Cross-posted from Education Week Not long after our new report on the American accountability system was released, Diane Ravitch responded in a blog. She began with a very brief but accurate summary of the main points I made. Then she quoted at length from a...
By Jennifer Craw Just how important is pre-primary education? The most recent PISA results show a positive link between pre-primary education and student academic performance. OECD defines pre-primary education as the “initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type...
Cross-posted from Education Week Mike Kirst has had a distinguished career as a leading education policy analyst. But, he's not just an observer. Kirst has long been in the thick of the action, starting with key leadership positions on the U.S. Senate Staff, in the Executive...
Cross-posted from Education Week The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that separate schools for minority students were constitutional as long as they provided educational services that were equal to those provided majority students. In 1954, in one of the most important cases...
Vivien Stewart recently returned from the latest in a series of international summits on the teaching profession, this one hosted by New Zealand. Once again, Stewart was asked by the sponsors to write a summary of the proceedings, a report she is now working on. ...
By Austin Delaney The recent history of Estonia is a powerful case study of how a country can succeed by investing in a high-skills orientated education system designed to support a high technology economy. Estonia has used such a strategy to transform itself from a poor...
Learning from Other Countries: Shanghai education officials are partnering with the United Kingdom’s Department for Education and sending local teachers to teach at British schools, according to Shanghai Daily. Starting in September, 60 English-speaking teachers from Shanghai will work in 30 UK schools to demonstrate...
By Jennifer Craw The last time the PISA assessment emphasized mathematics was ten years ago. With the most recent PISA assessment also emphasizing mathematics, we can now take a closer look, not only at how countries' and economies' performances compare to each other, but how their...
Equity in Education Regardless of Socioeconomic Status Many of the top-performers are developing policies to ensure students from low-income families still gain access to a quality education. The government of Singapore is providing more assistance to low- and middle-income families towards the costs of pre-primary...
Cross-posted from Education Week With each new report from the PISA surveys, the United States drifts a little further down the international rankings of national school performance. You might think that would concentrate the minds of our federal policy makers. What we have instead is a...