Each year the President submits a budget proposal to Congress. The presentation of the presidential budget is normally the most honest and sane time in the entire budgetary process, because it presents the complete picture, addresses how to close gaps, and explains why certain programs merit more or less spending. This is all on paper [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Teach for America'
The Other Case for TFA
Debate over Teach For America has resurfaced recently in response to Amanda Ripley’s Atlantic Magazine article “What Makes a Great Teacher?” Ripley reports that some surprising characteristics, such as teachers’ extracurricular college activities and life satisfaction, are likely to foreshadow teaching success, while things most people assume to be important, such as prior experience working [...]
QUICK Hits
Is increasing civic involvement among participants a core mission of Teach For America? Should it be? (The New York Times)
Daniel Willingham asks: Why doesn’t reading more make us better readers? (The Answer Sheet)
Is your toddler struggling with speech? New research suggests that turning off the TV just might help. (EducationNews.org)
AFT vs. NEA: Which unions are [...]
Why Teach for America and The New Teacher Project Exist
If you stop and think about it, Teach for America (TFA) and The New Teacher Project (TNTP) are well-functioning, non-profit, national human resource departments for schools. They recruit, screen, and hire candidates, all functions of a traditional HR department. TFA and TNTP do provide a lot more induction and support for their hires, but at [...]
2010 Budget
The Department of Education today released its 2010 budget. You can read the full thing or check out Alyson Klein’s first look. Things that I noticed:
the budget shifts money around reading and early childhood. It would cut Reading First state grants and Even Start while creating two new programs called “Title I early childhood grants” [...]
Teach For America Growth
There’s a cottage industry of journalists and commentators who criticize Teach for America (TFA) as being unscalable. Their main complaint is that, while a worthy program (and they always acknowledge TFA’s success), the number of teachers entering the profession through this route is tiny compared to the total workforce. In a piece that is typical [...]
Over-Mentored?
I went to an event at AEI yesterday about the effect mentoring has had on the success of new teachers. Jonah Rockoff, economics and finance professor at Columbia, presented his findings on an evaluation of the $40 million NYC mentoring program. You can read more about Rockoff’s results here. Rockoff found slight increases in reading [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/11/10 | Kevin Carey is quoted on the rising costs of education in The Economist.
03/10/10 | Chad Aldeman's False Fronts paper is quoted on Accuracy in Academia.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on Federal Family Education Loan defaults on The Huffington Post.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on loan origination on the Firedog Lake blog.
03/07/10 | Kevin Carey calls for a Race to the Top in higher education in a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education.