Behind the Headline
The Big U-Turn
Education Next | Winter 2009

In Chicago, an evaluation of the city’s aggressive efforts to turn around failing schools is spurring heated debate over whether the gains seen in turnaround schools are signficiant  and whether the approach should be expanded to more schools. The study, by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, found that elementary and middle schools that were part of the turnaround effort were catching up to district averages, but high schools were not. In the Winter 2009 issue of Ed Next, Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel wrote about the key ingredients for successful school turnarounds in “The Big U-Turn.” In the Winter 2010 issue of Ed Next, Andy Smarick argued against the turnaround approach in “The Turnaround Fallacy.”

Behind the Headline
Fueling the Engine
Education Next | Summer 2010

The flow of venture capital into the K-12 education market has exploded over the past year, reaching its highest level in a decade, reports Katie Ash in Education Week. Rick Hess wrote about the funding challenges facing education entrepreneurs in the Summer 2010 issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
The Case for Special EducationVouchers
Education Next | Winter 2010

Former State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin makes the case for special ed vouchers in New York City in an op-ed appearing in today’s Post. Jay Greene and Stuart Buck explained how special ed vouchers work and dispelled myths about the vouchers in an article appearing in the Winter 2010 issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
Skewed Perspective
Education Next | Winter 2005

The National Council on Teacher Quality has filed a lawsuit against the University of Wisconsin for failing to provide access to course syllabi for teacher preparation courses.  The NCTQ has sent open records requests to universities across the country for a review of teacher preparation programs that it is conducting in partnership with U.S. News and World Report. David Steiner evaluated course syllabi from required courses at ed schools  for an article that appeared in Ed Next in 2005.

Behind the Headline
Obama’s NCLB Waivers: Are they necessary or illegal?
Education Next | Summer 2011

In the Richmond Times- Dispatch, Andy Rotherham and Angela Ciolfi critique the NCLB waiver application submitted by Virginia, complaining that it would fail to hold schools accountable for narrowing the achievement gap. In the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next, Rotherham and Martha Derthick debate whether President Obama was right to offer states conditional waivers releasing them from some requirements of NCLB.

Behind the Headline
School Inflation
Education Next | Fall 2004

A new MDRC study finds that students attending small high schools (with fewer than 100 students per grade) were more likely to graduate than students who attended larger schools.  In an article that appeared in Ed Next in 2004, Chris Berry traced the decline and rebirth of small schools in America and looked at the impact of smaller schools on students’ future earnings over the course of the 20^th century, as the movement to consolidate small schools into larger schools grew.

Behind the Headline
Valuing Teachers
Education Next | Summer 2011

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama discussed the impact good teachers can have on their students’ future productivity, stating “We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000.” In the Summer 2011 issue of Education Next, Eric Hanushek analyzed the impact of good teachers on the lifetime incomes of their students.

Behind the Headline
Academic Value of Non-Academics
Education Next | Winter 2012

A school district in Texas that has failed to make AYP for 3 years has decided to suspend its athletic programs in an effort to turn around student performance and attendance rates. In an article that appears in the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next, June Kronholz examines the link between afterschool activities and graduating from high school, going to college, and becoming a responsible citizen.

Behind the Headline:
All A Twitter About Education
Education Next | Fall 2011

An article in the Washington Post looks at how a growing number of teachers are using Twitter to improve their craft by reaching beyond the boundaries of their schools to connect with colleagues across the country and around the world. An article in the Fall 2011 issue of Ed Next included a ranking of the top 25 educator tweeters, as ranked by Klout scores.

We’ve already released the list of the most-read articles on the Education Next website in 2011. Today we bring you the 20 most-read blog entries from 2011. Happy reading!

20. Florida’s Class Size Amendment: Did It Help Students Learn?
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson summarizes a study of the impact of a class size reduction amendment in Florida.  The study found no detectable benefit from mandated class size reduction–either for students in general or for any student subgroup, racial, ethnic, or level of disadvantage.  Telling schools they must reduce class size—which is very expensive–yields no benefit, the study concludes.

19. The Case for Paying Most Teachers the Same
by Michael Petrilli

In professions like law and medicine, new hires get paid significantly less at the start, then pay rises rapidly–as soon as employees boost their effectiveness and productivity from on-the-job experience. In education, on the other hand, pay rises slowly, even though teachers’ effectiveness plateaus after as little as two (and no more than five) years on the job. So maybe we should pay young teachers more, and older teachers less, than we do now, argues Mike Petrilli. In other words, we should make their pay more alike.

18. Jeb Bush, Melinda Gates, Sal Khan and the Coming Digital Learning Battle
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson warns that we can expect a strenuous, highly politicized debate over the way in which digital learning should be provided:  “blended” learning that takes place within public school classrooms under the tutelage of a highly qualified teacher vs. “online” learning in which students are offered a choice of providers that include not only the blended classroom but also those who offer products exclusively online. “School districts and teacher unions can be expected to fight publicly funded online learning that offers students a choice of taking courses outside their local district school.”

17. The Education School Masters Degree Factory
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson describes a study finding that teachers in Florida with an M. A. degree were no more effective, on average, than teachers who lacked such a degree. He notes “One of the most straightforward ways school districts can obtain cost savings without harming students is to eliminate extra pay for teachers who earn a master’s degree.”

16. Is the Charter School Movement Stuck in a Rut?
by Chester E. Finn Jr.

“As the U.S. charter fleet sails past the 5,000-school and two-decade markers, there is reason to worry that it’s getting complacent, unimaginative, and self-interested,” wrote Chester Finn. “This wouldn’t be the first “reform movement” in the history of education to turn into an ideologically rigid, pull-up-the-gangplank-now-that-we’re-aboard sort of vested interest. But it would still be a great pity.”

15. Ed Next: Poll Top Books of the Decade
by Education Next

To mark Education Next’s 10^th anniversary, we asked readers to help us identify the best books of the past decade. We selected 41 books as contenders and asked readers to vote for the top three. In January 2011, we announced the results: Diane Ravitch’s Death and Life of the Great American School System came in first, E.D. Hirsch’s The Knowledge Deficit came in second, and Linda Darling-Hammond’s The Flat World and Education came in third.

14. The Enormous Economic Returns to a Good Teacher
by Eric Hanushek

Eric Hanushek explains a new report that calculates the value of a good (and a bad) teacher by tracing the economic ramifications of differences in student achievement.  “A teacher at the 85^th percentile … with a class of 20 students generates over $400,000 in economic benefits, compared to an average teacher, for each year that she gets such achievement gains.”

13. No Matter How Hard You Try, You Cannot Deny US Math Performance is Terrible
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson defends a study he authored with Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessman that found that the United States ranked 31st in the world at bringing 15 year olds up to an advanced level of math achievement.

12. Khan Academy Not Overhyped, Just Missing a Key Ingredient – Excellent Live Teachers
by Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel

Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel note that most of the hype about the Khan Academy is ignoring its potential to enable the best in-person teachers to reach more students with personalized instruction. “This dual power of technology –both to extend reach of super-instructors boundlessly (no more low-value homework and large-group time) AND to allow reorganization of great on-site teacher time – is worth hyping.”

11. Steve Jobs on Education
by Jay P. Greene

After Steve Jobs died in October, Jay Greene reviewed selected remarks from Jobs on education, including his criticism of teachers unions and his support for vouchers.

10. With a Math Proficiency Rate of 32 Percent, U.S. Ranks Number 32
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson reports on the results of a new study examining the performance of U.S. students in mathematics compared to students in other countries. That information is obtained by comparing student performance on NAEP math and reading tests with the performance of students from across the world on similar examinations.  Only thirty-two percent of U.S. students in the class of 2011 were proficient in mathematics when they were in 8^th grade, placing the United States in 32nd place among the 65 nations of the world that participated in PISA.

9. Nobody Deserves Tenure
by Checker E. Finn Jr.

Chester Finn traces the history of tenure and explains why it makes no sense for K-12 teachers to have it. “it didn’t come down from Mount Sinai—and there are plenty of other ways to safeguard public employees from wrongful dismissal besides guaranteeing them lifetime jobs.”

8. Teacher Accountability: The Next Front in the School Reform Wars
by Michael Petrilli

Mike Petrilli argues that school reformers should focus on teacher tenure reform rather than choice and accountability “After twenty years it’s become clear that choice and accountability are necessary but not sufficient to create the conditions for high-performing systems. They were too indirect; now it’s time to tackle teacher tenure and evaluations head-on. And that means fighting the unions in committee rooms in state capitals.”

7. The Best Books of the Past Decade According to Ed Next Readers
by Paul E. Peterson

In January 2011, after we announced the results of our “Best Books of the Decade” poll, Paul Peterson reflected on the results. Readers had been invited to vote for the three best education policy books of the past decade from a list of 41 books. Over 4000 votes were cast. Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System won the poll by a wide margin, pulling in 22 % of the total.

6. E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy and American Democracy
by Marci Kanstoroom

Marci Kanstoroom commented on the announcement that Core Knowledge would align its curriculum with the Common Core standards, and considered the claim by E.D. Hirsch that the standards have the potential to revolutionize reading instruction by embracing the idea that language mastery requires knowledge of history, science, music and fine arts. In a new book, Hirsch explicitly connected the idea of cultural literacy with the civic role of schools.

5. Why Digital Learning will Liberate Teachers
by Michael B. Horn

Michael Horn detailed the many different ways the growth of digital learning will benefit teachers. “The bottom line? Digital learning should liberate teachers’ lives by making the opportunities for success far more frequent, and the opportunities for teachers to pursue what they like and their passions about the teaching profession far more possible.”

4. Is Anybody Up for Defending the Common Core Math Standards?
by Frederick Hess

After trying without success to find an author for an Ed Next article defending the Common Core math standards, Rick Hess took his assignment to the blog, wondering why nobody involved with the standards was willing to make the case for their rigor and quality. “The notion that Common Core proponents needn’t make their case is an affront to democratic values,” he wrote.

3. Are Wisconsin Schools Better than Those in Texas?
by Paul E. Peterson

While debates raged last spring about the prospect of deep spending cuts (and limitations on collective bargaining rights) in Wisconsin, Paul Peterson took aim at a column by Paul Krugman in the New York Times that argued that low-spending Texas has rotten schools. Peterson responded to Krugman by pointing to data showing that if you look at the test scores of each ethnic group separately, Texas’ schools are doing better than Wisconsin’s.

2. Compared to Other Countries, Does the United States Really Do That Badly in Math?
by Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson

Paul Peterson and Eric Hanushek investigated why U.S. students scored in the bottom half of countries in math on PISA but in the top 10 in math on TIMSS. They found that many industrialized countries that participated in PISA did not participate in TIMSS, which also includes many countries from the developing world.

1. Eighth-Grade Students Learn More Through Direct Instruction
by Paul E. Peterson

Paul Peterson described a study that found that students learned more math and science when their teachers spent more time on lecture-style instruction and less time working on problems.

Behind the Headline
The Flipped Classroom
Education Next | Winter 2012

Today on CNN, a principal from Clinton Township, Michigan discussed his school’s use of the flipped classroom to boost the achievement of failing students. In the Winter 2012 issue of EdNext, Bill Tucker discussed the merits of this method, which reorganizes teaching time so that students work through problems with material in class and view recorded lectures on the lesson material at home.

Watch Greg Green discuss what is happening in his schools in the interview below.

A blog post by Mr Green on this topic is also available here.

Behind the Headline
In Low-Income Schools, Parents Want Teachers Who Teach
Education Next | Summer 2007

Since teacher effectiveness varies greatly within schools, even good schools, parents need to do more than just pick good schools for their kids; they should do whatever they can to get good teachers for their kids. So argues Andy Rotherham in a new article on Time.com. A study published in Ed Next found that well-off parents would choose different kinds of teachers for their kids than poor parents. “Parents in high-poverty schools strongly value a teacher’s ability to raise student achievement and appear indifferent to student satisfaction. In wealthier schools the results are reversed: parents most value a teacher’s ability to keep students happy,” the study concluded.

Additional installments of our Ed Next Book Club podcast can be heard here.

Behind the Headline
Fraud in the Lunchroom?
Education Next | Winter 2010

Senator Dick Durbin is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do more to verify eligibility for the federal free and reduced price school lunch program after an investigation in Chicago found evidence of dozens of falsified applications. In an article that appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Ed Next, David Bass called attention to the fact that the federal school lunch program does not do a good job of verifying student eligibility for the program, which has consequences beyond providing meals for hungry children.

HT: Alexander Russo

Behind the Headline
Home Schooling Goes Mainstream
Education Next | Winter 2009

Tim Tebow and his four siblings were home-schooled from kindergarten through high school by their parents, who were pioneers in the home-schooling movement, notes Valerie Strauss on her Answer Sheet blog at the Washington Post. In the Winter 2009 issue of Ed Next, Milton Gaither wrote about how home schooling has become mainstream.

Several of the articles take readers inside classrooms to see how some much-vaunted policies and innovations (e.g. differentiated instruction, blended learning) are working in practice. Several other top articles look at how the performance of U.S. students compares to that of students in other countries. Quite a few relate to teacher effectiveness and compensation. Only two of the top twenty articles focus on technology and learning.

Which Ed Next authors penned the most articles in our top 20 list? Eric Hanushek leads the pack with 4, followed closely by Ludger Woessman with 3 articles. Paul Peterson, Mike Petrilli, June Kronholz, and Michael Podgursky all wrote 2 articles in the top 20.

While most of the articles on our list were published in 2011, some are oldies that generated new interest this year (including two articles from our archives about teacher pensions and other benefits).

Here are the top 20 articles for 2011:

20. “Gender Gap: Are boys being shortchanged in K-12 schooling?”
by Richard Whitmire and Susan McGee Bailey
In this forum, two experts consider whether, after years of concern that girls were being shortchanged in male-dominated schools, boys are now the ones in peril.

19. “Merit Pay International: Countries with performance pay for teachers score higher on PISA tests,”
by Ludger Woessman
This study finds that student achievement is significantly higher in countries that make use of teacher performance pay than in countries that do not use it.

18. “The Turnaround Fallacy: Stop trying to fix failing schools. Close them and start fresh,”
by Andy Smarick
This article reviews the evidence on school turnaround efforts and concludes that they are not the solution for the nation’s failing schools.

17. “Academic Value of Non-Academics: The case for keeping extracurriculars,”
by June Kronholz
This article looks at links between student involvement in afterschool activities and academic achievement.

16. “An Effective Teacher in Every Classroom: A lofty goal, but how to do it?”
by Kati Haycock and Eric Hanushek
In this forum, two experts debate the best ways to identify effective teachers and to increase the number of effective teachers in high-poverty schools and communities.

15. “Teacher Retirement Benefits: Even in economically tough times, costs are higher than ever,”
by Robert Costrell and Michael Podgursky
This study documents the growing gap between high employer pension costs for public school teachers and lower employer pension costs for private sector managers and professionals.

14. “Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete? The latest on each state’s international standing,”
by Paul Peterson, Ludger Woessman, Eric Hanushek, and Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadon
This study found that U.S. students rank 32nd among industrialized nations in proficiency in math and 17th in reading.

13. “Fringe Benefits: There is more to teacher compensation than a teacher’s salary,”
by Michael Podgursky
This article examines the ways in which simple comparisons between teacher salaries and salaries of other kinds of workers can be misleading.

12. “Challenging the Gifted: Nuclear chemistry and Sartre draw the best and brightest to Reno,”
by June Kronholz
This feature story takes readers inside the Davidson Academy, a public school in Nevada for highly-gifted students.

11. “Sage on the Stage: Is lecturing really all that bad?”
by Guido Schwerdt and Amelie Wupperman
This study finds that students score higher on standardized tests in math and science when their teachers spend more class time on lecture-style presentations and less time on group problem-solving activities.

10. “When the Best is Mediocre: Developed countries far outperform our most affluent suburbs,”
by Jay Greene and Josh McGee
The first-ever comparison of math performance in virtually every school district in the United States finds that even the most elite suburban school districts produce results that are mediocre when compared to those of international peers.

9. “The Flipped Classroom: Online instruction at home frees class time for learning,”
by Bill Tucker
This article traces the development of “flipped instruction,” in which students view video-taped lessons or access online material at home and then use class time to work through problems and engage in collaborative learning with their teachers.

8. “Valuing Teachers: How much is a good teacher worth?”
by Eric Hanushek
This analysis considers the economic impact of replacing ineffective teachers with effective ones, and estimates the gains to U.S. gross domestic product that would result from boosting academic performance.

7. “Time for School? When the snow falls, test scores also drop,”
by Dave Marcotte and Benjamin Hansen
This article examines the evidence that expanding instructional time is as effective as other commonly discussed educational interventions intended to boost learning

6. “Creating a Corps of Change Agents: What explains the success of Teach for America?”
by Monica Higgins, Wendy Robison, Jennie Weiner, and Frederick Hess
This study examined the work histories of people leading entrepreneurial organizations in education and found that Teach for America alumni were heavily overrepresented.

5. “Teaching Math to the Talented: Which countries—and states—are producing high-achieving students?”
by Eric Hanushek, Paul Peterson, and Ludger Woessman
This study compares the percentage of U.S. students with advanced skills in math to percentages of similarly high achievers in other countries, and finds that 30 of the 56 other countries participating in PISA have more students scoring at an advanced level.

4. “All Together Now: Educating high and low achievers in the same classroom,”
by Mike Petrilli
This feature shows how one school is making differentiated instruction work–challenging every child while avoiding segregating classrooms.

3. “All A-Twitter about Education: Improving our schools in 140 characters or less,”
by Mike Petrilli
This article looked at the role Twitter was playing in education policy debates and ranked the top 25 education policy/media tweeters and the top 25 educator tweeters based on their Klout scores.

2. “Future Schools: Blending face-to-face and online learning,”
by Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff
This feature, an early article on blended learning, profiled several charter schools using the hybrid approach.

1. “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: Can classroom observations identify practices that raise achievement?”
by Tom Kane, Amy Wooten, John Tyler, and Eric Taylor
This study of Cincinnati’s teacher evaluation system finds that the teachers who receive high ratings from trained evaluators who observe them are also more effective at promoting gains in student test scores.

Congratulations to all of our authors, and stay tuned — next Friday we’ll post the top 20 blog entries from 2011.

-Education Next

Behind the Headline
The Future of No Child Left Behind
Education Next | Summer 2009

George W. Bush spoke with Andy Rotherham about the impact of No Child Left Behind and what should happen next in an interview for Time. “The President has to take the lead and say, Wait a minute, No Child Left Behind has worked. Let’s not weaken it,” says Bush. In Summer 2009, Diane Ravitch and John Chubb debated the future of NCLB in an Ed Next forum.

Behind the Headline
Assessing New York’s Commissioner of Education
Education Next | Summer 2011

The U.S. Department of Education has notified New York that it could lose some of its Race to the Top funds if it does not comply with the goals it set when it applied for the funds.  In its application, the state promised to develop a new teacher evaluation system and the state’s teachers union leader signed on to the plan, but now teachers unions in many school districts are refusing to cooperate with these efforts. Peter Meyer wrote about how New York developed its winning Race to the Top application–and how the union was brought on board–in an article appearing in the Summer 2011 issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
Not Your Mother’s PTA
Education Next | Winter 2012

Alan Bonsteel, president of Californians for Educational Choice, makes the case for parent trigger laws in an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee. In the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next, Bruno Manno writes about the growing number of advocacy groups that empower parents to take active roles in promoting school improvement in their communities.

In Connecticut, the state teachers union has issued a report containing its ideas for school reform. Richard Kahlenberg and Jay Greene debated whether collective bargaining rights for teachers should be expanded or contracted in an article appearing in the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next.

Among those interviewed was Education Next’s own editor-in-chief, Paul E. Peterson, who gave his thoughts on the successes charter schools have had. From the transcript:

Paul Peterson, director of Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, says students seem to benefit most when cities have a mix of charter and traditional public schools.

“When some new school sets up that’s a competitor with the local public school, that public school tries to meet the competition. So the more competition there is, the better they become,” Peterson said.

Some opponents of charter schools contend that they take resources away from regular schools. Peterson says that’s not the case. “Generally speaking, charter schools operate with less money per pupil. They only have about 80% of what the traditional public school has.”

Charter schools tend to attract younger teachers with little to no experience in a classroom. Peterson says that has actually worked to the schools’ benefit. “They are very upset about the traditional public school. They feel it is bureaucratized and regulated and over-controlled, and they feel very hamstrung.”

Many of Peterson’s students go on to work in charter schools. “They really are the drivers of the charter school supply side: young entrepreneurs coming out there with their ideas, and they get very excited about the possibility.”

You can listen to this podcast and read the accompanying article on CNN’s blog School of Thought here.

Behind the Headline
Don’t Sweat It
Education Next | Fall 2006

In California, elementary schools with more students from low-income families have lower scores on a statewide test of physical fitness. Some blame inequalities in the availability of physical education resources. In 2006, Bob Cullen wrote about how different schools were using (and not using) physical education to address the obesity epidemic.

Ed Next also published a study, “Not Your Father’s PE,” that found that increasing the amount of required physical education time did not result in increased rates of physical activity.

An Ed Next video, “Accountability Comes to Physical Education,” looked at how one high school is using a nontraditional approach to physical education to boost physical activity.

Behind the Headline
The Vallas Effect
Education Next | Spring 2008

Bridgeport, Conn. has announced that Paul Vallas will become the superintendent of the city’s school system on January 1. The hard-charging leader has left a trail of admirers and critics in the other big-city districts he has led. In 2008, Dale Mezzacappa wrote about Vallas’s move to New Orleans for Ed Next. In 2003, Alexander Russo looked back at Vallas’s time in Chicago as he prepared to leave for Philadelphia.

Behind the Headline
Is Your Child’s School Effective?
Education Next | Fall 2006

A new report finds that 48% of U.S. schools did not make adequate yearly progress this year. Earlier this year, Arne Duncan predicted that 82% of schools would fail to make AYP. In the Fall 2006 issue of Ed Next, Paul Peterson and Marty West took a close look at the formula for calculating AYP and suggested some ways of improving the AYP yardstick.

Behind the Headline
How Vouchers Came to D.C.
Education Next | Fall 2004

Joe Robert, a D.C. philanthropist who supported efforts to expand school options for disadvantaged children, died last week. In the Washington Post, Sally Sachar writes about her work with Robert at the Washington Scholarship Fund, a nonprofit which administered the district’s voucher program. In 2004, Spencer Hsu told the story of how D.C. got its voucher program. In 2009, Patrick Wolf described efforts to kill the program.

Behind the Headline
Poor Schools or Poor Kids?
Education Next | Winter 2010

On the New York Times’ op-ed page, Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske revisit the agenda of the “Broader, Bolder” approach to school reform, complaining that, despite the fact that poor kids in general perform less well in school than better-kids,  “policy makers mistakenly continue to reason that, since they cannot change the backgrounds of students, they should focus on things they can control.”  In the Winter 2010 issue of Ed Next, Pedro Noguera and Joe Williams debated whether education reformers should focus on accountability, pay reform, and school choice, or whether we must attend to health care, preschool, and parenting skills if poor students are to succeed in school.

Behind the Headline
An Appeal to Authority
Education Next | Fall 2008

“Gingrich’s latest idea — making disadvantaged students do janitorial work — is faulty in its specifics but not crazy in general,” writes Andy Rotherham, pointing out  that “hundreds of schools have sprung up across the country that … have clear nonacademic curricula that focus on behavior, self-management and life skills. The goal, as described by journalist David Whitman, the current speechwriter for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, is to use school as an anti-poverty tool by deliberately fostering a strong work ethic in students.” An article by David Whitman based on Sweating the Small Stuff , “An Appeal To Authority,” appears in the Fall 2008 issue of Ed Next.

Earlier this year, David Whitman appeared on the Ed Next book club podcast to discuss Sweating the Small Stuff.

Behind the Headline
Authorizing Charters
Education Next | Fall 2010

In New Orleans, the state body charged with authorizing charter schools is being criticized for recommending the rejection of many applications from local, African-American groups while approving applications from national organizations. Louisiana officials contract with the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to review the applications. In an article that appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Ed Next, Terry Ryan, Mike Lafferty, and Chester Finn describe the challenges the Fordham Foundation has faced as a charter authorizer in Ohio, where the foundation has worked hard to support the efforts of local groups to start and run charter schools.

Behind the Headline
Cautionary Tale
Education Next | Fall 2011

In today’s New York Times, Ed Next’s Rick Hess and Stanford’s Linda Darling-Hammond team up to plead for a smarter federal role in education. In the Fall 2011 issue of Ed Next, Nathan Glazer reviewed two books that trace the development of NCLB and help to explain how we ended up with the federal role we now have.

Behind the Headline
Getting At-Risk Teens to Graduation
Education Next | Fall 2011

The New York Times looks at a project-based school in San Francisco for teens who have been chronically truant. Some of the 275 students at Downtown High School participate in adventure-based projects that including backpacking and constructing a boat. In the Fall 2011 issue of Ed Next, June Kronholz looked at a different type of alternative school for students at risk of dropping out — Performance Learning Centers, which feature hybrid instruction that combines online learning with teacher-led classrooms.

In the Winter 2011 issue of Ed Next, June Kronholz looked at the causes of truancy and some approaches to fighting it in “Truants: The challenges of keeping kids in school.”

For a full report on this conference read “The International Experience: What the U.S. can and cannot learn from other countries“ by Carlos Lastra-Anadón and Paul E. Peterson.

All Photos by Martha Stewart.

Behind the Headline
Fraud in the Lunchroom?
Education Next | Winter 2010

The number of students receiving free or reduced price lunches at school has risen by 3 million over the last 4 years. In an article that appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Ed Next, David Bass expressed concern that the federal school lunch program does not do a good job of verifying student eligibility for the program, which has consequences beyond providing meals for hungry children.

Behind the Headline
School Choice International
Education Next | Winter 2009

A new Brookings report grades the nation’s largest school districts on how much they promote choice and competition.  New York City was rated the most effective school-choice system. A 2009 study by Ludger Woessmann and Martin West involving students from 29 countries found that competition generates higher student achievement in math, reading and science.

Behind the Headline
Stuck in the Middle
Education Next | Fall 2010

Students who move from 5th grade into middle school experience a significant decrease in math and reading achievement and are more likely to drop out of school than students who remain in one school through 8th grade, according to a study by Martin West and Guido Schwerdt. The study, part of the Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series at Harvard University, confirms the findings of an earlier study comparing students attending K-8 schools with students who attended separate elementary and middle schools in New York City. The earlier study, by Jonah Rockoff and Benjamin Lockwood, appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
Unions and the Public Interest
Education Next | Winter 2012

At a meeting with editors and reporters at the Washington Times, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel denounced efforts to limit the bargaining rights of teachers and other public employees. Richard Kahlenberg and Jay Greene debated whether collective bargaining for teachers is good for students in an article appearing in the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
Florida’s Online Option
Education Next | Summer 2009

Newt Gingrich announced this week that he would teach an online class on public policy, to explain to the country what he is trying to accomplish, if elected president. In the Summer 2009 issue of Ed Next, Bill Tucker wrote about Florida Virtual School, a leader in online learning.

There is almost nothing examining the thousands of moves teachers must decide on and execute every school day. Should I ask for raised hands, or cold-call? Should I give a warning or a detention? Do I require this student to attend my afterschool help session, or make it optional? Should I spend 10 minutes grading each five-paragraph essay, 20 minutes, or just not pay attention to time and work on each until it “feels” done?

Goldstein, the founder of MATCH Charter School and MATCH Teacher Residency in Boston, goes on to analyze why we don’t have the kind of research teachers need and describe what it would take to change things.

“Without a massive uptick in our knowledge of teacher moves,” he warns, “we’ll continue on the current reform path.”

That path is a limited replication of No Excuses schools that rely on a very unusual labor pool (young, often work 60+ hours per week, often from top universities); the creation of many more charters that, on average, aren’t different in performance from district schools; districts adopting “lite” versions of No Excuses models while pruning small numbers of very low performing teachers; and some amount of shift to online learning. Peering into that future, I don’t see how we’ll generate a breakthrough.

The article, “Studying Teacher Moves: A practitioner’s take on what is blocking the research teachers need,” will appear in the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next and is now available online. The article is summarized in this press release.

-Education Next

Behind The Headline
An Appeal to Authority
Education Next | Fall 2008

Affluent parents are signing their kids up for pricey afterschool classes aimed at teaching basic social skills and values.  In the Fall 2008 issue of Ed Next, David Whitman wrote about “paternalistic” schools for inner-city kids “that teach students not just how to think, but also how to act according to what are commonly termed traditional, middle-class values.”  Whitman noted that “the notion of reintroducing paternalism in inner-city schools is deeply at odds with the conventional wisdom of the K–12 education establishment,” but he concluded that “the new breed of paternalistic schools appears to be the single most effective way of closing the achievement gap.”

Behind The Headline
Valuing Teachers
Education Next | Summer 2011

On Eduwonk, Rick Hanushek kicks off a debate with Diane Ravitch over the importance of weeding out harmful teachers. “The future of our schools depends heavily on dealing with the small number of teachers who simply should not be in the classroom,” Hanushek argues. Hanushek’s argument draws on several articles he has written for Ed Next over the past few years, including “Valuing Teachers,” “Teaching Math to the Talented,” and “An Effective Teacher in Every Classroom.”

A press release summarizing the article appears here.

-Education Next

For more on school advocacy groups see “Not Your Mother’s PTA” by Bruno V. Manno.

Education Reform Now

Parent Revolution

Stand for Children

Behind the Headline
The New Superintendent of School for New Orleans
Education Next | Fall 2011

John White, the new leader of the Recovery School District in New Orleans, is now one vote closer to becoming the next state superintendent of Louisiana, after last weekend’s election for members of the state board of education. Peter Meyer profiled John White in the Fall 2011 issue of Ed Next.

The study, “Poor Results for High Achievers: New evidence on the impact of gifted and talented programs,” by Sa Bui, Scott Imberman, and Steven Craig of the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, will appear in the Winter 2012 issue of Education Next, and is now available online.

So asks June Kronholz in a new article on extracurriculars for Education Next.  The answer: as it turns out, maybe they should.

“There’s not a straight line between the crochet club and the Ivy League. But a growing body of research says there is a link between afterschool activities and graduating from high school, going to college, and becoming a responsible citizen,” she writes.

But did kids who joined afterschool activities become good students, or did good students join afterschool activities? June concludes,

As with a lot of social science research, the findings about extracurriculars aren’t always consistent or conclusive: You can’t randomly assign kids to soccer, after all. But some researchers insist there is a cause-effect relationship between activities and academic success, not just the other way around.

The article, “Academic Value of Non-Academics: The case for keeping extracurriculars,” will appear in the Winter 2012 issue of Ed Next and is now available online.

A press release summarizing the article appears here.

- Education Next

Behind the Headline
The New Superintendent of School for New Orleans
Education Next | Fall 2011

John White, the new head of the Recovery School District in New Orleans, was the subject of this weekend’s featured interview in the Wall Street Journal. White was earlier profiled by Peter Meyer in the fall issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
The Flipped Classroom
Education Next | Winter 2012

In USA Today, Greg Toppo describes how teachers are using technology to flip their classrooms–recording lectures that students can watch at home (repeatedly if necessary) and then helping students work through assignments in class. Bill Tucker wrote about flipped classrooms in the most recent issue of Ed Next.

Behind the Headline
Low Expectations
Ed Next blog

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced a series of initiatives to improve the quality of our nation’s schools of education. In new Ed Next article, a recent graduate describes her ed school experience.  She concludes, “After observing and teaching in a variety of classroom settings over the course of my graduate studies, I have concluded that good teaching depends on three things: mastery of the subject, a keen understanding of how children learn, and an ability to maintain a disciplined yet positive learning environment. It is hard for me to express how disheartening it is to have spent two years and more than $80,000 in student loans on a program that did justice to none of those objectives.”

Behind the Headline
If Nothing Ever Changes, Then the Teaching Profession Will Never Change
Ed Next blog

The $450 billion in spending proposed by President Obama as part of the American Jobs Act includes $30 billion that could save the jobs of nearly 400,000 teachers, the White House says. On the Ed Next blog, Tim Farmer writes about how those dollars could be used to improve the teaching profession.

Behind the Headline
Cash for Test Scores
Education Next | Fall 2008

In the New York Times, Sam Dillon describes an initiative that uses cash bonuses to coax more students to take Advanced Placement courses in math and science, and looks at how the initiative is playing out at a high school in Worcester, Mass.  A study by Kirabo Jackson published in the Fall 2008 issue of Ed Next found that a Texas program that paid students and teachers for passing scores on Advanced Placement tests produced meaningful increases in participation in the AP program and improvements in other critical education outcomes.

A blog entry by Marty West from 2010 looked at a later study that found long-term benefits for the incentive program.

As they write:

The results speak for themselves.  Florida is on par with Lithuania, California is on par with Russia, Michigan with Latvia, Mississippi with Uruguay.  The best performing State, Massachusetts, is on par with Canada.

See what country your state’s students compare to below.

The article detailing each state’s relative international standing can be found here.

The unabridged version of the paper is available here.