Everyone agrees that teachers' voices should be heard in their schools. But what does that mean? And how can teachers' voices be used to improve student learning? In this article, the author offers insights from his experience with the League of Professional Schools. As a result of the teacher empowerment movement that began in the mid-1980s and…

Students in Mr. Shaw's classes used to be free to discover the joy of reading books of their own choosing. But that kind of spontaneity is vanishing under No Child Left Behind. This article describes the classroom library Mr. Shaw has built throughout the years and the joy it has brought to his students and their learning.

In this article, the author discusses the "O" grade that is sometimes given out to students who do not complete their work. The author feels there are two issues to consider and in this article, he discusses those two issues. First, and most important, is to determine the appropriate consequence for students who fail to complete an assignment. The…

In this article, the author argues that people are systematically mis-educated about their own history and culture. They are taught by a series of slogans that create caricatures of significant events, individuals, and peoples. As a result, their understanding is so weak that they are unable to grasp the complexity of or learn lessons from past…

The Summer 2004 issue of Research Points, a four-page flier from the American Educational Research Association, opens with the fundamental case for value-added assessment: Today's accountability systems place the blame on schools for inadequate student academic achievement, which seems unfair to many people. They believe that family background and…

In early 1999, the boys' varsity basketball coach for the Hazel Park School District, which is in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, unexpectedly announced his intention to retire at the end of the year. The only two applicants for his position were John Barnett and Geraldine Fuhr. After the interview process, the superintendent announced that Barnett…

Heretical as it may seem in today's environment, the federal government should have a limited, though crucial, role in increasing the academic achievement of students. All the wrappings conceal the root issue in American public education. For example, the current criticism of the Bush Administration budgets for failing to match the funding…

Many of those who have never lived in a textbook-adoption state have never really understood the concept of "book depository." Depositories exist in many of the approximately two dozen textbook- adoption states. Florida is one of those states, and it is a major force in the national instructional materials market. The Florida book depository is a…

In this article, the author touches on the ways that technology can come to the aid of teachers with students who don't speak English. He discusses different word processors that successfully translate foreign text.

This article discusses the issues that teachers have with pursuing strategies that have repeatedly failed. It re-assures teachers that there are simple, proven, affordable structures that exist right now and could have a dramatic, widespread impact on schools and achievement--in virtually any school. The author suggests that the most promising…

Recent developments in the provision of education in the U.S. mean that the old definitions of "public schooling" no longer hold. In this article, Mr. Hess offers his suggestions for a broadened definition that will help public education regain its status as a shared ideal. He offers five questions to guide the efforts to bring more precision to…

This article contains Linda Nathan, head master of the Boston Arts Academy, response to Mr. Hess's article, "The Larger Purpose of Public Schools." While there are points on which they can agree, Ms. Nathan questions whether Mr. Hess is truly interested in strengthening public education.

At this point in his long and varied career in public education, Joe Nathan, the author of this article is beginning to doubt some of his previous stances about the principles under which public schools should operate. He remains, however, a staunch supporter of public charter schools. As he reads Frederick Hess' argument that we need to…

In this article, the author comments on the article "An Ongoing Conversation", by Frederick Hess. The author points out that the increasing polarization of the public's views on public education serves us poorly and we need to revive the skill and will to engage in more thoughtful dialogue.

After considering the arguments of the four respondents to his original essay, Mr. Hess notes that there are a number of points of general agreement between the respondents and himself, but that there also seems to be significant confusion about the purpose of his original essay. In response, he attempts to highlight the points of apparent…