K-12 Update | 2008 Archive

When special needs children aren’t well-served by North Carolina’s K-12 public education system, what recourse do they have? Unfortunately, the answer has historically been “not much.” This year, a bipartisan, forward-thinking coalition of state lawmakers has set out to change that.

Tough times may be in store for the nation’s first federally-funded voucher program. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released its latest evaluation (.pdf) of Washington, DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program.

It’s that time of year again. This week marked the end of another academic year for students attending traditional public schools in North Carolina. For high school seniors in the midst of graduation ceremonies, this time also represents a proud and much-anticipated rite of passage from the K-12 years to the world of higher education or work.

The past 30 years have ushered in dramatic changes to American education. That’s the principal message of The Condition of Education 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) annual compilation of education facts.

No longer in the throes of adolescence, North Carolina’s homeschooling movement celebrated its 20th birthday this year. Much has changed since the General Assembly moved to legalize homeschooling in 1988. Here and across the nation, the homeschooling movement has grown in stature and popularity – defying stereotypes and occasionally, disarming critics.

On Tuesday the American Association of University Women (AAUW) fired another salvo in the gender equity wars. According to their new report, Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education, concerns from psychologists and educators about boys’ academic achievement and overall adjustment are vastly overblown.

Numerous interventions – affecting law and policy – have targeted America’s entrenched achievement gap. Yet despite these efforts, poor, minority students still lag far behind their more affluent, white peers.

Should parents be key players in year-round school assignment decisions? An ill-conceived appellate court decision this week says they shouldn’t.

Good ideas demand action. As mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, “Ideas won’t keep: something must be done about them.” This is certainly true of school choice.

K-12 education ranks as a top concern among voters in North Carolina’s upcoming gubernatorial election. In an Elon University poll released Monday, education even edged out the economy: 53 percent of North Carolinians indicated education would influence their vote in the governor’s race, compared to 51 percent who cited the economy and 46 percent who referenced taxes.

Across the nation, the inner-city Catholic school is fast becoming a relic of the past. Will we throw these much-loved schools a lifeline? Such is the question posed by a new Thomas B. Fordham Institute report, Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic Schools?, released to coincide with Pope Benedict’s visit to the U.S. this week.

Writing well is hard to do. It requires skill, time, and lots of effort. Would-be writers must also learn the fundamentals of English usage, style, and grammar. Ten million purchases of the venerated 1959 manual, The Elements of Style, are proof positive of the timeless need for sensible guidance in the rules of writing.

Across the country, tax credit legislation is fast emerging as a popular, politically viable path to educational choice. Democrats and Republicans alike have embraced tax credits as a way to widen the aperture of educational freedom for low- and middle-income families. Seven states have already passed laws permitting tax credits or deductions for education expenses, empowering parents and saving millions of dollars.

Do small classes boost student performance? Many parents and teachers think so: polling generally reveals widespread support for class size reduction. Decreasing class size is also popular among legislators, prompting billions of dollars in expenditures to fund ever-shrinking classes in states from California to North Carolina.

Much has been said in recent years about reforming our high schools. Given widespread data documenting a worrisome dropout crisis, this makes good sense. But what about the critical school grades that bridge the gap between late childhood and full-blown adolescence? Do these middle school years impact a student’s determination to stay in school?

Bullying on K-12 campuses is a serious problem that merits our renewed attention. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that 28 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 are harassed at school.

“What’s past is prologue.” These words, from William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, affirm that history sets the stage for what’s yet to come. The patterns of the past are, as the Bard wrote, inextricably intertwined with the future.

News stories this week are likely to intensify already palpable worries about the prevalence of high school cheating. Administrators at Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill recently discovered a longstanding cheating ring of up to 30 students.

Nineteenth century historian and political scion Henry Brooks Adams had an infinitely high regard for the power of the teacher. Said Mr. Adams, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Research on teaching efficacy generally supports his claim: teachers have a significant and enduring influence on student performance.

Two years ago, the national report, The Silent Epidemic (pdf), heralded America’s growing – but largely unrecognized – high school dropout crisis. Now, this epidemic is silent no more.

It’s no secret that the education establishment regards charter schools with great suspicion. Charter schools may be public, but they’re also free to innovate and otherwise shake things up. This is good news to many education reformers, among whom these maverick schools enjoy rock-star status. But such freedom is discomfiting for education officials intent on maintaining the status quo.

A high school diploma is a critical determinant of later vocational and life success. In our competitive global economy, kids who don’t graduate don’t stand a chance. Not only do high school dropouts face long odds when it comes to securing gainful employment, research shows they’re also at risk for a host of adverse outcomes, including poverty, single parenthood, and incarceration.

Recent news reports are likely to arouse parental concern about school safety. On Tuesday, four students were shot just after their dismissal from Ballou High in Washington, D.C. Closer to home, a fifth-grader in Charlotte, North Carolina brought a loaded .32-caliber revolver to Sterling Elementary last week, ostensibly to impress classmates.

When it comes to helping kids achieve academically, teachers matter. Policymakers with widely divergent views on education reform agree on this. Research has shown that teaching efficacy is a critical – perhaps even the most important – determinant of a student’s academic achievement.

Advocates of local control and a lean education bureaucracy have a new champion in Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Hired last June by Mayor Adrian Fenty, the 37-year-old Teach for America alumnus and founder of The New Teacher Project has garnered national attention for her tough stance on bureaucratic accountability and education reform.

Hope for change is evergreen. No matter the past – each year ushers in its own newfound commitment to bettering the world. Our desire to begin again may seem predictable, even a bit banal, but it serves a worthy purpose nonetheless: nascent, unwearied resolutions often galvanize us into meaningful action.