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Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- December 02, 2009, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
The American educational system is fundamental to promoting social and economic mobility, civic engagement and global competiveness, but the subject of receives less media coverage than other major public policy issues. On December 2, Grover "Russ" Whitehurst and E.J. Dionne, authors of The Disappearance of Education News, will present their solutions for improving education reporting and promoting quality discourse.
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Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
A report commissioned by Greater Washington Research at Brookings and DC Appleseed underscores the need for a strong community college in the District of Columbia. The report, conducted by JBL Associates, recognizes the steps already taken by the new Community College of the District of Columbia (CCDC) and recommends that the city support CCDC in moving towards independence from the University of the District of Columbia, with its own administration, board of trustees, budget and academic accreditation.
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Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:35:00 GMT
Through a new competitive grant program called Race to the Top, the U.S. Department of Education is awarding $4 billion of stimulus money to states that demonstrate a commitment to education reform and innovation. Russ Whitehurst says it is a promising program that could promote education reform and elevate the education of thousands of children.
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Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Given a choice between the status quo in American education and change, the Obama administration has been bold in pursuit of change. The president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have used the bully pulpit and the powerful lever of $5 billion in discretionary stimulus funds to push a catalog of initiatives, writes Brookings senior fellow, Russ Whitehurst. Whitehurst gives the administration an A+ for motive, effort and reach, but he writes the administration has made some questionable bets and ignored surer ones, most specifically improvements in curriculum and instruction.
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Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- October 30, 2009, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
While most international institutions involve only governments in their formal governance structure, a number of innovative institutions have emerged in recent years that engage multi-stakeholders in their governance processes. On October 30, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings hosted a roundtable with experts and leaders from a number of these innovative institutions.
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Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Russ Whitehurst and Michelle Croft find no association between state scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and ratings of the quality of state standards. Moreover, their analyses suggest that the creation of common standards will have little impact on our future in and of itself.
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Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- October 27, 2009, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
In contexts of crisis and emergency, resuming education delivery is increasingly regarded as a vital part of the humanitarian response and plays an important role in protecting citizens while laying a sustainable foundation for recovery, peace, and development. The Center for Universal Education convened a consultative workshop on October 27 with the Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) focused on the development of the INEE Guidance Notes on Teaching and Learning in Emergencies, Chronic Crises, and Early Recovery.
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Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In 1,000 days, the seventh billion human being joins the rest of us on Planet Earth. Hakan Altinay poses the question, "What would we tell her?" and reflects on the advances the world has made and critical risks that still exist. He proposes that this occasion offers us a chance to reflect on the human condition and implicit responsibilities we have toward other human beings and future generations.
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Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
President Obama has committed himself to “reform America’s public schools,” and his administration is focused on making early childhood programs, common standards, charter schools and teachers more effective. However, writes Russ Whitehurst, the administration should also undertake actions to better integrate curriculum innovation and reform into its policy framework. "Don't Forget Curriculum” compares the size of the effects on student achievement brought about by curriculum with the size of the effects of popular reform strategies favored by the Obama administration.
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Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
President Obama's speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 22 stressed the importance of international development in a globalized world. Rebecca Winthrop outlines the benefits to Americans of supporting international development causes, with particular attention to universal education.
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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
One year after committing to a $2 billion Global Fund for Education, President Obama returned to the Clinton Global Initiative on September 22 to speak about international development. Rebecca Winthrop discusses the importance of renewing the commitment to education in the developing world and its relevance to all Americans.
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Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
One year after making a major commitment to give every child the chance to attend school, President Barak Obama addressed the opening session at the Clinton Global Initiative's 2009 Annual Meeting on September 22. David Gartner discusses the urgency of the Global Fund for Education's creation and the unique opportunity Obama has to lead the world towards universal education.
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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- September 16, 2009, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
On September 16, the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings hosted an event to discuss Crossing the Finish Line (Princeton University Press, October 2009), which examines degree attainment at America's public universities. President Obama has committed the nation to the goal of producing the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.
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Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- September 02, 2009, 12:30 PM to 1:30
On Wednesday, September 2, Brookings expert Russ Whitehurst, who directs the Brown Center for Education at Brookings, and Fred Barbash, senior editor of Politico, took questions on American education policy.
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Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
According to a recent study, No Child Left Behind is having its intended effect—bettering the performance of low-achieving students—and also raising test scores for top students. However, Tom Loveless and Michael Petrilli find this latter conclusion flawed because state tests are poor measurements for high achieving students; the study’s depicted state trends create a misleading national picture; and the analysis does not compare today’s students with those of earlier eras.
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Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In order to realize the world’s commitment to ensuring education for all by 2015, important innovations and reforms will be needed in the governance and financing of global education. David Gartner advises that the Global Fund for Education holds the key and outlines a set of core principles to guide the fund.
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Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Education reformers are grappling with difficult, ideologically charged questions on how to improve the United States education system. But these debates have deep historical roots. Tom Loveless joins the Kojo Nnamdi Show to examine the great historical debates in American education and the myths about the golden era of American education.
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Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Higher education is fast becoming a global enterprise as students and professors hopscotch from nation to nation. Yet in this new world of mobility and competition, challenges to America’s educational primacy are inevitable—and international rankings are the means by which those challenges are most likely to arrive, writes Ben Wildavsky. A process is already under way to expand international rankings beyond the metrics of reputation and research to include measures of classroom learning. However, this could be both traumatic and useful for the American higher education system.
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Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Michael O'Hanlon and Marc Thiesen write that school vouchers could free special needs students from a public education system that is ill-equipped or unwilling to serve them. They also believe health reform must ensure that insurance will cover well-documented associated with autism.
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Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's multi-nation tour of Africa highlights America's development aid imbalance. Last year, the United States directed almost three-quarters of its resources to countries that are not among the poorest in the world. David Gartner argues that a greater focus on the least developed countries, especially those in Africa, would yield enormous progress toward reducing global poverty.
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Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Margery Turner and Alan Berube explore how federal policy-makers—particularly at the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development—can promote local innovations that address the myriad connections between schools and housing, and provide better residential and educational environments for lower-income parents and students.
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Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- July 21, 2009, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Education, especially for girls and women, is one of the most highly leveraged investments that a developing country can make in its future. This spring, President Barack Obama appointed Melanne Verveer to serve as the first ever ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues. The Center for Universal Education hosted a conversation with Ambassador Verveer on the importance of girls’ and women’s education in the developing world.
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Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Pakistan’s humanitarian crisis brings a sharp focus on the need for long-term socio-economic development in the Northern region. In the Conflict Resolution and Prevention Forum, Rebecca Winthrop addressed the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan and called for further innovation and investment of education for girls and women.
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Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In 2000, leaders from the G8 Summit pledged to achieve universal basic education by 2015. Despite their commitments, donor assistance is declining and investments in education for the developing world are being cut, states David Gartner. He urges the G8 to make good on their promise and proposes President Obama to seize the moment of opportunity with a bold investment in education.
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Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In this economic crisis many low-income countries are forced to cut back on vital investments in education. David Gartner urges that new guidance by Congress to the IMF could make a real difference in giving low-income countries the ability to invest in their own children.
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Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- June 23, 2009, 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
On June 23, the Center on Children and Families at Brookings hosted an event that examines a new report by McKinsey Global Institute on changing employment and income that informs the debate on what has driven the dispersion in incomes across industries and occupations.
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Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- June 19, 2009, 10:30 AM to 12:00:00 PM
In a roundtable discussion on education reform, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard outlined the similarities between the reform agendas in the United States and Australia. Highlighting a commitment to transparency and a promise to create a high-quality national curriculum, Minister Gillard notes that Australia would keep pace with its Asia-Pacific neighbors and create a plan to increase secondary school graduation rates.
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Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Since November 2008, the fighting between the Pakistan government and Taliban militants has displaced over two and a half million people. In the midst of this crisis, Rebecca Winthrop identifies a window of opportunity to improve the education situation of girls and women, one that will sow long-term benefits for the region’s recovery and development.
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Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
President Obama's words in his historic Cairo address have raised the hopes of millions of girls around the world. David Gartner discusses how the president's call for educating women is a commitment that can be fulfilled through the creation of a Global Fund for Education.
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Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In his recent speech in Cairo, Egypt, President Obama signaled a new path for supporting crucial social and economic development for millions of Muslims around the world. Rebecca Winthrop recommends four elements necessary for an effective education partnership between the U.S. and the Muslim world.
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Tue, 26 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- May 26, 2009, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
President Obama has committed to the goal of having the world's highest rate of college graduates by 2020. The funding and delivery of student financial aid will be critical to reaching that goal. To that end, the president has announced plans for an overhaul of the federal college loan system. The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings hosted an event to explore ways of improving the effectiveness of student financial aid.
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Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The detailed FY 2010 federal budget reveals many elements of the administration’s strategy to achieve needed reforms in schooling and worker skills. Alan Berube analyzes the significant steps in the departments of Education and Labor budgets toward a national economic strategy that invests strategically in human capital to improve our collective prosperity.
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Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In this policy brief, a companion to the volume of The Future of Children devoted to high school reforms, Ron Haskins and James Kemple examine the steps high schools should take to help low-income students prepare for and succeed in college. Specifically, they argue, high schools should boost students’ subject matter knowledge and study skills and counsel students on how to select colleges and obtain financial aid.
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Thu, 14 May 2009 09:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- May 14, 2009, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
On May 14, The Future of Children, a joint project between Princeton University and the Brookings Institution, will release a policy brief discussing the steps high schools should take to help low-income students prepare for postsecondary education. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), the former superintendent of the Denver schools, will deliver the keynote address.
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Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Many low-income students miss out on college because they don’t know how much it actually costs or how to get access to billions of dollars in financial aid, says Ron Haskins. That’s why improving the equality of educational opportunity—a traditional American value—is one key to promoting economic mobility for disadvantaged students.
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Mon, 11 May 2009 09:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- May 11, 2009, 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings hosted Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a conversation on the billions of dollars of economic stimulus aid being delivered to states and school districts under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Secretary Duncan discussed how the stimulus funds can advance the president’s goals for education reform.
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Fri, 08 May 2009 10:21:07 GMT
Alan Berube says community colleges offer educational opportunities to a growing number of students and are a critical part of the national economy and our metropolitan areas.
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Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
To renew America’s status as the world’s leader in college attainment, the federal government needs to transform America’s community colleges and equip them for the 21st century. This report outlines a structure for this long-overdue investment and proposes to establish national goals and a related performance measurement system; provide resources to drive college performance toward those goals; and stimulate greater innovation to enhance the quality of sub-baccalaureate education.
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Thu, 07 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- May 07, 2009, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
On May 7, the Metropolitan Policy Program hosted a discussion on a new report by University of Wisconsin Assistant Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab on the need to transform America's community colleges to equip them for the 21st century. Visit the event page to download slides from the event presentation and for links to the report and policy brief.
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Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Despite extensive research documenting the benefits of investing in young children, infants and toddlers are underrepresented in the federal budget, researchers from the Brookings and the Urban Institute found. The nation’s 12.5 million children under age 3 are 4.2 percent of the population, but they received just 2.1 percent—$44.1 billion—of federal domestic spending in 2007. Domestic outlays, which exclude defense, homeland security, and international affairs, totaled $2.1 trillion.
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Mon, 04 May 2009 08:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- May 04, 2009, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM
- May 05, 2009, 8:30 AM to 4:15 PM
The Early Child Development Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings hosted a two-day conference to feature the project’s first five country case studies on the scale up of Early Child Development (ECD) in the developing world. Country authors presented their findings on the process of scaling up ECD in Cuba, Madagascar, South Africa, Macedonia and the Philippines.
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Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Testifying before the Council of the District of Columbia, Martha Ross called for renewed attention to programs connecting young people to job training and the labor market, urging attention to program quality rather than just numbers served.
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Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Children living in families with low incomes and those with poorly educated parents are much more likely than other children to grow up to be adults with less education, lower incomes, poorer health, and shorter lives, all of which severely impact federal, state and local budgets. William T. Dickens and Charles Baschnagel examine the effects of investment in selected prekindergarten education programs in a growth model of the U.S. economy to judge the impact they would have on these budgets.
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Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Following Congress's vote to eliminate funding for the the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, many have criticized Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for not informing Congress of the program’s success. However, given the established procedures of the Institute of Education Sciences, it is extremely unlikely that Secretary Duncan would have known the results of the study until recently, writes Russ Whitehurst.
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Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
America’s national economic crisis is also a metropolitan crisis, because metropolitan areas are the true engines of the national economy. So it matters intensely how well the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) empowers metropolitan leaders to boost prosperity. This paper finds that although ARRA is limited in its support for creative metropolitan-area implementation, it delivers critical investments in what matters to metros and holds out significant opportunity for metropolitan empowerment and problem-solving.
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Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, John Witte and Stéphane Lavertu analyze the impact of charter school attendance on student gain scores on mathematics and reading achievement tests in the Milwaukee Public School district.
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Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Changing demographics—where people live, educational attainment, aging of boomers, diversity in population growth, poverty rates—raises key policy and program issues for the new government in Washington. In view of that, the Metropolitan Policy Program has compiled and detailed important trends that are shaping the nation’s engines of economic growth and opportunity.
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Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In this online Q&A, Russ Whitehurst explains how the stimulus funds will make their way to local projects, particularly for school programs.
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Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the Secretary of Education to establish a $650 million Innovation Fund to expand the work of schools that have made gains in closing achievement gaps. With growing discussion and considerable money heading in the direction of innovation, Russ Whitehurst provides recommendations on how the Department of Education should evaluate successful programs.
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Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
President Obama spoke about implementing the merit pay system for teachers as well as expanding charter schools in a effort to reform the education system in the United States. Brown Center Director Russ Whitehurst joined Politico's Jonathan Martin and CBS News’ Bob Schieffer on Washington Unplugged to talk about the politics behind Obama's education policy and how it would affect our education system.
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Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Russ Whitehurst assesses President Obama's education speech and applauds his commitment to regaining our international lead in education by addressing the "crazy quilt of state standards and assessments." But, he argues, "the proposal to provide incentives to states that improve their standards is a far weaker prescription than is desirable or politically possible."
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Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube analyzes how President Obama's first budget places hopeful new emphasis on graduating more students from college. Community colleges enroll increasing numbers of students, but for several reasons fail to graduate most of them—particularly those from lower-income backgrounds—through to a degree or certificate.
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Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In the 2008 Brown Center Report on American Education, Tom Loveless closely examines the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), student achievement in the nation's largest urban school districts, and the trend of placing unprepared eighth-graders into algebra and other advanced math classes.
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Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Mired in conflict, afflicted by joblessness, frustrated by unresponsive and oppressive governments, and flooded with images of woe, the world's 22 Arab nations have much to lament, writes Kristin Lord. Yet these societies are also making rapid, if insufficient, progress that Lord argues will determine the future of the region.
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Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
As U.S. policy-makers focus on how to strengthen the U.S. economy in the midst of the financial crisis, Brookings competitiveness experts stress the need for a longer-term view with policy priorities focused on how to rebuild American competitiveness through investments in people, infrastructure, ideas and green transformation.
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Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Former President George W. Bush finished his tenure without having won congressional renewal of his No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy. With President Barack Obama now at the helm, NCLB is up for debate. Brown Center Director Russ Whitehurst examines Reading First, a key component of NCLB, that aims to ensure that all children learn to read well by the end of third grade.
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Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The economic recovery plan passed by Congress includes $100 billion for education, with more than $40 billion for local school districts to stave off staff and program cuts and upgrade schools. As Russ Whitehurst warns, the bill may have unintended effects on state spending for education and education reform.
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Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Enrollment in community colleges is surging, driven by a tough economy and increasing skills requirements for gainful employment. Sarah Goldrick-Rab and Alan Berube explain that this environment, as well as longer-term economic growth imperatives, calls for a focused federal commitment to community colleges in order to boost educational attainment.
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Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Alice M. Rivlin co-authored an op-ed with Walter Smith of DC Appleseed calling for a new federal partnership with the District of Columbia to transform the nation’s capital into a truly great capital city.
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Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Thirty years after the Iranian revolution proclaimed social justice as a principle tenet, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani analyzes trends in inequality, poverty, and access to education and health services. While strides have been made, the record of the Ahmadinejad administration, up for re-election, is mixed.
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Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Julia Isaacs outlines three policy proposals that have proved cost-effective and that can help to reduce burdens on young families.
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Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Brookings Greater Washington joined with DC Appleseed, Our Nation’s Capital, George Washington University and Arent Fox LLP in a study of what it would take to make the District of Columbia the “best capital in the world.” The Brookings authors review how the city’s special status as a federal district limits its fiscal resources, and discuss the District’s decade of balanced budgets and good management, along with its impressive efforts to rejuvenate the city’s infrastructure.
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Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Ron Haskins gave the keynote speech “Intersection of Early Childhood Education, Poverty and Policy” and discussed cost effective early childhood policies that improve outcomes for children at the Early Childhood Public Engagement Summit.
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Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
A Metropolitan Economy Initiative examination of the impact of policies to expand health care and higher finds that such a strategy would raise the earnings of metropolitan residents by roughly the same amount as conventional business tax incentives.
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Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- December 04, 2008, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM
On December 4, 2008, the Wolfensohn Center for Development, in cooperation with the Committee for Economic Development, held a conference to raise awareness of early child development in the developing world and to foster support from the North American business community. Business leaders, international early child development experts, and public policy stakeholders developed strategies to increase private sector support for early child developing in developing countries.
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Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- December 04, 2008, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
On December 4, the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings and the Committee for Economic Development hosted a discussion on the importance of early child development and its impact on sustainable economic development in the developing world.
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Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- December 01, 2008, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
An extensive six-year study concludes that K-12 school finance systems are burdened by rules and narrow policies that hold local officials accountable for compliance but not results. On December 1, the Metropolitan Policy Program and the Brown Center on Education Policy co-hosted a discussion on a new report, “Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools,” with two of its authors, Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Paul Hill and University of Washington Research Associate Professor Marguerite Roza.
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Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT
David Mundel and Lois Rice discuss the results of a recent experiment about the effect of grant programs on college attendance among lower-income youth.
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Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT
A major economic slowdown adds to the problems of lower-income Americans, who have not shared in the economic growth of the last decade. Greater investments in economic mobility and opportunity are needed. Rebecca Blank offers policy solutions and priorities for the president-elect to make greater investments in economic mobility and opportunity.
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Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:30:00 GMT
Event Information:
- November 21, 2008, 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
On November 21, the Middle East Youth Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings hosted David Arnold, president of the American University in Cairo, for a discussion on the future of American-style higher education in the Middle East. The discussion will highlight the growing ties between U.S. colleges and universities and their counterparts in the Middle East and the role of such institutions in promoting social and economic development in the region.
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Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
In a recorded discussion, Navtej Dhillon speaks to Dr. Ragui Assaad on short-term and long-term prospects for the Egyptian economy. This piece is the second in a series of analyses, "Food, Fuel, and Finance: How Will the Middle East Weather the Global Economic Crisis?" by the Middle East Youth Initiative.
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Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
The past few decades have led to more inequality in both income and wealth than we have seen since the late 1920s. Despite this, Americans seem to care more about equality of opportunity than about equality of outcomes. Julia Isaacs and Isabel Sawhill describe ways to ensure greater equality of opportunity and economic mobility.
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Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT
Event Information:
- October 22, 2008, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
From 1990 to 2007, national enrollment in algebra courses soared from 16 percent to more than 30 percent of all eighth graders. What effect has increasing algebra enrollments had on students and teachers? On October 22, the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings hosted a discussion of this trend, documented in the recent report, "The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth Grade Algebra."
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Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
As a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, Tom Loveless discusses the policy implications of the Panel's findings at the federal, state, district, and school levels, including recommendations related to state standards, curriculum frameworks, and assessments.
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Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
To resolve dramatic disparities in educational achievement and ensure future American workers are globally competitive, the federal government needs to change the game by catalyzing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in public education. A new office within the Department of Education should partner with the private sector, philanthropy, and state/local governments to scale up successful educational entrepreneurs and seed transformative educational innovations.
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Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Navtej Dhillon, Amina Fahmy, and Djavad Salehi-Isfahani discuss the troubled state of Egypt’s education system, demonstrated most recently by the organized leaking of national exams. Growing frustration among parents and students can be remedied by reforming signals from the labor market and university admissions policies.
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Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
New analysis by Greater Washington Research at Brookings, the Urban Institute and 21st Century School Fund argues that Washington, DC can become a more family-friendly city by linking its investments and policies in public schools, affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization together.
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Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
In the wake of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, Navtej Dhillon emphasizes that human development, resource management, and the productive use of a fast growing youth population are of utmost importance to Yemen’s future, the poorest country in the Arab world. The international community must now do more than ever to invest in sustainable economic development and institutional capacity-building to ensure the country’s prosperity and stability.
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Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
More U.S. eighth grade students take algebra today than any other math course. However, universal eighth grade algebra is creating more problems than it solves, writes Tom Loveless, as some 120,000 middle-schoolers are now struggling in advanced classes for which they are woefully unprepared.
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Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Advocates for children are hoping that with a new administration and a new Congress in 2009, investments in children will get enhanced priority. Isabel Sawhill argues that we need a new intergenerational contract that invests more in people when they are young, but then expects them to assume somewhat greater responsibility for their own support during their retirement years.
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Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Julia B. Isaacs details how the growing evidence about the importance of children’s early years is changing public attitudes toward early childhood programs. Adopting a well-designed package of investments in children from birth to five will improve children’s health, school achievement, and opportunities for future economic success.
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Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Julia Isaacs and Emily Roessel assess the effects of five early childhood education programs—State Pre-K, Head Start, Early Head Start, Model Early Childhood Programs and Nurse Home Visiting—that have had positive impacts on children’s cognitive skills and/or school outcomes.
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Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
A host of demographic and economic trends in the United States are making it difficult for the nation to make progress against poverty and income inequality. However, Ron Haskins argues, government policies that raise work levels and provide public benefits to supplement earnings have proven to be effective in fighting poverty among female-headed families. But further progress against poverty and economic inequality seems unlikely unless more poor adults work, reduce the number of births outside marriage, and marry at higher rates.
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Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Julia B. Isaacs calls for both presidential candidates to consider effective preschool programs in their domestic policy platforms.
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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Hugh B. Price shares the lessons learned during his tenure as president of the National Urban League and explains how educators can collaborate with others to reverse poor motivation, reward student success, and realize higher achievement in even the most challenged school districts.
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Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Record numbers of students aspire to higher education. But, are far too many young people with inherent intellectual limitations being pushed to advance academically when they are “just not smart enough?” Ben Wildavsky argues that this deterministic vision of education, where IQ scores matter more than teaching, curriculum or effort, makes way for what is essentially an IQ-elite.
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Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Julia Isaacs details the evidence supporting the long-term benefits of investment in early childhood education, along with prenatal care and greater access to health care for very young children in impoverished families. In a new Opportunity 08 paper, she proposes federal policies for the next President that will provide big returns.
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Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Navtej Dhillon and Diana Greenwald argue that, despite a difficult political climate, the 'Union for the Mediterranean' can exceed expectations by convening European and Arab leaders around a pressing and shared interest: the need to improve economic outcomes for millions of young people in the broader Middle East.
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Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Andy Gomez demonstrates how the role of education in the future of Cuba will be one of the leading factors in transforming the psychological values and attitudes of the population in order to develop a civil society and eventually sustain a democratic state.
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Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
CSED Nonresident Fellow Ben Klemens’ recently published book melds traditional statistical methods with models on the cutting edge of computing. The textbook covers a range of the techniques required to implement agent-based models, from the details of programming to methods of finding a model's optimal parameters to methods of testing hypotheses.
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Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Writing in the Washington Post, Brookings’ Alice M. Rivlin and Walter Smith of DC Appleseed argue that a community college should be established in the District of Columbia.
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Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
According to a recent study by the Middle East Youth Initiative, the region loses $25 billion a year due to youth unemployment. Navtej Dhillon, MEYI Director/Fellow, Jad Chaaban, Assistant Professor at American University of Beirut, and Tarik Yousef, Brookings Senior Fellow and Dean of the Dubai School of Government, discuss country statistics and regional policy implications.
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Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Although the federal government dedicated nearly $40 billion to funding student loans in 2006, only 60 percent of potential students from low-income families attend college, compared with 90 percent from high-income families. Sima J. Gandhi argues that enrollment rates are lower than they could be because potential students undervalue loan subsidies, which are delivered after graduation instead of up front when a student enrolls and incurs costs.
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Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Tom Loveless offers an analysis on the achievement trends for high-achieving students (defined, like low-achieving students, by their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP) since the early 1990s and, in more detail, since 2000.
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Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:20:57 GMT
This panel discussed proposed federal policy reforms designed to: foster greater innovation and entrepreneurship in the provision of elementary and secondary education; stimulate and support community compacts that provide high school graduates with financial guarantees for higher education; and build a stronger platform for post-secondary student success, especially in the urban community colleges that serve much of the nation’s diverse future workforce.
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Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Of the 50 largest cities in the United States, Washington, D.C. is the only one without a fully fledged community college. Washington needs a community college in order to provide all District residents with increased opportunities for employment and further education in an affordable and flexible manner, argue the authors of this report, who offer three options for creating a community college in the nation's capital.
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Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT
At least 77 million children worldwide do not attend primary school, a problem which is often fueled by a lack of resources but also by a lack of political will. In a new Brookings Global policy brief, Stephen Kosack examines the issue of political will and its affect on primary education access.
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Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Compiled by Brookings Institution experts, this chart is part of a series of issue indices being published during the 2008 Presidential election cycle. In this index, candidates' views on children's issues are presented.
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Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Hugh B. Price offers a new approach to educating young people who are faring miserably in public schools. He makes a case for quasi-military public high schools because they offer a safe environment, academic excellence and a surprising focus on the whole child.
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Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT
"Arab nations share a history of remarkable intellectual and scientific achievement,” writes Kristin Lord, “yet as a group, these 22 countries lag behind other regions—and their own potential—in educational achievement, scientific advances, and economic growth.” Drawing on the insights of a distinguished panel of experts from the Arab world, Lord assesses what has happened in the five years since the UNDP’s Arab Human Development Report 2003.