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Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.
Browsing All Posts published on »December, 2009«
Disg-RACE to the TOP?
Here’s how Dems for Ed Reform characterizes Louisiana’s education reform efforts in relation to the federal Race to the Top competition: Louisiana. The state passed legislation by Rep. Walt Leger III (D-New Orleans) lifting its charter school cap in June at the end of its legislative session. Louisiana is also pioneering an accountability system that […]
Why do states with the “best” data systems have the worst schools?
December 15, 2009
Okay, so the title of this blog is a bit over the top and potentially inflammatory, but let’s take a look at those states, which, according to the Data Quality Campaign, have achieved the best possible state data systems by having all 10 elements recognized by the campaign. I should note that I appreciate the […]
Racing Where? (the DFER list)
December 14, 2009
A few quick comments on the Democrats for Ed Reform list of states in line for RttT funds. The list includes two of the only states that year after year maintain a pattern of higher poverty school districts receiving systematically fewer resources than lower poverty school districts – New York and Illinois. Colorado is also […]
Update – Do School Finance Reforms Matter?
December 14, 2009
Here’s an excerpt from a forthcoming article on whether school finance reforms have made any difference for students. The article is partly in response to claims by Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth that school finance reforms have resulted in massive increases in funding to public schools which have not helped and may have in fact […]
NJ Charter Update – Math Trends over Time
December 14, 2009
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Note: This is not a “Study.” This is just a summary of NJDOE Report Card Data, which can be found here: http://education.state.nj.us/rc/ I made a few more graphs for fun today, pursuing the question of whether the shares of children scoring only “partially proficient” over time are changing in New Jersey Charter Schools at any […]
Smarter School Leaders
December 7, 2009
Smarter School Leaders: Enough to reverse the trend? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/opinion/05herbert.html?_r=1 This recent New York Times article highlights a new doctoral program for educational leaders that is a joint venture of Harvard Graduate School of Education, Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School. An interesting approach indeed and one that will hopefully generate some top quality […]
Pondering the Usefulness of Value-Added Assessment of Teachers
December 4, 2009
Value-added teacher assessment has been a mantra for education “reformers” throughout the debate over Race to the Top. We’ve got to evaluate teachers and make hiring and firing decisions on the basis of real student performance measures – you know, like businesses – like the real world does! (A highly questionable assumption indeed – AIG […]
December 18, 2009
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