“Since 2005” Reports on Educationfrom a Consumer Perspective • Was this school a good choice? • Why is my child behind? • Should my child be reading? • Is the problem my child or the school? Let Us Show You What to Look for & WhyWe show parents, taxpayers and officialshow to identify good schools &get the best from the rest. Go to slide 1 Go to slide 2 Go to slide 3 Go to slide 4 Go … Read More
Disconnected and Unaccountable Teacher Training is at the Heart of Schooling Failure Evidence from the few states where such data is collected indicates that many elementary and secondary school students fail to make adequate progress because they too frequently encounter ineffective teachers, i.e., teachers whose students’ achievement growth is significantly less than one year of achievement gain per school year. Part of the problem is that many school districts are only now beginning to systematically monitor or address the problem … Read More
Misdirected Teacher Training has Crippled Education Reform Significant Improvement will Require Teaching that Agrees with State Policy Aims An online controversy about the impact of Common Core on teaching in grades preK-3 revealed an illusion that has crippled education reform for decades. Policymakers may think that educators disagree with them only about the means to education reform. In truth, they also disagree about the ends. Since the 1983 Nation at Risk report, state and national policymakers have set … Read More
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) vs State Self Reports Are States Being Honest with Themselves About Student Achievement? The charts below compare the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reports on reading and math achievement with the state self-reports required by the No Child Left Behind Act. The discrepancies are shocking and they clearly illustrate the need for higher standards, but not necessarily for Common Core. What these discrepancies more directly reveal is a continuing … Read More
Studies pertaining to the effectiveness of NBPTS-certified teachers are ongoing. Here is a partial list. Advanced Teacher Certification http://www.education-consumers.com/Cunningham-Stone.pdf Evidence that there is any educationally meaningful advantage to certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is still lacking. [Cunningham, G. K. & Stone, J. E. (2005). Value-added assessment of teacher quality as an alternative to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: What recent studies say. In Robert Lissitz (Ed.). Value added models in education: Theory and applications. Maple … Read More
By J.E. Stone, Ed.D. President Education Consumers Foundation April 7, 2010 On March 29, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Tennessee was one of just two states to receive a Race to the Top (RTTT) grant in the first phase of the competition. Within minutes – before reviewers’ scoring notes had even been released – pundits proclaimed that stakeholder buy-in, particularly union buy-in, was the determining factor. Their take and their skepticism were not unwarranted. In our … Read More
Center for Education Reform (2014) “Charter schools do not inevitably succeed but they do incentivize better teaching and learning, and they do push competing public schools to improve. Charters played a key role in Newark and the The Center for Education Reform can provide numerous other examples of success.” https://www.edreform.com/issues/choice-charter-schools/
by J. E. Stone Stone, J. E. (2000). Aligning teacher training with public policy. The State Education Standard, 1(1), 35-38. The American Council on Education (ACE) recently issued a report calling for colleges and universities to either embrace independent assessment of the quality of their teacher education programs or to close them.[1] The Council, which represents American colleges and universities, fears that the weak academic standards maintained by teacher education programs will damage the reputations of their … Read More
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
The Evolution of the New American Schools: From Revolution to Mainstream (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Jeffery Mirel, Ph.D. School of Education University of Michigan Briefing What are the “New American Schools?” Unfortunately they are the latest educational reform to be identified as a failure. A variety of factors played a role in their demise, but the most obvious problem was their reliance on the “progressive” vision … Read More