The Bell Curve: Stealth Book of the 1990s?
Notorious author Charles Murray wonders aloud whether his controversial book helped demolish affirmative action.
Test Restricted Content
History of Bilingual Education
Bilingual education has been a fixture in U.S. schools for almost 150 years. Background on this history, important court cases,and why the “English for the Children” initiative could end up costing California billions in federal school aid.”
Resources on the Unz Initiative
Where to call, write or Web-surf for more information on the “English for the Children” referendum.”
Reading, Writing, and Censorship
Censorship is alive and well in U.S. schools, often as part of a larger effort by conservatives or religious fundamentalists to impose their ideology on public institutions. Rethinking Schools takes an in-depth look at the ongoing struggle over what children can and can’t read in school.
Frequently Challenged Books
A list of some of the books most often targeted by book banners.
Is Teaching ‘La Causa’ Grounds for Firing?
How two teachers in Vaughn, NM lost their jobs for refusing to stop teaching Chicano history.
Resources on Censorship
A list of some of the major organizations involved in censorship issues.
Know the Law
Some of the key court decisions that outline the legal parameters of school censorship.
MPS: Is This the Dark Before the Dawn?
These are both challenging and exciting times for the Milwaukee Public Schools. With the threat of a state takeover looming, educators and community activists are focusing on MPS and searching forways to bring meaningful reform to the district. Rethinking Schools offers some essential guidelines for making sure that reform efforts have a solid foundation.
Motivating Students To Do Quality Work
A visit to a student exhibition at La Escuela Fratney, a two-way bilingual elementary school in Milwaukee, illustrates important principles for encouraging students to do their best.
Ten Chairs of Inequality
A simple classroom exercise can help students of all ages grasp the skewed distribution of wealth in U.S. society.
The Discipline of Hope
After almost four decades of involvement in classroom teaching and school reform, the noted educator and writer reflects on the importance of “the refusal to accept limits on what your students can learn or what you, as a teacher, can do to help them.”
Mississippi Freedom Schools
The 1964 civil rights program — which brought Northern whitesto Southern cities as teachers — and what it means to us today.
Neighborhood Schools, Busing, and the Struggle for Equality
Analysis of the Milwaukee School Board’s push to return to neighborhood schools, and issues that policymakers must address to ensure thatAfrican Americans don’t get shortchanged by reductioins in school busing.
Wisconsin Experiments with Smaller Classes
A look at a pilot project that cuts student-teacher ratios in some classrooms to 15-1, and early data that suggest that the smaller classes boost student achievement.
Milwaukee: Will Top-Down or Community-Based Reform Prevail?
Tides of change are sweeping through MPS — including a threatened state takeover — but will state politicians or the local community direct future reform efforts?
Black Ministers’ Reform Plan
A list of reforms advocated by the Milwaukee Minority MinisterialAlliance.
Who’s Who in MPS Reform
Profiles of some of the organizations involved in the city’s schoolreform efforts.
States Get Failing Grade in Assessment
A study by FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing,finds that most states need to make major improvements in their state assessment systems. The article includes a list of resouces on testing offered by FairTest.
Tests and Standards: Will the Carrot or Stick Win Out?
An interview with Monty Neill, acting executive director of FairTest,the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, on the results of the organization’s study of state assessment programs and the ever-more-popular cries for “tough national education standards.”
The Criminalization of Youth
Lawmakers and the mass media are spinning horror stories about hordes of young “superpredators”roving our nation’s streets, and are using these tales to push draconian new laws that punish more and more children as if they were adults. A look at the current trend, and a plea for more rational approaches to young offenders.
The Evolution Of Creationism
The lead article of a Rethinking Schools special report about right-wing efforts to dress up religious dogma as pseudo-science, keep the theory of evolution out of U.S. schools, and wipe away the separation between church and state.
Creationists Push Pseudo-Science Text
It looks like a science textbook, but “Of Pandas and People” is really a creationist treatise masquerading as a legitimate discussion of scientific theories. An examination of “Pandas” and some of the objections to it raised by legitimate scientists and educators.”
One Town’s Battle Over Creationism
The struggles over evolution and creationism in Louisville, Ohio, where a retired teacher has called in the American Civil Liberties Union to keep a right-wing Christian school board member from injecting his religious beliefs into the school curriculum.
What’s a Teacher To Do?
An interview with Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, who offers some perspective on why creationism persists and how teachers can cope with it.