The Top Education Next Articles of 2014

UPDATE: Check out our top 20 articles of 2015 and our top 20 articles of 2016.

Each year we provide readers with a list of the most popular articles we published that year.

This year the list is topped by four major research pieces: an analysis of how U.S. students from highly educated families perform compare with similarly advantaged students from other countries; a study investigating what students gain when they are taken on field trips to see high-quality theater performances; a study of teacher evaluation systems in four urban school districts that identifies strengths and weaknesses of different evaluation systems; and the results of Education Next’s annual survey of public opinion on education.

The rest of the list is a combination of research, longer feature stories, interviews, short pieces, and book reviews.

Without further ado, here is the top 20 list:

1.		U.S. Students from Educated Families Lag in International Tests It’s not just about kids in poor neighborhoods By Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson and Ludger Woessmann
2.		Learning from Live Theater Students realize gains in knowledge, tolerance, and more By Jay P. Greene, Collin Hitt, Anne Kraybill and Cari A. Bogulski
3.		Getting Classroom Observations Right Lessons on how from four pioneering districts By Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, Matthew M. Chingos and Katharine M. Lindquist
4.		No Common Opinion on the Common Core Also teacher grades, school choices, and other findings from the 2014 EdNext poll By Michael B. Henderson, Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West
5.		Beyond the Factory Model Oakland teachers learn how to blend By Joanne Jacobs
6.		For Education Entrepreneurs, Innovation Yields High Returns Learning from Larry Berger, Jonathan Harber, and Ron Packard By Julie Landry Petersen
7.		What Effective Schools Do Stretching the cognitive limits on achievement By Martin R. West, Christopher F. O. Gabrieli, Amy S. Finn, Matthew A. Kraft and John D.E. Gabrieli
8.		Choosing the Right Growth Measure Methods should compare similar schools and teachers By Mark Ehlert, Cory Koedel, Eric Parsons and Michael Podgursky
9.		The Texas Ten Percent Plan’s Impact on College Enrollment Students go to public universities instead of private ones By Lindsay Daugherty, Paco Martorell and Isaac McFarlin
10.		Inside Successful District-Charter Compacts Teachers and administrators collaborate to share best practices By Richard Whitmire
11.		Does Student Attrition Explain KIPP’s Success? Evidence on which students leave KIPP middle schools and who replaces them By Ira Nichols-Barrer, Brian P. Gill, Philip Gleason and Christina Clark Tuttle
12.		Common Core in the Classroom New standards help teachers create effective lesson plans By Lucy Boyd
13.		Does Better Observation Make Better Teachers? New evidence from a  teacher evaluation pilot in Chicago By Matthew P. Steinberg and Lauren Sartain
14.		Comparing Public Schools to Private Lubienskis’ conclusions rely on flawed research design By Patrick J. Wolf
15.		Teacher of the Year to Union President Lily Eskelsen García is poised to take over at the NEA By Richard Lee Colvin
16.		Schooling Rebooted Turning educators into learning engineers By Frederick Hess and Bror Saxberg
17.		The Philadelphia School District’s Ongoing Financial Crisis Why the district has a money problem By John Caskey and Mark Kuperberg
18.		Catholic School Closures and the Decline of Urban Neighborhoods What is the cause, and what the effect? By Nathan Glazer
19.		The Common Core Takes Hold Implementation moves steadily forward By Robert Rothman
20.		The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship College funds boost grades of African American students By Timothy J. Bartik and Marta Lachowska