EducationNews Commentaries and Reports

An Interview with Vince Bell: Recovery From Head Injury
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico UniversityVince, you have just completed a book entitled One Man’s Music: The Life and Times of Texas Songwriter Vince Bell. How did this book come about? I began writing it in the early 1990s in Berkeley, California. I wrote thirty pages about my accident and brain injury and then threw my hands up: end of story, there was nothing more to say. But right after Phoenix, my first CD, was released I went back to it and, in Fredericksburg, Texas, I wrote 206 pages in 184 days.

An Interview with Lindsay Brown: Student-athletes
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Lindsay Brown is Chair of the History Department at St. Andrew's School (Delaware) Lindsay grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where he attended the Allendale-Columbia School. He graduated first in his class and received the Williams Cup Award for academic excellence. The school's yearbook editor, Lindsay was also a varsity member of the cross-country running, cross-country skiing and tennis teams

The Smoke of Twin Dragons
Ron Issac
Columnist EducationNews.org
Are you reading this during an unassigned teaching period and are you in the mood to play Russian roulette (not on Circular 6 menu)? Or is it more your cup of tea to impersonate a Roman gladiator and, at that Lipton moment, pause to look up to the Empress in the stands and await the pointing of her thumb: “up” means you live; “down” means you salute her and then disembowel yourself (professionally) to the cheers of anti-unionists.

Learning Matters: Education Advice for the Next President
The Forum for Education and Democracy
Learning Matters, a Peabody Award-winning production company covering education issues, has posted scores of online interviews as part of its series, Education Advice for the Next President.

Exclusive: NLCB Insider Susan Neuman Re-Emerges As Potential Obama Voice
But Transformation Raises New Questions about her Departure from Washington
By Andrew Brownstein, Special for EducationNews.org
The New York Times recently profiled three educators whose work might inspire the next draft of school reform in an Obama administration. Among the community activists and academics, one name jumped out: Susan B. Neuman, professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan

In Defense of Testing Series: Correcting Fallacies about Educational and Psychological Testing
Standardized testing bears the twin burden of controversy and complexity and is difficult for many to understand either dispassionately or technically. In response to this reality, a team of well-noted measurement specialists describe the current state of public debate about testing across fields, explain and refute the primary criticisms of testing, acknowledge the limitations and undesirable consequences of testing, provide suggestions for improving testing practices, and present a vigorous defense of testing as well as a practical vision for its promise and future

Teachers of Color Face Shortage
What does it mean to our growing numbers of minority students?
by Bondo Nyembwe, The Cilingo Foundation
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
Why did I choose to write this article? I visit many schools throughout the year. Every time I had the opportunity, I asked teachers as well as administrators “how are our minority students doing in school? The most common answer I received was, “not good, if only they had people who look like them, they will achieve better

Education-Overhaul Recommendations Need an Overhaul
Robert Archer
Columnist EducationNews.org
Recently, I read with enthusiasm Washington State’s Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force’s recommendations, and yet I was surprisingly disappointed. To me, an educator of twelve-and-a-half years, many of the recommendations seemed counter-intuitive.

Interview with Dona Matthews - Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
In spite of big differences in our geographical locations and professional experience, my co-editors and I shared a desire to create a challenging and informative sourcebook on gifted development and education around the world. We wanted to include both current international practices, and constructive critiques of those practices, so we looked for experts with dynamic conceptions both of human development and of the field of gifted education

Education Establishment Rebuffs Concerns
By Laurie H. Rogers, author of "Betrayed"
Columnist EducationNews.org
On Nov. 5, I went to a Spokane school-board meeting and I asked for five things, including a more traditional track in mathematics. I noted that Spokane’s curricula – all reform – have been heavily criticized by mathematicians, parents, math professors and math advocates; that the state and state’s math advisory panel are unlikely to recommend these curricula; that it’s unlikely the curricula are aligned with the revised state math standards

Parent Primer on ADHD Part II
Susan Crum, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Columnist EducationNews.org
So, what do executive functions permit us to do? You may be wondering what types of childhood task require executive functions. They run the gamut from being able to cooperate with peers and adult and behaving carefully to reading in order to comprehend new material and writing to communicate thoughts and feelings.

Executive Functions NOT inattention as the defining trait
ADHD Primer for Parents Part I
Susan Crum, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Columnist EducationNews.org
Although called Attention Deficit Disorder, and thus many parents and teachers believe that the primary problem is distractibility or poor attention, in reality this disorder is primarily a disorder of impaired executive function. When an individual has ADHD, executive functions are not emerging or unfolding as expected for the child chronological age.

Where Have All the Lawsuits Gone?
American Enterprise Institute
Samuel R. Bagenstos
Washington University School of LawThese empirical conclusions shed significant light on much debated normative questions about the statute. The statute has been criticized as imposing an adversarial model on the education of children with disabilities, with substantial transaction costs that divert time and resources away from the education of both students with disabilities and those without them. But my analysis should suggest that those criticisms miss the mark to a significant extent.

An Interview with Diane Ravitch: Some Current Concerns Post Election
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Diane, you have recently published some great pieces about education. I would like you to briefly summarize two. First, you wrote a piece about school systems paying kids for good grades. What in your mind is problematic with this procedures ( and let it be said that I agree with you) and what do you think would be the long term ramifications and repercussions of this practice?

Alternative Schooling Emerges
David W. Kirkpatrick
Columnist EducationNews.org
Major institutions, such as the public schools, do not change without external ideas and pressure, and anyone who tries to implement substantive change can expect to be attacked

An Interview with Steven F. Wilson: Ascend Learning
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
What exactly is Ascend Learning and what exactly do you do?
Ascend Learning is a new charter management organization (CMO) based in New York City. Our first school, the Brookyln Ascend Charter School, opened in September in Brownsville, a community of Brooklyn. Our second school will open in September. Our mission is to develop a scalable solution to the underachievement of economically disadvantaged children

An Interview with Glenn Pere: About College Click TV
Michael F. Shaughnessy

In Defense of Testing Series: Don't use metric
Pat Naughtin .

The Obama Education Agenda
Diane Ravitch

“Realistic Expectations” Urged for KIPP Schools

Measuring Skills for the 21st Century

An Interview with Doug Fisher: About Jamestown Reading Navigator
Michael F. Shaughnessy

“Student-centered” Learning (or “Constructivism”)
By Laurie H. Rogers, author of "Betrayed"

Young Adult Literature: writing to heal troubled minds
By Jim Fedako

America's Vanishing Potential: The Case for PreK-3rd Education
Foundation for Child Development
Interview with Mrs. Casey Owens: Good Beginnings Program

Research suggests comprehensive teacher inductions have little effect in 1st year
Mathematica Policy Research

NEW ELAR-TAKS TESTS: A NEW BEGINNING FOR TEXAS
Donna Garner

Education Notes: Variations on a Theme
David W. Kirkpatrick

A Sampling of This Week's DOE Blunder Chronicles
by Ron Isaac

Teacher Fear
By Laurie H. Rogers, author of "Betrayed"

An Interview with Frederick Hess: The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship - Part I
Michael F. Shaughnessy

Additional Commentaries and Reports