facts and nonpartisan perspectives on the issues

IN THIS ISSUE

Improving K-12 Education

School is out, but K-12 education is in for the presidential hopefuls this month, as both John McCain and Barack Obama gave major speeches on improving student performance.

Whether it was McCain standing behind tuition vouchers or Obama calling for service scholarships for teachers—or both senators backing some form of performance pay for teachers—the candidates offered proposals with the potential to shake up education policy.

Experts at the Urban Institute can help sort the facts from the politics surrounding this highly charged issue. Researchers with the Urban Institute's National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) are analyzing what gets results when it comes to student achievement.

For stories or segments on education during the 2008 campaign season, Urban Institute experts are available for interviews. Read more in the reports below or listen to Education Policy Center Director Jane Hannaway in the podcast at right.

KEY FACTS

• Despite improvement in recent years, only about a third of eighth graders scored proficient or above on the National Assessment of Education Progress in math and reading in 2007.
• Teachers with the weakest credentials and least experience often are found in schools with the highest concentrations of low-income, low-performing, and minority students.
• There is wide variation in teacher effectiveness. Each school year, the best teachers provide about one and a half years worth of learning for their students, whereas the least effective teachers produce only about half a school year of learning for their students.
• CALDER research shows that the most effective teachers are likely to have strong academic backgrounds, such as subject-matter expertise and high scores on teacher-licensing exams. An educator's years of experience beyond the third year teaching do not appear to improve student performance.
• Establishing consequences for low school performance appears to work; preliminary CALDER research shows accountability pressures prompt schools to retool their instruction and raise student performance.

Additional analysis is available in UI reports:

• Making a Difference? The Effect of Teach for America on Student Performance in High School—Zeyu Xu, Jane Hannaway, and Colin Taylor
• Feeling the Florida Heat? How Low-Performing Schools Respond to Voucher and Accountability Pressure—Cecilia Elena Rouse, Jane Hannaway, Dan Goldhaber, and David Figlio
• Good Schools in Poor Neighborhoods—Beatriz Chu Clewell and Patricia B. Campbell, with Lesley Perlman

UI in the News

Baltimore's "Innovation Schools" Yield Higher Test Scores, USA Today—cites UI research

Teach for America Turns 15, USA Today—quotes UI expert

A Good Grade for Teach for America, The Christian Science Monitor—quotes UI expert and cites UI research

Decision Points '08 is published weekly by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan social and economic research organization.
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