William Raspberry asks in an August 2000 editorial why more administrators of mediocre public schools aren’t learning from the practices of models and methodologies in their midst that are proving successful, particularly in very high “at-risk” environments. Good question. I wonder why best practices in reading instruction, in which I have been very active, are […]

Public education, its plight, and what to do about it have been at or near the top of every list of public policy priorities at least since the 1983 publication of “A Nation At Risk”. Since then, the private sector (businesses, chambers of commerce, philanthropists, foundations, etc.), to their great credit, have shown a remarkable […]

The Heritage Foundation has recently published a report entitled No Excuses: Lessons From 21 High-Performing High-Poverty Schools, based on research conducted by Samuel Casey Carter, a Bradley Fellow at the Foundation. I strongly recommend it to anyone remotely concerned with the state of public education in this country. Carter’s research comprised a nationwide survey of […]