Commentaries and Reports

Lorelle Young, U.S. Metric Association
I was astonished to learn that the final report of the prestigious National Mathematics Advisory Panel, Foundations for Success, released 13 March 2008, did not include a single word about teaching the metric system. The Panel was established by President Bush in 2006. Its charge was to recommend strategies to foster greater knowledge of, and improved performance in, mathematics among American students, in order to keep America competitive, support American talent and creativity, and encourage innovation throughout the American economy. The report was heavily focused on the critical skills and skill progressions needed for students to acquire competence in algebra.

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Dr. Storey, you recently released the second edition of your book " The Road Ahead: Transition to Adult Life". What led you to write the first edition? My co-editors and I were looking for a text that was written more for practitioners (teachers and other support providers) rather than for other academics. We wanted a practical text where people could take the information and put it directly to use.

Keith Baker
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
Everyone knows “there are no stupid questions,” and everyone is wrong. There are stupid questions, and one was recently answered in EdNews. A columnist interviewed a Brooke Terry who had recently claimed that research shows higher teacher pay has no relationship to student test scores, that this was bad news, and the pay system should be changed. That was an answer to a stupid question, a waste of everyone's time and of the money spent to get that answer.

By Dick Kantenberger
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
It is like someone shouted “FIRE” in a theater, but nobody moved. Is the theater empty? No, it’s full of people, but still nobody moved or even cared. We are losing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of potential geniuses every year in the United States because we are just not finding them before it’s too late, which in most cases is about the time they are suppose to start 9th grade.

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
You recently published a paper on teacher compensation and you have indicated that teacher salary is simply not linked to academic achievement. Give us a bit of history first about teacher salary and how it got to where it is today.

by Donna Garner
Education Policy Commentator EducationNews.org
The Texas State Board of Education today approved David Bradley's amendment by a majority vote. Texas now has new English / Language Arts / Reading standards (K-12) for every public/charter school in the state. Gail Lowe and Barbara Cargill presented the Bradley amendment.

As I speak to parents around the country, one of my goals is to empower them into making educated healthcare decisions. In order to do that, we must understand that what we are sold as healthcare in this country has completely misses the mark.

David W. Kirkpatrick
Columnist EducationNews.org
One objection to homeschooling is that the students don't get the chance to socialize with others. There are several things wrong with that view. For one, it isn't really an argument and is usually presented as a dogmatic statement with the implication that it is to be taken at face value. Not only is specific evidence lacking, there isn't even a pretense in that regard.

by Donna Garner
Education Policy Commentator EducationNews.org
Texas is in the final leg of choosing its new English / Language Arts / Reading standards (K-12) that will be used in every public school in the state. New textbooks, TAKS and end-of-course tests, staff development, and teacher preparation will be changed to fit these new ELAR/TEKS standards. Texas heavily influences the national textbook market; therefore, what happens here can have wide-ranging implications for the rest of the nation.

Review presents new criticism of report that claimed a positive competition effect of Florida voucher policy
A recent Manhattan Institute report claims Florida's program of publicly funded, private-school vouchers for special education students fosters competition that helps special education students who remain in public schools.

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
First of all, what prompted you to write about the issue of school scheduling? My overall motivation for being involved in education work is the same as for many successful entrepreneurs I know. My parents were adult immigrants to the United States and they worked hard to give my brother and me the sorts of educations that have propelled our careers and opportunities. I have lived the American Dream.

David Orbits
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
Any educator, consultant or contractor that has a financial connection to a publisher or provider of educational programs or services should be required to disclose that connection. Is there a state law that requires this disclosure?

By Delia Stafford
Columnist EducationNews.org
One of the challenges facing schools is how to apply research to the classroom effectively. Both of you Feinberg and Adams represent two sides of the same “education” coin—research and application. Over the past several years, there has been a good deal of attention given to the achievement gap in the early grades. More recently, we have seen attention given to student performance at the 8th grade level and in high school. How pervasive are the problems at the middle and high school levels?

Dr. Patrick Groff, Professor of Education Emeritus, San Diego State University
The media is prone to dub the current international controversy, over how English-speaking students are best taught to read, as the "reading wars." The point in calling this dispute a "war" obviously is to leave the impression that there must be some reasonable, overlooked means by which this argument can be resolved among educators, so that children learning to read will be the beneficiaries of its termination.

Third in Series of Reports on First-Year Teachers Identifies Two Insufficient Areas of Training: Teaching in Diverse Classrooms and Working with Special-Needs Students
Smaller Class Size Would Ameliorate Both Challenges, New Teachers Say
New York City – Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality today released research that points to two specific areas where teacher training may be lacking, according to rookie teachers in the trenches and fresh from training: preparedness for the diversity of the contemporary American classroom and teaching students with special needs.