0 Live By The Sword, Die By The Sword?

The problem with Jay Mathews' defense ("Measuring Progress At Shaw With More Than Numbers") of a Washington, DC school principal who did not demonstrate student learning gains at his school after one...

0 Teacher Residency Requirements

Apart from being marginally good local politics to require city employees (including teachers) to live within city boundaries, why would an urban district create barriers that make it more difficult to...

0 Making it Easier to Get Aid

Efforts are underway to simplify the complex, byzantine system we've created to administer financial aid, and it's about time. Streamlining the process...

0 Musical Elective of the Month

The Musical Elective of the Month is 7 Worlds Collide: The Sun Came Out.Neil Finn is one of the great, under-appreciated singer/songwriters of the last 30 years. A New Zealand native, Neil came of age...

0 Research: Attracting New Teachers to Urban Schools

New research led by Tony Milanowski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides more evidence that increasing teacher pay may not be the best approach to attract new teachers to high-need, hard-to-staff...

0 Superteacher To The Rescue!

Given the recent spate of federally-funded studies showing no effect of a variety of educational innovations and interventions, my predicted answer to the question ('Can Teachers' Talent Translate Elsewhere?')...

0 House Passes Historic Community College Legislation!

Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted 253 to 171 to pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. It knocks private lenders out of the student...

0 Community College Legislation Moves Forward

A quick update on the proposed legislation affecting community colleges-- HR 3221. Today, an online JAM in support of the American Graduation Initiative...

0 I'm hiring (again)!

Doug Harris and I are seeking a Project Manager for our ongoing study of financial aid, the Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study. This person will help...

0 The Perils of Group-Think

With the President imploring more Americans to go to college and not give up on themselves or their nation, it's understandable that many policymakers...

0 Premature Conclusions: More Money, No More Grads?

Some members of the media are covering the release of a new Canadian study, associated with the Educational Policy Institute, that examines the effects...

0 Abandon All Hope (For Reform) Ye Who Enter Here!

At first glance, one might dismiss a recent policy brief authored by a former Bush Administration official as a partisan diatribe against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Obama...