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

posted in: Briefings & Reports |

(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

How Science Informs Reading Instruction

How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading (click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Keith Rayner, Barbara R. Foorman, Charles A. Perfetti, David Pesetsky, and Mark S. Seidenberg. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 2, No. 2, November 2001   Briefing The greatest weakness of the public schools is their continuing ineffectiveness in reading instruction. During the course of children’s school careers, very many of their academic and … Read More

Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge

(click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) The Secretary’s Annual Report on Teacher Quality Office of Postsecondary Education Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education, 2002   Briefing Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge is a U. S. Department of Education (USDOE) report on the quality of America’s teacher training. Drawing upon the data compiled under Title II of the 1998 Higher Education Act, the report is a guide to the … Read More

Follow Through: Why Didn’t We?

(click here for full article) (click here to download a PDF of this article) By Cathy L. Watkins Effective School Practices, 15(1), Winter, 1995. Briefing What do we do with a teaching technique that works? Surely, educators would welcome such a breakthrough with open arms. Incredibly, they haven’t. Project Follow Through, the largest experiment ever undertaken to find effective methods for teaching disadvantaged children, discovered such a teaching method at a cost of nearly a billion dollars. They … Read More

Private Sector Alternatives for Preventing Reading Failure

Groff, P.  (1987).  Private sector alternatives for preventing reading failure, Washington, DC:  National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement. Editor’s note:  Chapters IV-VI contain outdated names, addresses, and references, and therefore were omitted _________________ A directory of national organizations providing a rationale for their need;  An assessment of the professional training they provide for prospective or inservice teachers of reading By Patrick Groff, Professor of Education San Diego State University   I. Introduction The major purpose of … Read More

Preventing Reading Failure

Private Sector Alternatives for Preventing Reading Failure (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By Patrick Groff Professor, San Diego State University Washington, DC: National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement, 1987.   Briefing The No Child Left Behind Act calls for greater reliance on rigorous educational research. But is a shortage of rigorous studies the real problem? In 1987, Professor Patrick Groff reported that the U. S. was experiencing … 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

Shifting Images

Shifting Images of Developmentally Appropriate Practice as Seen Through Different Lenses (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By David K. Dickinson Educational Researcher, 31(1), 2002, pp. 26-32.   Briefing Despite billions spent, preschool programs such as Headstart have produced disappointing results. A prime reason may be that the nation’s largest accreditor of preschool programs has required them to use teaching practices that impede, rather than encourage, school readiness. The National … Read More

The Evolution of the New American Schools

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

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