forum

Teaching Citizenship
Can public schools teach good citizenship?

Crafting Good Citizens
Public schools can —and should— teach students to become active participants in democratic life
By Stephen Macedo

Faulty Engineering
The diversity of values within American society renders public schools ill-equipped to produce the engaged citizens our democracy requires
By Chester E. Finn Jr.

features

Exploring the Costs of Accountability
No Child Left Behind is no unfunded mandate
By Robert Costrell and James Peyser

A Board’s Eye View
Lessons from life in public office
By Peter Meyer

The Sun Sets on the West
Social studies, the politically correct way
By Jonathan Burack

A Building Need
Charter schools in search of good homes
By Kim Smith and James Willcox

research

The Race Connection
Are teachers more effective with students who share their ethnicity?
By Thomas S. Dee

The Gentleman’s “A”
New evidence on the effects of grade inflation
By Maurice E. Lucas and David N. Figlio

whatever happened to...

The Open Classroom
Were schools without walls just another fad?
By Larry Cuban

check the facts

Voucher Research Controversy
New looks at the New York City evaluation
By William G. Howell and Paul E. Peterson

from the editors

Tough Love
The value of high grading standards
By Martin R. West

correspondence

Rod Paige on teachers who cheat; the benefits of inclusion
It is shameful that a small minority of teachers feel the need to help their students cheat on tests. The issue says something larger about our society that is very hard to fathom and is simply unacceptable.

book reviews

Teachers Unions
The Worm in the Apple: How the Teacher Unions Are Destroying American Education by Peter Brimelow
By George Mitchell and Julia E. Koppich

Uncivil War
California Dreaming: Reforming Mathematics Education by Suzanne M. Wilson
By Ralph A. Raimi

Just the Facts
School Figures: The Data Behind the Debate
by Hanna Skandera and Richard Sousa
Hoover Institution, 2003, $15; 342 pp.
By Chester E. Finn Jr.

Book Alert
Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, by John H. McWhorter; Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority, by Richard Arum; School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School, by Edward Humes; No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practices of School Accountability, edited by Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West

education matters to me

A Kibbutz Education
The collective farm was a powerful educational tool
By Amitai Etzioni