Our No. 1 education program is incoherent, unworkable, and doomed. But the next president still can have a huge impact on improving American schooling.
Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, a senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, a contributing editor of The American Prospect, and an occasional contributor. His previous work on racial segregation and public education is posted here, and his most recent Prospect print story, ‘The Making of Ferguson,’ can be read here. Readers may correspond with him about his writing at riroth@epi.org.
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Posted inSpecial Report
Too Young to Test
Last fall and again in the spring, the government administered a standardized literacy and math test to all children in the Head Start program. It’s being given again this year. Four-year-olds are asked to count objects, name alphabet letters and simple geometrical shapes, understand directions, characterize facial expressions, and identify animals, body parts, and other […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Dreams and Realities
The American Dream and the Public Schools By Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick, Oxford University Press, 301pages, $35.00 Beneath all the controversies that roil America’s public schools — bilingual education, school choice, inclusion of children with disabilities, alternative approaches to instruction, and so on — is there one fundamental conflict and one master […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Testing Our Patience
State and federal law assume that the quality of public education can be gauged by the number of students who reach the “proficiency” mark on a standardized test. Indeed, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law provides serious penalties for schools that fail to make sufficient annual gains in these numbers. It is a […]
Posted inFeatures
Vouchers in Court
O n December 11, 2000, in a decision now headed to the Supreme Court, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio, violates the separation of church and state. The program provides tuition vouchers of $2,500 for low-income children to attend private schools. Over fourth-fifths of the students who […]
Posted inWorking in America
Toward a More Perfect Union: New Labor’s Hard Road
The labor movement has new life, but faces immense obstacles. Here’s what it can accomplish.
Posted inFeatures
The Parent Panacea
Gloria Molina has been Los Angeles County’s First District Supervisor since 1991, when courts ordered the creation of a protected Latino seat on the County Board of Supervisors. Akin to the mayoralty of the nation’s biggest Mexican-American “city,” the post has given the former congresswoman a chance to promote her view–widely shared across the country–that […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Starbucks Solution: Can Voluntary Codes Raise Global Living Standards
Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Levi Strauss say they will do the right thing all over the world. That’s better than if they made no commitment, but it may not be much.
Posted inEducation in America
Are Black Diplomas Worth Less?
Relative to whites, minorities have made impressive gains in education attainment. Why are they still falling behind economically?
Posted inEducation in America
Blaming Teachers
Reformers demand a better class of teachers, but rewarding the good and weeding out the bad is trickier than it seems.