May 1, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Greg Anrig TOPICS: Education, Promoting Effective Collaboration in Education
While the “education wars” dominate media coverage of school reform debates, largely unnoticed research is mounting that student outcomes are strongest in districts pursuing intensive collaboration among teachers and administrators—the inverse of the conflicts that attract so much attention.
In this excerpt from my new e-book, Beyond the Education Wars: Evidence That Collaboration Builds Effective Schools, I look at the case of Springfield, Massachusetts. Its once-struggling public schools have seen modest but significant improvements in its standardized test scores—gains that have come in the wake of a joint labor-management initiative that radically transformed the culture of its teachers and administrators.
READ MORE
March 6, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Jeanne L. Reid TOPICS: Education, Improving Access to Quality Public Schools
President Obama’s call to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” seems like the right thing to do if you look at the research on the cost-effectiveness of the highest-quality preschool programs and the accumulating studies on the benefits of state pre-Kindergarten programs. Should every family in American have access to affordable, high-quality preschool? Of course they should. But policy commentators on the political right are raising questions about using federal money to pay for preschool, focusing their criticism on Head Start, the Great Society program targeted to low-income children that has produced disappointing results. However, Obama’s policy initiative is a good idea for several reasons and creates an historic opportunity to do something Head Start has not: broaden access to high-quality preschools for children from economically diverse families.
READ MORE
February 13, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Abby Grimshaw TOPICS: Education, Ensuring Fairness in College Admissions
January 14, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Halley Potter, Richard D. Kahlenberg TOPICS: Education, Improving Access to Quality Public Schools
If the Iowa City Community School District passes the proposed plan to diversify schools, it will join more than 80 districts across the nation that have responded to research on student achievement by giving more students the chance to attend mixed-income schools.
READ MOREJanuary 7, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Suzanne Chang TOPICS: Education, Improving Access to Quality Public Schools
Iowa City is moving forward on a socioeconomic integration plan, citing TCF research by Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg. The Iowa Press-Citizen reports.
READ MOREJanuary 4, 2013 COMMENTARY BY: Richard D. Kahlenberg TOPICS: Education, Improving Access to Quality Public Schools
TCF Fellow Richard Kahlenberg's work on school integration discussed in the Washington Post. Read the article.
READ MORE
Most K-12 education reforms are about trying to make "separate but equal" schools for rich and poor work well. The results of these efforts have been discouraging. The Century Foundation looks at ways to integrate public schools by economic status through public school choice. At the higher education level, we examine ways to open the doors of selective and non-selective institutions to students of modest means.
Sign up for our mailing list and stay up to date on the latest happenings at The Century Foundation
Sign up for our mailing list and stay up-to-date on the latest happenings at The Century Foundation
Richard D. Kahlenberg focuses on education, equal opportunity, and civil rights and is the author of eight Century Foundation books.
View the work of Richard D. Kahlenberg
View all Fellows and Experts
The TCF Bookstore is a curated collection of books and magazines that backup the mission of our organization.
