Lance Izumi

Classroom Ideology

Breaking The Liberal Monopoly On College Faculties Will Take More Than Hope

As President Trump delivered his well-received patriotic Independence Day tribute to America, the braying leftist college professoriate erupted in social-media fireworks, underscoring the importance of offering saner higher-education alternatives to young people. UC Berkeley professor and former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich compared Trump to a dictator glorifying himself with a military ...
Blog

California’s Middle-Class Schools Still Not As Good As You Think

Recently, I gave a seminar presentation on my research on underperforming regular public schools in middle-class and more affluent neighborhoods in California, which allowed me to do some updates based on the most recent data. The seminar, sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, focused on ...
Charter Schools

Charter Schools Don’t Fiscally Distress Regular Public Schools

In their continuing war against charter schools, teacher unions have persistently argued that charter schools, which are mostly non-union, have a large negative financial impact on the regular public school system.  New research, however, contradicts this claim. In Sacramento, the California Teachers Association is pushing a package of anti-charter-school bills, ...
Blog

Teacher Unions’ Agenda Derailed by LA Parcel Tax Defeat

A funny thing happened on the way to teacher-union political hegemony: common sense kicked in and the people threw the unions for a huge loss with the defeat of the proposed parcel-tax increase in Los Angeles. In fight after fight across the country, and especially here in California, the teacher ...
Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Writes About Importance of Charter Schools in TeachThought

While most traditional public schools continue to adhere to a one-size-fits-all model of curriculum, instruction, and learning, sometimes dubbed the ‘McDonaldization’ of education, public charter schools have the flexibility to implement more individualized learning models that promote curiosity, inquiry, and critical thinking. In a recent article, Terry Heick observed, “in education as ...
Commentary

Common Core Has Failed America’s Students

Bill Gates, a key godfather of the Common Core subject-matter standards, wrote five years ago that the national standards “will improve education for millions of students,” but a groundbreaking new study shows that Common Core has actually decreased the level of student achievement. With irresistible prodding by Gates and then-President Obama, the ...
Charter Schools

SoCal NAACP Chapters Break with Unions Because Charter Schools Work

While a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands of African-American children. To end teacher strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, local school ...
Charter Schools

School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice

Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Book

Just Released: New Book Shows Parents and Students are Choosing Diversity When Enrolling in Charter Schools

One of the key traits that distinguishes charter schools from traditional public schools is the diversity of educational experiences promoted by the ability to choose, writes Lance Izumi in his new book Choosing Diversity, published by the Pacific Research Institute. Watch a brief video of Izumi talking about his new ...
Blog

Why Are Teachers Mostly Liberal?

The wave of teacher strikes across the country, with their focus on killing education reforms such as charter schools, have focused attention on the ideology of teachers.  Many Americans are now asking: “Why are teachers so liberal?” Tom Rademacher, a Minnesota teacher of the year who writes for the Education ...
Classroom Ideology

Breaking The Liberal Monopoly On College Faculties Will Take More Than Hope

As President Trump delivered his well-received patriotic Independence Day tribute to America, the braying leftist college professoriate erupted in social-media fireworks, underscoring the importance of offering saner higher-education alternatives to young people. UC Berkeley professor and former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich compared Trump to a dictator glorifying himself with a military ...
Blog

California’s Middle-Class Schools Still Not As Good As You Think

Recently, I gave a seminar presentation on my research on underperforming regular public schools in middle-class and more affluent neighborhoods in California, which allowed me to do some updates based on the most recent data. The seminar, sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, focused on ...
Charter Schools

Charter Schools Don’t Fiscally Distress Regular Public Schools

In their continuing war against charter schools, teacher unions have persistently argued that charter schools, which are mostly non-union, have a large negative financial impact on the regular public school system.  New research, however, contradicts this claim. In Sacramento, the California Teachers Association is pushing a package of anti-charter-school bills, ...
Blog

Teacher Unions’ Agenda Derailed by LA Parcel Tax Defeat

A funny thing happened on the way to teacher-union political hegemony: common sense kicked in and the people threw the unions for a huge loss with the defeat of the proposed parcel-tax increase in Los Angeles. In fight after fight across the country, and especially here in California, the teacher ...
Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Writes About Importance of Charter Schools in TeachThought

While most traditional public schools continue to adhere to a one-size-fits-all model of curriculum, instruction, and learning, sometimes dubbed the ‘McDonaldization’ of education, public charter schools have the flexibility to implement more individualized learning models that promote curiosity, inquiry, and critical thinking. In a recent article, Terry Heick observed, “in education as ...
Commentary

Common Core Has Failed America’s Students

Bill Gates, a key godfather of the Common Core subject-matter standards, wrote five years ago that the national standards “will improve education for millions of students,” but a groundbreaking new study shows that Common Core has actually decreased the level of student achievement. With irresistible prodding by Gates and then-President Obama, the ...
Charter Schools

SoCal NAACP Chapters Break with Unions Because Charter Schools Work

While a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands of African-American children. To end teacher strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, local school ...
Charter Schools

School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice

Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Book

Just Released: New Book Shows Parents and Students are Choosing Diversity When Enrolling in Charter Schools

One of the key traits that distinguishes charter schools from traditional public schools is the diversity of educational experiences promoted by the ability to choose, writes Lance Izumi in his new book Choosing Diversity, published by the Pacific Research Institute. Watch a brief video of Izumi talking about his new ...
Blog

Why Are Teachers Mostly Liberal?

The wave of teacher strikes across the country, with their focus on killing education reforms such as charter schools, have focused attention on the ideology of teachers.  Many Americans are now asking: “Why are teachers so liberal?” Tom Rademacher, a Minnesota teacher of the year who writes for the Education ...
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