Krashen: A Message that Should Be Heard

Stephen Krashen: Children need food, health care, and books. Not new standards and tests.

New report, worse news about high-poverty schools

The Condition of Education 2010 report is now out.

From the highlights of the report:

The school poverty findings include:

• In 2007-08, about 20 percent of all public elementary schools and 9 percent of public secondary schools were considered high-poverty schools, compared with 15 percent and 5 percent respectively in 1999-2000.

• The reading achievement gap between 8th-grade students in low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools was 34 points, on a 500 point scale, in 2009, and the mathematics achievement gap was 38 points.

• In 2007-08, according to school administrators, about 28 percent of high school graduates from high-poverty schools attended 4-year colleges after graduation, compared with 52 percent of high school graduates from low-poverty schools.

The Failure of "Closing the Achievement Gap"

This blog from Walt Gardner raises a needed red flag about calls to close the achievement gap.

The Politics of Education

Rare in the discourse about education do political leaders and candidates seeking political office acknowledge the power of social forces. . .here is a refreshing quest for support that challenges misinformation and asks us to look more broadly at the struggle to create schools children deserve:

Let's light more candles in public education

New Book on Think-Tank Research

This is an excellent book that confronts the negative impact of think-tank reports on education policy:

From EPIC:

"Think Tank Research Quality: Lessons for Policy Makers, the Media, and the Public (Information Age Publishing) demonstrates the importance of independent expert reviews. Taken together, the reviews reveal that think tank publications have clear patterns of misleading, flawed, and even deceptive research practices. Yet this think tank research often serves as the foundation for federal and programs. As the nation moves forward with Race to the Top, as well as the current effort to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, this book provides a cautionary tale. Meeting a critical need, Think Tank Research Quality provides policy makers and the public valuable insight into the quality of the research used to support these and other reform initiatives."

The book is available HERE.

Recommended New Title

Injustice

And a companion article on a related topic: "Ill Fares the Land"

From the publisher's web site:

About This Book

Additional resources for Injustice: http://www.policypress.co.uk/injustice_appendix.asp

Few would dispute that we live in an unequal and unjust world, but what causes this inequality to persist? Leading social commentator and academic Danny Dorling claims in this timely book that, as the five social evils identified by Beveridge are gradually being eradicated, they are being replaced by five new tenets of injustice, viz:

• elitism is efficient;
• exclusion is necessary;
• prejudice is natural;
• greed is good; and
• despair is inevitable.

In an informal yet authoritative style, Dorling examines who is most harmed by these injustices and why, and what happens to those who most benefit. Hard-hitting and uncompromising in its call to action, this is essential reading for everyone concerned with social justice.

"His attack on elitism and despair is impressive, his factual evidence undeniable." Rt Hon David Blunkett MP

Scoppe Op-Ed in The State

No Magic Wand