Education Next

Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District recently voted to require video cameras in all special-education classrooms. Advocates say the cameras will help keep students safe and ease parent anxiety, while critics says it is costly and could violate student and teacher privacy. In the Spring 2011 issue of Education Next, Michael Petrilli wrote that “it feels like just a matter of time” until cameras in classrooms become common. “Effective teachers will have little to fear,” Petrilli wrote.

The New Yorker has a long and fascinating look at Prep for Prep, a New York-based program that selects minority students for scholarships to highly selective private schools. The article, “Test Case,” is by Vinson Cunningham, who is a graduate of the program. Cunningham mentions Anthony Abraham Jack’s book The Privileged Poor, which was reviewed for Education Next by Mathew Chingos under the headline “Campus Culture Shock.”