The Heritage Foundation
By: Matthew Ladner and Lindsey Burke
September 2010

Abstract: An education gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers is something to which most Americans have become accustomed. But this racial division of education—and hence of prospects for the future— is nothing less than tragic. The good news is that the racial divide in learning is a problem that can be fixed. Of course, it can only be fixed if education reform is approached in a common sense and innovative way. Continuing to repeat the largely failed national policies and ever-increasing spending of the past decades is surely not commonsense. One state, Florida, has demonstrated that meaningful academic improvement—for students of all races and economic backgrounds—is possible. In 1999, Florida enacted far-reaching K–12 education reform that includes public and private school choice, charter schools, virtual education, performance-based pay for teachers, grading of schools and districts, annual tests, curbing social promotion, and alternative teacher certification. As a result of parental choice, higher standards, accountability, and flexibility, Florida’s Hispanic students are now outperforming or tied with the overall average for all students in 31 states. It is vital that national and state policymakers take the lessons of Florida’s success to heart. The future of millions of American children depends on it.

Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Week
By: William Howell, Paul E. Peterson, and Martin West
August 2010

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The fourth annual survey conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Next on a wide range of education issues released today reveals that the broader public and teachers are markedly divided in their support for merit pay, teacher tenure and Race to the Top (RttT). The poll provides strong evidence from a nationally representative sample that most Americans support merit pay for teachers, while teachers oppose the policy by a large margin; there is strong opposition among the public to teacher tenure, while teachers favor it; and teachers are significantly more opposed to the federal RttT program than the broader public.

Survey questions and responses, along with an essay by survey authors William G. Howell, Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West interpreting the results, are available online at the Education Next website: www.educationnext.org.

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
By: Matthew Ladner, Andrew T. LeFevre, and Dan Lips
September 2010

Press Release from ALEC:  http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=14092

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released today its Report Card on American Education: Ranking K-12 State Performance, Progress, and Reform, a comprehensive overview of education achievement levels within the 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). In its 16th edition, the Report Card ranks academic proficiency and education reform along rigorous standards, holding each state responsible for its transitions—whether positive or negative. It discusses what resources are being wasted, what students are being left behind, and what administrators, parents, and teachers can do make a difference in real education.

Authors Dr. Matthew Ladner, Andrew T. LeFevre, and Dan Lips rank states based on student performance and their corresponding improvements on the fourth- and eighth-grade reading and mathematics National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which are nationally administered exams, with Vermont coming in first and South Carolina last. The authors also graded each state (A to F) based on its education reform policies including academic standards, school choice programs, charter schools, online learning, and that state’s ability to hire good teachers and fire bad ones. Florida is the clear leader, based on the reforms implemented over the past decade.

Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup
By: William J. Bushaw and Shane J. Lopez
September 2010

Press Release from the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup: http://www.pdkintl.org/newsroom/docs/2010PDKGallupPoll_PR.pdf

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.–Despite high levels of agreement with the administration’s agenda shown in two previous PDK/Gallup annual polls, Americans are now less supportive of President Barack Obama’s education agenda, according to the 2010 annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. While the public favors Obama’s support of charter schools and efforts to make a college education available to everyone, only 34 percent would give him an A or B letter grade with regard to his performance in support of public schools—down from 45 percent last year. They also strongly oppose some of the proposed education reform measures, particularly those under which teachers and principals are fired.

When the poll, which is conducted annually by Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK) in conjunction with Gallup, asked Americans about underperforming schools, the public favored keeping a poorly performing school in the community open with existing teachers and principals, while providing comprehensive outside support. Americans do not support firing teachers and principals without cause or closing schools altogether.

Thomas B. Fordham Institute
By: Frederick M. Hess, Stafford Palmieri, Janie Scull

Press Release from the Fordham Foundation: http://www.edexcellence.net/201008_SchoolReformCities/SchoolReformCities_PressRelease.pdf

WASHINGTON, DC – Which American cities have cultivated a healthy environment for school reform to flourish and which have not? In an exploratory study of 30 major cities, nine reform?friendly locales surged to the front: New Orleans, Washington D.C., New York City, Denver, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth. Six cities trailed far behind: San Jose, San Diego, Albany, Philadelphia, Gary, and Detroit. Letter grades range from B to F.

America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for School Reform: Attracting Entrepreneurs and Change Agents was released today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The analysis was conducted by Frederick M. Hess, director of education studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Stafford Palmieri, policy analyst at Fordham, and Janie Scull, research assistant at Fordham.

Center on Education Policy
September 2010

Press Release from the Center on Education Policy: http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=314

WASHINGTON, D.C.—[September 15]—A new study of states with five years of comparable test data finds that student achievement in reading and math rose between 2005 and 2009 on state tests as well as on the highly regarded National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The report, released by the Center on Education Policy, also finds overlapping achievement gains in state test and state-level NAEP scores in most of these states, providing stronger evidence that students are mastering higher levels of knowledge and skills in reading and math.

The study, State Test Trends through 2008-09, Part 1: Rising Scores on State Tests and NAEP, focused on the 23 states with comparable proficiency test data for 2005 through 2009 on the state tests used for accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act. Overall, the research found more agreement than is commonly acknowledged between trends on state tests and NAEP, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Education and is often referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card.”

Harvard Education Press
By: Frederick M. Hess and Eric Osberg
September 2010

Press Release from AEI and the Fordham Foundation: http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/20100908_Stretching_School_Dollar_PR_FINAL.pdf

As school districts across the country struggle financially, Frederick M. Hess of AEI and Eric Osberg of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute offer new insight into how school leaders can not only survive the current economic storm, but also restructure their schools to save money and improve efficiency.

“Recent state-budget gaps are likely to exceed $140 billion in FY 2011, even after taking into account the $40 billion in leftover federal Recovery Act dollars. As a result, schools will continue to feel strapped,” notes Hess, AEI’s director of education policy. “This book comes at a time when school leaders and policymakers are asking how schools can do better even as they tighten their belts.”

American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
By: Gary J. Schmitt, Frederick M. Hess, et. al.
September 2010

Press Release from AEI: http://www.aei.org/press/100108

Civics, once the cornerstone of public education, has fallen off the radar in the era of standardized testing. Teachers feel increasing pressure to show progress on student math and reading skills to the detriment of civic education. This is one of the many striking findings in a new report by the AEI Program on American Citizenship, a new initiative dedicated to strengthening the foundations of freedom and self-government by renewing the understanding of American citizenship.

The report, High Schools, Civics, and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do, explores the views and practices of those most responsible for educating and shaping America's new citizens--high school history and social studies teachers. It includes data gleaned from a survey of over 1,000 public and private high school teachers. Commissioned by AEI's Program on American Citizenship, the survey was conducted by the Farkas Duffett Research Group.

The Innosight Institute
By: Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker
January 2011

Press release from Business Wire: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110124006351/en/Research-Blended-Learning-Rise-Online-Learning-K-12 SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the best-selling education book "Disrupting Class," the authors, Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson predicted that by 2019, 50 percent of all high school courses will be delivered online. Today, co-author Michael Horn, executive director of Innosight Institute, and Heather Staker, a senior research fellow at Innosight Institute, released new research in conjunction with the Charter School Growth Fund and Public Impact, which expands on this prediction and documents the rise of blended learning. Blending learning is defined as any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace. “U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently described a ‘new normal,’ where schools have to do more with less,” said Horn. “Blended learning will play a vital role, as school operators must rethink education’s structure and delivery with the new realities of public funding.”

McKinsey & Company
By: Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, Matt Miller
September 2010

Improving teacher effectiveness to lift student achievement has become a major theme in U.S. education. Most efforts focus on improving the effectiveness of teachers already in the classroom or on retaining the best performers and dismissing the least effective. Attracting more young people with stronger academic backgrounds to teaching has received comparatively little attention. McKinsey’s experience with school systems in more than 50 countries suggests that this is an important gap in the U.S. debate. In a new report, “Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and Retaining Top-Third Graduates to Careers in Teaching ,” we review the experiences of the top-performing systems in the world—Singapore, Finland, and South Korea. These countries recruit, develop, and retain the leading academic talent as one of their central education strategies, and they have achieved extraordinary results. In the United States, by contrast, only 23 percent of new teachers come from the top third, and just 14 percent in high poverty schools, where the difficulty of attracting and retaining talented teachers is particularly acute. The report asks what it would take to emulate nations that pursue this strategy if the United States decided it was worthwhile.

Los Angeles Times
By: Jason Felch, Jason Song, and Doug Smith
December 2010

The Times sought to measure the impact of about 2,700 seniority-based layoffs in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the last two years. It focused particularly on the performance of about 1,000 elementary and middle school teachers for whom math and English scores were available. Among the findings: Because seniority is largely unrelated to performance, the district has laid off hundreds of its most promising math and English teachers. About 190 ranked in the top fifth in raising scores and more than 400 ranked in the top 40%. Schools in some of the city's poorest areas were disproportionately hurt by the layoffs. Nearly one in 10 teachers in South Los Angeles schools was laid off, nearly twice the rate in other areas. Sixteen schools lost at least a fourth of their teachers, all but one of them in South or Central Los Angeles. Far fewer teachers would be laid off if the district were to base the cuts on performance rather than seniority. The least experienced teachers also are the lowest-paid, so more must be laid off to meet budgetary targets. An estimated 25% more teachers would have kept their jobs if L.A. Unified had based its cuts on teachers' records in improving test scores.

The Education Trust
By: Sarah Almy and Christina Theokas
November 2010

WASHINGTON (November 18, 2010) – Nearly a decade after federal law was enacted to ensure that low-income students and students of color had a fair shot at being assigned to strong teachers, students in high-poverty schools are still disproportionately taught by out-of-field and rookie teachers, according to "Not Prepared for Class," a report released today by The Education Trust. And while equity in teacher assignment patterns remains a major problem in inner-city and rural schools – particularly in mathematics – gaps in access to in-field teachers actually are widest in our nation’s suburbs and small towns. Out-of-field teachers possess neither state certification in the subject they teach nor a college major in that field.

“This puts America’s low-income students at an enormous disadvantage,” said Sarah Almy, director of teacher quality at The Education Trust and co-author of the report. “Students who are taught by educators with subject-area knowledge tend to achieve at higher levels than those who aren’t, especially in mathematics. So when low-income kids – the ones most likely to face outside-of-school challenges – are assigned to math classes taught by English majors, we are dramatically increasing the odds against their success and stacking the deck for failure.”

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
By: The Blue Ribbon Panel
November 2010

WASHINGTON (November 16, 2010) -- A national expert panel composed of education experts and critics today called for teacher education to be "turned upside down" by revamping programs to place clinical practice at the center of teacher preparation. This new vision of preparation also will require the development of partnerships with school districts in which teacher education becomes a shared responsibility between P-12 schools and higher education.

Those and other sweeping recommendations are part of a report by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning, convened by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to improve student learning.