This is only a test

Kids are the canaries in the mineshaft of education reform

By Robert Keough Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Apr 15, 2000

It’s springtime, which has come to mean not only balmy weather and blooming flowers but MCAS testing in our public schools. In April, fourth-, eighth-, and 10th-graders took their tests in English composition. In May, these students will sharpen their Number 2 pencils for subject-matter tests in four areas: English Language Arts and Literature; Mathematics;(...)

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The Trouble With Harry Potter

By Susan Linn 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

What gets lost in the shift from books to screen and merchandise? The magic. My mother would have loved Harry Potter. This might not seem like much to J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling series about the life and times of a boy wizard in contemporary England. After all, she’s at the top of the(...)

Education

Five Ways to Reinvent Education

By Carol Gerwin 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

When it comes to education reform, two topics have dominated the debate on Beacon Hill of late–money and MCAS. What’s been lost is much discussion of what education reform was supposed to be about–actual changes in the classroom. So we went looking for some. CommonWealth checked out traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools(...)

Education/ Opinion

A Fair Share for Continuing Education

By David Ram 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

In the evening, after a long day at work, an estimated 35,000 adults attend classes at Massachusetts community colleges, trying to further their education and their careers. These students take real academic courses, such as computer programming, business management, or English composition–courses that count toward graduation. In terms of academic quality, they are the same(...)

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New Englands Embattled Men of The Sea

By richardadamscarey 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman By Richard Adams Carey Houghton Mifflin, Boston, New York, 1999, 381 pages. Many people hold two simultaneous images of the New England fishing industry. There is the romantic view, with pictures of beautiful fishing schooners like the Gertrude L. Thebaud and Canada’s famous Bluenose. This(...)

Education

Ted and Nancy Sizer on Schools and Morality

By Robert Keough 1 Comment Apr 1, 2000

Schools teach more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. And we’re not just talking electives. In the way teachers and administrators conduct themselves, in the work they do and don’t do, in what they expect and what they tolerate in student behavior, schools teach lessons far more powerful than any formal curriculum. So say Theodore R.(...)

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Examining the books in Hopkington

By Andrew Nelson 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

HOPKINTON — Dr. John Duffy, who has been involved in Hopkinton politics for more than 30 years, says he’s never seen the town’s finances in such a mess. The bungled books have been scrutinized in investigative stories by The Boston Globe and the town has hired an outside accountant to sort out a long unresolved(...)

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Saving Homeowners From Unscrupulous Lendersand Themselves

By Ada Focer 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

“Don’t Borrow Trouble.” That’s the slogan of the City of Boston’s new program to educate consumers about loan scams and unethical lending practices that could cost them their homes. Given that more than 1,000 home-equity loans and refinanced mortgages were written in Boston’s lower-income neighborhoods last year alone, it comes not a moment too soon.(...)

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A jaundiced emEye on Winthropem

By Andrew Nelson 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

WINTHROP — It’s a mid-winter evening, Eye on Winthrop is on the air — or, more accurately, cable — and Dick Bangs is perturbed. That in itself is not so unusual. But right now, it’s not the “disservices,” as he calls them, that state and especially municipal officials rain down on his fellow Winthrop citizens(...)

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Counterpoints

By Michael Widmer 0 Comments Apr 1, 2000

Most taxpayers would agree that it is desirable to reduce the Massachusetts income tax rate to 5 percent, especially given a state income tax burden that is one of the highest in the nation. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation shares this view. The real question is how we can achieve that result while preserving the extraordinary(...)

Spring 2000

Kids are the canaries in the mineshaft of education reform