This article introduces a conversation with Brett Peiser, named chief executive officer of "Uncommon Schools" in July of 2012, along with the principal of North Star Academy Vailsburg Middle School, a charter school in Newark, New Jersey's West Ward. There is no doubt that "Uncommon Schools" has given thousands of…

While heads were spinning, policy watchers seemed genuinely perplexed by New York City's Mayor de Blasio's education opinions. De Blasio opposed many of Bloomberg's reform efforts despite the achievement gains realized by the nation's largest school district during the last 12 years. Yet on close reading, de Blasio's…

The idea that one of the Catholic Church's most respected religious orders might run a public school sounded odd, maybe even, as Francis Cardinal George, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, conjectured, illegal. But a decade ago several trends in American education, and in the Catholic Church, made a Catholic-operated public school seem…

Suspended "between childhood and the adult world, pre-teens have been called the toughest to teach." Indeed, one can't touch middle school without hearing about "raging hormones." By all accounts, middle schools are a weak link in the chain of public education. Is it the churn of ill-conceived attempts at reform that's causing all the problems? Is…

In this article, the author talks about the resignation of New York State's commissioner of education David Steiner, and how it will affect the state's Race to the Top. He contends that Steiner was savvy enough to understand the importance of Race to the Top and able enough to turn the state's education energies toward it. The "Washington Post"…

During much of the previous nine years, Tom Carroll had overseen the launch of eight charter schools in Albany. All of Tom Carroll's Albany charter schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Not only that, they had become the best schools in the city. Tom Carroll now runs the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability (FERA), which…

While there are no reliable counts of single-gender schools in the first half of the 20th century, best estimates are that most were schools for white boys. Many of the girls' schools that did exist early on served as "finishing" schools rather than preparation for college. In the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights and feminist movements combined…

When Bloomberg gave his first State of the City address, in January, 2002, he announced his intention to seek mayoral control of the schools and abolish the infamous New York City Board of Education, which he called "a rinky-dink candy store." He joined a long list of New York mayors, educators, and business leaders who believed that the city's…

After a grueling primary season this year--for the Democrats, at least--it seems in retrospect that there was something inevitable in the pairing of John McCain and Barack Obama as the two contenders for the presidency in 2008. Two distinct generations, two unique backgrounds, two very different worldviews: white/black, old/young, right/left.…

As most educators know, Catholic schools work and have worked for a long time. Sociologist James Coleman and colleagues Thomas Hoffer and Sally Kilgore, in 1982, were among the first to document Catholic schools' academic successes, in "High School Achievement: Public and Private Schools." A variety of studies since, by scholars at the University…

When Peter Meyer moved to Hudson, New York and placed his child in the local school system, he was shocked at the abysmal quality of education there. He was even more surprised to learn that there was very little movement for reform. He joined the school board with the hopes of enacting new policies, but found instead that it was an ineffecient…