Lessons: New York Times Education Column Archive
March 25, 2003

These pieces from EPI research associate Richard Rothstein originally appeared as a weekly column entitled "Lessons" in The New York Times between 1999 and 2003.

1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003

2003

MARCH 25 Students in a fog

2002

OCTOBER 30 Juggling 3 school goals, Texas trips

OCTOBER 23 Voter mandates and bilingual education

OCTOBER 16 With this gift horse, take a very close look

OCTOBER 9 Dropout rate is climbing and likely to go higher

OCTOBER 2 Books often give history a facelift

SEPTEMBER 25 Teacher shortages vanish when the price is right

SEPTEMBER 18 How U.S. punishes states with higher standards

SEPTEMBER 11 Rx for good health and good grades

SEPTEMBER 4 Conservatives, teachers unions and poisoned debate

AUGUST 28 Better at sums than at summarizing: The SAT gap

AUGUST 21 Schools' chosen cure for money ills: A sugar pill

AUGUST 7 Schools can use help teaching parents to get involved

JULY 24 Fairy tales as a learning tool for young offenders

JULY 17 Athletics' valuable place on the American campus

JULY 10 Raising school standards and cutting budget: Huh?

JULY 3 Failed schools? The meaning is unclear

JUNE 26 Some fair steps to take before firing teachers

JUNE 19 A voucher program flunks special ed

JUNE 12 The other role for the urban school

JUNE 5 When mothers on welfare go to work

MAY 22 Testing reaches a fork in the road

MAY 15 Court Lacks Last Word in Aid to Religious Schools

MAY 8 Two Cities, Two Elections and Two Different Worlds

MAY 1 States Teeter When Balancing Standards With Tests

APRIL 24 A Melting Pot Recipe for Immigrant Students

APRIL 17 Mr. Mayor, Schools Chief. Mr. Fix-It Is Another Story

APRIL 10 Schools, Accountability and a Sheaf of Fuzzy Math

APRIL 3 Getting Far Too Much of a Good Thing

MARCH 29 News Analysis: Fuzzy Data on Race

MARCH 27 National Test Is Out of Tune With Times

MARCH 20 Between Public and Private, a Third Way

MARCH 13 Parents Play Crucial Role in Expanding Universities

MARCH 6 Going Beyond Mere Facts in the Study of History

FEBRUARY 27 Recognizing the Secret Value of Lunchroom Duty

FEBRUARY 20 Apples, Oranges and Eighth Graders

FEBRUARY 13 The Other Side of Choice: After Top Students Leave

FEBRUARY 6 Linking Infant Mortality to Schooling and Stress

JANUARY 30 When Tried, Real Integration Provess Worthwhile

JANUARY 23 Let Education Guide Welfare

JANUARY 16 Created: Bigger U.S. Role; Evolving: What the Role Is

JANUARY 9 In Some Important Ways, the Day Only Starts at 3

JANUARY 2 Augmenting a Home-School Education

2001

DECEMBER 19 The education bill: Many trials ahead

DECEMBER 12 An economic recovery will tell in the classroom

DECEMBER 5 Doubling of A's at Harvard: Grade inflation or brains?

NOVEMBER 28 Statistics, a tool for life, is getting short shrift

NOVEMBER 21 Forming the hand that holds the chalk

NOVEMBER 14 Assessing money's role in making schools better

NOVEMBER 7 Politics and curriculum: How history is taught

OCTOBER 31 Linking poor performance to working after school

OCTOBER 24 Hindsight gives history its 'best' young soldiers

OCTOBER 17 Terror and teachers, and excuses and explanations

OCTOBER 10 National crises, real and imagined

OCTOBER 3 Decrees on fixing schools may fail the reality test

SEPTEMBER 26 The other war, against intolerance

SEPTEMBER 19 Teach more than where to put H in Afghanistan

SEPTEMBER 12 Doing the voucher math is not as easy as it seems

SEPTEMBER 5 Consensus in reading war if sides would only look

AUGUST 29 SAT scores aren't up. Not bad, not bad at all.

AUGUST 15 One answer on college doesn't fit all graduates

AUGUST 1 When there's simply not enough food for thought

JULY 18 In standardized tests, standards vary

JULY 11 What produces voters? Apparently not civics classes

JULY 4 True or false: Schools fail immigrants

JUNE 27 To peace on math's battlefield

JUNE 20 Vouchers dead, alternatives weak

JUNE 6 Test here and there, not everywhere

MAY 30 A rebellion is growing against required rests

MAY 23 How to ease the burden of homework for families

MAY 16 Weighing students' skills and attitudes

MAY 9 Flaws in voucher findings

MAY 2 New ingredient in a voucher plan

APRIL 25 How tax code worsens education gap

APRIL 18 Novel way on teacher pay

APRIL 11 A Misstep in the Senate

APRIL 4 A Passover Way to Teach

MARCH 28 The SAT debate ought to be broader

MARCH 21 In the kindergartens, a misguided push

MARCH 14 There's More to Reading Than Phonics

MARCH 7 Seeing Achievement Gains By an Attack on Poverty

FEBRUARY 28 'Scaffolding' Is Raised, and So Are Sights

FEBRUARY 21 A worthwhile substitute for the Regents exams

FEBRUARY 14 A School District Refuses to Worship Scores Alone

FEBRUARY 7 Of Schools and Crimes, and Gross Exaggeration

JANUARY 31 Lessons From Afar, Some Worthwhile

JAANUARY 24 Flaws in Annual Testing

JANUARY 17 Does Money Not Matter? The Data Suggest It Does

JANUARY 11 The challenge: The Unforeseen costs of raising academic standards

JANUARY 10 Let the questioning begin

JANUARY 3 Poverty and Achievement, And Great Misconceptions

2000

DECEMBER 20 Limits? What Limits? I.Q. and Brain Research

DECEMBER 13 Judging Vouchers' Merits Proves to Be Difficult Task

DECEMBER 6 How to Help Solve the Teacher Shortage

NOVEMBER 29 Are the Three R's Crowding Out P.E.?

NOVEMBER 22 For Teaching's Real Pros, Coaches on the Sidelines

NOVEMBER 15 Polls Only Confuse Education Policy

NOVEMBER 8 Bilingual Ed: Debunking Double Talk

NOVEMBER 1 Supply, Demand, Wages and Myth

OCTOBER 25 Add Social Changes to the Factors Affecting Declining Test Scores

OCTOBER 18 Better Than a Voucher, a Ticket to Suburbia

OCTOBER 11 When Culture Affects How We Learn

OCTOBER 4 Offering Students a Hand to Move Up

SEPTEMBER 27 Reality Check is Overdue In Preventing Drug Abuse

SEPTEMBER 20 Getting Good Teachers for Poor Schools

SEPTEMBER 13 How Tests Can Drop The Ball

SEPTEMBER 6 How to Create a Skilled-Labor Shortage

AUGUST 30 Positive Trends Hidden in SAT and ACT Scores

AUGUST 2 Bush's Confusing Message on Education

JULY 19 Results of Clinton Gamble on Education Are Unclear

JULY 5 Rethinking Special Needs Without Losing Ground

JUNE 21 A City Rebels Against State Standards

JUNE 7 Creationists' Approach: Separating Fact and Theory

MAY 24 Accountability by Tests Alone Shortchanges Schools

MAY 10 Education and Job Growth

APRIL 26 Making a Case Against Performance Pay

APRIL 12 A Teacher in the Trenches of the Nation's Math Wars

MARCH 29 Rx for Nation's Troubled Teacher Colleges Is Medicine, Not Poison

MARCH 15 The Suburbs Vote for Public Education

MARCH 1 What Toddlers Could Use: Some Graying Boomers

FEBRUARY 16 A Conservative Picks a Path Less Taken

FEBRUARY 2 And So Just What Good Were the Good Old Days?

JANUARY 19 Inner-City Nomad: Route to Low Grades

JANUARY 5 Closing the Gap in State School Spending

1999

DECEMBER 29 For Urban Schools Chiefs, Goals Hopelessly at Odds

DECEMBER 22 'Goals 2000' Scorecard: Failure Pitches a Shutout

DECEMBER 8 In Judging Schools, One Standard Doesn't Fit All

NOVEMBER 24 Emphasis on Scores Comes at a Price

NOVEMBER 10 Does Poverty at Home Mean Low Achievement?

OCTOBER 27 Shortage of Skills? A High-Tech Myth