Education Policy & Reform

2007

Shanker Blows Up the World

Thomas J. Sugrue : Unions

The life and legacy of a fiery New York teachers' advocate gets caught in the crossfire of a changing liberal landscape.
School's Out

LynNell Hancock : Standardized Testing

The radical corporate overhaul of NYC public schools is draining the soul from education and reducing learning to a series of standardized tests and progress reports.
Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind'

Linda Darling-Hammond

The problems and promises of Bush's education policy.

2006

Katrina's Last Victims?

Lisa Delpit & Charles Payne : Charter Schools

The New Orleans school system, re-created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is beginning to look like something designed by FEMA.
Playing Politics at School

Hasdai Westbrook : Drug Policy/Drug War

Casting himself as tough on school crime as election day nears, Kentucky Republican Representative Geoff Davis is pushing a measure that puts the constitutional right of students at risk.
Leave No Tax Cheat Behind

John C. Fager : Taxes

If President Bush and the Republican Congress would close the loopholes on tax cheats--especially the superrich--there would be ample money to improve the quality of education in the nation's public schools.
Doing Lunch

Anna Lappé : Food & Nutrition

Ann Cooper, gourmet chef turned healthy school food advocate, talks about becoming a "lunch lady" and what it takes to reform our children's cafeterias.
Rebels With a Cause

Gary Younge : Student Movements

A new generation of student activists is flexing its muscles, rolling back employment rules in France, demanding education reform in Chile and fighting for immigrant rights in the US.
Science and the First Amendment

Patricia J. Princehouse : 1st Amendment

If you can lie about science and get away with it, you can lie about anything. That's why we must say no to ideological zealots who are waging war against science and against democracy itself.
UCLA's Dirty Thirty

Jon Wiener : Student Movements

Negative media coverage has succeeded in undermining support among prominent conservatives for a UCLA alumni group that paid students to target and expose left-leaning faculty.
Education Mobilization

Major Owens : State of the Union

Establish a first-rate education system to draw on our greatest untapped human resource: the children of our inner cities.

2005

Overcoming Apartheid

Jonathan Kozol : African-Americans

Apartheid education is alive in America and rapidly increasing in hyper-segregated inner-city schools. And though it's now fashionable for policy-makers to declare integration a failure, effective programs across the country still survive--and deserve to thrive.
Darwin on Trial

Eyal Press : Religious Fundamentalism

As the site of a trial on including intelligent design in biology textbooks, Dover, Pennsylvania, is a focal point of a national debate on science and religion. But a look at the town and its residents show that the battle may not be so clearly defined.
Before School

David L. Kirp : California

San Francisco recently launched universal preschool, designed to make young participants higher earners and better citizens when they reach adulthood. If successful, San Francisco's initiative could make preschool as commonplace as kindergarten.
NYU's Poison Ivy Itch

Andrew Ross : Unions

When one of New York's biggest and most liberal institutions gets into the business of union-busting, it's hardly an internal matter.
Teaching 9/11

Jon Wiener : Youth

How do you tell a student the story of September 11?
Failing Students, Rising Profits

Annette Fuentes : Business

The Community Education Partners (CEP) serves students the public schools don't want--and it makes millions.
Buying In, Selling Out

Patricia J. Williams : Journalists & Journalism