There are lessons to be learned from the Parkland shootings, but are we learning the right ones?

As the school voucher battle heats up in Arizona, NEPC resources can help shed light on the issues involved. 

BOULDER, CO (June 14, 2018) – Research has shown that, after controlling for the lower test scores on average of students who take Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses, high school CTE programs are associated with higher high school graduation rates, overall educational attainment, and earnings than students in academic programs whose previous test scores are similar. But the mechanism underlying this relationship is not clear.

A study published by the American Enterprise Institute seeks to illuminate how students in career and technical education (CTE) programs demonstrate higher high school graduation rates, overall educational attainment, and earnings than students in academic programs whose previous test scores are similar. Although those students who take many CTE courses by 12th grade tend to have significantly lower test scores, this study finds that these students have higher noncognitive skills (e.g., attendance and homework time).

BOULDER, CO (June 12, 2018) – The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) recently released its 2018 Teacher Prep Review. The report examines whether U.S. teacher preparation programs are aligned with NCTQ’s standards. This alignment, the report insists, will produce teachers “not only ready to achieve individual successes, but also [ready] to start a broader movement toward increased student learning and proficiency.”

NCTQ released its 2018 review of U.S. teacher preparation programs. Employing open-records requests and online searches, the report ranks 567 graduate teacher preparation programs, 129 alternative route programs, and 18 residencies on practice, knowledge and admissions. The report seeks to determine if the teacher preparation programs are aligned with NCTQ’s standards.

In contemporary education policy debates in the United States, school voucher programs and school privatization—the entry of many private for-profit corporations and nonprofit and other organizations into the education arena—are under the spotlight. Following in the footsteps of several prior administrations, the current federal administration is actively supporting vouchers and privatization as ways to expand school choice for American parents and students. Some state governments have followed suit. 

BOULDER, CO (June 7, 2018) – The Trump administration is actively supporting vouchers to fund private school tuition, and some state governments have followed suit. The main goal of these choice programs is to expand alternatives to traditional public schools, especially for students who do not have access to a quality education. Additionally, supporters contend, such competition will motivate improvement in public schools.

BOULDER, CO (June 5, 2018) – Federally mandated standardized testing (i.e., in core subject areas and certain grade levels), as an element of educational accountability, began in 2002 with the No Child Left Behind Act. With that step, large-scale assessments came to serve as one of the foundations of accountability-based systems and policies not only for districts, schools and students, but for teachers as well.

Federally mandated standardized testing (i.e., in core subject areas and certain grade levels), as an element of educational accountability, began in 2002 with the No Child Left Behind Act. With that step, large-scale assessments came to serve as one of the foundations of accountability-based systems and policies not only for districts, schools and students, but for teachers as well.

A new report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty contains many of the same problems identified in an NEPC review of a previous publication by the Institute.

BOULDER, CO (May 24, 2018) – 2018 State Teacher Policy Best Practices Guide, published by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), purports to offer examples of “leading state work” in 37 policy areas related to teacher quality. Its intent is to hold up these state policies as exemplars for other state policymakers to replicate.

A report from NCTQ begins with nine goals purportedly based on the “best available research evidence” about teacher quality. Yet neither this report nor its companion, which describes the original development of the goals, cites any research evidence. The report also uses the terms “teacher quality” and “teacher effectiveness” (on raising test scores) interchangeably. The report assumes reader buy-in to its goals, to its focus on test scores, and to its assumption that “great teachers” have an “outsize impact” on students’ learning and lives.

Do you know a school that deserves the Schools of Opportunity designation? Read more about the project in the Washington Post.  

BOULDER, CO (May 17, 2018) – In May’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Greg Smith discusses research regarding virtual schools and their growing impact on the American educational landscape with Michael Barbour of Touro University California and Bryan Mann of the University of Alabama.

Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith interviews Michael Barbour of Touro University California, and Bryan Mann of the University of Alabama. Greg, Michael and Bryan discuss the current research regarding virtual schools.

School closures don't work. An NEPC policy brief offers alternatives.

BOULDER, CO (May 10, 2018) – Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks?: The Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities, published by the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform, contends that charter schools produce more achievement per dollar invested, as compared to public schools.

Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig of California State University Sacramento reviewed the report and identified a variety of methodological choices made by the authors that threaten the validity of the results. 

A report released by the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform contends that charter schools produce more achievement per dollar invested, as compared to public schools. This newest report is focused on city-level analyses in eight US cities (Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, New York City, San Antonio, and Washington D.C.) and uses cost effectiveness and Return on Investment (ROI) ratios. It concludes that charter schools deliver a weighted average of an additional 4.34 NAEP reading points and 4.73 NAEP math points per $1000 invested.

BOULDER, CO (May 8, 2018) – It Takes a Community: Leveraging Community College Capacity to Transform the Early Childhood Workforce, published by the Bellwether Education Partners, and Pre-K Teachers and Bachelor’s Degrees: Envisioning Equitable Access to High-Quality Preparation Program, published by New America and Bellwether, both examine the current state of early childhood education (ECE) teacher preparation programs at the community college and university levels.

Reports from Bellwether and New America each review the current state of early childhood education (ECE) teacher preparation programs at the community college and university levels. Both raise awareness about the challenges facing the ECE workforce and educational institutions in dealing with the recent policy push to increase the required educational credentials for pre-K teachers.

BOULDER, CO (May 3, 2018) – Do Impacts on Test Scores Even Matter?, published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), examines whether student achievement scores on math and English language arts tests align with “long-run” attainment outcomes such as high school graduation rates, college enrollment, and college graduation rates. It concludes that the impacts of school choice programs on test scores are not strongly associated with such attainment outcomes, which are presented as more positive. Thus, the report argues, we should no longer focus on measures of learning. 

A report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Do Impacts on Test Scores Even Matter? Lessons from Long-Run Outcomes in School Choice Research, examines whether student achievement scores on math and English language arts tests align with “long-run” attainment outcomes such as high school graduation rates, college enrollment, and college graduation rates. Drawing on a systematic review of the literature, it concludes that the impacts of school choice programs on test scores are not well connected to such attainment outcomes, which are presented as more positive.

This sixth NEPC Annual Report on Virtual Education provides a detailed overview and inventory of full-time virtual schools and blended learning, or hybrid, schools. Full-time virtual schools deliver all curriculum and instruction via the Internet and electronic communication, usually asynchronously with students at home and teachers at a remote location. Blended schools combine virtual instruction with traditional face-to-face instruction in classrooms.

BOULDER, CO (May 1, 2018) – NEPC’s Sixth Annual Report on Virtual Education, Full-Time Virtual and Blended Schools: Enrollment, Student Characteristics, and Performance, provides a detailed overview and inventory of full-time virtual schools and of blended learning schools, including student demographics, state-specific school performance ratings, and—where data are available—an analysis of school performance measures.

BOULDER, CO (April 17, 2018) – In April’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Greg Smith discusses teacher accountability with Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools and Director of the Doctoral Program in Curriculum and Instruction at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith and Boston College Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith explore national initiatives currently aimed at improving the quality of teacher education.

A report, Charter Schools and the Achievement Gap, finds that, though charter schools on average perform no better than traditional public schools, urban “no-excuses” charter schools—which often use intensive discipline to enforce order—demonstrate promising results. It recommends that these schools and their practices be widely replicated within and outside of the charter school sector. We find three major flaws with this conclusion.

BOULDER, CO (April 10, 2018) – Charter Schools and the Achievement Gap, published by The Future of Children, associated with the Brookings Institution and Princeton University, finds that, though charter schools on average perform no better than traditional public schools, urban “no-excuses” charter schools—which often use intensive discipline to enforce order—demonstrate promising results.

The Facebook scandal underscores growing concerns about student privacy as online learning and social media platforms continue to grow.

BOULDER, CO (April 6, 2018) - In yesterday’s Washington Post Answer Sheet, Alex Molnar and Faith Boninger, Co-Directors of NEPC’s Commercialism in Education Unit, explored the invasive data mining and third-party targeting of users that is inherent in Facebook’s business model and that led NEPC to delete its Facebook account and remove Facebook from the NEPC website. 

BOULDER, CO (March 27, 2018) - The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) will delete its Facebook account on Wednesday March 28. We have already removed social sharing via Facebook from the NEPC website and our other communication tools.

Key Takeaway: Facebook’s benefits are overwhelmed by problems inherent in its business model, its failure to safeguard personal information, and its lack of transparency and accountability. 

Find Documents:

Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/9115

BOULDER, CO (March 20, 2018) – In March’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Greg Smith discusses systemic change in schools with Warren Simmons, NEPC Senior Policy Advisor and former Executive Director of the Annenberg Institute for Education Reform at Brown University.

Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith and NEPC Senior Policy Advisor Warren Simmons explore the factors that support or inhibit school and community transformation.

BOULDER, CO (March 6, 2018) – Unlocking Potential: How Political Skill Can Maximize Superintendent Effectiveness, published by the Center on Reinventing Public Education, focuses on the political power of the position of school superintendent and how that power can and should be harnessed.

William J. Mathis of the University of Colorado Boulder reviewed the report and found it to be lacking in substance due to the absence of a knowledge base in the research literature and a lack of experience.

This report offers political advice to school superintendents. The authors draw solely on a collection of anecdotes from superintendents of large urban districts to offer a narrative replete with maxims, aphorisms, and pithy advice. Superintending is, in their view, a continuous string of almost unavoidable conflicts, so the reader is led through internal groups (central office, school board, unions, teachers and principals) and external groups (foundations, businesses and state politicians) and advised on how to cultivate support and deal with opponents.

BOULDER, CO (March 1, 2018) - For more than 25 million children, the connection between education and the American Dream is eroding, but a new video is shining a spotlight on schools closing the opportunity gap. 

Key Takeaway: Please watch and share the new Schools of Opportunity video and the 2018 Application. 

Find Documents:
Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/9077
Watch Video: http://schoolsofopportunity.org 

This review examines a report evaluating four years of implementation of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) to determine whether pay-for-performance (PFP) bonuses to teachers and principals improve student achievement. The report notes that the goal of PFP is to motivate improved educator performance and to attract and retain more effective teachers, thereby increasing student achievement.