Free Republic

The Jefferson fiasco underscores how activist school leaders and alumni, from California to Massachusetts, are conspiring to recklessly overhaul school policies, education standards, and curriculum this year.FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. – After a crusade by educational arsonists targeting the nation’s No. 1 high school, America’s meritocracy is about to go up in flames. The Fairfax County School Board is set to vote Thursday night to gut the race-blind, merit-based admissions testing process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. T.J. is a state-chartered magnet school legislated to serve academically gifted and advanced students. The school board plans to replace...

Progression Analysis Malcolm A. Kline, March 18, 2010 Progressives now acknowledge some of the key failures in public education but what solutions they propose to fix them may only exacerbate the problem. “It is well documented that teachers are rarely dismissed,” Robin Chait writes in a report published by the Center for American Progress (CAP). “National estimates from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Education find that school districts dismiss on average only 1.4 percent of tenured teachers each year and .7 percent of probationary teachers for poor performance.” “A number of indicators suggest...