RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, November 14, 2011, Los Angeles Times
Drawing on previous Hamilton Project research on teacher salaries, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney analyze the growing wage gap in the United States between teachers and skilled workers in other professions, calling for reforms in compensation systems to attract and retain the most effective teachers. Read More
PAST EVENT
Thursday, October 06, 2011
3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
Washington, DC
What would digitized classrooms look like, and how could technology improve pupil engagement and mastery of concepts? How might educators scale up successful pilot projects? On October 6, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on education technology and its potential to transform the modern American classroom. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
John Villasenor, September 28, 2011, The Los Angeles Times
John Villasenor discusses the pressure universities are feeling to offer more courses over the Internet. Villasenor argues that while moving online may seem to be a win-win situation, online students lose the benefits of in-person interactions that a virtual experience can’t provide. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, September 22, 2011, The Hamilton Project
Although America needs a strong education system to compete and research demonstrates good teachers boost student achievement, hiring and retaining effective teachers has become difficult, partly due to compensation. Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney explore the relative salary declines of teachers during the last four decades when compared to other professions. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Darrell M. West, September 12, 2011, The Brookings Institution
The need for better science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teacher training and investment was emphasized by Acting Secretary of Commerce, Rebecca Blank, during a Brookings forum, writes Darrell West. West notes the importance of STEM education for job creation and economic development, and the underrepresentation in the field for women, African-Americans, and Hispanics. Read More
PAST EVENT
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Washington, DC
On April 26, the Brown Center Task Force on Teacher Quality hosted an event on the release of a new report on the design and standards of teacher evaluation systems. The report addresses how a state or the federal government could achieve a uniform standard for dispensing funds to school districts for the recognition of exceptional teachers without imposing a uniform evaluation system on those districts. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Steven Glazerman, Dan Goldhaber, Susanna Loeb, Stephen Raudenbush, Douglas Staiger, Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst and Michelle Croft, April 26, 2011, The Brookings Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality
The Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality issued a report to address how a state or the federal government can achieve a uniform standard for dispensing funds to school districts for the recognition of exceptional teachers without imposing a uniform evaluation system on those districts. Read More
VIDEO
Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, April 25, 2011
The difference between getting a good teacher and a lousy teacher can be 10 percentile points in gain over one year, says Russ Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings. Of all the things that are under the control of policymakers and schools, teacher quality is at the top of the list in terms of impact on student achievement, and so there is a great interest in evaluating teacher performance.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Matthew M. Chingos, April 14, 2011, Center for American Progress
Parents, teachers, and policymakers have all embraced class-size reduction, or CSR, as a strategy to improve the quality of public education in the United States. However, writes Matthew Chingos, large-scale CSR policies fail any cost-benefit test because they entail steep costs and produce benefits that are modest at best . Instead, CSR should be reserved for use in special cases by individual schools, he says. Read More
PAST EVENT
Thursday, April 07, 2011
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
New York, NY
School districts across the nation are grappling with the question of how to improve student performance in a time of fiscal austerity. On April 7, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) addressed this topic and spoke of the need to reform the U.S. education system so that teachers are held accountable for student progress. He described the steps that New Jersey has taken to meet his goals, and outlined a proposal for public school districts to include peer evaluations in their annual assessments of teacher performance. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Darrell M. West, Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst and E.J. Dionne, Jr., March 29, 2011, The Brookings Institution
Darrell West, Russ Whitehurst, and E.J. Dionne, Jr. present the results of a national public opinion survey on education news, finding that Americans want more media coverage of their local schools. In particular, West, Whitehurst and Dionne report that Americans want more information about teacher performance, student academic achievement, and school-related crime and violence, as well as about curricula, finances and reform efforts. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Anda Adams and Jacques van der Gaag, January 28, 2011, The Brookings Institution
Literacy is the most basic foundation of knowledge accumulation and further skill development. Anda Adams and Jacques van der Gaag argue that innovation can help get books into the hands of children, which is a critical first step to improving literacy in low-income countries. They stress that the ultimate focus of such interventions must be on whether children are reading more and reading better in an effort to improve learning outcomes for children and youth. Read More
PAST EVENT
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Washington, DC
Improving the quality of education in developing countries is a complex challenge that requires input and cooperation by a multitude of stakeholders, and teachers play a unique and important role. On December 8, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings hosted a private luncheon discussion on the role that the teaching profession plays in ensuring equitable learning for all. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Steven Glazerman, Susanna Loeb, Dan Goldhaber, Douglas Staiger, Stephen Raudenbush and Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, November 17, 2010, The Brookings Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality
Russ Whitehurst and the Brookings Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality have written a new report on the important role of value-added measures in evaluating teachers. The task force makes a clear distinction between the inclusion of value-added information in teacher evaluation systems, which they strongly endorse, and the use that information for questionable personnel policies. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Justin W. van Fleet and Rebecca Winthrop, September 29, 2010, The Brookings Institution
This week, NBC News launched "Education Nation" in an attempt to engage the public in thoughtful dialogue about how to provide every American with the “best education in the world.” Rebecca Winthrop and Justin van Fleet argue that if the United States aspires to have a world-class education system, then we must educate young people to be global citizens. Global competency skills are necessary so that young people can invent a future that appropriately addresses global challenges. Read More