Policy Articles Archives

We Need to Ask Our Students to Dream — and to Dream Big

Back in the 1980s, I taught an elective class at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, called Literature and Social Change. It centered around the questions “What is a good […]

Parents Fight School Closings

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Testing Our Limits

First graders, three at a time, use classroom computers to take standardized tests. Their teacher explains the impact on the students and herself.

Playing Smart

Scripted curriculum de-skills teachers and rewards students for passivity, not critical thinking. A teacher educator urges teachers to organize and fight back.

Challenging Corporate Ed Reform

The failures of the corporate education “reform” movement leave it vulnerable to genuine grassroots school transformation.

Arresting Development

The author of Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse reviews the history, impact, and future of zero tolerance policies.

Chicago’s Peace Warriors

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Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It?

To build an effective movement against the top-down strategies that are ripping public education apart, we need to take a closer look at who wants reform and why.

Beyond NCLB

A new era requires new thinking

Teaching in Dystopia

The problem is this: Testing is killing education. Not only is it narrowing the curriculum generally

Reading First, Libraries Last

In these bleak NCLB days of regimented

Bogus Claims About Reading First

When it comes to Reading First, don’t believe the hype

Prophet Motives

Any discussion of charter schools must ask not only whether charters promote a worthwhile vision of public education

Fault Lines in Merit Pay

Far from addressing the systemic

NCLB Stalled, but Still Armed and Dangerous

While the bipartisan consensus that passed NCLB in 2001 has splintered, the old, unimproved version of the law is not going away anytime soon.

Wish You Were Here

A University of Nebraska professor takes a satirical look at Education Week’s Quality Counts report, where the Cornhusker state ranked at the bottom.

Public Studies Puncture the Privatization Bubble

Two studies refute the claims made by voucher advocates: private schools are better than public ones, and competition makes public schools better.

NCLB and the Military

California teachers take a stand against the NCLB-aided military blitz on in-school recruiting.

‘Narrow and Unlovely’

Before the floodwaters receded in New Orleans, conservative education reformers rushed in selling a market-based future.

Money, Schools, and Justice

School funding systems mirror—and reproduce—the inequality we see all around us.

Shaking Foundations

Virginia professors take on the state’s attempt to eliminate Social Foundations of Education” from required course work.”

Do Ask, Do Tell

Two Chicago educators question the premier teacher education accrediting agency’s removal of social justice and sexual orientation language from its standards.

Can NCLB Be Left Behind?

Reauthorization could bring ‘damage control’ or more damage.