In case you’re interested, I thought I’d remind readers that I have a link on my sidebar titled “Articles I’ve Written.”
It leads to a compilation of links to about thirty articles I’ve written for other publications over the years.
HOUSTON — Some conservative members of the Texas Board of Education assert that the history books used in this state have a pro-Islamic bias, and they are upset about it.
Never shy about wading into the culture wars, they are planning to vote Friday for a resolution that would send a blunt message totextbook publishers: Do not present a pro-Islamic, anti-Christian version of history if you want to sell books in one of the nation’s largest markets.
“The purpose of this resolution is to ensure there is balanced treatment of divergent groups,” Gail Lowe, the chairwoman of the board, said. “In the past, the textbooks have had some bias against Christianity.”
The resolution was written and submitted to the board this summer by, Randy Rives, who as a member of the school board in Odessa, Tex., pushed through a Bible study
Whatever you think about using student test scores to evaluate teachers, it seems clear from the research that, at best, tests might reliably identify the most effective and least effective teachers in a school. The majority of teachers are in the middle – not terrible, but they could be better.
Figuring out how to help teachers get better is a complex task, and there’s not a lot of evidence that programs designed to help teachers improve actually work. Some people say it can’t be done. Eric Hanushek, the Hoover Institution economist whose pioneering research on teacher quality is fueling much of the debate, says he believes teachers are born and not made. He says the best way to raise teacher quality is to figure out who the worst teachers are, fire them, and bring in better ones.
Everywhere you turn these days -- "Oprah," Time magazine, the nightly news -- someone is talking about education reform. The subject of charter schools is especially hot because of the national release this week of "Waiting for Superman," the heart-wrenching documentary by Davis Guggenheim, director of "An Inconvenient Truth." It follows five children hoping to win a lottery for admission to a top-notch charter school.
Among the leaders of San Jose's East Side Union High School District, however, there seems to be little recognition of the intense demand for high-quality charter schools. Last week, its board approved one application from Redwood City's Summit Public Schools -- which is featured in the new film -- to open a 400-student school, but it inexplicably failed to approve a second identical application on a 2-2 vote, apparently grasping at a questionable interpretation of state charter law.
Summit's expected appeal to the county board of education seems likely to succeed, so the second school
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jisc_infonet/Flickr
If the Senate had approved the defense authorization bill this week which included the long-debated DREAM Act, more than 500,000 young immigrants who are in California without legal authorization would have been eligible to apply for legal status, at least on a "conditional" basis.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act provides a path to legalization for eligible high school students and adults who came to the United States before the age of 16 – and then at a minimum completed two years of higher education.
But supporters, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., vowed to bring the issue up again for a
