That pretty much describes the pro-voucher conservative insistence that choice will solve any and all educational problem one can imagine*, and a new Independent Women’s Forum publication on the “boy crisis” is the latest example of this. Leave aside that the piece cherry-picks data points that support the notion of a boy crisis,** ignores the [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Boy Crisis'
Boys and Girls: A Blast from the Past
Washington Post Magazine celebrates its 20th birthday this week with an issue of excerpts from noteworthy articles it’s published over the past two decades. Interesting stuff, from dispatches from war zones in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and Iraq; to the Monica Lewinsky and Jessica Cutler scandals; to the Great Zucchini. But one 1993 article in [...]
Humorless Feminism Alert
Writing for National Review online, Judith Kleinfeld quotes selectively from the transcript of a recent Education Sector debate on the boy crisis to criticize my arguments against the “boy crisis” hype. Here’s a quote from Kleinfeld’s piece:
The moderator, Ruth Wattenberg, editor of the American Educator, opened the discussion with a statement from a time warp, [...]
Sara Mead Hates Boys!*
Tomorrow afternoon Richard Whitmire, Harry Holzer and I will be discussing boys’ and girls’ academic achievement and whether or not Americans need to be concerned about boys falling behind academically. Richard’s currently writing a book about why he’s worried about boys (and thinks you should be to), I wrote a paper that looked at trends [...]
The Boys and Girls Debate Rages On
You may have read Christina Hoff Sommers’ Wall Street Journal op-ed criticizing my paper questioning the “boy crisis” in America’s schools. A letter-to-the-editor I wrote ($-sorry) responding to some misinformation in Sommers’ piece ran in last Thursday’s WSJ.
A number of people who don’t like my take on the boy crisis issue have made arguments something [...]
Snakes, and Snails, and Puppy Dog tails
Who knew this would spark so much sound and fury? Certainly not me.
Of course, not everyone likes my arguments about why we shouldn’t be panicking about a so-called “boy crisis.” This John Leo blog post provides a pretty good example of some of the less positive feedback I’ve been getting. I have [...]
David Brooks on Gender=Fourth Stomach in Cow
Yesterday’s David Brooks column on “The Gender Gap at School” ($-sorry) manages to combine three elements that are guaranteed to make me want to bang my head against a wall in frustration: sweeping generalizations about gender; gross oversimplification (and abuse) of brain research; and sweeping, non-empirically correct generalizations about public education. Goody!
To paraphrase Brooks: “Golly, [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.