Weekend Edu-Reads

“Be cautious of the long-run benefits from $6 solutions.” That’s University of Pittsburgh researcher Lindsay Page talking about “nudges” designed to help high school students make better decisions about college.

Over at TeacherPensions.org, I have a piece looking at what age most teachers enter the profession, including some state-level breakdowns.

Don’t read Conor Williams unless you want to be depressed.

Rick Hess calls Joe Biden’s education platform “the most energetically liberal presidential agenda in American history.” Really? That seems a bit hyperbolic. Or maybe Rick is just defining the field narrowly? One could argue that many of our most “energetically liberal” federal education policies came during Republican administrations.

On K-12 education policy alone, I think I’d rank the presidents something like this, from most to least energetically liberal:

1. George W. Bush

2. LBJ

3. Ike

4. Carter

5. George H.W. Bush

6. Clinton

7. Obama

45. Trump

I’d put Biden’s platform, which essentially boils down to “more money and more resources without any new accountability,” somewhere after Obama on this list. But I’d love to read your rankings and justifications in the comments.

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman 

Weekend Edu-Reads

“…any movement serious about improving education for low-income, rural, and minority students has to look outside of cities — especially in the South, where a majority of students live outside of city centers.” That’s Kelly Robson about the need for philanthropies to invest beyond urban areas.

“…the children of Perry Preschool participants — most of whom are now in their mid-20s — were less likely to be suspended from school, more likely to complete high school, and more likely to be employed full-time with some college experience. Children of participants were also more likely to be employed and to not be involved with the criminal justice system.” Read Marnie Kaplan on the latest research on the Perry Preschool project, which suggests the program had inter-generational effects.

California has been requiring prospective teachers to take a reading test with “no evidence that it contributes to more effective instruction.” Oh, and this same test is disproportionately keeping out black and Hispanic teachers. I suppose it’s good the state is considering dropping it now, but why did California start using this test in the first place?

“There is usually more variation in earnings results between programs within colleges than between colleges.” That’s Kevin Carey on what we can learn and do with program-level outcome data.

David Leonhardt and Sunil Choy partnered with the Urban Institute on this cool data visualization project on college dropouts.

The Pension Pac-Man must be fed.

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman