Transforming Teaching
Milwaukee’s teacher councils provide important lessons on district wide school reform.
Test Restricted Content
K-12 Reform Goals
Ten goals included in a report by a curriculum reform committee in the Milwaukee Public Schools.
Alternatives to Grade Retention
“No social promotion” makes a nice soundbite but there are better ways to fix schools.”
Unz: Moving on to Arizona
The leader of California’s attack on bilingual education is working with a group in Arizona with similar goals.
Religious Right Launches “Exodus 2000”
Right-wing Christian leaders are calling on their followers to pull their children from public education.
Victory for Funding Equity
A New Jersey decision mandates extra money for low-income districts.
ZOOBS: A Challenge for the Hand and Mind
This terrific new toy, which has all the makings of an instantclassic, challenges kids to push their creative and intellectual limits.
What Will Be The Future of Teacher Unionism?
A review of United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society by Charles Taylor Kerchner, Julia E. Koppich, and Joseph G. Weeres, and thoughts about the evolving role of teacher unions.
NEA-AFT Unity
Editorial A look at the potential opportunities — and the dangers — as the nation’s two national teacher unions consider merging.
Internet Filtering
This second installment in a Rethinking Schools series on censorship looks at the fallacies and misconceptions about so-called “Internet Filters” which claim to protect children from online smut. Not only do they let pornography in
Resources on Censorship and the Internet
Addresses, phone numbers and — of course — Internet addresses for more information.
Teachers As Learners
Two teachers describe how evaluations by their fellow teachers gave them a valuable new perspective on their teaching practice.
The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring
Practical nuts-and-bolts information on how the authors structured and maintained a peer mentoring program in their school.
The Standards Movement
Excerpts from remarks on the standards movement by the noted Georgia State University professor.
What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me
A classroom teacher explains his unit on Tourism
The Price of Paradise
A closer look at The Price of Paradise, a resource guide on the resistance movement in Hawai’i
Resources on Hawai’i
Where to get more information.
Teacher Alert!
A Reader Opinion raps the phonics fad sweeping the country — sometimes by state mandate.
Federal Law Mandates ‘Abstinence-Only’ Sex Ed
A look at how religious fundamentalists successfully pushed stealth legislation aimed at gutting sex-education curricula.
Vows of Abstinence Break More Easily Than Latex Condoms
Outspoken former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on the fallacies of the abstinence-only approach to sex ed and the critical need for comprehensive sexuality education.
The History of Sexuality Education
A thumbnail history of this controversial issue.
A Look At the ‘Sex Respect’ Curriculum
A critical look at the misinformation and biases that permeate the most popular abstinence-only sex education curriculum.
Resources on Sexuality Education
Where to turn for real help with questions about teaching and sexuality.
SEX, etc.
Teens write about sex in this newsletter for other teens.
The Bell Curve: Stealth Book of the 1990s?
Notorious author Charles Murray wonders aloud whether his controversial book helped demolish affirmative action.