World News Center
Perspective is needed on school budget-cut fears
March 12, 2010You saw the big headline on the front of our Metro section recently: "Deep budget cuts approved for Prince George's schools." The news from Northern Virginia was much the same: "Fairfax County schools chief proposes dramatic budget cuts" and "Proposed Arlington schools budget cuts back in many areas."
Jay Mathews: Nonfiction books for schools' consideration
March 12, 2010Buried in the avalanche of e-mails and comments I received after my column that begged for more nonfiction books in school, I found a note from one of my favorite educators, Dan McMahon, principal of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. In an English class he teaches, McMahon had assigned "The Dragons of Eden" by Carl Sagan and "Black Boy" by Richard Wright, so I hoped for more good suggestions.
Charles Sylvester dies at 75, American diplomat helped open relations with China
March 12, 2010Charles Sylvester, 75, the fourth generation of an American family immersed in Chinese history and a key diplomat in Beijing after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong, died Feb. 7 at his home in Hereford, Ariz. He had lung cancer.
Who's afraid of the big bad charter schools? Not St. Mary's.
March 12, 2010 Zina McGowan-Thomas, the energetic public information officer for St. Mary's County public schools, sends me many announcements and news releases that I am tempted to delete, as I do most e-mails from school districts. I know this is a bad idea, because sometimes you will find, in the smallest bulletin, something astonishing, such as the e-mail she sent me a few weeks ago about the Chesapeake Public Charter School.
D.C. teacher evaluation system has its fans in classrooms
March 12, 2010George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union, told me last year that the District's new evaluation program had no "appropriate system of support to improve instruction" and was "bad for kids." He suggested I contact more teachers to learn the many flaws of IMPACT, the program's name.
Parents of high school freshmen denied AP need to study the facts
March 12, 2010My wife and I sometimes got emotionally involved with high school issues when our children attended. High school counts. Parents can get upset. So I paid close attention when two Arlington County mothers contacted me, separately, about a flap over Advanced Placement World History in ninth grade.
Give students a reality check: Assign more nonfiction books.
March 12, 2010It wasn't until I was in my 50s that I realized how restricted my high school reading lists had been and how little they had changed for my three children. They were enthusiastic readers, as my wife and I were. But all, or almost all, of the required books for both generations were fiction.
Family: Eight essential life skills that schools can teach our kids
March 12, 2010 I learned at an early age from my mother that there was more to school than reading, writing, arithmetic and lunch. She was a teacher. I was an eager student of the academic sort. That didn't impress her. She told me later it was clear I was ready to read when I was 4, but she refused to teach me because I needed more work on my social skills.
Jay Mathews: Teachers are key to making schools better
March 12, 2010I am late mentioning it. It's none of my business. But I think it might have been a bad idea to add what survey respondents were saying about the District's schools to The Washington Post's poll stories on the declining approval of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.
Some say learning styles are myth, others say they're magic
March 12, 2010If you are in a mischievous mood and want to get a rise out of your favorite teachers or principals, send them a copy of "Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence," in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Volume 9, No. 3, December 2008. (Actually, it came out in December 2009, but for a reason understood only by academics in the timeless search for truth, its official publication date was 12 months previous.)
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