The Next Generation of Antipoverty Policies
The Future of ChildrenPrinceton University and the Brookings Institution Vol. 17, No. 2, Fall 2007
The Future of ChildrenPrinceton University and the Brookings Institution Vol. 17, No. 2, Fall 2007
Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007Bryan C. Hassel, Michelle Godard Terrell, Ashley Kain, Todd ZiebarthNational Alliance for Public Charter SchoolsOctober 2007
William G. HowellAEI Future of American Education Project, Working Paper 2007-01
The Florida Board of Education last week granted the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission the new power to authorize charter schools in almost every district in the state. Bravo. Authorizing in Florida had, until now, been the domain exclusively of local school boards.
At the end of every school year, many parents compare notes about teachers and then start lobbying to get their children into the best instructors' classrooms during the next year. Principals hate it, but a new report by the private consulting firm McKinsey & Co. indicates yet again that parents have the right idea. Great teachers make a difference.
A decade ago, when President Bill Clinton's "voluntary national test" proposal was crashing on the rocky shores of a Republican-controlled Congress, Fordham's Checker Finn quipped that national testing was doomed because "conservatives hate national and liberals hate testing."
A fortnight ago in the Wall Street Journal, the outgoing president of the American Enterprise Institute, Chris Demuth, wrote, "It is a great advantage, when working on practical problems, not to be constantly doubling back to first principles."
In the October 11th Gadfly, Michael Petrilli reviews what he calls a "blockbuster" report. Although quite valuable, the report in question falls well short of blockbuster status.