Education
Commentary
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Commentary
National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade
Adopting the final draft of proposed national education standards in English language arts (ELA) would result in a significant weakening of the intellectual demands placed on Massachusetts and California students in language and literature, according to a review published jointly by the Pacific Research Institute and Pioneer Institute. In Part ...
Commentary
How California can improve its plunging graduation rates
The average national high school graduation rate, from 1997 to 2007, rose 3.1 percentage points to 68.8 percent, according to a recent report from Education Week. California’s graduation rate, meanwhile, dropped 4.7 percentage points to 62.7 percent. Only Nebraska and Nevada posted worse declines, and the problem is not limited ...
Commentary
School choice is the key to improving education
Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
Commentary
What Canada can teach the U.S. about education
Canadians, particularly those of conservative persuasion, love to compare Canada with the United States, which has a lot to learn in the key area of K-12 education. As the United States struggles with mounting deficits and debt, Americans would be well served to look north if they want to raise ...
Commentary
Viewpoints: School test scores mask failure
With graduation season in full swing, the cover story in the June issue of Sacramento Magazine rates the 66 high schools in and around California’s capital. The ratings rely on the state’s school-performance scoring system which, unfortunately, masks a key reality. The “best” schools, largely in middle-class or affluent neighborhoods, ...
Education
Fostering Opportunity and Improving Achievement: The Benefits of a Foster-Care Scholarship Program in California
Fostering Opportunity and Improving Achievement: The Benefits of a Foster-Care Scholarship Program in California, by Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D., PRI associate director of Education Studies, and Evelyn B. Stacey, policy fellow, finds that adopting a Florida-style foster-care scholarship program in California would have no negative impact to state and public-school ...
Commentary
Making the Pieces Fit
New Study Finds Foster-Care Scholarship Program is an Academically and Fiscally Responsible Reform —Would Benefit Students, Public Schools, and the State— San Francisco— Today, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, released a policy brief on improving education opportunities for foster-care children in California. Fostering Opportunity ...
Education
Race to the Top Proves that Competition Works
Race to the Top Proves that Competition Works By Evelyn Stacey, policy fellow in Education Studies SACRAMENTO—In the first round of Race to the Top (RTTT), California placed 27th out of 41 states that applied and failed to gain a one-time federal grant. Now California is trying again in Phase ...
Education
The Overton Window
Essentially, if you put policy options for a given area on a spectrum ranging from freest to least free, there is a very small window of options that will be considered politically feasible. That is, there are relatively few policy options a politician will support in order to garner public ...
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade
Adopting the final draft of proposed national education standards in English language arts (ELA) would result in a significant weakening of the intellectual demands placed on Massachusetts and California students in language and literature, according to a review published jointly by the Pacific Research Institute and Pioneer Institute. In Part ...
How California can improve its plunging graduation rates
The average national high school graduation rate, from 1997 to 2007, rose 3.1 percentage points to 68.8 percent, according to a recent report from Education Week. California’s graduation rate, meanwhile, dropped 4.7 percentage points to 62.7 percent. Only Nebraska and Nevada posted worse declines, and the problem is not limited ...
School choice is the key to improving education
Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
What Canada can teach the U.S. about education
Canadians, particularly those of conservative persuasion, love to compare Canada with the United States, which has a lot to learn in the key area of K-12 education. As the United States struggles with mounting deficits and debt, Americans would be well served to look north if they want to raise ...
Viewpoints: School test scores mask failure
With graduation season in full swing, the cover story in the June issue of Sacramento Magazine rates the 66 high schools in and around California’s capital. The ratings rely on the state’s school-performance scoring system which, unfortunately, masks a key reality. The “best” schools, largely in middle-class or affluent neighborhoods, ...
Fostering Opportunity and Improving Achievement: The Benefits of a Foster-Care Scholarship Program in California
Fostering Opportunity and Improving Achievement: The Benefits of a Foster-Care Scholarship Program in California, by Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D., PRI associate director of Education Studies, and Evelyn B. Stacey, policy fellow, finds that adopting a Florida-style foster-care scholarship program in California would have no negative impact to state and public-school ...
Making the Pieces Fit
New Study Finds Foster-Care Scholarship Program is an Academically and Fiscally Responsible Reform —Would Benefit Students, Public Schools, and the State— San Francisco— Today, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, released a policy brief on improving education opportunities for foster-care children in California. Fostering Opportunity ...
Race to the Top Proves that Competition Works
Race to the Top Proves that Competition Works By Evelyn Stacey, policy fellow in Education Studies SACRAMENTO—In the first round of Race to the Top (RTTT), California placed 27th out of 41 states that applied and failed to gain a one-time federal grant. Now California is trying again in Phase ...
The Overton Window
Essentially, if you put policy options for a given area on a spectrum ranging from freest to least free, there is a very small window of options that will be considered politically feasible. That is, there are relatively few policy options a politician will support in order to garner public ...
