It is well known that on average, college graduates earn more than non-college graduates. The two dominant theories to explain this are the human capital and the signaling theories.

Here’s the most extreme form of the human capital theory:  students enter college as blank slates and the education they receive makes them more productive. This higher productivity leads to higher wages, so Continue Reading »

Tuesday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the next round of Race to the Top (RTTT) program funding, with a new focus on district reform rather than states.  Teacher quality, turning around low-performing schools, data quality, and improving standards would continue to be at the heart of the program according to Duncan.  But the fourth round adds a new focus: personalized learning enContinue Reading »

My first year teaching, when I was sinking far more often than I was swimming, I believed that great teachers are born, not made.  In my (sleep-deprived) mind, I was not one of them.  I did not have their inspirational charisma and superhuman work ethic, so I could never be a great teacher.  Today, I still believe that some teachers are great almost from the moment they walk into the classroom.Continue Reading »

Apart from centuries-old religious institutions, there is probably no system in the United States as fundamentally conservative as its public schools.  And, among the various types of public schools, none is nearly as conservative as the rural K-12 schools safely tucked away in Midwestern farmlands, Appalachian hills,  and Southwestern deserts, among other sparsely populated places.

The Continue Reading »

A few days ago I described the depressing, dismal, distressing, dire state of K-12 education in Halifax County, NC—a rural county with nearly a quarter of its residents living below the poverty line.  Just to refresh your memory, this is a school district where more than 4 out of 5 students qualify for free and reduced lunches, only 54.8% of kids graduate from high school, and a mere third of 8Continue Reading »

It’s commonly believed that higher education suffers from an acute case of “Baumol’s Cost Disease,” an affliction that causes labor-intensive industries to become less productive over time. It takes a professoContinue Reading »

NCLB reauthorization may not be at the top of the next administration’s to-do list, what with the economic meltdown and two wars, but President Obama will need to tackle President Bush’s signature education law eventually. And he’ll need all the good ideas he can get.

Today, ES releases two briefs offering ideas on how the Obama administration can reform NCLB. Title 2.0Continue Reading »

Matt Yglesias makes some thoughtful observations about yesterday’s Wire post, generating a bunch of really interesting comments about NCLB and test prep over on his site. It’s great to see some actual discourse on this topic—both because claims of “unintended consequences” often are unexamined and because they are sure to loom large when Congress getsContinue Reading »

I’m going to strongly recommend two new reports out this week.

One is the final report of the Teaching Commission, an independent commission established by former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner to identify and promote reforms that modernize the way American public school teachers are prepared and hired, the conditions in which they work, and how they are paid, in order to improve results andContinue Reading »