Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Milton Friedman at 100

Today would have been Milton Friedman's 100th birthday. Lindsey Burke remembers Friedman's school-choice legacy.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Moral formation and school choice

"The school choice movement has been steadily making inroads because parents are demanding options and greater control over the moral formation and education of their children," Ray Nothstine writes.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

University president, law professor support Henry Scholarships

Over at the OCPA blog, I commend to your attention two fine legal minds who support the Henry Scholarships for special-needs children.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Is the 'master's bump' a waste?

A new report from a liberal think tank suggests Oklahoma could be putting that $38 million a year to better use.

'America has too many teachers'

"Public-school employees have doubled in 40 years while student enrollment has increased by only 8.5 percent -- and academic results have stagnated," Andrew Coulson writes in The Wall Street Journal. "While America may have too many teachers, the greater problem is that our state schools have squandered their talents on a mass scale."

Glad we got that settled

Tahlequah Public Schools interim superintendent Lisa Presley wants you to remember something: "there has never been enough revenue for public education, and there never will be."

Student achievement data 'sobering'

The reality concerning U.S. student achievement is "sobering," former New York City school chancellor Joel Klein writes over at TIME.com.
Only the top quarter of America’s K-to-12 students are performing on par with the average students in Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, Taiwan, and South Korea. International comparisons of advanced achievement in math are even more depressing: 16 countries now produce at least twice as many advanced math students per capita as we do, an important predictor of how many engineers and scientists we'll have in the future driving economic growth. Last year a Harvard report by Erik A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson and Ludger Woessmann placed U.S. math performance 32nd among 65 nations -- all this as the U.S. continues to spend more on schools than many wealthy nations do as a share of GDP.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

You're not doin' fine, Oklahoma

In a new study of student-achievement growth around the world, Eric Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann, and Paul E. Peterson found the United States 25th among 40 countries in the rate of annual growth in student test score performance since the 1990s. Peterson writes:
We also found that, among states within the United States, there was also wide variation in the annual rate of growth between 1992 and 2011. When data from all the 4th and 8th grade math, reading, and science tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are combined, we found that the annual growth in some states (Maryland, Florida, Delaware and Massachusetts) was more than three times as great as in other states, including Iowa, Maine, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_PEP_blog_71712.jpg

How bad are our public schools?

"So bad that some parents are sending their kids to Africa for schooling."

Monday, July 16, 2012

Tulsa World reports on numerous teacher sex-abuse claims

"A rash of Oklahoma cases of teachers and coaches accused of sexual misconduct with their students has some wondering if enough is being done to weed out child predators from schools," Kim Archer reports in the Tulsa World.

Archer quotes Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, as saying: "This is a life-threatening occurrence for many victims. Approximately 80 to 85 percent of (victims) we have spoken to have attempted suicide."

Another Democrat for school choice

The trend continues.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Teachers unions fund the Left

"What do the American Ireland Fund, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network have in common? All have received some of the more than $330 million that America's two largest teachers unions spent in the past five years on outside causes, political campaigns, lobbying and issue education," Alicia Mundy reports today in The Wall Street Journal.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Nor is tenure prevalent in the oil patch

An Associated Press story in today's Oklahoman informs us that one North Dakota oil town's prosperity isn't reaching public-school teachers.

That's because public-school teachers aren't part of the free-enterprise system.

Did Oklahoma principal force teachers to cheat?

One teacher says yes, and resigned in protest.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Mississippi enacts voucher program for dyslexic students

"Mississippi recently became the first state in the nation to adopt a public and private school choice program in which state and federal monies are provided directly to schools which parents choose," Allison Hertog writes.

Monday, July 2, 2012

More cheating?

"Administrators at an Oklahoma City high school forced teachers to falsify enrollment and attendance records so they appeared to satisfy federal grant requirements, according to a teacher who said he recently resigned in protest," Victor Skinner reports.