American Legislative Exchange Council, Andrew T. LeFevreSeptember 22, 2004
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of state legislators with a right-of-center bent, has released its eleventh annual Report Card on American Education. There's good stuff here, not pathbreaking, but useful in drawing together various education inputs and linking them to student achievement. We learn (once again) that "There is no immediately evident correlation between conventional measures of education inputs, such as expenditures per pupil and teacher salaries, and educational outputs, such as average scores on standardized tests. In fact, of all the educational inputs measured in this study, only higher pupil per teacher ratios [and] fewer students per school. . . have a positive impact on educational achievement." The report also includes lots of good info on state education spending, salaries for education personnel, and performance on state and national tests. Check it out here.