“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
Closing America’s Achievement Gap: A Powerful Tool is Being Ignored
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
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only a third of 4th-grade students in the U.S. read at a proficient level. Approximately 70% of the two-thirds who are not up-to-speed in reading will either drop out or graduate unprepared for college or the workplace (i.e., they will require remedial studies or struggle with on-the-job training). Dropouts and unprepared graduates are an economic burden to themselves and taxpayers. Their educational attainment is a barrier to self-sustaining wages. Over a working lifetime, they … Read More
American Decline can be Reversed through Grassroots Action Public education has been decaying on the inside for decades. Educators blame poverty, poor parenting, changing demographics, the growth of hedonistic popular culture, insufficient funding, and myriad other factors. Seldom mentioned, however, is education’s failure to adapt and overcome these conditions. In the view of most educators, schools are doing all they can–an explanation that is contradicted by the measurable differences in effectiveness among teachers within the same school and … Read More
A bill before the 2019 Tennessee General Assembly could lead to dramatic improvements in teaching, learning, and college readiness for Tennessee’s PK-12 students. The bill would require the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to incentivize Tennessee’s public universities for producing a greater percentage of highly effective new teachers. It would do so by incorporating the percentage of newly graduated teachers who produce above-average achievement gains into THEC’s Quality Assurance funding program. Although Tennessee’s universities have historically produced many excellent teachers, a decline in quality … Read More
In most states, a school district’s number of proficient third-grade readers is highly predictive of the number of 8th graders who will be proficient five years later. The significance of this fact is that 8th-grade reading skill is highly predictive of high school outcomes and preparedness for work and college. In other words, third grade reading success is vitally important because it predicts the trajectory of a child’s educational career. The above chart school district reading scores illustrates … Read More
What is an Education Consumers Association? An Education Consumers Association (ECA) is local or state level citizen group that is dedicated to empowering parents, school board members, employers, and all others who have a consumer’s…… Read More
The world of publicly funded education is comprised of numerous institutions, agencies, organizations, and regulatory bodies. They range from schools and colleges to teacher organizations, to vendors of books and desks, to academic interest groups. All share in the growth and prosperity of the multibillion-dollar industry of which they are a part. All are stakeholders in the industry’s successes and failures. By contrast, the Education Consumers Foundation (ECF) is a non-profit organization that is financially and otherwise independent … Read More
In most states, a school district’s number of proficient third-grade readers is highly predictive of the number of 8th graders who will be proficient five years later. The significance of this fact is that 8th-grade reading skill is highly predictive of high school outcomes and preparedness for work and college. In other words, third grade reading success is vitally important because it predicts the trajectory of a child’s educational career. The above chart school district reading scores illustrates … Read More