http://www.cato-unbound.org Big Ideas for a Better World Thu, 01 May 2008 12:23:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/24/sol-stern/reply-to-strong/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/23/michael-strong/understanding-how-educational-freedom-improves-education/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/23/sol-stern/why-not-use-what-we-already-know/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/23/frederick-hess/deregulating-smart/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/22/richard-rothstein/if-the-poor-will-always-be-with-us-so-too-will-low-test-scores/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/21/frederick-hess/the-danger-of-grand-fixes/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/19/sol-stern/against-education-utopias/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/18/michael-strong/teens-in-crisis/ http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/17/richard-rothstein/response-to-the-responses/ Frederick Hess, the Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, concedes the premises of Richard Rothstein's argument but contests their implications for the future of education. According to Hess, the key failing of A Nation at Risk was its too-easy acceptance of "the familiar institutions and practices of K-12 schooling." As a consequence, the nature of teaching and teacher education has barely changed, despite deep changes in the broader labor market. And even the school choice movement has fallen victim to "the dangers of trying to paste preferred policies atop existing arrangements." Hess concludes that "we must reject both excuse-mongering and overwrought hyperbole in favor of a steely willingness to revisit the shopworn assumptions and tired verities that have so long characterized school reform on the left and the right."]]> http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/14/frederick-hess/where-do-we-go-now/ The Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern detects "two Richard Rothsteins." The first praises the public schools for improving student performance and for narrowing inequalities in student achievement. The second argues that nothing further can be done by the schools; for added progress we need other forms of social and political reform. "Either schools are able to significantly overcome family and neighborhood deficits that children bring to the classroom (and therefore ought to be judged by that standard) or they cannot be expected to overcome the social and economic deficits," Stern writes. "But [Rothstein] perversely insists on having it both ways." In stark contrast, Stern argues that test scores have become worse, that schools bear the responsibility, but that they can improve through a regime of standards. ]]> http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/04/11/sol-stern/a-tale-of-two-rothsteins/