ISIL Freedom Network: United States > Introductions and FAQs > Quality of Education

Why True Reform of Schools is So Unlikely
Source: Milken Institute for Job & Capital Formation
Author: Eric A. Hanushek Ph.D
Country: United States

Since 1960 pupil-teacher ratios in the public schools have fallen by a third. Teachers have better credentials and per-student spending has tripled ... yet student performance has declined. Adobe PDF. (Winter 97)

Teachers Unions: Roadblocks to Reform
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: Charlene K. Haar
Country: United States

Teacher's unions have a lot of power, and resources, they can tap to influence the political process and obstruct reform. (Sept.-Oct. 1996)

Teachers Unions: Roadblocks to Reform
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: Charlene K. Haar
Country: United States

Teacher's unions have a lot of power and resources they can tap to influence the political process and obstruct reform. Adobe PDF. (Sept.-Oct. 1996)

Public and Private Schools Compared
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Country: United States

Public Agenda polled parents, teachers, and community leaders to contrast public and private schools. In areas involving academic rigor and discipline, parents and community leaders consistently chose private over public schools. Adobe PDF. (Sept.-Oct. 1996)

Our Public School Disaster Deepens
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: Karl Zinsmeister
Country: United States

Two decades after concerns were raised about the effectiveness of public schools, U.S. students still rank at the bottom in comparisons with students of other countries in the industrialized world. (May-June, 1998)

Doing Bad and Feeling Good: The Self-Esteem Flimflam
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: Karl Zinsmeister
Country: United States

Instead of encouraging excellence many educators have decided to banish failure by defining it out of existence. Adobe PDF. (Sept.-Oct. 1996)

Technology: The New Gender Gap
Source: Agency for Instructional Technology
Author: Janice Weinman and Lisa Cain
Country: United States

The science/math gender gap is closing but a new gap in computer education is opening. The authors argue that schools should encourage girls to use computers as problem-solving tools. (Spring 1999)

Education spending & SAT scores: recent trends
Source: The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
Author: John E. Berthoud Ph.D.
Country: United States

While per-pupil spending has increased by over 30 percent since 1983, SAT scores have remained flat. It is thus difficult to argue that to improve the performance of America's schools we must first invest even more money in them. Adobe PDF. (1996)

A fiscal analysis of NEA and AFL-CIO contributions
Source: The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
Author: John E. Berthoud, Ph.D.
Country: United States

Political contributions made by America's two largest labor unions -- the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO -- tend to support candidates committed to increasing government's size and scope. Adobe PDF. (1/1/1999)

Outcome-Based Education: Miracle Cure or Plague?
Source: Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Hudson Institute
Author: Bruno V. Manno
Country: United States

Adobe PDF. (1995)

Effects of the education reform movement on science education
Source: Texas Public Policy Foundation
Author: Stan Metzenberg
Country: United States

Recently announced standards for science education will "set a standard of achievement for students that is shockingly low and federal funding is helping to create an entire generation of scientific illiterates." Adobe PDF. (7/1/98)

Should We Shogunize the Schools?
Source: Separation of School & State Alliance
Author: Ken Schoolland
Country: United States

Some reformers uphold the Japanese education system as a model for the United States. But those reformers don't understand the full story. Adobe PDF. (5/96)

Government children's programs fail to produce results
Source: Heartland Institute/Alabama Policy Alliance
Country: United States

If 30 years and $5 trillion of government welfare programs have taught us anything, it is that throwing government money at a problem not only doesn't solve it, but often makes it worse. (5/98)

Classroom Size: Fertilizer to Grow Government
Source: Public Interest Institute
Country: United States

Since studies show negligible impact of reduced class size on performance why is it so popular? Teachers like it because it makes their jobs easier. Unions like it because it increases dues. Adobe PDF. (6/96)

National SAT Scores versus Per-Pupil Spending
Source: South Carolina Policy Council
State: SC, Country: United States

Chart demonstrates that high spending has no correlation with academic achievement. Of the top ten ranking states in SAT scores, none is among the top ten highest spenders. Adobe PDF. (7/1/1996)

More Money Buys Better Education: Fact or Fantasy?
Source: Josiah Bartlett Center
Author: Anne H. Whittenbury
Country: United States

Money spent on education has no correlation with educational results at the local, state or even international level. Adobe PDF. (3/99)

The State of Early Childhood Intervention: Effectiveness Myths and Realities
Source: Institute for Research on Poverty
Author: Arthur J. Reynolds et al.
Country: United States

Survey of early childhood intervention programs from the creation of Project Head Start in 1965. Most of the available research comes from evaluations of "model programs" rather than large-scale public-service interventions, rendering suspect the positive results attributed to such programs. Adobe PDF. (Summer/Fall 97)

Student clubs: a model for political organizing
Source: Rethinking Schools
Author: Alan Singer
Country: United States

"One of my primary goals as a high school social studies teacher was to empower young people so that they could become active citizens and agents for democratic social change." Critics of this approach have called Singer's method "social predation" and are trying to raise attention to this co-opting of public schools for indoctrination.

Catholic schools more effective than small class sizes
Source: Heartland Institute
Country: United States

According to a study by The Heritage Foundation, Catholic schools are more effective at educating students than are government schools, and do so at lower cost. (2/00)

Developing and Implementing Academic Standards: A Template for Legislative and Policy Reform
Source: Pacific Research Institute
Author: Lance T. Izumi
Country: United States

Workable academic standards must be rigorous, specific, and actually implemented. Adobe PDF. (1/99)

Time for a 2 by 1Core Curriculum
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: Regna Lee Wood
Country: United States

Remedial education programs, currently enrolling over 30 percent of all school-age children, are failing. Educators need to realize that reading is primary and that reading is best taught by showing children that spoken sounds match the letters that spell them. Adobe PDF. (9/98)

School to Work? Businessmen Should Know Better
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: Tony Maggio
Country: United States

The latest trendy fix for failing public school systems is "School to Work" a partnership with business. But if business leaders are serious about their role in improving the educations of children in their community, they must begin to ask hard-nosed questions of their public schools. Adobe PDF. (7/97)

Why Ebonics Is Irrelevant
Source: Newsweek
Author: Ellis Cose
Country: United States

Instilling false pride in students who misuse the English language perpetuates their educational disadvantage. Such students should not have the standards lowered for them. Adobe PDF. (1/97)

Constitutional Knowledge Poll
Source: National Constitution Center
Country: United States

Only 5 percent of American adults surveyed could correctly answer ten questions about the Constitution. Adobe PDF. (9/97)

NAEP 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Country: United States

Data for 1998 in the area of reading achievement in grades 4, 8, and 12 show some improvement in reading achievement nationally, particularly at Grade 8. Adobe PDF. (3/99)

The '60s Rules in Public Schools
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: Karl Zinsmeister
Country: United States

A popular U.S. math textbook is a "pedagogical nightmare": 800 pages long, complete with Maya Angelou poetry, color photos of Bill Clinton, and environmentalist sentiments. By contrast, Japanese math textbooks are 200 or 300 pages long and focused on math itself. This essay is a review of this and other examples of sixties-style disdain for such "elitist" concepts as achievement. Adobe PDF.

When it Comes to Schools the U.S. Lags Behind Europe
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: George W. Liebmann
Country: United States

Britain's Education Reform Act of 1988 provided for drastic decentralization of the country's schools. Similar efforts have been undertaken in other countries. Here's how the U.S. and Canada compare. Adobe PDF. (Nov.-Dec. 1997)

Why Traditional Education is Progressive
Source: American Enterprise Institute
Author: E. D. Hirsch Jr.
Country: United States

Through traditional education poor children learn to understand and master the dominant culture. (Mar.-Apr. 1997)

All-Day Kindergarten: Dissenting Voices
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: Raymond Moore et al.
Country: United States

"The state control of education is just a vehicle for re-engineering society in the interests of the state," say Raymond and Dorothy Moore, authors of "Home Grown Kids." Erick Bueherer argues that "politicians need to stop seeing parents merely as breeders and workers." Adobe PDF. (7/99)

Get A Life
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: Brandon Dutcher
Country: United States

School-to-work initiatives aim at restructuring American schools with a job training focus. But children with such narrow educations will face life ill-prepared compared to earlier generations. Adobe PDF. (6/97)

Not Making the Grade
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Author: Anne Singer
Country: United States

Children not making the grade in school? That may be because some of their teachers are not qualified to teach. (4/98)

A Teachin' Deficit Disorder
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: James J. Campbell M.D.
Country: United States

A New York pediatrician concludes that whole-language reading instruction is responsible for a wide range of learning disorders. Adobe PDF. (11/96)

School-to-Work = The Reason Our Schools Are Failing
Source: American Policy Center
Author: Karen Holgate
Country: United States

What is "School-to-Work?" Nothing less than complete federal re-engineering of the education system with the goal of producing "entry-level workers." Adobe PDF.(4/99)

Why is Public Education Failing?
Source: American Policy Center
Author: Tom DeWeese
Country: United States

The root cause of the failure of public education is the substitution of political and psychological goals for educational ones. Adobe PDF. (2/97)

Using Class Size to Reduce the Equity Gap
Source: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Author: Charles M. Achilles, Jeremy D. Finn and Helen P. Bain
Country: United States

Reducing class sizes benefits all students and is especially advantageous for minority and disadvantaged children. Adobe PDF. (Dec. 1997-Jan. 1998)

Why Reading Is Not a Natural Process
Source: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Author: G. Reid Lyon
Country: United States

Dr. Lyon challenges the traditional assumption that reading is a natural process. "For many children specific decoding word-recognition and reading comprehension skills must be taught directly and systematically." Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Environmentalists Develop School Curricula
Source: Capital Research Center
Author: Matthew Brown
Country: United States

A self-appointed group of "experts" who in the main are neither teachers nor scientists has come to dominate environmental education in the U.S. Adobe PDF. (3/99)

'School-to-Work': NCEE Pursues Flawed Education Reform
Source: Capital Research Center
Author: Virginia Miller
Country: United States

The National Center on Education and the Economy seeks to move American education toward a system where most students are educated to participate in specific trades after graduation. But no centrally contrived labor market education program can hope to anticipate the actual job needs of employers. Adobe PDF. (1/99)

Teaching Assistants and the Labor Movement
Source: Capital Research Center Labor Watch
Author: Eric Heubeck
Country: United States

Graduate student teaching assistants are trying to form labor unions and engage in collective bargaining. This paper describes their motivations, the obstacles they face, and the alliances they are forming with traditional teachers' unions and even non-teachers' unions. Adobe PDF. (2/99)

Failing America's Students: The U.S. Department of Education
Source: Citizens for a Sound Economy
Author: Avril Allen et. al.
Country: United States

Since 1980 the Department of Education has spent more than $350 billion; yet academic performance has remained at a dismal level. Adobe PDF. (1995)

Employer Roles in Linking School and Work: A Policy Statement
Source: Committee for Economic Development
Country: United States

The global economy has changed dramatically but the structure of the American public school system is basically unchanged from that which existed half a century ago. Adobe PDF. (1998)

NAEP 1996 Science Report Card
Source: Educational Testing Service
Country: United States

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) gave newly designed national science tests to 123,000 students in 4th, 8th and 12th grades. Students had an especially difficult time doing experiments correctly, reasoning, and applying their knowledge. Adobe PDF. (5/97)

The Key to Literacy
Source: Family Research Council
Author: Gina Dalfonzo
Country: United States

Resuscitated under the "whole language" moniker, the look-and-say method of reading instruction continues to produce functional illiterates -- four decades after the publication of "Why Johnny Can't Read." Adobe PDF. (10/96)

Where Public Education Went Wrong
Source: Family Research Council
Author: Charles Leslie Glenn Jr.
Country: United States

Government has exceeded its role by using public schools to promote agendas that by their nature conflict with the rights of parents to shape the beliefs and values of their children. Adobe PDF. (Sept.-Oct. 96)

Creating a Performance-Driven System
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Author: Rudy Crew
Country: United States

Defined standards, tracking results, continuous improvement, and performance accountability are Chancellor Crew's prescriptions for the New York schools. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Proceedings of a conference on excellence in education
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Country: United States

Though billed broadly as a conference on education, the discussion here is largely about public education, with other forms of education (private religious) referred to only in terms of the lessons they hold for public schools. The ideas for improvement offered include charter schools, vouchers, religious school performance standards. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Reassessing the View that American Schools Are Broken
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Author: Alan B. Krueger
Country: United States

Argues that the crisis in U.S. education has been greatly exaggerated. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Standards Information and the Demand for Student Achievement
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Author: Richard J. Murnane and Frank Levy
Country: United States

The problem for America is not that student achievement levels are not high but that the skill levels required by business are higher and still rising. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Summary of First Floor Discussion
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Author: Carol Rapaport
Country: United States

Disagreement over measures models and motivation prevent consensus on the value of increasing school funding and reducing class sizes. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Where the Connoisseurs Send Their Children to School
Source: Hudson Institute
Author: Denis P. Doyle
Country: United States

The behavior of union teachers in the public schools. Adobe PDF. (1995)

The Computer Gap That Isn't
Source: Independent Women's Forum
Author: Judith Kleinfeld
Country: United States

Will computers be the new "boys' club," as the American Association of University Women alleges? No, says the author, a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska. Adobe PDF. (1/99)

Debate: Do Teachers Unions Have a Positive Influence on the Educational System?
Source: Insight
Author: Bob Chase and Myron Lieberman
Country: United States

Chase president of the National Education Association argues that teachers and their unions are dedicated men and women who strive mightily to make public education work in an era of stark social and economic challenges. Adobe PDF. (10/96)

Debate: Is Bilingual Education Failing to Help America's Children?
Source: Insight
Author: Linda Chavez and James J. Lyons
Country: United States

Linda Chavez argues that the best policy for children and for the country is to teach English to immigrant and non-immigrant children as quickly as possible. James J. Lyons counters that bilingual programs are a godsend to children who do not speak English at home. Adobe PDF. (6/96)

Debate: Is the So-Called Educational Crisis a Myth Created by Conservatives?
Source: Insight
Author: David C. Berliner and Lawrence Steinberg
Country: United States

Two university professors debate the proposition that American education is in trouble. Adobe PDF. (10/96)

Girls Overtake Boys in School Performance
Source: Insight
Country: United States

The conventional wisdom is that schools discriminate against girls -- a view proclaimed by the American Association of University Women, among other groups. Adobe PDF. (2/99)

Warm and Fuzzy Math Meets Cold Resistance
Source: Insight
Author: Susan Crabtree
Country: United States

Just as whole-language reading instruction teaches students to "invent" spelling, a new teaching strategy for math (labeled "fuzzy math") teaches students to guess answers and "discover" solutions and principles for themselves. Adobe PDF. (2/97)

School Achievement, Early Intervention and Special Education: New Evidence from the Chicago Longitudinal Study
Source: Institute for Research on Poverty
Author: Arthur J. Reynolds with Barbara Wolfe
Country: United States

Since 1986, the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) has been evaluating the progress of children enrolled in the Child-Parent Centers, an early childhood intervention program launched in low-income Chicago neighborhoods in 1967. Reynolds and Wolfe find significant successes from the program but special education tends not to work nearly as well. Adobe PDF. (Summer/Fall 97)

Will teacher training reform improve student achievement?
Source: The Foundation Endowment
Author: J.E. Stone
Country: United States

Politicians and teacher-education leaders both assert that increased participation in teacher training is essential to improving student performance. Yet the real problem .... Adobe PDF. (4/1/99)

Public schools not accountable to parents
Source: Heartland Institute/Intellectual Ammo
Author: George Clowes
Country: United States

"School boards and state governments have legal powers to fund and run public schools, but are they legally accountable for the results? Not according to judges in two different states." (5/00)

Getting more bang for our education buck
Source: Heartland Institute/Perspective
Author: Herbert J. Walberg
Country: United States

Why does the world's most productive country have the least productive schools? And what can we do about it? At least four solutions hold promise, including decentralization and private standards and goals. Adobe PDF. (8/95)

What should be done with America's schools?
Source: Independent Institute
Country: United States

Myron Lieberman, Andrew Coulson, and Williamson M. Evers consider what's wrong with our schools, how things got this way, and what can be done about it. (Discussion transcript.) (04/13/99)

Still leaving children behind
Source: Heritage Foundation
Author: Krista Kafer
Country: United States

More reasons why more money will not solve the education crisis. (09/01/01)

Big Brother? Of course!
Source: Strike the Root
Author: Paul Hein
Country: United States

"We could debate whether or not the actual purpose of public education is to produce a populace of virtual idiots, but regardless, that has been the effect." (01/18/02)

The new tyranny
Source: Liberty Round Table
Author: Daniel Freeborn
Country: United States

"We were once a free and proud people, now we are slaves to the Puppet Masters; the Harvesters of Sorrow, the Unforgiven. 'They' have sucked the blood, sweat, and tears out of our parents, and put us in indoctrination centers (public schools) to spoon-feed us their bureaucratic myths." Honorable mention in LRT 2002 Essay contest, age 19-21. (05/02)

Teachers' unions: are the schools run for them?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
Author: James Bovard
Country: United States

"Public education is the most expensive 'gift' that most Americans will ever receive. Government school systems are increasingly coercive and abusive both of parents and students. Government schools in hundreds of cities, towns, and counties have been effectively taken over by unions, and children are increasingly exploited, thwarted, and stymied for the benefit of organized labor." (07/96)

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