January 15, 1997
Education Week, Vol. 16, Issue 16
Professional Development
The Comfort Zone
Employees arriving at school district headquarters in Tupelo, Miss., cast wary eyes at the computers that have appeared overnight.
Education
Opinion
Electioneering on Education: What Comes Next?
There are two stories to tell about last year's education
electioneering. One is about how the Republican-controlled Congress
took a U-turn on education issues. The upshot is that mostly Great
Society, big-government programs that have long outlived their
usefulness now not only have new life; they have more money than the
Clinton administration originally requested.
Education
Opinion
Merit Pay Won't Work in Schools
In a school district where the majority of students live below
poverty and teachers are crying out for lower class size, higher
standards of conduct, greater academic rigor, an end to social
promotions, and relief from a blizzard of unnecessary paperwork,
Rochester, N.Y., Superintendent Clifford B. Janey offers merit pay as
the answer to our problems
Education
Opinion
A Common-Ground Issue and a Common-Ground Strategy
After splitting the difference on Election Day between a
Republican-controlled Congress and a Democratic president, we voters
now know the names of the officeholders who will help chart the course
of national public policy. The problem is, we are still in the dark on
exactly what that course will be. And in the area of education, where
partisan agendas sometimes differed substantially during the campaign,
we are especially unenlightened as to the issues that will spring forth
from the "common ground" and "vital center" the president and
Congressional leaders now pledge to seek.
Budget & Finance
Opinion
Obfuscation, Rubber Yardsticks, and Double Standards
At the end of last year, Education Week, The New York
Times, and several other national news organizations gave prominent
coverage to a new book entitled Hard Lessons: Public Schools and
Privatization, by Carol Ascher, Norm Fruchter, and Robert Berne.
("Privatization Found To Fall Short of
Billing," Nov. 6, 1996, and "What
May Be Lost Through Privatization?," Dec. 11, 1996.) The book
concludes that privatization does nothing to improve education, harms
the poor, and threatens democracy.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Letters to the Editor