HGSE in the Media

June 2008

3 New Studies Question the Value of Remedial College Courses
"Well over one-fourth of entering college students end up in remedial classes, and public colleges alone are estimated to spend more than $1-billion annually on remedial education. So the failure of such programs to produce substantial positive results "is not just something that can be swept under the rug anymore," [Associate Professor Bridget Terry] Long says." (Chronicle for Higher Education, 6/08)

Patrick Unveils Extensive Education Plan for Next Decade
"'We need people to go out to communities to make the case that if you want prosperity for your children, then don't continue to think we can get there with yesterday’s tools,' [Senior Lecturer] Paul Reville, the state's incoming secretary of education, said yesterday. 'We have to create a sense that this is urgent.'" (The Boston Globe, 6/26/08)

Keep ‘Reading First’ Funds, Advisory Group to Urge Congress
"'The timing of this is so off,' said Nonie K. Lesaux, a professor of human development and urban education advancement at Harvard University. ‘It’s crazy to think that the final report is drafted and sitting somewhere while its fate is being debated.'" (Education Week, 6/24/08. Registration required.)

Education Reform 2.0
"[Senior Lecturer] Paul Reville, one of authors of the Education Reform Act of 1993, says he and his colleagues underestimated the effects of poverty on student performance.... The problem, says Reville, is made worse by a 'batch processing' approach that gives the same educational attention to students with vastly different needs." (The Boston Globe, 6/24/08)

Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to the Test
"'Is this what a Harvard education is for?' asked Professor [Howard] Gardner, who is teaching the seminars at Harvard, Amherst and Colby with colleagues. 'Are Ivy League schools simply becoming selecting mechanisms for Wall Street?'" (The New York Times, 6/23/08)

Mayor Sees a Test Scores Triumph
"Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us, a new book by a testing expert and Harvard Graduate School of Education professor, Daniel Koretz, calls score inflation the 'dirty secret' of high-stakes testing. Although some test-score gains represent the real, hard work of teachers and students, others ‘are entirely illusory,' Mr. Koretz writes." (The New York Sun, 6/23/08)

Learning (and Succeeding) on Jump Street
"Education is seen as liberation." - Associate Professor John Diamond (The Wall Street Journal, 6/19/08. Registration required.)

Educators Get a ‘Second Life’
"Many school computers simply don’t have the video-processing capability to run Second Life. Its footprint in schools is limited by that." - Professor Chris Dede (Education Week, 6/18/08. Registration required.)

Judith D. Singer Named Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity
"I am honored to have this opportunity to work with President Faust, Provost Hyman, and colleagues across the University towards our shared goal of sustaining Harvard’s excellence while increasing its diversity in the years ahead." - Professor Judy Singer (Harvard Gazette, 6/17/08)

'Two Million Minutes' Suggests it's Time to Improve U.S. Education
"'On the other hand,' [Professor Howard Gardner] wrote, 'the movie’s view of what education is, and . . . what it should be, is limited and deserves a response. While excellence in science, engineering and technology are worthy goals, it is equally important to learn about history, citizenship and the arts.'" (The Los Angeles Times, 6/16/08)

Pretty (Worried) in Pink
"It’s only gender-oriented in our culture, but like any cultural symbol, it sends out a message." - Visiting Professor Helen Haste (Telegraph.co.uk, 6/14/08)

Assessing the Assessments
"What test scores do is provide something that is independent of grade inflation or the school’s standards. It means the same thing no matter where the kid comes from — that’s something grades simply just don't do." - Professor Dan Koretz (Harvard Gazette, 6/12/08)

Scholar: Early Stress Lingers
"As the number of childhood adverse experiences increases ... the likelihood of having depression as an adult goes up." - Professor Jack Shonkoff (The News and Observer, 6/12/08)

Home Visit Programs Help Children Succeed, Experts Say
"[Lecturer] Heather B. Weiss, the founder and director of the Harvard Family Research Project, said these programs are important because they help parents get information and skills needed to raise children. 'Home visits set a pathway of parental involvement,' she said." (Kansas City Infozine, 6/12/08)

Harvard Begins Pilot Program with Local School District
"According to [Professor] Robert Peterkin of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, this is the first time in the history of Harvard that an entire school district will receive this type of intensive, multi-year training. The program is a three-year commitment and, if successful, will be replicated throughout the country." (Meridian Star, 6/11/08)

A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education
"Co-chaired by Helen Ladd, a Duke University professor of public policy studies, [Professor of Practice] Tom Payzant, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a former Boston schools superintendent and U.S. assistant secretary of education, and myself [Pedro Noguera], the Task Force's framework points to the many flaws in the approach of the current No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law and charges that the nation's education and youth development policy has erred by relying on school improvement alone to raise achievement levels of disadvantaged children." (The Huffington Post, 6/10/08)

E. Harlem Students Earn Seats at Harvard Graduation
"School officials said the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Kathleen McCartney, invited the students to attend the ceremony after visiting the school in the spring." (The New York Sun, 6/10/08)

Majority of Youths Found to Lack a Direction in Life
"My own impression is that, particularly in the 21st century, many young people have extreme difficulty in ‘identifying’ [in the psychological sense] with their elders, and this makes the spark to which Damon refers more elusive." - Professor Howard Gardner (Education Week, 6/4/08. Registration required.)

Teach for America 
"But the report, which is part of a multiyear project on the future of the nation’s teaching force undertaken by Harvard University’s graduate school of education, appeared to find fairly high retention rates among TFA teachers, even in low-income schools that are typically considered hard to staff." (Education Week, 6/4/08. Registration required.)

The Answer
"The reformers sought to 'eradicate the correlation between socioeconomic status and educational attainment,' says [Senior Lecturer] Paul Reville, the incoming state secretary of education and one of the architects of the 1993 state law. 'We'd have to say we’ve failed on that.'" (The Boston Globe, 6/1/08)