NewsTrust - Education Reform - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Bill Gates: Was the $5 Billion Worth It?

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By JASON L. RILEY, Bill Gates - Jul. 24 (Editorial) - A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks teachers, charters—and regrets. 'It's hard to improve public education—that's clear. As Warren Buffett would say, if you're picking stocks, you wouldn't pick this one." Ten years into his record-breaking philanthropic push for school reform, Bill Gates is sober—and willing to admit some missteps. "It's been about a decade of learning," says the Microsoft co-founder whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now the nation's richest charity. Its $34 billion in assets is more than the next three largest foundations (Ford, Getty and Robert Wood Johnson) combined, and in 2009 it handed out $3 billion, or $2 billion more than any other donor. Since 2000, the foundation has poured some $5 billion into education grants and scholarships. Seated in his office at the new Gates Foundation headquarters located hard by the Emerald City's iconic Space Needle, Mr. Gates says that education isn't only a civil-rights issue but also "an equity issue and an economic issue. . . . It's so primary. In inner-city, low-income communities of color, there's such a high correlation in terms of educational quality and success."

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The Finland phenomenon

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Denver Post - By David Sirota: - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - When I heard the news last week that the Department of Education is aiming to subject 4-year-olds to high-stakes testing, all I could do is shake my head in disbelief and despondently mutter a slightly altered riff off "The Big Lebowski's" Walter Sobchak: Four-year-olds, dude.

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Why Every Student Should Learn Journalism Skills

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Tina Barseghian - May. 24 (Interview) - How do we make schools more relevant to students? Teach them the skills they need in the real world, with tools they use every day. That's exactly what Esther Wojcicki, a teacher of English and journalism at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, Calif., is attempting to do with the recent launch of the website 21STcenturylit.

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On the Ground with a "Gap Year"

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gregory Kristof - May. 03 (Opinion) - When college does roll around, you’ll already have gone through your own freshman orientation. After getting lost in a remote village because I was seeking a familiar temple but was approaching it from a completely different direction, I learned that where you are going is not all that matters. Where you are coming from matters, too.

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The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Dave Eggers, NÍnive Clements Calegari - May. 01 (Opinion) - When we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition. And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources. Compare this with our approach to our military: when results on the ground are not what we hoped, we think of ways to better support soldiers. We try to give them better tools, better weapons, better protection, better training. And when recruiting is down, we offer incentives.

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Darling-Hammond: U.S. vs highest-achieving nations in education

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Linda Darling Hammond - Mar. 22 (Review) - the first ever international summit on teaching...last week in new york city showed...that the united states has been pursuing an approach to teaching almost diametrically opposed to that pursued by the highest-achieving nations.

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The Answer Sheet - How Bill Gates misinterprets ed facts

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Richard Rothstein - Mar. 11 (Comment) - ...but his specific presecriptions and the urgency he attaches to them are based on the misrepresentation....let's examine these factual claims

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Ohio woman jailed for sending kids to school just wanted a choice

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - Jan. 29 (Comment) - If you lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood where your home was broken into a dozen times and the school your children were zoned to was low-performing, wouldn't you take drastic measures to ensure they got a quality education?

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Economics and Morality

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Jan. 10 (Opinion) - The first thing one should say is that our system does reward hard work, up to a point. Other things equal, those who put more in will earn more. But a lot of other things are, in fact, not remotely equal. These days, America is the advanced nation with the least social mobility (pdf), except possibly for Britain. Access to good schools, good health care, and job opportunities depends on lot on choosing the right parents.

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The upward mobility gap

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Doyle McManus - Jan. 02 (Opinion) - College-educated Americans live in a different country than high school dropouts. The best way to mend the divide is by providing access to a decent education.

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Why the DREAM Act needs its next act

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Daniel Altschuler - Dec. 30 (Opinion) - 2010 began with promise for advocates of immigration reform, but it ended with a stark reminder of the obstacles they face.

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Agenda for Connecticut schools in 2011

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Hartford Courant - Dec. 27 (Editorial) - This state does well in schooling better-off suburban children. But it fails low-income children, who are mostly concentrated in city schools. Poor students in the fourth and eighth grades in Connecticut score three grade levels below their more comfortable peers — the worst achievement gap in the nation — even though this state is among the highest per-pupil spenders in the nation.

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Students should back tuition fee reform

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Thomas Byrne, Anton Howes - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - Those leading the recent student protests against tuition fee reform have done more than anyone else over the last few months to reduce social mobility in the higher education system.

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The Answer Sheet - Ravitch: Mayoral control means zero accountability

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Diane Ravitch - Aug. 09 (Opinion) - It was an exciting and wonderful ride while it lasted. But last week, with the release of the state test results for 2010, New York City’s claims came crashing to the ground. The national model went up in smoke. The miracle was no more. The belief that mayoral control was a panacea for urban ills was no longer sustainable.

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What's Wrong With the American University System?

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Jennie Rothenberg Gritz - Jul. 31 (Interview) - Interview with authors of new book on higher education. It does ask some tough questions: do away with tenure? Get rid of football teams? Actually make professors teach? Worth a look if you care about higher education.

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Texas to vote on curriculum that changes history

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Guy Adams - May. 21 (Opinion) - The slave trade was in fact the "Atlantic triangular trade". Capitalism, with all its negative connotations, should in future be referred to as the "free enterprise system". And don't even think about buying into the theory of evolution: children must instead be taught that God created Earth using a euphemistically-titled technique known as "intelligent design".

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The Academies’ March Toward Mediocrity

Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Bruce Fleming - May. 20 (Opinion) - THE idea of a football star receiving lenient treatment after testing positive for drug use would raise no eyebrows at most colleges. But the United States Naval Academy “holds itself to a higher standard,” as its administrators are fond of saying. According to policy set by the chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, himself a former commandant of midshipmen at the academy, we have a “zero tolerance” policy for drug use. Yet, according to Navy Times, a running back was allowed to remain at Annapolis this term because the administration accepted his claim that he smoked a cigar that he didn’t know contained marijuana. (He was later kicked off the team for a different infraction, and has now left the academy.)

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Doesn't the California Legislature watch 'Glee'?

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - The California Legislature is moving ahead on a foolish bill that says students who attend career and technical education high schools have to take all subjects regularly required for graduation -- with the notable exception of arts instruction. The

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A new agenda for school reform

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Diane Ravitch - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - I used to be a strong supporter of school accountability and choice. But in recent years, it became clear to me that these strategies were not working. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program enacted in 2002 did not produce large gains in reading and math. The gains in math were larger before the law was implemented, and the most recent national tests showed that eighth-grade students have made no improvement in reading since 1998. By mandating a utopian goal of 100 percent proficiency, the law encouraged states to lower their standards and make false claims of progress. Worse, the law stigmatized schools that could not meet its unrealistic expectation.

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The administration keeps the right principles in amending No Child Left Behind

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Post - Mar. 17 (Editorial) - The administration has embraced the principles of accountability, disaggregating data and insisting that no student groups -- not minorities, not those with disabilities -- be left behind. The details will be key, but it is heartening that the administration is mapping out a direction true to education reform. Let's hope Congress agrees to go along for the ride.

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Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Diane Ravitch - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - ... accountability turned into a nightmare for American schools, producing graduates who were drilled regularly on the basic skills but were often ignorant about almost everything else. Colleges continued to complain about the poor preparation of entering students, who not only had meager knowledge of the world but still required remediation in basic skills. This was not my vision of good education.

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Editorial: Opposite of Bold

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 27 (Editorial) - The problem with the initiatives is that even if they work as planned, Americans need much more. They need leadership that is more inspired and an agenda that is bigger and more detailed than these ideas. The country desperately needs bold moves, starting with the State of the Union address Wednesday night.

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Why We're Failing Math and Science

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Oct. 26 (Interview) - The U.S. lags far behind other developed countries at the K-12 level in terms of measured performance in math and science courses. What can be done to change that?

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The New Untouchables

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Oct. 21 (Opinion) - Those who create services, opportunities and ways to recruit work can compete on the world market. That is the key to understanding our education challenge today.

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Democrats should take Obama's lead and push harder for education reform

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet Democrats have too often resisted reform as disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools.

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