Pre-K Spending Moving Forward Despite Tough Times
Headlines proclaiming cutbacks in pre-kindergarten expansions and other education programs are common in these tough times, as are editorials questioning the extent states can afford them. An example of the new cautionary tone appeared in the Topeka-Capital Journal in Kansas earlier this month. Journalists who are covering the story of strapped state legislatures are reporting [...]
Push To Equalize Gifted Kindergarten Backfires
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein may have sounded all the right notes when he pushed to provide equal access to gifted programs for all city children and revamped testing criteria for the sought-after program. Instead, the number of children entering the city’s gifted classes dropped by half this year — and were less [...]
Will a New Pre-K Agenda Be Part of ‘Tough Choices’?
Education reforms may be limited by tough economic times, but several state officials are putting their weight behind recommendations contained in The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and its “Tough Times, Tough Choices,’’ report. Journalists from anywhere in the U.S. can call in between 10 and 11 a.m. on Thursday morning, [...]
Economic Reality Intrudes on Great Expectations
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts announced a lot of grand education plans when he was elected in 2006, including free community college for all and an ambitious agenda to expand pre-kindergarten. This week, as the Boston Globe noted, his education secretary Paul Reville acknowledged the state’s $1.4 billion budget gap means the governor will have [...]
In Tough Economy, Child Care Choices Dwindle
Meredith Kolodner of the New York Daily News did a nice job on Sunday describing the staggering cost of child care in New York City and the lack of viable choices for working mothers as the economy struggles. Kolodner profiled a young, college-educated mother who finds herself number 32,909 on the list of city residents [...]
Middle Class Squeeze
Who Should Be Eligible For Pre-Kindergarten? Tune in to Hechinger Webinar November 12 at 1:30 p.m. EDT The troubled economy is taking its toll on the middle class in many ways, including the cost of pre-kindergarten for the many who are not eligible for publicly funded programs.
“Going Big”; “Starting Early”
Paul Tough and his book called “Whatever it Takes” on the Harlem Children’s Zone is popping up everywhere these days. Who says there’s no market for thoughtful, in depth reporting about education? Here’s a piece on the HCZ’s “Baby College” that Paul did for Ira Glass’ “This American Life.” It is one of two pieces [...]
Math Building Blocks
The Washington Post’s Michael Alison Chandler has been doing some good work this month on math education. She’s had pieces on math scores that are relatively weak compared to literacy marks, the challenges related to teaching algebra in the eighth grade, and what math lessons should look like beginning in pre-kindergarten. [She is also retaking [...]
“Turn off the Play Station and go to school!”
Linda Jacobson has a story in this week’s Education Week highlighting new research on a problem that rarely gets mentioned: chronic absenteeism in early elementary school. The study by the National Center for Children in Poverty here at Columbia University shows a correlation between missing school starting in kindergarten and poor academic achievement throughout elementary [...]
