Rethinking Special Education for a New Century

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew J. Rotherham, and Charles R. Hokanson, Jr. (Eds.). Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2001.   Summary: Recommending sweeping changes in federal special ed policy, this new volume of 14 papers scrutinizes the education now being received by 6 million U.S. children with disabilities. Jointly published with the Progressive Policy Institute, the report will help shape discussion of the next reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It identifies the problems … Read More

Rethinking Special Education

(click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) Edited by Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew J. Rotherham, and Charles R. Hokanson, Jr Washington,DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2001.   Briefing Special programs for disabled students partly account for the poor achievement and the high and rising costs of American schools. Of course, programs for blind, deaf, and other children with scientifically evidenced disabilities are clearly justified. But most of the roughly 6.1 … Read More

Home Environments for Learning

(click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Herbert J. Walberg & Susan J. Paik In: Walberg, H.J.& Haertel, G.D., eds. Psychology and educational practice, p. 356-68. Berkeley, CA, McCutchan Publishing, Summer 2001.   Briefing Americans spend more on the schooling of our students than nearly all other affluent countries. Yet, our students make the least gains in reading, mathematics, and science. Although they score about average on tests in the … Read More

Teacher Certification Reconsidered

Teacher Certification Reconsidered: Stumbling for Quality (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Kate Walsh Baltimore, MD: The Abell Foundation, October, 2001.   Briefing Policymakers and the public assume that trained and certified teachers are better teachers. Aspiring teachers spend years taking education courses. Billions are spent on training programs. Public schools in all states are required to hire certified teachers. But is there evidence that trained and certified (some … Read More

How Science Informs Reading Instruction

How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading (click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Keith Rayner, Barbara R. Foorman, Charles A. Perfetti, David Pesetsky, and Mark S. Seidenberg. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 2, No. 2, November 2001   Briefing The greatest weakness of the public schools is their continuing ineffectiveness in reading instruction. During the course of children’s school careers, very many of their academic and … Read More

Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge

(click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) The Secretary’s Annual Report on Teacher Quality Office of Postsecondary Education Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education, 2002   Briefing Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge is a U. S. Department of Education (USDOE) report on the quality of America’s teacher training. Drawing upon the data compiled under Title II of the 1998 Higher Education Act, the report is a guide to the … Read More

Follow Through: Why Didn’t We?

(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Cathy L. Watkins Effective School Practices, 15(1), Winter, 1995. Briefing What do we do with a teaching technique that works? Surely, educators would welcome such a breakthrough with open arms. Incredibly, they haven’t. Project Follow Through, the largest experiment ever undertaken to find effective methods for teaching disadvantaged children, discovered such a teaching method at a cost of nearly a billion dollars. They … Read More

Private Sector Alternatives for Preventing Reading Failure

Groff, P.  (1987).  Private sector alternatives for preventing reading failure, Washington, DC:  National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement. Editor’s note:  Chapters IV-VI contain outdated names, addresses, and references, and therefore were omitted _________________ A directory of national organizations providing a rationale for their need;  An assessment of the professional training they provide for prospective or inservice teachers of reading By Patrick Groff, Professor of Education San Diego State University   I. Introduction The major purpose of … Read More

Preventing Reading Failure

Private Sector Alternatives for Preventing Reading Failure (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Patrick Groff Professor, San Diego State University Washington, DC: National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement, 1987.   Briefing The No Child Left Behind Act calls for greater reliance on rigorous educational research. But is a shortage of rigorous studies the real problem? In 1987, Professor Patrick Groff reported that the U. S. was experiencing … Read More

Shifting Images

Shifting Images of Developmentally Appropriate Practice as Seen Through Different Lenses (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By David K. Dickinson Educational Researcher, 31(1), 2002, pp. 26-32.   Briefing Despite billions spent, preschool programs such as Headstart have produced disappointing results. A prime reason may be that the nation’s largest accreditor of preschool programs has required them to use teaching practices that impede, rather than encourage, school readiness. The National … Read More

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