Consumer Empowerment

American Decline can be Reversed through Grassroots Action Public education has been decaying on the inside for decades. Educators blame poverty, poor parenting, changing demographics, the growth of hedonistic popular culture, insufficient funding, and myriad other factors. Seldom mentioned, however, is education’s failure to adapt and overcome these conditions. In the view of most educators, schools are doing all they can–an explanation that is contradicted by the measurable differences in effectiveness among teachers within the same school and … Read More

Funnix Computer-Based Instruction that Produces Catch-Up Growth

posted in: General Information |

New: Implementation Grants for Schools Funnix Reading Instruction Funnix is a web-based reading instruction program that you can access with your computer.  The program contains a carefully sequenced series of small lessons based on the thoroughly researched Direct Instruction reading curriculum.  It is inexpensive, effective, requires no teaching experience and is accessible anywhere from any location in the world. Funnix was designed for use by parents, but can be used by classroom aides, trained volunteers, and teachers with up … Read More

Parents and School

The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education The following material was excerpted from Chapter 2. Parents and Schools is not available online.   The Peripheral Parent: Making the Most of Marginality In the 1920S, there was widespread support in the United States for the idea that parents and teachers should work together. However, Americans were still uncertain about the nature and extent of this cooperation. It remained unclear to what degree parents should join in the education … Read More

Home Environments for Learning

Walberg, H.J. & Paik, S.J. 1997. Home environments for learning. In: Walberg, H.J. & Haertel, G.D., eds. Psychology and educational practice, p. 356-68. Berkeley, CA, McCutchan Publishing. This chapter emphasizes the influence of the home environment on learning within and outside school. It summarizes research on the home environment including home-based reinforcement, home instruction, homework, and other educational and psychological activities in the home. This work suggests that alterable features of the home environment may be changed to … 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

Parent Politics in Head Start

Empowerment and Education: Civil Rights, Expert-Advocates, and Parent Politics in Head Start, 1964-1980 (click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Josh Kagan, New York University School of Law Teachers College Record, 104(3), 2002, p. 516-562   Briefing The Johnson Administration was on the right track in 1964 when as part of its War on Poverty it designed a program that targeted low-income, disadvantaged three-to-five-year-old children. Head Start was conceived to … Read More

Sample Opinion 2

Value-Added Accountability and Public Confidence in Education J. E. Stone, Ed. D. House of Representatives Testimony to the Select Committee on House Resolution 495 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Tuesday, September 19, 2000 Introduction Good morning. My name is John Stone. I am a licensed educational psychologist and licensed school psychologist, and I have taught prospective teachers for the past 30 or so years. I am a graduate of the University of Florida and currently a professor in the College of … Read More

Three-year-old’s Traits Predict Personality at Age 26

Children’s Behavioral Styles at Age 3 are Linked to Their Adult Personality Traits at Age 26 (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Avshalom Caspi, et al, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London & University of Wisconsin-Madison Journal of Personality, 71(4), 2003, p. 496-513.   Briefing Teachers and parents of a shy, clingy preschooler may hope that their child’s behavior is just a phase. But what they’re more likely to … Read More

3rd Grade Reading Proficiency Charts

Are Tennessee’s Children Learning to Read? Reading is the most essential skill that children learn in school. It is taught over a 4-5 year period that begins in preschool or kindergartenand extends to 3rd grade. Beyond 3rd grade, schooling turns from learning to read, to reading to learn. Promoting children to the 4th and subsequent grades without sound reading skills not only reduces their chances of success, it misleads their parents about the child’s progress, it unloads poorly … Read More

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