Volume 16, No.3

Spring 2002

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  • Supreme Court Debates Vouchers

    Justices hear oral arguments in a case with broad implications not just for education but the separation of church and state and the very definition of public versus private in a democratic society.

    By Barbara Miner

    Justices hear oral arguments on the most important education case since the 1954 Brown decision.

  • Voucher Schools Cash In

    A Rethinking Schools investigative report on how a little-known accounting proovision allows Milwaukee voucher schools to reap extra millions of dollars.

    By Erik Gunn

    Little known provision allows voucher schools to add in costs of buildings paid for long ago.

  • Exploring Women’s Rights

    A first-grade teacher uses the 1908 Bread and Roses textile strike to help her young students understand International Women's Day.

    By Dale Weiss

    A first-grade teacher uses the 1908 Bread and Roses textile strike to help her students understand International Women’s Day.

  • Stocks for Fun and Propaganda

    In schools across the country, students take part in highly popular stock market simulation games. But beware. These games often teach the wrong lesson.

    By Mark Maier

    In schools across the country, students take part in stock market simulation games. But these games often teach the wrong lesson.

  • Special Education

    As Congress takes up reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a key questions is whether it will fulfill its pledge to sufficiently fund special education services.

    By Priscilla Pardini

    i As Congress takes up reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a key question is whether it will fulfill its funding pledges.

  • The History of Special Education

    By Priscilla Pardini

    In 1975, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, better known at the time as Public Law 94-142, to change what was clearly an untenable situation. Despite compulsory […]

  • A View From the Other Side

    Too often, school staff fail to see parents as allies. It doesn't have to be that way.

    By Sue Gramling

    Too often school staff fail to see parents as allies

  • What is an IEP?

    Often shrouded in mystery, the EIP - Individual Education Program - details each special education student's needs and goals, and how the school will meet them.

    By Priscilla Pardini

    The goals Mary Anderson wanted for the 11-year-old – a child with severe autism and moderate retardation – were by most accounts modest: increase the amount of time he spent […]

  • #Teachers Reject Testing Bribes”

    Across California, a growing number of teachers are rejecting the financial incentives tied to scores on high-stakes tests.

    By David Bacon

    Across California, a growing number of teachers are rejecting the financial incentives tied to scores on high-stakes testing.

  • Testing Companies Go for the Gold

    Testing is getting a big push from one important source, which gets little media coverage - the testing companies themselves.

    By David Bacon

    Dominating the field are three big publishers. McGraw-Hill and its subsidiary, CTBS, the Terranova Test series. Harcourt Inc.’s Education Group publishes the STAR test, and Houghton-Mifflin’s Riverside division publishes the […]

  • Defeating Despair

    This month, Rethinking Schools publishes "Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World," edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Petersen. This article is excerpted from the book's final chapter.

    By Bill Bigelow

    An excerpt from the forthcoming book, Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World.

  • For-Profits Target Education

    Despite the high-sounding rhetoric of companies such as Edison, stock prices and profits - not improving education - are at the heart of the for-profit education movement.

    By Barbara Miner

    Despite the high-sounding rhetoric of companies such as Edison, stock prices and profits – not education – are at the heart of privatization.

  • Edison’s Elusive Profits

    Privatization advocates are well aware that Edison’s future will have a significant impact on the overall movement by private companies to run public schools. As Jack Clegg, CEO of Nobel […]

  • A letter from Kaeli

    An art teacher helps first-grade students think about skin color and bias in children's picture books.

    By Patty Bode

    An art teacher helps first-grade students think about skin color and bias.

  • Standards and Multiculturalism 16.3

    Two noted educators discuss how the increasing reliance on textbooks and standardized tests undermines multicultural education.

    A Dialogue between Anita Bohn and Christine Sleeter Two noted educators discuss how the increasing reliance on textbooks and standardized tests undermines multicultural education.

  • Anti-Racist Organizing in LA

    Members of the Coalition for Educational Justice explain the multiracial group's origins, and its campaigns on issues such as high-stakes testing.

    By Kirti Baranwal and Alex Caputo-Pearl

    “Why do we have to take these tests? They make me feel dumb.” “Our campus is overcrowded and it doesn’t feel like a school. It feels like a jail with […]

  • Bush Backs Anti-gay Discrimination

    New Federal education law witholds federal funds from schools that take a stance against the Boy Scouts.

    By Stacie Willimas

    New federal education law withholds federal funds from schools that take a stance against the Boy Scouts.

  • Activists to Gather in Milwaukee

    National Coalition of Education Activists to hold biennial conference this July in Milwuakee.

    By Kelly Dawson

    National Coalition of Education Activists to hold biennial conference this July in Milwaukee

  • The Wounded Knee Massacre and Children’s Books

    By Beverly Stapin and Doris Seale

    Wounded Knee, by Neil Waldman. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001). 48 pp. Illus by the author. On Dec. 28, 1890, the remnants of Big Foot’s band of the Lakota […]

  • From Coffee to Coca

    A classroom friendly book helps students recognize how world trade affects our lives.

    By Chris Fons

    A classroom-friendly book helps students recognize how world trade affects our lives.

  • A Book About Hope

    By Linda Christensen

    Hope Was Here, Joan Bauer. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000). 186 pp. $16.99. Hardcover. My brother likes to say that I was the surliest waitress in Humboldt County, California, and […]

  • Special Ed

    Special Education remains a promise unfulfilled. It is time to renew our commitment – and ensure the programs and resources necessary to fulfill that commitment.

  • Teach Justice!

    A New Milwaukee Discussion Series

    A New Milwaukee Discussion Series