Opinions & Editorials
By Andrew J. Rotherham and Sara Mead, Washington Post, June 22, 2007
But in 1998 Newsweek, which is owned by the Washington Post, began publishing a list of "The 100 Best High Schools in America." The ranking is based on "The Challenge Index," a measure developed by Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews. The list, published annually the past few years, has become increasingly influential. Other media outlets now cover it like a horserace, and high schools all over the country are reacting to the scrutiny.
Our research shows that the Challenge Index's methodology is far too focused on a single, narrow indicator. While education policy is increasingly focused on closing achievement gaps, the Challenge Index pays no attention to differences in achievement or AP- and IB-test-taking rates for students from different racial and economic groups, nor does it ask whether high schools are achieving their most fundamental goal: enabling students to earn a diploma.
A successful high school should show high levels of student achievement, graduate almost all of its students and not let any demographic subgroup lag far behind. National education policies, and increasingly state policies, reflect these values. To be sure, graduation rates and student achievement are hardly the only indicators of a school's quality. They are, however, reasonable minimums.
By Jay Mathews, Washington Post, June 22, 2007
Most of the Newsweek and Post readers who follow our education coverage carefully are parents, not think-tank researchers or college professors or Education Department staffers. They are far less interested in Rotherham's and Mead's concern over which assessment has the most value for policy makers and are far more interested in which schools are best for their kids.
As Americans, we are accustomed to measuring schools by average test scores and drop-out rates. Rotherham and Mead want us to continue to use those factors, as well as ethnic achievement gaps, when rating schools. That is fine for scholars but for real people who have to make real decisions about public schools, it is not very helpful. Except in a tiny handful of cases, which I will get to in a moment, the schools with the highest test scores, the narrowest achievement gaps and the lowest drop-out rates are the schools with the wealthiest parents, living in the most expensive communities.
So what are parents to do if they cannot afford to buy a house in Scarsdale or Winnetka or Bethesda or Beverly Hills, where that great wealth creates what Rotherham and Mead tell us are the best schools?
Bush Can Declare Victory On Education Battlefield
By Laurence Cohen (Editorial), Hartford Courant, June 22, 2007
President Bush will be remembered for the two wars that he fought - one foreign, one domestic.
His strategy has been similar for both: Shout real loud; move full speed ahead, without nuance or perceptible mulling of options; and remain stubborn in the face of widespread opposition.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be best judged by historians and foreign policy gurus in the decades ahead. But on the domestic front, Bush can already declare victory - even though most of the enemy is still alive and well. It was "No Child Left Behind" that unleashed the Bush administration dogs against all manner of teacher unions and PTA moms and educational bureaucrats and do-nothing school boards. It was the war cry, "No Child Left Behind," that Bush wouldn't stop chanting, wouldn't give up on, wouldn't be distracted from.
News Articles
His Charge: Find a Key to Students' Success
By Jennifer Medina, New York Times, June 21, 2007
Roland G. Fryer, who was hired by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to advise him on how to narrow the racial gap in achievement in the city's schools, made his professional name in economics by applying complex algorithms to document how black students fall behind their white peers. But his life story challenges his own calculations.
In some sense, I am an anomaly," said Dr. Fryer, who grew up poor and rose to become an assistant professor of economics at Harvard before he was 30. But he quickly corrected himself and added, "I am not sure."
The way he sees it, there are thousands of students in New York's schools who have the potential to be as successful as he is. His job as the system's "chief equality officer," he said, is to find, in his research, the keys to motivating them.
Colleges Expect Pool To Shrink
By Michael Regan, Hartford Courant, June 24, 2007
As members of Connecticut's Class of 2008 tour prospective colleges this summer, they have more than their senior status to distinguish them: They are the crest of a high school graduate wave that began rising more than a decade ago and will fall for at least a decade to come.
In Connecticut and the rest of New England, colleges - particularly those with primarily regional enrollments - are preparing for a decline in high school graduates of as much as 13 percent.
"This definitely is something that enrollment managers across the Northeast have had their eye on for some time," said Kathy Kurz, a principal in the Rochester, N.Y.-based consulting firm Scannell & Kurz.
The two studies cited most often by educators extend to 2016 and 2018 respectively, but other population projections suggest that the trend could continue into the 2020s in New England.
And although it doesn't directly project the number of high school graduates, the Census Bureau says the region's population of 18-year-olds - the age at which most students finish high school and begin college - will continue dropping through 2023.
No comments:
Post a Comment