Claude M. Steele Some people who would like very much to right racial inequality will not like the idea, proposed by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, that reducing the black-white test score gap could be a prime target of public policy. African Americans have been hammered by this test score gap for decades. Focusing on […]
Education in America
Posted inEducation in America
The New School Wars: How Outcome-Based Education Blew Up
It seemed like a conservative idea; then progressive educators got hold of it. Now a firestorm has erupted that could jeopardize the effort to raise national curriculum standards.
Posted inEducation in America
Separatist But Equal?
Detroit’s all-black academies are neither as bad as the critics claim nor as uplifting as their defenders insist. Considering the alternatives, they are worth a try.
Posted inEducation in America
The Myth of Public School Failure
Public schools are actually performing remarkably well. What they need is not radical reform but more support.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Quiet Success: Where Managed School Integration Works
Despite a skeptical Supreme Court and a growing separatist movement, many communities across the country are showing that a flexible approach to busing is still the best way to integrate schools.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Can Democracy Save Chicago’s Schools?
With much fanfare, Chicago has moved to decentralize control of what some have called the worst public school system in America. But reform has been financially and politically crippled from the start.
Posted inEducation in America
Blackboard Jingle
It seems as if every conference I attend on the subject of American competitiveness (and there are many — the competitiveness industry is surely one of America’s most competitive) begins or ends with a speech by a prominent chief executive of a large American corporation about business’s stake in improving the quality of the American […]
Posted inEducation in America
Choice Ironies: Open Enrollment in Minnesota
Supporters and critics of school choice throughout the nation have predicted a big shock to the educational system if parents were given a say in selecting their children’s schools. Minnesota’s experience with school choice, the first statewide progr
Posted inEducation in America
Generational Alliance: Social Security as a Bank for Education and Training
The solvency of Social Security ultimately depends on economic prosperity, and economic prosperity on productivity and education. College costs, however, are becoming prohibitive, and technical training is weak. Investing part of the Social Security