NEPC Fellow John Rogers and his collaborators Joe Kahne and Erica Hodgin answer questions about the large increase in youth voting during the 2018 midterms and other topics related to young people at the polls.
BOULDER, CO (September 5, 2019) – In recent years, state takeovers of local school districts have become both increasingly common and prominent. Districts including Newark, Detroit, and Harrisburg are among those that have met this fate. Each of these takeovers—as well as many state interventions of a more limited nature in districts across the country—occurs pursuant to state law.
This research brief investigates state fiscal powers over districts, providing the necessary foundation for policymakers and researchers to understand how states might best address districts’ financial conduct and difficulties going forward. The authors consider ways that the state statutes provide the bases and means for state intervention into local district finances. They look for patterns among these state statutory provisions, and present a useful typology of system design across states.
You wake up in the middle of the night, sweating, a nightmare and you realize; only a few weeks before school opens. No matter how long you’ve been teaching as the first day approaches you get nervous; everything has to be perfect, you increasingly think about new lessons, you worry: How will I involve the parents? How can I address the needs of all the kids? Will the principal let me do what I know is “right” for my kids?
In this Q&A, NEPC Fellow Lorrie Shepard addresses problems with data walls and other aspects of “data-driven” culture in schools. She also describes research-based practices that should be guiding classroom assessment.
Policy changes could damage the health and educational opportunities of immigrant children.
Read about NEPC Fellow Doris A. Santoro’s work on teacher demoralization and then try your hand at our online quiz.
Learn more about tweens, teens, and young adults from NEPC resources and a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
NEPC Fellow Gene V Glass discusses meta-analysis, a statistical technique that combines data from multiple studies on the same topic to explore overall trends.
In this Q&A, NEPC Fellow Preston Green III marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Tinker v. Des Moines case by tracing its student speech implications to the Instagram age.
BOULDER, CO (July 16, 2019) – At this moment in the United States, the blaming, criminalization and forced separations of families of color serve as an extreme example of the ways American public institutions like schools often approach families of color. The political tumult and violence being directed at immigrants, people of color, and other marginalized groups across the nation make it more important than ever for our education systems and local communities to support families rather than further harm them.
This policy memo, jointly released by the National Education Policy Center and the Family Leadership Design Collaborative, explores how justice-based approaches to family engagement can enable parents and families, particularly from communities of color, to contribute as fellow leaders in transforming schools and educational systems to better serve all children, families, and communities.
States are continuing to back away from evaluating teachers based on student achievement.
Today’s challenges for special education funding are rooted in a complex regulatory and policy environment that reflects little forethought about who can and will pay special education costs. Despite the fact that states and school districts are legally required to ensure a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities, the federal government does little to fund the special education that students with disabilities receive, which places the overwhelming burden on states to implement and pay for programs.
BOULDER, CO (June 25, 2019) – Today’s challenges for special education funding are rooted in a complex regulatory and policy environment that reflects little forethought about who can and will pay special education costs.
BOULDER, CO (June 18, 2019) – The Florida Department of Education recently published a report consisting almost entirely of simple graphs comparing achievement levels, achievement gaps, and achievement gains on statewide tests among charter school students to those among traditional public school students.
In March 2019, the Florida Department of Education published a report titled Student Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools. The report consists almost entirely of simple graphs comparing achievement levels, achievement gaps, and achievement gains on statewide tests among charter school students to those among traditional public school students. Beyond the odd exercise of counting the number of comparisons that appear favorable to charter schools, the report offers no discussion. The comparisons are not even explained.
BOULDER, CO (June 11, 2019) – A recent report from EdChoice presents itself as a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. But a new review of the report finds that it fails to provide a robust summary of the research literature on vouchers and their full range of positive and negative impacts.
An annual report from EdChoice is designed to provide a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. EdChoice presents itself as a clearinghouse of “evidence” that school vouchers “work” and that school choice is an effective and efficient reform.
In the past decade, NEPC Fellow Jaime Del Razo has raised $94,000 in scholarship funds for undocumented students.
The Center on Reinventing Public Education recently released a series of three policy briefs on the financial impact of charter schools on nearby school districts in California. The briefs are intended to inform ongoing debates over charter school financing and expansion in the state of California. This review finds that the briefs fail to accurately or fully apply the relevant research and data. They are useful only in pointing to some important issues that policymakers should consider; their analyses of those issues are, however, generally superficial and misleading.
BOULDER, CO (May 30, 2019) – The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), based at the University of Washington, Bothell, recently released a series of three policy briefs on the financial impact of charter schools on nearby school districts in California. The briefs are intended to inform ongoing debates over charter school financing and expansion in the state of California.
BOULDER, CO (May 28, 2019) – Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019, a three-part research brief released today by the National Education Policy Center, examines the claim that online curriculum can be tailored to individual students more effectively than curriculum in traditional classrooms.
As proponents continue to make the case that virtual education can expand student choices and improve the efficiency of public education, full-time virtual schools have attracted a great deal of attention. Advocates contend that this potential for individualization allows virtual schools to promote greater student achievement than can be realized in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. NEPC researchers found, however, that the research evidence does not support this claim.
An NEPC Review Worth Sharing identifies methodological concerns about an experimental study that found that Teach for America math teachers outperformed their colleagues.
This review offers a critique of a teacher effectiveness experiment conducted by investigators from the Mathematica Policy Group and published by the Institute of Education Sciences. The Mathematica experiment was designed to provide evidence about the effectiveness of teachers who were themselves high-achieving students and trained by either Teach for America (TFA) or the Teaching Fellows programs.
NEPC announces the 2018-2019 Schools of Opportunity, recognized for using research-based practices to provide a challenging, engaging, supported, well-rounded, and equitable education.
As the nation marks the 65thanniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a new report calls attention to the re-segregation of our nation’s schools.
BOULDER, CO (May 14, 2019) – In this month’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith speaks with Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar, of the University of Colorado Boulder, about personalized learning and digital privatization.
Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith interviews Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar about their recent brief, Personalized Learning and the Digital Privatization of Curriculum and Teaching.
In this Q&A, NEPC Fellow Kathy Escamilla discusses Literacy Squared, the program she helped create for Spanish-speaking emerging bilingual learners and their teachers.
NEPC Fellow John Yun responds to a Mackinac Center critique of his review of their report, The Michigan Context and Performance Report Card: High Schools 2018.
BOULDER, CO (April 30, 2019) – Personalized learning programs are proliferating in schools across the United States, fueled by philanthropic dollars, tech industry lobbying, marketing by third-party vendors, and a policy environment that provides little guidance and few constraints.
Personalized learning programs are proliferating in schools across the United States, fueled by philanthropic dollars, tech industry lobbying, marketing by third-party vendors, and a policy environment that provides little guidance and few constraints.
A highly publicized study found that English learners benefited from being retained in Grade 3. But the authors themselves were soon urging policymakers to use caution when applying the results.
BOULDER, CO (April 23, 2019) – In this month’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith speaks with Carol Burris, Executive Director of the Network for Public Education. They discuss how the indifference and lack of oversight by the U.S.
Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith interviews Carol Burris about charter school funding.
A Mackinac Center for Public Policy report, The Michigan Context and Performance Report Card: High Schools 2018, seeks to measure and publicize high school performance by ranking schools according to their test scores.
Preschool programs are attracting a lot of attention these days but are they wisely designed and getting the support they need to live up to their potential to change children’s lives?