Policy Briefs on Education Issues

2010 Policy Briefs on Education Issues

The Center funds policy briefs on important education issues. Policy briefs are written by recognized academic experts in each topic and include a summary of existing research available as well as policy recommendations. Briefs published in 2010 include:

• Getting Teacher Assessment Right: What Policymakers Can Learn from Research
  Patricia H. Hinchey, Penn State University

This policy brief outlines authoritative research documenting a wide range of useful criteria that should be used together to form the foundation for high quality assessment of teacher quality and effectiveness. These criteria include: classroom observations and evaluations, portfolios prepared by teachers, peer review and value-added models based on student standardized testing. The brief cautions against relying solely or in large part on student test scores for teacher assessment as they are unreliable and encourages policymakers to adopt assessment systems that rely on multiple sources of information.

Policy Brief

• Safe at School: Addressing the School Environment and LGBT Safety
  through Policy and Legislation
  Stuart Biegel & Sheila James Kuehl

Safe at School: Addressing the School Environment and LGBT Safety through Policy and Legislation, presents a series of recommendations and model legislation to make public schools safer for LGBT students.

Policy Brief

• The "Common Core" Standards Initiative: An Effective Reform Tool?
  William J. Mathis, Ph.D. University of Colorado at Boulder

This policy brief explores the "common core" standards initiative embraced by the Obama administration as a means for increasing student achievement and ensuring global economic competitiveness. Author William Mathis raises questions about the development of common core standards and provides an overview of the relevant research on this topic. Mathis also includes a series of recommendations for moving forward with the common core standards initiative.

Executive Summary
Policy Brief

• Equal or Fair? A Study of Revenues and Expenditures in American Charter Schools
  Gary Miron and Jessica L. Urschel Western Michigan University

This report is the most comprehensive to date on the question of whether charter schools are inadequately funded compared with traditional public schools. Miron and Urschel find that though charter schools typically do get less funding than traditional public schools, this is primarily because traditional schools have additional obligations including special education, student support services, food and transportation services which charter schools do not provide (or spend less on).

Executive Summary
Policy Brief

• Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence
  Julian Vasquez Heilig, University of Texas at Austin
  Su Jin Jez, Ph.D., California State University, Sacramento

This policy brief offers a comprehensive review of research on the Teach For America program and its impact on student achievement. The authors argue that the research is decidedly mixed at best. The brief includes recommendations for policymakers and school districts regarding TFA.

Executive Summary
Policy Brief

• Urban School Decentralization and the Growth of "Portfolio Districts"
  Kenneth J. Saltman, DePaul University

This policy brief focuses on the portfolio approach to school reform being used in an increasing number of large urban districts including New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. This approach has been promoted by education reform theorists and some in the Obama administration as a vital and necessary solution to the problems, especially, of urban districts despite the fact that it has unclear advantages, no proof of past success and known high costs.

Executive Summary
Policy Brief

• Schools Without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System
  Gary Miron, Jessica L. Urschel, William J. Mathis,* and Elana Tornquist
  Dept. of Educational Leadership, Research & Technology
  College of Education
  Western Michigan University
  
  *University of Colorado at Boulder

This report, which is a comprehensive examination of enrollment patterns in charter schools operated by Education Management organizations (EMOs), finds that charter schools run by EMOs are segregated by race, family income, disabilities and English language learner status as compared with their local public schools districts.

Executive Summary
Policy Brief

2009 Policy Briefs on Education Issues

The Center funds policy briefs on important education issues. Policy briefs are written by recognized academic experts in each topic and include a summary of existing research available as well as policy recommendations. Briefs published in 2009 include:

• Universal Access to a Quality Education:
  Research and Recommendations for the Elimination of Curricular Stratification
  Carol C. Burris, South Side High School, New York
  Kevin G. Welner, University of Colorado at Boulder
  Jennifer W. Bezoza, Children’s Voices

  This policy brief makes the case for schools across the country to put an end to policies that cast off students into unchallenging, low-track classrooms. The authors recommend a clear process for the phasing out of curricular stratification in grades K-10, beginning with the lowest track and granting meaningful access to AP and IB courses to all students. The brief includes model statutory language to implement its recommendations.
  
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

• Private Schooling in the U.S.: Expenditures, Supply, and Policy Implications
  Bruce D. Baker Rutgers University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

• The Realities of K-12 Virtual Education
  Gene V Glass, Arizona State University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

• NCLB’s Ultimate Restructuring Alternatives: Do they Improve the Quality of Education?
  William J. Mathis, Associate Professor (adj), University of Vermont
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

• Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success
  David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Arizona State University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

2008 Policy Briefs on Education Issues

The Center funds policy briefs on important education issues. Policy briefs are written by recognized academic experts in each topic and include a summary of existing research available as well as policy recommendations. Briefs published in 2008 include:

• What Do We Know About the Outcomes of KIPP Schools?
  Jeffrey R. Henig, Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Preschool Education and Its Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications
  W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D., National Institute for Early Education Research Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Strengthening the Link Between Effective School Expenditures and State Funding Mechanisms
  Anthony Rolle of Texas A&M University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Alternative Certification of Teachers
  Gene V Glass, Ph.D. Arizona State University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• School Choice: Evidence and Recommendations (10 Brief Series)
  Gary Miron, Kevin G. Welner, Patricia H. Hinchey and Alex Molnar (Editors)
  Download Complete Set (PDF)
  Download Complete Set (ZIP)
  
  
• A Guide to Contracting Out School Support Services: Good for the School? Good for the Community?
  William J. Mathis, Ph.D., Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union
  Lorna Jimerson, Ed. D., Champlain Valley Union High School
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges In Contested Times
  M. Beatriz Arias, Ph.D., Milagros Morillo-Campbell, Ph.D., Arizona State University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Who Chooses Schools, and Why?
  Natalie Lacireno-Paquet, Ph.D., WestEd, with Charleen Brantley University of Massachusetts, Boston
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

2007 Policy Briefs on Education Issues

The Center funds policy briefs on important education issues. Policy briefs are written by recognized academic experts in each topic and include a summary of existing research available as well as policy recommendations. Briefs published in 2007 include:

• ‘Restoring Value’ To the High School Diploma: The Rhetoric and Practice Of Higher Standards
  W. Norton Grubb, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley Jeannie Oakes, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Supplemental Education Services under NCLB: Emerging Evidence and Policy Issues
  Patricia Burch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Abstract
  Policy Brief
  
  
• The Promises and Pitfalls of Alternative Teacher Compensation Approaches
  Debbi C. Harris - Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief

2006 Policy Briefs on Education Issues

The Center funds policy briefs on important education issues. Policy briefs are written by recognized academic experts in each topic and include a summary of existing research available as well as policy recommendations. Briefs published in 2006 include:

• Assessment, High Stakes, and Alternative Visions: Appropriate Use of the Right Tools to Leverage Improvement
  Dan Laitsch, Simon Frasier University, Vancouver, BC
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Separate But Superior? A Review Of Issues And Data Bearing On Single-Sex Education
  Gerald Bracey, Independent Researcher
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• The Accuracy and Effectiveness of Adequate Yearly Progress, NCLB's School Evaluation System
  William Mathis, University of Vermont
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief
  
  
• A Policy Maker’s Guide to “The 65% Solution” Proposals
  Gerald Bracey, Independent Researcher
  Policy Brief
  
  
• Ending the Blame Game on Educational Inequity: A Study of “High Flying” Schools and NCLB
  Doug Harris, Florida State University
  Executive Summary
  Policy Brief