Transcript
PIETRO NIVOLA: Today, my colleague, Tom Loveless, is going to unveil the 2006 Brown Center Report on American Education. As most of you know, I think, I am pretty sure, this is the sixth such report that the Center has published, and every edition of this report is one of its flagship signature products.
The latest edition focuses primarily on what I think are two very fascinating questions. The first is: Does the road of contentment, of happiness, if you will, as best we can measure it, of students in school make a discernible difference in their performance? The report then also takes up another somewhat unrelated question but equally important in the ongoing debate on No Child Left Behind, and that is the question of: How much truth is there to the common contention that the states are really gaming this law, artificially inflating the reported numbers of students that meet proficiency standards?
Now, the report was so assiduously embargoed, Tom, that I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I gather that the gist of the answer to the first of these queries is, in essence, that chummy schools really do no better than stodgy ones, or to put it another way, happiness is really no substitute for hard work at school. The answer to the second question about the No Child Left Behind Law is that contrary to conventional wisdom these days, the states are being less Machiavellian, if you will, than is generally supposed.
What is admirable about these sorts of findings is not just that they are somewhat surprising and counter-intuitive but are really based on very careful research, and that is a distinguishing feature of every one of the Brown Center's reports over the years. The research department that I head is very proud of this work, and we are really exceedingly grateful to the Brown Family Foundation for having supported it year in and year out.
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