.” I can’t prove this, but suspect it may be the…
Teachers increasingly use home visits to connect with students’ families
The two high school teachers knocked at Apartment 512 of a Crystal City high-rise and waited to see the inside of Alvaro Nunez Alvarez’s life. Up to that…
Gov. Jerry Brown blasts data-based school reform
California Gov. Jerry Brown wrote a tough indictment of data-based school reform in a message he wrote vetoing a bill that would have changed the state’s accountability system…
Steve Jobs’ millennial fan club is devoted to Apple, but why?
When college students and 20-somethings talk about their childhoods, Apple products are often the mile-markers. It’s not just because many millennials are dedicated consumers. It’s partly because Apple…
What should—and shouldn’t—be in Senate No Child Left Behind bill
This Tuesday, leaders of the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee are expected to introduce a “base bill” draft for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind,…
Obama appoints Shakira to education commission
President Obama has appointed Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll—the Colombian singer better known around the world as Shakira—to a presidential commission on education for Hispanics, the Washington Post reports.
Opinion: It’s not all about the teachers
It is settled wisdom among Funderpundits and those to whom they give their education grants that the most important variable in student academic achievement is teacher quality, says…