Education Issues

Here are several recent letters and opinion pieces discussing education issues. The links to the first few are now broken. It appears that the Journal-Sentinel has stopped archiving them.

●          Fiscal challenge still faces district. Article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 26, 2003. Pushes for continued reform of the district.

●          MPS is challenged again by Korte's departure. Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 22, 2002. Discusses the challenges of choosing a new superintendent.

●          Testing gives districts a tool to measure progress. Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Jan. 12, 2002. Explains what annual testing of students can accomplish. Reprinted as part of EducationNews.org's Defense of Testing series.

 ●         'Anti-Testers' Skew Goals in Milwaukee. Letter published in Education Week (October 3, 2001). Discusses some of the political challenges in implementing an accountability program.

 ●         Schools learn integration obtained through coercion is short-lived (pdf). Re-published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 13, 2000 (originally published in Education Week). Argues that integration efforts need a new paradigm.

 ●         School Choice: Changing the Vision for Public Education (pdf). An interview with School Reform News (May 1999).

 ●         Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Envisioning a 'Partnership' in Educational Research. A letter published in Education Week (January 7, 2004). Formerly available on the Education Week site.

 ●         The Future of No Child Left Behind. A commentary published in EducationNews.org on April 20, 2004. Argues for a system of rating schools that incorporates information on students.

 ●         Let's really look at MPS democracy, governance. A commentary published in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on October 24, 2009, examining the issue of a proposed mayoral takeover. (pdf)

 ●         MPS faces a crisis in both accountability and democracy. A commentary published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on February 20, 2010, concerning the failure of democracy in MPS. (pdf)

 ●         Let's judge based on student outcomes. A commentary published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 24, 2010, concerning the inability to make decisions based on student outcomes. (pdf)

●        MPS' failure to properly use data. Examines the reasons Wisconsin did not win a Race to the Top grant. Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on November 27, 2010. This article was mistitled because actually was ahead of Wisconsin in the use of data. (pdf)

Other Issues

 ●         A closer look at community (pdf). Letter published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on January 18, 2003, concerning revised figures that showed debunked former statistics used to describe Milwaukee as “hypersegregated.”

 ●         Comment on the August 8 Decision by WisDot. A suggested strategy for developing support for a pedestrian/bicycle lane on Milwaukee’s Hoan bridge. Published on the Web in August 2002.

 ●         Concealed-carry law unlikely to make Wisconsin safer. In a column from Nov. 1, 2003 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Greg Stanford describes my analysis of FBI crime data and whether or not states have concealed weapons laws.