ISIL Freedom Network: United States > Scholarly and In-Depth Studies > Quality of Education

Parent Power: Why national standards won't improve education
Source: The Cato Institute
Author: Sheldon Richman
Country: United States

This report looks at the national education standards debate and concludes that "freeing parents to be fully responsible for their children's education, is the only way to make schools truly accountable." It is available in Adobe PDF. (04/26/01)

Where the boys are
Source: Reason
Author: Cathy Young
Country: United States

Conservatives have taken to complaining about the treatment of boys by the public education system. But, says Young, "I’d like to think that the future belongs to the feminist who can respect her son the career soldier and to the career soldier who can respect his son the hairdresser." (01/29/01)

Why education experts resist effective practices
Source: Heartland/Thomas Fordham Foundation
Author: Douglas Carnine
Country: United States

Even when education is clear on a subject -- such as how to teach first graders to read -- many educators resist it. Why? (Adobe PDF)

Pakistan in America’s war against terrorism: Strategic ally or unreliable client?
Source: The Cato Institute
Author: Leon T. Hadar
Country: United States

In this report "Hadar traces the history of U.S. involvement in Pakistan and argues that the United States has much to lose from a long-term partnership." It is available in Adobe PDF. (05/08/02)

Why "The Federalist" belongs in the classroom
Source: Independence Institute
Author: John Fonte and John Andrews
Country: United States

An argument for presenting the debates of the Constitution's framers before American high school students. Adobe PDF.

The state of early childhood intervention
Source: Institute for Research on Poverty
Author: Arthur J. Reynolds with Barbara Wolfe
Country: United States

Early intervention may be less costly and more effective for many children than special education, the authors suggest. (1997)

Improving Schooling for Language Minority Children: A Research Agenda
Source: READ Institute
Author: Charles L. Glenn
Country: United States

Teaching children to read in English first rather than their native language does not have negative consequences for academic achievement. Emphasizing ethnic differences in the classroom is counterproductive. Adobe PDF. (5/97)

Getting By: What American Teenagers Really Think About Their Schools
Source: Public Agenda
Country: United States

A survey of high school students reports that the views of teenagers from public and private schools are "worlds apart." See also 21993b.pdf, 21993c.pdf, 21993d.pdf, 21993e.pdf, 21993f.pdf. Adobe PDF. (1997)

It takes more than money to educate
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Country: United States

"Spending more on education doesn’t mean students learn more, says a new study on student achievement" by the American Legislative Exchange Council. (04/17/01)

John Taylor Gatto speech to the Vermont Homeschooling Conference
Source: 4 Choice
Author: John Taylor Gatto
Country: United States

Gatto details the establishment of public education as a system for molding American children into good workers, and the continuing progress of that model. (11/7/00)

Class Size and Public Policy: Politics and Panacea
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement
Author: Tommy M. Tomlinson
Country: United States

See also 21104b.pdf, 21104c.pdf. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

The NICHD Research Program in Reading Development
Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Country: United States

Research teams (who studied 7,669 children in 985 classrooms) answer these three questions: How do children learn to read? Why do some children and adults have difficulties learning to read? For which children are which teaching approaches most beneficial at which stages? Adobe PDF.

Statement on Reading and Literacy Initiatives
Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Author: G. Reid Lyon
Country: United States

Concludes that for about 60 percent of the nation's children learning to read is a formidable challenge. Adobe PDF. (4/98)

Dropout Rates in the United States
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Country: United States

Data on high school dropout and completion rates from 1972 through 1995. See also 21784d.pdf. Adobe PDF. (7/97)

NAEP 1994 Trends in Academic Progress
Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress
Country: United States

U.S. students lost ground between 1992 and 1994 in reading, writing, math and science. Little progress has been made towards closing student achievement gaps between racial groups. See also 21784b.pdf, 21784c.pdf. Adobe PDF. (1996)

Preparing for the 21st Century: The Education Imperative
Source: National Academy of Sciences et al.
Country: United States

A report concludes that "most Americans do not receive a solid education in science mathematics and technology and thus are ill-prepared for today's advanced workplace." See also 21134i.pdf. Adobe PDF. (1/97)

The State of State Standards 2000
Source: The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Author: Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, eds.
Country: United States

How good are state academic standards? Are they better than two years ago? How many states now match solid standards with strong school accountability? Those are the central questions examined by this report. (1/2000)

You can't buy higher grades: 50-state report card on American education finds
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Country: United States

A new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council that "refutes the popular assumption that correlates improved student performance alone with increasing education spending." (4/14/00)

An Analysis of Crucial U.S. Education Legislation: 1940-1996
Source: Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Author: Regna Lee Wood
Country: United States

In 1940 the U.S. had a literacy rate of 97 percent; today the U.S. literacy rate is below 76 percent. See also 21004n.pdf. Adobe PDF. (3/97)

Report Card on American Education 1996
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Author: Lee MacVaugh with Taylor Nguyen & James Ahn
Country: United States

After a thorough review of state-by-state statistics on achievement and education spending the authors conclude that "there does not appear to be any statistically significant correlation between the success of [the ten most successful] states and such factors as spending salaries and staffing." See also 21054e.pdf (10/97)

Universal preschool is no golden ticket
Source: Cato Institute Policy Analysis
Author: Darcy Ann Olsen
Country: United States

Whatever happened to Head Start? After three decades the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services evaluated it and "concluded that the program had no meaningful long-term effects" on the development of participating children. See also 21644b.pdf. Adobe PDF. (2/9/97)

The Importance of Learning English: A National Survey of Hispanic Parents
Source: Center for Equal Opportunity
Country: United States

Polling of 600 Hispanic parents in five major cities finds that almost two-thirds (63 percent) want their children taught in English as soon as possible. More than 80 percent reported that they wanted their children's academic courses to be taught in English, not Spanish. Adobe PDF. (9/96)

School Daze: Productivity Decline and Lackluster Performance in U.S. Education
Source: Center for the Study of American Business
Author: Richard Vedder
Country: United States

The cost of public education in the United States has soared in recent decades but there has been little or no improvement in student outcomes. Adobe PDF. (8/96)

Avoiding the Big-Stick Approach to Educational Subsidies
Source: Citizens for a Sound Economy
Author: Wayne A. Leighton
Country: United States

Federal initiatives to provide free access to the Internet and other technologies are a bad idea. Adobe PDF. (Nov. 96)

Rotten Apples: School Crime from a Different Angle
Source: Education Intelligence Agency
Author: Mike Antonucci
Country: United States

In an attempt to cast private and charter schools in a bad light, the National Education Association has asked its activists for help in collecting and distributing horror stories about private and charter schools. This study reports on public-school horrors. See also 21664o.pdf. Adobe PDF. (1/99)

Conclusions and Controversies about the Effectiveness of School Resources
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review
Author: Eric A. Hanushek
Country: United States

While money for education has been steadily climbing for 100 years, student achievement has not improved -- the very definition of inefficiency. Adobe PDF. (3/98)

Bilingual Education: A Failed Experiment on the Children
Source: Independence Institute
Author: Sheldon Richman
Country: United States

Ostensibly aimed at assisting immigrant children in acquiring English language skills, the actual effect of bilingual programs is to ghettoize minority groups and reduce their chances of academic success. See also 21134m.pdf and 21134o.pdf. Adobe PDF. (5/97)

The Course of True Love: Marriage in High School Textbooks
Source: Institute for American Values
Country: United States

There is good news and bad news contained in an evaluation of high school health textbooks. The good news is that marriage and responsibility are respectfully treated. The bad news is that the basis for that respect is intellectually shoddy and sometimes factually inaccurate. See also 2113ef.pdf, 2113eg.pdf. Adobe PDF. (2/97)

Unnatural selection
Source: New Scientist
Country: United States

Seven decades after the Scopes trial, classrooms still serve as battlefields between scientists and creationists. (04/22/00)

The myth that schools shortchange girls: Social science in the service of deception
Source: University of Alaska
Author: Prof. Judith Kleinfeld
Country: United States

Advocacy groups have pushed the idea that the schools shortchange girls to intensify the image of women as "victims." But the truth is that girls get higher grades in school, do better than boys on standardized tests of reading and writing, and get higher class rank and more school honors. (1998)

How does your state's public school rank?
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Country: United States

ALEC provides a ranking of the country's best and worst public schools. The report also "refutes the popular assumption that correlates improved student performance with increasing education spending." The full report is available in Adobe PDF. (8/28/00)

Who's teaching the teachers?
Source: Reason
Author: Jerry Jesness
Country: United States

"[Teaching] workshops are the mechanisms that spread educational viruses. Granted, they're weak viruses, but they're acting on a weak system. One gullible teacher can infect a classroom; one principal can infect a school; one curriculum director can infect an entire school system." (8/00)

Facing the classroom challenge
Source: Pacific Research Institute
Author: Lance T. Izumi & K. Gwynne Coburn
Country: United States

Part two of a three-part series, "Facing the Classroom Challenge" examines discrepancies between proven teaching methods and the promoted methods of teaching in government schools, such as Constructivism and Discovery Learning. (Adobe Acrobat) (04/01)

The private can be public
Source: Hoover Digest
Author: John E. Chubb
Country: United States
E-mail: hoover@free-market.net

"Businesses have always played an important role in public schools, whether publishing textbooks or managing payrolls. Now businesses are offering to manage entire schools on behalf of public school boards, hiring principals and teachers -- and taking responsibility for the results. Will the profit motive benefit kids? The answer, according to John E. Chubb, is yes." (Spring, 2001)

Debunking a debunker: myths about public education
Source: Center for Market-Based Education
Author: Stephen Coleman
Country: United States

In his book "The Manufactured Crisis," David Berliner argues that U.S. test scores have not declined, U.S. students do well in international comparisons, and the U.S. does not spend enough on education. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. (08/99)

The need for educational freedom in the nation's capital
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Casey J. Lartigue Jr.
Country: United States

"To improve education in the nation's capital, we must consider options beyond spending more money in a system that even supporters acknowledge is troubled. Change must not be limited to propping up the current system." (Full report is PDF file) (12/10/02)

All children tested, but many left behind
Source: Cascade Policy Institute
Author: Nick Weller
Country: United States

Weller outlines the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), optimistically called the No Child Left Behind Act, and shares what we can realistically expect from this legislation. (3/23/02)

Report card on American education
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council
Author: Andrew T. LeFevre and Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
Country: United States

This study covers two generations of students, 1976-2001, and grades each state using over a hundred measures of educational resources and achievement. It concludes that spending more money on education won't improve test scores. (PDF file) (10/02)

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