Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Teachers

School reforms are destined to fail until teaching becomes a professional career

By Katherine C. Boles and Vivian Troen

It is telling that an American parent's aspirations for a son or daughter often include the practice of medicine or law but almost never of education. An African American student at Harvard told us her parents tried to discourage her from becoming a teacher. They advised her to go into some other field where, as a smart and talented young woman, she "could be a real success." She went into teaching despite the urgings of her parents and many of her friends. She is an exception-one of the few academically accomplished college students who choose teaching over other, more attractive opportunities. . . .

Insights

How Handhelds Can Change the Classroom

By Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway

Technology has long promised to have a significant impact on K-12 education. Each new wave of innovation-mainframes, timesharing, desktops, the Internet-rekindles those expectations. Sadly, K-12 schools are still waiting for the long-promised results. Indeed, while the Internet has brought about positive changes in many areas of everyday life, including in commerce and government, K-12 education has gotten precious little value from it.

The arrival of a new generation of technology-handheld computers-also raises skeptical questions about the potential impact of these powerful tools: given our poor track record, why should anyone believe the technology enthusiasts? What is so different about handheld computers?

New and Noteworthy

Are Schools Pushing Students Out to Raise Test Scores?

Given education's increasing emphasis on results and accountability, superintendents, principals, and teachers are doing more than ever to ensure that students perform well on standardized assessments. But recent reports suggest that some educators may be doing too much to make sure their schools don't end up at the bottom of the list when test scores are reported.

A recent report by the Public Advocate for the City of New York and the group Advocates for Children has pointed to the problem of high school "push-outs" in that city. Like dropouts, push-outs are academically troubled students who leave school before completing all the requirements for graduation. The difference, however, is that these young people are encouraged-sometimes required-to leave school . . .

New and Noteworthy

Preschool Yields High Returns, But Not All States Are Investing

Since 1985, Arthur Reynolds and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have examined the effects of Chicago's Child-Parent Center (CPC) early-childhood education program. In an ongoing study comparing 989 program participants to 550 children in a control group, they have found that participating children (mostly African American children from low-income families) show the following advantages:

• 20 percent higher high-school completion rate;
• 42 percent lower rate of juvenile arrest for violent offenses;
• 41 percent lower incidence of special-education placement;
• higher scores on cognitive literacy and school achievement measures.

Now the research group's latest study translates these benefits into economic terms, with more impressive results. . . .