Aligning Teacher Training with Public Policy

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(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By J. E. Stone The State Education Standard, Winter 2000, pp. 34-38.   Briefing John Q. Public is alarmed by continuing reports of failing schools. Lester R. Legislator is concerned, too, with ever-increasing school funding and little progress. Everyone feels cheated. Why is that? Surprisingly, it’s not the teachers’ fault. It goes deeper. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the … Read More

Direct Instruction and the Teaching of Early Reading

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Direct Instruction and the Teaching of Early Reading, Wisconsin’s Teacher-Led Insurgency (click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Mark C. Schug, Sara G. Tarver, & Richard D. Western Thiensville, WI: Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, 2001.   Briefing Everyone knows reading is the foundation of learning. Students know it. Parents know it. Teachers know it. So why isn’t it taught using only the most carefully tested methods? Direct Instruction (DI) is arguably the most … Read More

The Impact of Funding Adequacy Litigation

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By Richard Phelps, Ph.D. Economist Education Consumers Consultants Network   As one may recall from history class, the U.S. constitution includes no mention of education. Therefore, as one may also recall from history class, that issue remains in the domain of our country’s original founding entities, the states. Most state constitutions do provide some general, vague guarantee for the public provision of education. But, most of these constitutions were written between the late 1700s and late 1800s, when … Read More

Court-Ordered Spending Brings More of the Same

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(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Richard Phelps, Ph.D. Economist Education Consumers Consultants Network   Briefing Attorneys advocating increased public school spending for poor children spent years arguing an equity case. Their contention was that children in poor communities are treated inequitably because the tax base generates inadequate school funding–a violation of the equal-protection provisions in some state constitutions. But state judges typically found no language requiring equity and … Read More

Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Educational Testing Programs

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By Richard Phelps, Ph.D. Economist Education Consumers Consultants Network   Benefit-cost analysis is imbedded in all studies that ask the essential question of an activity, “Is it worth doing?” Benefit-cost analysis is a set of techniques, philosophy, and logic that can impose an order and rigor on the process used to answer the essential question. The logic of benefit-cost analysis is that of the accountant’s spreadsheet. Indeed, one could accurately describe it as economists’ accounting method. The essential … Read More

Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Educational Testing Programs

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(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Richard Phelps, Ph.D. Economist Education Consumers Consultants Network   Briefing The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act requires annual testing in grades 3-8, so now there is a huge controversy about how much all of that testing will cost. Some studies estimate costs of nearly $1800 per student and others are in the $10 to $25 range. Talk about differences of opinion! … Read More

Bringing Evidence-Driven Progress to Education

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Bringing Evidence-Driven Progress to Education: A Recommended Strategy for the U.S. Department of Education Report of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By J. E. Stone, Ed.D. College of Education East Tennessee State University   Briefing Weak research is a chronic problem in education. It has yielded schooling practices founded on little more than pet theories and idealistic causes. The enactment of the federal No … Read More

Do Students Have Too Much Homework?

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(click here for full article) (click here to download the PDF of this article) Part II, Brown Center Report on American Education By The Brown Center on Education Policy The Brookings Institution   Briefing The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution annually reports on the state of student achievement. Drawing on test scores and surveys, Part II of its 2003 report debunks the popular notion that students are being overwhelmed with homework. To the contrary, … Read More

Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students’ Motivation to Learn

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(click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2003   Briefing On the surface, the recommendations made by the National Research Council in its December 2003 report, Engaging Schools, seem reasonable enough. The report deals with student motivation and ways that high schools can foster it. One cannot argue with its goals: to create … Read More

References

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References   From Table 1, page 29 of Can Teacher Quality Be Effectively Assessed? By Dan Goldhaber & Emily Anthony Bond, L., Smith, T., Baker, W. K., and Hattie, J. A. (2000). The certification system of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: A construct and consequential validity study. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Center for Educational Research and Evaluation. Cohen, J. (1969). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Academic Press. Cohen, J. (1988). … Read More

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