Carney's Commentary

Education Week March 2, 2005 (Vol.24, No.25)

Items making the front page: The National Conference of State Legislatures aver that “the federal government has taken control of state education systems, and state leaders want them back.” The nation’s governors conference take steps to put more rigor towards college and work readiness. The high court will review Schaffer v. Weast concerning Special Ed.

p.9, The Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative for education has a pilot program involving 22 districts (listed) to obtain measurable data on instructional and management practices. One district refers to this as, “….standardized benchmarking.”

p.10, The 27-member Committee on Teacher Ed’s book Preparing Teachers for a Changing World can be found at www.edweek.org/links (150 researchers).

p.14, A report from the Princeton, N.J.-based Ed Testing Service: “One-third of the students who enter high schools in the U.S. drop out before they graduate.” We now rank only 10th in the world among economically advanced countries.

p.16, Dateline N.Dakota: Republican-controlled House (49-41) measure would eliminate local school property taxes and would raise $ through a higher sales tax and a surcharge on income taxes (seeking a true adequacy formula, according to Rep. Haas).

p.16, Gov. Bush has requested 170,000 more vouchers for Florida.

p.24, The NASSP has detailed a plan for aid for high schools and more tests are not on it.