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Education Policy Studies

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• Politics and the Scoring of Race to the Top Applications

  By Daniel H. Bowen, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Papers and Studies, 09/10/2010
  

  The Obama administration’s education legacy could hinge on the success of the Race to the Top program. Now more than ever, with the Department of Education’s recent announcement of the round-two winners, RTT has received its share of praise and criticism. The praise stems from RTT’s success in fostering policy discussions about the education-reform environment—like the legislative battles on charter schools in New York and Alabama—that can lead to low-cost reforms.

  
  
  

• For-Profit Higher Education: Growth, Innovation and Regulation

  By Daniel L. Bennett, et al., Center for College Affordability and Productivity
  
  Policy Papers, 09/09/2010
  

  During the 2008-2009 academic year, there were nearly 1.8 million students enrolled at more than 2,800for-profit institutions of higher learning in the United States. Students in for-profit colleges and universities accounted for over 9% of all students enrolled in postsecondary education. The numbers have continued to grow, and today (2010) the number is rapidly approaching two million, about 10 percent of total student enrollments. The industry has also grown significantly in recent decades. Enrollment in for-profits has increased nearly six-fold since 1986, a time when the sector only enrolled about 2% of all students. Once an insignificant part of the higher education landscape in the United States, for-profit institutions now command a substantial portion of the market and have established themselves as legitimate and viable participants in the postsecondary education arena.

  
  
  

• Students, Public Schools, and States

  By Vicki E. Murray, Independent Women’s Forum
  
  Position Paper, 09/08/2010
  

  Not surprisingly, a leading concern among prospective adoptive parents is being unable to provide a quality education for their children. This is an especially pressing policy concern because families who adopt foster-care children typically have lower median household in¬comes. The financial constraints foster and adoptive parents face likely contribute to feelings that they have “no say in the child’s future.” Adopting a Florida-style scholarship program for students in foster care could help.

  
  
  

• Charter Schools: A Welcome Choice for Parents

  By Jason Richwine, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/02/2010
  

  A study published by the Department of Education (DOE) in June, “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts,” highlights the many benefits of charter schools. The results show unambiguously that parents are substantially more satisfied with charter schools and the academic and social development of their children who attend compared to public school parents.

  
  
  

• Good Classroom ‘Disruption’: Use the Internet to Expand Educational Options in Rural School Districts

  By Terry Stoops, John Locke Foundation
  
  Spotlight, 08/26/2010
  

  North Carolina has the infrastructure to expand online course offerings significantly. An average of 99 percent of North Carolina classrooms in rural districts have an Internet connection. Moreover, there is a statewide average of 2.43 students per Internet-connected computer. While statistical tests would need to confirm a causal relationship, districts that enroll few students in online courses generally have a higher per-pupil expenditure than those that enroll a higher number of virtual school students. This report offers several recommendations, including: Introduce virtual charter schools; expand online course offerings from private and for-profit companies, community colleges, and universities; and develop off-site high school campuses.

  
  
  

• Administrative Bloat at American Universities: The Real Reason for High Costs in Higher Education

  By Jay P. Greene, Goldwater Institute
  
  Policy Report, 08/19/2010
  

  Enrollment at America’s leading universities has been increasing dramatically, rising nearly 15 percent between 1993 and 2007. But unlike almost every other growing industry, higher education has not become more efficient. Instead, universities now have more administrative employees and spend more on administration to educate each student. In short, universities are suffering from “administrative bloat,” expanding the resources devoted to administration significantly faster than spending on instruction, research and service.

  
  
  

• Grading Schools

  By Matthew M. Chingos, Michael Henderson, Martin West, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 08/19/2010
  

  Never before have Americans had greater access to information about school quality. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), all school districts are required to distribute annual report cards detailing student achievement levels at each of their schools. Local newspapers frequently cover the release of state test results, emphasizing the relative standing of their community’s schools. Meanwhile, new organizations like GreatSchools and SchoolMatters aggregate this information and make it readily available to parents online. But do all these performance data inform perceptions of school quality? Or do citizens base their evaluations instead on such indicators as the racial or class makeup of schools, regardless of their relationship with actual school performance?

  
  
  

• Reforms with Results: What Oklahoma Can Learn from Florida’s K-12 Education Revolution

  By Matthew Ladner, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
  
  Research Papers, 08/11/2010
  

  Florida lawmakers began a comprehensive education reform effort in 1999 combining accountability, transparency, and parental choice with other far-reaching changes. In March 2010, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released new results showing just how successful Florida’s reforms have been and how futile Oklahoma’s efforts have proved. This study documents how the latest NAEP results strengthen the case for Florida-style reforms. In 2009, some groups of traditionally underperforming students from Florida—including that state’s Hispanic students—widened their leads over the statewide average score for all Oklahoma students.

  
  
  

• Success from the Sunshine State: When Illinois Schools are Failing, It’s Time to Copy Florida’s Winning Strategies

  By Collin Hitt, Ashley Muchow, Illinois Policy Institute
  
  Education Brief, 08/10/2010
  

  Florida has given more and more school choices to its families, especially to those with limited means, those whose children might be stuck in a failing school, and those who have children with special needs. Sunshine State policymakers are unafraid to give tough grades to schools that allow some students to languish behind their peers. If young students are reading far below grade level, Florida law keeps them from advancing to a higher grade where they will fall even farther behind. Online learning is a common element in Florida homes and classrooms. And, thanks to the state’s multiple routes to teacher certification, established professionals are allowed to move into teaching careers. The state’s schools are on the rise, primarily because of their solid progress with low-income, disadvantaged and minority students – progress made possible through sound state policies.

  
  
  

• Pay for Performance in the Pittsburgh Public Schools: Will It Pay Off?

  By Eric Montarti, Allegheny Institute for Public Policy
  
  Report, 08/09/2010
  

  The Pittsburgh School Board’s Committee on Education accepted a $40 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support implementation of its plan to improve the District’s teachers. A key component of the plan is the concept of tying teacher pay to student achievement, known as pay for performance or merit pay. A radical concept that faces stiff opposition from national and local teacher unions, the PPS board and administration raised the possibility of pay for performance a year before it won the foundation grant. Now with a new five year contract agreement with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers in place we can see how the proposal looks. This report examines the concept of pay for performance, its prevalence nationally, and how it has been adopted in the PPS.

  
  
  
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Education Features

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• Challenging the Sensitivity Gestapo

  By Frederick Fico
  
  September 09, 2009
  

  The trajectory of my career changed in late 2006, although I could never have recognized it at the time. A tenured full professor of journalism at Michigan State University, I was sitting in my office when a student dropped by and identified himself as the chairman of the MSU College...

  
  
  

• School Reform That Can Work

  By Frederick M. Hess and Thomas Gift
  
  January 16, 2008
  

  Year in and year out, education reform shows an earnest tendency to paint by numbers. Those seeking to improve schools latch onto the familiar litany of "best practices" and hot new instructional techniques, asserting that if only administrators identified and implemented the right set of prescriptions, successful reform would cascade...

  
  
  

• Multicultural Education: Unifying or Divisive Force?

  By Robert Holland
  
  May 01, 2004
  

  The multicultural movement has had a profound effect on how schools teach United States history. The state of the curriculum in Illinois and Chicago provides a case in point. Recently, Sheldon Stern, historian at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, graded the standards of 48 states on...

  
  
  

• The Stuff of Kids’ Dreams

  By Clint Bolick
  
  April 01, 2003
  

  The Supreme Court ruled last summer that the school-choice program in Cleveland is constitutional. This is a great victory for America’s children, especially those children from poor and minority backgrounds who benefit the most from school choice. But while we chalk one up for freedom, we should not forget how...

  
  
  

• Voucher Wars: Laying the Groundwork

  By Clint Bolick
  
  April 01, 2003
  

  The modern case for school vouchers was first made by the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, who introduced the concept of “vouchers” into the American lexicon. Acknowledging that Americans would not support the government’s getting out of the education business altogether, Friedman advocated the next-best thing: instead of providing education...

  
  
  

• What's Next For School Choice?

  By Todd Gazanio and Krista Kafer
  
  July 01, 2002
  

  In a long-anticipated ruling, on June 27 the Supreme Court upheld the Cleveland school choice program against a federal constitutional challenge and made it extremely unlikely that any such challenge could prevail against similar choice programs in the future. In its landmark opinion, the Supreme Court removed one of the...

  
  
  

• Implementation Watch: Students’ Rights Under the No Child Left Behind Act

  By Krista Kafer
  
  June 01, 2002
  

  States and school districts must implement the school choice provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act (P.L.107-110) at the beginning of the new school year. Some states and school districts will go the extra mile to ensure that students in failing schools have many options from which to choose....

  
  
  

• Landmark v. The NEA

  By Mark R. Levin
  
  November 01, 2001
  

  Landmark Legal Foundation's five-year investigation of the National Education Association, and subsequent legal action, is a powerful reminder of the value of persistence and hard-work. It is also an impressive example of how conservative activists can pro-actively and effectively counter established, entrenched, and well-funded opposition. Introduction In the 12 years that...

  
  
  

• Rediscovering Liberal Education: A Case for Reform in America’s Universities

  By Stephen H. Balch
  
  July 01, 2001
  

  The modern American university is the product of confidence: confidence in its concrete utility, and confidence in its service to freedom and democracy. Concrete utility has mainly been the product of the university’s scientific/technological establishments, and the research and training facilities they embody. Freedom and democracy have been the province...

  
  
  

• The Portsmouth Declaration: A Call for Intellectual and Moral Excellence in Schooling

  April 01, 2001
  

  On January 25-26, 2001, The Link Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting content and character in the classroom, convened a group of scholars to discuss a path-breaking article by Dartmouth College Professor James Bernard Murphy, entitled “Good Students, Good Persons.” Asking the question: “what is education?” and looking at...

  
  
  
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