by The box office success of the education documentary Waiting for Superman, and the much-publicized resignations of the top education administrators in Washington, D.C. and New York City (Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein) have focused new attention on charter schools. Meanwhile, charter schools have become a new battleground in church/state fights, as dioceses convert inner city [...]
Read the full postAuthor Archive for Mary McConnell
I spent about eight hours this past weekend reviewing applicants for a college scholarship program. The objective of this very worthwhile program – I don’t want to reveal further details for the usual reasons – is to identify talented, disadvantaged high school students who would benefit enormously from attending the kind of colleges that are [...]
Read the full postI recently had the opportunity to read a draft article by Notre Dame Law professors Margaret Brinig and Nicole Garnett (I am citing this article with their permission). The article, “Catholic Schools and Broken Windows,” examines the impact of Catholic school closures on inner city Chicago neighborhoods. The “broken windows” refers to the now famous [...]
Read the full postI subscribe to Education Week’s online daily report, and two articles in yesterday’s issue provided an intriguing juxtaposition. The lead story, “Civil Rights Groups Call for New Federal Education Agenda,” reported that “seven leading civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, called on U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today to [...]
Read the full postI’m blogging about education on a law/religion/ethics blog, and I used to teach high school history, economics and government. So I feel more or less obligated to say something about the latest culture war flare up over social studies curriculum standards in Texas.
Read the full postRob Vischer made the very good point, in response to my previous blog post, that the education debate is too easily reduced to slogans, and that the situation “on the ground” is more complex. He doubts whether national educational directives make much sense. As a former high school teacher I have a lot of sympathy with his position. From the worm’s eye the view is very different indeed. But since our public schools are now thoroughly addicted to federal money, that money will invariably and even necessarily come with strings. Just this week the Department of Education rolled out a proposed new set of strings – a veritable web of strings – in the name of proposed grade-by-grade common standards.
Read the full postAlthough the health care debate continues to suck air from public discussion of almost every other domestic policy initiative, a couple of big education stories did hit the headlines last week.
On March 2 President Obama roiled the American educational establishment when he appeared to laud Rhodes Island school authorities for firing every teacher at Central Falls High School (effective for the 2010-11 school year) after the union rejected a modest set of “turnaround” improvements. These included lengthening the school day by 25 minutes, tutoring students before and after school on a rotating schedule, and – as a former teacher I can’t help wonder if this one was the deal-killer – eating lunch with students once a week…
