In this controversy piece, we portray online learning as growing too fast for existing regulatory structures to oversee and generally as having failed to live up to its potential. Operators, particularly for-profit operators, have generally not produced successful schools. We urge reforms of cyber schooling funding mechanisms, data systems, and…

Proposals to reauthorize No Child Left Behind seek to ensure "equitable" access to effective teachers. The U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top fund rewards state plans for "ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals" and for "ambitious yet achievable annual targets to increase the…

North Carolina is addressing the technology issue with comprehensive plans that provide guidelines about what computer equipment to purchase, how to use it, and how to ensure equal access to all students. (JOW)

In this interview, Eve Wallwork, a junior at David W. Butler High School in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) School District, talks about her research project on the field of early language learning. Wallwork shares the most important findings of her research, the benefits of early language learning, and her plans in the future.

Describes a model counselor mentoring program begun by the Wake County (North Carolina) School System. Discusses selection, training, responsibility, and concerns of the six mentors; reactions of the eight new counselors; evaluation of new counselors; and the role of the mentor and on-site personnel. (NB)

Argues that only if the nation's schools act now in concert with the real world will America stand a chance of awaking from the nightmare of violence. Notes successful efforts to address the problem in North Carolina. (SR)

Restates his earlier criticisms of the North Carolina Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument. The instrument is not content specific and is built on an epistemology valuing propositional thinking and devaluating suppositional thinking at a time when other initiatives are promoting teachers' feelings of worth and sense of autonomy. (MLH)

Discusses guidelines proposed by the Internal Revenue Service that would revoke the tax exempt status of schools sponsored by fundamentalist Protestants. Describes schools visited and holds that (1) skepticism toward the religious orientation of these schools is unwarranted, and (2) the effort to attribute their emergence to racism is an…

Discusses how advocacy groups use standards movement to obtain more school spending from state legislatures through the courts. Describes New York and North Carolina cases wherein plaintiffs used states' standards and performance expectations as evidence of the states' failure to provide an adequate education for all students, especially poor and…

Barbara Jordan served as the hearing officer for three-day adversary evaluation hearings about the pros and cons of minimum competency testing (MCT). This report is the complete transcript of the third day of proceedings. The pro team testimony, led by James Popham, began with William Raspberry, who presented his view of the likely impact of MCT.…

Makes the case that the narrow approach to accountability mandated in North Carolina hinders the realization of the governor's plan for education reform. States that school cultures shaped by a testing environment do not support what is recognized as good teaching. (SK)

A central concern of Joseph Milner's February 1991 "Kappan" article critiquing the North Carolina Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument is that teacher evaluation will drive teaching. He errs in confusing essential skills with basic skills, ignoring all teacher evaluation's purposes except instructional improvement, and claiming the…

A survey of Rowan-Salisbury County North Carolina businesses found that employers want entry-level workers who can communicate, solve basic math problems, work in a team situation, and think critically. The school district implemented a plan that provides more rigorous tech prep, college prep, and occupational prep curricula. (JOW)

The increasing tendency in North Carolina to support school expenditures from local revenues may be leading to greater disparities in financing from one school district to another. (Author/IRT)

Argues that three major educational reform efforts since "Risk," overlooked or underappreciated by Koret Task Force, are now seeing results: State standards and accountability, advances in research on cognitive development of young children, and efforts to improve teacher quality. Disagrees with task-force assertion that more money will…