For decades – close to a century, in fact – America’s educators and politicians have argued furiously over how best to teach children to read, pitting advocates of “phonics” against those of “whole language,” a conflict dubbed "reading wars." Phonics stresses fundamental instruction in the letters and letter combinations that...
Charter-Mageddon: Lawmakers Advance a Raft of Union-Backed Charter School Curbs
As charter school advocates rallied en masse and California’s teachers’ unions flexed their political muscle, a cluster of bills that would dramatically curb the growth of charters in the state cleared the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday. The votes were the first in what figures to be a lengthy, high-stakes...