PolicyGuy
This blog is semi-retired, but I'm adding always adding new items to the portfolio page.

Friday, February 25, 2005


Education: High-Performing Schools of Low-Income Families.
Can children from low-income families learn? Absolutely.

The Pacific Research Institute's 62-page report (PDF) They Have Overcome describes the "secrets" of superior academic achievement.

They include a phonics-based reading program; setting high standards and reflecting those in lesson plans, teacher-centered rather than student-centered learning; making use of frequent testing; discipline; and minimizing time required to deal with red tape.

If this all sounds rather unremarkable and unworthy of a lengthy report, you've got to remember that we're dealing with education policy, which is perhaps more than most fields of work prone to getting dragged away by fads.

"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'’s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

Home
BlogMatrix