Education
School Choice for Virginia? A Forum at the Capitol If the dark cloud from our national tragedy has had any silver lining, it has been in bringing us closer together as Americans, regardless of our regional, political, racial/ethnic or other differences. We are a diverse nation but there is unity within our diversity. E pluribus unum, from many one.
Federal Bilingual Education Programs in Massachusetts: “But Do They Help the Children?” Massachusetts currently has over 45,000 students in "transitional bilingual education" programs. School districts are required by state law to implement such programs when at least 20 students speak the same, non-English native language. But there are very little state data on the effectiveness of these programs. This study analyzes the state's federally-funded bilingual programs, based on information reported to the federal Department of Education by school officials.
Use Virginia’s Universities to Rescue Failing Schools As Virginia public schools prepare to start a new year, there's good news and bad news about their ability to meet the state-prescribed Standards of Learning (SOL).
Test scores of California English learners in grades 2-8 show strong improvement in reading, math and language skills An examination of California Stanford 9 test results released last week reveals that English learners in grades 2 through 8 have made strong gains in reading, math and language skills for the third straight year since California eliminated bilingual education...
The Rise of Private Teacher Training A shortage of teachers and the growing demand of parents for choices in their children’s education are combining to spur the entry of the private sector into teacher training, which has largely been left to a state monopoly. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations are putting resources into teacher preparation.
Dubious Accountability: California’s Academic Performance Index The critical accountability mechanisms of President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" education plan currently moving into conference negotiations in the Congress hinge upon the expansion of existing statewide systems of accountability. But what happens when those systems are flawed themselves, as is the case with California’s Academic Performance Index?
Freedom for Teachers The increased "autonomy, flexibility, and freedom to innovate" that the Carnegie Corporation's Vartan Gregorian wants for teachers surely will not be found in the nationalized system of teacher certification that he advocates. ("How to Train -- and Retain -- Teachers," op-ed, July 6.)...
Bilingual Education Reform By Giving Parents a Choice Much of the controversy in the education reform debate of 2001 has attached to President Bush's proposal to let low-income parents use some federal aid to apply toward private-sector alternatives when their children are stuck in chronically failing public schools.
Congress Could Still Go to Bat for Parental Choice Supporters of parental choice lost a battle when the House and Senate education panels stripped from President Bush's reform a proposal to let children stuck in the very worst public schools use up to $1,500 of their federal Title I subsidy toward tuition at private schools.
How to Build a Better Teacher American schools need more teachers. American schools need better teachers. Practically everyone with a stake in the education debate agrees with those two premises. However, there is sharp disagreement as to whether more regulation or less is the way to go.