Education
Commentary
Where’s superman for the middle class?
The documentary “Waiting for Superman” by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” was a big hit at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Voted best U.S. documentary by Sundance moviegoers, Guggenheim’s film exposes the immense flaws in America’s public school system and follows the lives ...
Lance T. izumi
April 4, 2010
Business & Economics
Jerry Brown: older, not wiser
Now that California Attorney General Jerry Brown is an official candidate for governor, we’re getting to relive some California political history as pundits and reporters think back to Brown’s first stint as governor (1975-83) along with some of the entertaining facets of his long and bizarre political career. The basic ...
Steven Greenhut
April 2, 2010
Commentary
New Study: High-Standards States Far Exceed National Standards
Boston/San Francisco — A new study by two nationally known curricular experts evaluates and critiques the proposed draft national standards in math and English. The new study, Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report , is the second in-depth analysis of the standards, and is jointly published by the ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 2, 2010
Common Core
Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report
This study provides a detailed comparison of the March draft standards being proposed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) and standards currently in place in states recognized to have high standards—California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas. The report is authored by Stanford University Mathematician Dr. R. James Milgram ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 2, 2010
Commentary
Washington-centric Education “Reforms” Destined for Failure
Last week the Obama administration released changes to No Child Left Behind, now known as Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The New York Times observed that, “This ambitious agenda presents striking challenges of its own, both political and in terms of implementation.” Indeed, the proposed alterations have elicited divided ...
Evelyn B. Stacey
March 24, 2010
Commentary
Learning from Canada’s schools
Washington Times, February 23, 2010 In a speech on Canadian television touting the health care system of our northern neighbor, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said, “It’s not that you need to become more like Americans, we need to become more Canadian-like.” If America mimicked Canadian education policy, however, Mr. Moore ...
Lance T. izumi
March 23, 2010
Commentary
0ld-school ideas of Jaime Escalante stand and deliver as much as always
CLASS may soon be over for Jaime Escalante, the math teacher celebrated in the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver.” According to news reports, Escalante, 79, is in poor health and unable to walk. But after all these years, his accomplishments in Los Angeles, and his teaching philosophy, can still stand ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
March 21, 2010
Commentary
Help kids win battle of the bulge
Across the country, children’s physical fitness has been placed on the front burner. First lady Michelle Obama has made childhood obesity her top priority. In Sacramento California, a major conference on physical education research was recently held at the state Capitol. The message is that fit kids not only get ...
Lance T. izumi
March 19, 2010
Education
The Hypocrisy and Revisionist History of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
“The political maneuvering of District congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton can be breathtaking,” writes the Washington Examiner’s Jonetta Rose Barras. Norton has requested $5 million for hundreds of D.C. school children whose Opportunity Scholarships were revoked by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan-the fruit of Norton’s poisonous tree. Yet she told ...
Vicki E. Murray
March 17, 2010
Education
Rational Education Policy Working in Cleveland
No wonder almost 40,000 middle-class students have fled the district; while more than 25,000 urban students are attending charter schools and using private-school scholarships. But there are solutions to fix the schools. Among Ms. Snell’s Top 10 recommendations are to: Make every failing school a charter school; Base funding on ...
Vicki E. Murray
March 17, 2010
Where’s superman for the middle class?
The documentary “Waiting for Superman” by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” was a big hit at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Voted best U.S. documentary by Sundance moviegoers, Guggenheim’s film exposes the immense flaws in America’s public school system and follows the lives ...
Jerry Brown: older, not wiser
Now that California Attorney General Jerry Brown is an official candidate for governor, we’re getting to relive some California political history as pundits and reporters think back to Brown’s first stint as governor (1975-83) along with some of the entertaining facets of his long and bizarre political career. The basic ...
New Study: High-Standards States Far Exceed National Standards
Boston/San Francisco — A new study by two nationally known curricular experts evaluates and critiques the proposed draft national standards in math and English. The new study, Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report , is the second in-depth analysis of the standards, and is jointly published by the ...
Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report
This study provides a detailed comparison of the March draft standards being proposed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) and standards currently in place in states recognized to have high standards—California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas. The report is authored by Stanford University Mathematician Dr. R. James Milgram ...
Washington-centric Education “Reforms” Destined for Failure
Last week the Obama administration released changes to No Child Left Behind, now known as Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The New York Times observed that, “This ambitious agenda presents striking challenges of its own, both political and in terms of implementation.” Indeed, the proposed alterations have elicited divided ...
Learning from Canada’s schools
Washington Times, February 23, 2010 In a speech on Canadian television touting the health care system of our northern neighbor, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said, “It’s not that you need to become more like Americans, we need to become more Canadian-like.” If America mimicked Canadian education policy, however, Mr. Moore ...
0ld-school ideas of Jaime Escalante stand and deliver as much as always
CLASS may soon be over for Jaime Escalante, the math teacher celebrated in the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver.” According to news reports, Escalante, 79, is in poor health and unable to walk. But after all these years, his accomplishments in Los Angeles, and his teaching philosophy, can still stand ...
Help kids win battle of the bulge
Across the country, children’s physical fitness has been placed on the front burner. First lady Michelle Obama has made childhood obesity her top priority. In Sacramento California, a major conference on physical education research was recently held at the state Capitol. The message is that fit kids not only get ...
The Hypocrisy and Revisionist History of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
“The political maneuvering of District congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton can be breathtaking,” writes the Washington Examiner’s Jonetta Rose Barras. Norton has requested $5 million for hundreds of D.C. school children whose Opportunity Scholarships were revoked by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan-the fruit of Norton’s poisonous tree. Yet she told ...
Rational Education Policy Working in Cleveland
No wonder almost 40,000 middle-class students have fled the district; while more than 25,000 urban students are attending charter schools and using private-school scholarships. But there are solutions to fix the schools. Among Ms. Snell’s Top 10 recommendations are to: Make every failing school a charter school; Base funding on ...