Author
Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Articles
Education Data in 2025
Fifteen years hence, we will know exactly how well our schools, teachers, and students are doing
The Preschool Picture
Universal preschool will be a boon for middle-class parents. How it will help poor kids catch up is not so obvious.
Selective Reporting
Quality Counts 2001, A Better Balance: Standards, Tests, and the Tools to Succeed by the editors of Education Week
Just the Facts
School Figures: The Data Behind the Debate
by Hanna Skandera and Richard Sousa
Hoover Institution, 2003, $15; 342 pp.
Faulty Engineering
The diversity of values within American society renders public schools ill-equipped to produce the engaged citizens our democracy requires
Lost at Sea
Early 20th century Progressive reformers established elected school boards as a means of shielding public school systems from the politics and patronage of corrupt city governments. Citizens, rather than political dons or their favored appointees, would govern the community's schools with the community's interests at heart.
Today, however, elected school boards, especially in America's troubled [...]
Book Alert
The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market, by Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane; Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap, by Richard Rothstein; Leaving No Child Behind? Options for Kids in Failing Schools, by Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr., eds.; Standards Deviation: How Schools Misunderstand Education Policy, by James P. Spillane
Paying Teachers Properly
That the uniform salary “schedule” for teachers is obsolete and dysfunctional is a truth widely accepted but rarely challenged.
Blog Posts/Multimedia
A Sober Reflection of Race to the Top Results
Let me say this about Race to the Top. Arne Duncan deserves at least a B for initiating and persevering with it. With a relatively small (by federal standards) amount of money, he has catalyzed a large amount of worthwhile education-reform activity in a great many places.
Race to the Top Round 2
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about how many states are likely to win Race to the Top grants and whether politics will come into play.
Common Standards Remarkably Uncontroversial
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about the politics and economics of the Common Core standards.
After Bucking Unions, Obama Administration Breaks Ranks with Civil Rights Groups over Charter Schools
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about why civil rights groups have been reluctant to embrace charter schools, even as a new Ed Next poll shows that support for charters is rising among minority parents.
Virtual Education and Common Core Standards
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about whether common standards create economies of scale for virtual learning products.
Denial vs Paranoia with Common Core Education Standards
I deny that I’m in denial. But I don’t deny that Neal McCluskey is paranoid, along with Jay Greene and a few other ardent blogsters and op-edsters.
Bang for the Buck from Race to the Top
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (June 16) about why $4 billion in prize money is causing so many states to enact reforms and whether those reforms will stick.
Teacher Bailout Bill, R.I.P.?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about the belt-tightening that will hopefully take place if the $23 billion edujobs bill dies in Congress.
Book Alert: Taking Measure of Charter Schools
This collection of eleven essays is specialized, even wonky, but it addresses a key issue in the charter-school world, namely how to improve the research into and evaluation of this new universe of schools.
Common Core State Standards: Better Than Ever
Today marks release of the final “Common Core” standards–symbolically occurring in a state capital (Atlanta) rather than Washington, D.C.
Book Alert: The Flat World and Education
One doesn’t have to agree with Linda Darling-Hammond to be impressed with this major work, which draws together many strands from her work, her research, and her worldview about education and education reform.
Will the Common Core Standards Set the Bar High Enough?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (May 12) about how state proficiency standards in reading and math have changed over time and whether the Common Core standards effort will lead to higher expectations for students.
Why Is Race to the Top Rewarding States With Low Proficiency Standards?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (May 6) about why Tennessee and Delaware, which received very low scores in a new evaluation of state proficiency standards, nonetheless were the big winners of round 1 of Race to the Top.
Do U.S. Students Spend Enough Time Learning?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (April 21) about whether American kids need a longer school day, a longer school year, more time on task, or more customized learning experiences.
Chinese Influence in U.S. Schools
How do you feel about the government of China paying for American public schools to teach our kids Mandarin? And sending teachers from China to the U.S. to assist in this venture? Though one tiny corner of my conscience says sure, the more the Chinese spend IN the United States the less they’ll have left to compete with and undermine us. But most of me is outraged–and a little bit alarmed.
Florida Governor Vetoes School Reform Bill
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (April 15) about why Florida governor Charlie Crist vetoed a bill passed by the legislature that said that teachers should be paid based on performance and districts should be able to dismiss ineffective teachers more easily.
Let’s Hear It for Florida!
Hurrah for the Education Policy Council of Florida’s House of Representatives for endorsing the bold teacher-reforms of pending bill HB 7189, now headed for the House floor tomorrow or Thursday.
Book Alert: It’s the Classroom, Stupid
Flaunting jacket blurbs from some of my favorite people in the education field, this book–declares its author–”proposes to turn on its head conventional wisdom about how to reform the education of America’s poorest students.” And that’s pretty much what it would do.
Will NCLB be reauthorized this year?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (March 23) about whether Republicans are likely to work with Democrats on reauthorization.
Back to Basics
For five good reasons, conservatives should take seriously the potential of the newly released (in draft form) “common” education standards to strengthen U.S. education.
Book Alert: The Death and Life of the Great American School System
Diane Ravitch’s important new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, will surely stir controversy, exactly as she intends. Simply stated, she believes it should recapture the strengths of the traditional public school system, incorporate a vigorous common curriculum and renounce many of the theories, practices, policies and programs that have constituted America’s major education-reform emphases in recent years.
The New Normal for Federal Education Spending
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about whether the federal share of education spending is likely to remain at 15 percent and whether the $1 billion bonus for reauthorizing ESEA this year is likely to be awarded.
The Perils of Universalism
There are regulatory domains where government is wise to make its rules universal. There are also some government programs, services and benefits that benefit from extending them to everyone or almost everyone, at least on a voluntary basis. For the most part, however, turning public-sector programs into universal free goods produces unintended and often undesirable results, while failing to solve the most urgent core problem.
Will the Common Core Standards Prove Safe and Effective?
Even though they still haven’t seen the light of day in draft form, much less been joined by any assessments, the evolving “common core” standards project of the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is already being laden with heavier and heavier burdens. This is enormously risky and, frankly, hubristic, since nobody yet has any idea whether these standards will be solid, whether the tests supposed to be aligned with them will be up to the challenge, or whether the “passing scores” on those tests will be high or low, much less how this entire apparatus will be sustained over the long haul.
Choice and Residential Segregation
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about a new Fordham Institute report identifying 2800 public schools that only prosperous kids can attend. A more choice-based public school system, such as the one endorsed by a new Brookings Institution report, would provide more opportunities for poor kids to attend better schools, they note.
Thumbs-Up on Obama’s K-12 Education Themes
On primary-secondary education, as on most topics, Mr. Obama stayed at 30,000 feet. The main themes he sounded, however, are fine: use federal education dollars to reward success, not failure; apply Arne Duncan’s “race to the top” reform priorities to the mega-bucks Elementary/Secondary Education Act; and keep a “competitive” element in this rather than simply distributing dollars via formula. All extremely hard to do but all worth doing.
Studies Find No Effects
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Jan. 7) about whether randomized field trials in education should be abandoned, since they so rarely find that the treatments have any effects.
Racing to National Tests?
While everyone obsesses over the competition among the states for Race to the Top funding, the Education Department is readying a separate competition for less than one-tenth as much money that may nonetheless prove far more consequential for American education over the long term.
The End of the Education Debate
The education-reform debate as we have known it for a generation is creaking to a halt. No new way of thinking has emerged to displace those that have preoccupied reformers for a quarter-century — but the defining ideas of our current wave of reform (standards, testing, and choice), and the conceptual framework built around them, are clearly outliving their usefulness.
Focus of School Reform Shifting to Teachers
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week about whether teacher quality is eclipsing accountability and choice as a reform strategy and what role research plays in this.
Are Middle Schools or Middle Schoolers the Problem?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Dec. 10) about why it is so hard to talk to adolescents
about school and what schools can do to encourage parent involvement.
Biggest Spender in Politics: The NEA
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Dec. 4) about what the National Education Association is buying with its campaign contributions, which total $56.3 million and exceed the campaign contributions made by any other organization in America.
Book Alert: Intelligence and How to Get It
There is no end to the debate over intelligence. The latest book-length entry into this debate is University of Michigan psychology professor Richard Nisbett’s “Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.”
Saving Jobs or Stimulating Reform?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Nov. 24) about the effect of the stimulus package on education, a sector that has proven to be very good at job creation.
Election Postmortem
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Nov. 19) about what the results of the 2009 off-year elections mean for education.
Will Congress Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut?
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (Nov. 4) about a bill passed by the House that would send $8 billion to states to boost the quality of preschools and expand the number of preschool spots for disadvantaged children.
Voters Choose Neighborhood Schools over Socioeconomic Diversity
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (October 29) about Wake County, North Carolina, where voters earlier this month elected new school board members who have pledged to undo the county’s controversial policy of assigning students to schools based on income (to achieve diversity).
Ted Sizer, R.I.P.
Theodore R. (Ted) Sizer, who passed away last week after a long and valiant battle with cancer, was a towering figure in American education—and a wonderful guy.
The Nobel Committee Isn’t the Only One Giving Speculative Prizes
Podcast: Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk this week (October 22) about wishful thinking in the education reform community. Do school reformers need to temper their enthusiasm about the reform du jour?
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