Subscribe:
RSS feed
Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.
Browsing Archives of Author »Bruce Baker«
Most Screwed Local Public School Districts Update 2009-2011
Here it is – my annual update of America’s most screwed school districts. This time, for stability purposes, I’ve used a 3-year average based on 2009-2011 data (2011 data being released earlier this week). As I’ve explained in my previous posts on this topic (from last year’s post on screwed districts)… It’s important to understand […]
The Death of Private Schools is Greatly Exaggerated (& Misrepresented!)
May 21, 2013
As I’ve explained on previous posts, specific to New Jersey, claims of the dying private sector in education are grossly over exaggerated. These days, such claims are often over exaggerated with the purpose of framing some broad policy interest in supporting private schools. That is, some need for immediate public policy attention to the problem […]
Class Size & Funding Inequity in NY State & NY City
May 9, 2013
New York State repeatedly makes the top of our list of most INEQUITABLE state school finance systems in our National Report Card. http://www.schoolfundingfairness.org/National_Report_Card_2012.pdf Further, NY State was acknowledged in a report I prepared last year, with colleague Sean Corcoran of NYU, identifying states that are both generally inequitable and that actually exacerbate those inequities through […]
Civics 101? Center for Ed Reform’s Bizarre Understanding of Civics & the Law
May 7, 2013
PDF of original CER response to LA court ruling: Louisiana High Court Violates Parent Rights (in case they revise/retract) Now I know that the last thing reformy types really want to think about – to bother themselves with – is a basic understanding of law, civics and the structure of American government. All that stuff […]
Follow up Question Guide for Ed Writers (on Teacher Evaluation)
May 3, 2013
I was reviewing the past few days of news coverage on NJ teacher evaluations and came across the following quote, which was not-so-amazingly left unchallenged: Cerf said research shows test scores are “far and away” the best gauge of teacher effectiveness, and to not use test score data would be “very anti-child.” http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/state_board_of_education_adjus.html Here’s a […]
Deconstructing Disinformation on Student Growth Percentiles & Teacher Evaluation in New Jersey
May 2, 2013
CROSS-POSTED FROM: http://njedpolicy.wordpress.com/ Deconstructing Disinformation on Student Growth Percentiles & Teacher Evaluation in New Jersey (Printable Policy Brief): SGP_Disinformation_BakerOluwole Bruce D. Baker, Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education Joseph Oluwole, Montclair State University Introduction This brief addresses problems with, and disinformation about New Jersey’s Student Growth Percentile (SGP) measures which are proposed by New Jersey […]
The Principal’s Dilemma as Mock Trial: Ed Law Colleagues Please Provide Your Opinions!
April 29, 2013
The following is a hypothetical case I am using as the culminating activity in Public School Law this semester. The Dismissal of Principal X Principal X is principal in a local public middle school in a state that has recently adopted through legislation, articulated with greater precision in state department of education regulations, a new […]
The Perils of Economic Thinking about Human Behavior
April 20, 2013
Behavioral economics is an interesting and potentially useful field of academic inquiry. At its best, real behavioral economics attempts to address some of the concerns I raise here. But many if not most assumptions about human behavior and response to incentives are not representative of behavioral economics at its best. Specifically, I’m increasingly concerned with […]
Revisiting the Complexities of Charter Funding Comparisons
April 17, 2013
This Education Week Post today rather uncritically summarized a recently published article based on an earlier report on charter school spending “gaps.” I’ve not had a chance to dig into this updated study yet, but the Ed Week post also referred to an earlier study from Ball State University which I have critiqued on multiple […]
Friday AM Graphs: Just how biased are NJ’s Growth Percentile Measures (school level)?
April 12, 2013
New Jersey finally released the data set of its school level growth percentile metrics. I’ve been harping on a few points on this blog this week. SGP data here: http://education.state.nj.us/pr/database.html Enrollment data here: http://www.nj.gov/education/data/enr/enr12/stat_doc.htm First, that the commissioner’s characterization that the growth percentiles necessarily fully take into account student background is a completely bogus and […]
May 24, 2013
5