Beyond ‘Stone’ and ‘Gold’ in Early Ed
Last week, I wrote about two frustrating lines of thinking in early childhood education: “Stone Soup“—the pressure for early childhood advocates to stretch limited resources so thin it undermines their...
View ArticlePromoting Equity: State by State, School by School
The Wall Street Journal last week ran an op-ed by Professor Paul Peterson of Harvard University reporting that the academic achievement of African-American students has progressed little if any in...
View ArticleOpportunity or Anarchy? The Path of Education
Sometimes we forget. We forget that education is more than a set of institutions—it is also a path. Individuals and societies that take the path of education arrive at productive and dynamic...
View ArticleWaiver Wire: Pennsylvania’s ESEA Waiver Approved
Yesterday, the Obama administration approved Pennsylvania’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) flexibility request, making the grand total of states with approved waivers 41 plus D.C. In a recent Education...
View ArticleThe Common Core and Common Sense
Common sense tells us that the Common Core State Standards are good for students. Higher standards for all are a good thing. What American would not get that? Apparently a lot. The latest Phi Delta...
View ArticleOur Forgotten Children: What the New ETS Study Tells Us
Child poverty is our national family secret. According to a recent ETS study by Richard Coley and Bruce Baker, among the economically advanced countries only Romania has a higher percentage of children...
View ArticleLabor Day and Zip Code Education
In matters of style, swim with current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson Should where a student lives influence his or her chances of upward mobility? Most of us would say...
View ArticlePresident Obama’s Not-So-Secret School Accountability Plan
Way back in March of 2010, President Obama released his blueprint for reauthorizing the education law that’s commonly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In it, he called for changing the way schools...
View ArticleThe Accountability Conundrum
Chad Aldeman’s most recent blog raises some fundamental issues about what we mean by accountability. Do we compare schools against some established academic standards or do we compare them against each...
View ArticleTeachers + Professionalism = Student Learning
On the face of it, you wouldn’t think evaluating teachers would be a terribly emotional issue. After all, professionalism implies evaluation and transparency on a regular and consistent basis. Doctors...
View ArticleWe Remember
When the planes hit the Twin Towers, I was in the library with my 10th grade English class. Word spread quickly around the school and panic set in. Living an hour outside Manhattan, most of my...
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How to Raise Teacher Salaries in Two Easy Steps
Let’s say you are running a school district. Would you raise teacher compensation (salaries and retirement benefits) by 5-8 percent for all of those who stay less than 20 years in exchange for lowering...
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What You Should Know About TFA and the Value of Experience
If you want a summary of the new study on Teach For America (TFA) and TNTP’s Teaching Fellows program, see Stephen Sawchuk for the short-ish version or Dylan Matthews for the longer version (with...
View ArticleAIR and Education Sector Join Forces
Earlier today, Education Sector announced it will be joining with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a leader in education research, evaluation and technical assistance. Read about the...
View ArticleBuilding on a Strong Foundation: EdSector@AIR
In 2005, Andy Rotherham and Tom Toch had a brilliant idea. Why not do something different? Why not bring together the best research with the best educational journalism to inform policy and spark...
View ArticleEducational Pipelines That Hurt the Working Class and Poor
Where a student goes to high school matters in the transition to college—a lot. Imagine three young women about to graduate from their neighborhood public high schools—Amanda is graduating from a...
View ArticleBuilding ‘Carrots and Sticks’ Into Teacher Evaluation
In 2009, just as teacher evaluation became a federal policy focus, the District of Columbia Public Schools launched its new teacher evaluation system. The IMPACT system exemplifies the use of “multiple...
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Why Local Educators Haven’t Heeded the Warnings in ‘A Nation at Risk’
Editor’s Note: Recently, six well-known AIR thought leaders including George Bohrnstedt, Beatrice Birman, David Osher, Jennifer O’Day, Terry Salinger, and Jane Hannaway posted blogs on the AIR website...
View ArticlePerspectives on ‘A Nation At Risk’
When A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was published in April of 1983 it set off a political and policy firestorm that continues to smolder today. The report was submitted by the...
View ArticleA Better Handle on the Gap in STEM Education
The STEM achievement gap between U.S. students and students in other industrialized countries, such as Singapore, is inciting national policy discussions. And now a National Center for Educational...
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